Two Provinces Force Universities to Implement "Real Name Systems" for Internet Forums

October 28, 2005

The people's governments and Communist Party central committees of Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces have each issued opinions informing universities in those jurisdictions that they must increase their supervision over campus Web sites and Internet forums, according to articles in the Southern Metropolitan Daily and the Yangtse Daily on September 29 and October 5, respectively.

The people's governments and Communist Party central committees of Guangdong and Jiangsu provinces have each issued opinions informing universities in those jurisdictions that they must increase their supervision over campus Web sites and Internet forums, according to articles in the Southern Metropolitan Daily and the Yangtse Daily on September 29 and October 5, respectively. The opinions, which are both entitled "Implementation Opinion on Strengthening and Improving Ideological and Political Education of College Students" require universities to adopt a "real name" registration system for Internet forums (also known as "electronic bulletin boards" or "BBSs"). The Guangdong opinion also requires schools to establish an "IP address database and IP address allocation classification responsibility mechanism."

This demand for universities to track student expression follows the Ministry of Education's May 2005 crackdown on university BBSs, when it imposed a prohibition on anonymous logins from off-campus IP addresses. The move also appears to be specifically directed at students' political expression, as the titles of these opinions are identical to that of "Document Number 16," which the Communist Party Central Committee and the State Council jointly issued in October 2004. That opinion stated that "Strengthening and improving the political thought education of university students is an exceedingly pressing and important duty," and called on educators to "use idealistic faith education as the core to thoroughly carry out the establishment of education in the correct world view, life view, and values." The Guangming Daily, the official newspaper of the Beijing Communist Party Central Committee, published an article entitled Firmly Grasp the Initiative in Online Political Ideological Education in September 2005 authored by Ministry of Education officials in which they discussed Document Number 16 and said:

Harmful information online is severely poisoning the souls of college students, and irresponsible expression online easily brings with it ideological confusion, and creates a severe challenge for college students' political ideological education. . . . Grasp the campus public sentiment situation, effectively guide online public opinion. . . . Organize ranks of online commentators, embrace hot topics and take the initiative to write postings and effectively guide online public opinion. . . . . We should take affirmative action to strengthen administration, and strive to strengthen the unified and specialized management of on-campus Web sites and Web site users in accordance with the mechanisms formulated in relevant national Internet administration regulations, particularly with respect to the administration of campus BBSs, to take strict precautions against the dissemination of harmful information online.

Chinese Internet users have been debating "real name" systems for the Internet since July 5, when Shenzhen's public security bureau issued a notice saying companies must "purify" their Internet chatrooms, BBSs, news groups, and instant messaging systems by requiring all administrators to register these forums using their real names.