Chinese government will ban foreign media from publishing online in China

New regulations will also apply to films, music, and computer games.

Read the whole story

 

[scoobie]

It is odd that these are the consequences of a market "opening up". But you can see why the authorites there would be scared when they see the tax evading antics of Google, Starbucks and Amazon and more than dodgy data protection frameworks.

 

[AndreaFaulds]

China recently unbanned video game consoles. But if I'm understanding this correctly, Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft etc. wouldn't be able to provide online services or digital distribution? They have joint ventures, they're not Chinese companies.

 

[Thammuz]

So if this is upheld, would that mean a VPN for even looking at Ars from a computer in China?

 

[glynmoody]

Thammuz[/url]":3fg7bxgc]So if this is upheld, would that mean a VPN for even looking at Ars from a computer in China?

This is about publishing material *in* China: there's already a huge array of material from outside China that is blocked unless you use a VPN or proxy.

 

[Thammuz]

glynmoody[/url]":2ho5f1di]

Thammuz[/url]":2ho5f1di]So if this is upheld, would that mean a VPN for even looking at Ars from a computer in China?

This is about publishing material *in* China: there's already a huge array of material from outside China that is blocked unless you use a VPN or proxy.

Ok, so this is moving from the situation they had previously where they would heavily control foreigners publishing, into an outright ban (which was more or less the de facto position anyway)... Less awful than I thought but by no means good news!

 

[HonorableSoul]

Trade War begun It has.

 

[jimbo49]

i have to wonder whether the ridiculous push by Hollywood and the entertainment industries dont have something to do with this. they demanded China do something to stop copyright infringement and illegal copying of their movies and music, so perhaps China has now thought the best way is to stop the lot from being legally released, when the 'legally released' option gave control over to those industries and, more importantly, to the USA! stranger things have happened! that would leave the market free to revert to the ways enjoyed previously while giving a giant 'middle finger' to the USA!!

 

[Marlor_AU]

This is yet another step by Xi Jinping in dragging the country back to the 1970s. He has been bolstering the censorship regime at an alarming rate, and has already centralised more power than anyone since Mao. The State media has been lauding this fact, declaring that he is the strong leader China needs. A cult of personality is emerging, and it won't be long until everyone is carrying a new little red book citing the "Four Comprehensives".

This year's Spring Festival Gala was more political than at any time in recent history. The opening song lauded Xi's policies, then there were revolutionary songs throughout. This would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

One central strategy of his regime (used by previous ones, but taken to new levels recently) is to make laws that are virtually impossible to obey. Impractical Chinese laws are often put in place, merely to ensure that if they want to arrest someone, they have the power to do so. When everyone is a criminal, arresting them is simple and convictions are not in any doubt.

In this case, they now have a very simple way to ensure that any foreign journalist (whose material ends up on a Chinese website) can be immediately expelled, and that any cooperation with overseas news agencies can be immediately terminated. They don't expect the law to be followed, but they do expect to use it to expel or arrest anyone who they deem a threat to the regime.

It also makes sure those pesky foreign booksellers don't end up publishing online in China. If so, they now have another offence to charge them with after they kidnap them in Thailand and subject them to extraordinary rendition.

 

[koolraap]

HonorableSoul[/url]":2ghy3oil]Trade War begun It has.

What are you in-sino-ating?

 

[twocsies]

"in fields such as literature, art, science"

Does this cover academic publications? This seems like a big disadvantage for academic publishers. particularly that "foreign business units must not engage in network publishing services". Does it mean that scientific journals can still charge Chinese universities for access to the journals?

 

[dbayly]

I wonder what Alibaba will think after just having led a $793.5 million investment round into Magic Leap. My guess is that most of that will be put into content development....

 

[The80sCalled]

Marlor[/url]":q1r883d5]This is yet another step by Xi Jinping in dragging the country back to the 1970s. He has been bolstering the censorship regime at an alarming rate, and has already centralised more power than anyone since Mao. The State media has been lauding this fact, declaring that he is the strong leader China needs. A cult of personality is emerging, and it won't be long until everyone is carrying a new little red book citing the "Four Comprehensives".

This year's Spring Festival Gala was more political than at any time in recent history. The opening song lauded Xi's policies, then there were revolutionary songs throughout. This would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

One central strategy of his regime (used by previous ones, but taken to new levels recently) is to make laws that are virtually impossible to obey. Impractical Chinese laws are often put in place, merely to ensure that if they want to arrest someone, they have the power to do so. When everyone is a criminal, arresting them is simple and convictions are not in any doubt.

In this case, they now have a very simple way to ensure that any foreign journalist (whose material ends up on a Chinese website) can be immediately expelled, and that any cooperation with overseas news agencies can be immediately terminated. They don't expect the law to be followed, but they do expect to use it to expel or arrest anyone who they deem a threat to the regime.

It also makes sure those pesky foreign booksellers don't end up publishing online in China. If so, they now have another offence to charge them with after they kidnap them in Thailand and subject them to extraordinary rendition.

Nah, extraordinary rendition is illegal, they wouldn't have done that. What actually happened was that the bookseller was kidnapped by Thai bandits who happened to want to go to China, and once he crossed the border the Chinese police arrested him. /s

After checking a few news websites, yours is the best analysis of the online publishing ban that I've seen so far.

Also, why wasn't this published on the US website as well? Plenty of China articles there in the past.