China's False Face
The Chinese government has historically had tight control over the Chinese
people – this has been the case all throughout the current government and
previous ones as well. The Chinese government is unique in that there are no
checks and balances; the government’s actions are not monitored by the media,
and certainly the people of the country have no way to really assess new
policies and government actions. For this reason, protectionist legislation like
the one regarding online casino gambling and other internet businesses stay in
place for long periods of time because there is no way to actively know all of
the government’s actions. The online casino gambling issue has shed a bit of
light though on the Chinese government and the growing power of the people to
influence decisions made in China.
The Chinese government makes large and far-reaching decisions that are done in
the name of the betterment of the nation. But the people of China might have a
different perspective and the online casino gambling issue has made their voices
louder. The Chinese government’s attempts to censor internet content under the
name of protecting the people has illustrated that the government is perfectly
capable of saying one thing and doing quite another.
In this case, although the government noted that the illegal online casino
gambling was the main reason for the planned implementation of the Green Dam
filtering software further analysis of the situation and more information
indicated that the government also planned to censor some political content as
well. |