Behind the Great Firewall of China Michael Anti
in the past several days I heard people
talking about China and also I talked to
friends about China and Chinese internet
something is very challenging to me I
want to make my friends to understand
China is complicated so I always want to
tell the story like one hand it is there
the other hand is that you can’t just
tell one Side Story I give you example
China is a brick country brick country
means breezier Russia India and China
this emerging economy really is helping
Reviver of the world economy but at the
same time on the other hand China is a
sick country the terminology owned by
Facebook IPO paper fire he said the sick
country means Syria Iran China and North
Korea the four countries have no access
to Facebook
so basically China is a sick brick
country another project was speedo to
watch China and Chinese internet and now
today I want to tell you my personal
expression in the past several years
from that war so if you are a fan of the
game my throne you definitely know how
important a big war for Old Kingdom it
prevent weird things from the north same
was true for China in the north there
was a great war Chunkin it protect China
from invaders for 2,000 years but China
also have a Great Firewall that’s the
biggest digital boundary in the whole
world
not only to defend Chinese regime from
the oversea from the universal value but
also prevent Chinese on citizen to
access the global free Internet
and even separate themselves into blocks
not United
so basically Internet has two internets
one is the Internet the other is the
channel net but if you think the
china-led is something like a dead land
Westerlund I think it’s wrong but we
also use very simple metaphor the cat
and mouse game to describe in the past
15 years the continuing fight between
Chinese censorship government censorship
the cat and the Chinese Internet users
dumbing us the mouse but sometimes this
kind of a metaphor is too simple so
today I want to upgrade it to 2.0
version in China we have 500 million
instant users that’s biggest population
the net isn’t instant users in the whole
world
so if even Chinese is a totally censored
internet Bastyr Chinese Internet Society
you’re really booming how make it simple
you have Google we have by do you have
twitter we have Weibull you have
facebook we have Linda you have YouTube
we have Youku and Tudou Chinese
government blocked every singer
international web 2 Ponder’s of this and
we Chinese copycat everyone so that’s
kind of the thing I caught a small
censorship so that’s not only to censor
you sometimes that’s Chinese national
Internet policy is very simple block and
clone only one hand he want to satisfy
people’s need of social network which is
very important if people really love
social networking but on the other hand
they want to keep the server in Beijing
so they can access the data anytime they
want
that’s also the reason Google was Paula
from China because they can’t accept the
fact Chinese come and want to keep the
server sometimes the Arab dictators
didn’t understand these two hands
for example Mubarak he shut down the
internet he want to prevent the netizens
to criticize him but once not even
canticle online they go on straight and
now the result is very simple we all
know who Barack is technically dead but
also Ben Ali Tunisia present didn’t
follow the second rule lemmings keep the
server in your hand he allow Facebook a
us-based services service to continue
stay on inside Tunisia so he can’t
prevent it his own citizens to post
critical video against his corruption is
the same thing happened he was the first
to tobert during the Arab Spring but
those two very smart international
censorship policy didn’t prevent Chinese
social media become a really public
sphere a path of fear of public opinion
and the nightmare of Chinese officials
because we have 300 million micro
bloggers in China it’s the entire
population of United States so when
these three hundred million people
Michael bloggers even they block the
treat in a censored platform but itself
is the China net but it’s server can
create very powerful in energy which
never happened in the Chinese history
2011 the July 2 breathing trance crashed
in window a southern city right after
the train crash authorities literally
want to cover up the trend perimeter so
it angered Chinese netizens the first
five days of the train crash
there were 10 million queries above the
posting on social media which never
happened in Chinese history and NATO
later this year the real minister was
sacked and sentenced to death for 10
years and also very recently very funny
debate between the Beijing Environment
Ministry and American Embassy in Beijing
because the ministry blame and Merck
embassy for intervening Chinese internal
politics by disclosing the air quality
data of Beijing so the app is the
embassy data the PM 2.5 he show 148 the
show is dangerous for sensitive group so
suggestion is not good to go outside but
the DA is the ministry’s data
he shows 50 he said it’s good it’s good
to go outside but 99 percent of Chinese
mica bloggers stand firmly on the
embassy side
I live in Beijing every day I just watch
the American Embassy’s data to decide
whether I should open my window why
Chinese social networking even reading
the censorship is so balmy part of
reason is Chinese languages you know
Twitter and Twitter clones have a kind
of a nutrition 140 characters but in
English is 20 words or sentence with a
show link maybe in Germany a German
language maybe just aha
but in Chinese language is really about
140 characters means a paragraph a story
you can almost have all the journalistic
elements to there for example this is
the hamlet of a Shakespeare is same
content one you can see exactly one
Chinese treat is equal to three point
five English trees Chinese always teach
eating right so because of this Chinese
really regarded this microblogging as a
media not only headline to media and
also the club signal company is the guy
who cloned that Twitter the even has a
long name would with women Weibo is
Chinese translation for microblog it has
owned the innovation at the commenting
area make the Chinese web war more like
Facebook rather than Orangina Twitter so
these innovations and the clones as the
Weibo and micro blogging when they come
to China in 2009 they immediately become
the media platform itself it become a
media platform 300 million readers they
become the media it was anything not
mentioned in web or it does not appear
to exist for Chinese public but also
Chinese social media is really changing
Chinese mindset and Chinese life
for example they give the voiceless
people a channel to make your voice
heard
we had a prediction system is the remedy
outside the judicial system because
Chinese central government want to keep
a Miss the Emperor is good the old local
officials are sucks so that’s why the
petitioner the victims of the peasant
went to take a train to Beijing to
petition to central government once the
Emperor want to settle the problem but
when more and more people will go to
Beijing they also cause the risk of
revolution so they send them back recent
years and even some of them would put
into black ear
but now we have the Weibull so I called
Weibull petition people just to use the
cellphone to treat so your self stories
by some chance your story would be pick
up by reporters professors or
celebrities one of that is yotan she’s
most popular mica blogger in China who
has about 21 million followers they’re
almost like a national TV station if you
store sad story we’ll pick up by her so
this wave of social media even in the
censorship steer gave Chinese a real
chance for 300 million people every day
chatting together talking together she’s
like a big Ted right but also it is like
the first time of public sphere
happening China Chinese people start to
learn how to negotiate and talk to
people but also the cat the censorship
is not sleeping it’s so hard to post
some sensitive words in the Chinese
people for example you can’t post the
name of the present or hooting Tao and
also you can’t post the city of
Chongqing
the name and until recently you can’t
search the surname of top leaders so the
Chinese are very good at this pound and
alternative wording and even memes the
even name serve you know use the name of
this war changing patter between the
grass mud horse and river craft course
my horse is taurima is the phonogram for
is not even call themself
ninety ten columns a river crap is
Russia is the phonogram for
harmonization for censorship so that’s
kind of autonomy versus the who is here
that’s very good but and so that’s when
some very practical exciting moment
happened you can see away boy you see a
lot of very weird stories happened we’re
the phrases in the words even you have a
PhD of the Chinese language you can’t
understand them but you can you expand
more no because Chinese signal way boy
while his was funded is exactly one
month after the official blocking of
twitter.com that means from the very
beginning the Weibull are already has
already convinced the Chinese government
we will not become the stage for any
kind of a threat to the regime for
example anything you want to post like
get together or meet up or walk it who
were automatically were recorded and
data mined and reported it to a poll for
further and political analyzing even you
want to have a some gathering before you
go there the place is already waiting
for you why because they have the data
they have everything in their hand
so the you can’t think I use the 1984
scenario data mining of the dissident so
the crackdown is very serious but I want
you notice very funny thing during the
process of the cat and mouse the cat is
the censorship but Chinese is not only
one cat but also have a local caste
central cat and local cats you know
server is in local cats hand so even
that when the Nadi’s and criticized
local government local government has no
any excess of the data in Beijing
without bribing the central Cass he can
do nothing only apologize so this three
year in the past three years social
movement about micro blogging really
changed local government become more
more and more transparent because we
can’t access the data a server is in
Beijing the story about train crash
maybe the question is not about why 10
million criticism in five days but why
Chinese central government allow the
five days of freedom speech online it
never happened before and so it’s very
simple because even the top leaders was
fed up with this guy this independent
kingdom so they want his cues so public
opinion is very good excuse to punish
him but also the like his
recently very big news he’s princeling
but in from the federal to the April in
this year wave will really become a
marketplace of rumors you can almost
choke everything about these princelings
everything it’s almost you are living in
the United States but if you dare to
retreat or mention any fake koop about
Beijing in Beijing you definitely will
be arrested so this kind of freedom is
targeted and precise window so Chinese
in China censorship is normal something
you find is freedom is weird
something will happen behind because he
was very popular leftist leader so
central government want to purge him
they need very skill to convince the all
the Chinese people why is so bad so the
the way bored 300 million public sphere
become very good convenient or for
political fight but this technology is
very new but technique is very old it
made it famous by Chairman Mao Mao
Zedong because he mobilized millions of
Chinese people in the Cultural
Revolution to destroy every local
government it’s very simple because
Chinese central government don’t need
even leader the public opinion it just
gave them a target window no censor
people no censoring in China become a
political tool so that’s the update
about this game cat-and-mouse social
media change Annie’s mindset
more and more Chinese intend to embrace
freedom speech in the human
as their birthright nor some imported
American privilege but also it gave
Chinese at national public sphere for
people to it’s like a training of the
citizenship preparing for the future
democracy but it didn’t change Chinese
political system and also Chinese
central government routinized a
centralized server structure to
strengthen his power to come to the
local government and the different
factions so what’s the future but after
all we are the mouse whatever the future
is we should fight against the mouse
there is not only in China but also in
the United States there are some very
small cute but bear cats sober PIPA
ACTA TPP and et ITU and also like
Facebook and the Google declare they’re
friends of the mouse but sometimes we
see them dating with the cats so my
conclusion is very simple we Chinese
fight for our freedom you just watch
your bad casts
don’t let them to hook with a Chinese
casts only in this in the future we were
to achieve the dreams of the mouse now
we can treat anytime anywhere with our
fear
thank you
you