The great firewall blocks people in china from accessing google, facebook, and other social media sites. While imposed by Communist party censors, an interesting feature of the firewall is how easily it can be defeated. One can buy access to a foreign country VPN, and I found these sites werent even blocked in Chinas own 4g network when using AT&Ts data roaming. I think the Chinese government has been very clever in not plugging these holes. For the overwhelming majority of Chinese residents, circumventing the firewall is not worth the inconvenience - its easier to just use Baidu, Wechat, or Renren, and so they rarely if ever even notice that theyre being censored. On the other hand, the relatively few who do care about such things dont instigate serious protests or dissent about the firewall, precisely because they can circumvent it. This illustrates more generally that China is much more complicated than the pure dictatorship that those in the west imagine. Chinese society is based on consensus, and as much as possible the Chinese government uses soft power and social engineering, rather than force, to maintain support and minimize dissent.
Posted on: Thu, 04 Sep 2014 17:42:19 +0000
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