Big Brother mentality

China this week revised upward its growth rate for 1979-2004 by an additional 0.2 percentage points, in accordance with the findings of its first national economic survey. That brought the annual average to 9.6 per cent. But while the economy is expanding at an explosive pace, the government fears that the internet and other technologies may make control of an increasingly restive population more difficult than ever.

The central government is enlisting the help of foreign corporations to police speech and free expression on the Web, while they continue a crackdown on the news media.

Two weeks ago, with the help of Microsoft, the government shut down a popular Chinese-language blog maintained by journalist Zhao Jing , a research assistant for The New York Times, who used the pen name Michael An Ti. The site had recently criticised the firing of top editors at the Beijing News, a newspaper known for its aggressive reporting.

The dismissal prompted 100 journalists at the paper to go on strike, calling for the reinstatement of its editor, Yang Bin . Yang and two of his deputies were suddenly removed after the paper published stories on the cover-up of a massive benzene chemical spill in the Songhua River.

At Beijing's request, Microsoft's weblog service censors terms such as 'democracy' and 'human rights'. But Microsoft is by no means the only technology company that bows to government pressure and says it has to abide by mainland law. China has an army of censors whose job it is to monitor the internet.

Last year, Yahoo was the target of sharp criticism after it acknowledged providing information that was used against reporter Shi Tao of Contemporary Business News, in Hunan province . Shi was accused of 'divulging state secrets abroad'. He had sent information to foreign websites about government preparations for the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.

China has succeeded in blocking virtually all Taiwanese news websites. However, the campaign to maintain ideological orthodoxy extends far beyond the media. Last autumn, Beijing issued rules prohibiting bloggers and other online publishers from posting anything that 'goes against state security and the public interest'.