To call China’s methods of censorship and spying online proffesional would be oversimplification.¬† What they employ are the most sophisticated methods of denying citizens access to a free web.¬† Tibetan sites or sites that support the Tibetan government are inaccessible in China, due to blocking that it is now emerging that China has taking this a notch higher by engaging in cyber snooping of the Dalai Lama’s office.

Apparently his staff had sent an email to a foreign diplomat to arrange a meeting, but before they could follow up with a phone call, the Chinese government had contacted the diplomat and warned him against attenting the meet.¬† Further investigation have now revealed that the Chinese government has been snooping on the Dalai Lama’s office for sometime now.network of infected computers which lets its Chinese operators see, hear and search whatever is stored or connected to that network, infected computers include some in The Associated Press in Britain, Deloitte and Touche in New York and Ministries and Foreign Embassies around the world.

The two reports, one issued by University of Toronto’s Munk Cetre for International Studies and another for the Univesity of Cambridge Computer Laboratory are both not very clear on the Chinese government’s involvement in this network dubbed “GhostNet” but point to the subtle presence of the government’s hand in this nefarious activities.

The Chinese government through its New York Consulate spokesman have denied any role in “GhostNet” or its operations saying that they strictly forbid cyber crime, I dont know about you but here at CPB we take such statements with a pinch of salt

Not satisfied with the crackdown on major western news sites including, BBC, VOA and The New York Times, China has decide to go after search engines next.  It is doing so to crackdown on child pornography and other material that could poison young peoples minds.

While blocking child pornography is important, China’s blocking and filtering actions have in the past been known to go beyond this to include disident blogs and sites.¬† AP reports that the exercise will be to ‘purify the Internet’s cultural environment and protect the healthy development of minors‘

According to the Chinese Government Google and Baidu, China’s most used search engines have failed to take appropriate measures to combat these issues.

CPB hopes that this is not just another attempt at stifling online freedoms.

Guo Quan

Guo Quan was arrested yesterday, 13th November by the Chinese authorities, for inciting subversion.  This stems from some of his blog posts where he exhorts the Chinese government to embrace democracy.  He is currently being held at an Nanjing prison.

Gou had previously been arrested on 18th May when he was held for 10 days, during which he was interrogated and asked to name other dissidents, which he did not.  The ruling Communist party also tried to break down a network he had started from victims of the eartquake that recently struck China.

Guo has been under house arrest since February, after calling for  the creation of a Chinese Netizen Party to fight the online censorship in China.  The Chinese government in cahoots with the search engine Google, has ensured that any search for his name in the Chinese language version yields no results, which led Guo on 4th Febrauary to state that he intended to sue Google.

Since being fired from his job, as a philosophy professor at Nanjing University, Guo has been posting pro-democracy open letters on his blog

Update:

Jill Tan, Asia Representative from Apple Inc. informs us that iTunes in China is now working. 

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As athletes downloaded the album “Songs for Tibet” from the iTunes store, in support of the Tibet cause,(the music is also good BTW), China retaliated by blocking the iTunes store in China, anybody who wanted to access the store got a error message.

The Apple Support forums were inundated by complaints by iTunes accounts holders in
China and here is a response one of them got from Apple support. 

My name is Bryan and I understand that you have not been able to connect to the iTunes store for the last couple days and that you are concerned that it would be an issue withChina blocking the iTunes store. I’m sorry to hear that and I’m happy to assist you with this today.

ITunes is not being blocked in China from our end, but access to the iTunes Store IS restricted in some areas inChina. This would also explain why it’s happening to your friends there as well.

I would advise that you contact your ISP about this matter. Please also note though that accessing the US iTunes Store outside of the geographic region of the United States is not supported, and that attempting to access it while inChina is at your own risk.The iTunes Store Sales and Service Policies are available for you to review:

Terms of Sale
http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/sales.html Terms of Service
http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/service.htmlThank you for being a valued iTunes Store customer. I hope that you have found the above information helpful and that you have a great day!Kind Regards,

Bryan
iTunes Store Customer Support  

Funny thing is that, according to China.org, the official government information site it is the Chinese citizens who are offended by the songs of Tibet album and they are the ones who want iTunes shut down,

A music album advocating “Tibetan independence” recently available for paid download on iTunes has ignited strong indignation among Chinese netizens.

According to Chinanews.com, the angry netizens are rallying together to denounce Apple in offering “Songs for Tibet” for purchase. They have also expressed a wish to ban the album’s singers and producers, most notably Sting, John Mayer and Dave Matthews, from entering China.

Many people have made remarks on online forums to express their anger, even those who have been fans of the artists in the past.

Some say they will boycott all Apple products from now on, including the popular iPhone, which is not available in China since negotiations among Apple, China Mobile and China Unicom broke down

This is completely opposite of what is happening at the apple support forums it seems to be a case of the Chinese authorities are continuing with their habit of blocking sites.

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We are trying to get word from Apple and will update you once we receive it.

h/t to informationweek

Reporters Without Borders has released a detailed 17-page .pdf report on Chinese Internet censorship efforts. (via Google Blogoscoped – thanks, Marshall)

“The government monitors the Internet by means of a skilful mix of filtering technologies, cyberpolice surveillance and propaganda, in all of which China invests massively,” the report says. It then details intersecting lines of authority that help to keep the Chinese Internet a less than open environment. The fascinating aspect of this story is the banality of it all. The most populous country in the world is kept in halter by the use of weekly meetings between departments and ministries and memos issued to Internet companies.

It makes an afternoon trip to the Internal Revenue Service or the Department of Motor Vehicles seem like a burst of song in comparison.

Another element of interest is the cooperation of an anonymous Internet company. It’s great that one is helping in this report. It would be of greater utility were this company and is competitors willing to speak out publicly and band together to push back against the censorship trend.

Nart Villeneuve, an Internet censorship researcher, points out that the recent Associated Press article on the cartoon police officers of the Chinese Internet left out an important element of the story. Jingjing and Chacha, as they are called, are there to “help” people when they encounter so-called inappropriate materials.

Nart quotes a story by the official Chinese news agency, Xinhua.

Dong Lin, chief technology officer of Xirang, a Beijing-based hosting service provider, said police have mobilized all forces, from China Netcom, the country’s second largest fixed-line operator, to information security companies such as Symantec, to jointly combat online harmful information.

Symantec is a U.S. company that produces anti-virus and filtering software. It is also a company firmly in the ranks of those companies, built in democracies, that feel quietly confident helping repressive regimes thrive.