Saturday, October 18, 2008
China's Internet Dictatorship
In an article by Ma Jian in The Korea Herald, Jian discusses the dictatorship on the internet in China. Since it's intial connection to the world wide web in the mid 90's, China's access to the internet is still being guarded and blocked by the Chinese government.
In an effort to extend the current Communist reigme in China, the government has made an $800 million investment in something called "The Golden Shield Project" which is designed to block the Chinese people from obtaining information via the internet. Some of the information being blocked are international web sites based in other countries, the monitoring of e-mail and other public sysems, and even the ability to take away PC's and send out viruses.
China is the only known nation that recognizes people as a "web criminal", and radical views opposing government or even the publication of an internet article that is seen unfit by the Chinese government is punishable by law and could result in imprisonment. Since 2000, hundreds of web criminals have been imprisoned and many are "baited" by user-friendly web pages to share their ideas and beliefs.
"The Golden Shield" has caused some pretty unbelievable numbers to surface. For example, the average life span of a server in China is 30 minutes. 17,000 internet cafes have been shut down. 80 million citizens are susceptible to have their e-mails monitored and even intercepted. With such a heavy investment and aid from Western technology, unfortunately there is no way of knowing if or when the shield will ever cease to exist.
Comments:
<< Home
A good post. Is the Golden Shield beatable? Can a nation-state defeat the internet and shut down the exchange of information? Is this a losing battle? Does success require complete control, or is this shield simply slowing down the inevitable opening of China to a manageable pace?
Post a Comment
<< Home
