China’s government continues its campaign to snoop-&-censor internet use and prevent its citizens’ from accessing content deemed “subversive.”

Beijing (AsiaNews/Agencies) – China will not allow any new Internet cafes to open this year, Xinhua News Agency reported today. Some 14 government departments, including the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Information Industry, have issued notices saying that “in 2007, local governments must not sanction the opening of new Internet bars.”

There are an estimated 113,000 Internet cafes in China. Many are smoke-filled rooms with rows of computers set up for online gaming.

The Chinese government does promote internet use for education and business but has tried to prevent its public from seeing material online that it deems subversive or pornographic.

More and more its internet censorship has come in for criticism, but that has not stopped China from trying.

President Hu Jintao has even called for the cleansing of the internet. For this purpose, China’s authorities are using the latest technology, police and internet firms like Yahoo!, Google, Microsoft, and Cisco Systems, to enforce its power. Increasingly users cannot have access to websites that contain information the Chinese government deems inappropriate.

In January, President Hu Jintao ordered Chinese Internet regulators to promote a “healthy online culture” to protect the government's stability.

China's online population grew by 23.4 per cent last year to 137 million people or about 10 per cent of its 1.3 billion population, the China Internet Network Information Center reported last month.

The figure puts China on track to surpass the US in the next two years as the nation with the most internet users, the government said.

• china
• internet
• cybercafés
• censorship