China's Internet censorship will continue

In a a white paper entitled 'The Internet in China' and released yesterday, China's government defends Internet censorship and states it will continue to block access to sensitive information on the Internet.

Internet censorship, 'necessary to protect citizens'

China has been blocking many websites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, considered as providers of inappropriate content.

The document confirms that censorship of this kind of websites will continue although 'the Chinese government encourages and supports the development of the network news media, providing a wealth of news and information, and shall protect the citizen's freedom of speech on the internet, to protect the public's right to know, participate, express and to supervise'.

'Laws and regulations clearly prohibit the spread of information that contains content subverting state power, undermining national unity [or] infringing upon national honor and interests,' read the white paper.

The Information Office of the State Council which published the document explains that it is the work of government and service providers to protect citizens from this material in order to 'prevent all kinds of illegal dissemination of information'.

Despite the 'Great Firewall', Chinese web users 'fully enjoy freedom of speech on the internet', according to China's government.

Internet in China has to respect Chinese laws...

China's government wants to make clear that Internet has to comply with Chinese online regulations: 'Within Chinese territory the internet is under the jurisdiction of Chinese sovereignty. The internet sovereignty of China should be respected and protected,' read a paragraph in the document.

Internet control is considered as necessary for state protection. Moreover, China warns other governments to respect its authority in this area.

'Laws and regulations [are necessary] to safeguard information security, internet, basic legal basis for all citizens. In the People's Republic of China, foreign citizens, legal persons and other organisations must comply,' concluded the white paper.

In addition, the document notes 'Chinese law prohibits any form of network hacking,' an allusion to the Google hacks for which the government has denied any responsibility. Google accused Chinese hackers of playing around with its encodings and the Gmail accounts of human rights activists.

After the US company failed to negotiate with Chinese government, Google turned off its main Chinese search engine in March 2010 and decided to redirect the traffic to its Hong Kong server.

You can also read our articles about the true reasons why Google is leaving China and how Baidu takes full advantage of Google's pull out.