Rep. John Moolenaar, Chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), has called for President Xi Jinping to dismantle the Great Firewall in China. In an opinion piece for Newsweek published on July 22, Moolenaar described the firewall as a "dystopian censorship regime" that enables the CCP to exert control over Chinese society.
"He [President Xi] can be true to his word by tearing down the Chinese Communist Party's (CCP) Great Firewall," said John Moolenaar, Chairman of House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party. "The Great Firewall is a dystopian censorship regime designed to advance near-total societal control over the Chinese people. With an army of censors boosted by artificial intelligence and the assistance of cutting-edge technology, it monitors all information and expression within China, enabling the CCP to rapidly stamp out unapproved speech, while referring violations to the police."
According to Moolenaar, the Great Firewall is a system established by the CCP to restrict Chinese citizens from accessing external information. Social media platforms such as X, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram are blocked within China. The Chinese populace is "fed propaganda" due to this firewall. Moolenaar stated that the CCP allocates more resources to controlling societal information than it does to its military.
Dr. Zach Cooper, Senior Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, testified before the House Select Committee on the CCP during a hearing titled "The Great Firewall and the CCP’s Export of its Techno-Authoritarian Surveillance State," held on Tuesday, July 23. According to a press release, Cooper said that the Great Firewall represents a "roadblock for U.S.-China relations" and extends beyond merely controlling Chinese citizens. He added that China's "techno-authoritarian" threat is spreading globally: "These tools and techniques will be adopted by autocrats from Russia to Iran to Venezuela and beyond." Cooper noted that the CCP's surveillance and censorship tactics include releasing alternate versions of current events or realities to distort messages.
Moolenaar indicated in his Newsweek opinion piece that companies like Huawei, Hikvision, and ZTE are purchasing surveillance tools from the CCP. He suggested that authoritarian governments such as Venezuela might be interested in employing similar methods of censorship and control.
Rep. John Moolenaar serves as Chairman of the House Select Committee on the CCP and is a U.S. Representative from Michigan's 2nd Congressional District.
