Chinese minister denies Internet censorship

Minister of information office of state council of People’s Republic of China, Cai Mingzhou says that Chinese residents enjoy the same amount of freedom on the Internet and social media platforms as any other country.

“People enjoy full freedom on the Internet. We have hundreds of millions of  registered Internet users. We have more than two million Blackberry users. So, the perception that the government has placed any restrictions on the Internet is untrue,” said Mingzhou. Mingzhou is currently in India on an official tour and was in the city on Tuesday.

The minister also denied the existence of censorship on media in China. Mingzhou said, “Our media is no different from media in other countries. We only insist that the media must abide the law of the country and do not violate any regulations and avoid fabrication of stories. Also, they need to  be socially responsible by not aggravating any issue.”

Few reports suggest that the government bars media coverage on certain topics like democracy, police brutality, Theananmen massacre and ethnic protests for freedom in media etc. It is compulsory for users to give their real names while creating accounts on social media, claim some reports.

The Chinese delegation along with Mingzhou visited the Fort Campus of University of Mumbai. They have also donated 265 titles to university ranging from Marxism, history of communist party, Deng Xiaoping, Chinese family massage therapy, Chinese cancer therapy, cross border dialogue and learning mandarin.

The gesture is significant as the relations between two countries remained delicate since April this year after Chinese army incursion into Indian territory.