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Glite Dictionary
Great Firewall of China

Great Firewall of China

5.6
A government system in China that blocks websites and controls what people see online
  • proper noun
  • Literature
translation icon : Gran Cortafuegos de China
  • Journalists often face challenges when reporting on issues related to the Great Firewall of China.

Examples

  • GreatFire, a website that gathers data associated with the "Great Firewall of China," noted: "The fact that Google is blocked now is surely no coincidence."

    Blog text (31)

  • The Great Firewall of China restricts access to many foreign websites within the country.

  • The effectiveness of the Great Firewall of China in controlling online information has sparked debates among internet users.

Surface Forms

Great Firewall of China main

Morphology

great + firewall + of + China

The phrase is compositionally clear: 'great' (large/major) + 'firewall' (a system that blocks network access) + 'of China' yields the idea of China’s large system for blocking or controlling internet access, which matches the provided definition. Although it is a coined name and carries political nuance (a play on 'Great Wall'), the core meaning is directly inferable from the constituents for a learner who knows those words.

Etymology

Great Firewall of China comes from comparing a computer firewall, a program that stops unwanted internet content, to the famous Great Wall of China that once kept people out. So the phrase means the system that 'blocks' and 'controls' access to many websites inside China.