XingCai Tang's Original Blog
Today China can be deemed as successful in their massive internet surveillance and content control task. The Great FireWall of China had managed to keep out any content that do not go in tandem with government policies. Although VPNs, or Virtual Private Networks had been used to get around the firewall, recent crackdown by the authorities had shut them down. Roseann Rife, the East Asia research director of Amnesty International, anticipated that the success of the Chinese model will attract buyers from countries like Russia or Egypt.
Back in Jan 1999, MIT Media Lab founder and technology pundit Nicholas Negroponte declared that a "healthy disrespect for authority" was required for any successful Internet industry. A year later, then-U.S. President Bill Clinton announced that "liberty will spread by cell phone and cable modem" and that any attempt to control the Internet in China would be "like trying to nail Jell-O to the wall." Things certainly had changed now, the CNN on 25 March 2015.
While Napoleon Bonaparte was wise not to awake the "Sleeping Giant", arrogant Bill Clinton certainly did not learn for it. Where there is a will, there will be ways and China should not be underestimated. With one-third of the world's population, China had more web users than the population of the United States. What they had is human capital and given time they will find a solution.
My Comments
I agree with Negroponte that a "healthy disrespect for authority" was required for any successful Internet industry. There is a little rebel in everyone. In the Chinese case, it is take it or leave. A censored internet is better than no internet at all.
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