Can Red China Survive the Internet Age?

They seem to have withheld a gaggle of info to this point but some is leaking through:

Our own tests this morning with WebSitePulse's China firewall tester have only yielded a block on youtube.com thus far—the other sites' home pages (and some specific articles about Tibet) appear to be going through. As we know, though, China's firewall doesn't always filter everything all the time, and may be implemented differently in different areas of the country. Sites that appear accessible in Shanghai right now might not be accessible in Beijing, and something that's accessible in China's capital may mysteriously "disappear" later on. Researchers at UC Davis' Computer Science department found that the firewall would accidentally allow banned terms through about 28 percent of the time, particularly during high-traffic times.

The problem with these arbitrary blocks is that users are increasingly aware of them. Posts made to Danwei.org, a site about Chinese media, show that Chinese Internet users not only know which sites are being blocked at which times, but why. "Youtube is blocked in China as of 22:45, Beijing time. See no evil, hear no evil..." wrote one poster, with others confirming the disconnect and pointing out that it "has a lot to do with Tibet." Another poster noted in a thread about YouTube and other news sources being blocked, "This govt officials should get a life and deal with reality!"

28% of the time during high-traffic is not insignificant. A billion people live in China and let's suppose as a conservative number 50-million are online daily. Again, this is going on basic info since all data coming out of the country is to be taken with a grain of salt. That could potentially be 14-million people getting info they never could have seen five years ago or even back when the authorities brutalized the students at Tiananmen Square in front of the world.

Imagine if a quarter of those who read what their nation was doing to Tibet started spreading the word. That's 3.5-million people allowing their friends and neighbors to know what is happening. Again, not an insignificant number.

The question remains: Can China survive the Internet age? Short-term, yes. Long term, probably not. They are only filtering info on China but what of stories of life in America or Europe? You can't tamp down the inbred yearning for freedom that exists in all humans forever and if a grassroots effort started the peaceful protests at Tiananmen Square, how many people could be roused to action today?

Would the Chinese government, who have assiduously worked to keep embarrassment to a minimum with the Olympics being held there later this year, resort to the tactics used in Tiananmen nearly twenty years ago? Watch the video below and tell me if they could afford it (warning: violent scenes and blood):