Chinese censors hail country’s ‘internet civilisation’ as Beijing secures its grip on online content controls and information flows
- The Chinese authorities have built a powerful information control system that protects the primacy of Beijing’s messages
- China intends to promote the integration of comprehensive cyber governance with ‘internet civilisation’, authorities say
China has hosted a two-day “internet civilisation” conference in the northern city of Tianjin, where the country’s top ideological cadres and cyberspace administrators hailed Beijing’s progress in controlling online information and content.
Through the “Great Firewall” that blocks non-sanctioned online information from overseas, a vast army of online police that censors domestic internet content, and a raft of hefty fines than punish businesses and individuals for violations of content rules, the Chinese authorities have built a powerful information control system that protects the primacy of Beijing’s messages.
Huang Kunming, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)’s propaganda chief, said in a message to the conference that China’s cyberspace civilisation “has achieved noticeable results” in the past decade. China will “promote the integration of comprehensive cyber governance with internet civilisation” as a way to let cyberspace “be filled with advanced culture and time spirits”, Huang was quoted as saying by the official People’s Daily.
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How China censors the internet
Li Shulei, executive deputy chief of the party’s propaganda unit, said one mission of China’s internet regulators is to “guide netizens to deeply feel the great power of Xi Jinping Thought as the truth and the guidance of practice”, according to a statement published by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC), an organiser of the event.
Xi Jinping Thought has 14 main principles, which emphasise Communist ideals.
Zhuang Rongwen, the head of CAC, said the efforts to build up internet civilisation are partly about “online promotion and education of core socialist values”.
China’s Minister of Education Huai Jinpeng said at the event that China’s education system was giving internet civilisation a more prominent role to guide teachers and students to “always listen to the Party and always follow the Party”, according to a CAC statement.