This BBC story says that “former senior Communist party officials” have written and published a public letter denouncing at least one form of government censorship in China.
The officials include:
. . . Chairman Mao’s former secretary, Li Rui; the former editor of the Communist party’s own mouthpiece, People’s Daily, Hu Jiwei; and ex-propaganda boss, Zhu Houze.
This comes right on the heels of an ongoing controversy over Google’s (and other search engines) decision to allow China to censor web search results within the country.
Curiouser and curiouser, as Alice would say.
Could there be cracks in the seemingly monolithic Chinese Communist party? That would be a very, very, very good sign … and should be incredibly embarrassing to companies like Google, Yahoo!, and Microsoft that have enabled China’s government to censor the truth from its people.
They, by their actions, are de facto on the side of the censors, only to find that people who played major roles in the founding of the current government of China disagree.
Let a thousand flowers bloom, I say!