December 4, 2003

China must free up the internet if it wants to achieve its goal of becoming the world's biggest web market in four years' time, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder said yesterday.

"China will reach its ambitious aim . . . in four years only if the internet is attractive in the same way for Chinese and foreigners," Mr Schroeder said in a speech at Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou.

He did not directly refer to Beijing's strict controls on access to internet content and the arrests of cyber-dissidents, but said China's goals can only be achieved by ensuring freedom of access to the internet. "This requires freedom for providers - I mean all providers," he said.

"The higher the level of freedom for service providers and users, the more dynamic will be the development of the internet."

Last Friday, the authorities freed cyber-dissident Liu Di, a 23-year-old former psychology student at Beijing Normal University, just before Mr Schroeder arrived and ahead of Premier Wen Jiabao's visit to the United States.

She was released on bail after one year under detention for writing political satire about the Communist Party and posting messages on the Web calling for the release of other online dissidents.

Two other cyber-dissidents, Wu Yiran, 34, and Li Yibin, 29, were released the same day but Du Daobin, a liberal thinker who had rallied support for Ms Liu's release, remained under arrest.

The government allows tens of millions of people to surf the Web while making great efforts to try to control the views that they can express in their postings, as well as limit or block their access to web sites deemed to have sensitive content.

Reporters Without Borders estimates that around 30,000 people are employed in a "gigantic apparatus of monitoring and censorship". A month-long investigation by the organization found that the authorities used a system of filters to screen content on the Falun Gong, Taiwan moves toward independence, June 4 - the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown - and human rights.

Mr Schroeder said internet freedom was one of the main issues discussed at the fourth Germany-China forum on rule of law last month which had information technology as its theme.

He also stressed Germany's one-China policy and expressed understanding for China's position on the use of force if Taiwan declared independence, but said he believed China was rational and would avoid attacking the island.

Germany is Guangdong's biggest trade partner in Europe with bilateral trade rising 32 per cent year on year to US$7.1 billion in the first 10 months of the year, although total German investment in 148 projects is just US$560 million.