June, the Month Chinese Censors Stopped Taking Their Medication

In a recent post on Internet censorship in China, Rebecca MacKinnon writes that June was "the month the censors stopped taking their medication." From her review of recent developments:

Most of China's educated, largely apolitical, internet-connected urbanites have until now been generally willing to accept the political status quo - and with it a certain amount of censorship, thuggishness and injustice, political paranoia and occasional bizarreness - in exchange for overall social stability (compared to any other time in living Chinese memory), economic growth, plus an impressive increase in China's global power and status. But whoever is driving the latest Internet crackdown and the accompanying moralistic propaganda drive may have done substantial damage to the government's credibility.

Hat tip to Donald Clark, Chinese Law Prof Blog. [JH]