preview

Censorship In China

Decent Essays

The number of Internet users is dramatically increasing since the distribution of Internet (eds Assandri & Martins 2009). Indeed, with the largest population, China has numerous Internet users even larger than the population in the USA,though few of them have the full access to all websites (Lu 2015). As information on media flows incredibly rapid in the modern era, China is one of the countries that has the most rigid restrictions on the media (Harvey 2013). The censorship in China is becoming more sophisticated, for China is able to block specific pages and terms within foreign websites and domestic websites (Harvey 2013). In addition, there is a large number of people work for the government and the organisations to censor the Internet …show more content…

Carsten (2014) claims that by maintaining the ban on foreign media usages like YouTube, the profits of Chinese domestic IT industries or Internet websites would expand. For instance, WeChat, one of the most successful mobile app in China, has 549 million monthly active users while the government blocks the usage of Facebook Messenger which owns 600 million monthly active users (Kosoff 2015). On the one hand, the Chinese government prohibits the use of western websites, while it encourages domestic IT industries by incentives to enlarge their markets (Lu 2015). On the contrary, the economic advantages would be stuck above the certain level, because oversea organisations are lack of access to the Chinese domestic companies to exchange their information. The great western IT industries such as Facebook and YouTube lust to make trade communication with China, since China is the most powerful economic advantageous market within the huge population. Once the media were opened in China, more people could exchange or advertise their commercial information and products with foreign industries which it helps middle classes in China to enter the global trading (Kalathil 2001). Furthermore, if the influential foreign IT industries prefer to make a business trade within Chinese companies, they would aid and invest the companies, so it leads the prosperity of the Chinese economy (Kalathil 2001). …show more content…

It is argued that the students in China could become more united and patriotic if there were only pro-government statements on the media. The Chinese government displays its opinion by modifying negative news and enforcing the statements of the ideal Chinese Communist Party, it propagates the Chinese youth that the authority is superb. Consequently, citizens would become patriotic and collective. Nevertheless, the restrictions on the freedom of speech prevent students’ ability to express their own opinions and critical thinking. At the current situation, general Chinese citizens are unaware of some significant facts, because the government converts the truth and eliminates some of the information (Harvey 2013). For example, the terms which relate to Tiananmen Crackdown and Tibet independence are eliminated while the government allows the Internet to expose articles about any types of crimes and anti-Japanese (Mackinnon 2009). Subsequently, the knowledge of international or domestic events would be scarce for the Chinese youth that including the intellects of diverse religions, historical, and global affairs. In addition, the party already has deprived the possibilities of freedom of creativity, since the authority charges people who express their opinions involving the con-party messages, those people include some artists and writers. (Lu 2015; China Study Group 2013 cited in Gomez

Get Access