The People's Republic of China has commonly been regarded as a nation that has censored its media very heavily and has enforced this harshly. China is the largest country in the world, and also has the one of the fastest expanding media. Additionally, China has been enjoying explosive pecuniary expansion for the better part of the last few decades and as a consequence, the living standards of most Chinese citizens has increased drastically in modern times due to growing wealth of the general population. In the past, the country had suffered through many struggles in its endeavor to global superpower status, resulting in incredible losses of human life and miserable conditions of living. In contrast with before, the Chinese of recent times now find that they do not have to worry about obtaining the necessities of life anymore and that they can now begin to afford luxuries previously thought unattainable. Thus, an increasing number people began to explore into the media, and as more people became interested in it, more media was produced, and thus a vicious cycle was born. The Chinese government began to censor the media, especially the Internet, as a response to the exponentially rising level of people with access to the media. The government, which has been under rule of the Communist Party of China for well over 50 years, began to fear that all the exposure that the people now had to the outside world would result in the gradual erosion of Chinese culture and traditions. Even worse for the Communist Party is that their flaws, which had been hidden from the few wealthy citizens in the past with media access by successful government propaganda, might be exposed due to all of the media coverage now. This would be disastrous ... ... middle of paper ... ...a Snoops on Text Messages.” The Register. N.p., n.d. Web. 2 July 2004. Spencer, Richard. “China Allows 007 to Come in from the Cold.” telegraph.co.uk. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 Jan. 2007. U.S. Department of State. “Human Rights Abuses in China Are Widespread.” Opposing Viewpoints: China. Ed. James D. Torr. San Diego: Greenhaven, 2001. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Web. 9 Nov. 2009. . Wiseman, Paul. “Cracking the ‘Great Firewall’ of China’s Web Censorship.” USA Today. Gannet Co., 23 Apr. 2004. Web. 10 Nov. 2009. .
Imagine a society in which its citizens have forfeited all personal liberties for government protection and stability; Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, explores a civilization in which this hypothetical has become reality. The inevitable trade-off of citizens’ freedoms for government protection traditionally follows periods of war and terror. The voluntary degradation of the citizens’ rights begins with small, benign steps to full, totalitarian control. Major methods for government control and censorship are political, religious, economic, and moral avenues. Huxley’s Brave New World provides a prophetic glimpse of government censorship and control through technology; the citizens of the World State mimic those of the real world by trading their personal liberties for safety and stability, suggesting that a society similar to Huxley’s could exist outside the realm of dystopian science fiction.
Everyday people in China are suffering from their government. From being wrongly accused to being executed for petty crimes. In a country where you cannot speak your opinions, talk poorly about government officials, speak about Chinese communist failures, or even browse the internet freely. China has kept its citizens in the void. One example is the great firewall of china, which sensors most social media and other sites. This essay will go into some individual stories of the Chinese government's unfair social injustices towards its people.
Sitting close to the edge of being a “developing” and a “developed” country, China is a difficult country to define neatly. It is a country with an ancient and traditional culture trying to position itself higher within the international community. Plus it is also a communist country that has come to embrace its own form of capitalism to fuel its economy. China’s economic boon has been beneficial to many people within the country. But not to all people within China evenly.
China today – powerful and ever-growing – wasn’t always like this. One major event in history around the mid 1800s that we all seem to have forgotten was the Opium Wars. What really caused the opium war was when China wanted to halt all trade in opium with the British. The geography of China is something like a fence. This isolation made the people of China feel like their country was prestigious and secluded from the rest of the world.
China is a communist country, whose citizens face many difficult situations while trying to fight for their human rights. According to the “Freedom Rankings” from the database CountryWatch, China is not a free country. Specifically, the Political Rights and Civil Liberties are in their maximum numbers; this means that these rights are confiscated from the people. Therefore, freedoms of press, expression, speech, religion, and movement are all severely limited in China. The government has also kept a close watch on art in China.
As the United States continues to dominate almost every aspect of the world, including culture, many different nations scurry to keep up with them, sometimes adopting an identity which is in great contrast to their own, and in many cases, shadow their own identity as a whole. With the ever-advancing technology, the spreading of U.S. culture seems to be easier, and this has many countries worried. Hence, a reason - or need - to censor what enters the country via print, airwaves or Internet.
...wever, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao prompted a calling for press freedom in 2010. After that, there was a “Decision on Major Issues Concerning Comprehensively Deepening Reforms” made public as a document on November 15th 2013 by the government. It is likely to prompt fairly free market media system. This is a big step towards to free speech in China.
The government controls the media and communication. The internet is not accessible to people due to the communist control. Most of the issues in the country do not come from lack of accessibility like some people groups in remote areas, but they come from the centralized controlling communist government.
Censorship has been used by governments and influential groups throughout history as a tool for political and economic gain since ancient times. The Romans thought censorship was necessary to shape the morals of society to match up with government ideals. During the 1500's the Catholic Church banned certain texts that conflicted with the established religion from being read. In these times the idea of censorship was viewed differently that it is today. With powerful organizations limiting information it was often impossible for an average person to obtain literature or hear ideas that vary from state ideals, they probably didn't even know that their information was being censored. We live in a different age today, information is more readily available and censorship is often looked at as a negative practice that limits freedoms. That said, it still exists today and can be viewed as an obstacle to true democracy.
Gorman, Siobhan. "China Singled Out for Cyberspying." The Wall Street Journal 4 Nov. 2011. Print. (Source E)
Thornton, P., (ed.) (2010), ‘Censorship and Surveillance in Chinese Cyberspace: Beyond the Great Firewall’ In Gries, P. H., and Rosen, S., (eds) Chinese Politics (London and New York: Routledge).
Xu, Beina. "Media Censorship in China." Council on Foreign Relations. Council on Foreign Relations, 12 Feb. 2014. Web. 26 Mar. 2014. .
Rosenthal, Elisabeth. "China Lists Controls To Restrict the Use Of E-mail and Web." The New York Times, 27 January 2000. Retrieved 26 April 2004.
Censorship affects our society in many different ways, it affects the music we listen to, the movies we watch, the books we read, and many other aspects of our everyday lives. Even though many might argue that censorship doesn't really have a place in a society that emphases freedom of speech and the freedom to express oneself, but censorship is an essential and needed part of our growing society, it's needed in the television industry, the Internet, and the music industry. Censorship helps to make our world a better place because it creates a better environment for us to live in.
Interests: China’s leaders desire to improve their nation’s economy while preserving political stability. They want to censor political discussions to prevent “westernization” of China,