Mindless Censorship

One thing that I really hate about living in China is the BS excuses for and randomness of government censorship. It's just completely mindless.

Now I understand the need to control information. If you control information you control minds. Understood. But what value is there in limiting ESPN's PTI ?! Or ESPN's Bill Simmons? These podcasts are threats to stability in China? Socially offensive (ok, maybe)? These kinds of censorship are just mind boggling.

But even content that makes more sense isn't even seriously controlled--so what's the point?! For example. Yesterday's TV news from Hong Kong (in Chinese and English) about the lower than expected numbers and the govt's new efforts to stimulate the economy was also censored as it came into China. How do I know it was censored? Because about 15 seconds into the story every channel (English x2 and Cantonese x2) were all clumsily switched to PSA's (Ironically, about voting in HK).

This has been the pattern for years and all the locals here are used to it. They just know, if there is something that you really want to know, you just go find another source for whatever story was started and cut off.