On this episode of China Uncensored,
who knew selling out could feel so cheap?
Hi, welcome to China Uncensored,
I’m your host Chris Chappell.
The Chinese regime just held
its annual World Internet Conference.
This year’s theme was
“Developing digital economy
for openness and shared benefits—
building a community of common future in cyberspace.”
I’m sure it made a great float.
And if you were lucky enough
to make it past the “tight security checkpoints
with facial recognition” technology,
the “Chinese armed police”,
and the ever-present glow of
“the red lights of closed-circuit cameras”, plus whatever these guys were ready for,
you would have experienced
all the joys of openness
China’s internet has to offer.
Mainly because the conference had special wifi
that let attendees jump over the firewall
and access the real Internet.
Yes, the country ranked worst in the world
for Internet freedom three years running
knows a thing or two about openness.
Why, just ask the keynote speaker,
Tim Cook!
Yes, the CEO of your beloved Apple said,
“The theme of this conference—
developing a digital economy
for openness and shared benefits—
is a vision we at Apple share.”
I wonder if maybe he wandered
into the wrong conference.
Because a little later in the day,
one of the most powerful men in China,
“called for more aggressive
government involvement online
to combat terrorism and criminals.”
And yes,
he wants China’s internet regulations
to extend beyond China’s borders.
Now I know, you’re shocked.
Not that Tim Cook praised
the world’s most internet-censored nation.
After all,
Apple has spent the past few years
desperately trying to grab a piece of the China market
by bending over backwards for the Chinese regime—
doing things like banning the New York Times app,
removing VPNs,
even briefly blocking the China Uncensored
Apple TV app.
No, you’re probably shocked that there weren’t more
Western tech giants there
doing some good old fashioned bootlicking.
Well, no need to worry.
They were there.
And not just Apple and Google.
The vice president of Facebook
was there as well.
He said,
“I’d compliment the Chinese government
in terms of leadership on using data.”
I bet you would.
As Reuters put it,
“The tacit endorsement of the event
by top U.S. tech executives
comes as China introduces strict new rules
on censorship and data storage.”
Does this all seem a little hypocritical?
Well, it wasn’t lost on Chinese netizens either.
They came up with fun phrases to
describe-slash-mock the World Internet Conference,
like: “World 404 Conference,”
“World Satire Conference,”
and “Beggars Conference.”
Wow, those are really good!
Chinese netizens are on it.
I wish I had come up with some of those.
The CCP, of course,
did not think netizens were so clever.
They issued a censorship directive
to stop Internet users from talking about
the Internet conference.
“Intercept, find, and delete content attacking
the World Internet Conference in Wuzhen
on interactive platforms such as Weibo, blogs
public WeChat accounts,
forums, and bulletin boards.”
Now the Chinese regime’s goal
is not to censor the Internet
in the rest of the world.
At least not right away.
What it wants is the rest of the world,
including its tech leaders,
buying into the China model—
where governments have the right
to police the Internet within their countries
however they feel fit.
Each country will rule
its own mini Internet,
and the idea of a free and open Internet
will be history.
It’s called internet sovereignty.
And they’ll use Chinese software
and Chinese firewall methods to do it.
Because as everyone knows,
the Internet has been part of Chinese territory
since ancient times.
What do you think about China’s plans
and how the Western tech world is responding?
Leave your comments below.
Thanks for watching this episode of China Uncensored.
I’m your host Chris Chappell.
See you next time.
So, umm, since Google owns YouTube,
and Google is trying to make nice with China again,
maybe you should head on over to ChinaUncensored.tv.
You know, just in case.
Click here to go to ChinaUncensored.tv.