Leaked files show a Chinese company is exporting the Great Firewall’s censorship technology - The Globe and Mail 9/18/25, 10:43 AM Chinese President Xi Jinping appears on a screen on the streets of Kashgar, in Xinjiang region, in 2019. Xinjiang, where internet controls are especially intense, is one of at least three regions where Geedge works with government agencies. GREG BAKER/GETTY IMAGES It has ambitions to go further. In a speech last year, Geedge co-founder Fang Binxing – known in China as the “father of the Great Firewall” – said the company was “expanding into international markets, promoting Chinese solutions and technologies globally.” Mr. Fang, who has previously advised other countries – most notably Russia – on their own online controls, referenced the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a key priority of Chinese leader Xi Jinping that involves building infrastructure and energy networks connecting Asia with Africa and Europe. A recent job ad posted by Geedge also mentioned the BRI. That ad sought candidates “able to speak English or another foreign language,” and willing to go on three- to six-month business trips to “Pakistan, Malaysia, Bahrain, Algeria, and India.” Michael Caster, a researcher at Article 19, a British-based human-rights organization, compared Geedge to other Chinese technology companies involved in the “Digital Silk Road,” a BRI project which Article 19 has described as a “platform for advancing China’s model of digital authoritarianism.” “It’s about normative and narrative change,” Mr. Caster said, noting that the concept of “cyber sovereignty,” developed in part by Mr. Fang, has “gained traction in autocratic states, and we’re unfortunately seeing similar language in democratic countries too.” “States are setting up centralized national gateways that control the flow of data in and out of the country,” he said. “This fuels internet fragmentation and strikes at the core principles of a free, open and interoperable internet.” Filtering and blocking online traffic is relatively simple, and companies – including many Western tech firms – have been providing technology to authoritarian regimes to do so for decades. A key capability provided by Geedge’s suite of products is the ability to block the means of circumventing such controls, from VPNs to specialized tools such as Tor, software most widely used for accessing the https://www.theglobeandmail.com/world/article-leaked-files-show-a…de&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer Page 5 of 9