In recent years technology giants Microsoft, Yahoo and Google have been widely criticised for their business practices in repressive countries such as China. But yesterday the trio tackled their critics by joining a new scheme to help protect the freedoms of internet users around the world.

The Global Network Initiative, a new human rights coalition, says it is working to help companies stand up to authoritarian governments in countries such as China, Vietnam, Syria, Burma and Iran.

As well as the triumvirate of hi-tech companies, the group is also being backed by a wide range of campaigners and academic organisations, including Human Rights Watch and the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The initiative aims to “protect and advance user rights to freedom of expression and privacy”…

Eric Gordon responds to Ze Xia’s letter in the Guardian:
“I do feel Ze Xia went over the top with her swingeing condemnation of the Chinese government (Letters, September 11). I hold no special brief for China. In the late 1960s my wife and I and our 11-year-old son were caught up in the cultural revolution and locked up for two years in a small hotel room, never allowed out, and fed on a poor diet.
Even so, it would be churlish to deny the economic and social advances that have been made in China - first in the centrally planned economy from 1949 to 1974 and then in the capitalist-driven economy ever since. I’ve been back several times since the late 80s when the Chinese government apologised - in a sense it was, in their eyes, a kind of ‘rehabilitation’…”

Ze Xia’s letter to the editor disagrees with an optimistic article in the Guardian:
“I am very disappointed to read the article by Fu Ying, the Chinese ambassador in London (Bringing out the best in us, September 4). I feel that Fu has taken advantage of media freedom in this country to spread lies and Chinese communist regime propaganda. He does not speak for the Chinese people. In my view, the Beijing Olympics were not successful because they did not represent the real Olympic spirit, even though China has won many medals. It has been used by the communist regime as a showcase, in the same way as last century’s Berlin Olympics were used by Hitler. Behind those shining medals, there were blood, suffering, arrests, torture and even deaths of innocent people…”

Fu Ying, China’s ambassador to the UK, boasts of a more open China:
“A question often raised after the Beijing Olympics is this: in what way has it changed China - and where is the country heading now? One of the most important effects has been on the world’s perception of China, and vice versa. The Olympics brought the international community into China and made the Chinese people feel closer to it. They understand better the diversity of the world, and are more relaxed about different opinions about their homeland. They are more confident in expressing their feelings and thoughts to the world.
The Olympics also opened up China more directly to the world, thanks to the presence of 30,000 international journalists. Much of their reporting helped to unroll a panoramic view of the dynamic, diverse, modern China, which is not free of challenges. After this encounter, hopefully, there will be fewer cases of using old footage, photos or stereotypes to present today’s stories…”

New attacks in Xinjiang go unclaimed:

“Fresh violence in China’s restive north-west region of Xinjiang has left two police dead and seven injured, officials have said.

There were three fatal attacks on police and government targets just before and during the Olympics - including the worst militant attack in a decade.

Officials gave few details of yesterday’s incident in Jiashi county, 60 miles east of Kashgar. An Uighur exile group said gunfire was heard.

A public security official told the Associated Press news agency that eight Uighurs were involved but only one had been captured.

A hospital in Kashgar said it was treating seven officers, including one with stab wounds, while a Communist party official in Jiashi county said two police had died.”

Corporations are leading the way in new forms of censorship:

“A popular acronym in government, big business and the military for today’s centralised surveillance technologies is ‘C4I’ (Command, Control, Communications, Computers and Intelligence). The top shelf of the technology market offers solutions that integrate closed circuit television with criminal records databases, national health insurance with biometric ID cards, holiday travel bookings with international terrorist lists and so on.”

Beijing police have roughed up and detained a British journalist and stolen his equipment, their worst breach of promise and international standards yet during the Olympics:

“John Ray, of Independent Television News, said he was pinned down by police, dragged along the ground and pushed into a police van.

He said the authorities had also confiscated his equipment, pulled off his shoes, filmed him and accused him of trying to unfurl a Tibetan flag.

After his release some 30 minutes later, he said he was shaken but unharmed…

Ray said he had fallen behind the main group, tussled with park guards and was then set upon by a four or five uniformed police. They pushed him to the ground, dragging him off to a nearby restaurant as he shouted: “I am a British journalist” to startled diners.

‘My accreditation was in my pocket, but they wouldn’t let me get it out to show them,’ he said after being released.”

“Welcome to Hooters Beijing!” Marina Hyde gets a good look at one of Beijing’s newest imports:

“Lying toward the east of Beijing in the Chaoyang district, the Workers Stadium was one of the Ten Great Buildings commissioned in 1959 to mark the 10th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China. These are somewhat different times, though, and so it is that a new face in town has parked itself right across the street. As this establishment’s waitresses shriek in unison at arriving customers: ‘Welcome to Hooters Beijing!’ Behold the new face of Chinese capitalism. And please try to stay looking at its face…
Hooters not translating as a pun in Mandarin, Rachel is unaware that the word emblazoned across her vest refers to something other than the owl that goggles away in its logo, as she takes orders beneath a large sign reading ‘Caution: blondes thinking’…”

Architect Ai Weiwei, who helped conceive the Olympic stadium, decides the Opening Ceremony is not for him:

“The colourful festival is a time not just for celebration, but also for peace and friendship. To rediscover our future, we should say goodbye to our past.

We must bid farewell to autocracy. Whatever shape it takes, whatever justification it gives, authoritarian government always ends up trampling on equality, denying justice and stealing happiness and laughter from the people.

We should also leave behind discrimination, because it is narrow-minded and ignorant, denies contact and warmth; and corrodes mankind’s belief that we can better ourselves. The only way to avoid misunderstanding, war and bloodshed is to defend freedom of expression and to communicate with sincerity, concern and good intentions.”

China’s opening ceremony was truly cinematic:

“The Beijing Olympics got under way in spectacular fashion today with a lavish opening ceremony at the Bird’s Nest stadium.

The event mixed China’s millennia of history and hi-tech present as a modern global powerhouse.

The four-hour event, meticulously choreographed by Zhang Yimou, China’s most celebrated film director, ended with the final torch bearer, the former Olympic gymnastics champion Li Ning, being hoisted aloft by invisible wires.

In the style of one of Zhang’s martial arts films, he then ‘ran’ along the rim of the stadium’s roof before igniting the vast Olympic cauldron as thousands of fireworks lit up the skyline.”