The Chinese government is setting itself up to become roadkill on the international information superhighway: during the butchery of Tiananmen Square, the world learned many of the details of the state atrocity from facsimile messages beamed out of China, and now the Pekingese want to put all computer information networks under the supervision of the Ministry of Public Security and require any international networking to be registered – The goal of computer network security work is to protect such important areas as national affairs, economic and defence construction and advanced scientific technology, according to the cabinet order – No organisation or individual may use computer information systems to engage in activities that go against the national or collective interests or violate the legal rights of citizens, it says – computer networks must submit to police inspection and any systems linked to international information networks must register with state security departments, rules that if imposed in Hong Kong would likely cause severe economic disruption.
