Awareness of the Great Firewall
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During the era of information explosion, access to the internet has been universalized, providing almost everyone with the ability to watch videos on YouTube and search for interesting content on Google. People could see a lot of people from different countries on Instagram, Twitter or Tiktok, but it is rare to see Chinese people on those Apps. According to Beech, “There are 649 million Chinese online, more than twice the number of people online in the U.S. But they live in a parallel universe that is utterly apart from the rest of the digital world” (2015). Some people might be curious, “Doesn’t everyone in China have access to the internet based on their 1.4 billion population?” The answer for this question is: if you see Chinese users on Twitter and it shows that they are currently in China, they definitely use VPN to get access to those Apps that we use almost every day.
What is the Great Firewall?
As many of you may already know, the Great Wall is an ancient fortification that provide the military defense against invasion. The Great Wall of China was built in 7th century BCE, and it protected China’s northern border from invaders. It is well-known, and it also attracts people all over the world to come see today.
Ironically, the Great Firewall is known as the “Golden Shield Project”. Unlike the Great Wall of China, it is a highly sophisticated internet censorship and surveillance system implemented by the Chinese government to monitor the flow of information on the internet within China. While the Great Wall of China Physically protected China from external threats, the Great Firewall blocks Chinese people from accessing to a wide range of websites deemed politically sensitive, and also monitors online activity and communications of individuals within China.
“VPN services encrypt your Internet traffic and route that traffic through a distant connection so that web surfers in China can hide their location data and access websites that are usually restricted or censored”
—- Wei Wang, The Hacker News, January 24, 2017.
What is VPN?
If you see someone currently in China on Youtube or Instagram, they must use a tool called “VPN”. Basically, VPN is the tool to bypass the Great Firewall to get acess of the website such like Google, Youtube.
The essence of VPN is “to establish a network to safely carry out directional data transmission and prevent others from sniffing”
—- Zhiwei Xu, Jie Ni, Conference on Information Science and Education (ICISE-IE), Sanya, China, 2020, pp. 539-542
VPN is virtual private network. One major function of VPN is to establish a private network on the public network and perform encrypted communication. When a user in China connects to a VPN server outside of China, their internet traffic is routed through the encrypted tunnel and appears to be coming from the VPN server’s location, rather than from within China.
Great Firewall make Isolation from the World
Many individuals living in China have expressed a profound sense of disconnection from the rest of the world, which they attribute to the effects of the Great Firewall. While they are aware of popular social media platforms like Instagram, YouTube, Twitter, etc., they are unable to access them. For instance, some people are avid K-pop fans who would love to follow their favorite Korean pop stars on Instagram and learn about their music composition and creative process. However, people in China can’t directly interact with their idols online because they can’t access Instagram etc. Similarly, when people need to access to sources from other countries for their academic writing projects, they are only able to do so through school’s computer which has been authorized to access Google, but it will affect their efficiency since it is inconvenient. People in China are unable to easily access news from around the world. The Great Firewall brings lots of limitations to their ability to engage in international business, education, or social interactions, and can create barriers to collaboration and cooperation with people in other countries.
People in China may be unable to use the Apps like WhatsApp, Skype or may find it challenging to use email services that are not based in China. Lots of Chinese international students who study abroad have deep feelings of the inconvenience caused by the Great Firewall. They cannot get access to their school website, sources, or email when students go back to China for the school break. It causes lots of difficulties to communicate with professors or the academic communication process. In addition, lots of international students feel isolated as well by the Great Firewall, since they cannot send any messages, log into Instagram or other social media in China to talk to their friends abroad. It is an awful feeling that Chinese international students are like a disappearing person to all their friends and classmates in the United States once they return to China. The strong sense of disparity between the home country and the country where international students study might also cause a lot of conflicts in their mind or lead to mental health problems. Because the Great Firewall is an invisible virtual wall between international students and their friends, it makes many Chinese international students feel alienated to their classmates, or even their family.
People don’t want to be monitored on every day because there are many staff behind the Great Firewall monitoring social media 24/7, IP properties, and controlling the flow of information in a timely manner, while removing statements deemed inappropriate and possibly finding everyone by network IP address and pursuing consequences. But often these supposedly inappropriate statements are simply stating facts, but the government doesn’t want to be perceived as imperfect, so they are deemed inappropriate
Chinese people’s views about the Great Firewall and the VPN
During the Covid-19 pandemic:
With the development of intellectual enlightenment and increasingly international communication, more people have become aware of the importance of reading real news, real numbers of things, and the truth. Especially due to the Covid Pandemic, Chinese people start to realize how inappropriate is when they are blocked from outside news. It was important for people to know how many positive cases were around them at the beginning of 2020, and how much food they had left to maintain the next couple days of quarantine. According to Liu’s report,
“It’s been around five weeks since COVID-19 lockdowns started in Shanghai, and people are increasingly hungry”
—- Tracy Wen Liu, Foreign Policy, May 3, 2022.
“他们认为这些言论不恰当，所以把我们每个人在微博上发的求救内容都删除了” (Original Version). Translated: “The pleas for help that each of us posted on Weibo were deleted, they do not let us send anything that identified as”inappropriate” by them”
微博用户，微博，3月14日，2022年 . Weibo user, Weibo, March/14th/2022
It apparently shows the Great Firewall does not only block the news from outside of China, also has really strict speech censorship within China. People realize deleting content is not appropriate; and it is definitely not a good thing in an emergency.
Therefore,
More and more people seek to use the VPN to get through the Great Firewall today.
“In late January, when Wuhan and surrounding cities were locked down, VPN downloads jumped. So did searches for politically sensitive content”
—- Anonymou people
From the interview, it apparently shows that people want to see the real news, the real amount of information and the real situation of COVID at that time, therefore, more people are not satisfied with the fake number that the government published to hide the truth.
What could we do to Appeal Great Firewall and help people in China?
Educate and help with mental:
Mental health hotlines: Set up mental health hotlines that Chinese people can call to seek support and guidance from trained professionals. These hotlines can be staffed by mental health professionals who speak Chinese and understand the unique challenges faced by people living under the Great Firewall.
Online support groups: Create online support groups or forums where Chinese people can connect with others who are facing similar challenges. This can provide a safe space for people to share their experiences, exchange information, and offer each other support.
Cross-cultural exchange programs: Develop programs that facilitate cross-cultural exchange between Chinese people and people from other countries. This can help Chinese people gain a broader perspective on the world and connect with others who share their interests and concerns.
Share Information:
You can share information with people in China by using the site they can access, such as Weibo, RED, and Zhihu. Your sharing will become one of the ways for them to know about the outside world and the content which is blocked by the Great Firewall.
(But the “inappropriate”sharing might gonna be deleted by the Great Firewall)
Use Encryption:
Encourage people in China to use encryption tools such as Tor, HTTPS, and SSL to protect their online activity and prevent government surveillance.
Help them engage more VPN service:
- Lobbying: VPN providers can lobby the Chinese government to legalize their services. VPN providers can form coalitions and hire lobbyists to communicate their concerns to the Chinese government.
- Partnership with Local Companies: VPN providers can partner with local companies to provide their services. This will give VPN providers a local presence and make it easier for them to operate in China.
- Offering Alternative Services: VPN providers can offer alternative services that do not violate Chinese laws. For example, they can offer encryption services that do not allow users to access blocked websites.
- Education: VPN providers can educate the Chinese population about the benefits of VPNs and how they can use them to access blocked websites. This can be done through online courses, seminars, and workshops.
Speak out or Lobby:
People can lobby the Chinese government and international organizations to lift the restrictions imposed by the Great Firewall. This can involve writing letters, signing petitions, and raising awareness about the issue.
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