My question for the project was “Is the Chinese Internet Censorship hiding the truth from its citizens?” From the interactions with Natalie, personal experiences in China and observations from my family. I still think that the Chinese Communist Party is trying to hide the truth from its citizens. However, social media in China is growing at a fast rate. Applications like WeChat/WeiXin and Weibo (Chinese Twitter) are advanced. An example of this is how WeChat/WeiXin could record voice messages. Long before Facebook Messenger had implemented the feature. Users can also pay for goods and services from its wallet feature which is connected to the user’s credit card and bank account. There is an increase in number of WeiXin/WeChat users using it out of China like the rest of Asia, Europe and the U.S. Australian companies are also starting to use WeChat/Weixin. I was persuaded to subscribe to an Australian company on WeChat/WeiXin in order to receive promotional gifts . If more and more people are using WeiXin/WeChat, the government won’t be able to control the privacy settings and security settings anymore. Due to a lot of users on it a single time. This may then lead to user or users leaking information about China which the CCP wouldn’t like.
Blog Post #6
Even though, I think that the CCP are blocking their citizens from accessing the truth. There are examples which show that the Chinese can still access websites. Below, is a group chat between my relatives in China and Hong Kong, on WeChat/Weixin. The group chat is called the Guan Clan. This is because everyone in the chat is a Guan. My relatives always send each other miscellaneous messages. However, at the same time. They send each other news on politics and both regions can access it. This shows, that maybe the people living in China know that they are being restricted from information. My uncle who lives in Hong Kong is called SF. Although, there aren’t any messages about politics right now. The whole chat is usually filled with politics. Weixin/Wechat chats and status are like SnapChat. Once you see the messages and statuses, they last for a day and they are wiped the next day. This at the same time shows that WeChat/WeiXin has high security. It may be, that the government is hiding information that they don’t want others to see.
Blog Post #5
In China, the VPN (Virtual Private Network) users would have to pay to access websites such as Facebook, Instagram and Youtube if they are using it on the computer. However, mobile users don’t have to pay for VPN. When I was in China, I could connect to Instagram, Facebook and Youtube via VPN for free on mobile. However when I was on my computer it didn’t work. Occasionally, my VPN and my sister’s would sometimes work. Originally, I thought that it’s the internet connection. However, all of China. I experienced the same issue. My uncle said that VPNs in China would often be like that. Sometimes VPNs would be shut down permanently. This shows that even the VPNs are being controlled by the CCP. Even though it’s supposed to be a private network. They can still control on what you can and can’t see
Blog Post #4
Natalie added me on Wednesday and I messaged her after the add asking if she was keen to talk about Internet Censorship with me. She replied a day later and said ”of course”. She used her VPN to contact me online. Even though she is using her VPN. She still has trouble accessing Facebook and unblocked websites. I asked her if she feels like she is blocked off from the rest of the world in particular the Hong Kong Umbrella Revolution. However, she doesn’t remember. She mentions that the difficulties that she has is that she can’t access websites like Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. She needs to pay for it . Even though there are VPNs to access these websites, they often have security issues. For example, VPNs sometimes working and sometimes not working. I presume that the Chinese government are tracking down VPN providers. However, Natalie mentions that she doesn’t feel like she is being watched and has no evidence of her being watched.
Blog Post #3
My sister’s friend Natalie liked my status. Yet she didn’t comment on my post. I decided to message her privately on Weixin/WeChat. To check if she wanted to talk about China’s Internet Censorship. She replied that she wanted to and would add me back on Facebook. However I did not receive her until the next day which was Wednesday 3rd May. I think this was because her VPN wasn’t working properly. Which she mentioned later on.
Blog Post #2
I posted a status on WeChat asking people if they want to talk about the Internet Censorship. If they wanted to, they can add me on Facebook under Patrick Guan via their VPNs. I used Chinese also to contact others. The time for it to be posted up was delayed for half an hour. I think this was because the Chinese government checking the status. No one commented on the post for a while. I thought that they couldn’t see it or maybe they don’t have Facebook or VPN in general. I also thought that the CCP censored it.
Blog #1
Before I started this project, there were things which I had to consider.
The first thing was the social media platforms. China doesn’t used social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Google Talk etc. Due to the internet censorships. However, these platforms are created for English speakers and are far less focused for the needs of the Chinese market. For example, Facebook messenger recently introduced audio talk which is far easier than drawing out the different strokes and pin yin. However programs like WeChat/Weixin and Weibo (Chinese Twitter) had it before.
Instead I had to use Weixin/WeChat. China’s version of Facebook/Twitter. It’s more complex than Facebook and Twitter. Users can use the app to pay for goods and services in Mainland China. The other problem with Weixin is that I can only talk to my friends who have that app in China. So, the connections that I have in China was a problem because I don’t have any connections in China besides family. Instead, I used my sister’s Weixin to connect to her friends in China. My sister studied Chinese at Peking University for a semester in 2016 and gained a lot of connections there. Weixin has deep privacy walls and security settings. An example of this is, if you are person A and you are friends with person B but not friends with person C. You won’t be able to look at person C’s activities. You also won’t be able to see if person C liked or commented on person B’s status, even though you are friends with person B. Another example of how deep the privacy and security is. I can’t add friends on Weixin by username. I can only add them by contact number.
For the project. I linked my sister’s connections to use their VPN and contact me via Facebook. This is due to the Chinese government checking and deleting anything that has the mention of ‘censorship’ and ‘firewall’.
I had to use both Chinese and English to connect to her connections. So they can understand it if they don’t speak one of the languages.
Introduction To Asia: China and India 