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Description: This research project, "Breaking the Great Fire Wall: A Field Experiment on Western-Media Exposure in China," aims to investigate the impact of exposure to uncensored Western media on political attitudes and English language skills among Chinese citizens. **Purpose of the Research:** The core purpose of this study is to empirically evaluate whether information from abroad can penetrate an authoritarian media environment, specifically China's Great Firewall, and, if so, what effect it has on regime legitimacy and support. While classical theories predict that exposure to uncensored foreign news will erode support for authoritarian rule, empirical evidence has been mixed. This experiment seeks to address this gap by providing direct, exogenous exposure to Western media, thereby offering a clearer understanding of the causal relationship between information access and political attitudes in an authoritarian context. Additionally, the study explores a potential "co-benefit" of circumventing censorship: improved English language proficiency, given that much of the blocked content is in English. **Research Design:** The study employs a field experiment involving 1,000 Chinese university students. Participants will be randomly assigned to either a treatment group (N=500) or a control group (N=500). The treatment group will receive a free, premium virtual private network (VPN) service for two months, along with weekly push notifications encouraging them to use the VPN to access Western news sources (e.g., BBC, NYT, CNN, foreign-language YouTube news channels). The control group will not receive the VPN or the push notifications. **Key Hypotheses:** The study will test several key hypotheses, broadly categorized into: 1. **VPN Usage:** The treatment group will exhibit significantly higher VPN usage rates than the control group. 2. **Western Media Exposure:** The treatment group will report significantly higher consumption of Western news media compared to the control group. 3. **Political Attitudes (Regime Support):** Exposure to Western media will lead to a decrease in the treatment group's support for the Chinese regime. This will be measured by various indicators, including pride in Chinese citizenship, perceived superiority of China's political system, trust in the government, and agreement with statements related to nationalistic narratives. 4. **English Proficiency:** Exposure to Western media will lead to an improvement in the treatment group's English language skills, as measured by a standardized English proficiency test. **Outcome Measures:** Data will be collected through a baseline survey administered before the experiment and a follow-up survey after the two-month intervention period. Key outcome measures include: * **Media Consumption Habits:** Frequency of consuming news from various Chinese (state-run, commercial, social media) and foreign sources (English news websites, foreign-language YouTube news channels). * **Trust in Media Platforms:** Self-reported trust levels for various media platforms. * **Political Attitudes:** A multi-item "Regime Support Index" assessing agreement with statements related to national pride, political system superiority, trust in government, and views on Western criticism. Feeling thermometers for China and the US will also be used to gauge affective attitudes. * **English Language Proficiency:** A standardized English proficiency test (e.g., Duolingo English Test or equivalent) administered at both baseline and follow-up. * **VPN Usage Data:** Usage logs from the VPN provider (where available and consented to) will serve as a proxy for actual exposure to Western media. **Expected Outcomes:** The expected outcomes include: * **Empirical Evidence on Censorship Evasion:** Demonstrating the effectiveness of VPNs in circumventing censorship and facilitating access to otherwise blocked information. * **Causal Impact on Political Attitudes:** Providing robust causal evidence on how exposure to diverse information sources, particularly Western media, influences citizens' political attitudes and support for an authoritarian government. This could offer insights into the resilience or fragility of information control. * **Understanding "Co-benefits":** Quantifying the potential indirect benefits, such as improved English language skills, that may arise from engaging with foreign media. * **Informing Policy and Theory:** The findings will contribute to the theoretical understanding of authoritarian information control and media effects, and may inform policy discussions regarding digital freedoms and information access globally. * **Generalizability:** While focused on China, the findings may offer insights into the dynamics of information control and citizen responses in other authoritarian or semi-authoritarian contexts. This research aims to significantly advance our understanding of how individuals navigate and are affected by information environments shaped by state censorship.