China slowly began restoring phone and internet links between its western Xinjiang province and the rest of the world.
Without direct international access, people in Xinjiang have had to find creative approaches to reach the outside world. An article this month in Science magazine described researchers for the Chinese Academy of Sciences relying on express mail or travel to other parts of China to get online.
"My wife and I have had to sit here and endure a frustrating feeling that we are now living in the Stone Ages," one Xinjiang-based blogger, an American named Josh Summers, posted earlier this month. He wrote that ways around the shutdown remained, but he didn't give details.
The government cut the communication links to the province in July in response to July riots and ethnic tensions. The estimated population of 21 million had no access to international phone services, internet or text-messaging for half a year.
This was a classic example of collective punishment, yet there was no hue and cry from the human rights community, no UN investigations, no denunciations of significance, no headlines.
Now imagine the outrage if Israel did the same thing to Gaza . . .
