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Alert

Cybercafés threatened with closure in Beijing

**Updates IFEX alerts of 7 and 3 March, 26 January 2000 and 3 September 1999**

(RSF/IFEX) - In a 17 March 2000 letter to Beijing Mayor Liu Qi, RSF protested against threats by the municipality to close down cybercafés in the capital which do not monitor the web sites visited by their clientele. The decision comes less than two months after the Chinese government approved a new regulation permitting heavy jail sentences and fines for the publication of "state secrets" on the Internet. It could lead to the closure of many of the 1,000 cybercafés operating in Beijing. RSF asked the mayor to guarantee Chinese citizens free access to the Internet. Finally, the organisation reminded Liu that an Internet user, Qi Yanchen, is currently imprisoned in China.


According to information collected by RSF, the Beijing municipality announced on 16 March that cybercafés could be closed down if they did not monitor the web sites visited by their customers. A statement noted that using the Internet to visit pornographic web sites or to publish political information was prohibited. According to "China Daily", which published the news, the statement added that Internet users were not authorised to "take part in any activity that endangers public security, creates disorder or interferes with public rights and interests".