True or Not? American-born Chinese Olympic Sensation Claims China’s Internet is “Literally Free”
American-born and trained Chinese Olympic sensation, Eileen Gu, created a lot of confusion for Christians when she told the world on her social media page that the Chinese Internet is “literally free,” when in fact, Christians have been told that Internet in China is heavily restricted.
Which is it? Is the Internet in China open or isn’t it? Christians who have been praying for China want to know.
Eileen Gu, a gold-medalist skier from California, but competing on behalf of China, has become the darling of China. The Chinese people absolutely love her and hang on her every word, but this week she made a shocking claim and it was hard to tell if the claim was made in ignorance or was purposeful propaganda.
On her Instagram account, an application that is blocked in China, Eileen has over one million followers. Account user, Cilla.chan, asked the obvious question on Eileen’s account that would be on many Christian’s minds if they saw her use the app so effortlessly, “Why can you use Instagram and millions of Chinese people from mainland cannot, why you got such special treatment as a Chinese citizen. That’s not fair, can you speak up for those millions of Chinese who don’t have internet freedom.”
Eileen Gu replied to Cilla.chan with, “Anyone can download a VPN its literally free on the App Store [thumbs up].”
Is the American-Chinese gold medal superstar telling the truth?
In short, the answer is no.
Applications like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Google, Gmail, etc are blocked in China. Google and Apple app stores actively support China and block access to VPNs. Individuals caught with VPNs on their phone or computers can face heavy fines or worse.
China has one of the most notorious firewalls systems in the world that aggressively blocks access to Bibles, online Christian teachings, and religious devotional materials.
However, in spite of the The Great Firewall, the Chinese government has an army of people that they trust to carry their propaganda message to the rest of the world. They have an army of keyboard warriors who are allowed to access foreign apps like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc. to spread the ‘approved’ message from Beijing to the rest of the world.
Does Eileen fit into that category?
It is not certain what perks she is getting from the Chinese government to compete for them, but it is known that if she has access to Instagram, and it is clear that she does, then she is being allowed to live by a completely different set of rules than the rest of China.
Chinese Christians who use VPNs to access Christian material online are sought after aggressively and have to take many steps to get around the Great Firewall. If they are discovered by-passing the Great Firewall, the punishment can be harsh.
China’s Great Firewall restrictions is just one of the many reasons why BTJ hosts a Hacker’s Conference every year. BTJ Hackers find a way around the closed system that China has implemented to find a way to get the Gospel into hands of the people – people who apparently do not have the access that Eileen Gu is given.
One Comment
I give Kudos and Accolades to Xi Jin Ping in China for censoring things on the internet and setting a time amount for children to be on video games. He cares very much what the Citizens of China view and use. There’s nothing wrong with this one bit. There are so many evil dangerous violent disturbing perverted things that happen everyday on the internet where children and teens and college age children and young adults and grown up have access to that cause harm and create huge problems in families and in our communities and neighborhoods and in our cities and states and in our Schools and in our Nations where there is absolutely nothing wrong with censoring things on the internet. I was just telling my Mother that the BBC ran a News story last week about a dangerous website that teaches children and teens and adults how to commit suicide and to buy poison from them that they mail to your home to take to kill yourself. The BBC was working on taking that down off the internet. There are millions of other sites dangerous and harmful also. Like this one I read a month ago on the BBC where a man wanted to get his old Ferrarri fixed and they wanted to charge him $35,000 to fix it so he got angry and found a website on the internet that teaches you how to blow up things and to make home made bombs and to buy it from them or elsewhere. So the man did and blew up his Ferrari having a party with friends watching it being blown up. There is nothing wrong with censoring things on the internet and on every Social Media Sight that equally has the same sites having platform pages on these different Social Media Sites. Even the News mentioned only one Social Media site which was Facebook that has very dangerous individuals and organizations operating daily on Facebook that must be removed. The 2 Authors of the Ugly Truth about Facebook said the same thing in their book. There are other Social Media sites that must do that too. So why am I being blocked by my Cyber bullyier since May 2021 just because I complemented the President of Russia my nightly Facebook Friend and that I’m not my cyber bullyiers wife because I didn’t say yes to marry him. I wrote about LOVE and PEACE and spread this when I wrote and I spread God’s Messages and his Word to everyone all over the World who read my posts on many News sites.