Virtual China: Information Technology - Press Reviews, February 3, 1999

Weekly Press Review

February 3, 1999

Over the past week, China's reining in of Internet freedoms appeared to continue with the announcement by the Hong Kong based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democratic Movement in China last Wednesday that the Ministry of Public Security has ordered stepped up monitoring of computer bulletin boards and online chat rooms. According to the centre, any "counter revolutionary" bulletin boards that are discovered during the newly ordered "24 hour watch" must be shut down immediately and efforts made to determine the identities of those who posted information. Although there has been no official confirmation of this new monitoring, China's Jinacha Ribao, an official newspaper of the Supreme People's Procuratorate, printed an editorial critical of several popular Chinese BBS's on January 27th. The editorial complained that remarks on the BBS's have gone further than those on "big character posters" during the Cultural Revolution.

Along with this reining in of Internet freedoms, China is continuing its crackdown on computer crime. Last Friday the government reported the arrest of 51 people charged with hacking into computers that maintain railway's reservation system. The hackers, who included hi-tech workers based in Guangzhou, involved upgrading cheap tickets to more expensive trains.

Also this week, employment web site Zhaopin announced it turned a profit last year. According to director of sales and marketing Steve Chiu, the site is popular with Chinese working in foreign owned corporations and expects a significant boost in traffic after the new year holiday.

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