China and globalzation - Essay Example

The internet has also led to the inevitable diversification of social, cultural, political as well as economic practices due to the high permeability of national as well as regional frontiers, which implies that decisions as well as practices in one part of the world has global consequences. Evidently, the internet and the prevalent internet technologies have inevitably opened up channels of communication, choice, while unquestionably promoting greater participation of the public in the ever growing era of globalization (MacKinnon 2008, p.31). For instance, the internet and its allied technologies have greatly impacted and shaped the development of the global public opinion concerning the U.S. throughout Asia, Western Europe, as well as in the Middle East while at the same time enabling democratization of nations by allowing their citizens to voice their own opinions concerning public policy.

The spread of the internet and the rapid flows of information in China has suddenly become a critical challenge for policy makers since it can no longer be regulated effectively; precisely, the major concern of the Chinese government over the increased prevalence of the internet is that it threatens the conventional forms of information such as China’s state-controlled media. According to the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, nearly 67.5% of Chinese internet users have more confidence in the utility of the internet for criticizing the government than they do in the traditional forums like the state controlled media, which is subject to excessive censoring.

Chinese internet users are able to circumvent the strict control barriers of access to the internet through the help of western companies such as Safeweb, which provide untraceable internet hosting, thereby accessing banned sites such as CNN; Human Rights bodies are also increasingly using internet circumvention technologies to bypass internet censoring (Maitland,