China: No empty chair allowed online

Yesterday Liu Xiaobo and his wife Liu Xia could not attend the 2010 Nobel Peace Prize Ceremony in Oslo, Norway. The Nobel Prize committee reserved an empty chair to symbolize Liu's presence.

In order to show their support for Liu and deliver the information about the Nobel Peace Prize across the Internet, many Chinese netizens have begun circulating images and stories of empty chair via forums, websites and microblogs two days before the Nobel ceremony. However, around yesterday afternoon, the Chinese word “空椅子” (meaning empty chair) has became a political sensitive term. All messages and images of empty chair in web forums and micro blogging sites were either deleted by the web censors or could not be viewed in the public timeline.

It seems that the censor machine has set up an alert system and yesterday it was alleviated to the “red” signal. Apart from the usual filtering of terms like Liu Xiaobo, Liu Xia, Nobel Prize, Peace Prize, there were some extraordinary features, EXSBN observed:

昨天功夫网发飙了,谷歌的appspot平台,所有域名全被封锁。推特的API死了一片片,好安静的推特。

Yesterday the Great Fire Wall's engine was in its maximum mode. All Google's appspot platforms were blocked. Twitter's API ceased to show new messages, it was so quiet.

There were also reports [zh] saying that circumvention devices, such as Freegate could not function well in the past two days. Despite the difficulties, info-activist @wenyunchao still managed to collect a number of empty chair images from Chinese netizen under the Twitter tag #kongyizi. Below is the most popular one:

2 comments

  • A Chinese

    Liu Xiao Bo? The one who claimed that China should be colonized for 300 years? No wonder all the western countries like him.

  • A Chinese

    诺贝尔和平奖的“和平”

    终于轮到诺贝尔和平奖来给大家添恶心了。委员会的委员说了,诺贝尔和平奖从来就是政治性的,从来就不是中立的。土共的脑残官员的责问当场就被人大嘴巴子搧回来了。

    土共负责软实力的部门自从前辈们仙去之后,丢人的事情就没停过。一开始大家是疑惑;后来是恨铁不成钢;再后来怀疑有人渗透;现在应该都已经习惯了吧。一提起来就是满头黑线,我们抛开这个事情不讲了。

    诺贝尔和平奖究竟干啥要来恶心中国人呢?为了民主?在中国内外干中国民主的人士多了去了,怎么说也轮不到这个口口声声要300年殖民地的家伙啊? 你瞧,民主这个概念,马马虎虎讲起来,是让大多数人民都接受都拥护才是民主。要是真的想推进中国的民主进程,总该挑一个不那么让中国人恶心的才是吧?扛着民主的大旗存心恶心中国人,这不是给民主抹黑嘛。

    诺贝尔和平奖的委员们可没有发神经。他们确确实实是为了和平。只是,这个和平的概念和中国人想象的不大一样。中国人的和平,是建立在大致公平的基础上的。我们的历史告诉我们,不公正的和平绝对不能持久。因此,中国人理想中的和平,是朴素的 “盛世”,是“路不拾遗,夜不闭户”。是没有战争威胁。

    诺贝尔和平奖的委员们的想象的“和平”,在我想来,是指西方文明能够长期的保持现在的地位,不受战争和非战争的威胁。我可不是瞎猜的。这几十年来,诺贝尔和平奖的得主大多是把自己国家搞乱的,或者是把别的国家搞乱的。远了不说,美国总统小布什象没头没脑的乱闯了这八年,把委员们急坏了。戈尔,奥巴马,这都给两个民主党大佬发奖了。戈尔好说,作为温室效应的最有名推手,他成功的把世界的目光从发展转移到环境保护,并且以此为契机差一点就建立起全球范围的限制发展的框架。要不是中国在里面搅混水耍流氓,这个世界的“发展中”国家就会被永远固定在发达国家的后院的位置上了。

    那奥巴马干啥了?他啥也没干就得奖,弄得他自己都觉得不好意思。我猜想,这是因为小布什的胡搞渐渐的把美国拖进了泥潭,眼看着整个西方文明都跟着要被拖进去了。欧洲人病急乱投医,找到个能说整句话的反对布什的美国政客,这就算捞到救命稻草了。

    再随便随便挑几个这两年的诺贝尔和平奖得主:
    2008年是Martti Ahtisaari,联合国派往科索沃谈“和平”的首席代表。
    2005年是Mohamed ElBaradei,伊朗裔的国际原子能协会的主席,长期负责监控伊朗的核计划的。

    这些人的贡献,在我看来,有一个再明白不过的共同点:他们的工作都使得西方文明的领先地位更加巩固。换句话说,他们是在维护西方世界不受威胁。他们是在维护西方世界的和平。

    中国,作为地球上最后一个有可能挑战希腊罗马文明的垄断地位的文明,时时刻刻都使西方如鲠在喉。战争的危险暂时看不到,但是这两年的行情要是一直走下去,西方文明说话就没法这么大声了。当然要抓紧时间,抓住机会,能添乱就添乱。

    诺贝尔和平奖是名副其实的,他们授予为了维护西方和平作出贡献的人。在中国一时找不到这样的,那么退而求其次,一个口口声声“三百年殖民地”的人物,虽然没机会做什么贡献,但是也算是相当的对胃口。刘晓波得这个奖,不冤。更何况还不必给钱。

    不公正的和平是不能持久的,这一点诺贝尔和平奖的委员们知道。可是“能撑多久就撑多久”,这就是他们的“和平”了。
    http://www.top81.net/show.php?f=1&t=1077146&m=7793190

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