China is exporting the Great Firewall as internet freedom declines around the world

Speaking before an elite audience in Washington in March 2000, then US President Bill Clinton summarized much of Western thinking on the internet when he hailed a new century in which "liberty will be spread by cell phone and cable modem. "This would occur, Clinton said, despite the efforts of countries like China to fight the spread of information.
"Now there's no question China has been trying to crack down on the internet," Clinton said, his eyebrows arched as he neared the punchline. "Good luck! That's sort of like trying to nail jello to the wall."

In the decades since that speech, Clinton's jello comment has become a something of a dark joke among internet freedom advocates, as China continued to build up the Great Firewall, the world's most sophisticated system for controlling and surveilling the web.

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