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From the article: The standards will take effect from April 1, 2013, and will also require residences to offer equal connections to services from various telec

by donaldc 14y ago

From the article: The standards will take effect from April 1, 2013, and will also require residences to offer equal connections to services from various telecom companies allowing customers to choose which service they want. Amazingly, this means that China is now ahead of the U.S. regarding net neutrality. Now, if they'd just do something about the Great Firewall..

guard-of-terra 14y ago
It's not just China. In many places in the world you have a choice of a variety of ISPs to subscribe to. Including where I live - it's not required or mandated but still taken for granted.
pfisch 14y ago
All of the various telecom companies are state owned. So I guess there is net neutrality in the sense that you can expect the same level of censorship on each state owned ISP which is really the same ISP. Yeah, China is really showing America how net neutrality should be done... In reality there is just one more official to bribe to build a house.
ChuckMcM 14y ago
It is seductively powerful being a dictatorship. You can do things like this. Its not all its cracked up to be living with it though.
- w1ntermute 14y ago
  I hope China goes the way of South Korea and Taiwan. A transition to democracy once the economy's improved enough. The only problem is that its size means that China can't take the export oriented path to growth at the same rate that SK/Taiwan did.
  - dnu 14y ago
    On the other hand, China has a lot of investment to do in its western part of the country.
    - w1ntermute 14y ago
      Yeah, that's my point. China can't modernize so quickly because it has a large hinterland that SK and Taiwan don't.
- loceng 14y ago
  Pretty sure you could make this a legal requirement even in a democracy.
  - anigbrowl 14y ago
    Not without people screaming about the danger of government meddling in industrial policy and wrangling over it for the better part of a decade.
    - deleted 14y ago
      [deleted]
    - gizmo686 14y ago
      That's capitalist democracy. You could have a democracy where the government does control (or has significant influence over) industry.
      - loceng 14y ago
        And not allow the government to be the scapegoat for corporate-driven changes and rules.
    - kalleboo 14y ago
      In the US maybe, but I could easily see something like this happening in Scandinavia. Sweden already has a lot of provider-neutral municipal fiber.
  - Volpe 14y ago
    Pretty sure Australia has done just that. State owned central ISP (NBN: National Broadband Network).
- kinghajj 14y ago
  If China is a dictatorship, then who is the dictator? It rather seems to be run by the inner Party leaders.
  - seanmcdirmid 14y ago
    Its more like an Aristocracy these days (as it was pretty much before since before Qin). Certain powerful families control about 90% of the government and 40% of the economy. Otherwise, the government is completely opaque, and its hard to tell who is really in charge and what relationships (guanxi) connect them together.
    - rdl 14y ago
      From what I've read, the national government is a lot more consistent and essentially "good" than some of the local government leaders, which is kind of the opposite of the US. (I'd still far prefer the US to China, and don't think either the US or China are perfect, but most China's regional governments seem to be really bad even in comparison to the national government.)
      - dmix 14y ago
        Source(s)?
        rdl 14y ago
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_China http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_China is a start http://www.transparency.org/news/feature/fighting_corruption_in_china http://www.transparency.org/news/feature/fighting_corruption... There have been a fair number of executions of local government officials. It's much easier to make the case "corruption at the local level is really bad" vs. "the central government isn't corrupt" -- I'm just saying the local people are worse than the central government in a lot of ways. The least corrupt entity is the PLA, which has the most power at the national level. The most corrupt things are land sales, which are handled at the local level.
      - 14y ago
tokenadult 14y ago
I have a choice of ISPs (none run by the government) through the TV cables that run into my home. Fiber-optic cables haven't reached our outer-ring metropolitan neighborhood. DSL took a long time to come here, because of where the telephone substations are in this town.
31reasons 14y ago
Its amazing what a government can do in the absence of powerful lobbying groups.
- runeks 14y ago
  I fail at being amazed over a government mandating things. And what makes you think this happened in the absence of lobbying? For all we know, this could have come after one of the CEOs of China's ISPs invited the right officials out for dinner. I get a bit scared when I see people who seem to view this as progress.
ScottWhigham 14y ago
Wait - how is "equal connections to services from various telecom companies allowing customers to choose which service they want" the same as "net neutrality"? Can you elaborate how specifically China is "head of the U.S." in that regard?

by donaldc 14y ago

guard-of-terra 14y ago

It's not just China. In many places in the world you have a choice of a variety of ISPs to subscribe to. Including where I live - it's not required or mandated but still taken for granted.

pfisch 14y ago

All of the various telecom companies are state owned. So I guess there is net neutrality in the sense that you can expect the same level of censorship on each state owned ISP which is really the same ISP. Yeah, China is really showing America how net neutrality should be done... In reality there is just one more official to bribe to build a house.

ChuckMcM 14y ago

It is seductively powerful being a dictatorship. You can do things like this. Its not all its cracked up to be living with it though.

w1ntermute 14y ago
I hope China goes the way of South Korea and Taiwan. A transition to democracy once the economy's improved enough. The only problem is that its size means that China can't take the export oriented path to growth at the same rate that SK/Taiwan did.
- dnu 14y ago
  On the other hand, China has a lot of investment to do in its western part of the country.
  - w1ntermute 14y ago
    Yeah, that's my point. China can't modernize so quickly because it has a large hinterland that SK and Taiwan don't.
loceng 14y ago
Pretty sure you could make this a legal requirement even in a democracy.
- anigbrowl 14y ago
  Not without people screaming about the danger of government meddling in industrial policy and wrangling over it for the better part of a decade.
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - gizmo686 14y ago
    That's capitalist democracy. You could have a democracy where the government does control (or has significant influence over) industry.
    - loceng 14y ago
      And not allow the government to be the scapegoat for corporate-driven changes and rules.
  - kalleboo 14y ago
    In the US maybe, but I could easily see something like this happening in Scandinavia. Sweden already has a lot of provider-neutral municipal fiber.
- Volpe 14y ago
  Pretty sure Australia has done just that. State owned central ISP (NBN: National Broadband Network).
kinghajj 14y ago
If China is a dictatorship, then who is the dictator? It rather seems to be run by the inner Party leaders.
- seanmcdirmid 14y ago
  Its more like an Aristocracy these days (as it was pretty much before since before Qin). Certain powerful families control about 90% of the government and 40% of the economy. Otherwise, the government is completely opaque, and its hard to tell who is really in charge and what relationships (guanxi) connect them together.
  - rdl 14y ago
    From what I've read, the national government is a lot more consistent and essentially "good" than some of the local government leaders, which is kind of the opposite of the US. (I'd still far prefer the US to China, and don't think either the US or China are perfect, but most China's regional governments seem to be really bad even in comparison to the national government.)
    - dmix 14y ago
      Source(s)?
      - rdl 14y ago
        http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_China http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corruption_in_China is a start http://www.transparency.org/news/feature/fighting_corruption_in_china http://www.transparency.org/news/feature/fighting_corruption... There have been a fair number of executions of local government officials. It's much easier to make the case "corruption at the local level is really bad" vs. "the central government isn't corrupt" -- I'm just saying the local people are worse than the central government in a lot of ways. The least corrupt entity is the PLA, which has the most power at the national level. The most corrupt things are land sales, which are handled at the local level.
    - 14y ago

tokenadult 14y ago

I have a choice of ISPs (none run by the government) through the TV cables that run into my home. Fiber-optic cables haven't reached our outer-ring metropolitan neighborhood. DSL took a long time to come here, because of where the telephone substations are in this town.

31reasons 14y ago

Its amazing what a government can do in the absence of powerful lobbying groups.

runeks 14y ago
I fail at being amazed over a government mandating things. And what makes you think this happened in the absence of lobbying? For all we know, this could have come after one of the CEOs of China's ISPs invited the right officials out for dinner. I get a bit scared when I see people who seem to view this as progress.

ScottWhigham 14y ago

Wait - how is "equal connections to services from various telecom companies allowing customers to choose which service they want" the same as "net neutrality"? Can you elaborate how specifically China is "head of the U.S." in that regard?