Two Ethnic Minority Web Sites in Inner Mongolia Closed

June 30, 2006

Authorities in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region closed down an ethnic Mongol bulletin board service (BBS) in April after the BBS posted messages from "overseas separatists," while a Web hosting company shut down another site in Inner Mongolia the same month after it permitted online chatting in the Mongolian language, according to a May 11 report from the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC). The events follow the closing of two Inner Mongolian Web sites in September 2005 for allegedly posting separatist materials.

Authorities in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region closed down an ethnic Mongol bulletin board service (BBS) in April after the BBS posted messages from "overseas separatists," while a Web hosting company shut down another site in Inner Mongolia the same month after it permitted online chatting in the Mongolian language, according to a May 11 report from the Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC). The events follow the closing of two Inner Mongolian Web sites in September 2005 for allegedly posting separatist materials.

According to the SMHRIC, authorities closed down the "Mongol Youth BBS" (Mongol Zaluus BBS) on April 21, claiming that the site had exceeded its storage capacity. The SMHRIC contacted a forum administrator of this bulletin board, who said the closing was motivated by messages posted by alleged overseas separatists who were gathering information on conditions in Inner Mongolia. The Web address for this bulletin board now points to the Web site "Mongol Homeland Forum."

The SMHRIC also reports that on April 19, Web administrators ordered participants in the "Mongolian Net Communications" (Mengguzu Wangtong) chat room to "stop using the Mongolian language when chatting since all Inner Mongolians are Chinese citizens and therefore their mother tongue should be Chinese." The administrators also alleged that members had promoted Mongolian independence. The chat room was removed from its hosting site on April 23, after chatting in the Mongolian language continued. Under the PRC Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law, ethnic minorities have the right to use and develop their own languages, but other government regulations create conditions that stifle expressions of ethnic identity. Chinese provisions and measures require electronic bulletin board and Internet information providers to censor content deemed to jeopardize ethnic and national unity and to report attempts to post such materials to authorities. These regulations do not, however, provide guidelines for evaluating such materials.

For more information on conditions for ethnic Mongols in China, see related CECC analyses on land disputes in Inner Mongolia, the arrest of a Mongol medical specialist, and Mongol efforts to bar construction of a Genghis Khan theme park, as well as section III(a), "China's Minorities and Government Implementation of the Regional Ethnic Autonomy Law," in the 2005 CECC Annual Report. See also the CECC Political Prisoner Database for information on Mongols imprisoned for advocating ethnic minority rights.