China's Fake Internet

I. America's Misjudgment

China's internet miracle was not the result of self-growth, but a misguided geopolitical investment.

From the end of the last century to the early twenty-first century, China was on the verge of systemic collapse. The shadow of the Soviet Union's dissolution hung over East Asia, and America and Europe broadly believed that as long as China opened economically, marketized, and integrated into the global system, it would "become better."

Thus, America, out of goodwill and strategic considerations, chose to support.

But China's "opening" was not truly open.

The signal it released to the outside world was a carefully orchestrated promise: we will not be like the Soviet Union, we will become rational, moderate, predictable.

America believed this promise—it thought market mechanisms would automatically create freedom, that the internet would destroy barriers, that wealth growth would bring social progress.

Thus technology, capital, orders, education, and platform standards were continuously channeled into China.

All of this formed the foundation of China's internet. It was not the victory of institutions, but the misuse of trust.

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II. The Deceptive Promise

China did not truly reform, but used external goodwill to delay its own collapse.

Dollar inflows revived the economy, exports created jobs, foreign exchange reserves alleviated the fiscal crisis.

Ordinary people's lives were temporarily stabilized, the regime could continue.

The internet's prosperity was born precisely in this illusion of stability.

The rise of BAT, TMD, and PDD did not originate from creativity, but was a secondary reaction after capital input.

Their models imitated Silicon Valley, their funding came from dollars, their growth environment was shaped by policy protection.

While accepting American resources, China quietly constructed another control system.

America gave networks, China built firewalls;

America gave capital, China built state-owned equity penetration;

America gave open standards, China transformed them into administrative blocking mechanisms.

This translation was a systematic deception: maintaining cooperation verbally, creating closure structurally.

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III. The Birth of the Intranet

China's internet ultimately did not become a tool to "connect the world," but was transformed into an intranet.

It depends on America technologically, on censorship politically, on exports economically.

This triangular relationship formed a unique shelter structure:

External dollars provided capital and fault tolerance, internal barriers provided security and monopoly.

Under this dual protection, so-called "Chinese internet talent" was manufactured.

They did not need to face global competition, did not need to bear legal risks, only needed to replicate successful models within system-allowed boundaries.

They thought themselves innovators, but were actually intermediate species under political and capital protection.

Their so-called "innovation" was merely using the free world's technology in reverse to manage their own compatriots.

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IV. The Collapse of Goodwill

When dollar flows began to slow, this illusion began to unravel.

Capital decoupling, technology sanctions, and supply chain migration caused China to lose its external life-support.

The truth of the "internet miracle" gradually emerged: it was not the result of independent development, but a product of delayed collapse through international goodwill.

Vietnam, Indonesia, and India are at similar stages.

They accept dollars, imitate the West, manufacture exports, build network platforms—repeating China's path from twenty years ago.

In the future they too will see so-called "internet company miracles,"

But that is not cultural character, but the natural result of dollar flows.

China's internet era was essentially an era of American trust.

When trust is exhausted, dollars flow back, external shelter disappears, China's internet loses meaning.

It will degenerate into an extension of the administrative system: surveillance, payment, propaganda, statistics.

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V. The Closed Endgame

China's internet never truly belonged to the open era.

Its existence is at the edge of globalization's illusion.

America thought it was saving a nation, while China used the opportunity of being saved to build new walls.

The end of this story is the collapse of global goodwill.

For the first time in the information age, humanity saw: open technology can be taken over by closed nations, free networks can be transformed into control machines.

And so-called "Chinese internet talent" are merely temporary operators in this process.

They are not those who accelerate the future, but those who maintain the illusion.

The rise and fall of China's internet is not a history of technology, but a history of trust.

It was born from deception, prospered under shelter, and will ultimately be destroyed by isolation.

When external trust completely withdraws, this intranet will reveal its true appearance:

A closed world, and a future that was already locked long ago.