The Golden Shield Project as a measure to counter cybercrime in the People's Republic of China
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The article examines the main measure to counter cybercrime in the People's Republic of China - the Golden Shield project. The relevance of such a study is due to the popularization among young people of social networks, messengers, video hosting services developed by foreign countries and banned in the territory of the state in question. The authors have identified and analyzed the stages of development of the Golden Shield project, the basic principles and features of its functioning, as well as existing shortcomings. The study conducted by the authors allows us to conclude that the use of VPN applications is unacceptable and should be stopped in a timely manner by the Great Chinese firewall, the state should pursue an active social policy aimed at explaining to inexperienced users the existing risks and threats from gaining access to prohibited content, as well as at forming among its citizens the belief that the project The Golden Shield is not aimed at restricting their freedom on the Internet, and it is only an effective tool for combating cybercrime and ensuring an adequate level of security in cyberspace.
Keywords: Great Chinese Firewall, VPN applications, censorship, access control, Transmission control Protocol.
According to official statistics, by the end of 2014, the number of World Wide Web users in the People's Republic of China reached 649 million people, and the number of mobile Internet users reached 557 million. Not only does this indicator continue to grow steadily, but also the frequency of illegal acts in cyberspace <1>.
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<1> Kim S.H., Wang C.H., Johannes B.U. Comparative study of cyber attacks // Communications of the ACM. 2012. Vol. 55. Issue 3. p. 69.
There is no single concept of cybercrime in the legislation of the People's Republic of China, however, from the very beginning the illegal act in question was referred to as "jisuanji fanzui" ("computer crime") or "wangluo fanzui" ("network crime"); the latter term is used more often.
In accordance with the provisions of the Criminal Law of the People's Republic of China in 1997, computer crimes should be understood as "illegal acts in which computer information systems act as an object of criminal encroachment" <2>. However, Amendment IX of 2015 expanded the definition of "computer crime" and the list of sanctions provided for the commission of this illegal act.
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<2> Permanent Mission of the People's Republic of China to the United Nations and Other International Organizations in Vienna // Official website. Vienna.
Thus, cybercrimes began to include "failure by network service providers to fulfill their obligations to ensure network security, intentionally providing technical or material support to online criminals, using the Internet to train and promote illegal behavior, etc." <3>.
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<3> China's leader in online legal research: website. China.
The Internet appeared in China in 1994, and with it came Western views and ideology, which the Chinese authorities were reluctant to accept. The State has made efforts to create a giant intranet, or Chinanet, under Government control, while prohibiting any use of the global Internet in order to ensure and maintain State security, but this initiative has not been implemented in practice. Instead, in 1996, the Golden Shield Project or Golden Shield Project was launched in the People's Republic of China; its practical implementation took place only in 2008. <4> Foreign media dubbed it the "Great Chinese Firewall", thereby confirming the scale of the project of the Chinese authorities.
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<4> Yakun Liu, Dingkai Yang. Security analysis of VPN services // Journal of the Beijing University of Mail and Telecommunications. 2003. Vol. 26. p. 140.
According to the statements of the Government of the People's Republic of China, the Golden Shield is a "nationwide barrier that filters and controls information flows" <5>, and its purpose is mainly to evaluate information for its relevance to reality, as well as to prevent prohibited content coming from abroad from reaching the user in order to protect society from its harmful influences. After 25 years, the "Great Chinese Firewall" has turned into a highly efficient, secure and carefully controlled system. Instagram Facebook <6>, WhatsApp <7>, Instagram <8>, YouTube, Twitter <9>, and others are blocked in the country. In addition, users located in China cannot access pro-terrorist websites <10>.
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<5> Navarria, China: The Party, the Internet and power as a common weakness // Global changes, peace and security. 2016. Vol. 29. p. 13.
<6> Based on the decision of the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow No. 02-2473/2022, the activities of the American multinational holding company Meta 140 Platforms Inc., as well as its platforms, are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation. The American multinational holding company Meta Platforms Inc. itself is recognized as extremist..
<7> In the same place.
<8> In the same place.
<9> Access to Twitter is restricted on the territory of the Russian Federation on the basis of Article 15.3 of Federal Law No. 149-FZ of July 27, 2006 "On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection".
Satoro M. China 2.0: Illusions and promises hiding behind the "Great Chinese Firewall" // Business and Economics. 2020. p. 113.
Not only the Government of the People's Republic of China, but also local residents, for the most part, believe that the "Golden Shield" prevents the destabilization of the situation in the country both online and offline, but at the same time, the security system in question causes a lot of trouble to Chinese residents who are forced to communicate with people outside the territory government, for business, academic and personal purposes. To overcome this obstacle, interested parties are forced to use VPN applications (Virtual Private Network) that hide their true location and encrypt traffic. The authorized bodies are actively fighting against developers and users of these applications, since their use is associated with some risks: they do not provide security, but create a risk of leakage of user data or even "drain" user traffic to third parties <11>.
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<11> VPN services are banned, and there are only a few hundred such applications left in the App Store in China.
The process of implementing the Golden Shield project can be divided into several stages. The first generation of the "Great Firewall" (from 1998 to 2006) was equipped with an internal filter that blocked certain domains and IP addresses of servers. A multi-level monitoring system has been implemented to track the activity of Internet users. For example, owners of Internet cafes popular at that time were required to install software provided and/or approved by the local police. These systems monitored the traffic of all computer devices hosted in the Internet cafe, including the screens of each individual user. Visitors to these entertainment venues were required to present identification cards before they could access the Internet or a digital device. This requirement was due to the fact that in case of any violations on the part of the user, the owners of the Internet cafe were obliged to report it to the local police department. The anonymity of users and their publications on various web forums is also prohibited by Internet service providers and developers of popular applications. Users are required to use only their personal data during registration; the use of nicknames, pseudonyms, etc. is not allowed.
The second stage of the Golden Shield project is characterized by updating the keyword filtering system to detect the content of websites visited by network users, even if the Internet connection is through a proxy server. If any "confidential content" is transmitted along with the network connection, the Transmission Control Protocol is reset automatically. Such content may include some phrases indicating political dissent, such as "officials", "illegal detention", "declaration of anti-communist" <12> and others. It is important to note that as soon as a user visits the requested site, the monitoring system scans the entire web page for content and the absence of prohibited content. As practice shows, users may not have access to the site for several minutes or even hours.
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<12> Mulvenon J., Chase M. Overcoming the "Great Chinese Firewall" // Journal of Electronic Government. 2005. Vol. 2. p. 74.
The third stage of the development of the Golden Shield was aimed at detecting and identifying weaknesses of VPN applications and other tools to circumvent government policy in the field of user network activity. The developers managed to discover some distinctive features of frequently used VPN application protocols, such as IPsec, L2TP/IPsec, and PPTP <13>. When processing an encrypted connection, such a VPN protocol leaves a special trace, which can later be detected by the Great Chinese firewall.
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<13> Zhipeng H. VPN services: a find or a trap? Comparative study of virtual Private Networks (VPNs) MPLS, IPsec and SSL // The Second International Conference on Calculation and Communication Methodology (ICCMC). 2018. p. 512.
In addition to the constant updating of the technologies underlying the Golden Shield, Beijing has adopted a number of laws criminalizing the activities of VPN service providers; this characterizes the fourth stage of the development of this project. The first rules governing online content were fixed in the Temporary Provisions on the Management of International Networks of Computer Information Networks of 1996 (the Temporary Provisions on Management of International Networking of Computer Information Networks of 1996) <14>; subsequently, these rules were amended and supplemented in 1998 and 2000. The provisions enshrined in the above-mentioned normative legal act established the need to obtain a license to provide information services and register them with the relevant authorities. In addition, Internet service providers assumed obligations to track and store data about the time spent by users on the network, their account numbers, IP addresses and remote access numbers.
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<14> Promulgated by Decree of the State Council No. 195 of February 1, 1996, as amended on May 20, 1997 - Author's note.
The People's Republic of China is not the only country in the world that has imposed censorship in its cyberspace. In addition to China, there are more than 20 countries that monitor and censor the online activity of users located on their territory, as well as relevant content <15>. Some countries impose temporary censorship of online content during protests and demonstrations against the government or other riots that destabilize the situation in the country. As a rule, this is done in order to control the spread of news, both true and fake, causing even greater shock in society. Censorship in each country has its own characteristics depending on the national culture, traditions and values of the local population and the state as a whole. It is noteworthy that in the People's Republic of China, not only digital technologies are used to ensure censorship and filtering of so-called harmful content. For example, people (Internet watchdogs), having concluded an appropriate agreement with the Government of the People's Republic of China, also monitor online content and inform the authorities about any potential violations committed by users <16>.
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<15> Chandel S. China's Golden Shield Project: A decade later, an in-depth study of the Great Chinese Firewall.
<16> In the same place.
According to the Chinese authorities, the Golden Shield is not intended to separate Chinese cyberspace from foreign cyberspace, but is mainly used to purposefully block certain foreign websites, mobile applications, etc. The society is dominated by the following opinions regarding censorship in Chinese cyberspace: firstly, it is the lack of Internet freedom in China, and secondly, indifference to restrictive measures imposed by the authorities due to lack of interest in blocked sites.
In addition, over the past few years, the Golden Shield project has had a positive impact on digital business in China. Due to the absence of any powerful competitor, Chinese companies have received unlimited resources in the digital technology market, including government support. In 2018, the frequency of use of the Baidu search engine increased 10-fold after Google left the Chinese market in 2010, refusing to store its users' data on servers controlled by the Chinese Government <17>.
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<17> More than 70% of Chinese will prefer Google over Baidu if it returns.
As a result of the conducted research, the authors conclude that there are four main stages in the development of the "Great Chinese Firewall" technology. The project of the Government of the People's Republic of China is constantly being modernized and updated, and the growing importance of the Internet draws public attention to the security of cyberspace and digital data. The Golden Shield plays a vital role in protecting national information security, but some users, while in the territory of the People's Republic of China, continue to visit foreign websites. Blocking external digital resources and data is proving extremely useful for the rapid development of local Internet companies, while Western countries continue to consider this approach of the Chinese authorities as evidence of the lack of Internet freedom in this state.
The authors note that the authorized bodies and officials of the People's Republic of China need to further improve the technology of the Golden Shield project in order to timely and more effectively prevent the penetration of illegal users into the internal networks of the People's Republic of China.
Instagram Facebook and social media products of Meta Platforms Inc. are prohibited on the territory of the Russian Federation on the grounds of extremist activity.