China Advances

Last month I noted that China had suddenly appeared in my blog statistics as the country with the eighth greatest number of Attempted Bloggery page views. Prior to February of this year, it scarcely appeared at all. Now this month it has moved up in rank to seventh among all nations.

Attempted Bloggery Monthly Page Views by Country, April 23, 2013

This raises an interesting question, one which I don't think has an answer: Where would China rank in my blog statistics if there were absolutely no restrictions there on internet access? This is not an easy question. It could very well be that linguistic and cultural differences might serve to keep my blog unpopular, at least on a per capita basis. To some degree, though, technology like Google Translator could make this blog very accessible even to someone with no knowledge of English. I don't know if the Chinese would have much cultural affinity with this blog's typical subject matter, which is often humorous artwork of American or European origin. On the other hand, though, the sheer number of Chinese could potentially push this nation to the top of my statistics. How would all of this balance out?

Well, I just don't know. I would expect India, with 1.22 billion people and widespread use of English to be high on my list, but it isn't. On the other hand, I'm continually surprised by Russia's very strong showing here. It's only a guess, but I'd like to think a China with complete freedom from internet censorship would be ranked around third or fourth in page views.

For reference, here are the page view rankings by country since the inception of the blog. Note the prominence of English-speaking countries and of Europe:

Attempted Bloggery All-Time Page Views by Country, April 23, 2013

June 8, 2013 Update:  Despite constant internet censorship by the Chinese authorities, readership of this blog continues to increase in that country. Over the six weeks since this post was first published, China has advanced in the standings and is now tied for sixth place among all nations of the globe in monthly page views. The Chinese have caught up with the Canadians in the number of monthly page views emanating from the country, and indeed China was even a bit ahead of Canada yesterday. To be honest, I'm more surprised to see Turkey and Ukraine among the top ten countries, nudging out India (only recently active here), Spain, and Brazil.

Attempted Bloggery Monthly Page Views by Country, June 8, 2013

Note:  Last month's post on China's unanticipated increase in activity on this blog can be found here. To see my comments on Google Translator's French version of this blog, take a look here. If you'd like to see what Attempted Bloggery looks like in Chinese, by all means check it out here.

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The Great Leap Forward

Is it possible for my blog statistics to provide insights into global political shifts? For more than a year and a half, this blog has scarcely been viewed by anyone inside China. While there could be many cultural and linguistic reasons for this, I have always assumed the government has been blocking free access to the internet. Now that may be changing in a small but significant way. Last month, for the first time, China made it into the top ten of countries from which this blog is viewed. This month it is in the top eight. What's going on?

Attempted Bloggery Page Views by Countries for this Past Month

It's not really a big deal that from a country with over 1.3 billion people, I'm getting just over 100 page views per month, but it is a very significant change. Now why would China have been blocking access to my blog? I've never criticized the Chinese government except for its tacit acceptance of female infanticide; its refusal to permit free speech, a free press, or freedom to practice religion; its horrendous human rights record including widespread intolerable working conditions for many factory and farm workers; worldwide theft of intellectual property including tolerance of widespread counterfeiting of luxury items and unauthorized reproduction of copyrighted books; coordinated hacking of sensitive institutions in the United States and around the globe; a ghastly domestic environmental record; unconscionable support for a psychopathic tyrant in North Korea; and an unwillingness to use its international political clout to rein in any other despotic governments. Aside from those things, and the lack of democratic institutions and free elections, I have very little to say against the Chinese government.

I'm not sure what's going on now. Either the Chinese government has loosened the reins on internet access, or these page views are all the work of government hackers trying to bring my blog down. I don't believe opinions voiced here in my little corner of cyberspace are of any strategic importance to the Chinese, and it would be foolish of them to waste their energy on someone as peripheral as I am. Still, I suspect that if they wanted to hack my blog, they most probably could.

More likely though, the Chinese are relaxing their strictures on internet access just a bit, perhaps only on a trial basis. Who would have thought that even a few dozen of those 1.3 billion souls would have chosen to come here and view my little blog? I'd be delighted to learn that the Chinese people have gained the right to visit any website in the world as a guaranteed freedom. Only then will I personally really feel the magnitude of the more than 1.3 billion Chinese who stay away from this site. But then it will be by choice. Their choice.

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