See Why China's New Internet Controls May Hurt China

China has intensified efforts to tighten its strong grip on the internet, officially outlawing unauthorized internet connections, including virtual private network (VPN) services, which enable many users there to bypass the country’s infamous “Great Firewall.”

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) announced in a notice Sunday that all special connections through internet data centers (IDCs), internet service providers (ISPs), content delivery networks (CDNs) and VPNs, operating from within China, are now required to secure prior government approval.

Such operators will have until the end of March to commit in writing to abide by the new regulations and be tested to ensure full compliance before the year’s end. If they are found not to be in compliance, their unregulated operations will be shut down from next year on, the notice added.

Cross-border crimes

Li Yi, a Shanghai-based IT expert, told China’s official Global Times newspaper the new regulations are needed to strike at cross-border crimes and purify cyberspace.

“Some multinational companies in China such as Microsoft Corp. have a reasonable need to communicate with their headquarters overseas via VPNs, but some corporations or individuals browse overseas Internet pages out of illegal motivations. In this regard, the new rules are extremely important,” he said.

Analysts found China’s latest crackdown unsurprising in a country that has imposed some of the strictest internet censorship measures in the world for years. But it is alarming that the control has increased so greatly in the runup to the National People’s Congress in March and the 19th Communist Party Congress in fall, when its top leadership is reshuffled, they said.

Giant Chinese intranet

Charlie Smith, co-founder of Greatfire.org and FreeWeibo.com, said the move helps “push China closer to its vision of internet sovereignty, or a giant Chinese intranet.” But it will also inflict collateral damage, including isolating itself from the global internet.

“The higher authorities are trying to make the large telecom companies responsible for information control via their platforms, with a list of specific things to watch out for. But this is easier said than done,” Smith said in a written reply to VOA.

He called enforcement into question as few companies wish to tend to “the nitty gritty details of how their services are being used by customers.”

“They [telecom companies] will continue to make sure that paperwork is in place, but they will not spend too much time really getting into the details. This is also a huge cost for these companies. They simply cannot afford to conduct checks on every customer,” he said, adding that it will be a step too far for China to cut off access to the global internet with a greater self-imposed threat than free access to information.