Censorship in China
[6] Other views suggest that Chinese businesses such as Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba, some of the world's largest internet enterprises, have benefited from the way China blocked international rivals from the domestic market.
[9] In 2013, CCP General Secretary Xi Jinping upgraded the Internet censorship department and established the Cyberspace Administration of China (中央网络安全和信息化委员会办公室; CAC), an independent network regulation agency.
[13] In 2013, Gary King, Jennifer Pan, and Margaret E. Roberts published research based on large-scale sampling of posts on a variety of Chinese social media, arguing that the primary motive for censorship is to quash potential for collective action, and not prevent criticism of the government per se.
[14] While drawing only from Internet-based sources, King et al. argued their data demonstrated that "despite widespread censorship of social media, we find that when the Chinese people write scathing criticisms of their government and its leaders, the probability that their post will be censored does not increase.
"[18] In 2019, however, Dimitar Gueorguiev and Edmund Malesky published an analysis of the data gathered in King, Pan & Roberts (2013), arguing that the sample included critical posts garnered through state-led consultation campaigns, wherein the Chinese government specifically solicited public comment on certain proposals, laws and regulations.
"[22] Internet censorship, Song writes, can protect the mainstream ideology, such as the core socialist value system, prevent the spread of harmful information abroad, and maintain national political stability.
[25][26] Additionally, the Cyberspace Administration of China, another Party body, monitors and censors Internet-based media and speech, and issues guidelines to online platforms outlining priorities for controlling discourse.
[52] Academic Frances Yaping Wang argues that the Chinese government has strategically censored issues and events when it wishes to de-escalate in its foreign policy dealings yet faces a potentially hostile domestic public reaction.
[54]: 306 As part of China's efforts to reduce tensions with Japan immediately following the 2010 boat collision in the disputed islands, the Chinese government censored related keywords online and shut down internet chatrooms addressing the issues.
[70][71] The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, for instance, is permitted to maintain a small number of places of worship for expatriates, but is forbidden from preaching or proselytizing to Chinese citizens,[72] as are all foreigners.
[124] Numerous content which have been blacked out has included references to the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and massacre,[123] the Dalai Lama,[123] the death of Zhao Ziyang,[125] the 2008 Tibetan unrest,[123] the 2008 Chinese milk scandal[126] and negative developments about the Beijing Olympics.
[128] During the Summer Olympics in Beijing, all Chinese TV stations were ordered to delay live broadcasts by 10 seconds, a policy that was designed to give censors time to react in case free-Tibet demonstrators or others staged political protests.
Examples include the removal of a reference to the Cold War in Casino Royale,[136] and the omission of footage containing Chow Yun-fat that "vilifies and humiliates the Chinese" in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.
[143] Warner Brothers never submitted The Dark Knight for censors, citing "cultural sensitivities in some elements of the film" due to the appearance by a Hong Kong singer whose sexually explicit photographs leaked onto the internet.
[147] Hollywood producers generally seek to comply with the Chinese government's censorship requirements in a bid to access the country's restricted and lucrative cinema market,[148] with the second-largest box office in the world as of 2016.
[155] The album Chinese Democracy by American rock band Guns N' Roses is banned in China, reportedly due to supposed criticism in its title track of the government and a reference to the currently persecuted Falun Gong spiritual movement.
[173] According to BBC, local Chinese businesses such as Baidu, Tencent, and Alibaba, some of the world's largest internet enterprises, benefited from the way China has blocked international rivals from the market, assisting domestic companies.
[177] At the conference, General Secretary Xi Jinping underscored the importance of "ideological work" in strengthening and uniting China; more specifically, he strongly emphasized the need to suppress controversies, "mistaken viewpoints", and rumors on every public platform.
[180] Three weeks after his arrest, he appeared on CCTV-1 (a Chinese TV channel), confessing that he "irresponsibly posted rumors about political and social issues online," and commending the new internet regulations passed under General Secretary Xi Jinping's administration.
[182] By 2015, instances of censored posts from popular Weibo accounts included messages that were only mildly critical of the government – for example, the blocking of sarcastic comments in the wake of a widely viewed documentary about urban air pollution in China entitled, Under the Dome (Chinese: 穹顶之下; pinyin: qióng dǐng zhī xià).
[174] In May 2022, outspoken market strategist Hong Hao's social media accounts in China (Weibo & WeChat) were suspended due to series of negative commentaries regarding the country's two-year slump on COVID-19 lockdowns and political tensions.
[204] Educational institutions within China have been accused of whitewashing PRC history by downplaying or avoiding mention of controversial historical events such as the Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, and the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.
Included on the list of prohibited topics were: constitutional democracy, universal values of human rights, conceptions of media independence and civil society, pro-market neo-liberalism, and "nihilist" criticisms of past errors of the party.
[215][216] In the late 2010s, a number of incidents in which Chinese authorities requested that Western publishers of academic journals, such as Cambridge University Press, carry out censorship of their articles or risk them being not disseminated in China, became public.
For example, in 2017 journalism professor Luwei Rose Luqiu conducted several anonymous interviews with well-known political satirists residing in China to demonstrate how censorship has increased since the creation of the State Internet Information Office in 2011.
[232] Luqiu argues that the changing policies of the Chinese government about what is considered unacceptable to share and discuss on the internet has made the practice of self-censorship more necessary for individuals such as political satirists who want to avoid such consequences as being banned from online platforms or being contacted by the police.
[243][212][244][245] In October 2008, Canadian research group Citizen Lab released a new report saying TOM's Chinese-language Skype software filtered sensitive words and then logged these, with users' information to a file on computer servers which were insecure.
[247] Skype president Josh Silverman said it was "common knowledge" that Tom Online had "established procedures to meet local laws and regulations ... to monitor and block instant messages containing certain words deemed offensive by the Chinese authorities.
[252] In response to the backlash from Chinese consumers, media, and government officials, H&M published a statement on its website that stated it was "working together with our colleagues in China to do everything we can to manage the current challenges and find a way forward.
Chinese citizens frequently use many techniques to circumvent Internet censorship in order to discuss social and political current events on online platforms and gain access to web pages blocked by the Great Firewall of China.
