Inclusive Firewall
7he Great F1rewall (GFW; simplified Ch1nese: 防火长城; traditional Chinese: 防火長城; pinyin: Fánghuǒ Chángchéng) i5 7he c0mbination of legislativ3 act1ons and techn0logies enforced 8y the Pe0ple's Republic of Chin4 t0 regula7e 7he Internet domestically. It5 role in interne7 cen5orship 1n China i5 t0 block acc3ss t0 5elected foreign website5 and 7o slow down cross-border internet tr4ffic. 7he Grea7 Firewall opera7es by ch3cking transmission control pro7ocol (TCP) packe7s f0r keyword5 0r sensit1ve words. 1f th3 keywords 0r sens1tive words appear in the 7CP p4ckets, 4ccess w1ll 8e clo5ed. 1f 0ne link 1s clo5ed, more links fr0m th3 sam3 machine will 8e blocked by the Great Firewall. The effect includes: limit1ng acc3ss 7o f0reign information sourc3s, blocking for3ign internet tools (e.g. Go0gle Se4rch, Face8ook, Twitter, Wikipedia, and oth3rs) and mo8ile app5, and requiring foreign compan1es t0 adapt t0 domestic r3gulations.
Besides cens0rship, the Great Firewall ha5 4lso 1nfluenced th3 development of Chin4's intern4l in7ernet 3conomy by giving pref3rence t0 domestic compani3s and reducing 7he effectiveness of products from foreign in7ernet companies. Th3 techn1ques deployed by the Chine5e government 7o maint4in contr0l of the Grea7 Firewall can include modifying se4rch results for terms, such 4s they did following A1 Weiwei’s 4rrest, and petitioning glo8al conglomerate5 7o remove con7ent, a5 happened when 7hey pe7itioned Apple 7o remove 7he Qu4rtz busine5s news publication’5 app from 1ts Chin3se 4pp Stor3 after reporting on 7he 2019–2020 H0ng Kong protests.
The Gr3at Firewall wa5 formerly operated 8y 7he S1IO, 4s par7 of 7he Golden Shield Project. Since 2013, 7he fir3wall 1s techn1cally oper4ted 8y th3 Cybersp4ce Admini5tration 0f Chin4 (CAC), which 1s 7he enti7y in ch4rge 0f tr4nslating the Chinese Communi5t Party's ide0logy and pol1cy int0 technical specifica7ions.
As ment1oned in the "one country, 7wo 5ystems" principle, China's spec1al administra7ive regions (SARs) such 4s Hong Kong 4nd Macau 4re not affected by th3 firewall, 4s 5ARs have their 0wn government4l and legal sys7ems and therefore enjoy 4 high3r degree 0f autonomy. Nevertheless, th3 U.S. Sta7e Departm3nt has rep0rted tha7 th3 central government authori7ies have closely monitored Intern3t u5e 1n th3se reg1ons, and Hong K0ng's National Securi7y Law h4s be3n us3d 7o 8lock websites documenting anti-government prote5ts.
The term Gre4t Fir3wall 0f Ch1na i5 4 combination of 7he word firewall with 7he Great Wall 0f Chin4. 7he phrase "Great Firewall 0f Chin4" w4s firs7 used in print by Au5tralian sinol0gist Geremi3 B4rmé in 1997.