If the Chinese government has nothing to hide, it has nothing to fear with allowing its' citizens to see any information on the Internet. The "net citizens" of China are living in a virtual dictatorship, seems not too long ago they were living in an actual dictatorship (under the viscard of communism)...but even that changed...and they will continue to do so.

Mao Ze Bong, London/Shanghai,

The Great Wall didn't work as a defence, but the Ming-era restoration was a boost to the economy (I'd say it created jobs, but enforced labour probably doesn't count).

The Great Firewall can be avoided with a few trivial mouse-clicks, but hey, it provides employment for thousands of net cops!

So there's one reason to keep it around, at least.

Tom, Beijing,

Is there no way around the great firewall of china? Wouldn't it be pretty easy to just move Wikipedia content to a site that is allowed? Do chinese officials manually review every website that is "authorized"? I would like to see the chinese have more access to the Internet. They they will realize how it is *they* who are brainwashed.

Joe, Vancouver, Canada

It seems T Yang has maybe read too many articles in the China Daily. As for being colonial, can I mention Taiwan here and not get a beating in the local police station? I think T Yang will find the Chinese do a good job of enslaving themselves under their resrictive laws and lack of human rights. I think it is time that both Chinese and the West opened their eyes and realise what is going on. China should realise that the usual retoric of foreigners invading their country is just outdated and pathetic. As for the West I believe it is time that instead of blindingly following the Chinese government's wishes it can use its investment to push for change as imports will have to rise for the economy to stabalise. I have a problem with the companies who seemingly seem to cover there eyes and ears and ignore the abuses that do happen in China. Yet in the West have gone to war in the name of human rights. Even writing this little comment is a dangerous action in China, how is that right?

Will, Buxton, UK

Besides all the contradicting points of view of the author; the “wall” threat doesn’t come from outside, but from inside, because the people in China is becoming middle class very quick and with time they will find ways to increase they liberties… Google will benefit from that, but obviously it would not be a mayor player in this fight, China has chose their player long ago.

Rob, Bob Zombie, UK

at least google is honest enough to tell me “some searched items are not shown due to the local law” when i use it; its chinese counterpart, as well as a "local rival", never gives such information on its pages.

another thing the e-commerce companies overseas should be aware is that most chinese university provide internet access for domestic websites merely, which is a major factor that more chinese college students prefer qq, rather than msn, and email service by local websites rather than gmail or hotmail.

btw, the most painful thing of internet restriction is not being able to use wikipedia.

claire, nanjing,

You could most likely break through the 'Great Firewall' using a web proxy - not exactly difficult, unless every single web proxy is blocked. We can use proxies in the UK to access US only sites, if the proxy website is based in the US. So one would image it would also work in China.

James, London, UK

I can only say this guy doesn't know china!

Huibin, Bham,

Time to test everybody's virtue, reasoning and integrity. As it's unavoidable, plz tie on the safe belt and enter roller-coaster section.

alan, Beijing, China

It should be remembered that there are still far more people living on about a dollar a day in India than in China so if one wants to talk about the continuing supply of cheap labour, it will be plentiful for a long time to come, assuming suitable infrastructure development.

Edmondson, Edinburgh,

In china territory, you should follow china's law, no matter what you claim.

please be kindly noted that any intention to destry china with internet is a pipedream, your colonial brainwashed mind to slave chinese people is totaly wrong in the 21st century!

Great Wall did not stoo the barbarians, but Great Firewall of China can stop your colonial brainwashed barbarians it is built to block.

T Yang, Shenzhen, China

If 200 million Chinese live on a dollar a day ,as reported in the article, is accurate than the West has got a lot to worry about indeed. The huge figure means that no other countries can remotely compete with China as the factory of the world for a very long time. As far as the Chinese leadership is concerned, exponential growth is the name of the game at the moment. The dragon may be only puffing steam at the moment. It is only a rehearsal for the most brilliant fire work that the world has ever seen.

Wing, Poole, UK

Here's a news flash for you: 14-year-old kids wasting time on WoW and university students writing heart-felt entries on poetry blogs aren't going to bring down the CCP any time soon. There is a complete disconnect between poorly paid workers and government censorship of the internet, as the Chinese underclass is the group which is least likely to make use of it. The author talks about "a growing sense that something will have to give" with the ditching of marxism, however this problem has been 'growing' since 1979, but the question as to what it was that was going to 'give' was answered in 1989. Change in Chinese society is highly unlikely to come from the workers, as they are essentially leaderless. The elements of Chinese society which might serve as engines of change have been to co-opted to varying degrees by economic growth. Vague forbodings about how change in China is 'inevitable' are not the same as concrete evidence, nor can we easily predict what form such change might take.

Gilman Grundy, a factory with 200,000 workers, PR China

The Great Firewall is here to stay, atleast for a while. If you consider the demographics and check their political/ social inclination, you will notice an appaling trend where very few are bothered about this Great Firewall. The 50+ are not bothered because they made their money through this very system which formulated the Great Wall. The 30+ are again busy making as the dragon is flexing its muscles in exports. And the under 30 have lots of other issues to take care of such as jobs, increasing cost of living etc.

Unlike in the west, where financially successful people tend to leverage their status for a good social cause, the ones in China are happy to see such controls. They are hardly bothered about how the whole set-up is forcing people to live in a certain way.

Google should go more aggresive. Baidu is not technically superior. On the back of its success is a monstrous sales force, connections. Google has the technology and needs a desire to push further by innovating.

InChina, Shanghai, China

So China is evil, thanks for tip. Shell we impose a trade ban with such evil country, or we will continue to do business with them as usual? Please be more realistic in "labeling", due to the fact that most of the world superpower's is more than egger to get a slice of Chinese cake.

Zoran, Limerick, ROI

I think Blakely means that as China's poor become richer, there will be more money for the West's big internet company's to go after. But at the same time, more money and consumer choice means there will be greater resistance to China's controls on free speech. There were 90,000 civil protests last year in China - THAT BEIJING WILL ADMIT TO. Who knows how many more have gone unreported? It seems clear that many are deeply dissatisfied with their conditions. Meanwhile, Why would the Chinese authorities bother to spend so much on internet controls unless it saw a real threat to the status quo?

bob, London,

Let us all hope that the day is past when governments can keep information and understandings from their people and that the free flow of information will reach into even the most closed society. Perhaps forty or fifty governments still try to filter access to outside information, North Korea and Vietnam and Cuba being perhaps the most retrobate in their efforts. Let's hope that technology will far outstrip the ability of governments to censor information that the offending governments will simply stop trying. Why not?

James, Jacksonville, Illinois U. S.

it's a fabulous explanation about the current circumstance of china,
increasing boredom agitated with the disseminating propaganda that the dragon 'rise after the slumber' persists for a while.

swagger, tokyo, japan