China will submit blogs and search engines to "strict supervision of the government" in its latest effort to control Internet content, state media yesterday quoted a senior official as saying.
"As more and more illegal and unhealthy information spreads through the blogs and search engines, we will take effective measures to bring the BBS [bulletin board systems], blogs and search engines under control," the official Xinhua news agency quoted Cai Wu, director of government's Information Office, as saying.
Blogs, bulletin boards and searches are targeted because they are the "most active parts of China information industry," Cai said.
"The market cannot develop without efficient management," said Cai, adding that the government planned to improve its technology and develop "admittance standards" Web sites hosting blogs for China's estimated 111 million Internet users.
"We will speed up the technology development to safeguard the network management and do more research on the Internet security issues triggered by the new technologies of blogs and search engines," Minister of the Information Industry Wang Xudong was quoted as saying.
Wang said China also planned to ensure that all Web sites were officially registered and enforce a requirement for all telephone subscribers to register their real names, the agency said.
China already has some 37 million blog sites and is forecast to have some 60 million by the end of this year, it quoted a report by Beijing's Qinghua University as saying.
Major Chinese Internet search engine providers grouped together two years ago to form a "self-discipline organization" and take a stand against "pornographic and obscene Web sites," the agency said.
In May, China's leading Internet search engine, Baidu, said it had amassed more than 100,000 entries in a censored version of US-based online encyclopedia Wikipedia, which is blocked in China.
Baidu bans content in seven categories, warning users that it will delete entries that make a "malicious evaluation" of China, "attack government institutions" or "promote a negative view of life."
It employs "experts" to "ensure the quality of entries and keep the site free of advertisements and junk information," the Shanghai Daily newspaper quoted a Baidu official as saying.
China's Internet police block hundreds of Web sites that are deemed politically sensitive and try to keep content broadly in line with the ruling Communist Party's ideology.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique