One good way to build the Great Firewall of China is to build your own root and split the internet.

crazy!

This means hundreds millions of users on a controlled, censored "Chinternet", using an independent network with powerful transparent proxies in the near future. Really crazy.

What's even scarier is the precedent it sets. Who's to stop other censor-happy countries from creating national firewalls. The splintering effect could be disastrous for the future of the web.

Definitely. I remember a hard censorship effort in Myanmar back in 2000. We have just seen the UAE tendency on recent Boing Boing case. China's pioneering could encourage many more soon. This is really a hot and important subject.

That won't happen. Everything is too much interconnected already. Even China can't do it.

Never say never with China...

But here China is not the only player involved Internet is too big to be controled anymore, or even restrained. It was built for that.