The development of information and communication technologies, toppled with the creation of the Internet in the last decade, has resulted in a revolutionary liberalization of information. The far-fetched effects are still debated as governments struggle to understand the cultural, political, social, and economic realities of the new situation. (Yang 410) Since the mid-1990s, the Chinese government has displayed a remarkable interest in the Internet. On one hand, implementing a set of strategic policies and initiatives to foster the development of the Internet and related technologies, while on the other hand, cautiously observing and enforcing a series of legal and technical measures to keep it on a short leash. (Tai xx) In recent years, the arrival of social networking tools coupled with the penetration of the web in all areas of the society has started a silent evolutionary – if not revolutionary – social and political transformation. The Internet has truly empowered Chinese netizens who now “have the power to redress what they perceive as unfair and unjustified by taking issues into the virtual court of appeal on the Internet thus swaying the tide of public opinion (in turn forcing the government to reform).” (Tai xix)

Background

The political and ideological roots of Internet censorship in China could be traced back to the 1979 ‘reform and opening up’ policy of Deng Xiaoping. He said, “if you open the window for fresh air, you have to expect some flies to blow in.” (MacKinnon 32) With the transformation of the state-controlled market into a modern capitalist economy, the ruling party of China anticipated the spreading of competing ideologies and narratives – flies – that could pose a challenge to its authoritarian rule. With the arrival of the Internet in 1994, the Communist Party of China engaged in widespread censorship operations, first banning the Chinese Democratic Party and subsequently creating the ‘Golden-Shield’ project, or the Great Firewall of China. (Goldsmith and Wu 91)

Censorship and Social Media

The Ministry of Public Security of China has regulations in place that inflicts fines, and in some instances prison sentence, for people who use the Internet to “defame government agencies … spitting the nation … (and) leaking state secrets.” (Harwitt 36) “China’s semi-authoritarian constellation of formal state limitations on the freedom of association and speech, coupled with increased social spaces for civic and voluntary action has created a milieu in which social movement dynamics features in an embedded fashion.” (Ho 2) This embedded social movement has gain much traction with the rise of new social media tools and sites – such as Sina and Weibo – that allowed for the creation of new types of social spaces that redefines existing relations into new possibilities.

Catalyst for Change

In 2003, Sun Zhigang a newly graduated college student who was working in Guangdong was stopped by the local police for identification, upon failing to show his resident ID permit, he was sentenced to a “detention-repartition center for vagrants.” (Tai xiii) Days later he fell ill and was transferred to a prison hospital where fellow inmates and employees of the hospital beat him to death. While the act could have gone unnoticed, a local TV station picked up the story, and upon airing, the news went viral. Angry citizens used the Internet to express their outrage, exerting tremendous pressure on local and central authorities. Face with public outcry, the dozen of culprits responsible for Sun’s death was quickly arrested and sentenced, “and in the same month, China’s State Council terminated its administrative measures that had been in place for two decades on the custody and repatriation of vagrants in Chinese cities.” (Tai xiii) This is only one out of many cases where due to online public pressures, the Chinese government has taken action to address issues and concerns of its netizens. What we’re seeing today is a silent evolutionary – if revolutionary – social movement that could ultimately lead the “(transformation of China) from an authoritarian setting to a pluralist, liberal-democratic polity.” (Ho 4)

Works Cited

“BBC News – China’s Social Networks Hit by Censorship, says study.” BBC – Homepage. N.p., n.d. Web. 11 Mar. 2012. <http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17313793>.

“”Race to the Bottom”: Corporate Complicity in Chinese Internet Censorship: II. How Censorship Works in China: A Brief Overview.” Human Rights Watch | Defending Human Rights Worldwide. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://www.hrw.org/reports/2006/china0806/3.htm>.

Goldsmith, Jack L., and Tim Wu. Who Controls the Internet? Illusions of a Borderless World. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006. Print.

Harwit, Eric. China’s Telecommunications Revolution. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008. Print.

Ho, Peter, and Richard L. Edmonds. China’s Embedded Activism: Opportunities and Constraints of a Social Movement. London: Routledge, 2008. Print.

Kuhn, Robert Lawrence. How China’s Leaders Think: the Inside Story of China’s Reform and What this Means for the Future. Singapore: John Wiley & Sons, 2010. Print.

MacKinnon, Rebecca. “Flatter World and Thicker Walls? Blogs, Censorship and Civic Discourse in China.” Public Choice 134 (2008): 31-46. Springer. Web. 29 Jan. 2012.

Tai, Zixue. The Internet in China: Cyberspace and Civil Society. New York: Routledge, 2006. Print.

Thompson, Clive. “Google’s China Problem (and China’s Google Problem) – New York Times.” The New York Times – Breaking News, World News & Multimedia. The New York Times, 23 Apr. 2006. Web. 30 Jan. 2012. <http://www.nytimes.com/2006/04/23/magazine/23google.html?pagewanted=1&ei=5090&en=972002761056363f&ex=1303444800>.

Yang, Guobin. “The Co-evolution of the Internet and Civil Society in China.” Asian Survey 43.3 (2003): 405-422. JSTOR. Web. 30 Jan. 2012.