The great firewall of China: how to build and control an alternative version of the internet
London:
Zed Books
(2021), xv, 423 pp., bibliogr. p.407-411, index
ISBN 978-1-350-26531-8 (pbk); 978-1-350-25791-7 (hbk); 978-1-350-25793-1 (ebook)
Other Editions: hardback ed. 2019
"China's 'Great Firewall' has evolved into the most sophisticated system of online censorship in the world. As the Chinese internet grows and online businesses thrive, speech is controlled, dissent quashed, and attempts to organise outside the official Communist Party are quickly stamped out. Updated throughout and available in paperback for the first time, The Great Firewall of China draws on James Griffiths' unprecedented access to the Great Firewall and the politicians, tech leaders, dissidents and hackers whose lives revolve around it. New chapters cover the suppression of information about the first outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, disinformation campaigns in response to the exposure of the persecution of Uyghur communities in Xinjiang and the crackdown against the Umbrella movement in Hong Kong." (Publisher)
Contents
Introduction: Early warnings, 1
I. WALL
1 Protests: Solidarity from Hong Kong to Tiananmen, 15
2 Over the wall: China's first email and the rise of the online censor, 23
3 Nailing the jello: Chinese democracy and the Great Firewall, 35
4 Enemy at the gates: How fear of Falun Gong boosted the Firewall, 45
5 Searching for an opening: Google, Yahoo and Silicon Valley's moral failing in China, 61
II. SHIELD
6 Along came a spider: Lu Wei reins in the Chinese internet, 71
7 Peak traffic: Getting the Dalai Lama online, 83
8 Filtered: The Firewall catches up with Da Cankao, 89
9 Jumping the wall: FreeGate, UltraSurf, and Falun Gong's fight against the censors, 95
10 Called to account: Silicon Valley's reckoning on Capitol Hill, 115
III. SWORD
11. Uyghurs online: Ilham Tohti and the birth of the Uyghur internet, 131
12 Shutdown: How to take 20 million people offline, 143
13 Ghosts in the machine: Chinese hackers expand the Firewall's reach, 159
14 NoGuGe: The ignominious end of Google China, 165
15 The social network: Weibo and the last free-speech platform, 175
16 Gorillas in the mist: Exposing China's hackers to the world, 185
IV WAR
17 Caught: The death of the Uyghur internet, 195
18 Key opinion leader: How Chinese trolls go after dissidents overseas , 203
19 Root and stem: The internet is more vulnerable than you think, 217
20 The censor at the UN: China's undermining of global internet freedoms, 227
21 Sovereignty: When Xi Jinping came for the internet, 239
22. Friends in Moscow: The Great Firewall goes west, 247
23 Plane crash: China helps Russia bring Telegram to heel, 259
24 One app to rule them all: How WeChat opened up new frontiers of surveillance and censorship, 275
25 Buttocks: Uganda's internet blackouts follow China's lead, 285
26 Swatting flies: Google's failed attempt to get back into China, 307
27 Propaganda war: Beijing's attempts to control the narrative over Xinjang, 315
28 Fighting rumours: How the coronavirus pandemic exposed the danger of the Great Firewall, 323
Epilogue: The Great Firewall looms over Hongkong, 335
I. WALL
1 Protests: Solidarity from Hong Kong to Tiananmen, 15
2 Over the wall: China's first email and the rise of the online censor, 23
3 Nailing the jello: Chinese democracy and the Great Firewall, 35
4 Enemy at the gates: How fear of Falun Gong boosted the Firewall, 45
5 Searching for an opening: Google, Yahoo and Silicon Valley's moral failing in China, 61
II. SHIELD
6 Along came a spider: Lu Wei reins in the Chinese internet, 71
7 Peak traffic: Getting the Dalai Lama online, 83
8 Filtered: The Firewall catches up with Da Cankao, 89
9 Jumping the wall: FreeGate, UltraSurf, and Falun Gong's fight against the censors, 95
10 Called to account: Silicon Valley's reckoning on Capitol Hill, 115
III. SWORD
11. Uyghurs online: Ilham Tohti and the birth of the Uyghur internet, 131
12 Shutdown: How to take 20 million people offline, 143
13 Ghosts in the machine: Chinese hackers expand the Firewall's reach, 159
14 NoGuGe: The ignominious end of Google China, 165
15 The social network: Weibo and the last free-speech platform, 175
16 Gorillas in the mist: Exposing China's hackers to the world, 185
IV WAR
17 Caught: The death of the Uyghur internet, 195
18 Key opinion leader: How Chinese trolls go after dissidents overseas , 203
19 Root and stem: The internet is more vulnerable than you think, 217
20 The censor at the UN: China's undermining of global internet freedoms, 227
21 Sovereignty: When Xi Jinping came for the internet, 239
22. Friends in Moscow: The Great Firewall goes west, 247
23 Plane crash: China helps Russia bring Telegram to heel, 259
24 One app to rule them all: How WeChat opened up new frontiers of surveillance and censorship, 275
25 Buttocks: Uganda's internet blackouts follow China's lead, 285
26 Swatting flies: Google's failed attempt to get back into China, 307
27 Propaganda war: Beijing's attempts to control the narrative over Xinjang, 315
28 Fighting rumours: How the coronavirus pandemic exposed the danger of the Great Firewall, 323
Epilogue: The Great Firewall looms over Hongkong, 335
