Human rights activist and journalist Xiao Qiang (萧强), Director of The China Internet Project at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, writes:
Last week, Foreign Policy published an interview with Li Wufeng, the director-general of China's State Council Information Office (SCIO), the agency in charge of regulating Internet content inside China.The Foreign Policy reporter Mike Boyer called Li "China's Top Internet Cop" and then quoted Li as saying "We have neither the technology nor the manpower" to censor or filter the Internet, …… We have just dozens of people in the Internet affairs bureau. Half of them are here today [in the room] "
In fact, Li is not a "cop," as the Information Office of the State Council is neither a public security nor state security agency. The real Internet cops are elsewhere. For starters, we could search "Internet Police" (网络警察）on Chinese search engine Baidu, and we will get 292,000 results. Page after page are Internet Police websites in different cities and provinces outlining their functions. Read this, this and this.
What about the technology that Li claims he doesn't have? Another search through Chinese blogosphere and BBS will uncover some very useful answers, including to the question, Who is China's top Internet cop?
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