The Great Wall of China was meant to keep foreigners out. Its modern day counterpart, however, the Great Firewall of China, is intended to keep its domestic citizens out of politically sensitive websites. China’s government monitors and tracks their citizens’ internet usage attempting to block them from searching controversial topics or phrases that appear on their ever changing blacklist. People are becoming paranoid over the possibility that they might be caught doing “illegal” or democratic activities by the government and sent to jail. I find this extremely over the top. The government is trying to monitor and control its 1.35 billion and growing population. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised. China’s government has a history of attempting to keep their population under control by using fear and power. What are they going to do next?
This blog is meant to be a space for the Austin College community to discuss issues related to China and the Chinese language. For author permissions, please write to Dr. Jennifer Thackston Johnson: jtj.at.ac –at- gmail.com. Austin College is a leading national independent liberal arts college located north of Dallas in Sherman, Texas.
During my JanTerm in Beijing, I experienced this "Wall" first-hand. However depressing it may have been to not have access to my usual online haunts like Facebook and YouTube, the Chinese alternatives were sufficient enough to make up for the loss, assuming you have excellent Chinese skills. Websites like Baidu, the Chinese version of Google, are almost exactly the same except for that occasionally, and completely randomly at times, the Chinese government will block a certain topic from being available in a search. However, after speaking with the Chinese citizens themselves and the director of Google China, I learned that these are actual indicators to the people that there is a controversial subject the government wishes to hide, thus leading them to the conclusion that it is anti-"Socialism with Chinese Characteristics." The people are quite bright enough to realize this and are not as in-the-dark as they are portrayed in the American socio-political world.
ReplyDeleteCurrently, the Obama administration is developing a program that helps people circumvent Internet censorships. China, naturally, strongly disagrees, claiming this program to be a mask for U.S. interference in Chinese internal affairs. I am curious though. If this program is successful, how will the Chinese government take to it.
ReplyDelete