China Bans Military Personnel From Blogging

eldavojohn writes "China has banned all 2.3M members of its military from blogging — even personal, non-military blogs. From the announcement of the new regulation: 'Soldiers cannot open blogs on the Internet no matter (whether) he or she does it in the capacity of a soldier or not. The Internet is complicated and we should guard against online traps.' While the official word seems to not be translated to English yet, the same apparently goes for websites or homepages owned by soldiers; there is no indication as to whether or not this applies to sites like Facebook or Renren (which the USMC bans). Similarly, as of 2007, the US requires active duty soldiers to clear any posting with a superior officer, and Israel had to cancel an operation due to a Facebook status update. A military blog aggregating site claims only a few Chinese military blogs indexed, but it looks like as of June 15 that list may have shortened."

Comments

USMC

[allcaps]

To clear any ambiguity, the USMC does not forbid Marines from using Facebook or any other social Networking site. They only disallow access on their own INTRAnet.

"The ban ... only applies to Marine Corps networks and computers, allowing Marines to access the sites on their own computers or at Internet cafes." -tinyurl.com/nnymlj [cnn.com]

not just blogging. going to internet cafe is no no

[Anonymous Coward]

it's a much wider ban than not blogging.

active service men and women cannot not go to internet cafe, apply for job online or go online dating etc.

MoD China website (of course its in chinese) rules of internal affairs

http://www.mod.gov.cn/policy/2010-06/07/content_4162971_25.htm

well, don't know how strict it's goingt o be obeyed though. other rules include to have 8 hours' sleep everyday. don't think you get into trouble for a sleepless night :)

Re:Not Surprising

[WindBourne]

First, the fixed currency has NOTHING to do with helping trade between 'partners'. It is SOLELY about making imports cheap. As it is, they are REQUIRED by CLinton's accord as well as IMF to free their money. It should have been moving freely since 2003 (4?). That is why all large nations and increasingly a number of smaller countries are gripping. A number of economists say that it is undervalued by 40%. Increasingly, more are saying upwards of 100% undervalued. That is NOT about 'stabilization'. Only a fool or an out and out liar would make such a statement.

I never said that a monarchy was better than a totalitarian system. Far from it. However, SA is far friendlier to their citizens than is the chinese leadership. Yes, America does spend more on the military. So what? This conversation was about CHINA, not about USA. And all of what I said is trivial to prove. Google it for yourself.