The Great Firewall of China: How to Build and Control an Alternative Version of the Internet - Hardcover

Griffiths, James

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1786995352 ISBN 13: 9781786995353

Verlag: Zed Books, 2019

Inhaltsangabe

A fascinating exposé of the world's biggest and most sophisticated system of internet censorship

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

James Griffiths is Asia Correspondent at the Globe and Mail, currently based in Hong Kong. He was previously a senior producer at CNN International, where he reported on the ground from Hong Kong, China, South Korea, Sri Lanka and Malaysia. He is the author of Speak Not: Empire, Identity and the Politics of Language (Zed Books, 2021).

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The Great Firewall of China

How to Build and Control an Alternative Version of the Internet

By James Griffiths

Zed Books Ltd

Copyright © 2019 James Griffiths
All rights reserved.

ISBN: 978-1-78699-535-3

Contents

Author's note, ix, 
Acronyms and abbreviations, xi, 
Map, xiii, 
Introduction: Early warnings, 1, 
Part 1: Wall, 
1. Protests: Solidarity from Hong Kong to Tiananmen, 15, 
2. Over the wall: China's first email and the rise of the online censor, 23, 
3. Nailing the jello: Chinese democracy and the Great Firewall, 35, 
4. Enemy at the gates: How fear of Falun Gong boosted the Firewall, 45, 
5. Searching for an opening: Google, Yahoo and Silicon Valley's moral failing in China, 61, 
Part 2: Shield, 
6. Along came a spider: Lu Wei reins in the Chinese internet, 71, 
7. Peak traffic: Getting the Dalai Lama online, 83, 
8. Filtered: The Firewall catches up with Da Cankao, 89, 
9. Jumping the wall: FreeGate, UltraSurf, and Falun Gong's fight against the censors, 95, 
10. Called to account: Silicon Valley's reckoning on Capitol Hill, 115, 
Part 3: Sword, 
11. Uyghurs online: Ilham Tohti and the birth of the Uyghur internet, 131, 
12. Shutdown: How to take 20 million people offline, 143, 
13. Ghosts in the machine: Chinese hackers expand the Firewall's reach, 159, 
14. NoGuGe: The ignominious end of Google China, 165, 
15. The social network: Weibo and the last free-speech platform, 175, 
16. Gorillas in the mist: Exposing China's hackers to the world, 185, 
Part 4: War, 
17. Caught: The death of the Uyghur internet, 195, 
18. Key opinion leader: How Chinese trolls go after dissidents overseas, 203, 
19. Root and stem: The internet is more vulnerable than you think, 217, 
20. The censor at the UN: China's undermining of global internet freedoms, 227, 
21. Sovereignty: When Xi Jinping came for the internet, 239, 
22. Friends in Moscow: The Great Firewall goes west, 247, 
23. Plane crash: China helps Russia bring Telegram to heel, 259, 
24. One app to rule them all: How WeChat opened up new frontiers of surveillance and censorship, 275, 
25. Buttocks: Uganda's internet blackouts follow Beijing's lead, 285, 
Epilogue: Silicon Valley won't save you, 307, 
Acknowledgements, 319, 
Notes, 321, 
Selected bibliography, 369, 
Index, 374, 

CHAPTER 1

Protests

Solidarity from Hong Kong to Tiananmen

Bereft of people, Hong Kong's Civic Square is an ugly sight. Three concentric rings of concrete expand outward from a circular pedestal, on top of which sit two flagpoles with their banners hanging limply, the buildings looming on all sides preventing them receiving anything like a breeze. The entrance to the square is uglier still: a tall metal fence, sharp-tipped poles clustered close together, bookended by two squat, rectangular buildings with frosted glass windows inside which security guards take note of visitors.

The square, which sits in front of the central government offices in the busy business district of Admiralty, was intended as a way to bring the city's officials and people closer together. As a spot for protests and rallies, former Hong Kong chief executive Donald Tsang promised it would act as a reminder for future governments to "be liberal, open minded and proactively solicit public opinion at all times". But when public opinion proved more often than not to be critical of government policies, and people used their proximity to power to complain about the numerous ways in which it was exercised poorly in the semi-autonomous Chinese territory, those in charge of Civic Square had a change of heart. And so Hong Kong's administrators, following a tried and tested pattern, looked at the hornets' nest sitting outside their windows – annoying and potentially dangerous, but contained and predictable – and decided to kick it. By locking the square off from the public, they turned an ugly, boring stretch of concrete into a symbol of democracy and political participation, and created a magnet for future protests.

It was inevitable, then, that in September 2014, as the city was gripped by an upsurge of anti-government anger and desire for political reform, the square would be targeted. Despite this, and despite frequent calls in the preceding weeks for the square to be reopened, authorities were apparently taken by surprise when – on the night of 26 September – several hundred university and high-school students broke off from a larger pro-democracy rally and stormed Civic Square. The police responded with anger and violence, hitting protesters with batons and shields, and dousing their faces in pepper spray. Here, again, authoritarian overreach inadvertently created an icon that would be used against it. Many of the protesters were carrying umbrellas to protect themselves from the torrential rain that is an inevitable part of Hong Kong summers, and they unfurled them now to shield against the pepper spray. The protest had its symbol, and a name: the Umbrella Movement.

Throughout the following day, police and demonstrators fought for the square, and many protest leaders were dragged off and bundled into police vans. Images of the protesters defying pepper spray with spindly, fold-up umbrellas spread online, particularly on Facebook and Instagram, which was swiftly blocked in China. On WhatsApp and online bulletin boards, calls for support went out, and thousands more protesters began converging on Admiralty. Soon, the police at Civic Square found that they were the ones surrounded and in need of reinforcements. As the number of protesters grew into the tens of thousands, they shut down roads around the square, leaving the six-lane Connaught Road highway empty of traffic and seething with people.

At 5.57pm on 28 September, the first tear gas canister was fired. More followed in quick succession. By the end of the night the police had fired eighty-seven canisters in total, but the tear gas had the opposite effect to that intended. Instead of dispersing the crowds, it bolstered and emboldened them. Those who were on the sidelines of the protest joined it in outrage at the use of the gas, including the parents of many students on the streets. The shock and fury over the police action was palpable. Many did not recognise the city they lived in. A middle-aged friend of mine, no bleeding heart liberal, wrote on Facebook that the gas was pointless as "we have no more tears left to cry", and others expressed similar feelings of dismay. Thousands of protesters flooded the streets and drove the police back.

When I arrived at the Connaught Road camp a couple hours after the first tear gas canister had been fired, the protesters were in full control. The street was an undulating mass of people, glistening with sweat and giddy with excitement. The occasional blast from a megaphone was the only thing to rise above the intense din of the crowd as people chattered excitedly in disbelief at what they had done, what they were doing. The summer heat in Hong Kong is oppressive and intense, sitting on top of your lungs and sucking sweat from every part of your body. As I passed through the crowd, I gratefully accepted a bottle of water from a man passing them out from a large plastic-wrapped pack. Others handed out goggles or scarves to protect from tear gas, and crates of umbrellas were scattered throughout the protest camp, like arrows for medieval archers.

I walked west towards Central district and the...

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Zed Books
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2019
• Sprache: Englisch
• ISBN 10: 1786995352
• ISBN 13: 9781786995353
• Einband: Gebundene Ausgabe
• Anzahl der Seiten: 400
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar
• Verantwortliche Person: Nicht verfügbar