CHINA-INTERNAL: PROPAGANDA CONTROLS
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The state-owned China Telecom in a letter to corporate customers seen by The Associated Press, said virtual private networks (VPN), which create encrypted links between computers and can be used to see sites blocked by Beijing’s web filters, will be permitted only to connect to a company’s headquarters abroad. The letter said VPN users were barred from linking to other sites outside China – a change that might block access to news, social media or business services that are obscured by its “Great Firewall”. It repeats an announcement from January 2017 that only VPNs approved by Chinese authorities are allowed. In January, regulators had announced a crackdown to stamp out the use of VPNs to circumvent web censorship, but also tried to reassure companies that they won’t be affected. It was unclear how many companies received China Telecom’s letter. The American and European Chambers of Commerce in Beijing said their members had not reported receiving it. Companies cite internet controls as among the biggest obstacles to doing business in China. China's Information Ministry, in a statement reported last week in the Shanghai newspaper, The Paper, tried to reassure commercial users saying “Foreign trade enterprises and multinational companies that need a cross-border line for their own office use can lease one from an authorised telecoms enterprise,” and the January notice “will not affect normal operations”.
In a survey by the American Chamber of Commerce in China last year, 79 per cent of companies that responded said web filters hurt them by blocking access to information and business tools. |