China's Golden Shield

In January 2001, the official news agency Xinhua announced that anyone involved in "espionage activities" such as "stealing, uncovering, purchasing or disclosing State secrets" using the Web or by other means risks the death penalty, or 10 years to life in prison.

-- On January 18, 2000, the dissident Leng Wanbao was interrogated for three hours after circulating a letter from another dissident to people outside China over the Internet. The police reminded Leng Wanbao that sending such a letter was against the country’s public security laws.

-- On March 3, 2000, Lin Hai, a software entrepeneur, who had been condemned to two years in prison for "inciting others to overthrow the State," was freed from prison. Arrested in 1998, he had been convicted of supplying 30,000 Chinese e-mail addresses to overseas dissident publications, notably VIP Reference. These publications had used the addresses to distribute dissenting articles over the Internet. Freed in the greatest secrecy in September 1999, Lin Hai was very hesitant to speak of his situation, suggesting that the authorities had offered him early release in exchange for his silence. At his release, Lin Hai called himself "the first Chinese Internet prisoner."

-- On June 3, 2000, Huang Qi, manager of www.6-4tianwang.com, which contains a discussion forum, was arrested and accused of "subversion." The authorities accused him of publishing articles on his Web site, which is hosted in the US, condemning the Tiananmen massacre in June 1989. It contained an open letter from the mother of a young student killed during the massacre, calling for the renewal of the 1989 pro-democratic movement. Huang Qi’s computer and all of the documents found in his office and home were confiscated. The site, open to "all those who have something to say," is still updated by Chinese dissidents who live in the US, but mainland Internet users can no longer access it.

-- On August 16, 2000, the police interrogated Jiang Shihua, a professor of computer science in the Sichuan province in southwestern China. He was accused of "inciting subversion." He used the cybercafé that he owned, the Silicon Valley Internet Coffee, in Nanchong, to circulate articles criticizing the authorities, and published pro-democracy articles in an Internet newsgroup. He has been charged with "inciting others to overthrow the State." This case has still not gone to trial.

-- Qi Yanchen, editor of the online publication Consultations, was convicted on September 19, 2000, to four years in prison for "subversion" and "circulation of anti-governmental information over the Internet." The MPS claims that he used the pseudonym Ji Li to write articles for the Hong Kong monthly Kaifang and the dissident newsletter VIP Reference. He also published excerpts of his book, The Fall of China, advocating political reform. The police confiscated his computer, his fax and his notes.

-- On May 13, 2000, the government suspended the China Finance Information Network site for two weeks and ordered its owners to pay a fine. The online financial publication was accused of having circulated rumours that could damage the image of the government. This conviction followed the publication of an article on corruption concerning a local political official.

-- On August 3, 2000, security officials disconnected and banned www.xinwenming.net for having circulated "counter-revolutionary information" and attracting a "large part of the Chinese dissident community." The five dissidents behind the site are currently wanted by the police, but have not yet been arrested. Created April 29, 2000, www.xinwenming.net is the first site hosted in China to openly call for "national reconciliation and democracy."