Readings Around the Net

1. Rebecca MacKinnon has a great new article at First Monday (“peer-reviewed journal on the internet”) called “China’s Censorship 2.0: How Companies Censor Bloggers.” It is required reading for all those tracking China’s web developments.

2. David Flumenbaum has produced a great reader that tracks the developments of and reactions to the CCTV fire in Beijing. It includes videos and excerpts from news reports.

3. If you haven’t yet read chinaSMACK, you can catch a clever recap of their 2008 postings here.

A week ago, we ran Lauri Paltemaa’s reflection on democracy movements and anniversaries in China this year. Here’s a mini-primer of related (Charter 08 and anniversaries) news.

1. For another take on the possible coming problems for the CCP this year, see Willy Lam’s commentary at the Asia Times (hat tip: CDT)

2. China Digital Times has continued to track Charter 08 news, as in this piece from last week. Two weeks ago, CDT ran a translation of a commentary on Hu Jintao’s poor leadership, and how it might contribute to unrest in 2009.

3. Xujun Eberlein also recently summarized the Charter 08 events at her blog (and the comments section is very interesting too).

4. For more on the “rumbles” of further unrest from a few weeks ago, see “China’s rural teachers join rumble of unrest” (Reuters, at International Herald Tribune), “China police take away citizens airing grievances” (AP), and “Workers protest as Italian sofa maker folds in China” (AFP).

5. And for a typically thoughtful preview of the challenges that confront Hu and Wen in the coming year, see Kerry Brown’s “China’s giant struggle” at openDemocracy.