Censorship Of The Chinese Communist Party

Since early dynastic governments, China has monitored and controlled media to avoid the undermining of its authority. Some reasons for this censorship are well known by Westerners, others less so. In 221 B.C, Emperor Qin Shi Huang burned Confucian and Taoist books in order to rid the dynasty of different political perspectives. He did this not only to maintain order and unity, but also because he was impelled by other ancient Chinese values. Values that included a belief in state’s rights over human rights and the preservation of the dynasty at all costs. The more complex models of censorship used in China today were first used in the Soviet Union from 1922-1991 and are rooted in Marxist- Leninist thought. Westerners would be wise to consider China’s political history and deeply held social

Censorship is the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security. There are good reasons why censorship is used, such as some information might have to be censored for the content it might display and which in turn might cause a disturbance in peace. Countries try not abuse the fact they are allowed to do this because they are the ones who create the rules. However, China is abusing this fact and has been doing it to the point people are fearing what they can post or use on the internet. This issue was brought up in recent years because it has many different types of medians that were found in the New York Times. Firstly, the discussion

In the book 1984, the government has control over all media “and so it was with every class of recorded fact, great or small. Everything faded away into a shadow-world in which, finally, even the date of the year had become uncertain” (Orwell 37). Due to the party’s restraint of all media, there are no actual certainty of written records. Without written records, no one knows if the government is being truthful about what has happened in the past. The citizens even question their memories and logic because there is no certainty of the past. Without records, the government can rearrange history however they please because there is no evidence to prove they are wrong. Similarly, in the article, “The Other Side Of the Great Firewall”, China has set up an immense system of “online censorship, commonly known as the Great Firewall, [which] blocks the populace from viewing material deemed dangerous to the state” (Beech etal 2). The chinese government has blocked the chinese citizens from being able to go on a variety of websites in order to protect China from western influences. Without certain websites, the government can regulate what their citizens can see and can hide what they don’t want their citizens to see. The citizens are being blocked from information that is considered dangerous to their government. The government continually will have total jurisdiction through the use of blocking websites

China today still follows a similar style of governing by blocking websites, altering news and punishing scholars (Buckley). In addition, due to the concealment of information citizens of China are living life in ignorance (Buckley). These actions might jeopardize the prosperity of China in the future just as it did during the Qin Dynasty. Ceasing media censorship now in China may benefit their society in the years a head due to all of the conflict in the apparent world around

Censorship can be found all the way back to 443 BC, Rome. It was used in Greece, and a good government meant the people were shaped well. In order for the people to be well shaped they needed censorship, which is why it was such an important job. The first law for censorship did not become established until 300 AD in China (Newth). Frank states that many works of art have been changed and sometimes even erased because the content was not liked by people. The biggest reason why people do not like by people were for religious, social, or political reasons. Censorship was pushed artists’ freedom away by not letting them fully express their work. In 1565, Michelangelo's famous Sistine Chapel fresco was said to be unholy and wrong in the Catholic

Censorship in China has gained much attention recently because of the conflict between Google and the Chinese government’s self-censorship policies. In fact, censorship has been practiced since ancient China and the intensity only increases by the years. Nowadays, the most notable measure of censorship is being done on the Internet. More and more restrictions have been put into actions by the Chinese government, which make the life of Chinese Internet users, the Chinese netizens, very inconvenient. With the intensity of censorship increasing and the censoring technology improving, Internet censorship has mainly negative effects on Chinese society.

China is one of the most controlled countries in the world. The Chinese constitution states that the people of China have freedom of speech, of the press, and of demonstration. However, this article in the constitution also states that the Chinese government has the authority to censor anything in the country when freedom of speech or of press could potentially be harmful to the country. So, in China, you are free to speak, but only about what the government says is okay to talk about. Also, protesting in China is a very dangerous task, as shown in the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989. But, in August 2009, Chinese Internet users were able to “indefinitely postpone” the use of censorship software on all new computers in China, called the

Nonetheless, the popularization of the internet enables the Chinese to get in touch with the Western values. Thus, activism for human rights has appeared online. This essay will argue how online activism has influenced Chinese understandings of human rights; formed the attitude toward the authoritarian regime; and shaped the Chinese society. Two cases are selected namely 1) Shanxi black brick kiln slave scandal; 2) Lei Yang incident. At the same time, I will illustrate how the authority response to the two incidents which are positive and negative respectively. The positive is that the social welfare has been improved, while the negative is that the government tightened the cyber control.

Even though state-promoted censorship begun in Greece, it quickly made its appearance throughout the ancient world. In China, the emperor Qin Shi Huang commanded that the authorities would burn all of the books except of those dealing with husbandry, medicine, or predictions in 213 B.C. so that he would preserve his recently unified kingdom from the anticipated risks of poetry, history, and philosophy. In this burning were also contained a great number of Confucius writings, a Chinese scholar and philosopher that Qin Shi Huang was afraid of and scorned for his justification of progenitor cult and his awareness of historical and political events. Thankfully some of the writings of Confucius were protected by librarians and others who acknowledged

The use of censorship has been around even before the Qin dynasty, and still exists today. Many countries and organizations use censorship as a form to blind the public on current situations which may affect the general public. For this reason, morally speaking, the use of censorship is never justified.

Now, many Chinese citizens are attempting to access these applications and searches without censorship by “connect[ing] to virtual private networks that provide them with communications channels to servers outside the Chinese mainland” (Bradsher 4). Though, many citizens have found loopholes in order to post their messages to these websites. For example, on Weibo (the Chinese version of twitter), if a user were to post using a specific keyword, the post would automatically be deleted, if not manually by a superior on the site if it slipped through the system. However, because the use of “abbreviations, neologisms, homophones, and homographs” by users, many political satirists, revolutionists, or regular citizens find themselves sliding through the cracks thus escaping the censoring governments reach (Wang and Mark 5). In addition, because the government also changes from time to time, a man named Yu Jia, a government critic stated that “Today's China is very different from Chairman Mao's China. I think then, it used to be like an iron slab, and there was only really one idea. It was completely impermeable. But now, it's more like a fishnet, and there are holes” (Jia, Han and Fu 4). This further proves the argument that legislation in regard to behavior online is too varied in

In the United States, every child, teenager and adult uses Wikipedia, YouTube and Facebook, among numerous other sites, regularly. The internet is open and uncensored for the most part, other than parental controls. In China, most, if not all of those types of sites are or have been blocked. As in, you could not go to them, unless you found some way around the web filters and firewalls the Chinese government runs in their country. While China defends their practice of internet censorship, based on “protecting” the people, heavy internet censorship is a block to free speech and impedes economic and social development in the 21st century.

In, 2001, the Internet censorship laws went to the ultimate extreme. If state secrets are exported from China, the government can impose harsh penalties such as imprisonment and confiscation all belongings, and in extreme cases, the death penalty. In 2002, China banned those under the age of 18 from using Internet cafes. Internet cafe users are banned from viewing websites pose threats to “state security” i.e. websites with violence, sexuality, or heretic messages.

Imagine a world where you have no privacy, no secrets, and no voice. Every step you take, every direction you change is watched closely. Every word that comes out of your mouth is heard. You think before you talk even in front of your own children, because they too are one of them. They control everything you see, think, and do. They are Big Brother. In George Orwell’s novel “1984”, a man named Winston Smith lives in a world of absolute totalitarian political regime. Although the totalitarian state is taken to the extremes in Orwell’s novel, the parallel between the lives of the citizens in the novel and citizens living in a world of censorship in China is evident. The governments in both situations manipulate and control the people. Orwell’s novel provides an example of the outcomes of an absolute power government and how dangerous the situation truly is. Additionally, the novel shows us how the government in China uses their advances in technology to spy on the people, while making sure that everyone is aware that they are constantly being watched. Although the government seems to be acting as if they are doing their part in the novel, the residents of the Air Strip are having their rights controlled, manipulated, and violated by these powerful forces. Once the government has absolute power, they will edit any media that their people read, hear, or see. Not only do they control the people’s minds, and thoughts, but their bodies as well.

By having complete control over the few entities and their network connections, the Chinese government is able to monitor and regulate the Internet more effectively. Sherman, co-author of “Red Wired: China’s Internet Revolution”, explained that “China is not on the Internet, it's basically an intranet. Everything is banned by the Great Firewall”. Although Internet is accessible outside of China, the vast majority of the population refuse to use it because it is so inconvenient (Herold, 2012). For instance, recurrent time-outs, very slow Internet connection, and the content