Draft Chinese Internet rules could further restrict access to Web sites not registered in the closely regulated country, experts said yesterday, although the measures’ potential impact remained unclear.
The regulations, released for public comment last week by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, aim to update rules for the use of “domain names,” the addresses used to navigate the Internet.
The rules are “broad and vague,” but in their strictest reading, they could be used to “censor any domain name that is not registered in China,” said Lokman Tsui (徐樂文), an expert on Internet policy at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. “Only domain names approved by the authorities are allowed, and other domain names not registered in China now would be under this new regulation de facto blocked.”
Violators could be fined up to 30,000 yuan (US$4,600).
It was not clear whether the rules would apply to Web sites hosted outside China, but accessible from within the country, or only those located on domestic servers.
However, several Chinese news outlets, including the Chinese Communist Party-linked Global Times, reported the regulations would probably affect foreign companies, including Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc, which host services on servers in China.
The regulations also stipulate that domain names cannot “endanger state security,” “leak state secrets” or “harm national honor.”
Kan Kaili (闞凱力), a professor at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, said he believed that the rules were meant to regulate companies in China providing domain registration services and that they were unlikely to affect access to foreign Web sites.
Nevertheless, “Chinese authorities are quite cautious about every aspect of the Internet,” he said, adding that they “cannot lose control over it whatsoever.”
China’s “Great Firewall,” the system used to prevent access to select foreign Web sites, such as Google and Facebook Inc, could be rendered “ineffective” without restrictions on domain name registration, he said.
The new rules are open for public comment until April 25.
In the past, controversial laws and regulations have undergone significant amendment if they generate heated criticism.
Stephen Garrett, a 27-year-old graduate student, always thought he would study in China, but first the country’s restrictive COVID-19 policies made it nearly impossible and now he has other concerns. The cost is one deterrent, but Garrett is more worried about restrictions on academic freedom and the personal risk of being stranded in China. He is not alone. Only about 700 American students are studying at Chinese universities, down from a peak of nearly 25,000 a decade ago, while there are nearly 300,000 Chinese students at US schools. Some young Americans are discouraged from investing their time in China by what they see
Taiwan Transport and Storage Corp (TTS, 台灣通運倉儲) yesterday unveiled its first electric tractor unit — manufactured by Volvo Trucks — in a ceremony in Taipei, and said the unit would soon be used to transport cement produced by Taiwan Cement Corp (TCC, 台灣水泥). Both TTS and TCC belong to TCC International Holdings Ltd (台泥國際集團). With the electric tractor unit, the Taipei-based cement firm would become the first in Taiwan to use electric vehicles to transport construction materials. TTS chairman Koo Kung-yi (辜公怡), Volvo Trucks vice president of sales and marketing Johan Selven, TCC president Roman Cheng (程耀輝) and Taikoo Motors Group
MAJOR DROP: CEO Tim Cook, who is visiting Hanoi, pledged the firm was committed to Vietnam after its smartphone shipments declined 9.6% annually in the first quarter Apple Inc yesterday said it would increase spending on suppliers in Vietnam, a key production hub, as CEO Tim Cook arrived in the country for a two-day visit. The iPhone maker announced the news in a statement on its Web site, but gave no details of how much it would spend or where the money would go. Cook is expected to meet programmers, content creators and students during his visit, online newspaper VnExpress reported. The visit comes as US President Joe Biden’s administration seeks to ramp up Vietnam’s role in the global tech supply chain to reduce the US’ dependence on China. Images on
New apartments in Taiwan’s major cities are getting smaller, while old apartments are increasingly occupied by older people, many of whom live alone, government data showed. The phenomenon has to do with sharpening unaffordable property prices and an aging population, property brokers said. Apartments with one bedroom that are two years old or older have gained a noticeable presence in the nation’s six special municipalities as well as Hsinchu county and city in the past five years, Evertrust Rehouse Co (永慶房產集團) found, citing data from the government’s real-price transaction platform. In Taipei, apartments with one bedroom accounted for 19 percent of deals last