Although I had made the move with knowledge of this censorship, I was surprised by how subtle it was in doing its job. Perhaps I expected a big red sign declaring that I was being censored, and to cease and desist (not really!), but my actual experience was that I would generally be able to view 99% of the pages I wanted to. Rarely did I experience the timeouts that signal the Firewall in action, and when I did, it was typically from, as expected, news or global websites like Flickr. But the firewall system is clever, and even those sites that I might have thought would be censored were frequently not – for the most part I read cbc.ca, cnn.com and YouTube every day and had no problems. The interesting part about this is that those websites would typically be accessible *except* for when there was an article discussing a negative aspect of China. Whenever there was an article portraying China in a positive light, no problem!

I mention this to address the idea that many domestic Chinese don’t even know they’re being censored, because the system is quite subtle when in use. Additionally, China’s media is full of pro-China programming, and children are brought up from a very young age, believing in the greatness of China. It is a very nationalistic society, and although there is frequent public unrest, the majority of its citizens are strong supporters of the Chinese government. Although some people are aware of censorship and may speak out, to various (usually unpleasant) consequences, there are also many people who adopt the attitude ‘the government knows best.’ The first reason for this is that Chinese believe very strongly in hierarchy, parents above children, bosses above employees, rich above poor, and certainly the government above its people (an irony). The second reason is that China is developing at an unparalleled rate, and although there are many challenges still ahead, the country is flush with opportunities and wealth that have not been seen in generations. When outsiders look at China they see it with filtered eyes, and look only at the issues at the forefront, the ones that gain the most media attention. And it’s true that these issues deserve attention, because many terrible things have been done to people in the name of China’s growth – but it’s not quite that simple.

This is a society where ‘rights’ are not a privilege, not as a child, and not as an adult. I think that it’s a lofty goal to expect the firewall to come down any time soon for the simple reason that there’s no way to leverage the government into such action. Currently, all of China’s focus is on growth, which includes their Olympic plans, as a signal to the western world that China is a sophisticated and modern nation among nations. The interesting thing about China’s current position is that they are between a rock and a hard place, because they must show restraint in the face of protests, while still reacting harshly, lest other groups join their voices of unrest.

It’s important to recognize the power politics in a situation like this. In order for Chinese nationals to implement change on the firewall front they need to have the support of the law, and unfortunately China’s legal infrastructure is still very much tied to the communist party, and people who have the wealth or political connections to tap into it. I thought it was interesting that the New York Times’ article mentioned someone trying to sue the ISP over censorship, but action like this will lead nowhere, given the incentives and ability of the government to bend the law to its will. On the flip side, global nations don’t command much clout with China at the moment, or at least the ones that do, are not willing to compromise their position with China over human rights or censorship. Although you may hear these western nations ‘voicing restraint’ from time to time, many of them are concerned of the economic backlash that will result from angering one of the world’s largest trading partners, especially one who is quick to reject foreign influence.

In the end it will be interesting to see what happens, with the government employing ever sophisticated technologies to regulate free speech, facing off against a generation of tech savvy and modern thinking citizens. Right now there are few alternatives for people blocked by the Great Firewall, and although proxy software exists, it is slow and frustrating to use. In the end it may even be that the government voluntarily takes the firewall down, because my intuition is that the firewall’s mass filtering slows down domestic Internet traffic, creating domestic inefficiencies and productivity loss. I wouldn’t expect it any time soon though, the scene I’ve painted in China is just a piece of a complicated puzzle, and it’s anyone’s guess what the final picture will look like.

However with todays technology available to us such as mobile, satellite, peer to peer communications, and social networks there has to be enough to technology to keep poking holes in the firewall.

The Olympics hopefully will also shine the spotlight on the situation.

I love what the Internet has done to traditional corporate structures and even some entrenched governmental structures.

I hold high hopes that it can take on China’s firewall.