Date: October 10, 1999
Outlet: Newsweek
Author: Melinda Liu
Original title: “The Great Firewall Of China”
Original source: Newsweek
Archive summary
This historical source documents an early stage of Internet censorship and political control in mainland China. Newsweek described the emerging system of computer blocks and filters as the “great firewall of China” and reported on the effort by overseas democracy advocates to circumvent it.
The article profiled Shengde Lian, whose first name Newsweek rendered as “Hengde Lian.” It described him as a Tiananmen-era dissident living in Virginia who helped publish and distribute the Chinese-language electronic publication VIP Reference. Newsweek reported that the publication was sent to more than 250,000 email addresses in mainland China and that its operators changed U.S. sending addresses to evade blocking.
Newsweek quoted Lian describing the contest over Internet access: “This is like a war… The Internet is the front line.”
The report also discussed the prosecution of Lin Hai, who had supplied Chinese email addresses later used by VIP Reference, and the broader use of Internet controls against political dissidents, the China Democracy Party, Falun Gong and other politically sensitive activity.
Why this source matters
The article is an important contemporaneous record of the early Great Firewall period because it connects technical censorship with criminal penalties and identifies how overseas activists were attempting to deliver uncensored information directly into mainland China. It provides a historical baseline for comparing later systems of online censorship, surveillance, identity control and enforcement.
Shengde Lian / 连胜德 profile · Lian Shengde Media Archive · Great Firewall & Internet Persecution in Mainland China
Evidence note: This archive page summarizes and cites the original Newsweek report. It does not reproduce the article in full. Quotations are limited and preserved for historical and evidentiary context.