Abstract
Around 221 BC the Quin Dynasty began building the Great Wall in an effort to keep out the Mongol invaders. It did not work. In 1997, the People’s Republic of China is building an electronic wall to keep out undesirable Western electronic transmissions. This second wall also will not work, say many China experts. But the Chinese government believes it has to try. China’s main security concern is the INTERNET. To counteract the free-wheeling INTERNET, in February 1996 the Ministry of Public Security published constrictive regulations on INTERNET use. Though China has about 20 INTERNET Service Providers and, at least, six links connecting to the global INTERNET, the flow of information is regulated. These regulations force all international networks to run through limited channels set up by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications (MPT). Additionally, all users of international networks must register with MPT. The government believes that Chinese values are not compatible with Western freedoms. Publicly, officials have stressed the need to protect state secrets and shield the Chinese people from undesirable political and pornographic materials. These regulations forbid networking activities that harm the state and prohibit the use of the INTERNET for “producing, retrieving, duplicating and spreading information that may hinder public order.” Consequently, all international traffic--inbound and outbound--is filtered through government agencies and, eventually, through controlled information ports supported by Chinese-built firewalls. To achieve China’s goal, it will be necessary to have total cooperation and support from the INTERNET users, a difficult goal to achieve indeed.
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© 1997 IFIP
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Kozik, E. (1997). Status of the Computer Network Security Activities of the People’s Republic of China. In: Katsikas, S. (eds) Communications and Multimedia Security. IFIP Advances in Information and Communication Technology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35256-5_22
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-35256-5_22
Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA
Print ISBN: 978-1-5041-2918-3
Online ISBN: 978-0-387-35256-5
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