Architect of China’s ‘Great Firewall’ Bumps Into It
By AUSTIN RAMZY

HONG KONG — Anyone who tries to scramble over China’s “Great Firewall” knows the feeling of frustration when those attempts fail. So, too, does the man credited with developing the system, which blocks access to unapproved foreign websites.

That man, Fang Binxing, the former president of the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications and current head of a new national industry association for promoting online security, is often called the father of the Great Firewall for his role in developing the system of Internet controls in China. He has previously said that even he has to use virtual private networks, or VPNs, which allow users to gain access to the Internet as if they were in a different location.

During a presentation on digital security on Sunday at his alma mater, the Harbin Institute of Technology, Mr. Fang was forced to employ a VPN when he could not reach websites in South Korea. But the VPN repeatedly dropped out, prompting him to ad-lib some of his presentation.

The episode was relayed by a person who attended the talk and posted details on Weibo and was first reported by the newspapers Oriental Daily News and Ming Pao, both based in Hong Kong. As the story spread online, it prompted widespread mirth among Chinese Internet users who encounter such headaches on a regular basis.

A discussion after the talk was canceled, “probably out of fear someone would throw something,” the attendee wrote. Mr. Fang has faced such brickbats before. In 2011, a student threw eggs and shoes at him during a talk at Wuhan University in central China. The eggs missed, but at least one shoe hit its target.

Mr. Fang was also chased off Weibo shortly after he joined the microblog service in 2013. He wished users a happy new year and was quickly inundated with angry replies.

During his presentation in Harbin, Mr. Fang apparently tried to visit South Korean websites to discuss that country’s online censorship. He has openly backed China’s online controls, which he said in a 2011 speech were necessary to prevent “democracy advocates” from stirring chaos.

That year he told Global Times, a newspaper run by the Chinese Communist Party, that he had six VPNs, which he only used “to test which side wins: the GFW or the VPN.” And maybe to take an occasional peek at what’s over the wall in South Korea.

連不上Google…當眾「翻牆」失敗 陸防火牆之父糗上加糗

被譽為中國「防火牆之父」的中國工程院院士方濱興，日前回母校哈爾濱工業大學演講，原要以北韓為例佐證網路審查的必要性，未料網頁卻遭封鎖，就連用翻牆軟體也打不開，現場陷入一陣尷尬。

香港媒體引述大陸網民報導稱，方濱興三日返回母校哈爾濱工業大學，進行題為「定義網絡空間安全」的專題演講；當講述到網絡防火牆的必要性時，他原要以北韓為例做論證，但試圖點開北韓網站時，投影螢幕卻顯示該網址已被封鎖屏蔽。

無奈之下，方濱興只好當場改採VPN（Virtual Private Network）「翻牆」，讓講座能繼續。在場網民事後貼文披露，儘管方濱興不斷嘗試，瀏覽器仍一直顯示「頁面找不到了」，讓現場氣氛十分尷尬。

其後，方濱興又打算登陸Facebook、Google、Twitter等網站作示範，但VPN不到一分鐘就斷線兩次，讓他無法連結不到這些網站；最後只好退而求其次，在大陸的「百度」搜尋Google頁面的截圖。

中國「防火牆之父」撞到自己砌的牆、且還翻牆不成功，消息一出，立即成為大陸網民嘲諷話題；有網民即調侃說，「方校長這是做什麼呢，自己屏蔽自己翻」、「人居然可以無恥到這個地步，只許州官放火，不准百姓點燈」。

在場網民透露，校方在演講最後，直接取消了提問交流環節，「估計是怕有人會扔東西」；此外，校方還代方濱興向學生發出「溫馨提示」，要求學生不要嘗試連結方濱興席間所提過的境外網站。

方濱興今年五十五歲，哈爾濱工業大學博士，是「中國防火長城」（Great Firewall of China，GFW）主要設計者，遂成大陸網民「頭號公敵」；二○一一年，方在武漢大學演講時，就曾被學生扔鞋扔雞蛋，有趣的是，這條新聞在大陸未被封鎖。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/07/world/asia/china-internet-great-firewall-fang-binxing.html

紐約時報中文版翻譯：
http://cn.nytimes.com/china/20160407/c07chinafirewall/zh-hant/

2016-04-05．聯合報．A13．兩岸/國際．大陸新聞中心