The state already chooses what people can read or say. I live in the EU, all Russian media are banned here. I fundamentally don't disagree with banning Russian media, but it proves that this already happens, it's just that the state sees that generally western media dominate internationally and it allows us to read it.

In the context of China, if the alternatives are between banning western media and not banning it, the success of the Chinese model and its resilience against western intelligence and propaganda make it obvious to me that the firewall was the correct choice in retrospect, however unsavory it may seem from the outside.

Since you're so excited about being exposed to all media: do you personally go out of your way to watch Russian, Chinese, Cuban or Iranian media and engage with their citizens online, or does your "media freedom" de-facto result in you exclusively consuming western sources?