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Human Rights Essay
English 10B
Ms.Peggy
September 22, 2014
Censorship: The Reason Behind The Firewall of China
An open Internet access allows individuals to communicate and share their thoughts
freely, but powerful involvement, such as the government, wants to control internet users, by
censoring and blocking free speech. The Internet has two internets. One is the Internet, the
other is the Chinanet. Those are the words of a Michael Anti, also known as Jing Zhao,
during one of his speeches ("Behind The Great Firewall of China."). The government creates
an online program called the Golden Shield Project or what critics called the Great
Firewall of China to filter and censor the World Wide Web in China. The Internet police
hired 30,000 agents to monitor and investigate posts on the Internet (Wilkins.). In the year
2013, 211 journalists are arrested worldwide, in which 32 of those cases happened in China
("2013 Prison Census."). Censorship in China has lead to the violation of their citizens right
to freedom of expression that has become a big issue due to the governments fear of
Westernization and a rebellion against the Chinese Communist Party.
. The word Westernize means to influence people with the culture, economy and
politics of countries in Europe and North America ("Definition of Westernize."). Eastern
countries, such as China, have started to become more westernized in these past few years.
Peoples lifestyle, fashion and entertainment interests have changed from national products to
western products. Now western products has dominated Chinese products in the market, as
people are more interested in buying western products. As the spread of western products
escalated, Chinese citizen has also start to think and behave like a westerner or become
westernized.
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Western countries, like the United States, promote a culture of freedom, in contrast to
Eastern countries like China with a background of communism, are against the idea of
freedom. As the western culture of freedom infiltrate China, the Chinese government feared
that their political ways would soon be influenced as well. Censorship became a method for
the government to stop the growth of western culture in China. "We must clearly see that the
international hostile forces are stepping up strategic attempts to westernize China, and
ideological and cultural fields are a focus for long-term infiltration," (Staff) said Hu Jintao,
the Chinese president in an essay written for the Communists Party magazine. After this
essay was published, the Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film and Television declare
announce that the amount of entertainment broadcasted in the country will be decreased
(Staff). This became another effort of the government to stop outside influence from
entering China.
As the idea of freedom from western countries infiltrate the minds of nationals, the
risk of a rebellion occurring rises. Additionally, China has a history of rebellion due to their
previous communist leader. "I think that the more freely information flows, the stronger the
society becomes because then citizens of countries around the world can hold their own
governments accountable, they can begin to think for themselves" (Mack) said Obama,
during a speech in Shanghai in November 2010. When citizens begin to think about
themselves and want changes in their life, people start to demand more and when these
demands are not fulfilled, citizens carry out protests. To avoid the possibility of rebellion in
China, the government decided to stop the flow of information into China.
But it is not easy for the government to control the largest population in this world
from information. Not everyone comply with the rules made by the government, as some
people are flouting the rules. The attempt of creating change in China has always been
stopped by the Chinese government. One of the examples is the Charter 08. Charter 08 was a
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bold move calling for economic and political improvement made and signed by Chinese
dissident and was announced in December 2008 as a commemoration of the 60
th
anniversary
of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ("Charter 08: Calling For Democracy In
China."). After the announcement of the charter, people who were involved were arrested and
one of those people was a writer and political activist, Liu Xiaobo. Liu Xiaobo is currently in
prison and his wife, Liu Xia, is under house arrest ("Liu Xiaobo."). The Charter 08 became
the symbol of rebellion of many Chinese writers and activist while the arrest of many
activists like Liu Xiaobo became a hot topic worldwide. To avoid similar cases happening,
the governments surveillance on the Internet became tighter. After this case, the
governments focus came to avoid rebellious acts like this. As it turns out, censorship is
primarily aimed at restricting the spread of information that may lead to collective action,
regardless of whether or not the expression is in direct opposition to the state and whether or
not it is related to government policies. (Watts) said Gary King, a professor at Harvard
University. According to the Harvard professor, the main purpose of censorship in China is to
avoid any planned protests.
The governments fear to a rebellion and westernization of China are believed to be
the reason behind the strict censorship in China. Chinas censorship has become a huge topic
worldwide. This issue has not only broken the right to expression but other rights such as
torture and unfair detainment. Every citizen has the right to express their thoughts on the
decisions made by the government that will affect their life. Even though the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights has states the 30 rights every human has, but it does not mean
that no one will try to take those rights away. It is the duty and responsibility of every human
to make the words written on the declaration come true and that every human have those
rights.

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Works Cited Page
"Behind The Great Firewall of China. " Perf. Michael Anti. Ted.com. TED Conferences,
LLC, June 2012. Web. 08 Sept. 2014.
"Charter 08: Calling For Democracy In China." Tavaana. E-Collaborative for Civic
Education, n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2014.
"Definition of Westernize." Oxford Dictionary. Oxford Dictionary, n.d. Web. 02 Sept. 2014.
"Liu Xiaobo." PEN American Center. PEN American Center, n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2014.
Mack, Lauren. "Internet Censorship in China." About. About.com, n.d. Web. 21 Sept. 2014.
Staff, CNN Wire, Chi-Chi Zhang, Jethro Mullen, and Steven Jiang. "China Sees Culture as a
Crucial Battleground." CNN. Cable News Network, 05 Jan. 2012. Web. 16 Sept.
2014.
Watts, Elleka. "Beyond the Great Firewall: How and What China Censors." The Diplomat.
The Diplomat, 11 June 2013. Web. 21 Sept. 2014.
Wilkins, Britney. "25 Shocking Facts About Chinese Censorship." Online College.
Onlinecollege.org, 5 July 2009. Web. 1 Sept. 2014.
"2013 Prison Census." Committee to Protect Jounalist. CPJ, 18 Dec. 2013. Web. 1 Sept.
2014.