At a meeting of top Communist Party leaders chaired by President Hu Jintao, officials were told to build ‘an Internet culture with Chinese characteristics,’ and to ‘curb the spread of decadent and backward ideological and cultural material online.’ This as reported by the official Xinhua News Agency. The report did not quote President Hu Jintao directly or specify the types of offensive material that creates the problem.
Hu has made improving moral education a signature theme of his administration.
In January, the government ordered prime time television programming this year to be ‘ethically inspiring’ and Internet regulators were told to promote a ‘healthy online culture’ to protect the government’s stability.
The Chinese government promotes Internet use for education and business, but tries to block the public from seeing material online that is deemed subversive or pornographic. Nudity, profanity, illegal gambling and pirated music, books and film have proliferated on Chinese servers despite the controls.
Xinhua said Communist Party committees, government officials at all levels and cultural institutions would all be expected to step up management of the Internet and make it more civilized. It can be done but it will require an immense amount of effort and a lot of investment to make it work.
China’s online population grew by 23.4% last year to 137 million people, about 10% of its 1.3 billion population. The figure puts China on track to surpass the U.S. in the next two years as the nation with the most Internet users.
Source: TMC Net