China will completely block access to much of the global internet as
part of a sweeping crackdown aimed at suppressing dissent and
maintaining the Communist party’s grip on power.
VPN service
The government has ordered China’s three telecommunications companies to
completely block access to virtual private networks, or VPNs, by
February 2018, Bloomberg News reported, citing anonymous sources. The
three internet providers, China Mobile, China Unicom and China Telecom,
are all state-owned.
China operates the largest internet censorship regime in the world,
blocking access to thousands of websites including Google, Facebook,
Twitter and Instagram. Internet controls also mean news and commentary
critical of the ruling Communist party and information about events like
the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre are almost impossible to find within
China.
But millions of Chinese citizens circumvent China’s censorship system,
known as the Great Firewall, by using a VPN, allowing unfettered access
to any website.
The latest directive comes as China prepares for a twice a decade
political meeting in Beijing in late 2017, with various factions within
the government jockeying for dominance in any potential shuffle of top
officials. It also comes on the heels of a 14-month “cleanup” of
internet services announced in January, part of president Xi Jinping’s
push for so-called “internet sovereignty”.
“This is a significantly escalated form of internet control and shows
there is unprecedented urgency and desperation at the top of the
government,” said Xiao Qiang, a professor focusing on censorship in
China at the University of California, Berkeley. “This is clearly about
the highest levels of political struggle and the different factions
using the internet as their battlefield.
“If Xi’s opponents cannot release information inside China because of
the censorship apparatus, they do it outside China and then the
information filters back.”
Xiao pointed to recent cracks in the Great Firewall, including
allegations of corruption levelled by a Chinese businessman in New York
that have managed to circulate widely within China. The claims, many
unverified, have been seen as damaging to the head of the country’s
corruption watchdog and one of Xi’s closest allies.
In the coming months Xiao predicted the authorities would step up their
internet crackdown: “There have always been controls, but this will be
another level”.
The ban on VPNs could also harm academics, software developers and
foreign businesses. For years Chinese researchers have complained they
lack adequate access to overseas journals and methods to communicate
with universities around the world, while developers rely on code hosted
on websites based outside China.
Foreign businesses in China often use VPNs to secure their company data
or communicate with company headquarters. It is not clear whether the
ban will affect corporate VPNs.
“This is ridiculous. If they’re as interested in security and stability
as they say they are, then they should leave VPNs accessible,” Kaiser
Kuo, former head of international communications at Chinese tech giant
Baidu, posted online.
“The number of people using them in China is really small, but really
vocal — and I don’t think they’ll just take this lying down. Will
reflect very badly on the party. Dark days ahead.
Earlier this month a popular Chinese VPN was forced to shut down after “receiving a notice from regulatory departments”.
China has instituted bans on VPNs and other methods to bypass censorship
in the past, especially during high-level government meetings in
Beijing. But it remains to be seen whether the latest directive will
become permanent.When comes to the issue of online privacy and security,
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