The Great Firewall of China

“For many years, the internet in China was seen as a channel for new thinking, or at least greater openness,” writes Human Rights Watch researcher Yaqiu Wang. “Online discussions were relatively free and open, and users, especially younger ones, had an eager appetite for learning and debating big ideas about political systems and how China should be governed.”   

That changed when Xi Jinping took power. Explaining what’s known as China’s “Great Firewall,” Wang notes, “the government got savvier, and more aggressive about using its own technology.” For example, dissidents, journalists, and public figures disappear frequently, sometimes often for minor infractions like logging onto Twitter. 

The state’s actions have created “a generational split,” says Wang. “[T]hose who experienced a relatively free internet as young people—many strongly resent the Great Firewall. Among people who started college after Xi took power, however, there is a strong impulse to defend it.” 

It’s an extreme example of how tools intended and used for good can also be harnessed for evil. The same resource that can promote flourishing can also promote tyranny. That’s true everywhere, not just China.

Copyright 2024 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.

Shanghai’s Food Shortage

A recent viral video shows thousands of people in Shanghai screaming in unison into the night to protest the Chinese government’s brutal “zero-COVID” policy.  

Entire high-rises of people are confined to their rooms, locked in with green fencing that appeared overnight. Children, including babies, are separated from their parents in massive government quarantine centers, some of which lack basic medical equipment or even beds. Other videos show hundreds of pets being collected and euthanized as supposed carriers of the disease.  

In the meantime, many of the city’s 25 million people find themselves on the brink of starvation, with government food deliveries unable to keep up with demand.  

If we’re looking for a culprit, it’s not just the lockdown. It’s not even COVID-19. It’s the ideology of China’s ruling elites, which rejects the sacred value of the individual in the name of the “common good.” Human dignity is a deeply Christian idea, one that China’s communist leaders have been at war with for decades.  

We must pray that the voices of Shanghai’s suffering people will wake them up to what is true and good.

Copyright 2024 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.

Americans Censor Themselves for China

America’s corporate cooperation in China’s oppressive activities is shameful. Political philosopher Charles de Montesquieu said that “The tyranny of a prince in an oligarchy is not so dangerous to the public welfare as the apathy of a citizen in a democracy.” With China, , we’re seeing this play out in real-time. China’s control and censoring of its own citizens is disturbing, but predictable. But the number of American corporations and media willing to censor themselves is what’s really stunning 

With access to 1.4 billion consumers at stake, corporations like Nike and the NBA, and most  Hollywood studios have bowed to China’s demands, apologizing profusely for any perceived offense. Ahead of the Olympics, house speaker Nancy Pelosi warned athletes not to speak up against human rights abuses while in China.  

Clearly, those with the most money to lose are willing to stay silent on human rights abuses.

Which makes China’s evils not just a “them” problem. It’s an “us” problem, too. Freedom of speech is only as good as what it is used for.  

Let’s hope we start using it for something better: speaking the truth.

Copyright 2022 by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Reprinted from BreakPoint.org with permission.