China this week announced new measures to further restrict its citizens' access to the Internet.
The 14-month campaign appears designed to crack down on the use of Web platforms and services unapproved by the government, and on virtual private networks, which can used to access those platforms and services covertly.While China's Internet network access services market is facing many development opportunities, there are signs of "disorderly development" that show the urgent need for regulation, the country's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology explained in a notice posted to a government website.
The coming "clean-up" of China's network access services will standardize the market, strengthen network information security management, and promote the healthy and orderly development of the country's Internet industry, the ministry noted.
In order to operate legally, Internet service providers, VPN providers, data centers and content delivery networks will have to obtain a license from the government and adhere to strict limitations.
Great Firewall
The clean-up also places severe new restrictions on cross-border business activities. It requires that government approval be obtained to create or lease lines, including VPN channels, to perform cross-border business activities.Those restrictions essentially will block any Chinese citizen from using a VPN -- basically, hiding their IP address and rerouting their connections to servers outside their country -- in order to access websites the government doesn't want them to see.
China is famous for controlling the information its citizens can see on the Internet with its "Great Firewall," which screens Internet traffic between China and the outside world. Any requests to see information Beijing deems inappropriate are sent to an Internet graveyard.
Among the 171 of the world's top 1,000 websites the Great Firewall blocks are Google, Facebook and Twitter, according to Greatfire.org, a censorship monitoring service. VPNs offer a way to get through the firewall, which is why the government wants to block them.
China also has taken a more proactive approach to dealing with websites that it doesn't like. It crafted a Great Cannon, which it uses to launch DDoS attacks on domains critical of Beijing