China restores blocks on foreign websites

According to New York Times and BBC news reports, the Chinese government has begun to reinvigorate its filtration of foreign websites, including bans on BBC’s Chinese language website and Voice of America in Chinese. This censorship comes in the wake of a reduction in filtration during the Beijing Olympics.

In addition to BBC and Voice of America, other sites that have been blocked since early December include Hong Kong-based news sources Asiaweek and Ming Pao as well as Reporters without Borders.

A spokesman for China’s Foreign Ministry, Liu Jianchao, urged foreign websites to “comply with China’s concerns and do not do things contrary to Chinese law,” citing references to “two-Chinas” and mentions of China and Taiwan as separate regions as grounds for censorship.

Liu continued, stating that the Chinese government “needs to do the required management of websites based on the law, just as what other countries are doing.”

New York Times analysis correlates high levels of censorship with times of economic and political stress. This quarter’s slowing of the economy has led to high unemployment and growing social instability.

If the economy continues to decline, we should expect China's levels of censorship and internet security to increase in the coming year.