This is especially true on the eve of an important political conference.
The five-yearly national congress, which this year will mark its 19th, will get underway next week, with the unveiling of a new leadership under General Secretary Xi Jinping.
Censors are busy, limiting speech while working to spread specific messages. They monitor keywords and emojis on social networks, blocking any content that suggests defiance or mockery of the country’s leaders, and report those who post such content to the government.
On the instant messaging software WeChat, messages containing “Xi Jinping” or his alias “Winnie the Pooh” cannot be sent to multi-person conversation groups, nor can emojis about Xi Jinping or former national leaders. The same is true for emojis about Xi Jinping or former leaders.
This image, which compares Xi Jinping and former U.S. President Barack Obama to Winnie the Pooh and Tigger, was also blocked by the Chinese Communist Party authorities.
On the surface, mainland China is opening up socially: one new, highly developed city after another, with posters of the latest Hollywood flicks on the streets; a world-leading spread of electronic money; and young people dressed to the nines riding bike-sharing bikes everywhere in a modern landscape.
However, since Xi Jinping took office five years ago, the space for public discourse has become increasingly censored, with everything from political thought to sexuality tightly controlled in every aspect of Chinese Life.
Olympic Games Bring Freedom?
Coming to China on the eve of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, one gets the impression that it is a place where freedom of expression is increasingly open.
At that Time, the government issued new regulations that allowed foreign media reporters to travel freely throughout the country without the approval of local governments.
It may seem unbelievable today, but at the time, Google searches were not blocked.
The quality of investigative reporting by the media in mainland China continued to improve, with reports in magazines such as Southern Weekend or Caijing rivaling those of the international media.
I remember attending a public event that year with a group of journalists and expressing various concerns with a Foreign Ministry spokesman who reiterated to us that everything would be fine.
“Don’t worry,” he said with a smile and a gesture of pushing the gearshift lever of a car to drive, “China has only one direction, and that is forward.”
Today, that metaphor may not be quite accurate anymore.
“The Great Firewall”
Mainland China has the famous Great Wall of China, but it also has the “Great Firewall” to keep politically incorrect information off the Internet.
Back then, many people believed that “the Internet could not be controlled” – a seemingly new global reality.
But the Chinese Communist authorities have managed to find a way to control the Internet. Instead of connecting to the world wide web, the CCP has built a “Great Firewall” and a closed network of near-intranets within.
People in mainland China cannot freely browse websites such as Amnesty International, Facebook, and Twitter unless they use a “virtual private network” (VPN) to get over the Great Firewall.
As the 19th National Congress approaches, authorities are targeting VPNs, such as asking Apple to take down all VPN apps from the App Store, the Chinese version of the application store.
In order not to be kicked out of the huge market in mainland China, Apple has complied with the Chinese authorities’ demands.
Years ago, Google was faced with the same choice: cooperate with the Chinese authorities in censoring search results or be kicked out of mainland China. Google did not give in and has since been shielded from the Great Firewall by the Chinese authorities.
Monitoring “WeChat”
“WeChat is extremely popular in China
WeChat is the most effective surveillance tool in mainland China, and the most popular form of communication in the country.
Almost everyone with Internet access in mainland China uses WeChat, which is an instant messaging, group communication, photo sharing, location search, and electronic payment service.
In politically sensitive times – such as now, as the 19th National Congress approaches – many words on WeChat are blocked or monitored. Sending more sensitive words can even lead to visits from state security personnel.
The new rules issued earlier also put the responsibility for any sensitive content in group communications on the group initiator. One can imagine that the administrator of a soccer group would now be quite nervous about messages posted by group members when they are drunk.
Readers may question how a mobile app operated by the major tech conglomerate Tencent, not the Chinese Communist authorities, could be so closely monitored.
However, under the supervision of the Communist Party’s regulatory body, the Office of Network Security and Informatization Reform Group of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (the Office), private companies operating online platforms are not only required to implement content controls, but also to report users who post sensitive content to the “relevant authorities “.
WeChat is not only a communication software for mainland Chinese, but also the main news and information platform for Chinese people overseas. By controlling the content disseminated on WeChat, the dissemination of news can be effectively controlled.
At the same time, other competitors who try to challenge WeChat’s monopoly are limited in their development. For example, Whatsapp, an internationally popular messaging app, was “blocked” in the run-up to the 19th National Congress because it was not 100% controlled by the Chinese Communist Party authorities and could not be used by users without a VPN.
It is unclear whether the blocking of Whatsapp is a temporary measure in response to the 19th National Congress or a long-term one.
Strict control of news media
Last year, Xi Jinping visited the headquarters of China Central Television
It is no secret that mainland China’s newspapers and television stations are under the full control of the Communist Party of China.
Last year, Xi visited the headquarters of the People’s Daily, Xinhua News Agency and CCTV, and told journalists to be absolutely loyal to the Party and to follow its leadership “ideologically, politically and operationally.
This is not enough. To prevent some journalists from still disobeying, many restrictions have been added to the coverage of the 19th National Congress this year: all interviews with experts and scholars about the 19th Congress must be approved by the leadership of the relevant news organizations and the Propaganda Department of the CPC Central Committee.
Such censorship covers not only political issues, but also other areas.
Currently, online bookstores in mainland China are required to join the rating system of the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), which includes “moral values” as a criterion for evaluation. Popular WeChat public websites featuring secrets about the rich, famous and celebrities have been forced to shut down because the topics are considered to be against “core socialist values”.
Purifying TV series
Not long ago, low-budget web dramas were a major outlet for Chinese online discourse, and sitcoms featuring gay people used to appear in China.
But now video sites have been ordered to stop broadcasting overseas programs, and online programs produced in mainland China face the same strict content censorship as TV shows.
Even passionate kissing scenes are rare on TV in mainland China.
Two years ago, a major historical drama, “The Legend of Wu Mei Niang,” was accused of being too revealing because the female characters’ costumes showed cleavage “true to history” and were forced to re-edit most of the female scenes for close-ups, or else they were not allowed to be broadcast.
Such cases of strict state control over moral values are common in the Xi era.
Last month, authorities issued new rules requiring TV dramas to “enrich the spiritual and cultural life of the people” and encouraging them to “eulogize the Party, the motherland, the people and the heroes. The previous regulations required that TV dramas not feature “immoral” behavior such as extramarital affairs, gambling, drugs, and homosexuality.
In this powerful political propaganda machine, the image of an above-all character is becoming clear.
“Xi Jinping’s Cult of the Individual”?
The Chinese Communist Party’s censorship system suppresses dissent, while at the same time striving to promote an ideology that leads public opinion to believe that all good developments in China today are due to one person – Xi Jinping.
Recently, an exhibition was opened in Beijing to promote the Chinese government’s recent achievements. In a large exhibition hall, Xi’s achievements in science, transportation, the military, the economy, sports, ethnic minorities and other areas are displayed, all with a large portrait of Xi Jinping at the center. There are hundreds of Xi Jinping portraits throughout the exhibition.
For days, the front page of the English-language official media, China Daily, has been devoted to the positive impact of Xi’s directives on different villages, towns and cities across the country. Some Chinese people laughingly say that such coverage is the same as the North Korean media’s coverage of Supreme Leader Kim Jong-un.
When Communist Party officials make speeches, they often emphasize that the policy they are promoting is “with Comrade Xi Jinping as the core”.
If you question “Xi’s core”, the entire state censorship machine will come down on you. However, the line between what can and cannot be said is always blurred, and the authorities have never given any clear definition.
As a result, the public will be hesitant and the authorities will not have to give any precise reasons for their crackdown.
Whether it is a media editor, cartoonist, journalist, film director, online blogger, TV comedian, or social networking site administrator at work, or every Chinese civilian communicating with Family and friends, everyone is careful not to fall into “sensitive” areas.
In sum, the CCP’s censorship is quite successful, and many countries around the world are watching with envy.
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