I. Introduction
Censorship has been used to extremes ever since the communist party took over China in 1945; it has even been used in movies, books, school text books, and the most well known and biggest problem, the Internet. The internet has been so censored that it’s difficult to tell what is fact and what is just Chinese propaganda. China should be confident enough to be transparent and take the criticism of the Chinese population(Crossick, Stanley. "Stanley's Blog." [Weblog Battle over Chinese Internet censorship] 27/08/2009. Blogactice.eu. Web.1 Sep 2009.). Not only does censorship affect China's population educationally and economically, it affects its image throughout the rest of the world. Everyone is asking the same questions, what is China hiding? Could censorship be abolished letting and would people speak against the government creating China’s worst nightmare?
II. Background
The Chinese government has been invading the lives of the Chinese in this day and age not by running into their homes and burning all their books like they did during Mao’s 100 blooming flowers campaign, but by recording everything on the internet even in Internet cafes, all chats, online games and e-mails are recorded by the government, making it impossible to fly under the radar or send any truly private messages. (Wilkins, Britney. "Education Nation." [Weblog 25 shocking facts about Chinese Censorship] 05/July/2009. Online College. Web.26 Aug 2009.) The Chinese government also bans books from libraries alters Chinese text books in Chinas favor and removes Western and Asian movies from theaters in China. The Chinese government only allows 20 imported films to be shown in China a year. This has been happening all across the country making it extremely difficult to separate fact from fiction for visitors, expats, businessmen, and natives to China(French. Howard W. "Chinese begin to protest censorship of Internet," The New York Times 04/02/2008. Web.30 Aug 2009.). China’s original plan for internet censorship was much different, it was much more rigid and limiting to the public this plan was called The Golden Shield which began in 1998, many critics call The Golden Shield the Great Firewall. (Wilkins Britney, 1) The Great Firewall is sustained by two major aspects; people hired by the government to monitor people who might of blog about the Chinese government and said something offensive, and a special kind of spyware known as The Internet Detective that monitors each and every keystroke that is made on your computer. As you might have noticed Chinese censorship can be very invasive and have some serious social influences.
III. Description
Chinese Censorship has been a problem for everyone using a computer reading a book or even in Chinese classrooms. Education in China seems to be fairly limited with all the rules and restrictions set by the Chinese on surfing and the gathering of information, in text books and on the internet. Web searches blocked off by the 30,000 internet police hired by the Chinese government (Wilkins Britney, 1)cripples Chinese students from getting the information needed for them to be properly educated. If they try and turn away from the internet and use books for facts and figures the chances of the student getting what they are looking for without graphs being manipulated and words screwed to make the government look like saints for example anything mentioned about Tibet against China in any form of documentation is censored. Censorship in China does not only affect its youth it also affects its government, because of censorship issues businesses have been more and more reluctant to step into China to do business hurting the Chinese economy. Companies such as Yahoo, Microsoft, Twitter, and Facebook are just some of the millions of websites that have been blocked by The Great Firewall resulting in a less prosperous government then it could potentially have. Censorship affects China economically and educationally but most importantly of all it affects its image to the rest of the world. China is a world power you wouldn’t think that they would censor things like the Tiananmen Square incident and a spiritual group called the Fulan Gong; governments around the world see through this Chinese filter and laugh as the government tries to hide events that they say didn’t happen.
IV. Analysis
People try to think that the general population of the world at least gets the human right of freedom of speech but the story is very different in China. Devastating businesses and the people of China the most, only to benefit the Governments grasp over its population. The Businesses that want a stake in the giant Chinese economy are being thrown out because the government sensors consider them a threat to the Public Peace. Companies such as iTunes have been blocked multiple times by The Great Firewall greatly decreasing Apple’s total revenue by outstanding amounts. "Egypt, Iran and China are the most dangerous places to blog about political life, accounting for more than half of all arrests since blogging became big." (James, Randy. "World." [Weblog Chinese Internet Censorship] 18/03/2009. TIME CNN. Web.30 Aug 2009) Bloggers and internet surfers are routinely rounded up and thrown in jail for something that they wrote or even looked up on the internet. This is a definite violation of general Human Rights.
V. Solution
Little has been done to oppose The Great Firewall because anyone who tries to go against the government’s censorship plan is blocked off and then dealt with. One man Ai Weiwei has chosen to go against censorship by raising awareness by blogging about The Great Firewall and its repercussions, he also promoted that Chinese people should gather together against censorship and demonstrate the power of the people by creating a day of internet silence where everyone in China would drop their mice and keyboards and stay off the internet. (O'Dell, Jolie. "Read Write Web." [Weblog Chinese Internet Strike Proposed to Protest Censorship Software] 23/June/2009. Read Write Web. Web.30 Aug 2009.) This little step could lead to bigger things such as an internet boycott, creating serious problems for the Chinese economy. Some of the Problems with a boycott are that everyone might not agree to boycott the internet and you would have to gain some serious support, people also might lose jobs and students would have a harder time gaining knowledge without the internet. A better solution would be to approach the Chinese government directly with a full force of protests creating the Chinese government’s greatest fear, the freedom of assembly and speech.
VI. Conclusion
The Government has gone too far and their grasp over the internet should be broken. Because of limited awareness on this topic little has been done to control the government’s censorship addiction. The less that is done the harder it will be to navigate your way through information. The longer China waits to fix the problem there will be an increase in dramatic social changes in the economy, the Chinese educational system, and the world’s image of china.















Non-Print:
Crossick, Stanley. "Stanley's Blog." [Weblog Battle over Chinese Internet censorship] 27/08/2009. Blogactice.eu. Web.1 Sep 2009. <http://crossick.blogactiv.eu/2009/08/27/battle-over-chinese-internet-censorship/>.
Collins, Dan. "CBSNEWStech." [Weblog China's Internet Censorship] 03/12/2002. CBS News. Web.30 Aug 2009. <http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/12/03/tech/main531567.shtml>.
French. Howard W. "Chinese begin to protest censorship of Internet," The New York Times 04/02/2008. Web.30 Aug 2009. <http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/04/world/asia/04iht-wall.1.9716090.html>.
James, Randy. "World." [Weblog Chinese Internet Censorship] 18/03/2009. TIME CNN. Web.30 Aug 2009. <http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1885961,00.html>.
Marsan, Carolyn. "Security." Message: Chinese Internet censorship: An inside look] 05/12/2008 . NETWORKWORLD. Web.30 Aug 2009. <http://www.networkworld.com/news/2008/051208-china-internet.html>.
O'Dell, Jolie. "Read Write Web." [Weblog Chinese Internet Strike Proposed to Protest Censorship Software] 23/June/2009. Read Write Web. Web.30 Aug 2009. <http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/chinese_internet_strike_proposed_to_protest_censor.php>.
Press, Associated. "WIRED BLOGS." [Weblog Google Bows to Chinese Censorship] 25/09/2004. WIRED. Web.1 Sep 2009. <http://www.wired.com/politics/law/news/2004/09/65089>.
Wilkins, Britney. "Education Nation." [Weblog 25 shocking facts about Chinese Censorship] 05/July/2009. Online College. Web.26 Aug 2009. <http://www.onlinecollege.org/2009/07/05/25-shocking-facts-about-chinese-censorship/>.
Own experience:
http://chinachannel.hk/