Weigui Fang is research associate at the media-sinological research project ‘The Internet in China’ at the University Trier, Germany.

Recent articles

A persistent western narrative views the internet boom in China as a vehicle for the “opening of a closed society” that is hitherto shielded by an informational “Chinese Wall.” The impenetrable wall may always have been a fiction; in any case, the information explosion of Chinese cyberspace challenges stereotype and heralds the emergence of a new social force: public opinion.

Iraq is the latest battlefield in China’s war of websites. Minutes and seconds – and freedom from political censorship – are the weapons of commercial websites who these days attract staggering numbers of users as well as advertising dollars.