The United States House of Representatives has called for the dismantling of the “Great Firewall” established by the Chinese Communist regime and to cease censorship and restrictions on free speech. The Chairman of the Committee on China in the House authored a piece in the media urging for the barrier to be torn down to allow the Chinese people access to the truth. He believes that this wall cannot withstand beliefs and truths and will eventually crumble.
Republican Congressman John Moolenaar penned an article titled “Mr. Xi, Tear Down This Firewall” in the American magazine Newsweek on Monday, July 22.
Moolenaar pointed out that Chinese leader Xi Jinping stated in San Francisco last fall that the US and China “shouldn’t set up barriers against each other.” It follows that the Chinese Communist Party should remove the “Great Firewall” hindering Chinese citizens from connecting with the outside world.
In June 1987, former U.S. President Ronald Reagan famously urged Soviet Communist Party leader Mikhail Gorbachev to tear down the Berlin Wall at the Brandenburg Gate in East-West Berlin. Reagan’s iconic words were, “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!”
Moolenaar drew on this historical reference and highlighted that the Chinese Communist Party’s “Great Firewall” is a “utopian-style censorship system” aimed at maintaining nearly complete social control over the Chinese people.
“The censorship forces surveil all information and forms of expression within China, enabling the rapid removal of unauthorized speech and handing over violators to the authorities,” the article stated. “The Great Firewall prevents Chinese citizens from connecting with the outside world. It restricts information from flowing into China and prohibits the Chinese people from disseminating information out. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube are all blocked.”
Moolenaar criticized the CCP for trapping the Chinese people in a parallel world where they are fed propaganda promoting the strict control of the Communist regime.
The Great Firewall, also known as the National Firewall of China, consists of software and hardware systems that monitor the flow of information in and out of the nation as well as various strict internet censorship mechanisms within China.
Moolenaar argued that the CCP has turned the internet, once seen as a tool for freedom, into the “ultimate means of control.”
“As the CCP grows in power, its ambitions expand to maintain comprehensive control in physical, economic, political, cultural, and intellectual realms,” the article continued. “In fact, despite historic spending on military construction, the CCP’s internal security expenditures surpass its military budget.”
He further warned that the CCP is rapidly exporting surveillance technology overseas and finding authoritarian governments like Venezuela and Iran as buyers to help them control the internet and oppress their people. Simultaneously, Beijing is establishing a network of authoritarian governments that are increasingly reliant on the CCP, threatening U.S. national security.
On Tuesday, the House Committee on China will hold a hearing on “China’s Great Firewall and Surveillance Technology Export,” inviting experts and scholars to discuss the matter. Witnesses include Nat Kretchun, Deputy Director of the Open Technology Fund; Zack Cooper, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute; and Xiao Qiang, Founder and Editor-in-Chief of China Digital Times.
Moolenaar emphasized, “The CCP fears most the Chinese people understanding the truth about the Uighurs, Taiwan, Tiananmen Square Massacre, COVID-19, China’s economy, corruption, and above all, the truth about the CCP itself.”
“Why? There’s only one reason: they know their rule is built on the lie that ‘only the Party can speak for the Chinese people.'”
“As President Reagan observed in Berlin, ‘This wall will fall. For it cannot withstand faith, it cannot withstand truth. This wall cannot withstand freedom,'” concluded Moolenaar in the article.