The Great Firewall of China

I don't know what to make of Google censoring itself for China, while defying the US over search data, but I've found a blog called RConversation that looks like it might be a good place to start briefing myself on some of the issues.

Here is an extract from a post last week about developments hovering somewhere between sinister and funny:

Starting today, when netizens visit all the main portals of Shenzhen city, Guangdong, they will see two cartoon figures "Jingjing" and "Chacha" (Jing Cha = Police). The image of Shenzhen Internet Police will officially be online. From now on, when netizens visit websites and web forums of Shenzhen, they will see these two cartoon police images floating on their screen. Our reporter learned that these are the images of Shenzhen Internet Police, presented by Internet Surveillance Division of Shenzhen Public Security Bureau, for the first time in China.