China Blocks New York Times Web Site

Unclear If Move Was Meant To Filter Specific Content Or Simply Reassert Gov't Censorship Powers

(AP)  China has blocked access to The New York Times' Web site, the newspaper said Saturday, days after the central government defended its right to censor online content it deems illegal.

Computer users who logged on in Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou received a message that the site was not available when they tried to connect on Friday morning, the paper said. Some users were cut off as early as Thursday evening, it said.

The Web site remained inaccessible from Beijing Saturday.

It was not clear whether the move was meant to block specific content on the newspaper's Web site or whether it was a return to stricter censorship of the Internet in general. Beijing loosened some media and Internet controls during the 2008 Summer Olympics - gestures that were meant to show the international community that the games had brought greater freedom to the Chinese people.

A spokesman for the Foreign Ministry said it does not deal with Web sites. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which regulates the Internet, could not be reached for comment.

Earlier this week, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao defended China's right to censor Web sites that have material deemed illegal by the government, saying that other countries regulate Internet usage, too.

During the August games, China allowed access to long-barred Web sites such as those of the British Broadcasting Corp. and Human Rights Watch after an outcry from foreign reporters who complained that Beijing was failing to live up to its pledges of greater media freedom.

The New York Times said Beijing had blocked the Chinese-language Web site of the BBC, and Web sites of Voice of America, Asiaweek, and Ming Pao, a Hong Kong newspaper, earlier in the week. But apart from Ming Pao, the sites were all accessible Friday, it said.

Ming Pao's online site was still inaccessible Saturday in Beijing.

China has the most online users in the world with more than 250 million, but it has also put in place a sophisticated system to police Web sites for sensitive material and routinely blocks sites that support Tibetan independence or the region's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

A spokeswoman for The Times, Catherine J. Mathis, told the paper that there did not appear to be a technical issue. Users in Japan, Hong Kong, and the U.S. were also not experiencing difficulties, the paper said.

[lilly1232]

Before they are done China will be remaning this country.

[lochlan-2009]

And China is doing their first Naval deployment, for the good of course, to the Atlantic to stop the pirates. Americans with their heads up their assses.

[flsunjnky]

Yea, and bring those jobs back to America.

[gogam]

The best way to influence China is by arranging the country''s leaders and leading party to lose "face" (a kind of disrespect similar to shame) if they fail to accomplish something. They will listen when topics influences their internal economic problems, national unity issues, their reputation on the global stage and other soft indirect approaches. Hardliners need not apply.

[gogam]

@ OneworldUSA:

You don''t understand economics and don''t understand globalization which EVERY company must face in order to survive. Do you shop at Wal-mart? Do you buy Japanese goods? Do you buy German goods? I can go on. All these other countries have their manufacturing bases in China, Taiwan, Thailand, Malaysia,etc. It''s all intertwined. Linked like a chainmail.
Spare us your boycotting diatribes. You just dont get it.
Unless you live alone in the woods and have no outside contact then you can suggest other Americans to boycott and make their choices similar to you. Otherwise, you''re a hypocrite.
Companies exist to do what? Answer that question? Who benefits? Taxes, wages, pensions, donations, charities...do you think these all can exist WITHOUT PROFITS?

[oneworldusa]

I suggest we declare that we ban melamine and lead from China. In fact, while corporate CEOs might be happy to utilize cheap labor in China to produce their inferior goods to pad their own pockets so they can SELL to Americans but not EMPLOY them, WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE? Why is Washington allowing US companies to do business in a Communist nation?

Chinese goods have killed our pets, poisoned our children and even killed their own. When are people going to finally stop buying goods with the Made in China label?

[blackyowe]

That is pretty rotten.

[terrorislame]

More than likely the NYT is way to liberal for the Chinese.

Posted by ken1dall at 05:38 PM : Dec 21, 2008
Yes,Newspapers help liberate people,...It is a way for the Chinese people to read about and practice human rights as we know them.
( BTW,I think they meant " too liberal ",but,they are probably a product of ShrubCo. or Rushpharm thinking,..)

[barbaram99]

That is a NANNY govt that won''t let the people think for themselves. They have no rights. Sad.

[harp1963]

The only reason we have free trade with this garbage communist nation (thanks for more good leadership George Bush) is so people that already have hundreds of millions of dollars in the bank can have more by building American factories in China to use their slave labor, pollute all they want, and destroy the country, America, that gave them the opportunity to prosper in the first place.