Shanghai - China on Wednesday defended its controls on news and other websites
partially or wholly blocked by the government, after exaggerated reports that
it had substantially lifted blocks on US media and other sites.
Previously blocked websites including the Washington Post, the BBC and CNN were
accessible on Wednesday but news stories on China and other Asian nations
remained blocked.
"It is the general practice in all countries that there are limits to
internet access," Vice Foreign Minister Wang Guangya said in Shanghai,
where some 10 000 officials and 3 000 journalists are attending Asia Pacific
Economic Co-operation (APEC) meetings this week.
Human rights websites, such as those of Amnesty International and the New
York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, were completely blocked.
APEC China spokesperson Zhang Qiyue also defended China's stance, saying the
internet brought many benefits but some "negative effects".
China said earlier this year that it would intensify its crackdown against
crimes involving internet security.
Regulations issued last November restrict on-line news and make website
operators responsible for statements on chatrooms and bulletin boards.
Last month a court in southern China jailed a 50-year-old lawyer for three
years for forwarding "reactionary" emails to 12 friends, the Hong
Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said.
Nine members of the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement were also jailed in
January for between two and six years for downloading and distributing material
from the internet. - DPA