Elizabeth C. Economy, The Guardian: The great firewall of China: Xi Jinping’s internet shutdown
Before Xi Jinping, the internet was becoming a more vibrant political space for Chinese citizens. But today the country has the largest and most sophisticated online censorship operation in the world.
In December 2015, thousands of tech entrepreneurs and analysts, along with a few international heads of state, gathered in Wuzhen, in southern China, for the country’s second World Internet Conference. At the opening ceremony the Chinese president, Xi Jinping, set out his vision for the future of China’s internet. “We should respect the right of individual countries to independently choose their own path of cyber-development,” said Xi, warning against foreign interference “in other countries’ internal affairs”.
No one was surprised by what they heard. Xi had already established that the Chinese internet would be a world unto itself, with its content closely monitored and managed by the Communist party. In recent years, the Chinese leadership has devoted more and more resources to controlling content online. Government policies have contributed to a dramatic fall in the number of postings on the Chinese blogging platform Sina Weibo (similar to Twitter), and have silenced many of China’s most important voices advocating reform and opening up the internet.
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WNU Editor: I always find it amazing how certain regimes around the world are truly petrified of outside information coming into their own country. That they are this fragile that they sincerely believe it is in their vital interests to either block and/or limit internet access to their citizens. North Korea, Syria, Cuba, Venezuela, Iran, Vietnam, and China are the worst cases that come to mind, but other counries are stepping up their control of the web (Russia being on the top of my list). I exepct this trend of greated government control over the internet to continue, even in Western countries.
Update The website Comparitech can inform you if a site is blocked in China (link is here).
