Chinese Government Shuts Down Over 100,000 Web Sites

July 29, 2005

Chinese agencies in charge of controlling the Internet have shut down one quarter of China's 573,755 Web sites because their operators failed to register with the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), according to a July 2 Xinhua report. The shuttered Web sites have until July 10 to complete registration procedures, the Xinhua report says, or they will be shut down permanently in accordance with the law. Any sites subject to that sanction will not have their access services restored until they have begun either the registration process from the beginning or completed an application for registration and other related procedures. Officials had signaled this move in a warning notice released during the week of June 20.

In addition to requiring Web sites to register with the MII, some large cities in China, such as Beijing and Guangzhou, are forcing Web sites to register with public security authorities, citing provisions of the Measures for the Administration of Security Protection of Computer Information Networks with International Interconnections.

As part of the registration process, the MII requires anyone who posts news on their Web site to provide proof that they have been authorized by the Chinese government to post news on the Internet.