A new rash of nasty things is beginning to appear in the People’s Republic of China, where the people’s government does not trust the people with modern telecommunications equipment: according to Reuter, the government in Peking has ordered cordless telephone, pager and electronic information vendors to obtain new permits, and banned foreign operations; the new rules, carried in the official Economics Daily, come soon after a similar clampdown on foreign satellite television, and appear aimed at re-asserting control over the country’s airwaves and protecting them from foreign influence – cellular and other mobile phone systems have exploded as China used deregulation to finance development of its creaky information infrastructure.
