trying to nail Jell-O to the wall”. But actually, China’s authoritarian government

has proven very adept at censoring the internet and other media. So what do they restrict?

Well, anything that questions or threatens the ruling Communist Party of China, including

any political, religious, and cultural information. This applies to free speech, state and foreign

media, in print and online. Internet search results for terms like “democracy”, “revolt”,

or “student strike” are allegedly blocked. Even information about politically-charged

events like “Tiananmen Square” is restricted because it shows a side of history that the

government wants to suppress.

Chinese internet doesn’t look like the rest of the world’s internet. It’s more like

a closed-off bubble where only state-run websites and a few heavily-censored foreign sites are

allowed to operate. Facebook and Twitter aren’t allowed in China, because of their alleged

ability to “spread rumors”. Western news websites like the New York Times and the Wall

Street Journal have also been blocked for their reports mentioning Chinese officials.

Even Google search is currently blocked in China, after struggling with their censorship

rules for years. Additionally, all pornography has been illegal since 1949, including online.

China has nine government censorship agencies, employing a reported 2 Million people as of

2013. Programs which block IP addresses, reset connections, and filter web addresses are

part of an overarching blockade referred to as the “Golden Shield”, or, “the great

firewall of China”. The system works so well because, unlike American websites with

Internet providers all over the country, Chinese websites have a few major “bottleneck”

points, which the government can switch on and off at will.

News agencies are required to report only state-approved news. And any reporter who

covers a breaking story WITHOUT getting that approval, can lose their journalist license,

and even go to prison. International books and movies are also edited before being released

to the public. In a recent James Bond movie, violence towards Chinese people and suggestions

of government corruption were removed.

Although censorship in China has largely prevailed, there are some signs that this will change

as opposition grows. A prominent Chinese dissident and recent Nobel Peace Prize winner denounced

China’s censorship policies on a global stage. Recent student protests in Hong Kong

also illustrate some of the youth’s disillusionment with their government. Microblogs, which are

a cross between twitter and blogs, have become popular places for them to voice covert discontent.

And with the number of China’s online users ballooning from around 20 million in the 2000,

to more than 600 million in 2013, China’s “net of censorship” is reportedly feeling

the strain.

Freedom of the press in the United States isn’t really as free as you might think

either. You can learn all about it in our video here… or if you want to learn about

what free speech really means in the country, take a look at the video from AJ+ below. Thank

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