Regional Chinese censorship more aggressive than national Great Firewall: study

[ad_1] On-line censorship in China by some regional governments is much more aggressive than enforcement of the national-level ‘Nice Firewall’ by the central authorities, in accordance with a current examine and native sources.

The Nice Firewall Report (GFW Report) highlights how the central Chinese language province of Henan has adopted its personal provincial firewall which is much less refined and strong than the central authorities’s however extra unstable and aggressive, blocking considerably extra web sites than the national-level censorship system.

Native sources instructed Radio Free Asia that the heightened restrictions on the provincial authorities degree might replicate uncertainty about directions from increased authorities, resulting in “extreme blocking” to keep away from blame for failing to hold out their duties.

GFW Report is a censorship monitoring platform, primarily targeted on China. Throughout one experiment its researchers ran between Dec. 26, 2023 and March 31, 2025, they discovered that the Henan Firewall blocked 4.2 million domains, about six occasions that of the 741,542 on the nationwide degree.

Since 2023, netizens in Henan had reported an increase within the variety of web sites that have been inaccessible within the area however accessible elsewhere in China, the examine discovered.

“This localized censorship suggests a departure from China’s centralized censorship equipment, enabling native authorities to exert a higher diploma of management inside their respective areas,” researchers Mingshi Wu at GFW, Ali Zohaib and Amir Houmansadr at College of Massachusetts Amherst, Zakir Durumeric at Stanford College, and Eric Wustrow on the College of Colorado Boulder wrote within the GFW Report revealed in Could, “A Wall Behind A Wall: Rising Regional Censorship in China.”

However the phenomenon extends past Henan, sources inside China instructed RFA.

Native governments in neighboring Hebei, one other central Chinese language province, in addition to these in Tibet and Xinjiang have been working related censorship techniques because the one reported in Henan for at the least 4 years, Zhao Yuan, a community engineer primarily based in Hebei, mentioned.

“Prior to now, we may entry abroad web sites that weren't blocked by the nationwide firewall,” Zhao mentioned. “Now, even digital non-public networks (VPNs) in Henan and Hubei don’t work.”

Whereas the national-level firewall, often known as the Nice Firewall, targets extra information and media websites, in step with China’s long-standing coverage of censoring politically delicate data, the provincial-level firewall techniques, just like the one in Henan, blocks domains specializing in subjects just like the financial system, know-how, and enterprise, GFW Report researchers discovered.

The Chinese language Communist Social gathering has, in recent times, emphasised a multi-pronged strategy to censorship, together with the administration of all kinds of propaganda on the home and worldwide degree via a framework often known as “territorial administration” and implementation of “digital stability upkeep” measures, reminiscent of policing of delicate content material on-line on dates deemed politically delicate by the federal government.

“Native governments have taken the initiative to ascertain native blocking techniques, indicating that the highest leaders are more and more vigilant concerning the stream of knowledge,” Wei Sicong, a Beijing-based political observer, mentioned.

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Researchers at GFW discovered that the Henan firewall screens and blocks visitors leaving and getting into the province, versus the national-level censorship system that's targeted on visitors getting into and exiting the nation.

Different sources within the area instructed RFA that the heightened restrictions on the provincial authorities degree counsel lack of clear authorized know-how about the right way to implement directions from higher-ups.

“Officers would moderately block increasingly than take accountability. So the outcome you see is ‘turning off the entire world’,” community engineer Zhang Jianan mentioned.

GFW Report researchers mentioned their evaluation confirmed no regional censorship in different areas they studied, reminiscent of Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai, and Jiangsu.

In Henan and Hebei, nevertheless, native residents instructed RFA that even the web sites of some overseas universities are inaccessible, because of which they flip to VPNs and different circumvention instruments to bypass authorities censorship and surveillance.

“Some classmates can join in Beijing and Shanghai, however we will’t in Zhengzhou and might solely depend on circumvention software program,” Zhang, a scholar at Henan’s Zhengzhou College, mentioned.

Hebei-based community engineer Zhao mentioned, “The censorship is getting stricter and stricter. We will’t even connect with some overseas college web sites.”

RFA discovered that as early as December 2023, a college in Henan province sought to buy a “public opinion monitoring system,” particularly aimed toward worldwide college students, college students and dissidents, and had carried out an open bidding course of.

Henan College of Science and Know-how had laid out a 2024-2025 finances of 120,000 yuan (or US$16,657) for the general public opinion monitoring service system to offer 24/7 real-time monitoring, early warning evaluation and disaster response of public opinion data on the whole community, overlaying information web sites and social media platforms reminiscent of Weibo and Douyin, the college’s web site confirmed.

When RFA contacted the college, a instructor confirmed they're utilizing an previous monitoring system and that they've now began a bidding course of for a brand new one.