Online censorship in China by certain regional governments is even more aggressive than the application of the “large firewall” at the national level by the central government, according to a recent study and local sources.
The major firewall report (GFW report) underlines how the Chinese central province of Henan adopted its own provincial firewall which is less sophisticated and robust than the central but more volatile and aggressive government, blocking much more websites than the national censorship system.
Local sources have declared to Radio Free Asia that the increased restrictions at the level of the provincial government can reflect the uncertainty on the instructions of the higher authorities, which led to an “excessive blocking” to avoid the blame for not having exercised their functions.
The GFW report is a censorship monitoring platform, mainly focused on China. During an experience, its researchers took place between December 26, 2023 and March 31, 2025, they found that the Henan firewall had blocked 4.2 million areas, about six times that of the 741,542 at the national level.
Since 2023, Henan Internet users had reported an increase in the number of websites inaccessible in the region but accessible elsewhere in China, the study revealed.
“This Localized Censorship Suggests A Departure from China's Centralized Censorship Apparus, Enabling Local Authorities to Exert a Greater Degree of Control Within Their Regions,” Researchers Mingshi Wu at Gfw, Ali Zohaib and Amir Houmansadr at University of Massachusetts Amherst, Zakir Durumeric at Stanford University, and Eric Wustrow at the University of Colorado Boulder Wrote in the GFW report published in May “A wall behind a wall: emerging regional censorship in China”.
But the phenomenon extends beyond the Henan, said inside China RFA.
The local governments of the neighboring Hebei, another Chinese central province, as well as those of Tibet and Xinjiang, have exploited censorship systems similar to that reported to the Henan for at least four years, said Zhao Yuan, network engineer based in Hebei.
“In the past, we could access websites abroad that were not blocked by the national firewall,” said Zhao. “Now, even virtual private networks (VPN) at Henan and Hubei do not work.”
While the national level firewall, known as the great firewall, targets more news and media sites, in accordance with the long-standing policy of China to censor politically sensitive information, provincial firewall systems, such as that of Henan, block the fields focused on subjects such as economy, technology and businesses, according to researchers in the GFW report.
In recent years, the Chinese Communist Party has underlined a several -strict approach to censorship, including the management of all types of propaganda at the national and international level through a framework called “territorial management” and the implementation of “digital stability maintenance”, such as the online sensitive content on dates deemed politically sensitive to the government.
“Local governments have taken the initiative to establish local blocking systems, indicating that the main leaders are increasingly vigilant about the information flow,” said Wei Sicong, a political observer based in Beijing.
“Turn off the whole world”
GFW researchers have found that the Henan firewall monitors and blocks the traffic that went out and enters the province, as opposed to the national censorship system which focuses on incoming and out of the country.
Other sources in the region have told RFA that increased restrictions on provincial government suggest a clear lack of know-how on how to enforce the instructions of the superiors.
“Officials prefer to block more and more than responsibility. So the result you see is to” deactivate the whole world “, said the engineer of the Zhang Jianan network.
GFW researchers said their analysis has not shown any regional censorship in other areas they have studied, such as Beijing, Guangdong, Shanghai and Jiangsu.
In Henan and Hebei, however, local residents told RFA that even the websites of certain foreign universities were inaccessible, as a result of which they turn to VPNs and other bypass tools to bypass censorship and government surveillance.
“Some classmates can connect to Beijing and Shanghai, but we cannot in Zhengzhou and can only count on the bypass software,” said Zhang, a student at Zhengzhou University in Henan.
The network engineer based in Hebei, Zhao, said: “Censorship becomes more strict and strict. We cannot even connect to certain websites of foreign academics.”
RFA noted that in December 2023, a university in the province of Henan sought to buy an “public opinion surveillance system”, specially intended for international students, students and dissidents, and had led an open tender process.
The University of Science and Technology of Henan had presented a 2024-2025 budget of 120,000 yuan (or US $ 16,657) for the public opinion surveillance system in order to provide 24/7 surveillance in real time, an early alert alert analysis and an information crisis response from public opinion on the whole network, the Information website covering.
When RFA contacted the university, a teacher confirmed that he used an old surveillance system and has now started a tender process for a new one.
Edited by Mat Pennington.