BBC Monitoring: China Restricts Access to Web Sites, Intensifies Control over Internet Cafes

July 2, 2002

China has placed 500,000 overseas web sites on an Internet cafe prohibited access blacklist. Our center has learned that the Chinese authorities are using the Beijing Internet cafe arson as an excuse to intensify their control over Internet cafes. The authorities have ordered all Internet cafes to augment their filtering software within two weeks. These software programs will put at least 500,000 overseas web sites such as foreign newspapers, Falun Gong web sites and the web sites of democracy and human rights activists on prohibited access. Furthermore, this software will set up police report rankings based on the "reactionary" degree of the web site. For example, as soon as someone in an Internet cafe attempts to access a Falun Gong web site the computer will immediately report this to the Public Security Bureau's Information Security Management Center. The Internet police can then trace the activities of that person to see if he/she continues accessing other web sites As soon as that person goes to Yahoo, Hotmail, or other web sites to read his/her free email, the Internet police will be able to wrest the user's email (address, password, etc.), all without the knowledge of the user. Obviously, once these software programs have been installed, the control over differing political opinions in Chinese society will be greatly strengthened.

At present, the public security departments in provinces throughout the country are ordering Internet cafes to install "Filter King" [Chinese: guo lu wang], "Internet Cafe Management Specialist" [wang ba guan li zhuan jia], "Mei Ping" and other software. The functions of these software programs are basically the same. In order to simplify management, each province can choose one kind of software. For example, the Public Security office in Fujian province has notified all Internet cafes in the province to install "Filter King" software by 10 July. This software has the following features:

1. It places 500,000 overseas web sites on a prohibited access list. This blacklist will be automatically updated and added to each day.

2. The software will place the blacklisted web sites into police report rankings: for example, ordinary overseas newspapers will be given a category five police report ranking, "reactionary" media will be "category four", and the Falun Gong web sites will be given a category one police report ranking. When Internet users at Internet cafes go to these sites, they will not be able to enter. However, without the knowledge of the user, the computer will have reported this to the provincial (city) Internet Cafe Information Security Control Center. The Internet Police can then decide whether or not to trace that person, based on the situation. If the person is traced and continues to other web sites this activity will be recorded. If he goes to Hotmail to read his email, his password may be seized by the police.

3. The computers in every Internet cafe will automatically send a daily report to the Public Security Information Security Management Center to calculate how many people accessed which prohibited web sites that day. Since Internet cafe patrons must register their identification, the names and identity numbers of those visiting prohibited web sites will be sent to the Public Security Department.

4. The Public Security Department will input the identity numbers of those who frequently go to Internet cafes to visit "reactionary" web sites Anytime those persons go to any Internet cafe, even if they are not visiting "reactionary web sites the Internet cafe will automatically report them.

(For more information about this software and Internet cafe management, please visit the following web sites www.intercop.com.cn and www.zetronic.com.cn.)