When created, the internet promised unlimited knowledge about everything that could happen around the world. For China, the chance to discover a “non-Chinese” world was banned by a wall – this time digital – that censors almost all the content accessed by the Chinese.
This wall has a name: Jin Dun (“gold shield” in Chinese). This system cost the Chinese Communist Party (PCC), the absolute government of China, US$ 29 billion that maintain 640 thousand computers and 30,000 employees – twice as many as members of the CIA, the States' intelligence agency United.
Google, Youtube and Wikipedia are not for them as they are for us. The content is restricted and search engines only return results allowed by the censors. Searching for “Tiananmen Square” or “Tibet” will bring no results to student massacres or worldwide protests. Chinese websites that question the CCP's actions are also quickly censored.
Jin Dun lists words and terms that should not be accessed and then when a Chinese person clicks on that term, the site immediately blocks it. Whoever insists on subverting the law can be penalized from the suspension of the internet service to a “little visit” by the police.
The problem at the Olympics
About 300 journalists from around the world – in Beijing because of the Olympic Games – have suffered from censorship in the country. Brazilian blogs and even newspaper websites could not be accessed at the beginning of news coverage of the Olympics.
Some sites, including blogs and pornography, were released on July 16, but that wasn't enough to please the press, given that China, in order to guarantee Beijing as the host of the 2008 Games, had promised big changes. Among them was “loosening” abusive control and improving their laws with regard to human rights and consequently to freedom of expression, in addition to guaranteeing free press access to the internet and to work journalistic. The latter was even more harmed, since from January 1, 2007 to July 8, 2008 there were 259 government interferences in the press exercise.
To quell the wrath of reporters, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) announced on Aug. 1 which made an agreement with China to withdraw censorship and free up the internet, which was achieved in part. Sites like Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International were released, but others like “Free Tibet”, sites that show the massacre of the Tiananmen Square, citing Falun Gong spiritual sect or Catholics who refuse to follow CCP orders continue blocked.
Do not stop now... There's more after the advertising ;)
Out of virtual China
Restriction is not just on the internet. The CCP had promised the IOC that the Chinese would have the right to protest during the Olympics, which did not happen. Interested parties should seek authorization at the Beijing police stations to protest in one of the three parks for public demonstrations (Ritan, Zizhuyuan and Shijie), all far from the Complex Olympic.
The fact is that at least two Chinese who wanted to protest the demolition of their house (just like what happened with thousands of Chinese for the construction of the Bird's Nest Stadium) were arrested as they applied for manifest.
The Chinese government does not give loopholes and lies shamelessly about its attitudes towards the treatments submitted to its population. For them, criticism is not acceptable.
So say Hu Jia, sentenced to three and a half years in prison for publishing a manifesto entitled “The real China and the Olympics”, in which he denounced the expropriations that took place in Beijing for the construction of the Olympic Complex, the persecution of human rights activists, imprisonment, torture and death sentences, in addition to forced abortions and the prohibition to practice any religion. Learn more about this manifesto clicking here.
Scholars about this country believe that, even in the growing commercial development and future power of the world, China's communist system will not be shaken until 2025. This is because the methods of discouraging the population involve processes of physical and psychological torture, in addition to propaganda (almost Nazi) that unconsciously convinces the Chinese that the communist party is essential to the China.
*Image credits: fstockphoto and Shutterstock.com
By Marla Rodrigues
Brazil School Team
Would you like to reference this text in a school or academic work? Look:
RODRIGUES, Marla. "The (lack of) freedom of expression in China"; Brazil School. Available in: https://brasilescola.uol.com.br/china/a-falta-liberdade-expressao-na-china.htm. Accessed on June 28, 2021.
