Xiamen to tighten internet controls

Xiamen in southeastern Fujian province is preparing to require internet users in the city to use their real names when posting messages on online forums and blogs, the Financial Times reported. The move appears to be in response to the internet's role in organizing demonstrations that scuttled plans to build a US$1.4 billion plant to produce chemical feedstock near the city. Beijing has considered similar rules on blogs and message boards but appears to have delayed them, the newspaper reported. Xiamen's rules would go beyond the wide-ranging controls already imposed by the central government. "After the opposition (to) the PX project, the (city) government felt that it should have some control over web content," Tian Feng, deputy head of the municipal Industry and Commerce Bureau, told local media.