China blocked Google permanently. And three years later, under its new president, Xi Jinping, China took a stranglehold over the web. It codified into law criminal punishments for anyone who “damaged national unity.” It pioneered new forms of digital surveillance—facial recognition software, hacking tools, and novel spyware—aimed not only at its own people but also at the growing Chinese diaspora abroad. And it started exporting its censorship overseas. At one point it seized control of foreign traffic intended for Baidu, China’s biggest internet company, injecting code that transformed
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