-Caveat Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/"> </A> -Cui Bono?- from: http://www.aci.net/kalliste/ Click Here: <A HREF="http://www.aci.net/kalliste/">The Home Page of J. Orlin Grabbe</A> ----- Thought Control China Bans State Secrets from the Internet Like, say, the existence of Hong Kong. BEIJING - China banned the discussion of ''state secrets'' on the Internet on Wednesday in its latest attempt to control an information industry that is fast spinning out of the Communist Party's control. In a circular issued by the State Bureau of Secrecy, Internet users were prohibited from sending e-mail containing state secrets or discussing state secrets in Internet chat rooms and on bulletin boards. The circular also said all Internet content and service providers based in China must undergo a ''security certification'' before they can operate. Under Chinese law, ''state secrets'' can mean almost anything - from crop reports to news about an earthquake. As such, it is a handy tool for security personnel to use against Chinese journalists, dissidents and average citizens. The circular, with 20 articles, was the latest in a spate of attempts by the Chinese authorities to control the World Wide Web and to limit its effect on China's closed political system. While the government sees the Internet as a boon for the Chinese economy, the Communist authorities are also concerned that the Web will erode the party's ability to control the information flow into and out of China. Chinese Internet executives said they were worried that the new regulations would stymie the meteoric rise of Internet use in China and benefit Chinese-language Web sites and portals that are registered overseas where they can escape the Web police in China. The number of Internet users in China quadrupled last year to 8.9 million. ''This is all bad news for China,'' said Joe Sweeney, Asia research director for Gartner Group, an Internet consultancy. ''It's sad because China's Internet is growing fast, but China is trying to reign in that growth.'' The ruling Wednesday, published in People's Daily, the Communist Party newspaper, was the fourth development this week with ominous ramifications for the Internet in China. China recently issued regulations ordering all companies, including Western ones, to tell the government by the end of January about the type of encryption software they use to send confidential information over the Internet. As part of those regulations, China said all Chinese electronic products must employ encryption products designed in China - a rule that could extinguish e-commerce here because many Chinese servers use encryption technology developed in the West. Chinese officials have also hinted that Chinese-registered Internet companies that want to list their shares on foreign stock exchanges must obtain government approval to do so. Finally, China has recently moved to control the content published on Internet sites. The Shanghai Daily reported Wednesday that the State Press and Publication Administration was drafting rules on content that would pose a ''major challenge'' for domestic Web sites by ensuring that only state-approved material could appear on Chinese-registered sites. ''It is certain that no Web sites will be allowed to hire cyberreporters to write stories for them,'' the newspaper quoted Wu Youzhang, an official with the press and publication agency, as saying. Many of China's top Web sites and portals give prominent treatment to reports on sports, entertainment and travel written by free-lancers, not state-accredited journalists. Internet entrepreneurs in China have reacted publicly with calm to the recent developments in part because they do not want to irritate the authorities and in part because the government has often issued tough restrictions on the Internet only to back off soon thereafter. Paul Jin, an executive with Sina.com, the most popular Internet portal in China, said his site was already practicing self-censorship. ''Even in the past when they didn't have rules on protection of state secrets, we've been careful,'' Mr. Jin said. ''On politically sensitive matters, we wait until the government papers come out with their reports, then we put their versions on our site.'' But William Ding, president of Netease, the second most popular portal, said he wanted the government to clarify the meaning of ''state secrets.'' Mr. Ding said his staff had often found military or economic information put on the Internet by government departments but which was not released by the state-run media. ''The average person can't even access secrets,'' he said, ''so it's the government officials they have to educate.'' Mr. Sweeney, the Asia researcher, said the encryption ruling was of most immediate concern because it demanded that Western companies give Beijing the key to unlock industrial secrets. ''It's a serious threat for multinationals,'' he said. ''It's industrial espionage. All the company secrets and whatever contracts you are working on, that information will be made available to the government.'' Mr. Sweeney said he worried that the regulation could be used to punish Western companies that anger bureaucrats. ''The biggest threat is if you upset someone in the government,'' he said. ''It's pretty easy to charge you with breaking the security act, which is very serious.'' The circular on state secrets appeared aimed particularly at controlling Internet chat rooms that have been used by a growing number of Chinese citizens to criticize the government and exchange information about corruption scandals and other sensitive news. Most recently, chat rooms have played a major role in publicizing a string of corruption investigations in Fujian Province that have implicated high-ranking military and political figures in Beijing and resulted in the arrests of scores of high-level local officials in the port city of Xiamen. The notice on encryption has also been viewed as a way to control information moving into and out of China. Chinese dissident groups and Falun Gong, the banned spiritual group, have been known to use the Internet to communicate with followers in China. Some of their messages use encryption programs that the Ministry of State Security is unable to crack, Western sources said. International Herald Tribune, January 27, 2000 Fin-de-siecle Twins Missing After Raid on God's Army Some believe absence is the best way to dodge bullets. THE 12-year-old twins who head the God's Army rebel group and are believed by their followers to possess mystical powers to evade bullets are missing after Burmese troops were reported to have overran their jungle headquarters. Sources close to the rebels said their base at Kamaplaw was attacked late on Tuesday after the devastating strike by Thai special forces which ended the 24-hour occupation of Ratchaburi Hospital by 10 God's Army gunmen. All were killed. If they were captured, it is highly unlikely the twins, Johnny and Luther Htoo, would be spared. They have commanded a devoted if limited following among superstitious ethnic Karens and battle-weary fighters after heading a successful counter-attack against the Burmese in 1997. The sources said "many people" were killed as the camp was attacked, while a Thai television channel reported that villagers on the Thai side had fled heavy gunfire in the area on Tuesday. Burma's military regime denied the reports, but said: "Additional patrolling is being done to clear out any armed guerrillas from taking refuge in that area." Either way, Burma has struck a blow against one of the more aggravating ethnic rebel opposition groups. A 10-year campaign against the Karens, who have not given up a 50-year struggle for autonomy, and against other ethnic minorities has seen villagers beaten, raped, tortured and murdered and their houses destroyed. A two-week bombardment of the area around the God's Army camp seems to have driven the group to its disorganised seizure of the hospital, where medical help was demanded for people lying wounded at the border. A Thai government official admitted in yesterday's Bangkok Post: "Rangoon is most satisfied we could make corpses out of the Karen radicals. It would have been a waste to keep them in our care." Human rights groups stepped up the pressure on the Thai government after more hostages, who all escaped unharmed, came forward with evidence that some of the gunmen were summarily executed. A Thai-language newspaper carried photographs showing three of the rebels stripped to their socks and underwear with their hands tied behind their backs. A middle-grade civil servant told the Bangkok Post that rebels "were shot in the head after they had been told to undress and kneel down". Puttanee Kangkun, of the Thai Action Committee for Democracy in Burma, said: "It looks as if there were extra-judicial killings." The government denied the accusation, saying that all 10 gunmen died in battle. A spokesman said: "A well-trained commando normally will shoot to kill, especially with a head shot, because if hostage-takers with dangerous weapons are not killed immediately they could still harm hostages." The London Telegraph, January 27, 2000 ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. 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