"Breaking Down the 'Great Firewall' That Imprisons 1.4 Billion Chinese: Spread of Anti-Censorship Movement in China"

China Blocks Disadvantageous 'External Information' Sources
Isolating China from 6 Billion People Worldwide
Using VPNs in China Leads to Punishment

A campaign is underway criticizing China's internet censorship system, known as the so-called 'Great Firewall' (The Great Firewall·GFW), as the biggest cause of global conflicts and calling for its dismantling.

On the 2nd, Hong Kong's Ming Pao and the Voice of America (VOA) reported that overseas Chinese dissidents have spearheaded the '#BanGFW' campaign, a movement to ban the Great Firewall, which started about two months ago.

Poster of the Chinese Great Firewall ban campaign '#BanGFW' posted on Twitter. [Photo by Twitter]

Named after the Great Wall, a symbol of China, the 'Great Firewall' is a powerful internet control system that blocks access to most internet channels where 'external information' unfavorable to China might enter, including major foreign news websites, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, Netflix, Wikipedia, and more.

The '#BanGFW' campaign criticizes the Great Firewall as an 'electronic prison wall' and 'the Chinese Communist Party's internet Berlin Wall,' urging all countries worldwide to understand its harm and unite to abolish it.

Chao Xinxin: "The Great Firewall is used by the Chinese Communist Party for brainwashing"

Despite crackdowns by Chinese authorities, some netizens are bypassing the Great Firewall using virtual private network (VPN) programs that allow internet access circumvention. This is also why posts related to the "Blank Paper Protests" against the "Zero COVID" policy in China at the end of November last year were able to be shared on platforms like Twitter.
[Photo by EPA·Yonhap News]

Chao Xinxin, a Chinese dissident who initiated this campaign, told VOA in an interview ahead of 'World Press Freedom Day' (May 3) that "the Great Firewall has isolated China's 1.4 billion people from the other 6 billion people in the world for a long time," and criticized it as "an important information war by China against the free and democratic world."

He added, "We will file a complaint with the International Criminal Court (ICC) in The Hague against Fang Binxing and Yan Wangzi, known respectively as the father and mother of the Great Firewall," and said, "We are collecting evidence and lobbying parliaments in various countries around the world for this purpose."

He pointed out, "Since China built the Great Firewall, the world's largest electronic prison, in 2000, it has spent $6 billion (about 8 trillion won) annually on maintenance costs to block 310,000 websites worldwide, including Google, Twitter, CNN, and BBC," adding, "As a result, all Chinese people can only access information brainwashed by the Chinese Communist Party."

He continued, "China has exported Great Firewall technology to Russia, Iran, Myanmar, Cambodia, and other places, resulting in 1.7 billion people daily hating the United States without reason, opposing Japan, and attacking Taiwan. This continues to cause conflicts worldwide," he criticized.

He also claimed, "Banning the Great Firewall is more important than banning TikTok or ending the Ukraine war."

There is a movement, mainly in the West including the United States, to ban China's short video service TikTok citing national security threats, but he argues that dismantling China's Great Firewall could have an even greater effect.

Furthermore, it has been pointed out that the absence of voices criticizing Russia's invasion of Ukraine on Chinese internet, and even the lack of the term 'Ukraine war,' is due to the Great Firewall. Chinese netizens cannot access accurate information and only receive the pro-Russian stance of the authorities.

Chao Xinxin said, "As a Chinese journalist exiled overseas, I believe there is no democracy and human rights without press freedom," and added, "Because I started the #BanGFW campaign and contribute articles to Radio Free Asia (RFA), my family in China is under threat."

He urged, "Dismantling the Great Firewall is a top priority for promoting the development of Chinese society," calling for the international community and netizens to pay attention and participate.

Meanwhile, despite crackdowns by Chinese authorities, some netizens are bypassing the Great Firewall using virtual private networks (VPNs). This is why posts related to the 'blank paper protests' against the 'zero COVID' policy in China at the end of November last year could be posted on Twitter and other platforms.

However, using VPNs in China can lead to punishment.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.