Censorship is a part of daily life in China. News articles are erased from online search engines, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter are banned, and CNN is routinely blacked out for Chinese viewers.
Instagram was a huge hit in China -- until the government banned it during the Hong Kong protests.
"All good things must
end," one young Chinese woman told me -- seemingly resigned to the fact
that she can no longer post photos on Instagram.
While such restrictions
would likely incite mass outrage in many Western countries, citizens in
China often have no choice but to relinquish some personal freedom as
the government keeps a firm grip on certain aspects of life in this
booming society.
China's Communist Party
will do whatever it takes to stay in power. Censorship is just one tool
-- along with quickly quelling civil disobedience.
Of course, China feels
like a utopia of liberty when compared with the repressive North Korean
regime. I distinctly remember feeling a sense of freedom and relief when
landing in Beijing after a recent visit to Pyongyang.
In the Democratic
People's Republic of Korea, the average citizen has never heard of the
Internet or social media. Contact with the outside world is forbidden
for all but the most elite members of this reclusive society. Propaganda
rules the television airwaves and fills the pages of state-run
newspapers.
Censorship in China
The Sony hack story has
received limited news coverage in China. Stories have appeared on CCTV's
newscasts and in newspapers like China Daily, though with far less
prominence than some other international news outlets.
In Shenyang on Tuesday,
an Internet search for "North Korea" on China's leading (and
government-controlled) search engine Baidu.com revealed a list of mostly
positive articles about the DPRK.
A Baidu search for
"North Korea hack" in English revealed just one nearly two-week-old
article naming the DPRK as "one of several suspects" in the Sony hacking
investigation. An identical search on unrestricted Google on Wednesday
found more than 36 million articles.
When questioned by
foreign reporters on Tuesday, China's Ministry of Foreign Affairs
spokeswoman Hua Chunying shied away from directly addressing the issue
on the Sony hacking probe.
"We need sufficient
evidence before drawing any conclusion," she said at a news conference,
adding that the U.S. and North Korea should communicate.
Of course, any substantive communication is unlikely given the two countries have no diplomatic ties.
The Great Firewall of China
Censorship is the
reality of life behind the so-called Great Firewall of China. The
Ministry of Public Security has been heavily censoring content for more
than a decade.
The Chinese government acknowledges that the Internet is a vital tool to support the country's rapid economic growth.
Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba transactions totaled nearly $250 million last year, more than Amazon and eBay combined. Alibaba's overall revenue soared 54% to over $2.7 billion in 2014. China e-commerce transactions are expected to skyrocket to more than $700 billion by 2017.
But with the Internet
comes the risk of sharing information that, the Chinese government
worries, could destabilize the country. In China, any threat to the
Communist Party's tightly clenched grip must be controlled.
It's why you're likely
to find very little mention of North Korea's bureau 121 in this nation
suspected of having its own shadowy People's Liberation Army unit 61398
-- believed to be responsible for cyberespionage. Incidentally, the Chinese military has also denounced the U.S. for having its own massive cyberspying program.
As all of this continues
to unfold, one thing is certain: International news organizations like
CNN will continue with extensive coverage. And, thanks to heavy-handed
government censors, most citizens of China will continue get only the
news deemed appropriate by the government.
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