The reasoning all my mainland peers have given me for the firewall is to keep chinese citizens pro ccp and prevent foreign overthrows, but at this point the entire population is so pro ccp that the whole point of the firewall seems irrelevant.
This is also just a rant because i have to restart my phone and turn on my vpn before my chinese sim card activates in order to watch youtube at extremly low quality and speed.
The Chinese government likes to have control over everything. The firewall allows them to delete and censor anything they dislike. Could you imagine if the white paper movement that happened last year spread on a foreign social media site that the Chinese government has no control over and has no power to censor.
The number one reason is of course to censor opinions critical of the CCP, but a second important reason no one talks about is the protectionist aspect: without the GFW, Chinese people would undoubtedly be using Facebook, Uber, Instagram and WhatsApp. Having a trade barrier in place allowed China to develop its own domestic applications until they were finally able to compete with western ones (e.g. TikTok).
Contrary to what the international audience think, the average Chinese is anything but average: loads of people are brainwashed, and at the same time understands that the CCP isn’t forever and immortal and would crash someday.
There’s dissenting voices to be heard everywhere within China, just that the media is designed to remove and censor such noises. Just like the silent majority in any country, a huge majority in China is simply indifferent to politics, and any loud opinion would definitely sway public opinion. This is why the CCP wants such a strong control over public voice: it’s the kindling that would signal the end.
The people who are truly brainwashed and loud are either 1) the truly brainwashed who has nothing better to do, or 2) those who have personal interest in maintaining the regime (high officials, rich businessmen etc). Otherwise the rest are really the silent majority who are easily swayed by whoever dominates the media.
To maintain a dictatorship, you either have to give the people what they want, or change their demand of you. The vast majority of Chinese right now are led to think that the CCP is the best option right now, but would not hesitate to jump ship to the alternative if the CCP fails to give what the average man wants. After all, every Chinese is educated from young on the numerous dynasties and regimes of Chinese history; another could easily take the place of the CCP.
It’s to protect us against the PRC internet trolls
Reversal of policies here are a difficult thing. Look at COVID policies, it toook them 2 more years than everyone else to properly open up.
In my uneducated opinion, the CCP is too big in its governance. Once they decide on a course of action, it’s incredibly difficult for them to turn around and reverse it, due to the amount of people to convince and work.
No matter how stupid the policy is.
Its about control. Chinese government is obsessed with control. If you open up the gates then you have no control over what people are saying on foreign platforms, you have no control over how information spreads. People trusting the CCP is ALSO a by product of the CCP controlling information flow.
Besides its a great economic tool protecting your local digital industry. They could possibly do it without same way Koreans have great local digital product. But then again no control.
Chinese invented the sovereign internet and Russia is following
My hot take? A couple reasons:
It’s about control. Whatever happens, today CCP has the ability to claim white = black and block sources that say otherwise. They don’t want to lose this ability.
People are so pro-ccp in part because of the firewall. Brainwashing isn’t just a one and done thing, it requires maintenance. Maintenance requires ongoing control of information.
Truth is the Chinese population are living in a not so sweet dream built by CCP, and the GFW is the blindfold, you’d wokw up like Neo in the MATRIX if you remove it off
The great firewall keeps out foreign media and voices which can’t be censored by the CCP. It allows for a closed media ecosystem of entirely Sinocentric, government-controlled media, communication, and transfer of information, which allows them to control what the average person sees.
If they open the firewall, people now, by default, have access to the rest of the internet, and all of the foreign exposure that comes with it. They would have to relinquish control of what people not only see, but are allowed to say.
As witness over the last few years during periods where government offices are closed or slow to respond during a crisis, this would mean you’d have millions of Chinese people sharing their grievances towards the CCP, such others would pick up on. It would undermine everything they’ve worked to foster over that years.
Which vpn are you using? I dont have to do that with mine
the point of the great firewall is to control information. The majority of chinese people can only get information from CCP approved channels. If something they dont want getting out is posted it is quickly removed and blacklisted. Even if some people can jump the firewall to get the info they cant repost it within the chinese internet
Understand that any time you see large amount of info about a corrupt official or other scandal widely posted on chinese internet that means it is a party approved story and they are most likely involved in spreading it. You wont see any scandals related to top party members, only smaller members or members they want to exile from the party
but at this point the entire population is so pro ccp
No l, they’re not. This is a phenomena in authoritarian countries that can be explained by a game-theoretic interpretation comparison of support for the CCP versus not supporting the CCP. There are a lot of reasons to outwardly support the regime while inwardly hoping for a large congregation of people going on a walk to Beijing together.
Voicing dissent for the CCP has the potential following consequences:
As we saw in Russia after the Wagner mutiny, most people will assume and act like everyone supports the authoritarian government because the cost of being a political dissenter is simply too high. But the moment Wagner posed a threat to the regime and took control of Rostov, everyone was chanting “Wagner, Wagner, Wagner.”
This is a paradox where once people can look around and see just how unpopular the regime is, the more likely they are to voice their own dissent. Thus, the CCP is incetivized to maximize Pro-CCP messages through troll farms and algorithms increasing the CCPs positive image while completely censoring and negative sentiments against them. This is what the firewall does. All it takes is one or two events to show just how weak the popularity of the regime is and its only a matter of time until the whole thing crashes down.
Look at Russian history. 1905 tsar Nicholas II gave up power to the Duma, but didn’t follow through and was deposed by mutinies in February 1917. The ineffectual provisional government didn’t back out of WWI though, and the bolshiveks seized power in October/November. Same with 1991. Gorbachev dod not give up power in the August coup, but didn’t have a choice in December when Yeltsin rolled into the Kremlin on a tank.
We have seen this pattern before, a failed and ineffective coup exposes the cracks in the regimes power while simultaneously making people aware that others around them do not support the regime. Then a catalyst occurs a few months later within the power structure and there is a seizure of power by either a rival government faction/entity, this typically occurs during or immediately after a humiliating war with what is widely regarded as a “weaker” power. The Russian military occupies a sacred place in Russian society, so there is rarely a more powerful military than the Russian military, according to the Russians. Because of this, the moment it becomes apparent the Russian military is not powerful, it presents a catch 22.
We have a hamster that has lived its whole life in its cage. Sometimes we forgot to close the door and it could have left at any time, but next morning it was still in its cage. The cage is all its known so it has no interest in leaving as long as it has food and water. But just in case, we keep the cage door closed anyways.
Firewalls ain’t going no where just like firearms are never going to be allowed to be owned by the citizens.
OH MY GOD YES i just don’t understand at all it makes everything so much harder like opinions on both sides are so segregated and echo-chambery.
As a Chinese student currently studying overseas I HATE trying to explain the actual situations (e.g. the entire Taiwan fiasco) to people on both sides that have extreme opinions.
Yeah. It really makes the trip to China soooo much harder. If they want to restart the economy and avoid a larger meltdown they need to get on board with losing the firewall and allowing more payment options for travelers without mainland bank accounts. It’s non sensical and self sabotaging to keep that stuff going.
If the firewall works so well then why does the CCP always complain about the US hacking them?