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Government and Policy

China says Internet regulation legitimate, reasonable

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-01-25 09:06

BEIJING: China's regulation on the Internet industry is in line with the laws and should be free from unjustifiable interferences, a Chinese government official said here Sunday.

A spokesperson with China's State Council Information Office told Xinhua in an exclusive interview, that China is regulating the Internet legally to build a more reliable, helpful information network that is beneficial to economic and social development.

Such regulation, the spokesperson said, are based on laws and regulations such as the Constitution, the Law on the Protection of Minors, and the Decision on Internet Safety pass by the National People's Congress Standing Committee.

Online information which incites subversion of state power, violence and terrorism or includes pornographic contents are explicitly prohibited in the laws and regulations, the spokesperson said.

China has full justification to deal with these illegal and harmful online contents, the spokesperson said.

This has nothing to do with the claims of "restrictions on Internet freedom", the spokesperson stressed.

Different countries have different conditions and realities, thus they are regulating the Internet in different ways, the spokesperson said.

China's regulation on the Internet industry is proved to be suitable for China's national conditions and in line with common practices in most countries as well, the spokesperson said.

China is willing to cooperate and exchange opinions on issues about Internet development and management wit other countries, but opposes firmly to any defiance of Chinese laws, or intervening Chinese domestic affairs under the pretence of "Internet management" regardless of the truth, the spokesperson said.

According to the spokesperson, as of the end of 2009, the number of netizens in China reached 384 million, and websites topped 3.68 million.

China has millions of online forums and more than 200 million blogs, and every day, there are more than four million new blog entries posted online, the spokesperson said.

Chinese netizens' right to express opinions within the law is well protected, and their opinions are given full consideration by the government in policy making process, the spokesperson said.