Sometimes I feel like a broken record: Yet again (or more accurately, still), the Chinese government is cracking down on Internet activity that they feel violates their “cultural standards.” As usual, that includes online gambling.

The Chinese State Council Information Office is cracking down on websites they don’t like and have shut down more than 60,000 so far, with another 1,700 websites still under investigation. People caught using or operating the illegal online casinos are being punished by sentences of up to five years, usually prison terms that mandate hard labor.

According to the Chinese government, taking control of unsavory websites is necessary to protect China’s helpless citizens from security issues, viruses and more. That seems likely, because I doubt a Chinese person is capable of learning which websites they want to visit and which they want to avoid. Things such as not sharing your personal information with sites you don’t trust, something everyone else takes for granted, are apparently too difficult for the Chinese to learn.

Wang Chen, the Minister for the Information Office, was kind enough to clear things up and let us know why such a crackdown on internet activity is so important. According to him, aside from the safety issues already mentioned, it’s necessary to “improve the cultural environment on the Internet.”

Some might argue that the government blocking citizens from searching for information on Liu Xiaobo doesn’t improve the cultural environment on the Internet, but they’re wrong. There’s something barbaric and unsavory about letting people read about a Nobel Prize-winning human rights advocate, so the Chinese government is right to protect people from that terrible information. Why, reading up on human rights is even more dangerous than gambling. After all, feeling strongly about blackjack won’t get you run over by a tank.

Clearly, human rights knowledge is very dangerous, so China is right to protect people from it. After all, if you’re ignorant, you won’t get too riled up and the government won’t have to kill or imprison you. They also need to shut down online casinos because if you play there you could lose money (of course, you could also win money). Worse yet, if caught playing at the casino, you would face imprisonment. So the government needs to shut down the website to protect you from that temptation! What a benevolent government! I don’t know why people say such bad things about these nice Communists.

By the way, this website is banned in China, so at least the citizens don’t have to worry about stumbling upon my blogs.

Dear China,

China, China, China. I know you’re not all bad. You have good food and your architecture is pretty cool, despite the fact that some of your walls are flimsy and highly flammable. You just can’t seem to get past this whole oppressive authoritarian government thing, though.

Stop living in the past. The results are in from the global experiment on totalitarianism during the early 20^th century. Turns out no one liked it. Nazism? Believed by most casual observers to be the most pure embodiment of evil mankind has ever witnessed. Stalinism? Actually killed more people than Hitler and was more oppressive to the people. It’s currently only viewed favorably by a few crazies around the world. Maoism? Well, you guys in China actually made the Nazis and Bolsheviks look downright kind. Sure, the Soviets starved millions of Ukrainians to death, but the Maoists dwarfed that death toll and it was your own people!

It’s time to move on. You say you’re just doing what’s best for China, but if you actually took an honest poll, you’d be surprised how many people would like to be able to protest without being run over by a tank. You’d be shocked how many people would like to have free access to information, especially a news media that isn’t controlled by you. If you asked about gambling, I can ensure you that you won’t have millions of Chinese saying “Please protect me from spending my money! I know you can be more responsible with my money than I can, so please take it from me. By all means, don’t let me gamble!”

I want to like you, China. President Nixon visited you a while back and said something along the lines of “Hey, you’re not as evil as you used to be; let’s do business.” And it’s true. You’re not as evil as you used to be. You have given up control of the economy to the free market. Now it’s time to embrace other types of freedom, such as freedom of expression, freedom of press, and the freedom to bet on a soccer game without getting sent to prison for a year.

That’s what happened yesterday, China. Don’t think I don’t know it.  You see, we have a (mostly) free press here, so I was able to find stories with headlines such as “China man gets 1 year in prison for online gambling.” I could find it because Google doesn’t censor search results as much here.

So here’s the story as I understand it. Please correct me if I’m wrong, China. A 20-year-old man, Zhao Yah, is a soccer fan. The World Cup was going on, which just so happens to be the biggest sports tournament in the world, despite the fact that your national team didn’t qualify. He decides that since there is such a high demand for sports betting in China, despite the fact that you think it’s a no-no, he will help people bet on the games through a website. You then have him arrested and sentenced to one year in prison plus a 10,000 yuan fine for the “crime” of helping people spend their own money on a fun game that is the most popular in the world. He didn’t even own or run the website, but was only a middle man who collected bets. Did I get that right?

China, I’m glad to see that you gave him a comparatively light sentence (thanks to his cooperation), but I think this can be a teachable moment. You see, if so many people were willing to give him money to bet on the games, maybe that means that your people want legalized online gambling. Maybe you should hear them out.

I hope you take these comments not as insults but as constructive criticism. The truth is, I want to like you, China. Sure, you poison American children with your dangerous toys and support a tyrannical North Korean regime, but I know there is good in you somewhere. You need to let it out. It’s okay. Germany managed to stop being evil a long time ago. Isn’t it time you did, too?

Sincerely,

Jeremy

If the word China is in one of my headlines, you can assume it’s not good news. It’s rare that anything good comes out of that country, though you could argue that their economy is currently more free than in the United States. Still, the U.S. doesn’t have the record of killing people for political dissent, purposely starving millions and controlling every aspect of a person’s life, at least not yet.

It’s no secret that China frowns upon online gambling, probably because it allows people to have control over their own money and spend it in ways they see fit. No, wait, that can’t be the reason. I’m sure they’re doing it for the people’s own good, protecting them from themselves. Authoritarian governments around the world have done unspeakable things in the name of protecting its citizens and doing what is good for them, whether they realize it or not.

Today’s news out of Red China is that two men have been arrested for search engine optimization (SEO). The Chinese government says that the two men worked for Baidu, a Chinese search engine company that basically provides a Chinese alternative to Google, Wikipedia and other sources of information. According to police, those men were paid by 777 Real Casino to work on their website, optimizing their content to make them rank better on the search engine.

According to the Chinese government, doing SEO work for the company amounts to illegally promoting an online casino, an offense that, like everything else in China, carries a prison sentence. In response to the arrests, Baidu stuck up for their employees and stood with them against the evil government.

Just kidding. They cowered like frightened dogs and distanced themselves from the employees, saying they had no knowledge of their activities (which may be true). They also apologized and said that Baidu “has always obeyed our country’s laws and regulations and we strongly oppose the behavior of those who use the Internet to engage in criminal activity.”

As someone who writes blogs about online casinos using SEO, I’m glad I don’t live in China. Of course, I’m also glad I don’t live there because I enjoy eating regularly and having some freedom.

At least this crackdown didn’t involve running people over with tanks. China has vowed to crack down on gambling in the country and has been doing just that. A recent raid in the province of Yunnan has resulted in an arrest of 21 suspects accused of running an illegal online gambling operation. In addition, their bank accounts containing approximately ¥550,000 have been frozen.

Back in February, China’s Ministry of Public Security placed a new emphasis on putting an end to online gambling in the Middle Kingdom. Since that time, they have arrested over 3,600 suspects and frozen over ¥700 million in funds, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Gambling – both online and land-based – has been banned in mainland China since the communist government took power in 1949. I think it’s because they don’t like an individual having an influence over whether their amount of money gets larger or smaller. The government wants to be the one that decides that (after all, there are state-run lotteries).

With the World Cup taking place in South Africa, China is currently placing an emphasis on sports betting. All overseas online casinos and sports books are banned from accepting Chinese customers. China monitors those sites to look for activity from its citizens. If any get through, there can be swift “justice” exacted upon the Chinese citizen. Of course, if you’re a Chinese citizen, there’s a good chance that the Communist Party of China monitors everything you do anyway, as we have found from the controversy surrounding their hacking of Gmail.

China defends controlling how people spend their money, what information they get from the news, and what terms they can search on the internet on the grounds that they are protecting the nation by removing things that would harm the people. Letting people gamble is bad because it’s not good for them. Engaging in nuclear proliferation with North Korea – a nation that might be crazy enough to start a nuclear holocaust, denying freedom of religion, freedom of property and the right to vote for their national leaders is what’s best for the people, though.

Oh, those crazy Chinese are at it again. We know that the Communist Chinese government isn’t too high on freedom, including a free flow of information or the ability for people to do what they want with their money. Come to think of it, in China it’s not really your money, is it?

Anyway, those zany folk in Beijing have stated that there will be a crackdown on what they call “overseas hostile forces.” Of course, in China, you are seen as being a hostile force if you are anything other than the Chinese government, which means that everything overseas is automatically hostile.

In Red China, there is actually a department in the government called the Information Office. It is that office that controls what information the people are given and is responsible for telling the people what they want to be known and hiding what they don’t want to be known. So, in that way it’s a lot like Obama’s relationship with the New York Times.

Anyway, Wang Chen (no, I didn’t make up that name) is the chief of the Information Office and he released a statement saying that China “will strengthen the blocking for harmful information from outside China to prevent harmful information from being disseminated in China and withstand online penetration by overseas hostile forces.”

Allow me to translate that from propaganda to English. When China says “harmful information,” what they mean is any information that doesn’t match the official information released by the Information Office. For example, information about freedom, democracy, protests, ownership, property, and human rights would be considered “harmful” information that needs to be kept from the people. Such information is currently being blocked from the Internet in China, but there are always ways around that censorship, which is why they need to crack down.

How this relates to online gambling is that in China’s mainland, gambling is illegal. That includes online gambling. However, there are many online casinos from overseas that currently accept Chinese customers. Online gambling is another thing that is considered harmful by the Chinese government, because it is a way for the Chinese citizens to spend money on something that is not provided by the government.

In response to this statement, many online casinos that were accepting bets from Chinese customers have stopped. Some have delayed deposits and withdrawals from China. Some online casinos have warned Chinese customers that the government may be monitoring their transactions.

So for any Chinese online gamblers, I’m sorry to say that you may soon be out of options for casinos. Of course, I’m also sorry to say that you live in China, don’t have freedom, and may soon be arrested and taken to a secret prison for the “crime” of reading this article.

Just so we’re clear, here’s a list of things that China does and doesn’t like. This is not a comprehensive list.

Chinese government likes: communism, controlling all aspects of the lives of its citizens, manufacturing products and selling them to America, running over protesters with tanks, executing political adversaries and starving millions of people to death.

Chinese government dislikes: freedom, democracy, truth, Google, privacy, religion, public gatherings, private property, self-sufficiency and online gambling.