Victory of China online community

For the China net citizens of the world's biggest online community, it was a rare victory. At the 11th hour, and with no proper explanation, the Chinese government, the most assiduous internet censor on the planet, engineered a sudden climbdown.

Instead of proceeding with plans to transform its notorious Great Firewall internet censor with new tools known as Green Dam, the authorities desisted. A terse statement ran on the Xinhua news agency. "China will delay the mandatory installation of the 'Green Dam-Youth Escort' filtering software on new computers."

The plan to bundle the software into every new computer in China had provoked an unprecedented wave of online opposition, protests by foreign governments and calls by prominent bloggers for Chinese netizens to climb, attack and demonstrate against the "Great Firewall". - Have you voted in the poll Political situation in China - 在中国政治局� ? - China insists the software is necessary to clear the Chinese web of "harmful content". But critics say it is a misguided attempt to put the internet genie back in the bottle by a Communist party with about 300 million netizens to answer to.

But this was just a small victory in a larger war. The tools have been shelved temporarily, not scrapped.

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by Jonathan Watts

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