Internet Censorship in China Can’t Defeat Anti-Censorship Software

In China, you would likely need special software in order to read this article.

Internet users in China can surf the free web, but only if they know how to get around the Chinese communist regime’s internet censorship. Known as the Great Firewall, this censorship blocks internet users from accessing anything the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) deems unsuitable—such as information about the CCP’s violent history or about the human rights violations it’s still committing today.

This lack of information freedom can lead to disastrous consequences. The CCP typically covers up news that could portray a negative image of itself, even censoring information about public health emergencies in which news could save lives.

In 2002 and 2003, the deadly SARS epidemic broke out in China. Chinese authorities struggled to cover up the situation, as it was during the politically sensitive time leading up to China’s political Two Sessions meetings.

However, The Epoch Times, an independent New York-based newspaper that reports uncensored China news, reported extensively on the epidemic. Without anti-censorship software, the public in China would not have had access to this critical information online.

In addition, the CCP’s human rights abuses are covered up to prevent Chinese people, and the rest of the world, from learning about them.

In 1999, the CCP launched a nationwide persecution against the tens of millions of Chinese citizens who practice Falun Gong, a Chinese meditation and self-improvement discipline. Falun Gong adherents try to live their lives according to truthfulness, kindness, and tolerance, three principles that stand in contrast to the Chinese Communist Party’s policies of deceit, hatred, and struggle.

Then CCP leader Jiang Zemin started the campaign to imprison, torture, and kill those who practice Falun Gong, thus adding the peaceful meditation discipline to the long list of groups that have been oppressed by the CCP.

Under Jiang’s rule, Chinese media spread hate propaganda to defame Falun Gong. The Great Firewall began to block Chinese internet users from reading true information about Falun Gong and the persecution.

This type of censorship has allowed human rights abuses to continue, since without awareness of the abuses, the Chinese public and the international community cannot pressure the CCP to stop.

Anti-Censorship Software

In response to the Great Firewall, tech entrepreneurs created anti-censorship software such as Freegate and Ultrasurf.

This type of software allows users to access the free internet in countries with censorship. It also lets them stay anonymous and secure while surfing the web.

Millions of people in China have been able to access censored websites using these technologies, according to the websites of Freegate and Ultrasurf. Many people in other countries with censorship have also used them.

The Chinese regime has tried to defeat these programs, but without success.

In July 2017, The Epoch Times reported that China’s Ministry of Public Security had issued an order to crack down on VPN tools (another method of circumventing the Great Firewall) and target popular anti-censorship software such as Freegate.

Freegate CEO Bill Xia told The Epoch Times that the crackdown gives more people the opportunity to become aware of the censorship in China, and that people in Chinese government agencies and schools are widely using circumvention software.

“We developed Freegate specifically for the users in China, and we also work to continue upgrading it,” Xia told The Epoch Times. “The number of users in China that are actively circumventing internet censorship has grown so huge that the Chinese Communist Party can no longer keep track of who’s doing it.”

Sources:

https://www.theepochtimes.com/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-epoch-times_2011390.html

https://www.theepochtimes.com/chinese-regime-cracks-down-on-internet-access-but-users-resist_2273481.html

https://ultrasurf.us/

http://www.dongtaiwang.com/home_en.php