China to further tighten its online controls

China will further tighten its internet regulations with a pledge on Sunday to strengthen controls over search engines and online news portals, the latest step in Chinese President Xi Jinping’s push to maintain strict Communist Party control over content.

Xi has made China’s “cyber sovereignty” a top priority in his sweeping campaign to bolster security. He has also reasserted the ruling Communist Party’s role in limiting and guiding online discussion.

The five-year cultural development and reform plan released by the party and State Council, or Cabinet, calls for a “perfecting” of laws and rules related to the internet.

That includes a qualification system for people working in online news, according to the plan, carried by the official Xinhua news agency.

“Strike hard against online rumours, harmful information, fake news, news extortion, fake media and fake reporters,” it said, without giving details.

Efforts will be made to improve the communication abilities of major news websites and online radio and TV stations and develop a system for communication on the mobile internet. Newspapers and magazine resources should also be merged or reorganised and news and publishing organisations with long-term financial and operational difficulties should be shut down or revamped, according to the outline.