The Adopt A Chinese Blog program has captured my interest as a great concept. Unfortunately, even the most brilliant of concepts isn’t easily put into practice without becoming part of the problem themselves. While it may be true that I’m not willing to perhaps lose my vast Chinese audience* by sticking my hand out, I’m not sure that individual bloggerss can have even a cumulative effect by lending their bandwidth. In fact, that might cause our service providers to be blocked as well.
The problem? For starters, once again, all Typepad blogs have been blocked in China. On behalf of Typepad, Anil Dash states that “the availability of TypePad-powered sites in China isn’t something we have control over.” Okay, I can buy into that. What about the deeper pockets that perhaps could exert some influence? MSN has condoned the Chinese government’s blockage of phrases as seemingly innocuous as “freedom of speech” and “democracy” within MSN Spaces.
What’s wrong, Mr. Gates….would you hate to lose that business?
* This blog has received 524 hits from China this month. What’s up with that?
