China to introduce Internet regulations

China's assistant minister for public security, Zhu Entao, said on Monday that a regulation on the protection and management of computer networks linked to the Internet will come into force on Tuesday, the Xinhua news agency reported.

Zhu said the regulation would safeguard national security and social stability, help the police crack down on computer-related crimes and safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of institutions and individuals linked to the Internet.

The regulation was approved by China's State Council on 11th December.

The agency said that at the end of October there were about 49,000 networks and 250,000 personal computers in China, and about 620,000 Internet subscribers.

This link had promoted cultural and scientific exchanges with the rest of the world, but had "also brought about some security problems, including manufacturing and publicizing harmful information, as well as leaking state secrets through the Internet," Zhu said.

"The safe and effective management of computer information networks is a prerequisite for the smooth implementation of the country's modernization drive," Zhu added.

BBC Monitoring (http://www.monitor.bbc.co.uk), based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.