China censors the world. By Suzanne Nossel.
In late September, the businessman Bill Browder received an unusual alert from the United Kingdom’s Foreign Office. Browder, an activist who champions sanctions against government officials complicit in human rights abuses in Russia and around the world, was warned not to travel to countries that honor extradition treaties with Hong Kong. The places he was warded off from included democracies such as South Africa and Portugal. British officials told the activist that, under the terms of a 2020 Hong Kong law, Browder could risk arrest, extradition, trial, and even punishment by the Chinese regime. Browder’s ostensible crime in such a scenario would be his public call for Britain to push back against human rights abuses in Hong Kong. …
In September, the Lithuanian government advised its officials to stop using Chinese-manufactured phones after discovering they were pre-programmed to censor 449 words or phrases considered objectionable by Beijing.
That same week it was revealed that community newspapers in Australia serving Chinese speakers were printing censored stories. News articles sent to China for verbatim translation were being quietly scrubbed of criticism of Beijing.
As the United States and its allies confront the challenge of rising global authoritarianism, they must come to grips with one of its most insidious dimensions: the growing reach of the world’s most powerful autocracy deep inside Western societies.
China’s global rise depends upon the world’s readiness to do business with it. That has put a premium on its international reputation. Increasingly, therefore, the CCP sees its continued reign as dependent not only on its long-standing practice of severely restricting speech inside China but also on dictating global narratives about China. Its rulers also fear that critiques that germinate abroad could seep through cracks in the Great Firewall and foster domestic instability. …
Directors and actors associated with such films as Seven Years in Tibet that depict China unfavorably have been frozen out professionally and, in some cases, have resorted to obsequious apologies to revive their careers. By contrast, action films with Chinese heroes and plotlines that flatter Beijing have won privileged slots for broad theatrical release, making as much as hundreds of millions of dollars on the mainland. The result is an acquiescent, anticipatory, even subconscious form of self-censorship whereby U.S. filmmakers have internalized Chinese taboos and rewards as integral to their success. …
A third of all foreign students studying in the United States before the COVID-19 pandemic were Chinese, filling university tuition coffers. The CCP’s close ties to the families of many students who are wealthy enough to study abroad incentivizes campuses reliant Chinese tuition-payers to avoid subjects or statements that might jeopardize this revenue stream. Chinese students studying in Australia report being under direct surveillance as well as dealing with informal systems whereby peers intimidate and harass those who deviate from a pro-Beijing line. …
Apple has opted to compromise app services, data privacy, and user protection measures to sustain access to Chinese markets. Apple’s Chinese app store blocks Western news outlets, organizing apps, and information about topics, including the Dalai Lama, that are censored by Beijing. …
Some analysts suggest that Facebook may earn as much as $5 billion annually in China, with employees raising concerns about how that revenue is influencing content moderation decisions relating to Chinese sensitivities, including the treatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang.
Chinese communism — like woke communism — is not compatible with western civilization.
