Information/Technology - 70. page

On January 13, 2013, a group of people in Beijing held petitions in front of the office building of the Beijing News newspaper, expressing support for the editors and reporters of the newspaper who the authorities had disciplined. On January 12, dozens of people in Guangzhou gathered in front of the Southern Newspaper Group to express solidarity with the Southern Weekend and support the value of freedom of the press. On the same day, some of the residents of Suzhou City (in Jiangsu Province) arrived at the tomb of Lin Zhao, who died in the tragic persecution during the Anti-Rightist Campaign and the Cultural Revolution, showing banners in support of the Southern Weekend. These activities clearly relate to the incident of Southern Weekend’s New Year’s editorial being censored.

Li Xiaobing, a Professor and Director of the Western Pacific Institute at the University of Central Oklahoma, said that since the new Communist Party’s leadership of Xi Jinping and Li Keqiang, China has not seen real freedom of the press, but people want to have an independent media.

Source: Radio Free Asia, January 13, 2013
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/sd-01132013142859.html

According to the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, its Internet security authorities organized rounds of crackdowns on Internet related crimes in 2012 to ensure order in cyberspace.

In 2012, its Internet security department found and dealt with a total of 108 million illegal web postings, punished 1.7 million websites, and shut down 1.9 web sections that had serious problems. In addition, it cracked a total of 3,800 Internet related cases and arrested more than 4,200 suspects.

Meanwhile, the Beijing police also provided guidance for Internet users on how to resist all kinds of rumors and bad information. For example, the Beijing police sent warning messages through microblogs to 915 Internet users who committed minor offenses.

Source: Xinhua, January 6, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2013-01/06/c_114271184.htm

Xinhua reported that the Beijing municipal government is considering a new policy measure requiring real name registration for cell phone users. Once the provision is introduced, mobile phone users will be required to provide real and effective identity information when ordering a new service or transferring or changing an existing service.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s rubber stamp legislature, recently approved an Internet regulation that states that providers of the Internet and land line telephone and mobile phone services should demand that users provide their real identity. The Beijing city government’s move is in accordance with the NPC regulation.

The requirement for real name registration for cell phone users is not new. In 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice requiring real name registration for phone users. However, it was not fully implemented due to the lack of support from relevant laws and regulations. The NPC’s new regulation, Xinhua believes, will give local governments and telecomm companies a strong push to effectively implement mobile phone users real name registration.
 
Source: Xinhua, December 30, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2012-12/30/c_114207168.htm

China’s legislature has approved new rules that will tighten government control of the Internet by requiring users to register with their real names and demanding that Internet companies censor online material. The measures were approved on December 28, 2012, at the closing meeting of a five-day session of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress.

The government said that the latest regulation is aimed at protecting Web surfers’ personal information and cracking down on abuses such as junk email. The rules have the same legal effect as a law.

China’s government agencies and official media also expressed their support to strengthen regulations of websites and microblogs.

Analysts believe that the Internet has played a major role in exposing official corruption, causing some of those in power to experience “web-phobia.” This is an important reason behind the renewed campaign to control the Internet. Recently, Chinese Internet users, through web searches and web postings, have broken the news about a large number of corruption suspects among Chinese Communist Party officials, resulting in many officials being sacked.

Source: BBC Chinese, December 28, 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/chinese_news/2012/12/121228_china_internet_control.shtml

On September 19, 2012, the State Council’s Legislative Affairs Office issued an “Approach to the Management of Internet Publishing Services” (draft version). The formal version is supposed to replace the existing “Provisional Regulations on Management of Internet Publishing” on January 10, 2013.

The “Approach” states that the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) is the agency that oversees Internet publishing services, which is also under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

The “Approach” requires that all those providing services must obtain an Internet Publishing Services Permit. Such services include the digital publication of books, newspapers, periodicals, music and video products, and other “informative and thoughtful text, pictures, games, animation and original digital works.”

The draft version provides that the editor is responsible for the quality and legality of the contents. The “Approach” forbids contents that “oppose the fundamental principles of the Constitution,” “leak state secrets, endanger national security, or compromise national honor or interest,” “spread rumors, disrupt the social order, or sabotage social stability,” and “endanger social morality or good ethnic cultural traditions.”
 
The “Approach” forbids joint ventures or foreign operated identities from engaging in web publishing services. GAPP must approve the publication of online games authored by owners with foreign copyrights.

An annual check of web publishing identities is required. Violators of the regulation are subject to penalties including suspension of the permit, shutting down the website, or even criminal prosecution.

Source: Website of the State Council’s Legislative Affairs Office, December 19, 2012
http://www.chinalaw.gov.cn/article/cazjgg/201212/20121200379100.shtml

Chinese medai have reported that Xinhua now maintains a Twitter account in English at “@XHNews.” On Twitter, Xinhua has over 5, 000 followers. The first posting dated back to March 1, 2012. The report has received wide attention from bloggers in China. “Many Chinese netizens learned for the first time that the Communist Party’s official media maintains an official blog on the overseas social media, in addition to its official blog on China’s domestic social media. The netizens blogged that they would love to visit the official blog.” The news angered Chinese micro-bloggers as they question why they are not allowed to access Twitter but Xinhua can. 

[Editor’s Note: Twitter and Facebook are not accessible from inside China, as the Chinese authorities block them. Only by using anti-censorship software in violation of the law can people in China “climb over” the Great Wall of Internet censorship to access Twitter and Facebook.]

Source: Nanfang Daily reprinted by sina.com, December 11, 2012
http://tech.sina.com.cn/i/2012-12-11/05547874393.shtml