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Golden Shield Project 1

The Golden Shield Project (Chinese: 金 盾工 程; : jīndùn gōngchéng), colloquially referred to as the Great

Firewall of (Chinese: 防 火长 城; pinyin: fánghuǒ chángchéng) is a and project operated by the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) division of the . The project was initiated in 1998 and began operations in November 2003.

History The political and ideological background of the Golden Shield Project is considered to be one of ’s favorite sayings in the early 1980s: "If you open the window for fresh air, you have to expect some flies to blow in."

(Chinese: 打 开 窗 户 ， 新 鲜 空 气 和 苍 蝇 就 会 一 起 进 来 。; pinyin: Dǎkāi chuānghù, xīnxiān kōngqì hé cāngying jiù huì yìqǐ jìnlái.[1]) The saying is related to a period of the economic reform of China that became known as the "socialist ". Superseding the political of the , the reform led China towards a market economy and opened up the market for foreign investors. Nonetheless, the economic freedom, values, and political ideas of the Communist Party of China have had to be protected by "swatting flies" of other unwanted ideologies.[2] The in China arrived in 1994, as the inevitable consequence of and supporting tool for the "". Gradually, while Internet availability has been increasing, the Internet has become a common communication platform and tool for trading information. The Ministry of Public Security took initial steps to control Internet use in 1997, when it issued comprehensive regulations governing its use. The key sections, Articles 4-6, are: "Individuals are prohibited from using the Internet to: harm national security; disclose state secrets; or injure the interests of the state or society. Users are prohibited from using the Internet to create, replicate, retrieve, or transmit information that incites resistance to the PRC Constitution, laws, or administrative regulations; promotes the overthrow of the government or socialist system; undermines national unification; distorts the truth, spreads rumors, or destroys social order; or provides sexually suggestive material or encourages gambling, violence, or murder. Users are prohibited from engaging in activities that harm the security of computer information networks and from using networks or changing network resources without prior approval."[3] In 1998, the Communist Party of China feared that the China Party (CDP) would breed a powerful new network that the party elites might not be able to control.[4] The CDP was immediately banned, followed by arrests and imprisonment. That same year, the Golden Shield project was started. The first part of the project lasted eight years and was completed in 2006. The second part began in 2006 and ended in 2008. On 6 December 2002, 300 people in charge of the Golden Shield project from 31 provinces and cities throughout China participated in a four-day inaugural “Comprehensive Exhibition on Chinese Information System”.[5] At the exhibition, many western high-tech products, including , video monitoring and human face recognition were purchased. It is estimated that around 30,000-50,000 police are employed in this gigantic project.

It has been nicknamed "the Great " (防 火 长 城) (a term that first appeared in a Wired magazine article in 1997)[6] in reference to its role as a network firewall and to the ancient . A major part of the project includes the ability to content by preventing IP addresses from being routed through and consists of standard firewalls and proxy servers at the six[7] Internet gateways. The system also selectively engages in DNS cache poisoning when particular sites are requested. The government does not appear to be systematically examining Internet content, as this appears to be technically impractical. Because of its disconnection from the larger world of IP protocols, the network contained within the has been described as "the Chinese autonomous routing domain". Golden Shield Project 2

During the 2008 Summer Olympics, Chinese officials told Internet providers to prepare to unblock access from certain Internet cafés, access jacks in hotel rooms and conference centers where foreigners were expected to work or stay.

Purpose In September 2002, Li Runsen, the technology director at Ministry of Public Security and member of the Golden Shield leadership, further explained this broad definition to thousands of police nationwide at a meeting in Beijing called "Information Technology for China’s Public Security". In October 2001, Greg Walton of the International Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Development published a report; he wrote: Old style censorship is being replaced with a massive, ubiquitous architecture of surveillance: the Golden Shield. Ultimately, the aim is to integrate a gigantic online database with an all-encompassing surveillance network – incorporating speech and face recognition, closed-circuit television, smart cards, credit records, and Internet surveillance technologies. The empirical study by the OpenNet Initiative (collaboration between Harvard Law School, University of Toronto Citizen Lab, and Cambridge Security Program) found that China has the most sophisticated content-filtering Internet regime in the world. Compared to similar efforts in other countries, Chinese Government effectively filters content by employing multiple methods of regulation and technical controls. In contrast, the PRC-sponsored news agency, Xinhua, stated that censorship targets only "superstitious, pornographic, violence-related, gambling and other harmful information."[8] In July 2007, authorities intensified the "monitoring and control" of The Great Firewall, causing disruption, in anticipation of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation meeting scheduled for August 2007.

Blocking methods Some commonly used technical methods for censoring are:

Method Description

IP blocking The access to a certain IP address is denied. If the target Web site is hosted in a shared hosting server, all Web sites on the same server will be blocked. This affects all IP protocols (mostly TCP) such as HTTP, FTP or POP. A typical circumvention method is to find proxies that have access to the target Web sites, but proxies may be jammed or blocked. Some large Web sites allocated additional IP addresses to circumvent the block, but later the block was extended to cover the new addresses.

DNS filtering Doesn't resolve domain names, or returns incorrect IP addresses. This affects all IP protocols such as HTTP, FTP or POP. A and redirection typical circumvention method is to find a domain name server that resolves domain names correctly, but domain name servers are subject to blockage as well, especially IP blocking. Another workaround is to bypass DNS if the IP address is obtainable from other sources and is not blocked. Examples are modifying the Hosts file or typing the IP address instead of the domain name in a Web browser.

URL filtering Scan the requested Uniform Resource Locator (URL) string for target keywords regardless of the domain name specified in the URL. This affects the Hypertext Transfer Protocol. Typical circumvention methods are to use escaped characters in the URL, or to [9] use encrypted protocols such as VPN and SSL.

Packet filtering Terminate TCP packet transmissions when a certain number of controversial keywords are detected. This affects all TCP protocols such as HTTP, FTP or POP, but pages are more likely to be censored. Typical circumvention methods are to use encrypted protocols such as VPN and SSL, to escape the HTML content, or reducing the TCP/IP stack's MTU, thus reducing the amount of text contained in a given packet.

Connection If a previous TCP connection is blocked by the filter, future connection attempts from both sides will also be blocked for up to 30 reset minutes. Depending on the location of the block, other users or Web sites may be also blocked if the communications are routed to the location of the block. A circumvention method is to ignore the reset packet sent by the firewall. Golden Shield Project 3

Censored content Main article: List of websites blocked in China Mainland Chinese programs have censored Web sites that include (among other things): • Web sites belonging to "outlawed" or suppressed groups, such as pro-democracy activists and • News sources that often cover topics that are considered defamatory against China, such as , Tiananmen Square protests of 1989, , democracy, and Marxist sites. These sites include and the Chinese edition of BBC News. • Sites related to the Taiwanese government, media, or other organizations, including sites dedicated to religious content, and most large Taiwanese community websites or . • Web sites that contain anything the Chinese authorities regard as or • Web sites relating to criminal activity • Sites linked with the Dalai Lama, his teachings or the International Tibet Independence Movement • Most blogging sites experience frequent or permanent outages • Web sites deemed as subversive Blocked Web sites are indexed to a lesser degree, if at all, by some Chinese search engines. This sometimes has considerable impact on search results. According to , has set up computer systems inside China that try to access Web sites outside the country. If a site is inaccessible, then it is added to 's blacklist. However, once unblocked, the Web sites will be reindexed. Referring to Google's first-hand experience of the great firewall, there is some hope in the international community that it will reveal some of its secrets. Simon Davies, founder of London-based pressure group , is now challenging Google to reveal the technology it once used at China's behest. "That way, we can understand the nature of the beast and, perhaps, develop circumvention measures so there can be an opening up of communications." "That would be a dossier of extraordinary importance to human rights," Davies says. Google has yet to respond to his call.[10]

Bypassing See also: Evasion of Internet Because the Great Firewall blocks destination IP addresses and domain names and inspects the data being sent or received, a basic censorship circumvention strategy is to use proxy nodes and encrypt the data. Most circumvention tools combine these two mechanisms.[11] • Proxy servers outside China can be used, although using just a simple (HTTP or SOCKS) without also using an encrypted tunnel (such as HTTPS) does little to circumvent the sophisticated censors. • Companies can establish regional Web sites within China. This prevents their content from going through the Great Firewall of China; however, it requires companies to apply for local ICP licenses. • , such as or , can be used. • , , and are free programs that circumvent the China firewall using multiple open proxies, but still behave as though the user is in China. • VPNs () and SSH (secure shell) are the powerful and stable tools for bypassing surveillance technologies. They use the same basic approaches, proxies and encrypted channels, used by other circumvention tools, but depend on a private host, a virtual host, or an account outside of China, rather than open, free proxies. • Open application programming interface (API) used by which enables to post and retrieve tweets on sites other than Twitter. "The idea is that coders elsewhere get to Twitter, and offer up feeds at their own —which the government has to chase down one by one." says Jonathan Zittrain, co-director of Harvard's Berkman Center for Internet and Society.[12] Golden Shield Project 4

• Reconfiguration at the end points of communication, encryption, discarding reset packets according to the TTL value (time to live) by distinguishing those resets generated by the Firewall and those made by end user, not routing any further packets to sites that have triggered blocking behavior.[13]

Unblocking Certain sites have begun to be partially unblocked, including: • The English-language BBC website (but not the website). • (wikipedia.org), HTTPS version is not blocked (As of December 2013[14]). However, if one uses HTTP, many wikis are blocked.[15] • Social websites and free web hosting websites. However, these have also been re-blocked.Wikipedia:Citation needed • Some foreign news websites.Wikipedia:Citation needed

Exporting technology Reporters Without Borders suspects that regimes such as Cuba, Zimbabwe and Belarus have obtained surveillance technology from China.

Protest in China Despite strict government regulations, the Chinese people are continuing to protest against their government’s attempt to censor the Internet. The more covert protesters will set up secure SSH and VPN connections using tools such as UltraSurf. They can also utilize the widely available proxies and virtual private networks to fanqiang(翻 墙), or "climb the wall." Active protest is not absent. Chinese people will post their grievances online, and on some occasions, have been successful. In 2003, the death of Sun Zhigang, a young migrant worker, sparked an intense, widespread online response from the Chinese public, despite the risk of the government’s punishment. A few months later, Prime Minister Wen Jiabao abolished the that led to the death of Sun. Ever since, dissent has regularly created turmoil on the . Also in January 2010, when Google announced that it will no longer censor its Web search results in China, even if this means it might have to shut down its Chinese operations altogether, many Chinese people went to the company’s Chinese offices to display their grievances and offer gifts, such as flowers, fruits and cigarettes.

Notes

[1] There are several variants of this saying in Chinese, including “如 果 你 打 开 窗 户 换 新 鲜 空 气 ， 就 得 想 到 苍 蝇 也 会

飞 进 来 。" and "打 开 窗 户 ， 新 鲜 空 气 进 来 了 ， 苍 蝇 也 飞 进 来 了 。". Their meanings are the same. [2] R. MacKinnon “Flatter world and thicker walls? Blogs, censorship and civic discourse in China” Public Choice (2008) 134: p. 31–46, Springer [3] “China and the Internet.”, International Debates, 15420345, Apr2010, Vol. 8, Issue 4 [4] Goldman, Merle Goldman. Gu, Edward X. [2004] (2004). Chinese Intellectuals between State and Market. Routledge publishing. ISBN 0415325978

[5] 首 屆 「2002年 中 國 大 型 機 構 信 息 化 展 覽 會 」 全 國31省 市 金 盾 工 程 領 導 雲 集 (http:/ / www. adsale. com.

hk/ tw/ iframe/ anews-s3-n4. asp)

[6] http:/ / www. economist. com/ news/ special-report/ 21574631-chinese-screening-online-material-abroad-becoming-ever-more-sophisticated

[7] http:/ / www. nbcnews. com/ technology/ welcome-wyoming-how-chinas-great-firewall-could-have-sent-web-2D11970733 [8] China and the Internet. International Debates, 15420345, Apr2010, Vol. 8, Issue 4 [9] For an example, see Wikipedia:Advice to users using Tor to bypass the Great Firewall [10] Will Google's help breach the great firewall of China? By: Marks, Paul, New Scientist, 02624079, 4/3/2010, Vol. 205, Issue 2754

[11] " Behind the Great Firewall of China: The Fight Against GFW" (http:/ / queue. acm. org/ detail. cfm?id=2405036), Daniel Anderson, Queue, Association for Computing Machinery (ACM), Vol. 10, No. 11 (29 November 2012), doi:10.1145/2390756.2405036. Retrieved 11 October 2013. Golden Shield Project 5

[12] "Leaping the Great Firewall of China " (http:/ / online. wsj. com/ article/ SB10001424052748704896104575139742687410862. html), Emily Parker, Wall Street Journal, 24 March 2010. Retrieved 11 October 2013.

[13] "Ignoring the Great Firewall of China" (http:/ / www. cl. cam. ac. uk/ ~rnc1/ ignoring. pdf), Richard Clayton, Steven J. Murdoch, and Robert N. M. Watson, PET'06: Proceedings of the 6th international conference on Privacy Enhancing Technologies, Springer-Verlag (2006), pages 20-35, ISBN 3-540-68790-4, doi:10.1007/11957454_2. Retrieved 11 October 2013.

[14] http:/ / en. wikipedia. org/ w/ index. php?title=Golden_Shield_Project& action=edit

[15] (Chinese) 如 何 访 问 维 基 百 科#当 前 情 况

References

External links

Wikibooks has a book on the topic of: Transwiki:Bypassing the Great Firewall of China

• : Internet Control (http:/ / chinadigitaltimes. net/ tag/ Internet-control)

• Breaking Through the “Golden Shield” (http:/ / www. soros. org/ resources/ articles_publications/ articles/ china-internet-censorship-20041101)

• ViewDNS.info - Chinese Firewall Test (http:/ / www. viewdns. info/ chinesefirewall/ ) - Tests if Golden Shield is performing DNS filtering/redirection on your domain within .

• Dotcom-Monitor (http:/ / www. dotcom-monitor. com/ technical-tools-browser-test. aspx)- Tests if a website (or third-party hosts to a website) is filtered from within Great Firewall of China using an actual Internet Explorer browser Article Sources and Contributors 6 Article Sources and Contributors

Golden Shield Project Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?oldid=626565237 Contributors: A1candidate, AlphaRho, Arthur Rubin, Caorongjin, Chmarkine, Chris the speller, ChrisGualtieri, Codename Lisa, Deacon of Pndapetzim, Dekema2, Dennis97519, Epicgenius, Fizikanauk, Funandtrvl, Gjnyasa, Justinrleung, LittleWink, Neøn, Stephen Balaban, TheJae, Tomwood0, W163, Zhaofeng Li, Zzq1015, 19 anonymous edits Image Sources, Licenses and Contributors

Image:Wikibooks-logo-en-noslogan.svg Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=File:Wikibooks-logo-en-noslogan.svg License: Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 3.0 Contributors: User:Bastique, User:Ramac et al. License

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