Through the course of Xi Jinping’s presidency, China has been working to shape an alternative version of the internet – one in which the party state asserts its cyber sovereignty through an extensive censorship apparatus. Many foreign news sources are blocked at the border, and sensitive topics are censored. At a time when open societies are grappling with how to manage the downsides of a free internet such as hate speech and extremist material, other nations are embracing China’s restrictive practices.

Hong Kong-based CNN International technology reporter and author of The Great Firewall of China James Griffiths, New York Times reporter Vicky Xiuzhong Xu, Lowy Institute Research Fellow and former Beijing-based diplomat Natasha Kassam, had a discussion with Lowy Institute Research Fellow Kelsey Munro, to explore the history, politics and reality of online censorship in China, and the consequences of an authoritarian internet for the rest of the world.