Most Chinese Say They Approve of Government Internet Control by Deborah Fallows, Senior Research Fellow, Pew Internet & American Life Project
March 27, 2008

Paragraph 1 of Article

"Many Americans assume that China’s Internet users are both aware of and unhappy about their government’s oversight and control of the Internet. But in a new survey, most Chinese say they approve of Internet control and management, especially when it comes from their government."

Paragraph 4 of Article

"The Chinese government has long tried to control its Internet in many ways. It censors or blocks politically-outspoken blogs. It has arrested citizens on charges of “inciting subversion” for posting articles in chat rooms critical of the Communist Party. It passes Internet traffic through a “Great Firewall” designed to deny access to such international websites as Wikipedia, Technorati, all blogs hosted by Blogspot, and many sites maintained by the BBC. It also censors content on Chinese-based sites dealing with a host of topics, including the religious group Falun Gong, the 1989 Tiananmen incident, corruption among government officials, the independence movement in Taiwan, a free Tibet, various human rights issues, political incidents, or citizens’ uprisings."

The survey was funded by the Markle Foundation and directed by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Article may be found at:

http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_China_Internet_2008.pdf

My Thoughts

Some people may be surprised by this findings of this report, but I am not. If you have lived your entire life in an extremely censored society, what other response can be expected. Also, should fear be taken into account? This is a communist country. Maybe they were afraid of the consequences that may evolve from being completely honest with the survey.

There is a old saying that "You do not miss what you never had." Could that be the case with the people of China. Would living in a completely censored society all of your life cause a person to want continued censorship? I do not completely agree with that, but it makes you wonder.

I believe personally I would wonder what I am missing out on. What is the government keeping from us? Are they really protecting the people or protecting themselves from the people?