Letters | China’s Great Firewall doesn’t cut Chinese off from the world entirely
- An increasing number of Chinese students go overseas to study where they are exposed to various ideas. Meanwhile, even within China, people have access to the wider internet
Even though the Chinese government shut down many exchange programmes in 2019, including partnership programmes between well-known Chinese universities and certain top universities around the world, many of these programmes are with American or Australian universities, and students are still allowed to go to other countries, such as in Europe, for higher education.
The Chinese government even pays for students’ flight tickets and living expenses, encouraging an increasing number of Chinese students with top grades (including economically disadvantaged students) to go abroad. In other words, more Chinese students are being sent abroad, and these students gain an opportunity to talk with people living in liberal democracies and broaden their horizons.
Besides, the network systems in several top universities are operated in the absence of the Great Firewall (I experienced this when I did my undergraduate studies in Beijing). Employees of large companies have the same access to the global internet.
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Inside a Chinese internet censorship centre
Chinese people, especially college students and young people, are very exposed to knowledge and ideas. They are not allowed to examine freedom of speech in public, but I believe many Chinese people are becoming more liberal and the state has not totally blocked out information.