Beijing declares war on infiltration of "foreign ideologies"
Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) China has declared war on the infiltration of "foreign ideologies" entering the country through new media, especially via young people using the internet.
On March 24 the Central Commission for Ethical and Cultural Progress assured that cartoons on TV would be "healthy and creative" and that there would not be internet cafes in residential areas or within a 200-meter radius of primary and high schools.
According to the General Administration for Industry and Commerce (the government body which keeps watch over the Chinese market), many internet cafes allow children and teens to go on line, which is against the law. The Administration's officials have said that such cafes "have caused great damage to the mental well-being of adolescents and have meddled in the affairs of school instruction."
Control of information and repression of freedom of expression in China is now being applied to new technology. The internet is the government's primary adversary, given the growing spread of computer use, internet cafes and overall increase of people going on line.
The government tightened its already rigid control over web material judged to be "dangerous" by setting up a special 30,000 unit police force to censure sites and their content. During a certain period two of the most popular search engines, Google and Altavista, were shut down provoking heated protests across the country.
The arrests of web bloggers ensued after they reported on the country's human rights violations and called for greater democracy in China.
On March 24 news was released of another cyber dissident who has spent 2 years in prison for having published an open letter demanding more democracy. Reporting the news were the dissident's family members and his attorney, Ouyang Yi, a former professor from Suining (Sichuan)
On March 16 Chengdu's Juvenile Court sentenced the dissident to a two year prison term for subversion of state during a closed-door hearing. Two other activists who had signed their names to the letters, He Depu and Zhao Changqing, were also sentenced to jail.
China's Internet Information Center says that internet use increased in 2003 by 48.5% with respect to 2002 for a total of 68 million users; 56% of Chinese web surfers are lees than 25 years old.
The fight against the spread of foreign ideas among Chinese youth is one of the main parts of a school reform program launched by education minister, Zhou Ji, who officially wants to "reinvigorate education". He says his plan aims to raise the "ethical and ideological standards of children and adolescents". The minister has included programs to "promote and cultivate a spirit of patriotism" in the country and to foster learning of the Chinese language among ethnic minorities. (MR)
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