Internet Censorship in China and Its Impact

China's internet censorship is a complex and multifaceted issue.

The Great Firewall of China, a system developed by the Chinese government, blocks access to websites and online content deemed sensitive or subversive. This includes social media platforms, news outlets, and human rights organizations.

China's internet censorship is not limited to blocking websites. The government also requires internet service providers to store user data, making it easier to monitor and suppress online activity. This has led to a culture of self-censorship among Chinese citizens.

The impact of internet censorship in China is far-reaching, affecting not only individual freedom but also the country's economic and social development.

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The legislative basis for internet censorship in China is rooted in the country's laws and regulations. The government claims that its right to censor the internet is based on its sovereignty within its borders.

The Temporary Regulation for the Management of Computer Information Network International Connection was passed in 1996, requiring internet service providers to be licensed and for internet traffic to go through specific networks. This regulation was updated in 1997.

The Ordinance for Security Protection of Computer Information Systems, issued in 1994, gave the Ministry of Public Security responsibility for internet security protection. This led to the Security Management Procedures in Internet Accessing issued by the Ministry in 1997, which defined "harmful information" and "harmful activities" regarding internet usage.

Article 5 of the Computer Information Network and Internet Security, Protection, and Management Regulations prohibits the creation, replication, retrieval, or transmission of certain types of information, including content that incites resistance to the Constitution or laws.

The Provisions on the Governance of the Online Information Content Ecosystem, promulgated in 2019, requires online content creators to not produce, copy, or publish content that opposes the basic principles established by the Constitution or endangers national security.

The Cybersecurity Law of the People's Republic of China, promulgated in 2017, requires network operators to store data locally and hand over information when requested by state security organs. Article 12 of the law states that persons using networks shall not "overturn the socialist system, incite separatism" or "break national unity".

Here is a list of some key regulations and laws related to internet censorship in China:

These regulations and laws collectively form the legislative basis for internet censorship in China, shaping the country's online environment and governing the activities of internet users.

China's censorship mechanisms are quite extensive. The Provisions on the Governance of the Online Information Content Ecosystem, promulgated in December 2019, require content creators to avoid producing content that opposes the Chinese Constitution or endangers national security.

Content platforms are also required to prevent and resist certain types of content, including using exaggerated titles, hype up gossip, and content that may cause physical or mental discomfort.

Some examples of prohibited content include spreading obscenity, pornography, or inciting crime, as well as insulting or defaming others.

The government takes the regulations seriously, and enforcement is a crucial aspect of censorship in China.

As of 2021, the Computer Information Network and Internet Security, Protection, and Management Regulations are still active and govern the activities of Internet users online.

Violating these regulations can lead to severe consequences, including fines and confiscation of illegal incomes.

Those who violate stipulations in articles 6, 8, and 10 of the Interim Regulations of the PRC on the Management of International Networking of Computer Information may be imposed a fine below 15,000 yuan.

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Users who connect to international networks or use VPNs without prior approval or license from authorities can be prosecuted and fined.

In 1996, the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (now superseded by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology or MIIT) was the authority responsible for issuing licenses for international networking.

Public security departments are responsible for ordering individuals or units to stop networking and issuing warnings or fines if necessary.

China has strict limits on content, with a long history of censorship. The Provisions on the Governance of the Online Information Content Ecosystem, promulgated by the Cyberspace Administration of China in 2019, requires online content creators to avoid producing or publishing certain types of content, including anything that opposes the basic principles established by the Constitution.

Online content creators are also prohibited from spreading rumors that disrupt economic and social order, or from spreading obscenity, pornography, or other forms of explicit content. This includes anything that may easily cause people to have sexual associations or that may cause minors to imitate unsafe behaviors.

The Computer Information Network and Internet Security, Protection, and Management Regulations, approved by the State Council in 1997, also restricts Internet usage by defining "harmful information" and "harmful activities". This includes making falsehoods or distorting the truth, spreading rumors, and destroying the order of society.

China's censorship targets a wide range of content, including websites centered on political topics such as Falun Gong, police brutality, and the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre. Testing performed by Freedom House in 2011 confirmed that material written by or about activist bloggers is removed from the Chinese Internet in a practice known as "cyber-disappearance".

Here are some examples of content that is often censored in China:

China's Great Firewall of China has also impacted the VPN service providers, making it difficult for users to access blocked websites. Despite this, some websites, such as OnlyFans, have become available in mainland China in recent years.

Using Tor and DPI-resistant tools can help users bypass the Great Firewall of China. Many users forward their VPN traffic through port 443 to disguise it, but this method is futile against advanced inspection.

Obfsproxy and other pluggable transports do allow users to evade deep-packet inspection. The Tor project also maintains a list of website mirrors in case the main Tor website is blocked.

Tor maintains bridges which are non-public relays to help censored users reach the Tor network. The Great Firewall scrapes nearly all the bridge IPs distributed through bridges.torproject.org and email, but this can be circumvented by using packet fragmentation or the Tor obfsproxy bundle.

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Service providers in China have become an integral part of the country's censorship efforts. They employ internal staff, known as "big mamas", to monitor and remove politically sensitive comments from online forums.

These staff members work closely with the government to ensure that no sensitive information slips through the cracks. In some cases, they even remove comments before they're posted online.

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In Shenzhen, police-created cartoon characters named Jingjing and Chacha help extend the online "police presence" of the authorities. These cartoons spread across the nation in 2007, reminding Internet users that they're being watched.

Internet content providers have adopted counter-strategies to evade censorship. One approach is to post sensitive stories and remove them only when the government complains.

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The Golden Shield Project was initiated by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) of China in 1998, with the goal of creating a communication network and computer information system for police to improve their efficiency.

By 2002, the preliminary work had cost around $800 million, which is equivalent to €640 million. The project aimed to establish a "gigantic online database" that would include speech and face recognition, closed-circuit television, and credit records, as well as traditional Internet use records.

The Golden Shield Project was completed in 2006, with the first part passing a national inspection in Beijing on November 16th of that year.

SSL protocols are being used to evade censorship, but they're not foolproof.

In March 2020, China started blocking websites using TLS (Transport Layer Security 1.3) and ESNI (Encrypted Server Name Indicator) for SSL certificates.

This was a response to the increased difficulty in identifying websites based on their server names, which made selective censorship harder.

The Chinese government had already been blocking Chinese Wikipedia since May 2015, after it started using HTTPS encryption.

The promotion of anti-western sentiment was also a result of this censorship, as seen in the praise given to blogger Zhou Xiaoping by Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping in 2014.

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Using Tor and DPI-resistant tools can be an effective way to bypass censorship, but it's not foolproof. Many VPNs have been blocked using deep packet inspection, so it's essential to use alternative methods.

Forwarding VPN traffic through port 443 can help disguise it, but this method is futile against advanced inspection. Obfsproxy and other pluggable transports do allow users to evade deep-packet inspection.

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The Tor anonymity network was subject to partial blocking by China's Great Firewall, but it's still possible to download the Tor Browser Bundle over HTTPS. The Tor project maintains a list of website mirrors in case the main Tor website is blocked.

Almost all of the public entry relays in the Tor network are blocked, but there are non-public bridges that can help censored users reach the Tor network. The Great Firewall scrapes nearly all the bridge IPs distributed through bridges.torproject.org and email.

Using packet fragmentation or the Tor obfsproxy bundle in combination with private obfsproxy bridges can circumvent this blocking technique. Tor Obfs4 bridges still work in China as long as the IPs are discovered through social networks or self-published bridges.

Today, Tor primarily functions in China using Snowflake and meeks, which works via front-end proxies hosted on Content Delivery Networks (CDNs) to obfuscate the information coming to and from the source and destination.

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Search engines have become a primary target for censorship in China.

The Great Firewall filters search results of certain terms on Chinese search engines like Sogou, 360 Search, and Baidu, yielding few or no results for censored keywords.

Attempting to search for censored terms can lead to a connection being closed by The Great Firewall, and this can affect all network connections, including HTTP and POP.

In 2019, censors doubled down during the 30th anniversary of the protests, and by this time, had largely automated the process of rejecting protest-related posts with AI.

In May and June 2023, authorities censored Tiananmen protest-related posts and restricted communications of Tiananmen victims' families.

Internet censorship in China can be frustrating, but there are ways to bypass it. One common method is to use a proxy server outside the firewall, which can be done using a mobile Opera Mini browser or other proxy-based approaches.

Using a VPN service is another effective way to evade censorship. However, the Chinese government has been cracking down on VPNs, and many popular services have been blocked. In 2017, Apple removed all VPN apps from its app stores in China, and in 2023, the government required all mobile internet users to obtain pre-approval from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology before accessing VPNs.

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Some internet users in China have found more technical ways to get around the Great Firewall, including using steganography. This involves embedding useful data in seemingly irrelevant pictures, which can be extracted with the right software.

Blogs hosted on services like Blogger and Wordpress.com are frequently blocked, but some China-focused services offer to change a blog's IP address within 30 minutes if it's blocked by the authorities. This can be a useful workaround, but it's not foolproof.

Internet users in China have also been using analogies to discuss sensitive topics and avoid keyword filters. For example, censors are referred to as "river crabs" because the phrase forms a homophone for "harmony" in Chinese.

Here are some common evasion methods used by internet users in China:

Chinese social media is heavily censored, with the government hiring censors to manually review individual posts and remove those that violate policy.

Posts that contain sensitive topics, such as ethnic conflict, political scandals, and protests, are often auto-blocked based on keyword filters.

In the second half of 2009, Facebook and Twitter were blocked in China, presumably due to containing social or political commentary.

The government has emphasized the danger of spreading "false rumors" since the 2011 Wenzhou train collision, making the permissive usage of Weibo and social networks a public debate.

A study of 56 million messages sent on Sina Weibo from June through September 2011 found that censors quickly deleted words with politically controversial meanings, such as "asking someone to resign" referring to calls for Railway Minister Sheng Guangzu to resign.

The rate of message deletion was regionally anomalous, with censorship rates of 53% in Tibet and 52% in Qinghai, compared to 12% in Beijing and 11.4% in Shanghai.

WeChat, the dominant social media and messaging app in China, has also been subject to state rules, with individual posts removed and "restricted words" blocked globally.

A crackdown in March 2014 deleted dozens of WeChat accounts, some of which were independent news channels with hundreds of thousands of followers.

Foreign content providers like Yahoo!, AOL, and Microsoft Teams must abide by Chinese government wishes to operate within mainland China, including having internal content monitors.

Microsoft began to censor the content of its blog service Windows Live Spaces in mainland China, arguing that continuing to provide Internet services is more beneficial to the Chinese.

Chinese journalist Michael Anti's blog on Windows Live Spaces was censored by Microsoft, highlighting the compromises made in the name of online freedom.

The Chinese version of Myspace, launched in April 2007, has many censorship-related differences from other international versions, including missing discussion forums on sensitive topics and a filtering system to prevent posting of politically sensitive content.

Users are also given the ability to report the "misconduct" of other users for offenses including endangering national security or spreading rumors.

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Foreign content providers like Yahoo!, AOL, and Microsoft Teams must abide by Chinese government wishes to operate within mainland China, including having internal content monitors.

These companies must also censor their content to comply with mainland Chinese laws, as seen with Microsoft's decision to censor its blog service Windows Live Spaces.

In 2006, Chinese journalist Michael Anti's blog on Windows Live Spaces was censored by Microsoft, highlighting the compromises that companies must make to operate in China.

Many bloggers felt that Anti's censorship was a necessary sacrifice to allow the majority of Chinese to have an online space to express themselves.

The Chinese version of Myspace, launched in April 2007, has many censorship-related differences from other international versions of the service, including the absence of discussion forums on sensitive topics.

Users are also given the ability to report "misconduct" by other users, including offenses like "endangering national security" or "spreading rumors".

China's Internet censorship may also be a means of forcing mainland Chinese users to rely on China's e-commerce industry, thus self-insulating their economy from international corporations.

In 2005, an alliance of investors and researchers representing 26 companies urged businesses to protect freedom of expression and pledged to monitor technology companies that do business in countries violating human rights, like China.

The UN, OSCE, and OAS special mandates on freedom of expression called on Internet corporations to resist official attempts to control or restrict the use of the Internet in 2005.

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China's economic impact from internet censorship is a complex issue with both positive and negative effects. Local businesses like Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba have benefited from the lack of international competition, fostering domestic growth.

These companies have become some of the world's largest internet enterprises, leveraging China's blocked market to their advantage. Their success has contributed to China's economic growth.

According to the Financial Times, China's crackdown on VPN portals has led to increased business for state-approved telecom companies. This shift in the market has resulted in significant revenue gains for these companies.

China's state newspaper has also seen a surge in its online censoring business, with a 140% increase in net income in 2018. Its Shanghai-listed stock price jumped up by 166% in the same year.

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Internet censorship in China has led to the development of unique forms of resistance among netizens. Chinese netizens have used subtle protests against government censorship, such as sarcastically calling the date 4 June "Chinese Internet Maintenance Day".

In 2013, netizens used humorous pictures and drawings to criticize the government and bypass censorship, creating and posting images resembling the Tank Man photo on Weibo. One such picture showed Florentijin Hofman's rubber ducks sculptures replacing tanks in the Tank Man photo.

Chinese web services like Weibo eventually censored searches of both "black shirt" and "Big Yellow Duck" in 2013. Netizens have also used social media to express solidarity and ironic resistance, such as by wearing black shirts on 4 June to oppose censorship.

Here are some examples of Chinese equivalents to Western internet services that have been used to evade censorship:

Arrests are a harsh reality for those who dare to speak out against the Chinese government. In 2001, Wang Xiaoning and other Chinese activists were arrested and sentenced to 10 years in prison for using a Yahoo! email account to post anonymous writing to an Internet mailing list.

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Fines and short arrests are becoming an optional punishment for spreading undesirable information online, seen as a risk to social stability. Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist, used his Yahoo! email account to send a message to a U.S.-based pro-democracy website, and was subsequently arrested in November 2004.

In 2013, police across China arrested hundreds of people accused of spreading false rumors online, targeting microbloggers who accused CCP officials of corruption and other wrongdoing. The crackdown aimed to disrupt online networks of like-minded individuals whose ideas could challenge the authority of the CCP.

China's highest court and prosecution office issued guidelines in 2013 defining and outlining penalties for publishing online rumors and slander. A slanderous message forwarded more than 500 times or read more than 5,000 times could result in up to three years in prison.

In 2017, a Uyghur university student at Xinjiang University, Mehmut Memtimin, was sentenced to 13 years in prison for using a VPN. This is a stark reminder of the risks faced by those who try to access information outside of China's heavily censored internet.

According to the 2020 World Press Freedom Index, China is the world's biggest jailer of journalists, holding around 100 in detention. This is a staggering figure that highlights the government's disregard for user rights and freedom of expression.

On 10 May 2021, blogger Ruan Xiaohuan was arrested by the Shanghai police for his blog, ProgramThink, which was critical of the regime. His wife, Bei Zhenying, was warned by authorities against discussing the case, demonstrating the government's willingness to silence critics.

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Satire is a powerful tool for resistance against authority, as it can "presuppose and confirm emancipation" of the supposedly oppressed people. Scholars Pierre Bourdieu and Michel de Certeau argue that satire is a key component of this resistance.

The Chinese government, however, views subtle criticisms on the Internet as mere "complicity" rather than a real threat to its power. This is because they believe that only when "laugh mobs" become "organised smart mobs" that directly challenge the government's power, is a real threat posed.

Internet memes have become a popular way for Chinese netizens to express their dissent and opposition to the government. For example, in 2009, netizens used the term "Chinese Internet Maintenance Day" to sarcastically refer to the government's temporary blockages of large web services.

The Chinese government has also tried to censor searches for terms related to dissent and opposition, such as "black shirt" and "Big Yellow Duck", which were used by netizens to commemorate the date of the government's censorship.

According to Reporters without Borders, China's policies have prevented earlier warnings about the COVID-19 pandemic, as at least one doctor suspected an outbreak as early as December 25, 2019, but was deterred from informing the media due to harsh punishment for whistleblowers.

Here are some examples of Chinese equivalents to Western Internet services, showing the government's efforts to control the flow of information:

The Chinese government has also used technical means to control the flow of information, including using steganography to embed useful data in seemingly irrelevant information.

China's internet censorship is a complex issue with far-reaching consequences. The country's "Great Firewall" blocks access to over 10,000 websites, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter.

The Great Firewall is a sophisticated system that uses a combination of techniques, including IP blocking and DNS spoofing, to restrict access to sensitive information. This has made it difficult for Chinese citizens to access information from outside the country.

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The Chinese government has also implemented strict regulations on online content, requiring websites to obtain a license to operate in the country. This has led to a proliferation of state-controlled media outlets and a lack of diversity in online content.

China's internet censorship has significant economic implications, with many foreign companies struggling to operate in the country's restrictive online environment.

The Great Firewall's blocking of Google has had a particularly significant impact on Chinese citizens, who rely on the search engine for information and services.