Add Beijing limit Internet access

HONG KONG - China's Ministry of Health on Thursday ordered sharp restrictions on access to the Internet for medical research papers on sexual topics. This is the latest move in what the Ministry requires a antipornography campaign that many experts see China as an anchorman in a wider crackdown on freedom of expression and dissent.

In the past month, central government officials cited the need to monitor the ordering of pornography that filtering software is preinstalled on all new computers sold in China starting on 1 July.

They also forced Google to disable a feature that allows you to search terms and to propose on Wednesday night even briefly blocked access nationwide main Google search engine and other services such as Gmail. Some users are still problems with access Google on Thursday evening.

In addition, Chinese bloggers say they have found evidence of concerted efforts to stain the Google image. They say that someone in Beijing manipulated Google software to be more likely to suggest pornographic search term in the state television.

At the same time, the government seems to have stepped up harassment of human rights defenders.

Liu Xiaobo, China is one of the best-known dissidents, was officially arrested Tuesday for suspected subversion, six months after he was detained for involvement of other intellectuals in signing a document calling for democracy. This month, the authorities refused to renew a license more than a dozen lawyers agreed to the representation of clients in the field of human rights.

The same public safety agencies to be entrusted with the fight against pornography are responsible for the suppression of illegal political activities, said Nicholas Bequelin, a researcher in Hong Kong for Human Rights Watch. Government statistics for the illegal seizure of publications tend to include both pornographic and political documents, he noted.

"Both are closely linked," said Mr. Bequelin. "These campaigns work hand in hand."

Emphasis on pornography reflects a similar procedure at the end of 2005 and early 2006, say rights advocates.

At that time, seeking to dispel concerns about the official Chinese pornography, Google created a new search engine for Google.cn, its Chinese service, which would not stop referring to the politically delicate subjects such as Falun Gong, banned spiritual movement, or the 1989 killings in and around the square Tiananmen.

While denouncing pornography, propaganda officials reined in publications that were challenging government policies. This included the conclusion of freezing, a popular journal of news and views, and the replacement of three top editors at other publications.

Posted by Ministry of Health this week requiring health information providers restrict access to articles on sexual topics. The penalty for infringement is up to $ 4,400, which have the potential for criminal prosecution for offenses uncorrected model.

At a press conference on Thursday, a Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, has been quick to criticize Google allowing too many links to sites uncomely, saying, "It is every government has a duty to protect their teenagers from porn and obscene information on the Internet."

On Wednesday, U.S. Secretary of commerce, F. Gary Locke and Ron Kirk, United States of America agent, a letter to Chinese officials, protesting the country with the proposal that all computers sold in the country must be equipped with filtering software.

"China is putting the company in an untenable position that requires, with virtually no public notice, to preinstall the software that appears to have broad-based implications of censorship and network security issues," Mr Locke said in a statement. Government of the United States not release the text of the letter.

He asked about the complaint on Thursday, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman said only that in the past defended the decision required software.

Google said Thursday that he tried to restrict access to pornography.

"Google is working to eliminate pornography from our search results in China, in accordance with our operating license there," said the company.

"This was the main engineering work," said the company ", and we believe that we have addressed many of the problems identified by the government."

The government started stepping up the pressure on Google last week. CCTV, the state-owned television monopoly, broadcasting an interview in which the reporter entered the word "son" into Google and was appalled that one of the search terms proposed in the Chinese was "abnormal relationship between mother and son."

Google software allows to analyze the frequency and source of search terms. During the inspection on Thursday, the Google Web site showed that none had entered the words "abnormal relationship of mother and son" in China for several months until it suddenly became a popular phrase written in Beijing in the days before the show, which is more likely to pop as suggested search terms.

Same CCTV show included an interview with a young man, which are identified as a college student, who expressed horror at pornography on the Internet. Chinese bloggers already identified the man as an intern for CCTV.

Many of the Chinese supposedly aimed at the control of illegal sexual activity could also be used to limit the political activities unacceptable to the authorities.

For example, Chinese law requires that the karaoke bars, night clubs and Internet cafes to be monitored 24 hours a day via closed-circuit television cameras on the grounds that prostitutes trying to find clients for these sites. But according to security industry executives, China's anti-prostitution regulations are stricter supervision on internet cafes.

While the karaoke bars and night clubs are obliged to store their video entries on its premises, Internet café, must be wired to the nearest police station and to ensure immediate and continuous record, which is using the computer. If e-mail message from a computer cafe later catches the attention of investigators, the police can see the video records to see who was using a computer.

The last big crackdown on pornography and political expression lasted for several months and began to retreat in February 2006, after dozens of former Communist Party officials and senior scholars issued a public letter denouncing the closing of a significant news magazine.

But since the government won some significant concessions. Not only does Google have agreed to the removal of high political content of its Chinese service, but Microsoft has disabled certain blogs critical activities in China, and Yahoo had handed over the identity of e-mail users who shared a propaganda directive, the user was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

Edward Wong contributed reporting from Beijing. Zhang Jing and Huang Yuanxi contributed research from Beijing, and Hilda Wang in Hong Kong.