How Does Thinking About Contemporary China Challenge our Understanding of Contemporary Society and Culture More Generally?

Abstract

The continued development of the Internet has changed human life in an unprecedented way. In terms of information dissemination, it has changed how people traditionally receive and disseminate information, providing a virtual place for people to circulate information. Internet censorship is an essential and unavoidable part of distributing large amounts of information. Considering differences in education levels and other factors, people typically understand online censorship differently. Roberts (2020) mentioned that network censorship implies that when information is perceived to have the ability to undermine authority by being accountable to the public, authorities impose restrictions on the public’s public expression or access to information. These restrictions include Fear (intimidating people and thus limiting their behavior by imposing harsh penalties on those who make undesirable statements), Fiction (making it more difficult to access or even remove information that authorities consider sensitive), and Flooding (burying information that authorities consider sensitive under a mass of irrelevant information). For the Chinese, Roberts’ view is inconsistent with the concept of “serving the people and focusing on the people” claimed by the Chinese government, which has subverted most Chinese people’s optimistic view of the country and caused them to think deeply.