Under the leadership of President Xi Jinping, Chinese netizens have seen their rights to write, read and interact online diminish gradually. The crackdown comes as Beijing aims to tighten up socio-political control and take on its critics.
But despite the tightening of access to the Internet, unfettered access to the web may not be a threat to patriotism, academics say.
“There are plenty of Chinese outside of China who use Google GOOGL +0.54%, Facebook and Twitter TWTR -0.46% on a daily basis, and who read the New York Times, listen to western music and are just as every bit as nationalistic – and perhaps as jingoistic – as some Chinese who live in China,” said Victor Teo, an assistant professor at the University of Hong Kong who is an expert on Asia-Pacific relations.
For those Chinese outside of China there is a strong will to stand up for their country, especially in the face of criticism, research by a PhD student at the University of California, Henry Chiu Hail, has shown.
via For China, Open Internet May Not Mean Diminished Patriotism.
