U.S. urged to do more to counter China’s growing censorship system

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China’s communist government has sharply increased censorship and information controls under President Xi Jinping, posing a growing threat to U.S. security and the free flow of information globally, according to a report by a congressional China commission.

To block Chinese attempts to sow divisions within the United States and preserve freedom of information worldwide, the United States must be more effective in countering Beijing’s growing information control system, said the report, released Tuesday by the United States-China Economic and Security Review Commission.

Censorship in China focuses primarily on domestic control, but “its effects pose a major challenge to U.S. diplomatic, economic and national security interests,” the report concluded.

The report’s authors say Beijing’s information controls make up the world’s most elaborate and pervasive system of censorship. The ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP) uses censorship to secure political legitimacy and shape popular behavior through “public opinion guidance,” the report says.

Beyond its borders, China is sharply increasing efforts to combat ideas and narratives Beijing perceives as threatening, the report said.

The lines of effort include disinformation campaigns to sow divisions within U.S. society, the report said.

China also punishes private U.S. companies and people who voice positions opposed by the Communist Party.

China is exporting censorship tools to other authoritarian states and calling for greater state control of the internet. Those actions challenge U.S.-backed norms and agreements that seek to promote the global free flow of information, the report said.

China uses censorship to advance Beijing’s anti-democratic geostrategic goals. One goal is isolating rival Taiwan and “laying the groundwork for eventual cross-strait unification,” the report said.

“These challenges necessitate that the United States takes action to safeguard its domestic information space and to preserve a free and open internet, both of which are vital factors for continued U.S. economic prosperity and individual liberty,” the report said.

The federal government also needs better efforts to counter Chinese disinformation campaigns that are used as de facto censorship outside of China, the report said.

One example, the report said, was Beijing’s official false assertion that the COVID-19 virus was produced in a U.S. Army lab and then brought to China.

It said U.S. intelligence must share information on activities by state-backed Chinese hacking groups, such as Dragonbridge, that engage in sophisticated information operations.

The U.S. must impose tighter export controls to block China from obtaining advanced hardware and software for its censorship system, the report says.

The 116-page report, “Censorship Practices of the People’s Republic of China,” was produced under contract by the Center for Intelligence Research and Analysis, part of the think tank Exovera.

Frank Miller, Exovera vice president for intelligence integration, said China’s censorship apparatus is multifaceted and uses removal efforts and deterrence to control content it opposes.

Companies and media outlets that use online content reflecting Beijing’s deterrence directives and measures are “complicit in the censoring of news and/or Western liberal thoughts from the Chinese populace,” he said.

“Our recommendations to the commission were essentially to use the power of Congress to encourage means to counter the CCP censorship apparatus, especially where the spillover effect includes the U.S. populace,” Mr. Miller said.

Expanding under Xi

The study said the Chinese government significantly expanded the censorship system since Mr. Xi came to power in 2012 and focused on solidifying control over internet content. The effort involved new laws, regulations and technical methods to monitor and supervise online activity and became increasingly sophisticated with the rise of artificial intelligence systems.

Before 2012, China’s internet users, dubbed “netizens,” operated in a vast online community that often allowed for vibrant debate, including some that touched on Communist Party politics. Under Mr. Xi, however, censors cracked down on such freewheeling internet exchanges by imprisoning or silencing those they said had engaged in online dissent and debate.

Censorship controls in China are spread among several Communist Party and state institutions that collectively control information for the population of some 1.4 billion people.

An example was the government’s ability to manage what the report said was an “acute crisis” set into motion by draconian COVID-19 lockdowns. Censors also targeted what the ruling party calls “historical nihilism” — CCP code for the negative effect on communism produced by the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

“At the same time, the CCP allows for limited discussions of sensitive topics that do not directly threaten its hold on power, such as China’s role in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict,” the report said.

Other “sensitive” discussions permitted by Chinese censors include exchanges highlighting government corruption.

All criticism of senior party leaders, the legitimacy of one-party communist rule or the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre of pro-democracy protesters is strictly blocked.

Employees and executives of Chinese internet providers face detention and other penalties if company censors fail to monitor and control content online.

‘Guiding’ global opinion

Overseas, the censorship apparatus is engaged in what the report called “international public opinion guidance.” The effort employs many of the same tools used for domestic information control.

Chinese information agents can “flood the zone” on foreign social media outlets to hijack and deflate discussions opposed by Beijing, such as the ongoing harsh repression of ethnic Uyghurs in western China and Tibet.

To influence online discussion of the Russia-Ukraine war, Chinese government censors seek to control overseas discussions using tactics similar to those for domestic censorship. Chinese citizens can discuss the conflict openly, but any discussion of how the war could affect plans for a future Chinese attack on Taiwan is blocked or muted through state-linked trolls.

The report recommends developing and deploying emerging telecommunications technology, such as satellite-based internet constellations, that can “impose costs” on Chinese censorship systems.

Satellite-supplied internet service, such as that from Starlink, has “the potential to undermine the CCP’s stranglehold over data flows into and out of China,” the report said. China is already working to counter the potential use of satellite clouds to prevent the systems from weakening censorship.

The report called on the State Department to improve its public diplomacy in China. Diplomats should provide better reporting on misconduct and misgovernment by the government and the Communist Party.

“Access to objective information plays a key role in enabling China’s citizenry to hold their government accountable, especially during inflection points such as the 2019 COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, and the subsequent 2022 anti-lockdown protest movements,” the report said.

The government should increase federal grants to groups such as the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Science Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts while supporting research and independent journalism.

“Independent journalism and scholarly research have been central to undermining [Chinese] censorship of sensitive topics, ranging from the 2019 pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong to the CCP’s mistreatment of Uyghurs in Xinjiang,” the report said.