As much as the Chinese government would like to keep the clamps on internet freedom in China, the fact is that China is now the world's largest internet user, with over 300 millon citizens using the internet.
China may be proud of the fact that so many of it's citizens are web-savvy, but the ruling Chinese Communist Party still does its best to keep a mindful eye over what content the Chinese people can expose themselves to. The censorship of Barack Obama's reference to Communism during his inauguration is a fine example of the paradoxical Communist-Capitalism game China likes to play.
Yesterday, the New York Times published this article about the recent January web censorships of shows and forums which the government deemed unacceptable. The article is a good introduction of how China's web censorship works. As mentioned in the article, China's internet blockade, while by no means impenetrable, is still one of the most advanced in the world.
With important milestone anniversaries of controversial events coming up in 2009 (i.e. 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square "incident"), a Chinese official summed up the CCP's stance toward web censorship this year by saying, “You have to check the channels one by one, the programs one by one, the pages one by one. You must not miss any step. You must not leave any unchecked corners.”
"ROFL down the stairs," added the official. Just kidding. But as China continues to expand it's position as web consumer and world power, the situation with their internet censorship laws will be an interesting one to monitor.
We haven't forgotten about those who prefer old-fashioned censorship; there's plenty of that to go around as well.
-Steve Kwan
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