A rights group yesterday slammed new restrictions in China on Internet use that require those wanting to set up a Web site to meet regulators and provide identification.
China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued the new guidelines to local authorities on Feb. 8, state media reported on Tuesday. Individuals wanting to set up a Web site will have to submit identity cards and photos of themselves, as well as meet regulators, before their domain name can be registered, the reports said. It was not immediately clear if the new restrictions were now in use.
The ministry said the new rules were designed to tackle online pornography, but media rights watchdog Reporters Without Borders disagreed.
“These new regulations represent a very disturbing step backwards for the Chinese Internet,” the group said in a statement. “The pretext of combating pornography does not hold. The aim is to tighten political control and get Internet users to censor themselves by bringing them face-to-face with their censors or their agents.”
Meanwhile, Google has posted ads for dozens of positions in China, suggesting it may be rethinking its threat to leave the country over cyberattacks and online censorship. Google is seeking to hire 40 staff, including engineers, sales managers and research scientists in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, according to advertisements seen on its Web site yesterday.
In related news, Oxfam Hong Kong said yesterday it had suspended a training program in China after notices allegedly sent by Beijing to Chinese universities accused the charity of having “ulterior motives.”
The notice, attributed to the Ministry of Education, said the group was trying to “infiltrate China” and asked students not to join the program. Oxfam said it was “mystified” and had contacted the ministry for clarification.
The ministry said it would look into the matter, but did not say whether it was the author of the notice, said Howard Liu, director of Oxfam Hong Kong’s China Unit.
The program, started in 2005, trained about 10 Chinese university students each year in the area of development work.
MILITARY BOOST: The procurement was planned after Washington recommended that Taiwan increase its stock of air defense missiles, a defense official said yesterday Taiwan is planning to order an additional four PAC-3 MSE systems and up to 500 missiles in response to an increasing number of missile sites on China’s east coast, a defense official said yesterday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said that the proposed order would be placed using the defense procurement special budget, adding that about NT$1 trillion (US$32,88 billion) has been allocated for the budget. The proposed acquisition would include launchers, missiles, and a lower tier air and missile defense radar system, they said The procurement was planned after the US military recommended that Taiwan increase
POLITICAL AGENDA: Beijing’s cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival events are part of a ‘cultural united front’ aimed at promoting unification with Taiwan, academics said Local authorities in China have been inviting Taiwanese to participate in cross-strait Mid-Autumn Festival celebrations centered around ideals of “family and nation,” a move Taiwanese academics said politicizes the holiday to promote the idea of “one family” across the Taiwan Strait. Sources said that China’s Fujian Provincial Government is organizing about 20 cross-strait-themed events in cities including Quanzhou, Nanping, Sanming and Zhangzhou. In Zhangzhou, a festival scheduled for Wednesday is to showcase Minnan-language songs and budaixi (布袋戲) glove puppetry to highlight cultural similarities between Taiwan and the region. Elsewhere, Jiangsu Province is hosting more than 10 similar celebrations in Taizhou, Changzhou, Suzhou,
TWO HEAVYWEIGHTS: Trump and Xi respect each other, are in a unique position to do something great, and they want to do that together, the US envoy to China said The administration of US President Donald Trump has told Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) “we don’t want any coercion, but we want [the Taiwan dispute] resolved peacefully,” US ambassador to China David Perdue said in a TV interview on Thursday. Trump “has said very clearly, we are not changing the ‘one China’ policy, we are going to adhere to the Taiwan Relations Act, the three communiques and the ‘six assurances’ that were done under [former US president Ronald] Reagan,” Perdue told Joe Kernen, cohost of CNBC’s Squawk Box. The act, the Three Joint Communiques and the “six assurances” are guidelines for Washington
DEEPENING TIES: The two are boosting cooperation in response to China’s coercive actions and have signed MOUs on search-and-rescue and anti-smuggling efforts Taiwan and Japan are moving to normalize joint coast guard training and considering the inclusion of other allies, the Japanese Yomiuri Shimbun reported yesterday. Both nations’ coast guards in June sent vessels to the seas south of the Sakishima Islands to conduct joint training, the report said, adding that it was the second joint maritime training exercise since the nations severed formal diplomatic ties in September 1972. Japan dispatched the Nagoya Coast Guard’s Mizuho, a 134m, 6,000-tonne patrol vessel which can carry a helicopter, while the Coast Guard Administration (CGA) sent the 126m, 4,000-tonne Yunlin, one of its largest vessels, the report
RSS