Internet

A comparison of image search results on the term "Tiananmen" between Google France and Google China (February 15, 2006). The Google China results have omitted images from the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989.

China's Internet censorship is regarded by many as the most pervasive and sophisticated in the world. According to a Harvard study, at least 18,000 websites are blocked from within the country.^[10] Certain search engine terms are blocked as well, and 52 cyber dissidents are reportedly imprisoned in China for their online communications.^[11]

Television

Foreign news broadcasts in China such as CNN, BBC World Service, and Bloomberg TV are occasionally censored by being "blacked out" during controversial segments. CNN has reported that their broadcast agreement in China includes an arrangement that their signal must pass through a Chinese-controlled satellite. In this way, Chinese authorities have been able to blackout CNN segments at will.^[12] Blacked out content has included references to the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989,^[12] the Dalai Lama,^[12] the death of Zhao Ziyang,^[13] and negative developments about the Beijing Olympics.^[14]

Education

Educational institutions within China have been accused of whitewashing PRC history by downplaying or avoiding mention of controversial historical events such as the Great Leap Forward, Cultural Revolution, and the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989.

In 2005, customs officials in China seized a shipment of textbooks intended for a Japanese school in the country because maps in the books depicted mainland China and Taiwan using different colors.^[15]

In a January 2006 issue of Freezing Point, a weekly supplement to the China Youth Daily, Zhongshan University professor Yuan Weishi published an article entitled "Modernization and History Textbooks" in which he criticized several middle school textbooks used in mainland China.^[16][17] In particular, he felt that depictions in the books of the Second Opium War avoided mention of Chinese diplomatic failures leading up to the war and that depictions of the Boxer Rebellion glossed over atrocities committed by the Boxer rebels. As a result of Yuan's article, Freezing Point was temporarily shut down and its editors were fired.^[18][19]

A new standard world history textbook introduced in Shanghai high schools in 2006 supposedly omits several wars and mentions Mao Zedong, the controversial founder of the PRC, only once.^[19]

Zhang Ming, the dean of political sciences at Renmin University of China, was fired on March 16, 2007 after complaining about academic freedom in China among other issues.^[20]

In the FRONTLINE documentary "The Tank Man", four students from Peking University are seemingly unable to identify the context of the infamous Tank Man photo from the Tiananmen Square Protests of 1989 which were sparked by Peking University students.^[21] The segment implies that the subject is not addressed in Chinese schools.

Indeed, On June 4, 2007, the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown, a small ad reading "Paying tribute to the strong(-willed) mothers of June 4 victims" was allowed to run in a newspaper in southwest China. The clerk who approved the ad had never heard of the protests and had been told by the placer of the ad that June 4th was the date of a mining disaster.^[22]

Film

China has no motion picture rating system, and films must therefore be deemed suitable for all audiences to be allowed to screen.^[5][23]

For foreign-made films, this sometimes means controversial footage must be cut before such films can play in Chinese theaters. Examples include the deletion of scenes showing hanging laundry in Shanghai during Mission: Impossible III, the removal of a reference to the Cold War in Casino Royale,^[24] and the omission of footage containing Chow Yun-Fat that "vilifies and humiliates the Chinese" in Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.^[25] Prior to the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the PRC administration announced that "wronged spirits and violent ghosts, monsters, demons, and other inhuman portrayals" were banned from audio visual content.^[26]

Regardless, Chinese censors still clear only twenty foreign films a year to show within the country.^[5] Despite this, almost all internationally released foreign films are freely available in Chinese and English language versions through the counterfeit trade in DVDs.^[26]

All audio visual works dealing with "serious topics" such as the Cultural Revolution must be registered before distribution on the mainland.^[27] Films by PRC nationals cannot be submitted to foreign film festivals without government approval.^[28]

Short Message Service

According to Reporters without Borders, China has over 2,800 Short Message Service (text messaging) surveillance centers. During the SARS outbreak of May 2003, a dozen Chinese were reportedly arrested for sending text messages about SARS.^[29] During protests over a proposed chemical plant in Xiamen during the summer of 2007, text messaging was blocked to prevent the recruitment of more protesters by SMS.^[30]

Video games

In 2004, the Ministry of Culture set up a committee to screen imported online video games before they entered the Chinese market. It was stated that games with any of the following violations would be banned from importation:^[31]

• Violating basic principles of the Constitution
• Threatening national unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity
• Divulging state secrets
• Threatening state security
• Damaging the nation's glory
• Disturbing social order
• Infringing on others' legitimate rights

The State General Administration of Press and Publication and anti-porn and illegal publication offices have also played a role in screening games.^[32]

Examples of banned games have included:

• Hearts of Iron (for "distorting history and damaging China's sovereignty and territorial integrity")^[33]
• I.G.I.-2: Covert Strike (for "intentionally blackening China and the Chinese army's image")^[34]
• Command & Conquer: Generals - Zero Hour (for "smearing the image of China and the Chinese army")^[33]

As with films, piracy makes acquiring banned video games in China still possible.

Self-censorship

Although not subject to the mainland's censorship laws, Hong Kong media have been accused of practicing self-censorship so as to be allowed into mainland media markets and to be granted fuller journalistic access to the mainland.^[35][36]

At the launch of a joint report published by the Hong Kong Journalists Association (HKJA) and "Article 19" in July 2001, the Chairman of the HKJA said: "More and more newspapers self-censor themselves because they are controlled by either a businessman with close ties to Beijing, or part of a large enterprise, which has financial interests over the border."^[37]

For example, Robert Kuok, who has business interests all over Asia, has been criticised over the departures of several China desk staff in rapid succession since he acquired the South China Morning Post, namely the 2000-01 editorial pages editor Danny Gittings, Beijing correspondent Jasper Becker, and China pages editor Willy Lam. Lam, in particular departed after his reporting had been publicly criticised by Robert Kuok.^[37]

International corporations such as Google, Microsoft, MySpace, and Yahoo! willingly censor their content for Chinese markets in order to be allowed to do business in the country