huridocs-tech CHINA: Nervous Beijing Tightens Screws on Internet

Title: RIGHTS-CHINA: Nervous Beijing Tightens Screws on
Internet

By Antoaneta Bezlova

BEIJING, Jan 28 (IPS) - Frightened by the potential
subversive use of the information industry by dissidents and
outlawed cult members, China is clamping down on Internet
and trying to tighten control over the flow of information.

In the course of only one week, Chinese authorities unveiled
three sets of new rules, putting more limits on the use of
Internet and hinting that such control would extend to
content uploaded on the World Wide Web.

The most serious set of rules, announced Wednesday by the
Communist Party's flagship 'The People's Daily', banned the
discussion of ''state secrets'' on the Internet.

In a circular issued by the State Bureau of Secrecy, the new
regulations make website owners liable if state secrets are
posted on or transmitted through their sites.

The restrictions extend to e-mail account users who are
forbidden to transfer or copy state secrets. The circular
also said all Internet content and service providers must
undergo a ''security certification'' before they can
operate.

In another development, all companies, including foreign
ones, are required to tell the government by Monday, Jan 31,
about the type of the encryption software they use to send
confidential information over the Internet. They have been
asked to provide also details about the employees using that
type of software.

According to Chinese sources, the Ministry of Public
Security has drawn up, but not yet published, rules forcing
all firms that use the Internet to register with the police.

In the works is a fourth set of rules, prepared by the State
Press and Publication Administration, that would prevent
domestic websites from breaching the state's monopoly on
news distribution. The 'Shanghai Daily' reported this week
that only state-approved news would be allowed to appear on
Chinese-registered sites.

By far, the recent set of regulations barring the leak of
state secrets appear to be the most serious attempt to tame
the Web, as the definition of a state secret is so vague
that it can cover anything.

The crime of leaking state secrets is regularly used to
silence any dissent voices the Communist Party disapproves
of.

The rules published in 'The People's Daily' say thus: 'All
organisations and individuals are forbidden from releasing,
discussing or transferring state secret information on
bulletin boards, chat rooms or in Internet news groups.''

''Any website that provides or releases information on the
World Wide Web must undergo security checks and approval,''
Article 8 says. Article 11 bans people from transferring or
copying state secrets in e-mail.

A spokesman contacted at the State Bureau of Secrecy says
that the new rules are ''highly targeted to state secrecy''.
Yet under the Chinese law, ''state secret'' could mean
almost anything.

While the 1988 State Secrets Law covers many of the obvious
areas -- national defense, diplomatic affairs, science and
technology and criminal investigations, its definition also
includes questionable categories such as 'major policy
decisions on state affairs', 'secret matters in national
economic and social development', 'those secret matters of
political parties ... [that] concern the security and
interests of the state'.

There is also a catch-all clause that makes state secrets
all ''other state secret matters that the state secrecy
preservation departments determine should be preserved''.

But the scope of those could be enormous. In 1993 a couple,
Bai Weiji and Zhao Lei, were sentenced to ten-and six-year
terms respectively on the charge of ''leaking state
secrets'' merely for translating materials from magazines
marked ''internal use only'' for 'Washington Post'
correspondent Lena Sun.

In this case, the term ''internal use only'' was equated
with the term for ''state secrets'' despite the fact that
the first one does not appear in the law or in its
implementing regulations.

It is far from clear whether the government would be able to
implement the new Internet rules. The State Bureau of
Secrecy official admitted the Internet did not lend itself
to easy monitoring.

''It is rather complicated so we can't really manage this by
ourselves,'' he said. ''The Public Security must also get
involved.''

Analysts here argue that the authorities are divided on the
issue of controlling Web content. Security-related
ministries are said to insist for more control, pointing
that Chinese dissident groups and Falun Gong, the banned
spiritual group, have been known to use the Internet to
communicate with followers in China.

Economic ministries, on the other hand, see the Internet as
beneficial for the economy and are believed to be pressing
for more freedom of the information industry.
(END/IPS/ap-ip-cr/ab/js/00)






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