Trends in communication

Social network and the censure in China

Saloin Jamil Hussain – IBS2B – S1072688

Julien Charrier – IBS2A – S1072571

Summary

China is the second largest economy of the world and undoubtedly, an influent

country in the world. Being the largest population of the world, China is also the world's

biggest army and has nuclear weapon. China is a dictatorship directed only by one

unique party, the communist party. The Popular Republic of China is an authoritarian

regime that applies a censorship policy.

The censorship is present in the medias infrastructure and the Chinese

communist party doesn’t allow any form of organization standing against him.

The Chinese censorship is applying, of course on Internet and on social

network as well. China has the world’s largest population of Internet users, so we can

deduce easily that there is a whole censorship system which applying to make works

this one. We can note that china has the censorship system the most sophisticated in the

world. The censorship goes up until prohibited foreign social network, to change them

by their own social network with regulation and standards according with Chinese

censorship. This social networks are different than the common social networks in the

occidental world but it’s keeping the principle of micro-blogging and are actually

administered by companies which develop their marketing by this way. Despite all, we

can notice that the social networks are more used in China than in any country of the

world in term of percentage.

We observe that this phenomenon impact the Chinese population behaviour but

apply equally some pressure on them which take off their all expression freedom en

public.

Moreover, it’s difficult to escape to the measures of Internet control because of

the too weak resistance; the censorship is even accepted and ensured by a part of the

population, we can observe that because the cyber-controller job is a quite common job

in China. But the contestation is present, it’s proving by the intervention that the Chinese

authorities have to do to arrest the cyber-dissidents, confiscated material and close

definitely some websites or even some companies.

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The policy of Internet management, medias and social networks is completely

different in China comparing to the rest of the world. The censorship is in fact used to

the fight of the communist government against the Chinese dissidents who are disagree

with the policy of the party on the power.

The social networks, until now, observed like a new expression public place in

the occidental world, its considered in an completely different way in China, the Chinese

censorship policy plays a significant role on this new trend creating two different

development way. This Chinese censorship policy could probably doesn’t influence only

China but also the rest of the world by encouraging the others countries to do the same

as China with their social networks. But it could disappear as well and leave the place to

the freedom occidental system. We can also guess that both of the systems could coexist

like what happen with American’s search engines which works in China with the

regulation in force in China.

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Foreword

The history of China lasted over four millennia. Nowadays, China is the second

largest economy and one of the five permanent members of the Security Council of the

United Nation. It is also the world's largest exporter and has nuclear weapons, the

largest army in the world and the second largest military budget. Governed by the

Chinese Communist Party, China has adopted a "socialist market economy" where

capitalism and authoritarian political control coexist in a specific formula. The

Constitution of the People's Republic of China defines it as "a socialist state of people's

democratic dictatorship led by the working class and based on the alliance of workers

and peasants."

The Popular Republic of China adopted its actual constitution the 4th of

December 1982.In the terminology of political science, the PRC was a communist state

for much of the twentieth century and is still considered as such by many observers. It is

difficult to characterize the nature of the political structure of the PRC. The main issue

about the interior policy is the censure.

Censorship is now normal in the entire media infrastructure and the Communist

Chinese Party responds promptly to all organizations it sees as a threat to the regime, as

was the case during the events of Tiananmen. However, the repression that the CCP uses

or attempts to operate has its limits. Today's media have freedom of action, even

without concerted goal publicly exposed many problems from corruption and

inefficiency in the framework of the Party.

While protests against the Party are illegal, they regularly occur at the local level,

are sometimes tolerated, and it is their media which in turn are prohibited. There is a

propaganda ministry that applies censorship means of expression, including on the

Internet. The Film Office maintains control over the distribution of films: for example it

is withdrawing U.S. theatres on Da Vinci Code film in June 2006.

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Table of content

Summary............................................................................................................................................ 2

Foreword........................................................................................................................................... 3

Table of content............................................................................................................................... 4

Introduction...................................................................................................................................... 4

Problem Statement......................................................................................................................... 5

Methodological justification........................................................................................................ 6

Results................................................................................................................................................ 7

What are the statistics about using and comparison?...........................................................8What are the different social network and their using?........................................................8The censure Chinese politic is it accepted by population?.....................................................8The censure Chinese politic is it really working?.....................................................................9How the censure Chinese politic does influence social networks?......................................9

Reference list.................................................................................................................................... 9

Attachments................................................................................................................................... 10

Search Plan....................................................................................................................................... 10Presentation.................................................................................................................................... 10

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Introduction

The censure’s issue in China is a very controverted problem for all people in the

world. Indeed, all people know the Chinese’s past with a strong communist power, a

kind of dictatorship, and a lot of problems with the population as Tibet’s issue.

Nowadays, China is one of the most important countries in the world whereas on the

other hand there are again big troubles with the population.

This is one of our reasons to choose this subject. Chinese’s issues isn’t concerned

just the Chinese population but all people over the world. We choose also this subject

because we have a lot of knowledge for Chinese’s issue with our study. For example, in

Business school we have a lot of studies about censorship, freedom of expression, politic

in China, etc…

The other reason is that this subject is very controverted in France. Indeed, with

declaration of the rights of man and of the citizens wrote in 1789, the freedom of

expression is one of our fundamental rights. So, in our opinion, the censorship is the

main issue in China and it’s why we choose this subject..

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Problem Statement

A social network is a set of several individuals connected from a link of social

interaction. Nowadays, we can see different kind of social networks. They multiplied on

Internet and there are present in the entire world. In China, the authorities practice a

system of censorship on the social networks in order to control them.

The goal of this report is the give an answer for our main question:

How the censure Chinese politic does influence social networks?

To answer this main question, we have a plan that will allow having a global view

of this issue. Indeed, in the results part, we will answer our four sub-questions. The first

sub-question is: What are the statistics about using and comparison? The second is:

What are the different social media in China and their using? The third is: The censure

Chinese politic is it accepted by population? And the last sub-question is: The censure

Chinese politic is it really working?

The main question will answer by on one hand from the different sub-question

and on the other hand from the last part, with the result of the main question. In

attachment, we can find the reference list with all the different sources used to make this

report. Moreover, we can find a copy of our oral presentation in class.

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Methodological justification

To compose our file, we used the informations available on ELO in order to be

able to have an idea about how we are going to structure our report. After having found

our main topic, we had transposed it in a main question and divide the subject in several

sub questions. With Google Scholar, we had find various sources in order to be able to

have more information about our subject, mainly with political actuality articles but also

in a political study websites which it helped us to know more about our subject.

We had, equally sought your help by E-mail in order to be more lighted about

how we are going to advance in our report. Moreover, the case of China and its

censorship policy on Internet and social networks is an interesting subject for us and we

read about it several articles in political news magazines. After having analysed the sub

questions and the multitude sources that we found, we decided to divide the different

tasks in two parts to be able to organize the information’s and structure the form of the

report.

When we finished the report, we reflected about how we are going to present our

subject and we looked for a video on internet which it’s going to help us to explain the

information’s that we found before in a simple and quick way. Then, we finished our

power point by adding some representative photos of our subject.

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Results

In China, as in the rest of the world, social networks are presents too but because

of the policy and internal Chinese system, we can see that this country has a particular

method of management about social network with more or less important influence on

the behaviour of Chinese population.

What are the statistics about using and comparison?

China is the first country in online terms with 597 million users meaning 42% of

the Chinese population; 420 million Chinese people go to Internet with mobile.

The social networks domination on Internet is very wide and the case of China is

not an exception, 91% of the Internet users have a count on at least one social network

against only 67% in USA.

Despite social network integration in the Chinese society, we can say that China is

the country with the most control of Internet environment by using a three hundred

thousands of agents of cyber control and also efficient virtual spy system. In 2007, the

Chinese government had make close 44000 website, more than 860 peoples had been

arrested to have been accused for cyber pornography and 50 Chinese cyber dissidents

have been in jail in 2008. The Chinese rules impose the censorship of all the clips with

anti-Beijing content. That’s making China the country with the most sophisticated

mechanism in terms of control associated to measures of the authoritarian regime.

This requirement of the Chinese policy on the internet and social networks

control create a substantial Chinese market in the field of cloud, in 2009, this market

recorded a revenue of 1.5 billion American dollars and reached 10 billion dollars in

2012, which make itself very substantial and its becoming an interesting investment

area in China.

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What are the different social network and their using?

In China, there are several kinds of social networks destined to different targets.

Each user, in function of the age, familial or Professional situation will has more trend to

use some kind of social network.

It must know that because of the strong presence of the censorship on Internet in

China called « Great Firewall of China », several social networks that we known in USA

and in Europe are simply blocked in China. We can quote the example of Facebook,

Twitter or YouTube. That’s why that the companies have developed their own social

networks and they are the most famous in China. Nowadays, in 2013, the most famous

social network in China is called Weibo which is an micro blogging system which look

likes a lot to Twitter, with 400 million users, this allows to follow actuality of the others

count users and tweet in real time. Weibo is very used also for marketing what

influences intensively the Chinese consumer in the shop decision. Chinese people follow

in average 8 brands on the social networks. But Weibo is also used for people actuality,

informations and political criticism while under intensive control of Chinese authority.

But others social networks are different from the point of view of the using, which it

doesn’t limit Chinese people to applied on only on social network. We can see this

phenomenon with QQ, social network, which is destined mainly to the teenagers and its

consist to an instant messaging system where the user create his proper environment

and a personal representation elaborated, during the listing, the user choose his avatar

in a catalogue, few avatars are payable and in limited series which insure a big diversity

of profiles which decorated with accessories, the most of the time payable, to have a

custom page. They are more than 200 million count on QQ in China.

The censure Chinese politic is it accepted by population?

The policy of Chinese censorship is omnipresent in the minds of users. The

question is in the conditions in which people can express themselves, that is to say,

essentially how the censorship exercised on the one hand and turned away from the

other. There is a study of Synthesio “Social Media in China” in January 2011 who 10

interviews a Chinese blogger but He wanted to keep anonymity. For him, “news social

networks are created to offer other solutions for Chinese population: Renren for

Facebook, Sina Weibo for Twitter or Youku for Youtube”. So, China is known for its

copycat’s products, and we can see that social media isn’t an exception. He explains also

that professional bloggers plays the main role in the introduction of freedom of

expression. Their knowledge and skills allow getting around the censor barrier.

The censure Chinese politic is it really working?

The social network is a way to express Chinese population opinion in this

pressure context. In fact, China has the most efficient virtual spy system in the world for

Internet that include social network. A Chinese teacher said in a French article of

Hermes in 2009 «I think today there is a lot of pressure at work. For example, I, as a

teacher I have a very high pressure. Especially when my husband works, and it does not

fit, when he leaves me alone, I'm on the Internet, and I say what I have on the heart, it is

a way to release the pressure.»

How the censure Chinese politic does influence social networks?

While Facebook is the most popular social network in the world, still a marginal

phenomenon in China. In fact, only 0,04% of the Chinese population uses Facebook.

Nevertheless, it would not be a matter of preference of the users but simply access.

Indeed, the Chinese government has introduced in 1998 the Great Firewall of China, in

order to monitor and censor the web for its inhabitants. Thus, the Director of the Board

of Chinese information, Wang Chen, said that 350 million informations, both text as

photos or videos, were blocked in 2010 on the Chinese web.

The access to most of the great Western social networks as well as many news

sites is restricted or impossible, unless you go through proxy servers. These servers

guarantee the anonymity of the user. The few Chinese members on Facebook are often

citizens who have lived or studied abroad and who wish to maintain links with these

communities, but if we want to integrate in China, you must choose on Chinese social 11

networks. With the Chinese censorship system present on internet so in the social

network, the Chinese political influence, control and limit the complete exploitation of

social medias in the Chinese virtual world.

Indeed, we saw that the internet users in China have not the access to the same

social network as in occidental countries, thereby, Facebook, Tweeter, Youtube are

substituted by proper local social media of China like Weibo, Qzone, Wechat, etc.

Chinese authorities are succeeded to get from the foreign company’s of the

technology sector which Yahoo, Google or Microsoft, some agreements in order to filter,

censor and to screen some words judged problematic like “freedom”, “democratize”,

“liberal China” or even “censorship”.

But Chinese authorities don’t stop there, they operate physically and they even go

up arrest the cyber dissident, Amnesty international is full of political prisoners lists.

The Internet police scans often permanently the communications in social networks and

Internet website and practices an intense watch in cyber cafes where they organises

some raids.

Chinese authorities are not the own to make respect the censorship, they benefits

of the work of thousands civilians, entrepreneurs and access suppliers who agrees to

make respects the rules and works to make efficient the censorship system. Is added to

it the acceptation from the giant American company’s of search engines to adapt to the

filter Chinese norms.

The Chinese policy is influent but it doesn’t act alone, it is supported by a

big part of the population who accepts but also by foreign parties who seek to reach the

wide Chinese audience. All the cyber controllers in China are called the fifty cents army

because they earn fifty cents per messages found.

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Reference list

-Kshetri, N. (2012). “Les activités d’espionage électroniques et de contrôle d’Internet: Le cas de la Chine”, Téléscope, vol. 18, n°1-2, p. 169-187.

-Feng, P. (1994). “Between freedom and subsistence: China and human right”, Hong Kong Law Journal, vol. 24, n°3, p. 445-450

-SHANG, D., DOULET, J-F., KEANE, M. (2009), « Urban informatics in China, exploring the emergence of the Chinese City 2.0 », in FOTH, M. Handbook of research on urban informatics: the practice and promise of the real-time city, Hershey (Pennsylvanie, USA),

-Leung, JCB. (2003), « Social security reforms in China: Issues and prospects ». International Journal Of Social Welfare, 2003, v. 12 n. 2, p. 73-85

-Oliver, A, (2007) “The Great Firewall: China’s Misguided — and Futile — Attempt to Control What Happens Online,” Wired (23 October), at http://www.wired.com/politics/security/magazine/15-11/ff_chinafirewall.

-VEROT, O. (2011). Sina Weibo: Gestion de compte, marketing sur Weibo, Marketing-Chine.

-Douzet, F. (2007). Les frontières chinoises de l’Internet : la croissance fulgurante de l’internet en Chine. Hérodote : La découverte.I.S.B.N. 9782707152510

-Fabry, P. (2011). La Chine et les réseaux sociaux. Tourisme-tic.

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Attachments

Search Plan

I. Outline demarcation of the subject

Period: 1998 – 2012

Place: China

Language: English

II. Orientation to the subject

Keywords Authors Key articles Organisations

Censure in China

Douzet, F Les frontières chinoises de l’Internet : la croissance fulgurante de l’internet en Chine. Hérodote : La découverte

Censure social networks china

VEROT, O

Fabry, P.

SHANG, D., DOULET, J-F., KEANE, M.

Sina Weibo: Gestion de compte, marketing sur Weibo…

La Chine et les réseaux sociaux. Tourisme-tic

Urban informatics in China, exploring the emergence of the Chinese City 2.0

Censure politic China

Leung, JCB

Feng, P

Social security reforms in China: Issues and prospects

Between freedom and subsistence: China and human right

International Journal Of Social Welfare

Hong Kong Law Journal

Censure Internet China

Kshetri, N. Les activités d’espionage électroniques et de contrôle d’Internet: Le cas de la Chine

III. List of search terms and definitions

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Most important keywords: Censure in China, censorship in China, Social media in China, Chinese censure politic, censure Internet China.

IV. Search in catalogues, databases, Internet

Title Author ISBN Year 1 2 3 4 5 6

Les frontières chinoises de l’Internet : la croissance fulgurante de l’internet en Chine. Hérodote : La découverte

Douzet, F 9782707152510

2007 N N Y Y Y Y

Sina Weibo: Gestion de compte, marketing sur Weibo…

VEROT, O 2011 N Y Y Y Y Y

La Chine et les réseaux sociaux. Tourisme-tic

Fabry, P. 2011 Y N Y Y Y Y

Urban informatics in China, exploring the emergence of the Chinese City 2.0

SHANG, D., DOULET, J-F., KEANE, M.

2009 Y Y N Y Y Y

Social security reforms in China: Issues and prospects

Leung, JCB 2003 Y N Y Y Y Y

Between freedom and subsistence: China and human right

Feng, P 1994 Y N N Y N Y

Les activités d’espionage électroniques et de contrôle d’Internet: Le cas de la Chine

Kshetri, N. 2012 Y N Y Y Y Y

Y = yes, N = no

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1. Leading journal?2. Renowned publisher?3. Leading author?4. Content5. Up to date publication?6. Relevant publication?

Presentation

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