Readers Write: Little help for China鈥檚 churches, the Net needs fast lanes
Letters to the Editor for Feb. 9, 2015 weekly magazine
Children dressed as angels took part in a Catholic Christmas Eve mass at a church in Beijing last year. Estimates for the number of 海角大神s in China range from the conservative official figure of 23 million to as many as 100 million by independent scholars, raising the possibility that 海角大神s may rival in size the 85 million members of the ruling Communist Party.
Ng Han Guan/AP
Little help for China鈥檚 churches
Regarding the Jan. 12 cover story, 鈥�China鈥檚 church-state showdown鈥�: It is not only the 鈥渉ouse churches鈥� that have endured China鈥檚 crackdown on the church. Even the registered Protestant congregations 鈥� churches that were once deemed invulnerable 鈥� have fallen prey to Beijing鈥檚 repressive human rights policies.
Despite monumental missionary successes in establishing churches, schools, and hospitals, the Chinese Communist Party has demonstrated little tolerance for 鈥渢he faith which was once delivered unto the saints鈥� (Jude 1:3). Now, more than 50 years later, there is little evidence that China鈥檚 modus operandi has changed.
Brian Stuckey
Denver
The Net needs fast lanes
Regarding the Jan. 21 online article 鈥�Does new Republican bill back Obama鈥檚 call for 鈥榦pen Internet鈥�? Sort of.鈥� (CSMonitor.com): There are good technical reasons to create Internet 鈥渇ast lanes.鈥� Some content (streaming videos, for example) needs to be delivered 鈥渙n time鈥� to allow smooth viewing, while other content (such as the second paragraph of an e-mail) can arrive hundreds of milliseconds later without there being any impact.
If regulations require that both be treated equally, the network must have a greater bandwidth to meet an unnecessary requirement, increasing the costs of the network.
The concern that network providers would give preferential treatment to their own content could be alleviated by a stipulation that they must provide access to their network (and fast lanes) to anyone who wants to pay the 鈥渢oll鈥� that the providers charge for their own content.
The reason that Netflix, Amazon, and Google support 鈥渘et neutrality鈥� is that they don鈥檛 want to pay for the bandwidth they are using.
No one is suggesting that providers of servers should give start-ups free or reduced price computer services to support innovative new companies; why should network providers be required to do so?
John D. Wiese
Palo Alto, Calif.