Internet censorship in China - the role of technology

Today's FT provides a good read about the technology behind China's ability to censor the internet and to stop over a billion Chinese from reading this blog, who would undoubtedly do so if only it were not censored, thus depriving China of access to my meaningless ramblings.

The result of the censorship:

The result is that the vast majority of China's 162m internet users are unlikely to be exposed to anything the state might consider politically dangerous.

Follow the link for the full article and its excellent analysis.

China learns to click carefully [FT]

Ever since the internet arrived in China in the mid-1990s, many have assumed that it poses an unanswerable threat to the sprawling system of political censorship that helps underpin the ruling Communist party's power.

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Internet Censoring in China - the grip tightens

You would have thought that as China grows and its exposure to the West increases that the government would loosen its grip a little on internet censorship.

This blog was started originally to be an aid for Chinese students looking to study undergraduate and postgraduate Economics and to provide impartial advice on what to look for in a school.

Given we have been censored pretty much from the start (due to being part of the larger google family of blogspotters) this has been a pretty much wasted exercise (publishing articles on environmental degradation and corruption probably does not help).

However, from today's news we read that China is employing more and more officials and improved technologies to ensure even stricter censoring of the internet in China.

One day perhaps Chinese students will be able to get good advice on where to study, all for free with no strings to the benefit of China in the long run. Until then we will continue to plough a lonely furrow.

Censor's grip tightening on Internet in China [I4U news]

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Internet censors in China are becoming more systematic and sophisticated in how they monitor the Web and eradicate content deemed sensitive, according to a Chinese technician working for an Internet firm.

In a report published on Wednesday by Reporters Without Borders and the group China Human Rights Defenders, the unnamed author details the secret workings of a censorship machine that spans the information ministry, the State Council, or cabinet, the Communist Party's propaganda department and the police.

"Prior to 2005, the Beijing authorities had not really organized an Internet control system," the report said.

Now it keeps close tabs on online public opinion, reporting daily and weekly to senior leaders, and employs various targeted tactics to keep Web sites in line in the world's second largest Internet market, with over 162 million Web users.

Many Web sites receive as many as five messages a day from supervisory bodies instructing them how to handle sensitive issues or ordering to reject, or pull down, certain content.

And the means through which the censors monitor and communicate with the Web sites have multiplied to include weekly meetings, e-mails, online instant messages through a handful of programs and even SMS text messages, the report said.

After a newspaper reported in 2006 that the Taiwanese electronics firm Foxconn, which makes iPods, mistreated workers, some Web sites received SMS messages saying: "Do not disseminate reports about the Foxconn case so that it is not exploited by those who want independence to advance their cause."

Some 400-500 "sensitive" or "taboo" words are banned, and Web sites self-censor these words to avoid fines, it said.

This year, the Beijing Internet information bureau made directives sharper, dividing them into three types, the first to be executed within five minutes, the second within 10, and the third within a half hour, the report said.

Violators face penalties.

In May, two popular Web sites -- Sohu and Bokee -- were fined for ignoring a directive not to run reports from sources other than the official Xinhua news agency regarding the death of Huang Ju, a senior leader.

In late 2006, Netease , one of China's top Web sites, imitated a South Korean site conducting a poll that asked readers if they were reborn, would they want to be Chinese again?

Of the 10,000 who responded, 64 percent said no, for various reasons. Netease had to fire the editor of its culture section and shut down the debate section, the report said.

For further control, the State Council Information Office organizes propaganda courses "to encourage better censorship and self-censorship practices," as has the municipal information office in Beijing, where most of China's biggest Web portals are based, the report said.

Executives and editors at online firms have also been sent on junkets to Communist heritage sites once a year since 2004 and forced to publish articles about them in what the author called another kind of ideological control.

"With less than a year to go to the Beijing Olympic Games, this report lifts the veil on appalling practices in China that make it one of the World Wide Web's most repressive countries," the introduction to the report said.

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China Economics Blog Blocked in China

It was rather a shame yesterday to discover that "China Economics Blog" has been blocked in China.

The aim of this blog is to report on economics issues and to actively help Chinese students considering further education in the UK (by means of supplying links to University rankings, MSc Economics courses, British Council etc.)

Whilst we acknowledge that we may cover subjects that are politically sensitive such as corruption and environment degradation we aim to report the economics and not the politics in which we aim to maintain a neutral position.

This website seems to be the place to test whether your site has been blocked or not.

The Great Firewall of China

Putting in my website confirmed my initial fears. Of course there is the problem of a loss of potential readers but more importantly this censorship, by removing access to important information on students future educational choices, has a cost in the long run to the Chinese economy (a very small one granted but you can see the point) and to the individual student.

Any information on how or if such blocking is ever lifted would be useful or any other comments on those sites that have suffered a similar fate.

Although I will not say which ones, slightly less than half of my China Blog Roll are currently blocked. How did the others escape? Are google blogspot blogs more liable to be blocked (it would appear so)? Who grassed me up ;-)

This article from earlier in the month may provide some explanation:

China ramps up blog censorship

China will intensify controls of the growing numbers of bloggers using the internet to lay bare their thoughts, politics and even bodies, the country's chief censor has announced.

The director of China's General Administration of Press and Publication, Long Xinmin, said the administration was forming rules to further regulate internet publishing, including the country's legions of bloggers, the Beijing Morning Post reported on Tuesday.

"We must recognise that in an era when the internet is developing at a breakneck pace, government oversight and control measures and means are facing new tests," Long told members of China's national parliament on Monday, the report said. Long singled out bloggers as one challenge.

Long said "citizens' freedom of expression would be fully protected".

But China's restless blogging population has been a headache for the ruling Communist Party, which has sought to extend long-standing censorship to the country's fast-growing internet.

By last September, the number of blog sites in China reached 34 million, a 30-fold increase from four years before.

Chinese bloggers have detailed their political views, hobbies and grudges. One famed pioneer, Mu Zimei, a young journalist, attracted a storm of publicity in 2003 by chronicling -- names and all -- her complicated love life. Another blogger, calling herself Liu Mangyan, published nude photos of herself.

More sober-minded bloggers publish combative investigative journalism and punditry on current affairs.

The press and publishing administration and other authorities would be casting new rules to cover internet "publishing activities", Long said.

"The publishing administration authorities have been paying attention to this new mode of Internet dissemination," Long said.

China does not lack rules controlling the Internet; an army of competing agencies often issue regulations.

Last year, China's Ministry of Information Industry issued rules on Internet news content that analysts said was aimed at extending regulations governing licensed news outlets to blogs and Internet-only news sites.

Reuters

UPDATE: It appears that China has blocked all "blogger" sites and that now we are back up and running in China. It is good to see sense prevail. I assume this means that google have been on a charm offensive.