China: prosperity vs. free speech?
Undaunted, China continues to use technology to implement unprecedented social control. Since taking power in March 2013, President Xi Jinping has displayed an obsession with obedience, calling for unity and discipline at party and national level, launching a root and branch campaign against corruption and reinforcing surveillance of civil society and ideological discourse, using internet censorship to silence any opposition.
In Xi Jinping’s China, censorship has come to characterize the country, it’s part of its identity: the government has an inalienable right to maintain national sovereignty over the internet. Xi Jinping argues that China has a right to be different, to choose its own development route, its legal system and its participation in the governance of international cyberspace on its terms. Democracy and freedom of information are not, for China, an obligation or a goal: unfettered access to the Internet poses a threat to the country’s way of life, to the regime, and stability in general.
After the 19th Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, the resolve to reinforce social control…
