Chinese Government Working Overtime to Censor News, Views of Hong Kong Demonstrations

Protests that began last week in Hong Kong over
Beijing’s decision to vet all candidates for a 2017 election for
chief administrator have turned into some of the largest
demonstrations Hong Kong has seen. The growing protests are thanks
in part to a disproportionate response from local police in Hong
Kong, who fired tear gas at protesters in an attempt to disperse
them. Over the weekend demonstrators took to the streets
surrounding government buildings as part of the campaign of

mass civil disobedience “Occupy Central” activists
promised.

So far, the Chinese government has officially insisted it had
confidence in Hong Kong’s ability to police the protests itself.
But it’s busy censoring news of the protests on the mainland, which
in 2014 includes a slew of social media and communication apps that
have become popular in China and Hong Kong, as well as disrupting
mobile networks and conducting surveillance on the island.

Reuters reports:

The intervention is beyond what is normal for the usually
free-talking Hong Kong, even as people are used to Chinese censors
scrubbing the Internet in the mainland when mass demonstrations
erupt.

On Sunday, users reported that Facebook Inc’s photo sharing app
Instagram was inaccessible on China’s mainland.

Chinese websites, including Baidu Inc’s search engine and the
Twitter-like Weibo Corp microblog, have set about deleting
references to the Hong Kong demonstrations.

Others have reported messages on Tencent Holdings Ltd’s hugely
popular WeChat messaging app being removed.

“I think it is still quite safe except WeChat, which is China,”
said Oscar, a 21-year-old student at Hong Kong’s Polytechnic
University, who uses Facebook and WhatsApp to communicate and plan
with other protesters.

“It depends on your phone, because some China (brand) phones,
they can detect your messages,” he said.

The Chinese government’s attempt to censor news of the protests
extends to all opinons, something that appears to frighten even
some pro-government activists in China:

“WeChat is not blocked, I think some stuff is being deleted,”
said Jennie, who, after growing up in mainland China and being
educated in the United States, now runs a Hong Kong-based
charity.

“I forwarded an article (on Hong Kong) on today and it was
deleted. The mainland should think it’s good people are expressing
ideas on behalf of the mainland government, but they even deleted
that. Basically they’re preventing the opportunity for dialogue,
which if you think about it is quite scary.”

The Chinese government may not be able to prevent its citizens
from knowing about protests in Hong Kong, but it can try to keep
them from thinking about it. The last word in the Reuters article,
from the pro-government activist:

“All my friends … know what’s happening in Hong Kong,” said
Jennie in Hong Kong. “They’re tweeting from Weibo and WeChat and
forwarding articles. Not expressing personal views, but there are
articles being forwarded.”

At the same time, Chinese authorities ordered all websites to
“immediately clear away information about Hong Kong students
violently assaulting the government and about ‘Occupy Central’,”
according to China Digital Times, another censorship watchdog.

“My dad saw an article discussion I forwarded on the ‘deeper’
issues causing the current situation, and he replied: ‘Oh it’s been
deleted’,” said Jennie. “And that’s it, he didn’t seem to be
bothered by it.”

Across the country, China had about
500 protests a day in 2012, but even when governemnt buildings
are taken over protesters express support for the Communist
Party.