Government Censorship In China

"In recent years Chinese college students have been rebellious against all sorts of authority, the favorite word among the youth in China is No. "(Bernstein, The New York Times). The Tiananmen Square Protest in 1989 campaigned for a peaceful transition from Communism to Democracy. Although the protest itself was non-violent, the government imposed terror to suppress the violence.

This can also be seen throughout Bradbury’s novel Fahrenheit 451. It is not truly illegal to contact people, but the society makes it feel that communication is not normal. That it is not normal for people to talk about things that are going on in the world around

As mentioned above, the GMD focused their efforts on gaining the support of wealthy businessmen in big cities. An example of this is that over 90% of revenue raised by the GMD came from areas near Shanghai, the largest international port and financial capital of China . As such, the GMD already did not have support of the peasants, and the party lost even more support with their inability to manage their own economy, spending most their revenue on military expenditures. Faced with economic problems, the GMD printed more money, resulting in the loss of value and leading to hyperinflation (1000% inflation in Shanghai in 1947.) As the GMD economy collapsed, the population of China turned their allegiance towards the only other viable solution to their problems: the CCP.

Chinese traditional artwork, being a huge part of Chinese traditional culture, one of the “Four Olds”, was forbidden and destroyed. This was accomplished through Mao’s Red Guard student army. Revolutionary posters with smiling faces of Chairman Mao and catchy slogans were hung all around the country. Louise Slavicek in The Chinese Cultural Revolution, summarized the propaganda and explained how it was also attempted to be used as means of expressing criticism of the CCP. Slavicek recalls the 16 points published by the CCP Central Committee.

He wrote about ongoing topics in China metaphorically in his works. Since the government has control over everything, the residents receive the negative effects. Weiwei uses his works to show the government “won’t have tomorrow” (Weiwei 3). He claims that although the government may control its people now, they will gain control back in the future. He rebels his culture by going against the beliefs of the government.

But the real question is how innocent were these people? And how many of these people chose to fight knowing they would die? With the help of courageous soldiers, the Great Wall helped all of China by keeping the fighting near the wall, and away from the cities. Just imagine how much worse it could have been if the Great Wall weren 't there and the fighting took place in the cities of

The movie sensationalizes the violence by only showing acts of violence in distant memories of Cunxin and not depicting the widespread torture and harassment of educators and counter revolutionaries. The Cultural Revolution was largely characterized by terrible acts of violence that were carried out by the Red Guards mostly against teachers and intellectuals (Source B). This torture was so grusome that many people died. Despite this, the film failed to portray these acts of violence and instead portrayed the propaganda and fear of western imperialism of the Chinese Communist government. This was depicted when the Chinese government was reluctant to allow Cunxin to travel to America because of the fear that he would be indoctrinated by the anti-Communists and not return to China.

Nike’s TV commercial "Chamber of Fear" was introduced as a creative, inventive and well-intentioned advertisement in China, but quickly became involved in cultural disputes after its debut. Although social networking was not so developed back to that days, the information was spread so fast that after several days more than 900 messages of the Chinese citizens have been posted on several major Chinese websites. After this wave of discontent, Chinese authorities have banned this commercial. According to the State Administration of Television, Film and Radio (2004), the commercial “violates regulations that mandate that all advertisements in China should uphold national dignity and interest and respect the motherland's culture”. Moreover, the administration claimed that “It also goes against the rules that require ads not to contain content that blasphemes national practices and cultures”.

Since the dictatorship holds the most power and right, oppressing people to the largest extent without affording them a possible chance to revolt, it is not significant but merely risky for people to show any civil disobedience towards the tyranny. With the most power, there is no reason for a despotic country to allow civil disobedience. To begin with, take a case in China as an instance; less than two years ago, the Chinese government decided to establish a p-xylene (gaseous chemical raw material factory in Maoming city (a small city in southern China), which was objected by most of Maoming residents because such factory would post a threat to both local environment and local residents’ health. They organized large-scale demonstrations in Maoming city. More severely, civil disobedience can give rise to bloodletting.

According to numbers of the UN there were around 154 million international migrants in the world in 1990 which has risen to an all-time high of 232 million international migrants in the year 2013. This proves that we as humans are constantly on the move. Nowadays it is argued if immigration has a positive influence on the economy in countries all over the world and that immigrants contribute something to the economy of a country. The question: should we consider immigration as a positive influence on the global economy, is raised.

It can be just unbelievable how we sometimes put more value to money than we do to people 's health. Because clearly, we keep deploying troops on different locations

This is why China is in trouble. The Chinese people are taking everything at face value. No one is questioning their teachers and without questions the students do not have a full understanding. Another example of the Chinese stuck in an information drought would be one of Applebaum’s example of censorship saying, “the Chinese government also demanded that Microsoft delete the writings of a free-speech advocate from its blog software” (Applebaum 643). Microsoft is only one example of censorship in China.

On June 5, documents Snowden obtained were release in the United Kingdom’s Guardian newspaper. On June 14 Snowden was charged with theft of government property, unauthorized communication of national defense information, and willful communication of classified intelligence with an unauthorized person. Snowden’s response was "I 'm willing to sacrifice [my former life] because I can 't in good conscience allow the U.S. government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they 're secretly building.” (Edward Snowden Biography). Here is a clear cut example of why the government should limit their use of surveillance.

Why is America Exceptional? In 2001, my mother was able to acquire a visa to live in the United States of America, my mother wanted to chase her American dream. She knew that where she used to live, the opportunities were not there for her. My mother saw the greatness in the US that most of us see. The US is arguably the best country in the world, and most people who live here would agree.