Chinese medicine …..

As if by magic, the Chinese authorities must have known it was my blogging day.

After an interview failed to come through, I thought I’d be left red in the face. But if you were a betting woman, you’d place a yuan or two on China coming up with the regulation goods.

And so, it’s official:

“China’s regulation on the Internet industry is in line with the laws and should be free from unjustifiable interferences.”

A spokesperson told Xinhua (the official press agency of the government) 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.

So, all in all, very much in keeping with my previous blog. Don’t get me wrong, I am fully in support of the regulation of pornographic materials, violence and of course the prevention of terrorism. Particularly at a time when the threat level in the UK has been increased to ‘severe’. But what I am not in favour of, is censorship and repression at the detriment of it’s own people.

Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, caused a bit of storm in a recent speech as she called on the Chinese to conduct a “thorough investigation of the cyber intrusions” that hit Google and other Western companies in recent weeks.  Not only has she been accused of stirring up already tense  Chinese-US relations but also of meddling in China’s affairs.

One big question is whether ordinary Chinese will, to any large degree, accept China’s arguments. Although urban, middle-class Chinese often support government policies on sovereignty issues such as Tibet or Taiwan, they generally disagree when it comes to media censorship. That feeling is especially pronounced among Chinese who refer to themselves as netizens.

This netizen, a professional citizen journalist no less,  has an interesting take on the effectiveness of social media and it’s potential benefits for the future of China.

According to the Foreign Ministry’s website, The Chinese internet “is open”. Is that like the bank at  1 pm on a Saturday? We really believe it should be, but it never is.