China shuts down 700 porno Web sites

Associated Press


BEIJING - Chinese authorities have shut down 700 pornographic Web sites in less than two weeks as part of a massive campaign to clean up the Internet, the official Xinhua News Agency said Tuesday.

Citing figures from the Ministry of Public Security, Xinhua said 224 suspects have been detained since July 16, when the crackdown began. No details were given on those cases.

Since it publicized two telephone numbers and a Web site for people to report porn sites, the ministry has received 733 phone calls and 16,711 online tips, Xinhua said.

Lewd photos, videos and articles attracting Internet users to join "pornographic activities online or organizing sex trade" were targeted, it said.

While China aggressively promotes Internet use for business and education, censors keep a tight watch over domestic Web sites and block access to foreign sites deemed subversive or obscene.

Wu Mingshan, an official in charge of the campaign, said "a clean online environment" has been established in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai, as well as Liaoning province in the northeast and Guangdong in the south, Xinhua said.

Other future targets include online criminal activities like fraud and gambling, he said.