Chinese Crack Down On Student Web Sites

[Avary]

Chinese crack down on student Web sites (http://www.detnews.com/2005/technology/0503/24/01-128065.htm)
By Philip P. Pan / The Washington Post

BEIJING -- Universities across China are tightening controls on student-run Internet discussion forums as part of a Communist Party campaign to strengthen what it calls "ideological education" on campuses. The crackdown has caused widespread resentment among students and prompted at least two demonstrations in recent days.

The Web sites, which run on school computer networks, host some of China's largest and liveliest online bulletin boards. They serve as virtual meeting places where millions of educated Chinese across the country gather for discussions about everything from pop culture to politics.

But in recent weeks, universities have started blocking access to off-campus users, including alumni and students and faculty from other universities, according to students and college officials. They have also begun requiring students to register with their real names when going online, eliminating the anonymity that allowed participants to speak without fear of punishment by the authorities.

The new restrictions come amid a general tightening of controls on the Chinese media by the party's propaganda authorities, who have struggled to control public debate on the Internet and have viewed university Web sites with particular concern because they allowed students nationwide to communicate easily.

Censorship on university sites has been slower and less heavy-handed than on commercial Web sites, and liberal scholars have used them to distribute sharp critiques of the Communist Party and call for political reform.

College officials and students involved in managing the sites said the Ministry of Education ordered schools to impose the latest restrictions in January as part of a national campaign to ensure that students do not challenge the party's rule.

An official at Beijing University said it has not applied the "real-name policy yet. ... We're still waiting for further instructions." He acknowledged that students were upset but said the school hasn't given them an explanation.

A propaganda official at Jiaotong University in Shanghai confirmed that the school "was adopting measures to clean the Web" by the end of March. A spokesman for the Ministry of Education declined to comment.

Read the rest (http://www.detnews.com/2005/technology/0503/24/01-128065.htm)

[Bluezoo]

I wonder why J-10 is sooo quite about this? I guess this is not a good material for propaganda?

[Ghostwolf]

I wonder why J-10 is sooo quite about this? I guess this is not a good material for propaganda?

X2

[Avary]

Come on, don't lambast J-10 like that. He's a good contributor to MP.net and he's my hero.

Discuss the subject at hand.

[IAF]

The new restrictions come amid a general tightening of controls on the Chinese media by the party's propaganda authorities, who have struggled to control public debate on the Internet and have viewed university Web sites with particular concern because they allowed students nationwide to communicate easily.

Seriously speaking, with such a huge population, can these controls really work? I can only imagine the amount of taxpayers money going to this cost centre (ie the propaganda authorities). The red tape there must be staggering

[Avary]

It is my understanding that very few Chinese have access to the internet from home. Controlling internet cafés and campus internet centers may be feasable for the authorities. And red tape has never been a deterrent to autoritarian regimes' will to control absolutely everything.

[J-10]

It is my understanding that very few Chinese have access to the internet from home. Controlling internet cafés and campus internet centers may be feasable for the authorities. And red tape has never been a deterrent to autoritarian regimes' will to control absolutely everything.

China have four Network:
1.CSTNet(China Science and Technology Network) connect internet through CASnet.

2.CHENANET(public and commercial): 2mbps speed connect internet to American MCI port through satellite and American Sprint co.'s port through submarine cable. Internet cafés is this kind, but they do not be allowed to set up near schools.

3.CHINAGBN(public and commercial), can access internet.

By above three main Network, in homes/firms you can freely access oversea webs(if you understand English or other language).

4.CERNnt(China Education and Research Computer Network): just links hundreds university campuss, close, means can't access foreign webs.

I don't like the authority to make so much limites to students.

[Avary]

Thanks J-10. I have a better understanding of Chinese internet now.

So Chinese people can have the internet at home, in total privacy. That's good. Now are the rates affordable and do people need some special licence to own a modem to connect to the internet, that sort of thing?

because if people can have unrestricted access to the net from home, there isn't much of a point in restricting internet cafés and student access to it.

[IAF]

The two universities mentioned in the article Beijing and Jiaotong are like the Harvard and MIT of China respectively - where the cream of the crop go.

In this day and age, esp in the rapidly modernizing China of today, the idea of those unelected commies still trying to impose 'ideological education' on such students, let alone the rest of the population, is really an exercise in absurdity

[J-10]

The two universities mentioned in the article Beijing and Jiaotong are like the Harvard and MIT of China respectively - where the cream of the crop go.

In this day and age, esp in the rapidly modernizing China of today, the idea of those unelected commies still trying to impose 'ideological education' on such students, let alone the rest of the population, is really an exercise in absurdity

Basically I agree with your point.

[J-10]

Thanks J-10. I have a better understanding of Chinese internet now.

So Chinese people can have the internet at home, in total privacy. That's good. Now are the rates affordable and do people need some special licence to own a modem to connect to the internet, that sort of thing?

because if people can have unrestricted access to the net from home, there isn't much of a point in restricting internet cafés and student access to it.

Old modem(56K) is 'outdate' in China. Don't need any 'special licence'. Main ISP is ADSL and Lan, the rates is from average 300Kbps to 2Mbps.

Bayonet is a university student in Shanghai, he made some comtributes to the Militaryphotos http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/viewtopic.php?t=18279&start=0. he said he lived in campus, can't access the forum in their interior campus net, except at home in the summer and winter holiday.

BTW, Chinese news webs is abundant and interesting about domestic and international issue.http://news.sohu.com/,http://news.sina.com.cn/. But English windows such as China Daily, Xinhua are almost "official".

[Avary]

Again, thanks J-10. Valuable information.

[Herrmannek]

Not so long ago j-10 you tried to persuade us everything is fine in China and people have all freedoms they need. Hope China will change quicker than it does now. Maybe China should be added to Polish list of countries to be "injected", using help of countries like Ukraine and Goergia of course, with idea of rose revolution.

[J-10]

Not so long ago j-10 you tried to persuade us everything is fine in China and people have all freedoms they need. Hope China will change quicker than it does now. Maybe China should be added to Polish list of countries to be "injected", using help of countries like Ukraine and Goergia of course, with idea of rose revolution.

Not as bad as west media described, not good as we expected, just better than before.

BTW, thanks for your goodwill!

[Durandal]

I wonder why J-10 is sooo quite about this? I guess this is not a good material for propaganda?

Maybe he was cracked down upon. ;)

[Para]

I wrote a small web site just to see if I could do it, the web site provider gives all the statistics of people that log into this site. I found it surprising of the number of hits from Red China that were shown. Mind you I find these statistics very interesting, not only does it show from Country the person is from but what they looked at and for how long, also it tells you what programmes they are running and the address code for their computer.

[Bluezoo]

China Bars Outsiders From Popular University Web Site, Setting off Rare Outcry

By Alexa Olesen Associated Press Writer
Published: Mar 27, 2005

BEIJING (AP) - Shuimu.com is just one of China's thousands of Internet chat rooms. But when non-students were barred this month from using the site at Tsinghua University in Beijing, it triggered a rare burst of outrage.

A brief protest erupted at the school. Users posted appeals on other sites for Web surfers to speak up, with some comparing the crackdown to persecution in Nazi Germany.

Until a few days ago, Shuimu was the largest university forum in China. For 10 years, students, alumni and others used it for lively debates on everything from physics to politics.

But on March 16, communist authorities closed the site to users outside the university campus, apparently aiming to prevent critics from posting anti-government comments online. The edict was said to come from the Ministry of Education, which did not respond to a fax from The Associated Press seeking confirmation.

Several other top universities also posted notices on their bulletin boards this month saying users had to register. Outsiders and anonymous postings were banned.

China has the world's second-largest online population - 87 million - after the United States. The government encourages Web use for business and education, but tries to bar access to material deemed subversive or ****ographic. Such efforts rarely cause a stir.

But on March 18, two days after the notice went up, students held a rare protest on Tsinghua's campus.

They laid out flowers and origami cranes and wrote "peace" and "free" on the ground with scraps of paper, according to pictures posted on the San Francisco-based Web site Webshots.com. One photo showed a banner that read "Bless and protect Shuimu."

"This country is closing itself, it's suiciding," said a caption on one of the photos.

Complaints popped up on other chat rooms and personal Web log sites, or blogs. "I feel our channels of communication are already controlled by an invisible hand and our free breathing space is becoming smaller and smaller," said one posting, signed Zola.

Others compared the crackdown to Nazi Germany, invoking a quote from a pastor who famously said that after he failed to speak up when the Nazis persecuted communists and Jews, there was no one left to speak up when the Nazis came for him.

But some criticized the outcry, saying it might jeopardize Internet access for ordinary Chinese.

"It's thanks to you people out there who are clamoring for freedom all day that we small potatoes worry that we won't even be able to use the Internet at all in the future," said a note on a bulletin board of the Web site Donews.com. It was signed "oo."

Chinese censors scour Internet bulletin boards and blogs for sensitive material, and block access to violators. Sites that let the public post comments are told to censor themselves or face penalties.

Shanghai blogger Isaac Mao says restrictions on bulletin boards are likely to push more people to use blogs, which can, if blocked by authorities, be moved to a different server. According to CNBlog.org, a Chinese Web log host company, China has about 700,000 such sites.

Mao says it has become harder to know what will raise a red flag with the authorities.

"I'm totally confused (about) what kind of words (we) can say or can't say," Mao wrote in an e-mail to The AP.

Shanghai-based educator John Pasden, who runs the blog Sinosplice.com, says Web users find ways around blocks as fast as censors set them up. "It's always this elaborate cat-and-mouse game," he said.

Pasden launched a program called Adopt-a-Blog last March after several friends' sites were blocked. It finds overseas homes for Chinese blogs to make them less likely to be blocked or shut down.

"I started hosting blogs because I wanted to support free speech," he says.

Only a handful of users have come forward. But Pasden hopes to find a company abroad to take over the project.

For a complete version of this article, go to:
http://story.asiabulletin.com/p.x/ct/9/cid/9366300fc9319e9b/id/395988521e6b64e9/

A brief protest? You know what happened to them next. ;)