The US, China trade war ‘dividing the Internet’

The US, China trade war 'dividing the Internet'

In July last year, Hyun Jin-SEO arrived in Beijing, watching Google News on his smartphone as he saw the news of the attack on the US embassy in the city.

Hewan, who serves as an Associate Professor in the Department of Journalism at the University of Kansas, is protected by China’s staggering digital media censorship thanks to his American phone company’s international roaming plan and allows him to access these websites on Google. Be successful in China that is not available to the general public.

Professor Heon, who teaches courses on digital media, says, “I was telling my Chinese friends about a bomb exploding outside the US Embassy, and they didn’t know what I was talking about because of their news. This news wasn’t coming to the feeds.

Every foreigner coming to China faces digital sanctions and a similar situation.

In the world’s most densely populated country, Internet restrictions have been imposed, leading experts to believe that there may be two unique internets in the future, one for China and the other for the United States.

Hyun-jin thanks to US phone company’s international roaming plan to escape China’s stringent digital media censorship

This concept was introduced by Eric Schmidt, a former chief executive of Google last year.

When an economist asked Eric at a private event whether the Internet was possible to split into smaller pieces with different restrictions, he replied, “I think the most likely thing is to split the Internet into smaller pieces.” Instead, the Internet is to be divided into two parts, one being China-led and the other US-led non-Chinese Internet. ‘

This distribution already exists. The government-sponsored program, ‘Great Firewall of China‘, censors content across China’s digital borders.

Chinese users cannot access popular websites like Facebook, Twitter, Dropbox or Pinterest. He cannot read online information about the Tiananmen Square massacre or criticism of President Shi Jinping.

Ever since the protesters have mixed Chinese President Shi Jinping’s appearance with ‘Vinny Da Po’, online images of this classic Disney character have been banned in China. Professor Seo says that ‘technology companies are leaving one of the world’s largest markets (China) because they cannot provide openly online information as they would like to.’

This censorship means that the expansion of foreign businesses in China, one of the world’s most attractive markets, is hindered. Whether the company is large or small, foreign companies have to shell out a lot to avoid problems for doing business in China.

Apple’s services and products are available in China, and the company’s activities in the Chinese market have been part of the headlines.

In 2017, China asked Apple to remove the New York Times and Skype app from its App Store and Apple did so.

In 2017, China asked Apple to remove the New York Times and Skype app from its App Store, and Apple did just that.

Google also tried its luck in China but received a strong response. Google has secretly worked to create a version of its search engine, the Chinese search engine ‘Baidu’.

This Chinese Google censored some findings regarding human rights violations and controversial laws. In 2018, The Intercept printed a report on ‘Project Dragon Fly‘ that Google censored.

“When you type a term in the search engine in China, you get different results from Western countries,” says Sara Cook, senior Chinese research analyst at Freedom House, a US-based human rights watchdog. The list of censored things is continuously changing. ‘

In its annual report ‘Freedom on the Net‘ for the fourth consecutive year in 2019, Freedom House ranked China the last in the ranking of freedom on the Internet.

Any company that wants to do business in China has to comply with Chinese laws. For example, ‘LinkedIn‘ does not allow its Chinese users to view politically sensitive profiles or posts from people outside the country.

Why are there so many restrictions on the Internet that give access to the digital world, such as information, media and debates?

Assistant Professor of Modern Chinese Pop Culture at the University of British Columbia, Ren Ren Yang, says that this censorship is rooted in the legality of the Chinese Communist Party, which promotes official statements about the national state.

Chinese Internet users cannot use Google and WhatsApp, but they have Baidu and WeChat.

This year, Amazon closed its online store in China due to less business than Alibaba.

━ Isn’t China creating its parallel Internet?

Sarah says’ Isolated Chinese Internet is cutting off from the world. And the worry is that the rest of the countries are restraining their access to other websites seen by China or slowing down the Internet during demonstrations and rallies. ‘

Professor Seo is not so optimistic that China will change its position in the near future.

‘Because China has replaced Western media with its apps and websites, it does not need Western technology companies.’

But the rest of the experts are hopeful that the Internet will not be a permanent fixture.

Professor Young says, “I wish one day the Great Firewall would fall just as the Berlin Wall did.”


◔ FAQ’s

━ Does the US still trade with China?

China is the world’s largest exporter and the United States as the world’s largest importer. They have been the pillars of the global economy so far. By 1984, the United States became China’s third-largest trading partner, and China became the 14th largest country in the United States.

━ How much trade does the US do with China?

US-China trade facts
China is currently our largest trading partner with $ 659.8 billion worth of trade during 2018. Goods exports totalled $ 120.3 billion. Imports of goods total $ 539.5 billion. The US goods trade deficit with China was 9,419.2 billion in 2018.

What percent of US GDP is trade with China?

China purchased goods and services worth $ 165 billion from the United States in 2015, representing 7.3 per cent of all US exports and about 1 per cent of total US economic output.

About Muhammad Adnan

Hello! I Am Arslan & I Am The Content Writer And Founder Of TeachnNets. We Are Always Working To Make TeachNets.com More Fun And Useful For You. We Hope You Enjoy This.

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