China could hike Net surveillance
p2pnet.net News:- With the announcement that Beijing has just launched a Science and Technology Week, warnings that China plans to renew its clamp-down on the Net and Net users have come from the country’s cultural minister, Sun Jiazheng.
This could include "24-hour surveillance and urging people to tell on each other," says the Chinese news agency Xinhua in an Agence France-Presse report here.
"During a recent national meeting on ‘rectifying’ Internet bars or cafes, Sun Jiazheng hinted that the government’s efforts to manage soaring Internet use had not been sufficient, the Xinhua state news agency website said Friday," says the story.
"And in a sign that authorities are finding it hard to keep a grip on the almost unlimited opportunities provided by the Internet, Sun asked Chinese people for help. ‘Managing Internet bars requires centralized measures, the people’s prevention and monitoring and thorough control,’ Sun was quoted as saying by Xinhua."
Sun said regional cultural, finance, police, industry and commerce departments were to reward people for reporting about illegal Internet use, says AFP, continuing:
"He did not specify what illegal use was, but in China it covers a broader spectrum than other countries, with people being jailed for posting essays calling for democracy and political reform on the Internet.
"Sun also called for ‘using long-range computer surveillance systems to carry out 24-hour, real-time monitoring of the Internet bars,’ Xinhua said.
"He said Internet bars should be ’standardized’ by establishing chains, instead of the small, difficult-to-regulate, hole-in-the-wall cafes that have popped up all over China – even in remote reserves for giant pandas. Illegal Internet cafes, those that allow minors to enter, and those that let people spread ‘harmful’ information were the three most serious problems, Sun said."
The ministry would send out inspection teams to ensure local governments are performing their duties, the report said, and set up monitoring systems for industry and general society.
Managing the Internet was a "long-term" and "arduous" task, Sun added.
