China’s police chief has called for a reinforced nationwide Internet security system, in the nation’s latest effort to oversee the activities of the world’s largest online population.
“The Internet is developing quickly, there are many loopholes in social management and maintaining social stability faces unprecedented new challenges,” public security minister Meng Jianzhu (孟建柱) said in rare public remarks.
“One must ... actively establish ... a comprehensive prevention and control social security system that covers the Internet and the real world,” he said in a speech published on the ministry Web site on Monday.
Internet use has expanded at a dizzying pace in China, which now has the world’s largest online population of at least 338 million users.
In a bid to maintain control, authorities regularly censor Internet content they deem unhealthy including pornography and violence, but also information critical of the government — a system dubbed the “Great Firewall of China.”
But many online users get around the system by using proxy servers that allow them to access blocked sites.
The Internet has also become a platform for ordinary people who want to vent their frustrations at perceived injustices.
In one well-known example, a 21-year-old waitress in central China walked free from a trial in June despite stabbing to death an official who demanded sex after the case sparked nationwide Internet outrage about government sleaze.
Such a crime would normally have incurred a serious penalty, such as life in jail or even the death sentence, but apparent official concern over the elevated online outcry is thought to have prompted her release.
The state China Daily newspaper said the government was increasingly concerned about “fake information and new crimes based on the Web.”
Residents in restive far-western Xinjiang are still experiencing Internet and phone service outages nearly four months after deadly ethnic riots erupted in the regional capital Urumqi.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
‘BODIES EVERYWHERE’: The incident occurred at a Filipino festival celebrating an anti-colonial leader, with the driver described as a ‘lone suspect’ known to police Canadian police arrested a man on Saturday after a car plowed into a street party in the western Canadian city of Vancouver, killing a number of people. Authorities said the incident happened shortly after 8pm in Vancouver’s Sunset on Fraser neighborhood as members of the Filipino community gathered to celebrate Lapu Lapu Day. The festival, which commemorates a Filipino anti-colonial leader from the 16th century, falls this year on the weekend before Canada’s election. A 30-year-old local man was arrested at the scene, Vancouver police wrote on X. The driver was a “lone suspect” known to police, a police spokesperson told journalists at the
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un has unveiled a new naval destroyer, claiming it as a significant advancement toward his goal of expanding the operational range and preemptive strike capabilities of his nuclear-armed military, state media said yesterday. North Korea’s state-run Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Kim attended the launching ceremony for the 5,000-tonne warship on Friday at the western port of Nampo. Kim framed the arms buildup as a response to perceived threats from the US and its allies in Asia, who have been expanding joint military exercises amid rising tensions over the North’s nuclear program. He added that the acquisition
RSS