Call off the Congress! Cease the formation of the Internet Freedom Task Force. China’s internet censorship is completely in line with global norms.:

China has responded to international criticism of its internet regulations by saying its rules are “fully in line” with the rest of the world.

Government official Liu Zhengrong said western criticism of China’s internet censorship smacked of double standards.

He also said no one had been arrested just for writing online content.

According to a BBC correspondent in Beijing, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes, these assertions contrast sharply with a number of recent cases.

Several people are reported to have been jailed in recent years for posting information on the internet deemed subversive.

…

“After studying internet legislation in the West, I’ve found we basically have identical legislative objectives and principles,” Mr Liu was quoted as telling the state-run China Daily newspaper on Tuesday.

“It is unfair and smacks of double standards when (foreigners) criticise China for deleting illegal and harmful messages, while it is legal for US websites to do so,” he said.

He also said that only a “very few” foreign websites were blocked, and that was mostly because they contained pornography or terrorist information.

The BBC News website continues to be blocked in China.

And he insisted that “no one in China has been arrested simply because he or she said something on the internet”.

The above story is from the UK’s BBC, which is blocked in China. A version is also available in the China Daily which doesn’t have any of those snarky comments about jailed dissidents or blocked websites. AsiaPundit would have linked to the story on official state news agency Xinhua, but the as he visited the xinhuanet site he was distracted by the pictorial of “flat-chested beauties.”

It’s quite a good spread, although a little tame for Skinhua. Xinhua isn’t porn by any means - they usually digitize any naughty bits that show up in their pictorials (which generally seem to be reproduced without copyright). However, it still runs far racier photos than anything the BBC has on its website.

AsiaPundit wonders what it is that the Beeb has done to get banned in China. It certainly isn’t porn. It must be because of “terrorist information!” AsiaPundit is shocked.

AsiaPundit is completely against terrorism and when he is in Beijing next month he will track down Rupert Wingfield-Hayes and will head-butt that stinkin’ limey terrorist enabler.

For more: Imagethief, Danwei, Rebecca.

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