Think China Has A Problem? No, It's Worse.

Steve Den Beste has been commenting about the problems China has been having with it's preparation for the Olympics. Problems from Tibetian independence, food contamination, etc, etc...and it will only get worse.

Let's start out with the fact that China is being pressured to lower it's digital wall of censorship, since major sponsors such as various corporations and similar agencies are demanding more access to the Internet during the Olympics. And, there will be thousands and thousands of people out there with digital cameras. And access to the Internet...and cheap access to blogging software and Livejournal and YouTube...

A major whoopsie (a term of art meaning anything from "we got caught beating some Tibetian monks on tape" to "Tianamen Square Part 2") will probably be on the Internet in all forms and ways within a day or two.

China is getting very paranoid about access, especially by "foreign" guests. Lately, the Chinese Consulate in San Francisco is only giving one month visas for non-US nationals applying for a visa. And, for only a single entry and if you've been there before. Oh, and you have to have permanent residency in the United States to get a visa. If you haven't been to China before...you have to go back to your home country to get a visa.

I think that China is really worried that they are going to have thousands of people that going to be there, with easy access to communications to the outside. Especially with all the trouble going on with China. The first major incident...will be messy. Every time something goes wrong, it will get out of the country fast. And, you can bet that everybody that has a bone to pick with China is going to be picking away (I'm almost surprised that Taiwan isn't pushing "we have higher quality stuff and it's cleaner" in the media-or that's more for the trade magazines.)

This year's Olympics is going to be interesting. A big enough scandal might make the upcoming recession worse (honestly, it should have started by now, or when the major lending problems happened with people buying houses that are Way Too Much), with people moving away from China products because of a general sort of "we don't like China" movement.

I'm watching this news, it will be interesting...