John Gittings
Guardian

Thursday September 27, 2001

Britain has appealed to China to lift its ban on internet access to the BBC website, but the rules under which Beijing blocks a number of foreign media sites remain as obscure as ever. Access to http://www.bbc.co.uk/, blocked for several years, was lifted for a day last week and then re-blocked. At least four previously unviewable US media sites were "liberated" at the same time.Denis McShane, the Foreign Office's parliamentary under-secretary responsible for Asian affairs, who was visiting Beijing at the time, has appealed to China to end the BBC ban.He raised the problem while discussing the international crisis with vice foreign minister Wang Guangya. "I logged on to AOL," he told Wang, "to send a birthday greeting to my daughter, and then tried to call up the BBC site. I was very surprised to find it blocked - although I had no difficulty accessing the New York Times."Wang said he would look into it - the standard reply given to British protests.The ban on the New York Times was lifted last month, after the issue had been raised in July by the paper's editors during an interview with President Jiang Zemin. President Jiang also professed ignorance and said he would look into the matter.China's Ministry of Public Security, responsible for internet control, has never commented on why it blocks foreign websites.Some observers have suggested that the ministry enforces the ban partly to embarrass the more outgoing Ministry of Foreign Affairs.Another theory is that a token selection of foreign media are blocked to satisfy old-guard Communist Party leaders who have no idea of the potential number.Proxy servers are widely used in China but the more popular ones are also liable to become blocked.A more practical reason for blocking the BBC site is that it allows access to both text and audio versions of its Chinese-language service. Other sites appear to be blocked because they are well known and carry a larger volume of China-related material.The four US sites unblocked on or around September 19 - at the same time the BBC became temporarily accessible - included the Washington Post, Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Boston Globe.A week later, the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times could not be accessed, but the other two papers remained free.Last week's temporary lifting, one diplomat suggested, could be a trial run for a more general easing next month when a big Asia-Pacific conference is held in Shanghai - with President Bush scheduled to attend.There have been similar variations previously in the list of blocked foreign media, particularly during 1998 when Bill Clinton visited China.The high-profile Voice of America, CNN and Time magazine and most human rights organisations including Amnesty International stay permanently in the Chinese webdog-house.In another example of haphazard Chinese blocking, the banned Falun Gong religious sect cannot be searched for either under this name or under the related name of Falun Dafa. However, the name of its controversial founder, Li Hongzhi, for whom China has unsuccessfully sought an Interpol warrant, is unblocked. Articles on the Falun Gong can be located easily on the official People's Daily and other Chinese media websites.And what about other British media websites? One must hope it is not tempting fate to draw attention to their accessibility now.