While the world cheering for the delay in mandatory deployment of the 'Green Dam', a government issued filter software, the positive development of the case might not be as significant as perceived by many.
A fast replay of the event: the Ministry of Information of China announced that all PC sold in China after July 1st 2009 must have a special filter software 'Green Dam' pre-installed to fight inappropriate contents online. The measure was booed by not only ordinary Chinese netizens, but virtually everyone with a voice, including traditional media. Today, the government announced that the installation would be delayed for technical and logistical reasons until further notice.
While the world is cheering for a victory of ordinary people, the incident should not be over-read into a symbol of any willingness of relaxing the regulation of the Internet in China.
Actually there is another angle to examine the tip of this iceberg, that the CCP is so corrupted that 1) a few low level officials dare to make a small fortune at the cost of the entire ruling class, and 2) the ruling class had to endorse the obvious greedy mistake made by a few crazy low level officials.
The Seagull never doubts the CCP's intention and determination to block the Internet or any media (radio, TV, newspaper, etc.). However, this 'Green Dam' thing looks apparently initiated by a few people associated with the firm who produced the 'green dam'. Likely, Google had been blocked for quite a few times, all thanks to its competitor 'Baidu'.
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