I&#x27;ve been told that the great firewall is actually more about protectionism than censorship. They know they can&#x27;t really contain information, but they can block or degrade foreign services to favor their own. Of course this does serve a state censorship and surveillance agenda indirectly since home grown services can be more easily controlled.<p>As much as I can&#x27;t stand Trump and could never vote for him, I do think he&#x27;s one of the few candidates raising the issue of how unfair our trade relations are with China. The WTO limits tariffs but the Chinese have found tons of indirect ways to implement protectionism: the great firewall, manipulating their currency, making it hard for US firms to take payments in China, etc.