Absolute Fortification: China’s Internet Censorship
Remember when the Malaysian government banned Sarawak Report for whistleblowing bribery and financial mismanagement linked to Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak? Remember when Beauty and The Beast were almost banned in Malaysia due to the film’s “gay moment”? Has Malaysian censorship gone too far? Take a look at China, Malaysian censorship is relatively lax compared to China’s Great Firewall.
If you study history, you’ll know that China was under the governance of the communist party after years of imperial rule. While most of the world has adopted some sort of democracy as time passes on; China’s core political system remained unreformed although they had adopted commercial openness. What actually gets censored by the Chinese government? Since 2000, China has started a surveillance system guided by a database which is linked to China’s security organisations to access every citizen’s information (WashingtonPost 2018). The Chinese government employs up to 50,000 people to work on cybersecurity, barring content and disapproving websites that contradict to the values of the Chinese government (WashingtonPost 2018). What are the values of the Chinese government? If websites that contain information such as Google Scholar and Facebook are banned, one could argue that China is preventing its citizens to gain knowledge on certain issues. China and North Korea (NK) have deep and friendly ties, they share similar political ideologies. Based on VICE’s documentaries on NK, the NK regime maintains a tight grip on information access to maintain the legitimacy of their propaganda and to uphold the mirage of NK as a utopian state. It is a method for NK’s regime to stay in power. Since China shares political ideologies with NK, there is a possibility that internet censorship links to China’s attempt to hold on to their political influence.
Strength in Numbers
As the Chinese became more and more familiar with the internet, the internet became a medium to sow dissent. It is a concern to the Chinese leadership as it can be used to mobilise protest that could topple the government (Economy 2018). China has a population of 1.3 billion, half of its population is online (WashingtonPost 2018). Besides, history shows that the collapse of imperial governments in ancient China was almost always triggered by peasant uprisings. Therefore, the communist party of China has reason to fear that they might lose control.
Oh bother
Even memes get the axe from China’s Great Firewall. Netizens started comparing President Xi Jinping to Winnie The Pooh due to their similarities in appearance. Thus, the cartoon bear was banned in China as authorities fear bloggers might use the cartoon character as an online euphemism to criticise the government (McDonell 2017). Netizens keen on pollical reform use euphemisms and references to criticise governments and start political discussions. Some even use Virtual Private Networks (VPN) to unblock censored websites (Economy 2018). These tools come in handy with China’s tight surveillance.
Reformation
In order for China tear down their Great Firewall, political reforms need to happen. Based on the current situation in China under President Xi’s rule, I personally do not think political reforms will occur any time soon as he holds too much power and authority. Hopefully, as times goes by, China’s political views will evolve and Chinese netizens can finally enjoy the ‘real version’ of the internet.
Reference
Economy, E. (2018). The great firewall of China: Xi Jinping’s internet shutdown. [online] the Guardian. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jun/29/the-great-firewall-of-china-xi-jinpings-internet-shutdown [Accessed 15 Jun. 2019].
McDonell, S. (2017). Why China censors banned Winnie the Pooh. [online] BBC News. Available at: https://www.bbc.com/news/blogs-china-blog-40627855 [Accessed 15 Jun. 2019].
WashingtonPost. (2018). The Great Firewall of China, The Washington Post. [online] WashingtonPost. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/the-great-firewall-of-china/2018/11/05/5dc0f85a-e16d-11e8-ba30-a7ded04d8fac_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.4f482415d154 [Accessed 15 Jun. 2019].
