Beijing (AsiaNews) – China has shut down over 8600 unauthorized internet cafes since last February when a national clampdown was launched agains these new centers of information, which were said to be "polluting the minds" of Chinese youth and teenagers. 

The news, as released by the state-run Xinhua news service, was announced by the minister of culture, Sun Jiazheng. Sun said the Internet locales were shut down because they allowed minors to surf the web in violation of the government regulations.

"It is necessary to stop the operations of unauthorized Internet cafes, especially in certain cities, counties and areas laying between urban and rural communities."

"Local authorities still do not enforce the laws severely enough for those (cafes) which allow minors to use their services," the minister said.   

According to a flier jointly produced by the Ministries of Culture, General Administration for Industry and Commerce, Public Security in addition to several other government departments, Beijing's anti-internet café campaign aims to block the entry of minors in such locales to prevent them from accessing "harmful information".

The government clampdown should last until this August. Penalties for those who violate the government regulations will be quite severe.

In China control over the media and repression of freedom of expression is thus being applied to such new technologies. Internet is seen as a major concern by government authorities, becoming the prime target of the Communist regime now fighting against the growth of internet centers.

As of the end of March, the government has outlawed Internet cafes in residential areas and within a 200-meter radius from primary and secondary schools.

The Internet cafes have become popular aslo because they help make up for the scarcity of computers available to the country's poor population.

According to the Internet Information Center there were 68 million web surfers in China in 2003, 48.5% with respect to 2002 when there were 46 million Chinese on line. Based on UN figures, from June 1998 to July 2002, the number for users increased by 50% every 6 months in Beijing. In 1997 there were just 290,000 computers enabled for Internet use while the same figure skyrocketed to 16 million in 2002. In China 56% of web surfers are less than 25 years old. (MR)

• china
• internet
• censurship