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China Arrests Thousands In Internet Porn Crackdown

Posted by Soulskill on from the that-fourth-party-crap-doesn't-sound-so-bad-anymore dept.

Clandestine_Blaze writes "Chinese police have arrested 5,394 people — with another 4,186 criminal cases in the works — in one of the largest crackdowns on Internet porn in the country. Even more arrests are expected in 2010, according to the Ministry of Public Security's website (In Chinese or Google translated into English). According to the Reuters article on the crackdown, one of the justifications was that the pornography was 'threatening the emotional health of children.' From the English translation of the Ministry of Public Security's website linked above, it appears that certain provinces are also offering 1,000 yuan and 2,000 yuan rewards, per person, for reporting illegal websites to the government."

9 of 204 comments (clear)

  1. China is not a Left Wing or Communist State. by Zombie+Ryushu · · Score: 5, Interesting

    China is not a Left Wing or Communist State. There may be an entity called the Communist Party of China, but by no means is China Leftist, or even Socialist. They are a Fascist Autocracy.

    No liberal or leftist government would attack the consumption of adult pornography. (Nor would they even care.)

    Not that I am advocating Communism, which has failed everywhere it has been tried, and is an unworkable ideology, but as a leftist, who is deeply concerned about the rise of Right Wing Fascism around the world, I am concerned what this could cause Western governments to adopt. We have already seen that a large percentage of our Christian Right extremists in the USA and Canada do not believe in sexual equality or egalitarianism, or freedom of speech. I worry this will give them ideas.

    1. Re:China is not a Left Wing or Communist State. by mindbrane · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I recently finished an excellent set of Yale uni Online lectures by R Wyman titled "Global Population and Biological Development". In one of the later lectures Professor Wyman reported on first hand experiences of scientist working in China investigating birth control programmes both as to their implementation and efficacy. In an earlier lecture he made the point that the current Chinese government has been able to convince the general population that the Chinese state exists as a viable entity. This point is interesting in light of reports by people working in China reporting on various birth control programmes. The gist of the reports was that the central government made sweeping claims and policy implementations that when translated, implemented and reported by the various districts came out in the wash as markedly different from the original proclamations made by the central government. Locally people seem in large measure to implement such policies as they see fit and to colour reports back to the central government to placate central control agencies.

      Chinese history is a history of warring states so much so that I'm not able to subscribe to Professor Wyman claim that China has attained unification. Taiwan stands out as a stark example in terms of how young the mainland state is. I recall the Chinese government is only about 60 years old and faces an economic reality that greatly flies in the face of it's communist posture. A central regime that broadcasts slogans like "Purity and Harmony" and implements draconian practices to influence it's population on the level of their sexual drive smacks of desperation.

      --
      ideopath @ play
    2. Re:China is not a Left Wing or Communist State. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Hey,dude. I'm chinese and i think i know my culture and my country well. I agree with you to some degree, but i have to say that this conservative about sex has greatly decreased in the generation of "90s". They dont care so much about things like virginity as their parents do, the value of this generation has changed a lot. The social and economical reform after 1979 has created both economical prospery and social problems, about which the government is so worried. Many ppl think the government act as if they are fighting against internent pron, but in fact they are wiping out the voice of objectors, the ones who are not happy about current government and its policy. In recent 2 months, over 15000 websites has been closed by police or blocked by the national firewall, only 1/3 of them is because of porn and pirate. Maybe you have already heard of the Great Firewall, namely the national internet firewall blocking the websites unwelcome to the government. We cant connect the websites such as facebook, twitter, flickr, blogger, youtube in normal way:( we have to use software like Tor, Freegate or use VPN, proxy server to connect them.
      Since 2000, the government has lauched a project to cencorship all data passing through the internet. Tolerance no longer exists on chinese internet.

  2. Re:I'm ever so thankful by OrangeTide · · Score: 4, Interesting

    when I heard about this the first thought in my head was, USA and China are so alike, it seems odd that they can't get along.

    --
    “Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
  3. Re:The Less Porn the Better by MichaelSmith · · Score: 2, Interesting

    In the scheme of things pornography exposure is not the end of the world but it does subtly alter your thought processes, and not for the better.

    By what measure? Come on AC, justify your assertion.

    --
    http://michaelsmith.id.au
  4. Re:1000 Yuan by The+Evil+Couch · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The direct exchange rate is not nearly as interesting as actual buying power that reward represents to the average person in China. I haven't studied economics, so someone can totally call me out on this, but it looks like purchasing power of the US is roughly eight times that of China, according to the Wikipedia. Based on this slightly-informed conclusion, it appears that the reward is roughly 1,172 USD, 1,233 CAD, 725 GBP, or 818 EUR. That number seems much more persuasive.

    --
    The World's Worst Webcomic!
  5. Re:I'm ever so thankful by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    How about the slashdot article the other day where people were critical of the H1B program, so their sites were shutdown?

    Seems censorship is alive in the "USA" as well?

  6. It's not about porn, it's about censorship by walterbyrd · · Score: 3, Interesting

    It is not just porn that China is censoring.

    January 1, 2010:
    China: Reaffirms Plans to "Purify" the Internet

    Says crackdown on online pornography is part of overall effort to preserve "national long-term stability," build a "harmonious socialist society," and prevent the "poisoning of young people's physical and mental health," but most likely is all about strengthening its grip on the what could be a dangerous conduit for threatening images and ideas.

    As part of that effort it says that it intends to create a "blacklist" that will provide "timely information about foreign propaganda, radio and television, publishing and other areas for their disposal."

    http://www.zeropaid.com/news/87485/china-reaffirms-plans-to-purify-the-internet/

  7. Control on the internet by gaoming1978 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    As a native Chinese, I really don't think that the reason to crackdown on online pornography is for the health of the children. The internet seems to be the only media where the voice of criticism on the Chinese govenment could be heard, since the newspaper and T.V. station are firmly controlled by the Communist Party of China. The discussion on the social affairs on the internet may have some pressure on the government. Although the morality of the Chinese tradition mertis the virginity of Woman, the openings for 30 years changed the tradition thoughts very much. Currently, it was not regraded as a merit in lots area in China. I agree that opinion the reason is of strengthing the control on the internet in China.