In the past several days, I heard people talking about China. And also, I talked to friends about China and Chinese Internet. Something is very challenging to me. I want to make my friends understand: China is complicated. So I always want to tell the story, like, one hand it is that, the other hand is that. You can't just tell a one sided story. I'll give an example. China is a BRIC country. BRIC country means Brazil, Russia, India and China. This emerging economy really is helping the revival of the world economy. But at the same time, on the other hand, China is a SICK country, the terminology coined by Facebook IPO papers -- file. He said the SICK country means Syria, Iran, China and North Korea. The four countries have no access to Facebook. So basically, China is a SICK BRIC country.
U poslednjih nekoliko dana, čuo sam ljude kako pričaju o Kini. I ja sam takođe pričao sa prijateljima o Kini i kineskom internetu. To je izazov za mene. Želim da moji prijatelji razumeju: Kina je komplikovana. Zato uvek želim da pričam sa jedne strane je ovako, sa druge onako. Ne možete pričati jednostranu priču. Daću vam primer. Kina je članica BRIK (cigla) saveza. BRIK znači Brazil, Rusija, Indija i Kina. Ovaj novi savez zaista pomaže u oživljavanju svetske ekonomije. Ali u isto vreme, Kina je SIKK (bolesna) država, ovaj termin su skovali Fejsbukovi IPO radovi - fajlovi. Oni su rekli SIKK država znači Sirija, Iran, Kina i Severna Koreja. Ove četiri države nemaju pristup Fejsbuku. U osnovi, Kina je bolesna cigla-država.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
Another project was built up to watch China and Chinese Internet. And now, today I want to tell you my personal observation in the past several years, from that wall. So, if you are a fan of the Game of Thrones, you definitely know how important a big wall is for an old kingdom. It prevents weird things from the north.
Još jedan projekat je stvoren da bi se posmatrala Kina i njen internet. Ja danas želim da vam ispričam svoja lična zapažanja u poslednjih nekoliko godina, sa tog zida. Ako ste fan serije Igra prestola, zasigurno znate značaj velikog zida za jedno staro kraljevstvo. On sprečava da dođu čudne stvari sa severa.
Same was true for China. In the north, there was a great wall, Chang Cheng. It protected China from invaders for 2,000 years. But China also has a great firewall. That's the biggest digital boundary in the whole world. It's not only to defend the Chinese regime from overseas, from the universal values, but also to prevent China's own citizens to access the global free Internet, and even separate themselves into blocks, not united.
Isto je bilo istina i za Kinu. Na severu, postojao je Čang Čeng, veliki zid. Branio je Kinu od osvajača 2 000 godina. Ali Kina takođe ima veliki fajervol, koji je najveća digitalna granica na celom svetu. Ne služi samo da odbrani kineski režim od prekomorskih uticaja, od univerzalnih vrednosti, već i da spreči svoje građane da pristupe besplatnom globalnom internetu i da ih podeli na blokove, a ne ujedini.
So, basically the "Internet" has two Internets. One is the Internet, the other is the Chinanet. But if you think the Chinanet is something like a deadland, wasteland, I think it's wrong. But we also use a very simple metaphor, the cat and the mouse game, to describe in the past 15 years the continuing fight between Chinese censorship, government censorship, the cat, and the Chinese Internet users. That means us, the mouse. But sometimes this kind of a metaphor is too simple.
U osnovi, internet obuhvata dva interneta. Jedan je internet, drugi je kinanet. Ali ako smatrate da je kinanet nešto poput pustoši, mislim da grešite. Mi takođe koristimo jednu jednostavnu metaforu, igru mačke i miša, kako bismo opisali poslednjih 15 godina neprestane borbe između kineske cenzure, vladine cenzure, mačke, i kineskih korisnika interneta. Mi korisnici smo miš. Ali, ponekad je ova metafora previše jednostavna.
So today I want to upgrade it to 2.0 version. In China, we have 500 million Internet users. That's the biggest population of Netizens, Internet users, in the whole world. So even though China's is a totally censored Internet, but still, Chinese Internet society is really booming. How to make it? It's simple. You have Google, we have Baidu. You have Twitter, we have Weibo. You have Facebook, we have Renren. You have YouTube, we have Youku and Tudou. The Chinese government blocked every single international Web 2.0 service, and we Chinese copycat every one.
Stoga danas želim da je poboljšam na 2.0 verziju. U Kini postoji 500 miliona internet korisnika. To je najveća populacija netizena, internet korisnika, na celom svetu. Bez obzira na to što je kineski internet potpuno cenzurisan, kineska internet zajednica zaista cveta. Kako to? Jednostavno. Vi imate Gugl, mi imamo Baidu. Vi imate Tviter, mi imamo Weibo. Vi imate Fejsbuk, mi imamo Renren. Vi imate Jutjub, mi imamo Jouku i Tudou. Kineska vlada je blokirala svaki internacionalni veb 2.0 servis, a mi imamo kinesku verziju svakog.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
So, that's the kind of the thing I call smart censorship. That's not only to censor you. Sometimes this Chinese national Internet policy is very simple: Block and clone. On the one hand, he wants to satisfy people's need of a social network, which is very important; people really love social networking. But on the other hand, they want to keep the server in Beijing so they can access the data any time they want. That's also the reason Google was pulled out from China, because they can't accept the fact that Chinese government wants to keep the server.
To je tip onoga što ja zovem pametna cenzura. Ona ne cenzuriše samo. Ponekad je ova kineska internet politika veoma jednostavna: blokiraj i kloniraj. Sa jedne strane, ona želi da zadovolji potrebu ljudi za društvenim mrežama, što je veoma važno, ljudi mnogo vole društvene mreže. Ali sa druge strane, oni žele da zadrže server u Pekingu kako bi imali pristup podacima kada god oni to požele. To je i razlog zbog kog se Gugl povukao iz Kine, oni ne mogu da prihvate činjenicu da kineska vlada želi da zadrži server.
Sometimes the Arab dictators didn't understand these two hands. For example, Mubarak, he shut down the Internet. He wanted to prevent the Netizens [from criticizing] him. But once Netizens can't go online, they go in the street. And now the result is very simple. We all know Mubarak is technically dead. But also, Ben Ali, Tunisian president, didn't follow the second rule. That means keep the server in your hands. He allowed Facebook, a U.S.-based service, to continue to stay on inside of Tunisia. So he can't prevent it, his own citizens to post critical videos against his corruption. The same thing happend. He was the first to topple during the Arab Spring.
Arapski diktatori ponekad nisu razumeli ova dva pravila. Na primer, Mubarak je isključio internet. Želeo je da spreči netizene da ga kritikuju. Ali kada netizeni ne mogu da odu onlajn, oni izlaze na ulice. Rezultat je očigledan. Svi znamo da je Mubarak praktično mrtav. Ben Ali, tuniski predsednik, takođe nije poštovao drugo pravilo. Pravilo o zadržavanju servera u svojim rukama. Dozvolio je Fejsbuku, servisu iz SAD-a, da ostane u Tunisu. I stoga on ne može da spreči svoje građane da postavljaju kritičke video zapise o njegovoj korupciji. Ista stvar se desila. On je bio prvi koji je oboren tokom arapskog proleća.
But those two very smart international censorship policies didn't prevent Chinese social media [from] becoming a really public sphere, a pathway of public opinion and the nightmare of Chinese officials. Because we have 300 million microbloggers in China. It's the entire population of the United States. So when these 300 million people, microbloggers, even they block the tweet in our censored platform. But itself -- the Chinanet -- but itself can create very powerful energy, which has never happened in the Chinese history.
Ali ta dva veoma pametna pravila cenzure nisu sprečila kineske društvene mreže da postanu društvene sfere, mesta za izražavanje mišljenja i noćna mora kineskih zvaničnika. Zato što imamo 300 miliona mikroblogera u Kini. To je čitava populacija Sjedinjenih Američkih Država. Kada ovih 300 miliona ljudi, mikroblogera, čak i oni blokiraju tvitove na našoj cenzurisanoj platformi. Kinanet sam može da stvori veoma moćnu energiju, što se nikada nije desilo u kineskoj istoriji.
2011, in July, two [unclear] trains crashed, in Wenzhou, a southern city. Right after the train crash, authorities literally wanted to cover up the train, bury the train. So it angered the Chinese Netizens. The first five days after the train crash, there were 10 million criticisms of the posting on social media, which never happened in Chinese history. And later this year, the rail minister was sacked and sentenced to jail for 10 years.
2011, u julu, dva [nerazumljivo] voza su se sudarila u Venžouu, gradu na jugu. Odmah nakon nesreće vlasti su bukvalno htele da sakriju ceo voz, da ga zakopaju. To je naljutilo kineske netizene. Prvih pet dana nakon nesreće pojavilo se 10 miliona kritika na društvenim mrežama što se nikada nije desilo u kineskoj istoriji. Kasnije te godine, ministar železnice je otpušten i osuđen na 10 godina zatvora.
And also, recently, very funny debate between the Beijing Environment Ministry and the American Embassy in Beijing because the Ministry blamed the American Embassy for intervening in Chinese internal politics by disclosing the air quality data of Beijing. So, the up is the Embassy data, the PM 2.5. He showed 148, they showed it's dangerous for the sensitive group. So a suggestion, it's not good to go outside. But that is the Ministry's data. He shows 50. He says it's good. It's good to go outside. But 99 percent of Chinese microbloggers stand firmly on the Embassy's side. I live in Beijing. Every day, I just watch the American Embassy's data to decide whether I should open my window.
Takođe, u skorije vreme, desila se veoma smešna rasprava između pekinškog ministarstva za okolinu i američke ambasade u Pekingu jer je ministarstvo okrivilo američku ambasadu za mešanje u kinesku unutrašnju politiku, objavivši kvalitet vazduha u Pekingu. Ovo gore su podaci ambasade, vreme je 14:30. Oni su pokazali 148, pokazali su da je opasno za osetljive ljude. Predlog je da se ne izlazi napolje. A ovo su podaci ministarstva. Oni pokazuju 50. Oni govore da je vazduh dobar. Dobro je izaći napolje. 99 procenata kineskih mikroblogera je odlučno stalo na stranu ambasade. Ja živim u Pekingu. Svaki dan gledam podatke američke ambasade da odlučim da li da otvorim svoj prozor.
Why is Chinese social networking, even within the censorship, so booming? Part of the reason is Chinese languages. You know, Twitter and Twitter clones have a kind of a limitation of 140 characters. But in English it's 20 words or a sentence with a short link. Maybe in Germany, in German language, it may be just "Aha!"
Zašto kineske društvene mreže i pored cenzura cvetaju? Deo razloga je kineski jezik. Tviter i tviterovi klonovi imaju ograničenje na 140 karaktera. Na engleskom je to 20 reči ili rečenica sa skraćenim linkom. Možda je na nemačkom to samo "Aha!"
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
But in Chinese language, it's really about 140 characters, means a paragraph, a story. You can almost have all the journalistic elements there. For example, this is Hamlet, of Shakespeare. It's the same content. One, you can see exactly one Chinese tweet is equal to 3.5 English tweets. Chinese is always cheating, right? So because of this, the Chinese really regard this microblogging as a media, not only a headline to media.
Na kineskom jeziku 140 karaktera čini jedan pasus, priču. Skoro da možete imati sve elemente novinarstva. Na primer, ovo je Šekspirov Hamlet. To je isti deo. Možete videti da je jedan kineski tvit kao 3,5 engleskih tvitova. Kinezi uvek varaju, zar ne? Zbog ovoga Kinezi ovo mikroblogovanje smatraju kao medij, a ne samo naslov medija.
And also, the clone, Sina company is the guy who cloned Twitter. It even has its own name, with Weibo. "Weibo" is the Chinese translation for "microblog". It has its own innovation. At the commenting area, [it makes] the Chinese Weibo more like Facebook, rather than the original Twitter. So these innovations and clones, as the Weibo and microblogging, when it came to China in 2009, it immediately became a media platform itself. It became the media platform of 300 million readers. It became the media. Anything not mentioned in Weibo, it does not appear to exist for the Chinese public.
Sina kompanija je čovek koji je klonirao Tviter. Klon čak ima i svoje ime, Veibo. ,,Veibo" je kineska reč za mikroblog. On ima svoje inovacije. Oblast za komentarisanje kineskog Veiba više liči na Fejsbuk nego na Tviter. Kada su ove inovacije i klonovi, kao što su Veibo i mikroblogovanje, stigli u Kinu 2009. godine, odmah su postali medijska platforma. Postali su medijska platforma za 300 miliona čitalaca. Postali su glavni medij. Ono što se ne pojavi na Veibu i ne postoji za kinesku javnost.
But also, Chinese social media is really changing Chinese mindsets and Chinese life. For example, they give the voiceless people a channel to make your voice heard. We had a petition system. It's a remedy outside the judicial system, because the Chinese central government wants to keep a myth: The emperor is good. The old local officials are thugs. So that's why the petitioner, the victims, the peasants, want to take the train to Beijing to petition to the central government, they want the emperor to settle the problem. But when more and more people go to Beijing, they also cause the risk of a revolution. So they send them back in recent years. And even some of them were put into black jails. But now we have Weibo, so I call it the Weibo petition. People just use their cell phones to tweet.
Kineske društvene mreže menjaju kineski način život i razmišljanja. Daju nemim ljudima način da se i njihov glas čuje. Imali smo sistem peticija. To je lek van sudskog sistema jer kineska vlada želi da održi mit: ,,Vladar je dobar. Stari, lokalni zvaničnici su razbojnici." Zato podnosioci peticije, žrtve, seljaci žele da odu do Pekinga kako bi peticiju predali vlasti, žele da vladar reši problem. Ali kada sve više i više ljudi odlazi u Peking, oni stvaraju rizik od revolucije. Zato ih poslednjih godina vraćaju nazad. Neke su čak i hapsili. Ali sada imamo Veibo, koji ja zovem Veibo peticija. Ljudi koriste svoje mobilne telefone kako bi tvitovali.
So your sad stories, by some chance your story will be picked up by reporters, professors or celebrities. One of them is Yao Chen, she is the most popular microblogger in China, who has about 21 million followers. They're almost like a national TV station. If you -- so a sad story will be picked up by her. So this Weibo social media, even in the censorship, still gave the Chinese a real chance for 300 million people every day chatting together, talking together. It's like a big TED, right? But also, it is like the first time a public sphere happened in China. Chinese people start to learn how to negotiate and talk to people.
Tako da vašu priču mogu da primete reporteri, profesori ili slavne ličnosti. Jedna od njih je Jao Čen, najpopularniji mikrobloger u Kini, koja ima oko 21 milion pratilaca. Ona je skoro kao nacionalna TV stanica. Tako da ona može da razglasi vašu priču. Ova Veibo društvena mreža, čak i pored cenzure, daje priliku Kinezima, 300 miliona ljudi, da se svakog dana dopisuju, pričaju. Nešto kao veliki TED, zar ne? Ali to je takođe prvi put da se velika društvena sfera pojavila u Kini. Kinezi počinju da uče kako da pregovaraju i da pričaju sa ljudima.
But also, the cat, the censorship, is not sleeping. It's so hard to post some sensitive words on the Chinese Weibo. For example, you can't post the name of the president, Hu Jintao, and also you can't post the city of Chongqing, the name, and until recently, you can't search the surname of top leaders. So, the Chinese are very good at these puns and alternative wording and even memes. They even name themselves -- you know, use the name of this world-changing battle between the grass-mud horse and the river crab. The grass-mud horse is caoníma, is the phonogram for motherfucker, the Netizens call themselves. River crab is héxiè, is the phonogram for harmonization, for censorship. So that's kind of a caoníma versus the héxiè, that's very good. So, when some very political, exciting moments happened, you can see on Weibo, you see a lot of very weird stories happened. Weird phrases and words, even if you have a PhD of Chinese language, you can't understand them.
Ali u isto vreme, mačka, cenzura, ne spava. Veoma je teško postaviti neke ,,osetljive" reči na Veibo. Na primer, ne možete postaviti ime predsednika, Hu Jintao i takođe ne možete postaviti ime grada Čongćing, a do skoro niste mogli ni da vršite pretragu prezimena najviših rukovodilaca. Kinezi su veoma vešti u šalama i alternativnim imenima, čak i memama. Čak i daju sebi imena, iskoristite ime ove teške bitke između lame i rečne krabe. Lama je ,,caonima", fonogram za mamojebac, netizeni sebe nazivaju tako. Rečna kraba je ,,hešie", fonogram za usklađivanje, cenzuru. To je onda bitka između caonima i hešie, dobra šala. Kada se desi nešto politički zanimljivo, na Veibu možete videti mnogo čudnih priča. Čudne fraze i reči, čak i da imate doktorat iz kineskog jezika, ne biste ih razumeli.
But you can't even expand more, no, because Chinese Sina Weibo, when it was founded was exactly one month after the official blocking of Twitter.com. That means from the very beginning, Weibo has already convinced the Chinese government, we will not become the stage for any kind of a threat to the regime. For example, anything you want to post, like "get together" or "meet up" or "walk," it is automatically recorded and data mined and reported to a poll for further political analyzing. Even if you want to have some gathering, before you go there, the police are already waiting for you. Why? Because they have the data. They have everything in their hands. So they can use the 1984 scenario data mining of the dissident. So the crackdown is very serious.
Ali više ne može da se širi jer je kineski Sina Veibo osnovan tačno mesec dana nakon zvaničnog blokiranja Tvitera. To znači da je od samog početka Veibo ubedio kinesku vladu da neće postati pozornica za bilo kakvu pretnju režimu. Na primer, sve što želite da postavite, ,,sresti se" ili ,,okupiti se" ili ,,šetnja" automatski se beleži i prijavljuje za dalje političko analiziranje. Čak i ako želite da se okupite, pre nego što dođete tamo, policija vas već čeka. Zašto? Zato što imaju podatke. Sve imaju u svojim rukama. Mogu da koriste scenario iz ,,1984." za prikupljanje podataka disidenata. Obračun je veoma ozbiljan.
But I want you to notice a very funny thing during the process of the cat-and-mouse. The cat is the censorship, but Chinese is not only one cat, but also has local cats. Central cat and local cats.
Ali želim da uvidite jednu veoma smešnu stvar u bici između mačke i miša. Mačka, cenzura, nije jedina mačka već postoje i lokalne mačke. Centralna mačka i lokalne mačke.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
You know, the server is in the [central] cats' hands, so even that -- when the Netizens criticize the local government, the local government has not any access to the data in Beijing. Without bribing the central cats, he can do nothing, only apologize.
Server je u rukama centralne mačke pa kada netizeni kritikuju lokalnu vlast, lokalna vlast nema pristup podacima u Pekingu. Bez podmićivanja centralnih mačaka, ona ne može ništa osim da se izvinjava.
So these three years, in the past three years, social movements about microblogging really changed local government, became more and more transparent, because they can't access the data. The server is in Beijing. The story about the train crash, maybe the question is not about why 10 million criticisms in five days, but why the Chinese central government allowed the five days of freedom of speech online. It's never happened before. And so it's very simple, because even the top leaders were fed up with this guy, this independent kingdom. So they want an excuse -- public opinion is a very good excuse to punish him.
Stoga su u poslednje tri godine društveni pokreti o mikroblogovanju stvarno promenili lokalnu vlast, ona je postala transparentnija jer nema pristup podacima. Server je u Pekingu. U priči o železničkoj nesreći, pitanje nije zašto 10 miliona kritika u pet dana već zašto je kineska centralna vlast dozvolila pet dana slobode govora na internetu. To se nikada do sada nije desilo. Veoma je jednostavno, čak je i vrhovnim rukovodiocima bilo dosta ovog lika, njegovog nezavisnog kraljevstva. Zato su želeli izgovor - javno mnjenje je veoma dobar izgovor za kaznu.
But also, the Bo Xilai case recently, very big news, he's a princeling. But from February to April this year, Weibo really became a marketplace of rumors. You can almost joke everything about these princelings, everything! It's almost like you're living in the United States. But if you dare to retweet or mention any fake coup about Beijing, you definitely will be arrested. So this kind of freedom is a targeted and precise window.
Ali takođe, Bo Šilai slučaj nedavno, velike novosti, on je kneščić. Od februara do aprila ove godine Veibo je postao tržište glasina. Možete da se šalite na račun ovih kneščića, o bilo čemu! Kao da živite u Sjedinjenim Američkim Državama. Ali ako se usudite da tvitujete ili pomenete nešto neistinito o Pekingu, sigurno ćete biti uhapšeni. Ova vrsta slobode je ciljana i ima precizan okvir.
So Chinese in China, censorship is normal. Something you find is, freedom is weird. Something will happen behind it. Because he was a very popular Leftist leader, so the central government wanted to purge him, and he was very cute, he convinced all the Chinese people, why he is so bad. So Weibo, the 300 million public sphere, became a very good, convenient tool for a political fight.
Kinezima u Kini, cenzura je normalna stvar. Sloboda je čudna. Nešto će se desiti iza nje. On je bio veoma popularan levičarski vođa, a centralna vlast je želela da izvrši čistku, a on je bio veoma ljubak, ubedio je Kineze zašto je tako loš. Veibo, društvena sfera od 300 miliona ljudi, je postao veoma zgodna alatka za političku borbu.
But this technology is very new, but technically is very old. It was made famous by Chairman Mao, Mao Zedong, because he mobilized millions of Chinese people in the Cultural Revolution to destroy every local government. It's very simple, because Chinese central government doesn't need to even lead the public opinion. They just give them a target window to not censor people. Not censoring in China has become a political tool.
Ova tehnologija je veoma nova, ali je tehnički veoma stara. Napravio ju je poznati predsednik Mao, Mao Cedung, on je mobilizovao milione Kineza u kulturnoj revoluciji kako bi uništio sve lokalne vlasti. Veoma je jednostavno, kineska centralna vlast uopšte ne mora da vodi javno mnjenje. Samo daju precizan okvir u kom ne cenzurišu ljude. Necenzurisanje je u Kini postalo politička alatka.
So that's the update about this game, cat-and-mouse. Social media changed Chinese mindset. More and more Chinese intend to embrace freedom of speech and human rights as their birthright, not some imported American privilege. But also, it gave the Chinese a national public sphere for people to, it's like a training of their citizenship, preparing for future democracy. But it didn't change the Chinese political system, and also the Chinese central government utilized this centralized server structure to strengthen its power to counter the local government and the different factions.
To su novosti u ovoj igri mačke i miša. Društvene mreže su promenile način razmišljanja Kineza. Sve više Kineza namerava da prihvati slobodu govora i ljudskih prava kao svoje pravo stečeno rođenjem, a ne kao uvoznu američku privilegiju. Takođe je Kinezima dalo nacionalnu društvenu sferu u kojoj se ljudi, poput treniranja svog državljanstva, pripremaju za buduću demokratiju. Ali nije promenila kineski politički sistem i kineska centralna vlast takođe koristi ovu centralizovanu strukturu servera kako bi ojačala svoju moć suprotstavljanja lokalnoj vlasti i drugim frakcijama.
So, what's the future? After all, we are the mouse. Whatever the future is, we should fight against the [cat]. There is not only in China, but also in the United States there are some very small, cute but bad cats.
Kakva je onda budućnost? Na kraju krajeva, mi smo miš. Kakva god budućnost bila, mi bi trebalo da se borimo protiv mačke. Ne samo u Kini, već i u Sjedinjenim Državama postoje male i ljupke, ali zle mačke.
(Laughter)
(Smeh)
SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, TPP and ITU. And also, like Facebook and Google, they claim they are friends of the mouse, but sometimes we see them dating the cats. So my conclusion is very simple. We Chinese fight for our freedom, you just watch your bad cats. Don't let them hook [up] with the Chinese cats. Only in this way, in the future, we will achieve the dreams of the mouse: that we can tweet anytime, anywhere, without fear.
SOPA, PIPA, ACTA, TPP i ITU. I takođe, poput Fejsbuka i Gugla, oni tvrde da su prijatelji miša, ali ih ponekad vidimo sa mačkama. Moj zaključak je jednostavan. Mi, Kinezi, se borimo za svoju slobodu, vi samo gledate svoje zle mačke. Ne dozvolite im da se povežu sa kineskim mačkama. Samo tako ćemo u budućnosti ostvariti snove miša: moći ćemo da tvitujemo bilo kad i bilo gde bez straha.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)
Thank you.
Hvala.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)