Online Casinos Seen as Major Threat to Chinese Internet
Chinese officials are considering the spread of information about and leading to online casinos as one of the most pressing problems regarding the Internet. Wang Chen, who happens to be the Minister of the State Council Information Office and not an Eighties rock band, spoke on the topic to the Forum on Internet Media of China.Chen asked the assembled group to foster a society of honesty and integrity, which he thinks is best served by censorship and the repression of free thought. The only threats Chen identified as greater than online gambling were the spreading of "rumors" and the "exaggeration" of news on the Internet, both of which are referred to in the Western world as uncensored news coverage.
State-supervised Chinese newspapers quoted a local law professor as saying the Internet is troublesome because of its anonymous nature, which makes it hard to trace behavior to a specific individual.
Chen asserted that online casinos and "unhealthy online games" made increased supervision of the Internet vitally important. He said that "monitoring', or spying as it is called in most countries is necessary to serve society, apparently in its adjustment to honesty and integrity.
Only the US government has more convoluted ways to say they are banning online gambling because government should make decisions for its citizens. Of course, the US has to engage in such doubletalk because it supposedly reveres the rights of individuals, when in reality it mirrors China in its Internet policies.
