Communism Officially Takes Over the Internet

By Jenn Sierra Posted in National Security — Comments (5) / Email this page » / Leave a comment »

Western Conservatives have been warning that socio-politcal movements such as the leftism, socialism, and leftist-islamism have been increasing their power online, partly by sheer volume.

USA Today reported yesterday, "China Vaults Past USA in Internet Users":

The number of Chinese on the Internet hit more than 220 million as of February, according to estimates from official Chinese statistics by the Beijing-based research group BDA China....there is strong government backing for companies such as China Netcom, which offers broadband service at $10 a month...(more)

The United States previously had more internet users than any other country online, and now communist China, at least according to its own calculations, holds that honor. PC Advisor:

China seems set to consolidate its global position, despite complaints of human rights violations and widespread internet censorship in the country. China's population numbers 1.3 billion people, just 17 percent of which have access to the internet [compared to 71% in the U.S.].

We know these Chinese internet users aren't watching YouTube, right? So what are they doing? The USA Today report cites internet communications and gaming. That's not the only thing that's going on online, however. In March, FHK's TXPoet wrote:

Chinese “hackers” have broken into U.S.-based, German-based and several other other country’s computer networks in attempts to: steal national security information, steal economic data, steal trade secrets and perform denial of service (DNS) attacks. This is not new nor is it news to those in the Government but it seems to be to the general public. The London Times broke a story about Chinese hacking into the German Chancellery and three other German ministries in August 2007. The Financial Times reported in September 2007 that Chinese hackers had broken into a Pentagon computer network. ZDNET reported on a group of Chinese hackers in November 2005. The LA Times reported on Chinese hacking again on 4 March 2008.

The Chinese government claims these hackers are independent and have no connection with the government. Security experts say that the Chinese government is paying the hackers. It is inconceivable that China with the most highly censored Internet system in the world is not fully aware of who these hackers are and what they are doing. The Golden Shield Project, better known as the Great Chinese Firewall removes even “plausible deniability”.

Hmmm...let's think, If They Did It, how would the Communists take over the web?

Visit FHK's resist! red china Archive.

Uhmmm how many non communist users are there ? by Joliphant

You have all of Europe, Japan, India, Australia, Russia (Whatever they are it isn't communist at the moment), Most of South America, Canada, Mexico and whoever has a connection in Africa and then there is always the Middle East and the rest of Asia.

Isn't this a bit over the top ? Sure the Chicom's (Are they really communists anymore or have they morphed into a more traditional form of Oligarchism ?) are a threat. But to say they have taken over the internet is insane. (Can you even control the internet ? and if you could could you do it for very long ?)

"Those who expect to reap the blessings of freedom must, like men, undergo the fatigue of supporting it."
-Thomas Paine: The American Crisis, No. 4, 1777

Reply To This — User Info — #1

I suspect the 200 million number is strongly understated by blackhedd

Supposedly there are about 500 million people in China with cellular phones. I imagine a healthy percentage of those are Internet-enabled.

China does attempt to control Internet usage in a variety of ways. They most certainly do censor search engines. They've made it illegal for anyone to post blogs or other content without registering their real names and addresses with the government. (That's to protect against pornography and other breaches of public morals, or so they say.)

Of course, according to many reports, it's easy enough to discuss forbidden topics like Falun Gong, Taiwan, and Tibet in China. People just resort to a range of regularly-changing code words.

Chinese authorities have indeed subverted their routing infrastructure and their DNS for purposes of controlling what gets said online and who says it. And of course they hate that the basic Internet protocols (including DNS) are based on seven-bit US English, which is why they've proposed key modifications to the UN and other standard-making bodies that would enable them to establish a parallel, Chinese-only Internet.

They'll soon be at the point where they won't need standards activity to drive that kind of change. I believe many Americans greatly underestimate the amount of groundbreaking, original work in mathematics and engineering that is now published only in Chinese. And this is quite by design. The widely-held view that Asians can only copy our innovations rather than produce their own is wrong.

As far as espionage and more nefarious activities: no one seriously questions that the Chinese authorities are actively supporting this work. They are systematically pursuing the ability to disrupt or disable our use of open networks.

We must see this as a drive to develop a critical weapon of war.

Reply To This — User Info — #2

Well said 5-nt by BooBooKitty

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Thou art the Great Cat, the avenger of the Gods, and the judge of words...-Inscription on the Royal Tombs at Thebes

Reply To This — User Info — #3

It's the opposite by sturner

The internet in China is the biggest threat to their way of government. The government knows it, which is why they try to censor it. The more people that are able to get on, see what's happening, see what's out there, the more likely the people will revolt in one way or another.

Reply To This — User Info — #4

I dunno. My intuition goes the other way by blackhedd

From the little that I can see from here, I think the Chinese are actually starting to develop an actual culture.

They don't have, and never will have, the powerful, independent foundations and formal civic institutions that we have, and that theoretically act as a counterweight to the government (at least when they're not lobbying).

But the informal, network-based interconnectedness just might bring China a social cohesion they have never had in 5000 years of history.

And that matters because the current regime is just as corrupt as any Chinese government has ever been (except for the Maoists), and just as prone to destabilize the country through sheer ineptitude.

Look through Western eyes (well, Western dogma anyway) and you see a country in which greater commerce and information flow should be creating pressure for more political freedom.

But look through Chinese eyes, and you see a nation that values stability far more than it values freedom, and in which governments come and go. With the internet, the Chinese just may have found a way to stay stable in spite of their governments.

Reply To This — User Info — #5

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