Video: ChinaFile Editor Sees 'Cyber Sovereignty' as Another Brick in the Great Firewall
Jonathan Landreth, Managing Editor of ChinaFile, the online magazine of Asia Society's Center on U.S.-China Relations, says that China’s tightened control of the Internet may be part of a larger “Internet sovereignty” strategy by the Chinese government “to control all information and business within the Great Firewall.”
Landreth made his comments during an appearance on PBS NewsHour Weekend Saturday night with host Hari Sreenivasan.
Chinese authorities recently launched a crackdown on virtual private networks (VPNs) that had previously enabled users in China to access censored websites. As a result, Landreth says, “it’s tougher for people to post to Instagram accounts, for academics to reach research institutes out in the West, for people to follow Hollywood gossip or gossip in the South Korean pop scene.”
“There is a phrase being bandied about right now, and it’s to describe what the Chinese government is doing. And that is to promote Internet sovereignty, or cyber sovereignty,” Landreth said. “And prevent the influence of Western thought and, yes, indeed, business.”