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Is China’s ‘Great Firewall’ About to Collapse?

by Toby Young
4 May 2022 7:00 PM

China has turned online censorship into a domestic industry, employing two million apparatchiks to suppress dissent. Yet Shanghai’s dystopian Zero-Covid lockdown policy is testing the ‘Great Firewall’ to its limits. Wired has more.

If you search the Chinese microblogging platform Weibo for “Shanghai lockdown” (“上海封城”), you’ll find plenty of videos of deserted streets and emergency workers delivering food. There are fewer signs of the collective outrage, anger, and desperation that has gripped the city’s 26 million residents, who have been confined to their homes since April 5th and are struggling to get hold of food and medicine. You probably won’t find, for instance, a shocking video of pandemic workers clubbing a pet corgi to death after its owners were taken away to be quarantined, although there are references to the infamous incident, which became a symbol of the harsh lockdown conditions.

The situation became desperate as supplies of food ran short days after the lockdown was enforced, and some people were denied access to medical care. In response, residents are dodging China’s notorious online censorship system to document their experiences and vent their anger on sites that include Twitter-equivalent Weibo, the ubiquitous messaging app WeChat, and the Chinese version of TikTok, Douyin.

China has one of the world’s most advanced internet filtering and censorship apparatuses, known as the Great Firewall. Back in 2013, state media said around 2 million people were employed to track content posted online, and Yaqiu Wang, senior China researcher at Human Rights Watch, says censorship has become stricter since then. But the Shanghai lockdown is demonstrating the cat-and-mouse dynamics that are central to social media censorship, even in a country that devotes huge resources to wiping the internet clean from dissent.

“No censorship apparatus is airtight,” says Guobin Yang, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who studies contemporary China. “Social media censorship in China still relies a lot on human labour. It’s entirely possible that not all censors were motivated to keep up with their job at full speed.”

One video that went viral on Chinese social media, despite censorship efforts to stop it, was entitled the “Voices of April” and was originally posted by a user calling themselves Strawberry Fields Forever. The video combines aerial shots of Shanghai with audio recordings claiming to be made by distressed residents. A man pleads for his sick father to be allowed to go into a hospital; children in quarantine centres cry after being separated from their parents; residents shout from their compounds for the Government to provide them with supplies.

“It went so viral that the censors had trouble censoring it,” says the cofounder of Great Fire, an organisation that tracks censored posts on Chinese social media platforms, who asked to use the pseudonym Charlie Smith. He suggests the video, which was taken down and uploaded several times by different users, could have been viewed millions of times. “The Chinese understand there’s a limit to free expression,” Smith says, especially when it comes to politics. But he believes the Shanghai lockdown goes beyond the usual political debate because so many people are personally affected. That means people are willing to push the limits of free expression they would normally accept, he adds.

Worth reading in full.

Tags: Chinese CensorshipShanghai LockdownThe Great Firewall

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33 Comments
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tom171uk
tom171uk
3 years ago

Meanwhile the UK is implementing it’s Online Censorship “Safety” Bill.
We are learning a lot from the Chinese.

Last edited 3 years ago by tom171uk
70
0
Rogerborg
Rogerborg
3 years ago
Reply to  tom171uk

This comment is legal, but harmful.

34
0
Alter Ego
Alter Ego
3 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

Shrewdly observed, Rogerborg.

The mantra is increasingly “Be careful, citizen: watch where you go (in every sense), watch what you say, watch with whom you associate – and for how long and at what distance.”

The only way to relieve the anxiety of wondering whether one might be found guilty of “causing harm” or “doing wrong” despite no awareness of obvious illegality, is to think correctly; to live in a state of constant internal obedience, to believe what one is told to believe at any given moment.

It is a mistake to comfort ourselves by saying that this is geographically or historically confined to some parts of the world and not to others.

How many of us believed that lockdowns could never happen in our lands? That “our” people would never obey dangerous and absurd instructions to abandon family members and friends, mask themselves, be injected with experimental substances and submit their children for injection?

I won’t make that mistake again. It can happen anywhere; and you can see your own family members and friends succumb.

There are regional variations and there are degrees, but we all have the same problems with regard to authoritarianism.

38
0
Bobby Lobster
Bobby Lobster
3 years ago
Reply to  Alter Ego

I am becoming wary of speaking in front of people I do not know, in case they want to be “harmed” by something I might say, or think.

5
0
Alter Ego
Alter Ego
3 years ago
Reply to  Bobby Lobster

Ditto. And I’ve seen the anxiety on people’s faces as they search for the correct expression – afraid of being harshly judged if they’re not up to date.

3
0
David Beaton
David Beaton
3 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

All “truth” is “harmful” to criminal liars!

27
0
NickR
NickR
3 years ago

The principle is the same in the UK it just varies a little by degree but anyone thinking the UK response was right must also agree the Chinese policy is also correct.

27
0
Star
Star
3 years ago

That Wired article makes it sound as though people can eat the internet.
Internet use mostly helped the authorities when they imposed lockdowns outside of China, and the same is true in China.

2
-7
Star
Star
3 years ago
Reply to  Star

The modern British civil service was set up on a Chinese model in the 1870s.

16
-3
joffy69
joffy69
3 years ago
Reply to  Star

Thats true but misleading. wiki norrthcote-trevelyan reforms. Oh, and it was the 1850s

6
0
Moist Von Lipwig
Moist Von Lipwig
3 years ago
Reply to  Star

Government censorship is never a virtue.

4
0
Rogerborg
Rogerborg
3 years ago

If you have a search around – although I recommend you don’t – you’ll find videos of nets crammed full of dogs and cats that have been clubbed to “death”, some of whom are still feebly struggling, whimpering, and mewling.

Communism can’t even do culls efficiently.

32
-2
TheBluePill
TheBluePill
3 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

They care so much about our wellbeing, just think about all the CO² that’s been saved. In all seriousness, pets are likely to be one of their next targets in the west, but that’s going to need some epic preparatory brainwashing from the behavioural psychologists.

24
0
Superunknown
Superunknown
3 years ago
Reply to  TheBluePill

They did suggest culling pets via the jab-
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-56602311
I note the article is dated 1st of April, but it’s just as much of a joke as all the other covid articles printed any other day of the year.

12
0
Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago
Reply to  Superunknown

I certainly wouldn’t object to culling all noisy dogs or those that crap on the pavements near me

1
-4
eastender53
eastender53
3 years ago
Reply to  Rogerborg

Preparing lunch.

4
0
Ron Smith
Ron Smith
3 years ago

On another note, great T-Shirt. Bit pricy though at £17.
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/334391470872?_trkparms=amclksrc%3DITM%26aid%3D111001%26algo%3DREC.SEED%26ao%3D1%26asc%3D20160811114145%26meid%3Dae22badcb488447ea2b8face8580a558%26pid%3D100667%26rk%3D1%26rkt%3D8%26sd%3D334391470872%26itm%3D334391470872%26pmt%3D0%26noa%3D1%26pg%3D2334524&_trksid=p2334524.c100667.m2042

5
0
huxleypiggles
huxleypiggles
3 years ago
Reply to  Ron Smith

With so much dialogue it is not surprising this t-shirt is expensive.

Very good though 👌

6
0
BillRiceJr
BillRiceJr
3 years ago

China wins the Full Orwell prize hands down. But there are plenty of Western democracies competing hard for runner-up status. Australia comes to mind. Canada’s prime minister seems to be trying hard to get on the medal stand. My own America, “land of the free,” now has a Government Ministry of Truth.

32
0
RedhotScot
RedhotScot
3 years ago
Reply to  BillRiceJr

My best mate is just over from the Gold Coast, Queensland, he said it wasn’t too bad there. Instead of locking people in their homes they just stopped all cross border travel. Life was pretty much as normal other than masks and social distancing.

Victoria was bad, and Dan Andrews is a tyrant but other states seemed pretty much like Queensland. The jabbing in the country is prolific though. My mate was dead against it but figured that at 65 he didn’t have much to loose and wanted to do his post retirement European and American tour.

6
0
Emerald Fox
Emerald Fox
3 years ago
Reply to  RedhotScot

You haven’t said how many ‘Covid vaccinations’ he’s had, and from which manufacturer, and when.
He’s still alive after being jabbed, eh? No ‘ADE’, ‘VAIDS’, heart attack, stroke, blood clots, hepatitis?
From what I’ve been reading, Australians aren’t allowed to leave Australia… so they’re free to leave now?

0
-6
eastender53
eastender53
3 years ago
Reply to  BillRiceJr

With respect China was never in the contest. Orwell wrote for Western minds. The East is very different. (I’ve lived and worked there since 1996 and still do). Confucianism rules everything.

6
0
Hopeless - "TN,BN"
Hopeless - "TN,BN"
3 years ago

The Chinese have already bought the WHO, a load of politicians all over the world, and we have made the rope with which they will hang us ourselves. Finish.

18
-1
TSull
TSull
3 years ago

Is China’s ‘Great Firewall’ About to Collapse? Here’s hoping it does and that it takes the vile CCP with it.

18
0
Virefirer
Virefirer
3 years ago

15 Minute preview of the Utopia we’re all headed for by 2030…
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJYaXy5mmA8

8
0
DodosArentDead
DodosArentDead
3 years ago
Reply to  Virefirer

Great video. Thanks for posting.

3
0
Doom Slayer
Doom Slayer
3 years ago

Was anyone watching Farage? He was discussing Hunter Bidens laptop with the Journalist from the NY Post who had it initially and broke the first story, and all of a sudden the picture was lost and it was just the rolling news banner at the bottom. Ive watched plenty of GB News and they have had lots of tech issues initially, but never like that. Not with both presenter and guest disappearing. Funnily enough after a few minutes of blackness and when it was advert time before 8pm, up popped the picture again. Not a word mentioned in the news at 8 or on Steyns show. Hmmmmmmm.

Last edited 3 years ago by Doom Slayer
8
0
Emerald Fox
Emerald Fox
3 years ago
Reply to  Doom Slayer

The Lizard People pulled the plug… Hunter Biden has friends in high places. Steyn is obviously in on it too. (Theme tune from The X-Files plays in the background).

4
-3
Doom Slayer
Doom Slayer
3 years ago
Reply to  Emerald Fox

Steyn is not involved. He is the instigator of most of what some would consider the ‘controversial’ output, including talking about Hunters laptop. Interestingly if you go and watch the clip on youtube or the app the whole interview is there. It was the live tv and online stream that went down but the interview continued. That makes it even more likely to be censorship in my book.

1
0
Backlash
Backlash
3 years ago

Yet it beggars belief that certain woke members of our society laud China and want us all to live this way, a life where we’re all censored and forced to toe the line or else we’re deleted, fined and punished.
How is that enjoyable for anybody?

5
0
iane
iane
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

Well, serious answer to serious question: it’s great for those in power plus their friends and relatives.

4
0
Milo
Milo
3 years ago
Reply to  Backlash

My brain won’t be able to cope with the level of double think which will be required – I will be constantly in negative credit territory.

1
0
Bobby Lobster
Bobby Lobster
3 years ago

If you don’t worship a drug-addled, birthing-person threatening, career criminal, you are not a nice person.

Online Safety Bill.

2
0

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