China is a country with great cultural history that stretches back nearly 4,000 years. It is also the most populous country in the world with a reported 1.35 billion people in 2010. Under Mao Zedong, after World War II, the Communists established an autocratic socialist system that imposed strict controls over everyday life and cost the lives of tens of millions of people while ensuring China's sovereignty.
China has the largest media market in the world but Chinese media is strictly controlled by the government. It also has the largest online population in the world with 389 million users reported in 2009 by CIA World Factbook. There are more than 2,000 newspapers in China. Each city has its own newspaper and their is also the local Communist daily. In China TV is a popular means to getting news but it is under strict government control. The state run Chinese Central TV (CCTV) offers around 2,100 channels.
China has a branch of their government known as The Propaganda Department which closely monitors the media in China.
Beijing tries to limit access to foreign news by restricting rebroadcasting and the use of satellite receivers, by jamming shortwave broadcasts, including those of the BBC, and by blocking websites. Ordinary readers have no access to foreign newspapers.
The government closely monitors the internet. They block websites such as Facebook, Twitter and human rights sites. The government censors what they deem to be socially and politically sensitive. BBC News describes how Chinese government accomplishes this:
An extensive web filtering system, dubbed the "Great Firewall of China", is one of the "most technologically-advanced in existence", according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF). It blocks tens of thousands of sites using URL filtering and keyword censoring.
Thousands of cyber-police watch the web. Internet cafes are closely monitored. Filtering targets material deemed politically and socially sensitive. Blocked resources include Facebook, Twitter, and human rights sites.
Reports Without Borders writes in an article from February 23, 2011 how the Chinese government censorship has reach new heights:
Reporters Without Borders today denounced the Chinese government’s “gagging” of the population with increased censorship and other “unacceptable practices” that it said seemed to aim at “stamping out all forms of freedom of expression.”
The Chinese government has placed blocks on internet search engine keywords such as Jasmin, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia and democracy since the Middle East uprisings and in response to demonstrations that were held on February 20, 2011 that were organized through online appeals.
Will what happen in Tunisia and Egypt be able to happen in China were the old media and the new media are so strongly control and censored by the government?