China is to ban foreign
firms from "online publishing" under new rules issued this week, as
the country increasingly seeks to minimise Western influence.
Chinese websites are
already among the world's most censored, with Beijing blocking many foreign
Internet services with a system known as the "Great Firewall of
China".
Regulations posted on a
government website, set to go into force next month, state that foreign firms
"are not to engage in online publishing".
The regulations define
online publishing as the provision over the Internet of books, maps, music,
cartoons, computer games and "thoughtful text", as well as other
content.
It was unclear how the ban
would be enforced or whether it would be applied to websites hosted on
China-based servers or sites aimed at users in China.
The State Administration
of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT), which issued a
draft of the rules, could not immediately be contacted by AFP.
The regulations say any
Chinese publishers cooperating with foreign firms to provide online content
would need prior approval from the body.
Chinese publishing expert
Xu Yi told AFP that the implications of the rules were unclear.
"I think these
regulations provide a legal basis for the government to manage foreign
companies setting up websites in China," he said.
"I don't think this
means that websites opened by foreigners in China will be forced to close...it
all depends on the Chinese government's intentions".
Writing on the website
Tech In Asia, veteran China watcher Charles Custer said the rules were an
attempt by SAPPRFT to play a bigger role in content management, previously seen
as the domain of other government agencies.
"SAPPRFT has
traditionally been a regulator of offline publications, but it has increasingly
been flexing its online muscles over the past decade, and occasionally clashing
with other censorship organs," he said.
"In practice, the
new regulation isn't likely to change much beyond adding another hurdle
would-be publishers have to jump through," he added.
The regulations come at a
time of heightened political restrictions in China.
Authorities have proposed
a new law to control the activities of foreign non-governmental organisations,
while state media have warned of "hostile foreign forces" said to be
using them to foment revolution.
In recent years, censors
in Beijing have moved to ban certain TV shows and movies from abroad from being
shown online and authorities have decried "Western" influence on the
country's educational system.
In the past, media
organisations such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and Reuters
have made big bets on the Chinese hunger for foreign news perspectives, setting
up local language websites, only to find them blocked in the country.
Despite the Great
Firewall, China has the world's largest Internet population of nearly 700
million, making firms such as Facebook keen to enter the market.
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