The Next Cultural Revolution: The Real Reason Why China is So Obsessed with Internet Censorship

Everybody watch out—China’s Great Firewall is getting larger and mightier than Sarah Palin’s wardrobe budget. The Chinese government has been revving up its efforts to maintain control over information being disseminated via the Internet. Unless you’ve spent the last fifteen years in a coma, you’d certainly know that. Many theorists claim that this policy gives Chinese officials the power to prevent political conflicts and uphold proper morals among the Chinese. By censoring the Internet and carrying out pertinent actions against Internet users and/or organizations that post online content deemed “offensive” (whatever the heck that means), the Chinese government is able to keep its citizens in line and avoid threats to the regime. Punishments include permanent blockage of offending websites in China and 20-year prison sentences. But is that really all that Beijing wants? Why is China so obsessed with Internet censorship? Could there be a deeper reason for this dominatrix lockdown besides maintaining “peace and order” among its citizenry? Well, as it turns out, we’re seeing just the tip of the dim sum. If you want to witness some mind-blowing revelations about China’s Internet censorship and the Great Firewall, don’t stop reading. Get ready. You’re in for an absolute threat—I mean, treat.

How Powerful is China’s Internet Censorship Anyway?

Out of 179 countries, the group Reporters Without Borders (@RSFNet) placed China at the 173rd spot in its 2013 worldwide index of press freedom. China’s “prisons still hold many journalists and netizens, while increasingly unpopular Internet censorship continues to be a major obstacle to access to information,” noted the report. All the same, these and other statistics are hardly surprising. In China, when a user types in the words “persecution” or “democracy movements,” he or she will be greeted by a blank screen of death that boldly proclaims, “Page cannot be displayed.” As the government’s reputation matters a lot, it wouldn’t dare allow its people to be exposed to online content that might instigate them to arrange uprisings or campaigns to overthrow the administration. Various studies agree that the reason why the Chinese government implements strict Internet censorship is because Beijing is afraid of rebellions. In 2011, political scientist Gary King of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science at Harvard University (@IQSS), and Ph.D. students Jennifer Pan and Margaret Roberts, claimed in their study that online content containing sensitive topics—such as the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, calls for policy changes, and criticisms of government officials—were being taken down almost instantaneously by the Chinese government. The question remains: how does China control its Internet? According to a story that appeared in The Economist (@TheEconomist), the Chinese government ensures that the nation’s online ecosystem remains “unpolluted” by executing two main systems: one is the infamous Great Firewall, and the other, the so-called Golden Shield. The Great Firewall is the more recognized douchebag among the two, and has been used by the Chinese government since the late 1990s. Like hitchhikers in a scary movie, many foreign websites have fallen victim, and are still falling victim, to the Great Firewall. These foreign websites get blocked, especially if China thinks their content can create discord between the government and its people. The Golden Shield, on the other hand, was set up in 1998 to target domestic online content distribution. Completed in 2006, the project boasts upscale surveillance hardware provided by mostly U.S. companies, including Cisco Systems (@Cisco). And do you know just how strict this system is? If you’re in a cybercafé or an office building in China, and happen to be exchanging emails with a friend about how horrible you think President Xi Jinping is (you’d have to admit, his face is pretty puke-worthy), it wouldn’t take local police more than 15 minutes or so to investigate and arrest you. Yes, my friend, China’s obsession with censorship is at its highest, zaniest level. But if you think the government is doing this just to prevent an uprising among its citizenry, think again. There’s a much darker and deeper secret waiting to be unveiled. Drum roll…. You’re lucky to be the first to know this: China is censoring the Internet and keeping its population in line as part of its bid to take over the world!

You heard it right. China secretly wants to revive its empire and conquer the world!

China’s Great Firewall and Golden Shield are like those man-eating plants in B movies. The more you feed them, the more dangerous and powerful they become. The Chinese government doesn’t only want to control its people—they are gunning for world domination! Unless Washington and the EU place serious restrictions on China’s nefarious activities, pretty soon the Great Firewall and Golden Shield will be extended outside China’s borders to encompass the rest of the planet. Ay, ¡qué horror! Through the Great Firewall and Golden Shield, China is also strictly controlling all forms of E-commerce within its borders. Once these systems begin to infiltrate other territories, China will begin to dominate all kinds of digital marketing channels—display advertising, email marketing, social media marketing, and search engine optimization. By tightening its grip on the World Wide Web and all marketing channels, pretty soon China will be able to dominate the global economy! I’m warning you. If you’re reading this in your office or in your bedroom, take caution. It might take only a few a minutes before the Chinese Public Security Bureau finds out that you’re reading an article about them, and will soon come knocking at your door. Just kidding! For now this scenario might sound far-fetched, but unless the international community responds, China’s soul-crushing, mind-vaporizing Internet censorship policies might be coming to a computer near you. Many experts (who have chosen to remain in the shadows, concealed behind thick velvet curtains in order to safeguard their lives) believe that China has already begun extending the Great Firewall and Golden Shield beyond its borders. Unless you’re in love with China’s Communist party, this should give you a serious anxiety attack. For one, many web browsers now entrust China in determining which sites are legit and which ones are not. In theory, that could spell danger, as Chinese hackers have the tendency to collect personal data from foreign sites supposedly with help coming from the Chinese government. Don’t believe me? You can read about the latest attack on Microsoft Outlook if you’re having doubts about this dark Chinese scheme. Also, this could be a significant part of Xi Jinping’s plan concerning the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” a.k.a. the “Chinese Dream”. In an article published on The South China Morning Post (@SCMP_News), writer Zhang Xiaomao wrote, “A revival has to include the past, so this would seem to be a way to return the nation to a previous state.” By reviving the power of its dynastic empire, China can take full control not only of the Internet activities of its people, but also of their everyday activities. And this could be the first step to world domination. From its mainland, China can gradually claw its way to other countries’ top-secret data by controlling the abilities of Chinese hackers.

Eyeing World Domination? There are Other Contenders.

This is a disturbing exposé, I know, but China is just one of the handful of governments and organizations willing to use immoral means to achieve world domination. Other organizations, like Google and Facebook, are also eyeing the same prize. Google and Facebook are peeking into their users’ personal data in an attempt to overtake the world and enslave humanity. I hate to say this but our future probably has already been decided. With its high-end technologies and strong drive to control people, China may very well beat Facebook and Google and achieve world domination.