Facebook has become one of the most popular social networking sites, ranked fourth in the world by a popular technology Web site, but as of this summer most Chinese students living in China cannot access the site.
“I could use it on July 9 [when the site was supposed to be blocked] but when I flew from Beijing to here, I couldn’t log on,” said Le Xue, graduate assistant for U.S.-China Issues.
The Chinese government removed access to Facebook, Twitter and many Google services after violence in the Xinjiang Province this summer, according to a recent report by TechCrunch.
Rioters involved in this incident are responsible for more than 140 people killed and about 816 wounded, according to the Independent World, a news organization in the UK.
“These new social networks are becoming an important dissemination of information,” said Peter Gries, Director of the OU Institute for U.S.-China Issues.
Graduate assistants for U.S.-China Issues Xue and Weihao Zhang said they were both in China this summer when these sites were blocked.
Both students said they believe the Chinese government is doing what is necessary because the rioters are using foreign networks to stimulate their cause.
“I think it’s necessary for the government to do something,” said Zhang, a social work graduate student.
Zhang and Xue explained the rioters are killing strangers in the street.
“The violence is really scary there,” said Xue, an instructional psychology and technology graduate student.
Zhang and Xue both expressed concern with the way western media conveys these events.
Zhang said they notice the western media misinterpreting events happening in China, further justifying the Chinese government’s attempts to censor some of the foreign sites online.
Gries said the censorship of Web sites is not a phenomenon unique to China by any means.
“It’s really important to keep the stability,” Zhang said.
The Chinese government has a hard time keeping stability when other news organizations overseas are creating ideas that the Chinese government is being oppressive to its people, when this just isn’t the case, Zhang said.
“All of these technologies of information affect the ways in which politics operate,” Gries said.
However, Gries said there is no way for China to close off Internet communication completely because they would upset 100 million netizens (citizens participating in politics through the Internet).
“If the government cracks down on the Internet too much they can endanger their foreign business as well,” Gries said.
Facebook shouldn’t be blocked forever, Xue and Zhang said.
“The reality is that the government does sometimes censor things but that does not mean your friends [Chinese students] have lost their freedom,” Gries said. “For Americans, we see a lack of freedom in the political realm and it creates other fears about other kinds of freedoms.”
Gries explains the situation as a difference in perspectives between Americans and the Chinese.
“It’s kind of inconvenient, but there are still a lot of other ways to communicate,” Zhang said.
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Brewer 2 years, 9 months ago
Chinese government oppressive? NEVER!