Word.ws English Dictionary

Great Firewall of China

Great Firewall of China proper noun: internet censorship by the government of the People's Republic of China.

Proper noun

the Great Firewall of China

  1. (derogatory) Internet censorship by the government of the People's Republic of China.
    • Behind this hypothetical Great Firewall of China, most users would be allowed to exchange information with foreign sites if they were on the approved list1997, A. Michael Froomkin, “Jurisdiction in Cyberspace: The Role of Intermediaries”, in Borders in Cyberspace: Information Policy and the Global Information Infrastructure, →OCLC, page 146
    • The "Great Firewall of China" is failing, largely due to the increased volume of Internet traffic in China.2001, Greg Walton, China's Golden Shield: Corporations and the Development of Surveillance Technology in the People's Republic of China, →OCLC, page 5

Examples of Great Firewall of China in a sentence

  • The Great Firewall of China is a case of corporate collaboration in censorship.2007, Dinah PoKempner, “A Shrinking Realm: Freedom of Expression Since 9/11”, in Human Rights Watch World Report 2007, →ISBN, page 76:
  • The targets suggest the attackers are sympathetic to the vast censorship apparatus known as the Great Firewall of China.2015 March 31, Dan Goodin, “Massive denial-of-service attack on GitHub tied to Chinese government”, in Ars Technica, retrieved 01 Apr 2015:

Synonyms of Great Firewall of China

Origin of Great Firewall of China

Blend of Great Wall of China + firewall, popularized in an issue of Wired in 1997.

Questions about Great Firewall of China

What does Great Firewall of China mean?
Great Firewall of China means internet censorship by the government of the People's Republic of China.
How do you use Great Firewall of China in a sentence?
The Great Firewall of China is a case of corporate collaboration in censorship.
What part of speech is Great Firewall of China?
Great Firewall of China is a proper noun.

Words near Great Firewall of China in the dictionary

  1. Great Feasts
  2. great fee
  3. great fees
  4. Great Filter
  5. Great Firewall
  6. Great Firewall of China
  7. great flood
  8. Great Friday
  9. Great Galactic Ghoul
  10. Great Game
  11. Great Gatsby curve

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: Great Firewall of China (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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