So, he is an American. Really?

From the Economist's forum.
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I am an American currently living in China, so this is my experience and not some hearsay.

With that being said, in China, as long as you understand English, you can more or less navigate the Internet unhindered, since the censors do not understand English. You can more or less have access to all English websites except the big ones such as Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, New York Times and Bloomberg (for its expose on Wen and Xi's family corruption), and Blogspot. Everything else is fair game. It is just that the vast majority of Chinese do not understand English and / or do not bother to surf in English.

But if you use the Chinese versions of Youtube, Twitter, and Blogspot, you will find the discussions to be very very rude and politically incorrect, just like its American counterpart. And just like in America, taking shots at the government is fair game. And I can write all sorts of criticism of the communist party here and it will not be censored, simply because it is in English, and the censors can care less.

I think what the censors really fear are attempts to overthrow the government or to commit organized violence. Whatever we may think of the Chinese government, it is still the legitimate government of China, and like all governments, it will do all it can stamp out threats to the state. America is the same. If you write anything terrorism or violence-related on the Internet, especially if you advocate for Al Qaeda or the overthrow of the Federal government, you will catch the attention of the FBI, the NSA, or whatever government agency is surveilling our Internet. China not only have to worry about organized violence, terrorism, and treason, but also secession and a Maoist resurgence (a la Bo Xilai). This is simply not a case of the Big Brother tossing everybody into the Gulag for making fun of the government.