Report Outlines Chongqing's Approach to Crackdown on Private Web Sites

Chongqing officials have finished "cleaning up" and registering Web sites, according to a July 22 report on China Communications Web (CCW). The Chongqing project was part of a nationwide crackdown on private Web sites that the Chinese government launched earlier this year. The campaign has resulted in the closure of thousands of Web sites whose operators failed to register with the Ministry of Information and public security offices. CCW, which is registered to the People's Post and Telecom Press, reported that in Chongqing the three month process involved six steps:

1. Government and industry cooperation and coordination. On April 1 Chongqing officials convened a "deployment meeting" with the municipality's six basic telecommunications carriers, all local Internet service providers (ISPs), as well as some Internet content providers (ICPs). The purpose of the meeting was to "launch Internet Web site rectification and registration work," and the participants established small "working groups" whose leaders signed contracts "to clarify the responsibilities and duties of relevant work units in the work of rectifying the Internet."
2. Industry training. Chongqing authorities required industry groups to undergo training on how Web site registration would be carried out. The training included instruction on the "special characteristics" of the work of basic telecommunications carriers, ISPs, and other Internet access services providers, as well as on the different requirements for ICP registration and IP address registration.
3. Centralization. Chongqing authorities opened an office specifically devoted to providing telephone, fax, and wireless broadband Internet access facilities in connection with Web site registration.
4. Indoctrination. The Chongqing municipal government's propaganda offices convened joint press conferences and "used all of the municipality's major newspapers, magazines, television stations, and radio stations to propagandize the relevant demands of Internet Web site registration work." According to CCW, this "created a positive propaganda public opinion atmosphere, which promoted the smooth launch of work."
5. Investigations and closures. CCW reported that, when authorities discovered unregistered Web sites, they issued notices providing a deadline for registration and ordered the relevant access service providers to stop providing access services. The report said authorities would continue to "improve the electronic database of Web sites that refuse [to register], and would perform secondary investigation and registration work."
6. Monitoring and Censorship. Authorities are requiring "all relevant work units" to establish inspection systems for Web site access and server co-location enterprises in order to "perfect" the pre-screening and real time monitoring of Web site and server access.