(fwd) Careful what you post about Communist China!

[Mark Ayzenshteyn <bonzo.marka@org>]

Some ppl are taking spam quite seriously. :)

Mark


-- forwarded message --
Path: news.rdc1.sdca.home.com!newshub1.home.com!news.home.com!news-peer.gip.net!news.gsl.net!gip.net!portc01.blue.aol.com!spamz.news.aol.com!audrey01.news.aol.com!not-for-mail
From: erikg3aol.@com (ERIKG3)
Newsgroups: rec.travel.air
Subject: Careful what you post about Communist China!
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Date: 20 Jan 1999 22:16:08 GMT
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SHANGHAI, China (AP) -- China extended its crackdown on dissent into cyberspace
for the first time Wednesday, sentencing a software entrepreneur to two years
in prison for giving e-mail addresses to dissidents abroad. 

Lin Hai, 30, was convicted of subversion in a case that highlighted China's
conflicting efforts to promote Internet use for business and education at the
same time it is stamping out political activity. 

Subversion is among China's most serious crimes and is normally used against
political dissidents. 

``The conviction of Mr. Lin is no more than a brutal act of suppression of
dissent, and China will certainly be severely criticized,'' said Albert Ho,
secretary-general of the Hong Kong Alliance for the Promotion of the Democratic
Movement in China. 

Lin, who owns a Shanghai software company, was arrested last March after he
gave e-mail addresses of 30,000 Chinese computer users to ``VIP Reference,'' a
pro-democracy journal published on the Internet by Chinese dissidents in the
United States. 

Reporters were not allowed in court, but a spokesman for the Shanghai
High-Level People's Court who gave his name as Mr. Zhou confirmed the verdict
and sentence. 

A three-judge panel of the Shanghai Intermediate People's Court said Lin
deserved to be ``punished harshly,'' according to a copy of the verdict
obtained by the Hong Kong-based Information Center of Human Rights and
Democratic Movement in China. 

Lin was fined $1,200 and the ``the tools of his crime'' were ordered
confiscated: two desktop computers, one laptop computer, a modem and a
telephone. 

Lin's wife, Xu Hong, attended the half-hour sentencing but was not allowed to
talk to her husband, and he did not speak. She and other spectators were barred
from his four-hour trial on Dec. 4. 

``This is the first time I've seen him since he was arrested,'' Xu said. She
said she would not know whether her husband would appeal until he discussed the
verdict with his lawyer. 

China is trying to stop the flow of pro-democracy material from abroad, aided
by the rapid spread of Internet use. 

There are about 1.5 million registered Internet users in China, a number that
could grow to 5 million by 2002. The government is encouraging companies to
create Chinese-language content, and is promoting a low-cost domestic network. 

China polices Internet use closely. Service providers are required to register
users, while barriers have been installed to block sites deemed subversive or
pornographic. 

Lin's case appears to be unrelated to a crackdown that began in November on
pro-democracy activists trying to set up China's first opposition party. Three
leaders of that group were sentenced last month to 11, 12 and 13 years in
prison. 

Lin's relatively short sentence could be meant to mute criticism while still
intimidating ``techno-dissidents,'' said Robin Munro, a longtime observer of
human rights in China. 

``Two years doesn't get Western congressmen and politicians in such a lather as
10 years would,'' Munro said by telephone from Hong Kong. 

Lin had argued that he had no political motive and gave away e-mail addresses
in order to develop business contacts, his wife said. 

But a government Internet expert said that as a private businessman, Lin had no
right to peddle e-mail addresses without permission from their owners. 

``Perhaps his intentions were good, but he doesn't have the right to violate my
privacy,'' said Guo Liang of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, an elite
think tank in Beijing. 

-- end of forwarded message --

-- 
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		Mark Ayzenshteyn CS Major at UCSD      
        		bonzo.marka@org
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