China's battle against dissent enters cyberspace
05:04 a.m. Nov 23, 1998 Eastern
By William Kazer
SHANGHAI, Nov 23 (Reuters) - China's battle against dissent enters cyberspace
this week when a computer engineer goes on trial accused of using the Internet
to undermine the state.
On Thursday, a Shanghai court will hear charges against Lin Hai, a 30-year-old
computer software specialist, who is said to have e-mailed thousands of
names and e-mail addresses to a dissident group in the United States.
China, which signed the International Covenant on Civil and Political
Rights last month, has managed to keep its dissident movement on the defensive
through jailings, exile and intimidation.
But this is believed to be the first time China's use of the courts
to block domestic dissent has collided with the explosive growth of the
Internet.
``Lin Hai has associated with a hostile foreign organisation,'' court
documents said.
The group used his data ``to disseminate large numbers of articles aimed
at inciting subversion of state power and the socialist system,'' the documents
said.
Lin, who was arrested in March, ran a now closed software company that
set up web sites and provided job searches for multinational companies.
If Lin is convicted of the charge at the closed-door hearing this week,
he could face anything from less than three years in jail to life in prison.
The state says he sent e-mail addresses to VIP Reference, a dissident
publication sent to 250,000 e-mail accounts in China from various e-mail
addresses in the United States.
Lin's supporters say he frequently exchanged or purchased e-mail addresses
to build up a database for his online job search business.
``On the face of it, this does not appear to support the charges,''
said defence attorney Wang Wenjiang.
``Sending e-mail addresses is not undermining state security.''
China now boasts some 1.2 million Internet users and their number is
expected to swell to 5.0 million by 2000.
The state has embraced cyberspace, investing in everything from telecommunications
infrastructure to Internet cafes, and has seen a sharp rise in revenue
along with growth in the number of Internet users.
Dissidents have also embraced the Internet.
In addition to VIP Reference, numerous websites and ``webzines'' have
sprung up from online publication Tunnel (http:/www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/5598/intro.html)
to the website of the newly formed dissident grouping, the China Democracy
Party.
Some of these sites cannot be accessed without Chinese language software.
The publisher of VIP Reference, Lian Shengde, told Reuters via e-mail
from his Washington base:
``We have a lot of e-mail owners who send us e-mails every day. Some
of them provide e-mail addresses to us.
``We did not know Lin Hai was among them.''
China uses so-called firewalls to block some of the objectionable Internet
sites but cannot filter out all of them.
``The Chinese government cannot totally cut off the free flow of information,''
said Lian.
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