Why China's Great Firewall Should Be Dismantled According to Wang Wen

"A majority of Chinese citizens has developed basic immunity against the infiltration of Western ideologies."

Today’s edition opens with an introduction by Tuvia Gering, a non-resident fellow at the INSS Israel-China Policy Center and the Atlantic Council's Global China Hub. He is also the author of the excellent Discourse Power newsletter. — Thomas

The 2008 Beijing Olympics were billed as China's grand debut on the global stage, a demonstration of its new-found prosperity and power. However, as Beijing basked in the global spotlight, the cracks underneath the polished façade were showing. Human rights abuses, environmental degradation, media censorship, and the treatment of minorities, particularly in Tibet, became focal points of global criticism. The grand spectacle intended to project soft power instead showcased significant challenges China faced in gaining the world's trust and respect.

This controversy gave rise to a a historiographic framework known as "The Three Afflictions" (三挨), that links China's past struggles to successive generations of CCP leadership. Mao Zedong confronted the f…