Can you access chinahistoryforum?

To all CHF members based in China:

Dear {member_name},

It has brought to our attention that over the past few weeks, we have received reports from a number of CHF members in China that they cannot access China History Forum site at http://www.chinahistoryforum.com . We have asked members to test from quite a lot of locations and apparently, it seems that many ISP (Internet Service Provider) in China has blocked our site. Now the only way that you can access China History Forum is probably through a proxy server which you have to set in your browser.

We do not know what exactly are the reasons why Chinese government has blocked our site. It could be the same reasons as Wikipedia. It is sad and unfortunate because we are losing a big portion of traffic and membership from China, let alone contributions from our China members.

The reasons that we can think of for the ban are:

1. We offer an alternative non-marxist view towards chinese history, while the chinese government wants to make sure the entire China remains to have a marxist-view towards chinese history.

2. We have a "ROC and PRC" forum that discuss modern chinese history, of which some topics can be quite politically sensitve such as "Is Mao a Villain or Hero?", "Tiananmen Square Incidence" etc.

3. We have a "China Current Affairs Forum" with certain sensitive topics such as FLG (Falungong), Taiwan/Tibetan/Xinjiang Tibetan Independence,  and even one Hongkong Independence topic. Although we have placed a strong censorship in making sure they don't become propaganda topic or become anti-CCP topic, it seems that the mere appearance of these topics had caused certain chinese authority to think we are inappropriate.

The Anti-Japanese demonstration in China last year, where over 100,000 chinese marched on the street last year, has shocked the chinese government. It was organised over the internet through online forums and as a result, the Chinese government has placed various strict control and censorship over the internet ever since. With the chinese government's focus on economic development and social stability, it wants to stem down any form of social unrest that could arise, largely from the internet. It becomes unfortunate that a good site such as ours has to be part of the censorship list.  

We have stressed that we do not have any political inclination and are politically neutral. We are an academic forum that explores chinese history and culture. But unfortunately we cannot prevent the chinese government from banning our site.

The only thing that you can do is to help CHF by appealing/requesting your ISP to lift the ban on China History Forum. That way, we hope our members in China can access CHF again.

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各位CHF中国的会员:

{member_name}

最近,有许多身在中国的CHF会员透过电邮通知我们, 他们无法连接到China History Forum的网站 (http://www.chinahistoryforum.com) 。 经我们查证之后，发现中国确实有许多地方的ISP(网络供应商) 已将我们的网站阻挡住或列入禁止的名单当中。如果你还想连接到我们的网站，可能需要透过某个Proxy Server，否则就上不来。

我们并不知晓为何中国当局要禁止我们的网站，也许原因跟维基百科班（wikipedia）被禁一样。对于被禁之事，我们深感不幸和悲哀。这不仅让我们失去了来自中国网民许多宝贵的支持与贡献，也让我们流失了来自中国大量的网络交通。

百思不得其解，我们只能想出以下可能被禁止的几个原因：

1．      CHF提供了另类有别于马克斯的中国历史观点，如同西方的中国历史观。这种由外国人写的中国历史较为不受马克斯历史观的影响，在某种程度上较为客观。然而中国政府可能还想继续限制整个中国于马克斯历史观，尽量不让外国的历史观点来影响整个中国。也因此，他们阻挡了CHF。

2．      我们有个�ROC and PRC� 的论坛，专门讨论中国现代史，有些话题可能相当敏感，如 �毛泽是个历史罪人还是英雄?�, �天安门事件� 等。虽然这些话题有些敏感，会影响中国共产党统治中国的权利，但是我们实在想不出有什么办法来避免讨论这些历史话题。既然要讨论中国现代史，这些话题就无法避免。我们是在追求历史真相，而并非要颠覆或反中国共产党，然而中国政府对这些话题还是严禁了。

3．      我们有个 �China Current Affairs�的论坛, 专门讨论中港台的时事话题, 有些话题相当敏感，如�法轮功�，�台湾统独问题�，�西藏独立问题�。我们已经限制网友不得透过我们的这些话题来宣染任何的政治主张，只能讨论相关的问题，为的就是防止CHF被中国政府禁止。然而，这些话题似乎连提都不能提。其实开设 �China Current Affairs�只是供会员多加了解中国和海峡两岸的政局。

去年发生在中国的上万人�反日游行示威�让中国政府感到惊慌，因为这是透过网络上流传后发动组织的一向游行。为避免再有此事发生，中国政府严禁监控各项网络活动和网站，以保持社会和谐。

然而，中国政府却要将一个讨论中国历史的外国论坛隔绝于中国之外，不让中国人了解外国人和海外华人是如何看待中国历史和文化。这对于拥有上千年史学传统的中国，无疑是一种讽刺。再者，少了中国网友，CHF也少了来自中国的许多历史专家的贡献，在学术交流方面也会稍微显得薄弱了点。

CHF并非有任何的政治倾向，对于政治我们一向采取中立立场，也并非反对中国共产党，只是对中国政府表示不满。我们是个学术论坛，只是秉承着一份实事求是的精神，探索和推广5000年的中国历史和文化，为的就是让世界更加了解中国，把中华文化推向全世界。

对于中国政府禁止我们的网站，我们身表遗憾，向各位CHF中国的会员至上歉意。希望个CHF中国会员能够挺身而出，向各个ISP提出要求恢复网站的连接。

谢谢！

Regards

General Zhaoyun

Administrator

China History Forum