I took an informal poll of my five middle school classes (grades 7, 8, and 9) and asked them what they considered the biggest problem facing China. Almost across the board, students responded either pollution or food safety. A few said disputes with Japan over islands. Nobody said censorship. In fact, nobody even knew what that meant. After briefly explaining that the Chinese government blocks access to certain websites and social media, and also bans certain books and movies, none of the students felt this was a real problem. Some mentioned being irritated that they couldn't watch funny movies on Youtube, and some mentioned using VPNs to get around the firewall. It seems in talking with people here in China that the outside world is more concerned with censorship in China than the Chinese themselves. Perhaps it's the thought of a billion ill-informed people incapable of critical thinking that scares the shit out of people outside China. It certainly scares me as I see it up close!
People here in China are told that the reason some websites are blocked is to allow Chinese businesses to enter into the market and compete with companies like Facebook and Youtube. And it is true that there is a Facebook like service here called Renren. But Renren doesn't operate outside government oversight and censorship like Facebook does. And the above explanation certainly doesn't explain why information about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacres is blocked, why movies that touch on any aspect of the cultural revolution are banned, or why Chinese can't read blogs (both blogspot and wordpress are blocked). Of course people of means can buy a VPN and circumvent the firewall, but these people typically have too much to risk to step out of line. It is the poor, who don't really understand the issue of censorship that are effected by it the most, and there are a lot of poor people in China. To view a partial list of websites blocked in China click here.
People here in China are told that the reason some websites are blocked is to allow Chinese businesses to enter into the market and compete with companies like Facebook and Youtube. And it is true that there is a Facebook like service here called Renren. But Renren doesn't operate outside government oversight and censorship like Facebook does. And the above explanation certainly doesn't explain why information about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacres is blocked, why movies that touch on any aspect of the cultural revolution are banned, or why Chinese can't read blogs (both blogspot and wordpress are blocked). Of course people of means can buy a VPN and circumvent the firewall, but these people typically have too much to risk to step out of line. It is the poor, who don't really understand the issue of censorship that are effected by it the most, and there are a lot of poor people in China. To view a partial list of websites blocked in China click here.
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