China opened its doors to the world for the Olympics in 2008 – another sign that the once-isolated nation is in flower, culturally and economically, as it becomes a player in world sports and business competition.
But China’s leaders want to restrain that freedom with a heavy dose of control, through Internet censorship and programs that block access to the outside world. Internet censorship is a sign that the old totalitarian government is trying to control a new information source that is not so easily contained by a central information ministry.
China’s government exerts control but offers the illusion of freedom by allowing only a small amount of negative information about the government onto the Chinese Internet. And China allows pro-China and anti-Western thought to flourish unchecked, according to journalism professor Rebecca MacKinnon in a January, 2008 “Public Choice” article entitled “Flatter world and thicker walls? Blogs, censorship and civic discourse in China”:
“It is easy to access information showing the Chinese government in a
positive light, or at least being responsive to certain problems the regime admits to having.
Information criticizing or complaining about the status quo does exist online, but it is kept at the level of specific complaints, localized gripes and oblique jokes. Only tech savvy users who know in advance what exists and what they are looking for will access pages about Chinese authorities’ human rights abuses, or information relating to the Taiwan secession movement.
On the other hand, information about Japanese atrocities, alleged US “secret
prisons” and abuses at Abu Ghraib, and belligerent vitriol supporting attacks on Taiwan if it declares independence, are all easily found in Chinese cyberspace.
Thanks in part to this filtered view of the world, nationalism and xenophobia have found fertile breeding ground on the Chinese Internet, while a pro-democracy movement has been prevented from growing there (MacKinnon 2005a). This situation is reinforced by recent survey results—surprising to many Westerners—showing that most urban Chinese Internet users actually trust domestic sources of news and information more than they trust the information found on foreign news websites (Guo et al. 2005, pp. 66–67).”
If allowed to succeed, China’s government could keep its people from realizing their true intellectual and economic potential in relation to the rest of the world. This will continue to endanger the world if a massive national population remains under the control of a few, while the world’s population is learning endless varieties of free thought through the Internet’s limitless space for creative connection and innovation.
As China obtains more sophisticated weapons systems, the world can ill afford to have a rogue nation of people without access to the facts and tools for debate about the consequences of international antagonism and aggression.
In addition, China’s economic health sits in delicate balance with that of the United States, trading goods and money at record rates. If individual Americans and Chinese citizens find it difficult to communicate through the Internet, that becomes another unnecessary block toward progress in business and cultural relations between the countries.
Five biggest fears about Internet censorship in China:
– The Chinese population will become belligerent toward the United States and the West, even as it reaps huge benefits from international trade and capitalism. Our economies are too closely linked to tolerate a largely ignorant or anti-American population.
– China’s people will not benefit fully from the ideas and perspectives on the Internet, and, may therefore become a burden to the rest of the world. We can already see how the nation’s rampant growth has used fossil fuels and belched pollution, and one can only wonder how much information about the consequences is reaching the Chinese public.
– Human rights abuses may go on unchecked in such a vast country with a history of repression through violence an imprisonment. When the Internet can bring down such a powerful U.S. politician as Trent Lott because of imprudent remarks about a racist colleague, what power could such a medium have in a country whose centrally controlled media are restrained by government?
– A nation whose people are not capable of widespread independent communication and thinking is vulnerable to anything its leaders might ask. That could include military support of such lethal regimes as North Korea and sale of weapons up to and including nuclear bombs to nations that could ultimately be brokers for terrorists.
– China’s enormous intellectual, natural and human resources could be lost as essential tools in helping to solve world problems if the nation is not fully opened to the free flow of international ideas through the World Wide Web.
– A bonus sixth fear: What’s to stop already emboldened national security officials in the United States from watching China and picking up subtle ways to monitor and limit certain Internet uses here that a back room committee deems improper?
Written by accomplished television journalist and journalism professor Rebecca MacKinnon, RConversation comes to the reader from Hong Kong, where MacKinnon is a professor at the University of Hong Kong’s Journalism and Media Studies Centre. She also is leading Creative Commons Hong Kong on the Internet and is strongly interested in the mainland’s censorship issues as well as news and current events. Her blog is a strongly written and designed source of news about China and Chinese media, including the Internet, that seems carefully crafted and frequently updated.
Published by Henry Liu, a Chinese citizen living in the West, to open Chinese problems to the world, this blog aggregates various news reports from such sources as Reporters Without Borders, major news organizations and independent investigators. In addition to reports about general everyday life in China, the site emphasizes censorship and monitoring of the Internet and Internet users. This article shows how the nation finds excuses to crack down on Internet cafes.
Sinobyte – CNET’s blog about technology’s impact on China
Sinobyte, a product of mainstream computer publication CNET, offers excellent coverage of Internet censorship in China, although it is not updated frequently. The items available include stories about personal experiences with Chinese intervention with individual computer use to coverage of censorship on such sites as iTunes and GoDaddy.
Supported by the Graduate School of Journalism at University of California, Berkley, China Digital Times offers perhaps the most wide-ranging and lively aggregation of stories and commentary, video and written, about censorship, media and online stories making the headlines in China.
The blog contains some original video, such as this interview with Hong Kong University journalism professor Ying Chan on her book about censorship. The reader feels that this site won’t miss an important story that’s happening on the digital front in China.
CNN.com China and Internet Censorship
A simple and cleanly laid out CNN multimedia presentation that gives an excellent explanation of the issues involved with China’s censorship of the Internet. In simple terms it shows the elaborate censorship methods and the tenacious means people are using to circumvent those methods.
“Race to the Bottom”
Corporate Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship
This is a highly detailed and useful report from Human Rights Watch on ways that major corporations assist the Chinese government in the world’s most elaborate system of Internet censorship. Whether by rule of law or lure of money, these companies have found reasons to become a part of a problem rather than a solution.
This quote is but a fraction of the extensive useful information found that includes technical and ethical aspects of the situation:
“In fact, China’s system of Internet censorship and surveillance is the most advanced in the world. While tens of thousands of people are employed by the Chinese government and security organs to implement a system of political censorship, this system is also aided by extensive corporate and private sector cooperation—including by some of the world’s major international technology and Internet companies. In China, the active role of censor has been extended from government offices into private companies.”
Recommendations for solutions:
– The online community and international trade ministers must put pressure on companies like Google, which allow China to censor elements of their search engines. If Google and its colleagues don’t take a stand against censorship, very few other organizations will be strong enough. And that will keep the Chinese from knowing more about the free world.
– Governments and international-relations groups should continue to enlist the West’s smartest hackers to invent workaround solutions for China’s Internet users. Just as Radio Free Europe opened the airwaves behind the Iron Curtain a generation ago, modern efforts through software programs and third-party servers must be seen as an electronic Berlin Airlift of sorts to open channels of unfettered Web access. Individuals, likewise, can and should seek out access to those servers and software to make their own inroads.
– Invite Chinese leaders to a summit involving India, Japan, the United States and heavily wired European countries to show best practices and best results from open and free-flowing Internet use. And offer incentives through trade programs in exchange for China’s cooperation.
November 6, 2008 at 7:55 pm
Dick,
This is a great ongoing event to highlight in your blog. It’s important to raise awareness of issues like this because they highlight fundamental policy (and moral?) differences across ethno-geographic boundaries.
It is a very common thought in many countries, religions, and cultures that if an individual is given the opportunity to learn about some unfavorable piece of information, s/he will believe it. In very rare circumstances does this ever hold true; most of the time, information simply serves to give the individual a broader perspective. Personally, I can’t ever imagine not being able to have the chance to learn about something, although I’m sure a certain amount of censorship exists in the US (but it’s probably information so outrageous, the lack thereof does not affect my life at all).
It is noble of you to want the people of China to have a more lenient access to knowledge. I don’t feel like the US will be able to have a say in the resolution of this issue, but we can at least hope to help in the understanding that Internet content is heavily censored and to what extent.
The Google issue is a hard one to approach, given that it is a corporation (not affiliated with the government). Though housed in the US, should it be required to uphold the moral ideals of its country? Tying into your opening sentence about the Olympics, I do remember a significant amount of talk (possible boycott?) about having the Olympics in Beijing, when the struggles in Tibet were still current and ongoing. As you know, the US ended up participating. Should we expect more out of major Internet moguls to not participate in the censorship of its content in non-US countries?
I would be interested to see some numbers (statistics) in your research, or some details surrounding how China censors web content. What kind of filters do they use? Is there any type of content that is blocked entirely? What percentage of “bad” content is allowed in?
I would also like to understand how China compares with other countries in terms of censorship. What sort of governmental censorship goes on in the US? What is the range of strictness of censorship among countries? Do you have any examples of how Internet censorship in China has affected economic relationships with the US? Any of these ‘real life’ stories would surely personalize the effect of Internet censorship to readers.
Great work, Dick!
Kennedy
November 7, 2008 at 4:22 am
These are serious concerns. It is not a stretch to believe that censorship in China could have far-reaching effects in the United States and in many other countries. The specter of the censorships’ potential military, economic and social repercussions are very disturbing.
As many were, I was so dazzled by the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics in September. It was such a spectacular display of all that is great about China – its history, arts, technical prowess, and the discipline and sheer numbers of people. As the Chinese will soon dominate the Internet by the force of their large population, what repercussions might there be to thought control of all those people? This power ill used is a threat to the free world.
Your three pronged approach to fighting censorship in China might work. Companies with leverage on the Internet should use it; the world’s best hackers should be set to work on breaking through; and diplomacy must be used to convince China’s leaders of the benefits of allowing all opinions to flow freely. China only recently came to believe in the power of free commerce, maybe they will come around to the benefits of the free commerce of ideas as well.
These are all good suggestions, but what can we as individuals do to discourage the policy of Internet censorship in China?
I feel that I need to be more vocal. We can’t take the benefits of free speech for granted. There are a lot of people out there that think that the profusion of information on the Internet is a bad thing. Certainly, we don’t welcome child abusers and criminals into our homes through the Internet, but we do need to promote an Internet that is free from government censorship. The filtering of information should be the inalienable right of the citizen. Only through the free exchange of information can we protect ourselves.
We are all citizens of a global economy. Our infrastructures (electrical systems, water systems, communication systems) are becoming global as well.
The article on organ harvesting in China on the Status of the People of China Web site is an example of how interconnected we are. Medical tourism is on the rise, with many Americans going to other countries for medical care that has gotten out of reach here. Without reading this article, we could unknowingly encourage the harvesting of organs from political prisoners in China. If you buy a kidney transplant in China, you could be sentencing several people to death so the government can subsidize cuts to its medical care system. According to this report, the military reaps the profits from organ harvesting so that it can make more bombs. On whom will these bombs be eventually dropped? They could be dropped on us if the Chinese population grows increasingly hostile to America. That’s the true cost of cheaper organ transplants in China.
Your report was a big eye opener, Dick. Thank you!
November 7, 2008 at 7:40 pm
I’ve just gone though your piece and links and I say well done. Internet censorship and filtering is a troubling practice. In many ways the PRC recognizes a need to protect it’s interests and culture using methods unthinkable to us. For many years, U.S. groups have been seeking to impose some form of regulation on the internet to limit the content that is accessible to some groups. For example, should pornographic content be readily available to internet browsers the way the news is accessible? Not in my household, but what about at the public library or at schools?
See the Children’s Internet Protection Act:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children’s_Internet_Protection_Act
Internet freedom and open use of the internet has many champions, but even in western countries, including the U.S., there are serious calls and laws for efforts to limit access to indecent content in of all places- Australia.
http://www.theage.com.au/news/technology/biztech/net-filters-may-block-porn-and-gambling-sites/2008/10/27/1224955916155.html