spicy take regarding chinas firewall: by forcing citizens to use their own countries apps(baidu instead of google, weibo instead of Amazon, wechat instead of like everything), they’ve prevented the export of value/money/data to other countries, and instead kept it for its own citizens.
the trade off essentially is freedom vs money now is the firewall net positive or net negative for Chinese people? now that’s an interesting debate question we can explore on @unlonely
a lot of countries tried putting up economic walls to safeguard their own companies over the last century. it usually made the companies weaker because they weren't exposed to the right stressors, and they struggled to break out globally. it makes winning the local game easier, but the global game harder
Do you or your family and friends feel freedom-constrained by the firewall, or is everything good?
“And instead kept it for its own citizens” wut
They’ve also allowed the freeloading of Chinese tech publishing companies like Tencent lol