China is trying to spread its censored version of the Internet to other countries
The Belt and Road Initiative is China’s flagship program for investment abroad. It aims to connect global markets to China with Chinese infrastructure. Although the bulk of the initiative involves the creation of physical projects, China also has ambitions in cyberspace through the digital Silk Road. That project, which centers on information sharing, has already come under fire, as the network could be used for surveillance and coercion. But as China acts on its internet ambitions abroad, it is working to create more than just infrastructure to connect people to the web, Beijing is also exporting its censored and heavily monitored version of the Internet. This is in stark contrast to the free and open Internet championed by the United States.
Chinese President Xi Jinping calls his policy “cyber-sovereignty.” What he means by that is “the right of individual countries to independently choose their own path of cyber development, model of cyber regulation and Internet public polices, and participate in international cyberspace governance on an equal footing.” Put simply, Xi wants to make the rules about what an ever-larger number of the world's inhabitants see online. His preferred version of cyberspace would be an export to other countries creating a system of “national Internets” rather than a single free and open world-wide web that transcends borders. In all likelihood, this would mean that countries that are increasingly economically dependent on China due to investment loans would bend to Beijing’s will on censoring web content, and be content to live behind the Great Firewall.
Xi’s alternative cyberspace is likely to look like the one currently available in China. In 2014, Chinese President Xi Jinping kicked off the Cyberspace Administration of China. One of the explicit goals of that new arm of government is to control online content — or put simply to censor things that the ruling Chinese Communist Party objects to. Examples of how these limits play out within China are alarming. Tech companies have been told to freeze websites that hosted discussions on history, the military and international relations, and human rights abuses within China. When companies failed to purge content, they were fined. Individuals, sending private messages on the universally used (in China) app WeChat, have also been arrested for “picking quarrels and provoking trouble,” which is generally understood as a charge of insulting or being overly critical of the government. There exists a blacklist for words, phrases, and images that will be censored automatically without notifying the sender on WeChat. The government has also encouraged self-censorship on the chat platform, threatening punishment for chat “owners” who merely allow unwanted comments under their posts.
China has also recently flexed its muscles to push foreign companies to embrace its political narratives if they want to maintain a web presence in China. Already, it has proved successful in bullying airline companies, hotels, and even clothing companies to adopt Beijing’s position on Taiwan. Additionally, Beijing’s stance has affected how U.S. tech companies interact with Chinese cyberspace. Adhering to a call from the Chinese government, Apple stopped hosting Virtual Private Network apps from the Chinese App Store. Leaked plans from Google show that the tech giant is developing a censored version of its popular search service based on Beijing’s requirements.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/china-is-trying-to-spread-its-censored-version-of-the-internet-to-other-countries