China's Firewall; A.K.A Censorship wall

avatar

China's Firewall

The extent of internet censorship varies by the regime. Take China, for example, the famous Great Firewall is the Chinese government's attempt to restrict the populations ability to organize and protest as well as suppress the spread of anti-government ideas.

The Chinese people can't access Google, Facebook, Twitter or YouTube at least not easily (a VPN solve that) and apart from that fact their own alternative social media platforms are all heavily patrolled by the government. In the past, the Chinese leadership was hesitant to acknowledge the extent of their censorship but more recently they've begun to proudly show off their idea of internet sovereignty and tightening their grip on the web behind the Great Firewall

To the surprise of many in the West, this has not caused much public outcry among the Chinese population, in addition, Chinese business is booming almost 25% of the world's Internet accessing population lives behind the Great Firewall, and yet China is the world leader in e-commerce accounting for 40% of the global total. To many in the West the Great Firewall seems like an incredibly oppressive and heavy-handed approach to keeping the peace but, the Chinese government sees the matter in a different light as a means to allow for an economy connected to and competitive with the outside world, while maintaining a political culture closed off from Western ideas that might undermine the strength of the Communist Party.

China’s former internet Tsar Liu Wei said:

This path is the choice of history and we walk the path ever more firmly and full of confidence.

He goes on to say:

China has struck the right balance between freedom and order and between openness and autonomy



0
0
0.000
0 comments