{"id":212301,"date":"2019-03-19T21:31:51","date_gmt":"2019-03-20T04:31:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/?p=212301"},"modified":"2019-03-20T10:21:28","modified_gmt":"2019-03-20T17:21:28","slug":"new-book-examines-the-great-firewall-of-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/chinadigitaltimes.net\/2019\/03\/new-book-examines-the-great-firewall-of-china\/","title":{"rendered":"New Book Examines “The Great Firewall of China”"},"content":{"rendered":"

Last Friday saw the publication of “The Great Firewall of China: How to Build and Control an Alternative Version of the Internet<\/a>” by CNN’s James Griffiths (previously at Shanghaiist and South China Morning Post). CDT read an advance copy, and found it<\/a> a “vivid and compelling account [which] untangles the complex evolution of China\u2019s internet controls, providing both valuable context for recent events and a solid foundation for understanding future developments.” Besides chronicling past developments within China, the book stands as the latest in a growing chorus of warnings about the expanding global reach of China’s digital controls<\/a> and its role as a source of inspiration and technology to other countries<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Griffiths discussed the book on the Monocle Daily podcast on Monday<\/a> (from around 34:00). The book was flagged as “New and Noteworthy” in The New York Times<\/a>, and reviewed last week by Maura Cunningham for The Wall Street Journal<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

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Why did so many fail to anticipate that the Communist Party would extend its control over cyberspace as it had over physical space? And how, exactly, has the Chinese government created its own heavily surveilled domestic intranet? In \u201cThe Great Firewall of China,\u201d James Griffiths traces the development of Chinese cyberauthoritarianism and censorship from the 1990s to the present. In his useful but alarming account, Mr. Griffiths, a journalist for CNN based in Hong Kong, explains why the Communist Party came to focus on internet control and how the pieces of the Great Firewall function.<\/p>\n

What many fail to understand, Mr. Griffiths argues, is that Chinese officials censor the internet not simply to maintain a monopoly over information but, rather, out of fear of any platform with the potential to bring people together for collective-action purposes. Curbing the growth of large, organized networks is, for the ruling party, crucial to maintaining social stability and political control. \u201cThis is why even calls for rallies expressing support for government policies are sometimes censored,\u201d Mr. Griffiths explains, \u201cwhereas a series of vituperative posts excoriating government officials for the poor air quality and accusing them of corruption might not be.\u201d<\/p>\n

[\u2026] \u201cThe key danger of the Great Firewall,\u201d Mr. Griffiths writes, \u201cis that, by its very existence, it acts as a daily proof of concept for authoritarians and dictators the world over: proof that the internet can be regulated and brought to heel.\u201d This is an attractive prospect for other world leaders, who have already begun to follow China\u2019s precedent. In Russia, for example, Vladimir Putin has clamped down on the country\u2019s once-vibrant internet, and in India, Narendra Modi\u2019s government has recently proposed increased online regulation. The Chinese government has already proved the techno-optimists wrong: It is possible to control the internet. Now, the Great Firewall could easily become the next major Chinese export. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Another favorable review came from Yuan Yang at The Financial Times<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

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China has been mounting a concerted attack on freedom of speech online for over two decades. For most non-Chinese contact with Beijing\u2019s censorship controls, typically occurred, if at all, on trips to the country where lack of access to Google or Facebook is a routine and frustrating experience. But in recent years China\u2019s attacks on internet freedoms have expanded beyond its borders, as the Hong Kong-based journalist James Griffiths writes in The Great Firewall of China.<\/p>\n

Chinese state-sponsored hackers, he writes, have temporarily brought down GitHub, extensively phished Tibetans in India, and according to US indictments allegedly stolen business secrets from American companies. Moreover, China has lobbied for its vision of cyber sovereignty and a walled internet internationally and helped Russia as well as Uganda build its internet controls. Those concerned about digital rights in the west would do well to heed Griffiths\u2019 warnings that China\u2019s system of internet censorship is not for internal consumption only but is being exported as part of a campaign by Beijing to legitimise its approach to the world.<\/p>\n

[\u2026] In a slightly rushed epilogue, Griffiths concludes that the capitalists of \u201cSilicon Valley won\u2019t save you\u201d, but nor can western governments (sometimes hypocritically) propounding the virtues of a free internet abroad, given the suspicion that governments such as China\u2019s attach to anything the US defends. Instead, what we need is a \u201cuser controlled, transparent and democratic internet\u201d, Griffiths concludes. Writing this in Beijing, struggling to send even this review outside the Firewall, I lose sight of what that looks like. [Source<\/strong><\/a>]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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Please read this book review by me purely for the human labour embedded in it: it took several colleagues & a team of VPN engineers working evening shifts to get it out of China during the National People's Congress. Then, read the book by @jgriffiths<\/a>! @FT<\/a> https:\/\/t.co\/XYZiugR4oE<\/a><\/p>\n

— Yuan Yang (@YuanfenYang) March 12, 2019<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n