China has defended its internet censorship policies, saying its rules follow international norms and claims no-one has been detained for writing online content, state media reported on Wednesday.
China is being no different from Western nations, whose criticisms smack of ”double standards”, argued Liu Zhengrong, deputy chief of the Internet Affairs Bureau of the State Council Information Office, according to the China Daily.
”Regulating the internet according to law is international practice,” Liu was quoted as telling reporters.
”After studying internet legislation in the West, I’ve found we basically have identical legislative objectives and principles.”
Liu’s remarks were among the most comprehensive responses yet made by the Chinese government to growing criticism of the way it cooperates with foreign technology companies to regulate people’s access to the web in China.
”It is unfair and smacks of double standards when [foreigners] criticise China for deleting illegal and harmful messages, while it is legal for US websites to do so,” he said.
Penalties imposed on websites carrying illegal and harmful information have been ”lenient” in China, Liu was quoted as saying.
He said no website has been shut down in the country for providing a few pieces of such information.
”No one in China has been arrested simply because he or she said something on the internet,” he said.
This appears to contrast with several individual cases of Chinese citizens being incarcerated for their online activities.
In one recent example journalist Shi Tao, who circulated a government order to suppress media commemorations of the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown, was jailed last year for 10 years after Yahoo! handed over his e-mail records.
The State Council Information Office did not immediately reply to a request for clarification.
Liu also said Chinese people can access the web freely, apart from ”a very few” foreign websites containing ”pornography or terrorism” which are blocked, according to the paper.
The remarks appeared to be at odds with claims of overseas rights groups whose online research has showed there are significant differences in internet search results obtained inside and outside China’s border. – AFP
