China defends right to censor Web sites

Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said Tuesday that certain Web sites had breached Chinese law by recognizing "two Chinas" - a reference to the self-ruled island Taiwan.

Liu, however, wouldn't say whether any Web sites had been censored.

"Undeniably, on some Web sites, there are some issues that go against Chinese law. For example, some Web sites are actually creating two countries - that is one China, one Taiwan. They treat Taiwan as an independent country, which is against our law of anti-secessionism," he said during a regularly scheduled press conference, without naming the organizations.

Beijing still claims sovereignty over the self-ruled island and has repeatedly warned any attempt at a permanent split could trigger a devastating conflict.

The British Broadcasting Corp. reported Tuesday that China appears to have banned a number of foreign Web sites recently, including its Chinese language news site and Voice of America in Chinese.

The sites had been unblocked after journalists attending the Beijing Olympics complained that the government was censoring sites deemed sensitive, the BBC said on its Web site.

China routinely blocks Web sites that contain sensitive topics such as Tibet or its spiritual leader the Dalai Lama. However, during the August Olympics Beijing opened up access to sites typically banned in order to appease the international community.

The Committee to Protect Journalists blasted Chinese authorities for apparently returning to media restrictions.

"It's clear that China has no intention of fulfilling the hopes it raised when it was awarded the 2008 Olympic Games that the Chinese media universe would enter a period of expansion," said Bob Dietz, the group's Asia program coordinator, in a statement.

"Instead, all we have seen is a continuation of the same narrow policies of official resistance and restriction of foreign and local media," he said.

China - with the largest number of Internet users in the world, more than 250 million - has put in place a sophisticated system to police Web sites for sensitive material.

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