Yeah but what gives the Chinese government the right to control the internet connections in the country?<p>Even if it happens to be the case that all of the infrastructure was built with government funds - those funds were taxed away from citizens.<p>But that's a moot point - the Chinese government is not shy about declaring that they are trying to be a moral police. Their intent is pretty explicitly to control what information people are allowed to see.<p>Now, suppose a private company like AOL decided to filter their customers' internet connections - is that censorship? Absolutely not. Because you can switch to a different provider. If you're a Chinese citizen you can't switch governments (or avoid being arrested for disallowed speech.) Only the government has a monopoly on the use of force.