Casting the ubiquitous net of information control: Internet surveillance in China from golden shield to Green Dam

Alongside the quick rise of the Internet as a pivotal economic and cultural force in Chinese society, the Chinese government has implemented a two-tiered strategy in coming to grips with the great potentials and underlying risks associated with the network era. This chapter offers a critical, in-depth overview of China's state-orchestrated Internet surveillance apparatus from the Great Firewall to the latest Green Dam project. It first examines the conceptual and historical evolution of the Golden Shield program, followed by an analysis of the legal framework through which official regulation is justified or rationalized. Next, the chapter looks at the prevalent practice of industry self-regulation among both Chinese and foreign companies engaged in online business in China, and it ends with the discussion of the aborted official effort of extending content control to individual computers with the Green Dam Youth Escort project.