China blocking Google

Just in from AP:

[quote]China Closes 3,300 Cybercafes

BEIJING - China has closed more than 3,300 Internet cafes in a safety crackdown launched after a fire in June at a Beijing cafe killed 25 people, the official Xinhua News Agency says.

Nearly 12,000 other Internet cafes have been closed temporarily while they make improvements, Xinhua said Thursday…

Many Internet cafes were unlicensed and had no fire exits or other required safety features. Officials complained that they also gave young people access to pornography and other harmful material online.

The crackdown adds to efforts by the communist government to control how Chinese use the Internet, even as it encourages the spread of online activity for business and education.

Special filters block Web surfers from seeing sites abroad run by Chinese dissidents, human rights groups and news organizations.

Under new rules that took effect Nov. 15, minors are banned from Internet cafes. Managers are required to keep records of customers’ identities and to close by midnight…[/quote]
rest of the story

Blocking of sex sites is just part of the show. The only sex sites that are blocked are very high profile, like Playboy. Blocking of sex sites is just a smokescreen.

On the other hand many potentially subversive sites, like where I store my photos for my friends to see on Tripod, are blocked. In fact all Tripod member sites are blocked.