China is increasingly closing itself from the rest of the world. The level of censorship here has long exceeded rational limits and has become such that propaganda is one of the threatening phenomena for society. Publishing data here is a risky business, especially since the list of prohibited topics is constantly growing.
Censorship in the PRC is determined by the Communist Party, and more than 10 state institutions and bodies have been created for supervision. The most important are the Department of Propaganda and the Main State Administration for Radio and Cinema. They develop special recommendations for the media, sometimes quite ridiculous. For example, in 2018, the image of Winnie the Pooh was banned, because some people compared him to the chairman of the ruling party, Xi Jinping.
Sometimes it is better to keep silent
The main areas that fall under censorship:
– political topics – about separatist movements, corruption, etc.;
– books, especially about the period of the “Cultural Revolution” (the number of children’s books by foreign authors is sharply limited to prevent the spread of foreign ideas);
– the Internet is regulated by one of the world’s most complex and advanced Internet filtering systems (all internal sites are filtered and registered, and foreign sites get to the users only through a centralized filter – “Golden Shield”);
– historical materials are necessarily moderated by relevant bodies, etc.
This is explained by the fact that the authorities are trying to protect society from the negative influence of foreign detractors.
Try to guess!
At the same time, many orders are not officially issued. They are distributed orally, but their violation leads to complex consequences.
The country has a law on state secrets, according to which all TV and Internet companies must cooperate with the police on the Internet.
Now a new trend has appeared – a ban on spreading information about the rapid growth of unemployment in the PRC. It reached its peak with an indicator of 21.3% in June, among young people under 24, i.e. ⅕ of all young people cannot find work. But such statistics go against the goal set by the party for 2023, which is economic growth.
In addition, failures in this area could benefit the Biden administration, since the ideological struggle between the USA and the PRC continues and is gaining momentum, especially before the American elections. That is why it was decided to classify unemployment data in the country. So, it is easier for the Chinese to believe that they live in the best country in the world and that the enemies have nothing to appeal to.
