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Frightening. And thanks are due in part to Google, who is an enabler to their censorship.

I don't think it's fair to blame Google. It had a choice - comply or be blocked. I think it made the right decision for its shareholders. I don't think too many Chinese minds would have been changed by a few Google links, anyway. If Chinese youth won't believe the tales of hardship and starvation as told by their parents, why would they believe the words of either Westerners, whom they have been brought up to think of as China's despoilers and enemies, or Chinese dissidents, whom they have been told are traitors to the Han Chinese race, and thieves and ingrates who have sold out the land of their ancestors?

...or Chinese dissidents, whom they have been told are traitors to the Han Chinese race, and thieves and ingrates who have sold out the land of their ancestors?

And this NAZI-style smearing is often done via the Party, albeit by indirect means, and the criticism that this is racist, fascist thinking is also apparently not broadly countenanced.

I see your point, and I didn't mean to single out Google entirely for the blame. I was using them to make a more general point.

Here are two points I would make concerning this issue:

1. If Leftists believe divestiture was necessary to end apartheid in South Africa, it is hypocritical for them to turn around and invest and have business dealings with other oppressive countries. The point here is that they are hypocritical and they deal with whatever regimes they want to so long as it suits and benefits them. They could have taken a moral stand and refused to do business with China until China allowed full internet searches.

2. One of the items blocked from Google searches performed within China -- the last I heard -- were such things as the US Constitution. You would think Google, an American concern, would have an issue with anyone not being allowed to read the Constitution that guarantees them their freedom to do business as they please and that could very well open enough eyes within China to spur a revolution for true freedom.

I saw another post where someone stated they went to China and were given a tour by a girl in her 20's. She pointed out a statue of a young boy who took part in the revolution in the teens. They asked her about the man who stood in front of a tank at Tiananmen Square. She'd never heard of the entire incident.

I think part of our duty as a freedom-loving country is to dispel as much propaganda as we can. Truth is, after all, the first step toward a free people. Though we can never fully know what "truth" is, certainly the best hope we have of success as we strive toward that goal is having access to as much substantial, verifiable information and as many views as possible.