China.com recently reported that Zhang Chunxian, who is the Secretary of the Communist Party in Xinjiang Province, declared that technologies like breaking the Chinese Internet Firewall (also known as the Great Firewall) contribute to an increase in the number of violent terrorist attacks. Zhang, whose rank is higher than the Governor of the Province, is the chief ruler of this troubled Province that has had serious conflicts among its ethnic groups. He was making these comments in response to a question from the press asking for his opinion on the recent violent killing of 29 residents of the City of Kunming, Yunnan Province. Zhang’s comments triggered a large wave of criticism on the Chinese Internet, where millions of netizens use various tools to bypass the “Great Firewall” in order to reach international websites that the Chinese government blocks. His opinion was widely viewed as a typical evil position against freedom of speech. Per government orders, most of the websites that reported Zhang’s comments subsequently removed this news.
Source: China.com, March 6, 2014
http://news.china.com/zh_cn/focus/km31/11152138/20140306/18379374.html
http://politics.caijing.com.cn/2014-03-07/113986657.html