China’s population of 1.42 billion is forced to put up with a highly restricted internet, one that bans YouTube, CNN, Twitter, Instagram, and Google. This blockade is commonly referred to as The Great Firewall of China. The country’s firewall is a virtual barrier that excludes anything that spreads the truth out to the world. Even Winnie the Pooh was banned because a student compared him to Xi Jinping. 

The fact that China is able to control what people are allowed to see is wrong, and to have a similar influence on Hong Kong would be unacceptable.

“That would be pretty bad because people love Youtube and if the Chinese government took that [from Hong Kong] I would be really mad. Why would they do that?” 6th grader Cyrus R. said. 

Unlike the U.S., mainland China doesn’t have the right to freedom of speech. Nor do they have anything from the US Bill of Rights: freedom of speech, free press, the right to assemble, or even the right to elect a government 

Another example of China’s censorship occurred when Liu Xiaobo helped draft Charter 08, a 19-point program that called for greater freedoms in China. It included the signatures of more than 300 academics. He was arrested only hours before the document was released to the internet. During his trial, he was sentenced to 11 years in prison. Even so, he won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, though neither Liu nor his relatives were permitted to attend the ceremony. Sadly, Liu was diagnosed with liver cancer in May 2017, and in June 2017 he passed away.

“As soon as China allows censorship it turns freedom of speech or freedom of expression on its head. It prevents people from expressing themselves,” said 7th grader Koji C.

How does censorship affect Chinese society? It destroys creativity. If Chinese citizens criticize the government, they risk arrest. 

With a lack of free speech and free press, a government can abuse its power without consequence.

As Benjamin Franklin once stated: “Freedom of speech is a principal pillar of a free government; when this support is taken away, the constitution of a free society is dissolved, and tyranny is erected on its ruins.”