1,600 internet cafes closed in China
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The Chinese local governments have closed 1600 Internet cafes and fined operators a total of 100m yuan ($12m) between February and August this year.
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Internet users in Beijing and Shanghai said attempts to access Google&#160;and other search engines were successful Friday, despite claims on a U.S. blog that traffic to these&#160;sites was redirected&#160;to Chinese search engine Baidu.com.The claim first surfaced on TechCrunch, a U.S. blog that largely covers Internet startups before being picked up by other sites. The headline of that post alleged &quot;Baidu hijacking Google traffic In China,&quot; but offered no evidence to prove the claim apart from an undated, modified screenshot showing Baidu&#39;s Web page below the URL for Google Blogsearch.In a follow-up post, TechCrunch said &quot;new reports have surfaced that would indicate that China has unilaterally blocked all three major search engines in China and is redirecting all requests to Baidu.&quot; That report cited posts on other blogs, where users claimed to have been redirected from U.S. search sites to Baidu.A Google spokeswoman in Beijing did not immediately respond to an e-mail seeking comment.However, several Internet users -- four in Beijing and two in Shanghai -- reported on Friday morning that search engines operated by Google, Yahoo, and Microsoft, including Google Blogsearch, one of the sites reportedly most affected, were accessible. Attempts to reach these sites had not been redirected to Baidu, they said.Internet censorship is a serious problem in China, and regulators routinely&#160;block access to sites&#160;with content they don&#39;t like. But Chinese officials very rarely comment on censorship efforts, making it difficult for users to determine when a site has been blocked or is inaccessible for other reasons.Timing can be an important factor, with Chinese censors blocking access to some Web sites around politically sensitive dates, such as the June 4 anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen massacre and the Chinese Communist Party Congress, a political confab held once every five years to choose top leaders and set policy that is now underway in Beijing.Access to a search engine can also be blocked if a user searches for a politically sensitive word, such as a search for information on the banned Falungong religious sect.Tracking the ebb and flow of censorship efforts can be a challenge, as access to sites can be blocked and opened, seemingly by whim. On Wednesday, Wikipedia remained blocked in China and access to YouTube was shut off. But censors eased off on other sites, opening up access to Google&#39;s Blogspot blogging service and permitting users to view pictures on Flickr, which had been blocked even though the site was accessible in China.Even when Web sites are accessible in China, there can be moments when sites cannot be reached. For example, one of the Chinese Internet users in Beijing contacted for this story said he was unable to reach Google.com three days ago. Attempts to reach the site were not redirected to Baidu, and Google has been accessible during the last couple of days, he said.While the Chinese government may not be redirecting search-engine traffic to Baidu, censors did this in 2002, just before the previous Party Congress opened in Beijing. At that time, censors cut off access to Google and redirected traffic to several local search engines, including Baidu. However, the rerouting did not affect all users and did not appear to be done at a national level, analysts said at that time.&#160;
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InfoWorld - The Chinese government will not approve licenses for new Internet cafes this year as part of a move intended to strengthen government control over the popular Internet access points.
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A controversial Starbucks coffee shop in the Forbidden City, the former imperial palace at the heart of Beijing, has closed its doors, Beijing newspapers reported on Saturday.
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CHINA has closed 1,600 internet cafes and fined operators a total of 100 million yuan (Â£6.5m) for letting children play violent games and for other violations, the government revealed yesterday.
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China said it would issue new rules cracking down on âundesirableâ elements of online games amid fears of growing Internet addiction as the number of players soars.
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The Chinese governmentâs censorship of some Web sites with no discernible political content has fostered a backlash among Internet users.
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China is shutting dozens of polluting petrol stations in Beijing six months ahead of the Olympics.
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China Unicom, the nation's second-largest mobile phone carrier, plans to open up to 3,000 Internet cafes by the end of the year, state media said.
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Inspectors are cracking down on Internet cafes that operate without a license or that let children play violent games meant for adults, the Chinese Ministry of Culture said.
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China shut 1,600 Internet cafes between February and August and imposed 100 million yuan ($12.1 million) worth of fines for allowing children to play violent or adult-only games and other violations, state media has said.
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Funny money no longer such a joke House of Cards Although the Chinese government recently announced a purifying moratorium on internet cafes â the same week the Communist Youth League penned a contract with leading gaming developer Playtech to provide software for large scale internet-based gambling tournaments â the cadres in Beijing know that internet cafes are only an embodiment of something much larger and more threatening, according to the Financial Times.â¦
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BEIJING - China will not allow any new Internet cafes to open this year, state media reported Tuesday.
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China has closed 1,600 Internet cafes and fined operators a total of $12 million for letting children play violent games and for other violations, the government said Saturday.
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BEIJING: China shut 1600 internet cafes between February and August and imposed 100 million yuan ($NZ18 million) worth of fines for allowing children to play violent or adult-only games and other violations, state media say.
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China has suffered "massive" losses of state secrets through the Internet, a senior official said, as China faces reports that it has raided the computer networks of Western powers.
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A Chinese government Web site  encouraging citizens to report corruption crashed on its first  day under the weight of too many hits.