BEIJING, Feb. 15 (UPI) -- China says its internet regulation policies are "fully in line" with global standards in reponse to widespread accusations that it is an enemy of free speech.
Government official Liu Zhengrong told the BBC that western criticism of China's internet censorship is unfair and that no one had ever been arrested for writing online content.
This contrasts reports that indicate a number of people have been jailed in recent years for posting information on the internet deemed subversive. They include Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist sentenced to ten years in prison last year for passing an internal Communist Party communiqué to foreign websites.
China reportedly blocks foreign websites that deal with political or other sensitive issues, and domestic internet providers are strictly monitored. China's internet regulators are believed to number some 50,000 censors.
But Liu Zhengrong, deputy chief of the Internet Affairs Bureau of the State Council Information Office, insists China is no different from Western governments in the way it controls the Internet.
"After studying internet legislation in the West, I've found we basically have identical legislative objectives and principles," Liu was quoted as telling the state-run China Daily newspaper on Tuesday.
"It is unfair and smacks of double standards when (foreigners) criticize China for deleting illegal and harmful messages, while it is legal for US websites to do so," he said.
A group of senior Communist Party officials published an open letter Tuesday condemning the forced closure of investigative newspaper Bingdian and said state censorship could "sow the seeds of disaster" for China's political evolution.
