If Xi Jinping is the father and China’s people are his children, then Xi’s parenting style is definitely based on discipline rather than trust. The question is, will tightening his grip on society through restrictions of media, entertainment and free speech make China’s youth respect their father figure, or resent and rebel against him?
On one hand, examples of backlash provide evidence that President Xi's excessive control over social media, television, and news may be pushing China's people beyond their limit of tolerance.
Recent cases of tension between China’s censors and dissenters include the resignation of a top newspaper editor, Yu Shaolei, who posted a letter online last month saying he could no longer bear the government’s censorship policies. The letter was of course, promptly removed. Also in March, an influential business publication, Caixin, posted an article along with a picture of a mouth taped-shut on its English website in response to censorship of its Chinese-language website. The English article also disappeared.
On the other hand, the majority of China’s people seem to be supportive of Xi’s leadership and are much more concerned about being able to find gainful employment and curbing government corruption than having access to uncensored news sources.
A survey co-sponsored by Harvard University’s Kennedy School of Government and GMO Research, a Tokyo-based global market research firm, appeared to prove Xi’s high level of domestic approval in 2014, reporting that 94.8 percent of Chinese supported his treatment of domestic issues, and 93.8 percent were confident in his handling of international affairs.
Xi’s popularity is due in part to his campaign to combat corruption, which a Pew Research Center study named as the main concern among China’s public. Economic concerns also topped the list.
Despite these figures, there is clearly some level of dissatisfaction with the government – and its censorship policies in particular – among Chinese citizens. It is difficult, however, to tell just how much of this disapproval is repressed through controls and intimidation.
China’s censorship efforts include, the “Great Firewall,” which blocks certain publications and websites; the full-time employment of close to 100 thousand individuals tasked with monitoring the web; programs to detect and erase controversial terms and material; and the intimidation and imprisonment of dissenting journalists or bloggers.
The entire operation is overseen by the Communist Party propaganda department, which distributes censorship mandates to editors at the country’s media outlets on a weekly basis.
Considering the magnitude of its censorship activities, it is no wonder China received a press freedom ranking of 176 out of 180 countries from Reporters Without Borders.
Even though control of the media has always been a part of China’s Communist Party, censorship has increased noticeably since Xi Jinping took office in 2012.
In 2013, the State Internet Information Office tightened content restrictions. In 2014, a directive banned reporters from releasing information from interviews on social media without permission. In 2015, the government made it more difficult for people to use Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) to circumvent Internet controls.
GreatFire.org is an anti-censorship group that tracks hundreds of thousands of web pages and Internet searches and reported that the number of those entities blocked in China has increased from 14 percent in 2012 to nearly 25 percent as of this month. In early April, The Economist and Time websites were added to the list of banned news sources due to cover stories that warned of Xi’s growing power and cult of personality.
When scandals arise that threaten the legitimacy of the party, whole subjects can be erased from public discourse, like the Panama Papers or Hong Kong protests.
Increasingly, censorship doesn’t only cover controversial political items but is expanding to counter what is deemed morally destructive content as well. New guidelines from the TV Production Committee of the China Alliance of Radio, Film, and Television prohibit the portrayal of homosexuality, underage romance, infidelity, smoking, witchcraft, and reincarnation. Anything that may “hurt the feelings of the Chinese people” or is “harmful to the unity and sovereignty of the country and its territorial integrity” can be banned as well, including the depiction of certain historical events.
I encountered one sobering example of historical denial when I was touring Tiananmen Square in Beijing with my family several years ago. My father asked our tour guide if he could tell us about the student riots in 1989 to which the guide promptly replied, “There were no riots here.”
Underneath it all, China’s constitution actually upholds freedom of speech and the press. But such statements are meaningless when regulations allow authorities to restrict anything that ‘endangers the country,’ and lets them interpret that provision at will.
Erica Evans is a Journalism Associate with The Cipher Brief.
