News Analysis
Former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin recently passed away, leaving behind a legacy that includes ushering China into a modern surveillance state.
“Jiang took critical steps in the early days of the internet in China to build the system today known as the Great Firewall, cutting off Chinese users from the rest of the world,” Sarah Cook, research director for China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan at Freedom House, wrote on Twitter after China’s state-run media announced Jiang’s death on Nov. 30.
China gained access to the internet in 1994, at the time when Jiang was the communist regime’s top leader as the general secretary of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Jiang would eventually hold the position until November 2002….