Will I be able to follow the 2008 U.S. Elections while studying in Beijing?

Question

I'm spending four months in mid 2008 studying Chinese language and culture at Beijing Language and Culture University and attending the Olympics.

I am very involved in politics and I plan to vote in the US elections in 2008. I will be back in time to vote at home without using an absentee ballot, but here's my concern:

While I have no intention to make noise or to be disrespectful to China about my political viewpoints, in order to make an informed decision so as to vote when I get home, I need to closely follow the U.S. elections in the news -- debates, commentary, etc. However, I've heard the internet and media are heavily censored in China. I've even been told sites with the word "democracy" are not viewable. That would make it impossible to follow the elections.

What are my options? Is it not as bad as I've heard? Are there workarounds? Would I get caught remote desktopping to a computer at home in the states to read the stuff through an American ISP?

Answer 1

There is TV everywhere AND FOX News, so that's all need
Bubba!

Answer 2

I don't know if American newspapers would be banned/censored, but the Washington Post always gives thorough coverage of all elections. I find them to be the most informative and complete. And please, DON'T depend on Fox whether you are there or here!

Answer 3

i for my area does not have faith any chinese language media. no longer in basic terms is it censored, it makes Fox information look honest and balanced. The China daily is edited by the government or perhaps CNN is censored and is in basic terms attainable in foreign places hotels. a lot of people have satellite tv for pc dishes and can get right of entry to CNN, yet satellite tv for pc dishes are unlawful in China. Your perfect guess is the internet. you may get right of entry to the manhattan situations and different newspapers (see you later as they do no longer say something undesirable approximately China) in maximum places in China (each and every place has distinctive ranges of censorship). it is especially chinese language web pages that are censored. English information makes it for the period of the cracks plenty extra undemanding. As for finding for "democracy," the chinese language have heard that and frequently do no longer worry to at as quickly as censore searches for it. even in spite of the shown fact that, in case you click on a democrasy internet site or human rights or despite, it is going to say that the website does not exist. it extremely is undemanding to get around by utilising an anonymizer. (in basic terms style anonymizer in Google and locate some addresses before you circulate)

Answer 4

i use u.s. libraries in the countries i went. u still can give the internet a try and be lucky if there's yahoo for news, then there's bbc and dw.de for british and german media that still have us.content in english

Answer 5

Can you read Chinese?..... no, seriously, you certainly can if you have access to the internet or to American newspapers, broadcasts,etc.