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Censorship in the People's Republic of China is implemented or mandated by the PRC's ruling party, the Communist Party of China . The government censors content for mainly political reasons, but also to maintain its control over the populace. The Chinese government asserts that it has the legal right to control the internet's content within their territory and that their censorship rules do not infringe on the citizen's right to free speech. Since Xi Jinping became the General Secretary of the Communist Party of China in 2012, censorship has been “significantly stepped up”.The government maintains censorship over all media capable of reaching a wide audience. This includes television, print media, radio, film, theater, text messaging, instant messaging, video games, literature, and the Internet. Chinese officials have access to uncensored information via an internal document system. Reporters Without Borders ranks China's press situation as very serious, the worst ranking on their five-point scale. In August 2012, the OpenNet Initiative classified Internet censorship in China as pervasive in the political and conflict/security areas and substantial in the social and Internet tools areas, the two most extensive classifications of the five they use. Freedom House, a US backed NGO, ranks the press there as not free, the worst ranking, saying that state control over the news media in China is achieved through a complex combination of party monitoring of news content, legal restrictions on journalists, and financial incentives for self-censorship, and an increasing practice of cyber-disappearance of material written by or about activist bloggers.Other views suggest that Chinese businesses such as Baidu, Tencent and Alibaba, some of the world's largest internet enterprises, have benefited from the way China blocked international rivals from the domestic market.
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