Long-time readers of the Empire will recall that some years ago we discovered that the site was banned in Vietnam. "I grew up being afraid of Communists," I wrote at the time, "but now it turns out that Communists are afraid of me."

Well, it seems that more Communists are afraid of me than I thought. About a billion more.

An excellent new website, the Great Firewall of China, lets you test to see if a given website is blocked by China's censors. Despite the Google-like steps I took a year ago to placate the Chinese authorities, the teeming masses of the middle kingdom are prevented from looking at pictures of my daughter with a Lego bucket over her head.

What did we do to cause such offense? I always refuse the leaflets the Falun Gong people try to hand me as I get off the subway. Is General Tso angry that I ate all of his chicken? It is because we're Far-Flung Media Imperialists? Can't we work this out?

Attention citizens of China: this photo merely documents the adorable hijinks of a playful two year-old. Please do not consider it a commentary on your government's response to the 2002-2003 SARS crisis.