August 15, 2009 by Matt Thomas
On Thursday Li Yizhong, China’s Industry and Information Technology Minister announced that the Chinese government was changing its position on the online censorship of computers in China. The Chinese authorities had been insisting on a new law that would require all computer manufacturers to install the censorship package, ‘Green Dam Youth Escort’ on all machines before they were sold in China. Those plans have now been shelved.
“When users buy computers, they will be provided [with] the software disk. It is up to the buyers to decide [to] use it or not,” – Li Yizhong
The move is being widely seen as a climbdown from the authorities after an overwhelmingly bad reaction to the plans from Chinese internet users, hardware manufacturers and the international business community.
Somewhat unsurprisingly, the Chinese government see the situation slightly differently, claiming that the software was never meant to be compulsory and that the plan’s detractors had misunderstood the nature of the original statement.
The plan is not completely dead, however. The government still plans to require that the software be installed in all schools and internet cafes.
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