Monday, 27 January 2014

The Great Firewall of China

Last year we spent a whole Semester in Humanities on a research project where we then had to write a report that had something to do with social change. For my topic, I chose The Great Firewall of China. My full bibliography of sources is at the end of this report.

The Digital Wall of Oppression


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.

Bibliography

ABC. 2008. The Great Firewall of China. [video online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IWsXhNJFj78 [Accessed: 9 Sep 2013].
           
ABC. 2010. Great Firewall of China (HUNGRY BEAST). [video online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dWfUOG0EA9w [Accessed: 9 Sep 2013].

Bergmann, A. 2013. The new global economy. [online] Available at: http://money.cnn.com/news/economy/world_economies_gdp/ [Accessed: 7 Oct 2013].

Colour Box. 2012. Abstract Blue Technology Background. [image online] Available at: http://www.colourbox.com/vector/abstract-blue-technology-background-vector-3110535 [Accessed: 7 Oct 2013].

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].

Council on Foreign Relations. 1997. Media Censorship in China. [online] Available at: http://www.cfr.org/china/media-censorship-china/p11515 [Accessed: 21 Aug 2013].


English.cpc.people.com.cn. n.d.. Communist Party of China CPC--People's Daily Online. [online] Available at: http://english.cpc.people.com.cn/index.html [Accessed: 21 Aug 2013].

Greatfirewallofchina.org. n.d.. Great Firewall of China. [online] Available at: http://greatfirewallofchina.org/ [Accessed: 21 Aug 2013].

Hoffman, C. HTG Explains: How the Great Firewall of China Works. [online] Available at: http://www.howtogeek.com/162092/htg-explains-how-the-great-firewall-of-china-works/ [Accessed: 12 Aug 2013].

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].

Indexmundi.com. n.d. China Government type - Government. [online] Available at: http://www.indexmundi.com/china/government_type.html [Accessed: 3 Oct 2013].

Infoplease.com. n.d. China: Government | Infoplease.com. [online] Available at: http://www.infoplease.com/encyclopedia/world/china-government.html [Accessed: 1 Oct 2013].

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].

Security Affairs. 2011. The business of Censorship. Golden Shield Project, but not only ... - Security Affairs. [online] Available at: http://securityaffairs.co/wordpress/204/cyber-crime/business-of-censorship-golden-shield-project-but-not-only.html [Accessed: 21 Aug 2013].

Seidenberg, S. 2010. The Great Firewall of China: When Does Online Censorship Violate WTO Rules? | Intellectual Property Watch. [online] Available at: http://www.ip-watch.org/2010/07/28/the-great-firewall-of-china-when-does-online-censorship-violate-wto-rules/ [Accessed: 29 Jul 2013].

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].

The Economist. 2013. The art of concealment. [online] Available at: http://www.economist.com/news/special-report/21574631-chinese-screening-online-material-abroad-becoming-ever-more-sophisticated [Accessed: 12 Aug 2013].

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].

See you tomorrow.

No comments:

Post a Comment