China is the world’s biggest enemy of Internet freedom

The Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) accuses China of being the world’s biggest enemy of Internet freedom. “China’s security agencies are systematically blocking the free flow of information on the Internet – with draconian penalties, and by arbitrary bans on critical websites. For example, anyone who dares to spread information on the recent self-immolation of a Tibetan in the district of Ngaba (Sichuan Province), as a form of protest against China’s Tibet policy, might be facing several years in prison. This is 152th self-immolation of a Tibetan person since 2011,” said Ulrich Delius, the STP’s director, in Göttingen on Sunday.

According to the Chinese state media, around 10 million Internet users have been blocked, and about 13,000 websites have been banned since 2015. “China’s state security agencies are trying to create the impression that the bans were merely meant to get rid of pornography or depictions or violence – but thousands of the websites in question had in fact provided information about human rights violations, or aimed to propagate democracy and the rule of law,” said Delius.

In the autonomous region of Xinjiang / East Turkestan, the measures against internet freedom are especially harsh. Over the past seven years, more than a dozen Uyghur webmasters were arrested and sentenced to long prison terms. Their only crime was to use the internet to spread information that the Chinese authorities wanted to keep under lock and key. Ilham Tohti, a professor of Economics, was even sentenced to life imprisonment for setting up websites to inform the Chinese people about human rights violations against the Uyghurs.

In China, anyone who uses the Internet to spread information concerning Uyghur protests or self-immolations of Tibetans might face several years in prison. This also applies to the dissemination of images (in the country or abroad) of anti-government protests. “China’s state media are taunting the country’s 735 million Internet users by stating that an overwhelming majority of the population is in favor of the bans and the arbitrary restrictions on their freedom of expression,” said Delius.

“The Chinese Communist Party’s attempts to gain total control of the Internet are not only to be seen as an attack on the freedom of expression in the country itself, but also on Internet freedom worldwide. China’s leaders are propagating total control of the Internet by national authorities all over the world. This is a serious threat to Internet freedom, even in Europe,” Delius warned.