Thursday, April 28, 2005

China's Great Firewall


From: Gerry Groot
Date: Thu, 28 Apr 2005 16:19:34 +0930
Subject: [chineseinternetresearch] China's Great Firewall

China's Great Firewall

WASHINGTON, April 26, 2005

2005.04.15

WASHINGTON ñ The Chinese government's system for blocking access to
the Internet is now the world's "most sophisticated," according to a
report released in Washington on Thursday.

The report, "Internet Filtering in China 2004-2005,"
http://www.opennetinitiative.net/studies/china/ was prepared by the
OpenNet Initiative, http://www.opennetinitiative.net/ a
collaborative project by groups based at Harvard University, the
University of Cambridge, and the University of Toronto.
(PDF Version)
http://www.opennetinitiative.net/studies/china/ONI_China_Country_Study.pdf

Speaking at a hearing of the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review
Commission, John Palfrey, one of the co-authors of the report, said,
"While China seeks to grow its economy through the use of new
technologies, the State's actions suggest at the same time a
deep-seated fear of free and open communications made possible by the
Internet."

This fear has led the Chinese government to create the world's "most
sophisticated Internet-filtering regime," Palfrey said.

Palfrey noted that government efficiency at filtering has increased
since 2002, when the OpenNet Initiative released its last report.

"As more Internet communications methods have become popular in China
- for instance online discussion forums, search engines, and Web logs
("blogs," personal online journals) - the Chinese state has extended
its filtering apparatus to control expression in these new media."

Banned Topics

Palfrey said that China's Internet blocking is cued by "keywords" to
prevent access to politically sensitive topics such as political
dissent, movements for the independence of Tibet and Taiwan, and the
1989 government crackdown at Tiananmen Square.

Filtering of these topics relies on multiple and overlapping systems,
Palfrey said, and takes place at access points like cyber cafes, at
intermediary points like Internet Service Providers, and at the
central national Internet network.

Other, nontechnical means are also used by China's government to
prevent free access to information. OpenNet Initiative representative
Derek Bambauer, also speaking at the hearing, said, "Cyber cafes are
required to log users and the pages they accessed, and particularly
the pages
they accessed that are blocked or prohibited."

Bambauer said that this puts users on notice they are being watched.

Other Media Also Controlled

Speaking before the Commission, U.S. State Department human rights
official Susan O'Sullivan said that China is matching its citizens'
growing Internet use with an increase in the numbers of technicians
trained to block access to material the Chinese government deems
offensive. About 30,000 are now employed in this way, she said.

"They have the power to block offending material temporarily or
permanently, or edit it electronically. And if the Web site is
domestic, they can issue a warning or close it down ."

China last year spent an estimated $800 million on Internet-filtering
efforts according to Jack He, a network technologies specialist
speaking in November at a symposium titled ìEthnic Relations During
the Information Age.î

Princeton University China scholar Perry Link, speaking at the China
Commission hearing, said that Chinese government control over all
media has become tighter, not looser since Communist Party leaders Hu
Jintao and Wen Jiabao took power in 2003.

Link noted that Chinese media are now freer, but only on the surface
and focus mainly on topics like commerce, entertainment, fashion,
sports, and romance. Sex and corruption are also more openly
discussed, Link said, as long as the first is not taken too far and
reporting on the
second is not aimed at targets that are placed "too high."

This, Link said, can lead observers to conclude that "a kind of
liberalism" has set in. "And that's a mistake, a serious mistake, in
my view."

"Whenever the topic is serious, from the point of view of political
control at the top ñ topics such as [China's northwestern Muslim
province] Xinjiang, Tibet, of course Taiwan, of course [the banned
spiritual group] Falun Gong and so on ñ on those topics, the control
is tighter."

Little Progress Toward Openness

Addressing Commission members and witnesses, Commission chairman
Richard D'Amato recalled that when the U.S. government granted China
permanent normal trading status in 2000, it hoped that China's
government would gradually ease its rigid political controls over the
Chinese people.

There has been little progress toward that goal, D'Amato said.

"Control over information is one of the most powerful and dangerous
tools that can be developed by a government," D'Amato observed.
"China has clearly worked hard to establish and maintain such
control."

Sarah Jackson-Han (jacksonhans@rfa.org)
Director of Communications
Radio Free Asia
2025 M Street, N.W.
Washington, DC 20036
Phone : 202-530-7774
Fax : 202-530-7794

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