Continuing the discussion that we started in class this week, I'd like to briefly talk about the implications of China's firewall network. Really, though, I'd like to talk over the question "Is it worth it in the long run?" China currently has a strong lock on its communications networks, and there is no doubt that there is a great deal of consent to the censorship and government control. China has a long history of government control, whether dynastic or communist, and their approach to Internet monitoring (framing it in patriarchal and protectionist terms) reflects this. However, the firewall is not impenetrable, just as the Great Wall also crumbled over the years. Whether supported by US Government-affiliated organizations like VOA, or on their own initiative, hackers, advocates, and activists are reaching out and slowly making contacts within China's computer-savvy population. China can not completely shut down its Internet connection to the outside world, as North Korea has nearly done - China is frankly too large, too intertwined with international business and information networks to do so.
In my opinion then, it is impossible for China to stop the flow of foreign information. Hackers will always find a way through the firewall, even as it improves on a daily basis. China's greatest adversary in the battle of information is not Soft Power directed by a foreign state, but by individual cultural agents of the world.
Yes, China cannot insulate its billion-plus population at the same time flooding the outer world with its industrial products. Information is like flowing water: block its way here, it will flow through creeks and may possibly cause destruction. But Chinese are known for having a 5,000-year view of history. They take changes in their stride and change accordingly. The Chinese economy is no more communism-based; it is more market-oriented and capitalistic.
ReplyDeleteNations that do not change with changing times, die their own death. Nations are not fossils that need to be preserved; they breathe and grow in open air like organisms. Cultures and civilizations grow by interacting with other cultures and civilizations.
But for Chinese the question is whether to take in a foreign-imposed change or change itself from within, according to the needs of changing times? No wall can block the way of change.