The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long been implementing its most elaborate and pervasive censorship system back home, and now it has admitted to expanding its measures globally.
A Feb. 20 report titled "Censorship Practices of the People's Republic of China" by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) revealed that the CCP has doubled down its efforts to stifle the spread of opinions and narratives it deems harmful to its interests worldwide. "This undertaking has proceeded along multiple lines of effort, including punishing U.S. private companies and individuals who express positions the CCP deems to be objectionable, restricting U.S. access to economic data, and conducting disinformation campaigns aimed at sowing division within U.S. society," the report stated.
According to the said paper, China has already spent massive resources on advancing its capability to influence global opinion. An example provided was restricting discussions on Beijing’s human rights abuses in Xinjiang and Tibet, or other sensitive topics like Taiwan, Chinese censors have frequently flooded overseas social media platforms with irrelevant content, as per an Epoch Times report.
The report further included that CCP's efforts use U.S. technology as assistance since much of its rigid control of the internet was built on American technology and expertise. The USCC paper further indicated that China historically "relied heavily on hardware parts and software sourced from the United States to construct and operate its online censorship." It cited that the country allegedly used routers, firewalls and antivirus products from Cisco and Symantec in the early 2000s in carrying out advanced censorship.
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It was also reported that CCP's censorship apparatus is still reliant on U.S. imports, especially those used in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning and big data applications. "Many of these AI-enabled 'public opinion guidance' tools rely on off-the-shelf components imported from the United States, such as general processing units (GPUs) and cloud computing infrastructure," the paper said, citing a 2019 report that suggested American tech giants such as Google and IBM may work with Chinese companies to contribute to the CCP's censorship regime.
Some of the U.S. firms may inadvertently support the regime's censorship apparatus, but the report found that in many cases, "foreign companies working in China deliberately conceal their connections to China’s security services which complicates due diligence to avoid contributing to the censorship apparatus."
Chinese Embassy to the U.S.: Stop framing China for censorship
Following the release of the report, the Chinese embassy in Washington, D.C. told Newsweek how they firmly oppose the groundless accusations against China. "The Chinese government protects press freedom by law, and gives full play to the role of media and citizens in supervising public opinion." Spokesperson Liu Pengyu said. "We urge the U.S. to reflect on itself and stop framing China for the so-called 'censorship system.'"
Liu added that the U.S. media, specifically the New York Post, have revealed cases about how the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) colluded with social media platforms to disseminate disinformation and manipulate domestic and international public opinion. He also said that last year, China released a report that said the United States was manipulating mainstream media and social media companies to influence global opinion.
The commission's charter mandates it to track restrictions on speech and access to information in China about the United States security, "as well as any potential impact of media control by the People's Republic of China on United States economic interests."
Asked for comment, the commission referred Newsweek to its November 2023 annual report to Congress where it said Beijing's overseas influence activities had become "flagrant."
"Foreign countries' media, politicians, businesses, academic institutions and ethnically Chinese citizens and residents are all major targets of Beijing's harmful, aggressive and at times illegal overseas influence efforts," the commission wrote in a section titled, "Battling for Overseas Hearts and Minds."
Meanwhile, Communist Party General Secretary Xi Jinping said his nation will lead the world in the economy, science and technology, and have a military capable of "fighting and winning wars" by 2049 at the latest. Chinese leaders view the U.S. as the key obstacle to its global rise to preeminence. (Related: China wants to legitimize censorship by creating UN convention that will criminalize dissemination of "false information" online.)
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