In June, we revisit China’s increasing restrictions on VPNs to examine how suppressing access to information leads to historical amnesia. While the Great Firewall has been met with admirable resistance from within China over the years, recent analysis shows circumvention has been lower than many advocates hoped. As a result, information from the outside world has struggled to gain traction. For example, the collective efforts of the June Fourth protests have been successfully obscured for many young Chinese, who were surprised to learn the scale of the nationwide movement when a video on the topic went viral last month.
HRIC Digital Rights Report: June 2026
In June, we revisit China’s increasing restrictions on VPNs to examine how suppressing access to information leads to historical amnesia. While the Great Firewall has been met with admirable resistance from within China over the years, recent analysis shows circumvention has been lower than many advocates hoped. As a result, information from the outside world has struggled to gain traction. For example, the collective efforts of the June Fourth protests have been successfully obscured for many young Chinese, who were surprised to learn the scale of the nationwide movement when a video on the topic went viral last month.