Thursday, 27 January 2000
\BEIJING (AP) - China extended its vague state secrets law
to the Internet, ordering companies to register software used
to transmit sensitive data and threatening punishment for any
government secrets sent to the Web.
The regulations, announced yesterday, could scare off foreign
firms eager to tap China's booming Internet market. They also
underscore the communist leadership's ambivalent desire to exploit
the Internet for business while constricting information considered
threatening to its rule.
All, from Internet sites to chat-room users, must gain approval
from agencies protecting government secrets before publishing
previously unreleased information on the Web, according to the
States Secrecy Bureau regulations released in the People's Daily.
``It's like saying you want to develop railroads and then throwing
down a different gauge track not used anywhere else in the world,''
said William Soileau, an information technology lawyer with Denton
Hall in Beijing.
Perhaps most chilling for business are regulations requiring companies
and individuals to register with the government, by Monday, all
software used to protect transfers of sensitive information. They
require companies to hand over the serial numbers and list the
employees using the software, possibly making it easier for the
government to track use.
So-called encryption software is used to prevent prying into everything
from electronic mail to banking settlements. Popular products
like Netscape Web browsers contain encryption software, as do
some Microsoft products.
China passed the regulations quietly in October. But the foreign
business community became alarmed when the commission published
a follow-up directive in November.
That order said that foreign companies wishing to sell products
using encryption software - such as programs that operate Web
sites - would have to submit the source code, or software blueprints.
Software deemed unacceptable would have to be replaced with Chinese
encryption software.
``This can potentially compromise the trade secrets of companies,''
said Jay Hu of the United States Information Technology Office,
an industry lobbying group.
The clampdown also highlights government fears about the use of
encrypted communications by political dissidents and the banned
Falun Gong spiritual movement. Falun Gong followers have used
e-mail and the Internet to meet and hold protests in defiance
of a six-month ban.
Chinese Web sites have displayed a liveliness unfound in the traditional
and wholly state-controlled media. In recent months, Web sites
have carried reports on tests of a new submarine-launched missile
and a wide-ranging corruption scandal that has threatened to ensnare
a senior party leader - both unreported by official media.
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