The Digital Wall of Oppression
Source: http://digital4th.org/
Introduction to the Great Firewall of China
The Great Firewall of China, as it is
commonly known, became operational in November 2003 after designs began in
1998. It is officially known as the Golden
Shield Project and the original creation came to a cost of $800 million[1]
with an update built between 2006 and 2008 with an unknown cost. It restricts
web traffic and censors the Chinese public’s ability to access foreign media.
It was constructed by the Communist Party of China and is run by China’s
Ministry of Public Security and a staff of 30,000 monitor China’s internet[2].
The majority of sites that are blocked discuss freedom of speech, democracy,
religion, pornography and those that are against the Chinese Government1.
It is a creation that greatly restricts the lives of people within and without
of China and should be shut down. However, it is not that simple.
[1] Conaway, S. n.d. The
Great Firewall: How China Polices Internet Traffic - Certification Magazine.
[online] Available at: http://www.certmag.com/read.php?in=3906 [Accessed: 15
Jul 2013].
[2] International IT College of Sweden. 2012. The Great Firewall of China.
[video online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp-ir1ugS7Q
[Accessed: 9 Sep 2013].
Restriction of Freedom
The Universal Declaration of Human Rights
is an international document, published by the United Nations, that states
basic rights and fundamental freedoms to which all human beings are entitled.
It is not a legally binding document however, so countries are not legally
obliged to follow it[1].
It is rather a moral document. This, however, does not mean that countries
should be able to treat their citizens however they want and restrict their
access to freedom of speech and foreign media. The following are articles from
the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that the Great Firewall is
disregarding.
“Article
3: Everyone has the right to life, liberty
and security of person”
“Article
19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression: this
right includes freedom
to hold opinions without
interference and to seek, receive and
impart information and ideas
through
any media and regardless of frontiers”
“Article 28: Everyone is
entitled to a social and international order in which the rights and freedoms
set forth in this
declaration can be fully realized.”[2]
There is no greater loss of liberty than
freedom of opinion and expression (see articles 3 and 19) which is something
the Chinese people have grown accustomed to. There is no access to sites like
Facebook, Twitter and YouTube in China anymore and the local sites within China
that have taken their place are heavily monitored. There are even heavy fines
for “illegal activities” on the internet including “defaming Government
agencies … splitting the nation… [and] leaking state secrets.”[3]
Between 2000 and 2001, Wang Xiaoning anonymously posted journals in a Yahoo discussion board calling for
democratic reform and an end to single party rule. He was consequentially
arrested in 2002 and Yahoo provided
information to identify him in 2003. He was sent to prison for ten years
charged with “subversion”[4].
Subversion is an attempt to overthrow or, in this case, undermine a government
or political system by persons working secretly within. Yahoo was successfully sued by the World Organisation of Human
Rights for releasing this information4. There are many other
journalists, writers and bloggers in Chinese prisons on similar charges and
there are more who dare not say anything for fear of facing these charges[5].
Their freedom of opinion and expression has been literally scared out of them.
“Article 12: No one shall be subjected
to arbitrary interference with his privacy,
family, home
or
correspondence, nor to attacks upon his honour, and reputation. Everyone has the
right to
the protection of the
law against such interference or attacks.”
“Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression: this
right includes freedom
to hold opinions without
interference and to seek, receive and
impart information and ideas
through
any media and regardless of frontiers”
Interference with privacy, family, home or
correspondence does not come more arbitrary than the Great Firewall of China.
In an effort to maintain a single-party state the Firewall was created so
people did not have a platform to express their opinions about the Chinese
government. According to some reports, the creation of the Great Firewall was
the Communist Party’s direct response to the creation of the China Democracy Party
which was founded in 1998 and outlawed the same year[6].
1998 also happens to be the year design of the Great Firewall began. The
Chinese Government uses everything from URL filtering (filtering sites based on
text in the web address) to inspecting and filtering individual packets of
data. A team of over 30,000 work around the clock to ensure that information
from within China is not getting out and that other information is not coming
in. Even domestic messages are not free from the scrutinising eyes of the
internet police. People are too afraid to share their opinions online anymore,
even in messages, due to this fear of being arrested. There is no greater
interference than this.
The Firewall also works as a trade barrier
by restricting access of foreign companies (like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube)
from gaining a foothold within the Chinese economy. There are also companies
within China struggling to maintain an international business when
international communication is restricted. This is bad for people outside of
China as well because if companies are unable to reach the second largest
economy in the world[7]
(in terms of gross domestic product) how are they going to be able to afford
constantly rising costs? They will be forced to pass on these price-rises to
the consumers and we will all feel the effects of China’s firewall. However, it
can be argued as not violating World Trade Organisation (WTO) rules as it does
not explicitly forbid censorship and Article XIV states that nothing stops
member states from adopting measures to “protect public morals or to maintain
public order.” This is where the issue comes from, whether or not the firewall
is doing this or not. In some ways it is through the blocking of pornography
and protest information while it also works in the Chinese Government’s favour
by not allowing information to leave, or enter, China that could be harmful to
the way they run the country and the people they control.
[1] Humanrights.gov.au. n.d. What
is the Universal Declaration on Human Rights? | Australian Human Rights
Commission. [online] Available at:
http://www.humanrights.gov.au/publications/what-universal-declaration-human-rights
[Accessed: 7 Oct 2013].
[2] The United Nations. n.d. The
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. [online] Available at:
http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/ [Accessed: 29 Jul 2013].
[3] Conaway, S. n.d. The
Great Firewall: How China Polices Internet Traffic - Certification Magazine.
[online] Available at: http://www.certmag.com/read.php?in=3906 [Accessed: 15
Jul 2013].
[4] International IT College of Sweden. 2012. The Great Firewall of China.
[video online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zp-ir1ugS7Q
[Accessed: 9 Sep 2013].
[5] TED Talks. 2012. Michael
Anti: Behind The Great Firewall of China. [video online] Available at:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yrcaHGqTqHk&feature=endscreen [Accessed: 9
Sep 2013].
[6] Conaway, S. n.d. The
Great Firewall: How China Polices Internet Traffic - Certification Magazine.
[online] Available at: http://www.certmag.com/read.php?in=3906 [Accessed: 15
Jul 2013].
[7] Bergmann, A. 2013. The
new global economy. [online] Available at:
http://money.cnn.com/news/economy/world_economies_gdp/ [Accessed: 7 Oct 2013].
Complications
Despite all this it is not as simple as
just shutting down the firewall for a variety of reasons. Mainly you have the
30,000 workers in Beijing who monitor the internet. A contingency plan would
need to be put in place to ensure that thirty-thousand people are not going to
be suddenly unemployed. Perhaps these people could work on integrating the
Chinese internet back into foreign media or in other areas of the justice
system such as reviewing the cases of people imprisoned on internet-related
charges. You also have to take into account the local companies that have
flourished in the absence of foreign competitors. Sites such as Baidu (Chinese
Google), Sina Weibo (Chinese Twitter), RenRen (Chinese Facebook) and YouKu.com
(Chinese YouTube) have being able to work well in such an economy. They would,
however, greatly suffer if the firewall were to simply be shut down. They would
have foreign competitors who do not have to worry about waiting for posting
approvals. These local sites would have to be completely recreated to fit the
international standard. This is, again, another possible avenue of employment
for the 30,000 internet police. However, by the time these changes have been
made people will have already moved over to Facebook and YouTube. The best
option for these companies would be to simply be bought out by the foreign
companies or otherwise be forced to shut down due to the loss of users.
Therefore, shutting down the Great Firewall is not as simple as just shutting
it down. Plans have to be made for the companies and people impacted by this
major change.
Conclusion
The Great Firewall of China is a creation
that has caused a moral dilemma for anyone planning on shutting it down. The
dilemma comes from risking the fall of China’s economy and, consequentially,
risking other economies around the world or greatly improving the rights of the
Chinese population. It all comes down to the economy versus human rights and
which is more important. Simply shutting down the firewall would cause a lot of
China’s major companies to fall in favour of larger, international corporations
and this would have a bad impact on their economy. However, maintaining the wall at its current
state is unacceptable as it infringes on the basic human rights of the Chinese
people. The country’s economy may be great but the rights of the country’s
people are not. This is where the issue of the economy versus human rights
stems from. Shutting down the firewall will need to be a lengthy process that
should take place slowly over several years. The Chinese economy and companies
will need to be slowly integrated with others around the world so that when the
firewall ultimately does shut down it will not have as large an impact on the
Chinese economy. Losses, however, are inevitable but can be kept to a minimum
with careful planning. The Great Firewall of China should be shut down but it
must also be acknowledged that this will not be a simple process and it will
need to take place over several years rather than a few
days.
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See you tomorrow.
