Yang Zhou is no cyber-dissident, but recent curbs on his web surfing habits by China鈥檚 censors have him fomenting discontent about China鈥檚 鈥淕reat Firewall.鈥�
Yang鈥檚 fury erupted a few days ago when he found he could not browse his friend鈥檚 holiday snaps on Flickr.com, due to access restrictions by censors after images of the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre were posted on the photo-sharing website.
鈥淥nce you鈥檝e complained all you can to your friends, what more can you do? What else is there but anger and disillusionment?鈥� Yang says after venting his anger with friends at a hot-pot restaurant in Beijing.
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Flickr is the latest casualty of China鈥檚 ongoing battle to control the internet. Wikipedia and a raft of other popular websites, discussion boards and blogs have already fallen victim to the country鈥檚 censors.
China employs a complex system of filters and an army of tens of thousands of human monitors to survey the country鈥檚 140 million internet users鈥� surfing habits and remove content deemed too sensitive.
鈥楬ealthy environment鈥�
Its stability-obsessed government says the surveillance machinery, commonly known as the 鈥淕reat Firewall,鈥� is necessary to let internet users enjoy a 鈥渉ealthy鈥� online environment and build a 鈥渉armonious鈥� society.
Yang just thinks it鈥檚 a pain. 鈥淚 just want to look at some photos! What鈥檚 wrong with that?鈥� says the 24-year-old accountant, typical of millions of young urban-dwelling professionals who are increasingly aware of and fed up with state intrusions into their private life.
Privacy, once regarded with suspicion in pre-reform China, has become a sought-after commodity among China鈥檚 burgeoning middle class, according to Nicholas Bequelin from Hong Kong-based Human Rights Watch.
鈥淥f course, privacy is the first thing people seek when they have the economic resources,鈥� Bequelin says. 鈥淲e see this growing in China in the wake of ideas of ownership and property.鈥�
Away from cyberspace, the battle for privacy between China鈥檚 secretive government and its increasingly active citizens has turned violent in recent months. In Bobai county, in the southern region of Guangxi, hundreds of farmers smashed government offices and burned cars after local officials imposed punitive fines on residents who had defied family planning laws and had too many children.
History of control
The battle for control of China鈥檚 internet, however, will remain much more covert than confrontational, according to Liu Bin, an IT consultant with Beijing-based consulting firm BDA.
He believes it will take a long time before the government loosens control over web content, especially because the internet-savvy middle class is unlikely to take to the streets over lack of web access.
鈥淢any educated people feel they can accept the current status quo because it doesn鈥檛 have much impact on their daily lives 鈥� They have been living with government propaganda for over 1,000 years,鈥� Liu says.
Such an attitude grates on Du Dongjin, a 40-year-old IT worker in Shanghai.
Du has decided to sue his internet service provider, the Shanghai branch of state-owned behemoth China Telecom, who he said had blocked a website that carried financial software he hoped to market. 鈥淚f the court authorities aren鈥檛 influenced, and they can hear the case fairly, I will win,鈥� Du said.
Most frustrated web surfers, however, would rather air their grievances in the relatively safe realms of internet anonymity.
Playing catch-up
That anonymity still exists only because a state push to have China鈥檚 millions of bloggers register their real names to ensure they only posted 鈥渞esponsible鈥� web content was abandoned after an outcry from the internet industry, and due to the impossible task of keeping lists of exploding numbers of users.
鈥淭he thirst for information in China is so strong, it is very difficult for the [Communist] party to stay ahead of the curve,鈥� Bequelin explained.
Within days of blocking Flickr, links to browser plug-ins and how-to explanations of ways to subvert the filters and view photos on the site were gleefully posted on blogs and in chat-rooms.
Many posts were preceded by tirades against the censors for 鈥渉armonising鈥� Flickr. One blogger posted an image of a voodoo doll, calling it the Great Firewall and inviting users to 鈥� digitally 鈥� stick pins in it.
Yang said restrictions on Flickr probably wouldn鈥檛 motivate him to write a blog, much less push him down the road of 鈥減otentially dangerous鈥� activism. But he liked the idea of the Great Firewall voodoo doll. 鈥淗ave you got the link? Maybe I鈥檒l go stick a pin in it,鈥� he said.
