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Beijing (pte045/09.06.2005/14:55) - The Chinese government has threatened to close down unregistered websites in an attempt to 'obviously impose control' on internet activities, said Duncan Clark, managing director of Beijing-based media consultancy BDA China.
"There's a bit of a chill blowing through right now," he added.
However, thus far only 430,000 websites have registered at the Information Ministry, suggesting that the rest of the estimated 4 million web users don't wish to comply.
Li Xinde, a freelance investigative journalist who engineered the site http://www.yuluncn.com, is worried about the censorship. "I could not do what I do without the internet," he said.
His website, the Chinese Public Opinion Surveillance Net, was shut down in 2004 when he posted pictures of an allegedly corrupt vice-mayor on his knees, apparently begging not to be exposed.
Li says his site was censored because the vice-mayor's younger brother worked in the Public Security Bureau. "We'll register according to the regulations," he said. "Similar websites by my friends have all passed registration so far. I don't think anyone will tell us not to post corruption-fighting content."
Reports say that there are roughly 40,000 'internet police' working to maintain the 'Great Firewall of China' to block access to sites that the government deems unsavoury.
Reporters without Borders say that at least 61 people are currently jailed for posting illegal messages or articles on the internet.
But Guo Liang, one of China's leading internet researchers, said the main targets of the drive to register websites were online gambling, pornography and some game sites.
"It is a cat and mouse game. I think every government wants more control but the question is how, and whether conditions allow it," he said.
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