The father of the Great Firewall of China (GFW) has signed up to six virtual private networks (VPNs) that he uses to access some of the websites he had originally helped block.
GFW之父方滨兴自称注册了6个vpn，用来访问那些被他原本已屏蔽掉的网站。
"I have six VPNs on my home computer," says Fang Binxing, 50, president of the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications. "But I only try them to test which side wins: the GFW or the VPN.
"I'm not interested in reading messy information like some of that anti-government stuff."
“我对那些像反ZF的众多言论不感兴趣。”
There's a popular joke circulating the Chinese mainland about Mark Zuckerberg's surprise visit to Beijing around Christmas last year: The frustrated Facebook president is said to have pleaded with local Chinese entrepreneurs to show him how to beat the Great Firewall.
"Ever since I landed here in China I can't log onto my Facebook account!" he tells them.
“自从我一落地，我就不能登陆我FB帐号！”扎克伯格这样说。
The joke might not be real, but the Great Firewall of China is very much alive, blocking the world's most popular websites including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and WikiLeaks.
Fang shut down his microblog account after a few days and has kept mum about the incident until now.
几天之后，方关闭了新浪微博的账户，而且他对此事一直保持沉默。
"I regard the dirty abuse as a sacrifice for my country," Fang says. "They can't get what they want so they need to blame someone emotionally: like if you fail to get a US visa and you slag off the US visa official afterwards."
This massive accumulation of sarcastic and ugly abuse of Fang all stemmed from his role in creating a technology that filters controversial keywords and blocks access to websites deemed sensitive.
Fang refuses to reveal how the Great Firewall works. Crossing hands over chest, he says, "It's confidential."
方拒绝透露GFW的工作原理，他双手交叉在胸前，说“这个高度机密。”
As to the future of his creation, that's not up to him, Fang says.
谈到GFW的未来，方说，那就和我没关系了。
"My design was chosen in the end because my project was the most excellent," he says with a big, tight smile, then pauses. "The country urgently needed such a system at that time."
The year 1998 was a turning point for the development of the Internet in China, says Zhang Zhi'an, associate professor of the journalism school at Fudan University in Shanghai.
上海复旦大学新闻学院副教授张志南说，1998年是中国互联网发展的一个转折之年。
It was when portals Sina. com and Sohu.com first appeared and the number of Chinese mainland Web users hit 1 million. It was also when the government began paying serious attention to the Internet, he says.
"Building the Great Firewall was a natural reaction to something newborn and unknown," Zhang says.
张说，“构建GFW是对一个新生且未知事物的一种自然反应。”
Patient and rational
耐心与理性
The father of the Great Firewall doesn't avoid defending the momentous Chinese mainland decision to monitor the flow of information on the Internet.
方对监控数亿中国大陆网民互联网信息的决定并不辩解。
Such a firewall is a "common phenomenon around the world," he argues, and nor is China alone in monitoring and controlling the Internet.
这样的一个防火墙是“各个国家的一种普遍现象”，他说，“并不是只有中国来监控互联网。”
"As far as I know, about 180 countries including South Korea and the US monitor the Internet as well."
“据我所知，包括南韩和美国在内的约180个国家，都在监控互联网。”
He avoids all discussion of the relative quantity and qualities of overseas censorship when compared to his own unique creation.
但当把其他国家防火墙和他的独一无二的GFW就审查的相对数量和质量讨论时，他避而不谈。
Some foreign countries - even developed countries - ban access to websites when content violates their laws, such as neo-Nazi information blocked by Germany.
Social networking tools are reportedly not just designed to entertain. Asked what would happen next after political upheavals rocked Tunisia and Egypt, Wael Ghonim, one of the individuals responsible for toppling the Mubarak regime replied, "Ask Facebook."
Fully aware of the political influence of the Internet, the US has stepped up its efforts to research online penetration tools and exert pressure on foreign governments such as China.
对互联网的政治影响完全了解之后，美国加大努力研究互联网在线渗透工具以及向外国政府施压，比如中国。
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a speech on Tuesday that the US administration would spend $25 million this year helping online users get around such curbs as the Great Firewall of China to achieve "absolute freedom" of Internet information flow.
Asked to comment on Clinton's speech earlier this week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Zhaoxu Thursday repeated previous statements that online users in China enjoy freedom of speech "in accordance with the law."
"China objects to any country's interference with China's internal affairs under the banner of Internet freedom."
“中国反对任何一个国家打着互联网自由的旗号来干涉中国内政。”
Everlasting war
永久的战争
Fudan University professor Zhang Zhian notes that during the last decade, China's Internet freedom has developed a lot in terms of Web user awareness and freedom of speech.
"The change has been huge," he says. "China's Internet is still in the process of development.
“这种变化是巨大的，”他说，“当然中国互联网仍在发展过程之中。”
"We'll listen to foreign countries' opinions on the development of China's Internet, but we should have our own timetable.
“我们会倾听其他国家对中国互联网发展的意见，但是我们也要要自己的时间表。”
"The process takes time and we should be patient and rational."
“这个过程需要时间，而且我们需要耐心和理性。”
Fang concedes his Great Firewall doesn't do a great job of distinguishing between good and evil information. If a website contains sensitive words, the firewall often simply blocks everything "due to the limitations of the technology," he says, expecting it would become more sophisticated in the future.
"The firewall monitors them and blocks them all," he says. "It's like when passengers aren't allowed to take water aboard an airplane because our security gates aren't good enough to differentiate between water and nitroglycerin."
Before he speaks, the GFW's father always pauses a few seconds and then when he talks, adopts a measured tone and a considered pace.
每次当他发言之前，他总是先停顿几秒，来调整他的语调和语速。
Calls for a more open information flow represent a soft power threat to China from foreign forces, Fang asserts.
方声称，需要更多开放的信息流代表外国势力一种软实力对中国的威胁。
"Some countries hope North Korea will open up its Internet," he says. "But if it really did so, other countries would get the upper hand."
“一些国家希望北韩开放其互联网，但是如果他们真的那样做了，其他国家就会占尽上风。”
When US President Barack Obama visited Shanghai, he talked about the importance of a more open Internet with Chinese students.
当美国总统奥巴马访问上海的时候，他谈到对中国学生来说，有更个开放的互联网的重要性。
Some analysts perceive freedom of speech as expanding on the Chinese mainland in recent years via the Internet, while others argue that the Great Firewall is as belligerent as ever.
有些分析人士认为通过互联网，中国大陆的言论自由日益开放，而也有人声称GFW过滤一如既往的严厉。
With more than 450 million Internet users, China now has the largest national online population in the world.
中国现有超过4.5亿的网民，成为世界上网民人口最多的国家。
It's an everlasting war between the GFW and VPNs, Fang says.
方声称，GFW和vpn之间的战争是场永久战。
"So far, the GFW is lagging behind and still needs improvement," he says.
他说，“到目前为止，GFW处于劣势，仍需要进一步的提升。”
The situation is better described as traffic control, Fang says.
拿交通管制来形容这个比较恰当。
"Drivers just obey the rules and so citizens should just play with what they have."
