Reuters: China Says Provinces Setting Up Internet Police

Excerpt, August 5, 2000

BEIJING (Reuters) - At least 20 provinces and cities are moving to set up special Internet police to ``administrate and maintain order'' on China's fast-growing computer networks, the official Xinhua news agency said on Saturday.

The number of Internet users in China nearly doubled to 17 million in the first half of this year, the China National Network Information Centre (CNNIC) said last month.

The Xinhua report did not refer to policing political content on the Internet, perhaps the chief worry of Communist authorities amid China's headlong rush into the digital age.

China routinely blocks Websites of Western media outlets, human rights groups, Tibetan exiles and other sources of information it deems politically sensitive or harmful.

Stung by the spread of reports from unfettered Hong Kong media about domestic politics and corruption scandals, Beijing also forbids increasingly popular local portals from posting news reports from sources other than state-controlled media.

Members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual group have also been arrested for using the Internet to spread information about their faith and about government efforts to crush the movement.