The Great Firewall of China (Episode 01)

In the beginning, we have to go into a slightly different context. When the coronavirus paralyzed the whole world, Chinese author Fang Fang wrote a Wuhan Diary book. Whan’s local administration officials deliberately withheld some information in the early stages of the coronavirus outbreak – a subject that has been sharply criticized in author Fang’s book. However, the book does not criticize the late response of China’s central communist government or the authoritarian government that allowed its administrative officials to do so. Author Fang Fang himself once served as the head of a local writers’ organization in Hubei Province, China, with which the Chinese Communist Party has good relations. So he will not criticize the Communist Party, It was supposed to be. The book also captures the reactions of some Chinese citizens to the early stages of the spread of coronavirus on the Chinese social media Weibo.

The book was published at a time when Chinese society was buzzing with another issue. Lee Wenliang, a young doctor, was the first person to come forward with some information about the coronavirus. In the early stages, where his local administration did its best to conceal the information, he brought to light some coronavirus epidemics at risk. According to him, the coronavirus has caused a great deal of concern in many parts of China, which the Chinese Communist Party did not like at all. He was later charged with spreading rumors and sentenced under Chinese law. Dr. Li Wenliang later died of Kovid-19 at some point during his execution. His death caused a great deal of controversy in Chinese society. Many directly blame the Chinese Communist Party for his death. But in the midst of extreme Chinese government surveillance, no one has been able to express their outrage.

After the publication of Fang Fang’s book ‘Whan Diary,’ it was widely expected to gain considerable acceptance in Chinese society. But in reality, the opposite happens. No, no punitive action was taken by the Communist Party. Numerous young people in China have sharply criticized Fang on Weibo. They claimed that just as the West has resorted to unreasonable criticism of China’s rise in the global arena, so too has Fang sought to negotiate. They also claimed that despite its initial failure, the Chinese government had shown great skill in preventing coronavirus aggression and that it was “absolutely motivated” to focus on failure without focusing on the issue. A Weibo user said,

“Where coronaviruses are leading Westerners to impose huge fines on us, author Fang Fang is handing them a powerful weapon.

Let me first explain why author Fang Fang’s Wuhan Diary was published and criticized by the Chinese and the controversy surrounding the death of Dr. Li Wenliang. When Dr. Li Wenliang was convicted of “spreading rumors,” almost everyone in China thought he was, in fact, spreading rumors. That’s why no one spoke out against his death, after his death, when they realized that Lee Wenliang was not a rumor but a source of information. When Fang Fang points out the initial neglect of Wuhan’s local administration in his book, instead of discussing it, he is called an “anti-China and anti-Western tool.” In fact, almost a decade of Internet filtering in China has created a generation whose condition suggests that the Chinese Communist Party may have added a secret chip to their brains. Through which they are being controlled. What is bad in the eyes of the Chinese government is bad in the eyes of this generation. They strongly criticize the Chinese government for anything it dislikes. Attempts by the Chinese government to control the Internet on these issues have met with 100% success.

In December 2015, the country’s second Internet Conference was held in Ujjain, a famous city in Zhejiang Province, China. Among the guests invited to this huge conference were heads of state of several countries, some of the country’s most emerging entrepreneurs, and numerous technology experts. Speaking at the opening of the conference, Xi Jinping, President of China and supreme leader of the Communist Party, said, 

” We must respect the efforts of each state to develop its own virtual world . ” You want to develop and control, you have to decide that, but don’t forget to come and interfere in China’s cyber world. In fact, since taking office, the West has criticized China for its unwarranted interference in the control of the Internet world. Available.

Incumbent Chinese President Xi Jinping took office in 2012. Allegedly, the level of censorship in China’s Internet world has increased many times since he took office. In the first decade of this century (2000-2010), the level of censorship on the Chinese Internet was very low, allowing Chinese residents to access numerous websites that are now banned in the country. Besides, the Chinese government at that time did not carry out as much surveillance as it does today. But things changed when Xi Jinping took over China. A number of laws have been enacted to regulate China’s Internet world, leaving foreign companies in China in dire straits. The purpose of these laws was So that the technology companies were forced to transfer various information of their consumers to the Chinese Communist Party. Before Xi Jinping took office in China, protests against the Chinese government’s various unsatisfactory activities and human rights violations were almost regular. The Chinese could also express their dissatisfaction through social media without fear. But now, it is almost impossible.

Chinese President Xi Jinping doesn’t see much difference between real and virtual worlds. Its main goal is to uphold the ideals of the Chinese Communist Party in both worlds and to ensure that no other ideology can emerge. At the same time, China has spent billions of yuan to innovate the technologies needed to control the Internet. President Xi Jinping himself is a strong believer in Chinese nationalism, so he has enacted legislation to prevent Western technology companies from taking advantage of the Chinese market. But in controlling China’s Internet world, he has to keep one thing in mind – the growing power of the Chinese people through the Internet and the way they conduct business should not be hampered in any way.