The 'Great Firewall' of China.

• Author: Smith, Patricia
• Position: INTERNATIONAL

China has been stepping up its internet censorship. The crackdown is part of a wider effort by President Xi Jinping to consolidate power.

The signs of a crackdown were unmistakable. Over the summer, two popular Chinese websites hosting foreign TV shows and movies were wiped clean. Soon after that, WhatsApp was partly blocked by Chinese censors. And in November, Skype disappeared from download sites.

China, an authoritarian country where information is tightly controlled, has long had an uneasy relationship with the internet. Recognizing its importance for the economy, officials haven't cut off access, as some repressive countries have done. Instead, China has allowed its citizens to go online, but with limits on what they can see.

However, over the past several months, the Chinese government has expanded online censorship--perhaps fearing that too much unfiltered information could one day lead to challenges against China's one-party Communist system.

"It does appear the crackdown is becoming more intense, but the internet is also more powerful than it has ever been," says Emily Parker, an expert on the internet in China.

No Facebook, Twitter, or Snapchat

China has become an economic powerhouse, but it still keeps a tight lid on dissent and denies basic freedoms to its 1.3 billion people. Political opponents are routinely imprisoned, and criticism of the government isn't tolerated. China controls the internet through a complex system of filters and censors known collectively as "the Great Firewall."(It's a play on the Great Wall of China, a series of massive fortifications built thousands of years ago that are still a major tourist attraction.) The Great Firewall involves tens of thousands of government workers monitoring social media and blocking some websites altogether, especially ones where Chinese could access material that's critical of their leaders. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, Snapchat, and many foreign news sites including The New York Times are blocked in China.

What's behind the latest crackdown? China experts say it's part of a wider effort by President Xi Jinping ("shee jeen ping") to consolidate his power in a way that no Chinese leader has in decades. Since becoming president in 2012, Xi has tightened his grip on China's massive military and taken a more aggressive stand with smaller nations in the region. He's also used an anti-corruption campaign to purge Chinese officials he considers disloyal. And Xi's government is mandating that loyalty to the Communist party be a larger part of the curriculum in China's 283,000 schools.

All this is prompting comparisons between Xi and China's revolutionary leader Mao Zedong (see "Is Xi the New Mao?" page 17), who once exerted virtually unchecked authority over the nation.

But Mao ruled China in an era when it was easier to keep a lid on information. Is that still possible when the internet provides instant access to the world?

Millions of Chinese people have used special software to construct what are known as VPNs (virtual private networks) that enable them to access blocked material.

"There are definitely ways to jump over the firewall," says Parker. "If you really want to get onto Facebook, for example, you can find a way."

What seems to be different about the current crackdown is that authorities are targeting VPNs and other tools used to get around the Great Firewall. Several popular Chinese VPNs have been shut down, and at the request of the Chinese government, Apple and Amazon have stopped offering their Chinese customers access to VPN software. Both companies have faced sharp criticism for yielding to Chinese censorship. The companies say it's better to continue to do business in China, even if Chinese don't have full access to their products.

In a case that sent a warning to Chinese who try to defy the censors, a 26-year-old man from Guangdong province was sentenced to nine months in jail last March for selling VPN software.

"What they're worried about is people using the internet to organize," Parker says. "They're worried about hundreds of thousands of...