The Greatest FireWall of China

We all remember the recent scandal related to Chinese hacker’s attack on Google Corporation’s post service. As a result US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton ended up calling people to fight against censorship in Chinese internet and even promising a reward for success in this zany deal.

Internet.cn is a very interesting topic. While for people all round the world Internet is free from control, being the kingdom of independency with no restrictions in anything but speed and traffic, for Chinese netizens Web is a strictly controlled space. What do the English-speaking people do in the Internet? I mean, what word do they use to describe the process of being in the Web? They use the verb “to surf”. What it provokes in your mind is probably a beautiful scene – sunny day, boundless ocean and here you are on the salty waves, in splashes of blue water radiating sky colors on your face, you feel happy, you fill free… Now let us see, which word is used in Chinese language... In China they say “上网” (shang wang) translated like “be caught in fishing net”. How about your feelings now? Do you still feel free? I guess you don’t… Because there is now place for freedom in such expression, as well as no freedom in Chinese Web.

Even before Facebook, Myspace, Flickr and  Youtube got officially blocked last year, some websites like Livejournal, for example, had been already unavailable in China. So-called “Great Firewall of China”, or officially – “The Golden Shield Project” is the very system that blocks content by preventing IP addresses from being routed through and consists of standard firewalls and proxy servers at the Internet gateways.

Taken from: http://whatblocked.com/

Not only western sites are being censored. Indigenous Chinese websites are also under strict control. There are many things you'll find no word about in the most popular search engine of China – Baidu. But it is worth saying, that there are people in China, who don’t want to give in, and they work hard inventing new ways to evade censorship. For example, the tool named “Baidu Harmonizer” helps you to figure out what words are censored by Baidu Tieba (post forum), based on a blacklist dictionary updated constantly. In addition it automatically "cleans up" the censored words by inserting characters that break up keywords without creating too much disruption to the text.

Of course, it is hardly possible to ban all disagreeable websites, that’s why the Chinese government came up with delicate idea of taking control over the netizens’ mind. I mean so-called “Wumaodang” (or “50-cent Army”) – gathering special web-commentators hired by government. Their name origins from “wumao” – that in Chinese means “five mao” (half yuan) – the sum of money that the government is believed to pay for each post or comment. They first appeared in 2005, and after the president Hu Jintao had described their activity as "a new pattern of public-opinion guidance" and had called the government to "achieve excellence in the Web public relations" and "actively use innovative technologies to reinforce positive propaganda”, paid commentators were hired all across the country. So what do the soldiers of the 50-cent Army do? They join various discussions on Internet, write patriotic posts and do their best to create a positive image of the government of China. What they stress upon their best are forums, blogs and chats where such “hot” topics as Tibet, Taiwan, and Web-censorship are being argued and discussed heatedly. And if someone dares to say a bad word about the government or just expresses some idea differing from official point of view, this one is immediately to receive a lot of angry comments from 50 cent Army soldiers, trying to refute this different point and humiliate it.

  Though it seems that despite attacks of USA, Chinese government is not going to give up their Internet policy. And no one seems to be frightened by Google’s promise to leave China. It is not surprising at all: each foreign site in China will find dozens of local counterparts suited much better to the Chinese market.