Slashdot Mirror
Chinese Force Mass Closure Of Net Cafes
Chien Andalusia writes "According to this article from the BBC, the Chinese authorities closed 12,575 net cafes towards the end of 2004. Due to the expense of computer hardware, net cafés have become very popular in China in recent years. The laws governing such cafés are very strict, especially in relation to minimising the amount of exposure children can get to the internet. For example, no net café is allowed to open within 200 metres of a middle or elementary school. The article also briefly discusses other restrictions imposed on Chinese net cafés."
Serve pot and they don't even need Internet access. They'll just sit quietly grooving to the screen saver.
No doubt this is the PRC's way of limiting
the number of dissidents it will have to
arrest. You can't expect their government to
build hundreds of new prisons without having
new labor contracts already signed by Western
corporations. The PRC government does have
rudimentary knowledge about supply and demand,
and staying in the "sweet spot" for labor costs.