In China private-sector initiatives are often put out of business by other local projects that have tighter connections with authorities - especially state-owned enterprises. Could the same be happening to blogs? Lets hope not.

Danwei reports that three of the top Chinese-language blogs vanished today.

Let’s start with a quote from Liu Zhengrong, deputy chief of the Internet Affairs Bureau of the State Council Information Office, recently published in the China Daily:

Liu … also said Chinese people can access the Web freely, except when blocked from “a very few” foreign websites whose contents mostly involve pornography or terrorism.

This morning, three of China’s best blogs, obviously written by terrorists and pornographers, were deleted.

Two of the disappeared blogs are Massage Milk and Milk Pig, hosted on Yculblog.com. Both blogs currently display the following message:

Due to unavoidable reasons with which everyone is familiar, this blog is temporarily closed.

However, blogs by state-approved NPC delegates have been launched and will surely replace the biting commentary of the now-deleted sites. Here’s an excerpt from an NPC delegate’s blog, it’s not for the faint of heart:

I’m very happy to be able to communicate with internet users through the People’s Daily ‘Strengthen the Country’ blogging platform. As a CPPCC committee member, one must always remember one’s historical responsibility to reflect the interests of the people, to enlighten the people, and to try one’s utmost to promote economic development, fairness and rectitude, and societal harmony.

AsiaPundit is also noticing that China Digital Times is currently unavailable.

Technorati Tags: censorship, china, east asia, northeast asia