Imagine how freedom would spread

Unrestricted internet access is a source of strength.

That country has some of the toughest internet restrictions in the world.

The government in China's tightening up on internet restriction it says

because of the number of anonymous postings that poke fun at the government.

So you think they're ultimately going to be on the right side of history the Chinese government?

I am 100%. For sure because nobody can stop this technology revolution.

It's 1987 in West Germany and a university professor has just got an email.

It contains one short sentence.

He's just received the first email from China.

But it isn't until 1994 that the internet becomes available to the public

under the presidency of Jiang Zemin.

Like many of his compatriots Jiang is deeply influenced

by the work of Alvin Toffler

an American writer whose book Future Shock predicts a super-industrial revolution

brought about by the moderation and regulation of technology.

Computers combine facts to make new knowledge

at such high speed that we cannot absorb it.

But computers are expensive and hardly anyone owns one

so the internet cafe is born.

It costs around 25 yuan or $3 for an hour.

In 1995 a former English teacher called Jack Ma heads to the U.S. on business.

While he's there he does a web search for the word beer

are no results about China.

He returns home and starts an online yellow pages.

You don't make any money, you've got extraordinary claims

and yet you make nothing.

That's the internet.

By 1999 the company Tencent releases OICQ and Jack Ma creates Alibaba.

It's the Millennium and the unveiling of the Golden Shield project

which includes a new surveillance system made up of content-filtering firewalls.

The system becomes known around the world as the Great Firewall of China.

It only takes a couple more years for China to overtake the U.S.

and have the world's most Internet users

Fast forward and it's 2012.

Xi Jinping is elected general secretary of the Communist Party

with a vision of "cyber sovereignty".

Protecting the country's internet from foreign influence.

Notable restrictions include Winnie the Pooh because of comparisons made to Xi Jingping

and the letter N.

It doesn't take long for controversial new laws which "ensure cybersecurity" to appear.

These grant the government unprecedented access to foreign companies

including their hardware and sensitive user data.

In 2018 Freedom House names China as the worst country in the world for online freedom.

But China soon starts exporting its to take on the Internet

to countries like Vietnam, Uganda and Tanzania.