Human Rights Discussed in Geneva: China’s Internet Blockade Strengthens

The Chinese regime’s great Internet firewall has recently become more difficult to scale. An international human rights meeting in Geneva was the reason why.

A video camera shows Chengdu People's Intermediate court spokesman Yang Yuquan delivering the verdict of the ex-police chief Wang Lijun to the press in Chengdu, on Sept. 24, 2012. Although Hu, Wen, and Xi have gradually gained the upper hand, they have chosen not to hold Jiang’s faction accountable for organ harvesting. Mark Ralston/AFP/Getty Images

Freedom House recently reported that the Chinese regime has in the past year intensified its efforts to block the Internet. But in the past two weeks, those efforts have become even more vigorous.

Many mainland Chinese who have used software to “climb the wall,” referring to breaking the Internet blockade by the regime’s “great firewall,” have encountered a very slow Internet and difficulty accessing the websites that allow them to surf the Internet freely.

Several things have happened recently in China that might make the regime want to restrict access to the World Wide Web. Xi Jinping disappeared for two weeks, and speculation about that was suppressed.

The controversy over the Senkaku Islands—the Diaoyu Islands as they are known in China—needs to be carefully handled so that the protests instigated by Party officials don’t blow out of control.

And sometime in the next month the 18th Party Congress is expected to take place, at which the once-in-a-decade introduction of the new Party leadership will take place.