China’s Internet regulator, asked about the apparent blocking of some online accounts of Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post, yesterday said that Internet service providers were responsible for online content and had the right to shut down Web sites.
The comment came in response to an enquiry about reports that the social media accounts of Hong Kong’s biggest English-language daily newspaper had been blocked and that a critical online Chinese-language Caixin magazine article had been deleted.
“The state Internet information office has enforcement responsibility, in accordance with the law, to carry out Internet information content management and supervision,” the Cyberspace Administration of China said in a faxed statement.
“Internet information service providers take on the main responsibility for any law-breaking and harmful Internet accounts that exist, and have the right in accordance with the relevant laws and rules and their user ‘service agreements’ to take measures including temporarily halting usage and cancelling registration,” it said.
The South China Morning Post has in recent weeks reported the mystery of five Hong Kong booksellers who dealt in gossipy books about Chinese leaders and went missing only to resurface in Chinese custody. The five went missing over the past six months, sparking fears in the West that Chinese authorities were overriding the “one country, two systems” formula protecting Hong Kong’s freedoms since its return to China from British rule in 1997.
The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs has said its law enforcement officials would never do anything illegal, especially not overseas, and called on foreign governments not to interfere in Hong Kong affairs.
The Post has also reported freely on anti-Beijing street protests in Hong Kong and the territory’s annual commemoration of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests in Beijing, which are taboo in China.
China’s influential state-backed tabloid Global Times yesterday published an article saying that while China was exploring a wider public discourse, particularly on the Internet, limits to free speech were narrower in China than in the West.
The apparent blocking of the Post accounts comes during the annual National People’s Congress session in Beijing, which has traditionally been a politically sensitive time.
The Weibo social media account of the Post shows a message saying: “Sorry, there’s an error with the account you’re trying to visit and it is temporarily unavailable.”
A search for the Post’s WeChat account does not produce any results. but scanning a QR code leads to a page that says: “Features for this blocked account not available.”
The newspaper’s Web site has a message saying it is not available.
The Post has not reported that it has been blocked and spokesman Michael Chu did not respond to repeated requests for comment on Thursday or yesterday.
A spokesman for Sina Weibo Corp (新浪微博) declined to comment, as did Tencent Holdings Ltd (騰訊), the company that owns WeChat.
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,
COGNITIVE WARFARE: Chinese fishing boats transmitting fake identification signals are meant to test Taiwan’s responses to different kinds of perceived incursions, a report said Chinese vessels are transmitting fake signals in Taiwan’s waters as a form of cognitive warfare, testing Taipei’s responses to various types of incursions, a report by the Institute for the Study of War said on Friday. Several Chinese fishing vessels transmitted fake automatic identification system (AIS) signals in Taiwan’s waters last month, with one mimicking a Russian warship and another impersonating a Chinese law enforcement vessel, the report said. Citing data from Starboard Maritime Intelligence, the report said that throughout August and last month, the Chinese fishing boat Minshiyu 06718 (閩獅漁06718) sailed through the Taiwan Strait while intermittently transmitting its own AIS
CHINESE INFILTRATION: Medical logistics is a lifeline during wartime and the reported CCP links of a major logistics company present a national security threat, an expert said The government would bolster its security check system to prevent China from infiltrating the nation’s medical cold chain, a national security official said yesterday. The official, who wished to stay anonymous, made the remarks after the Chinese-language magazine Mirror Media (鏡周刊) reported that Pharma Logistics (嘉里醫藥物流) is in charge of the medical logistics of about half of the nation’s major hospitals, including National Taiwan University Hospital and Taipei Veterans General Hospital. The company’s parent, Kerry TJ Logistics Co (嘉里大榮物流), is associated with the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) and the Chinese People’s Liberation Army (PLA), the
RSS