No TV for you!

I turned on my TV this evening to find the following message, see photo. If you cannot read the photo, it says:

"According to an announcement of the State Council of the People's Republic of China, May 19th - May 21st 2008 are national mourning days. In order to express our heartfelt condolences for the victims of the disasterous earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan Province, we will suspend the relay of overseas channels with limited landing rights that contain entertainment programmes during the above period. Thank you for your understanding and cooperation."

I asked our front desk attendant what this meant, and she said it includes ESPN, HBO, CNN, DISCOVERY, CINEMAX, & STAR.

A few thoughts running through my head right now:

1) Why are the only American channels suspended? Put another way, why are all the Chinese entertainment channels still airing? Seems to me, days of mourning should show equal opportunity to ALL tv, not just tv from the USA.

2) Would you ever see this happening in the US? I don't think so...

3) Its a very nice gesture, just kind of random. Nothing else has stopped... movie theaters open, bars open, entertainment around the city still happening, just international channels are blacked out. Kinda strange.