In Crackdown, China Shuts Down 60,000 Porn Sites

A year ago, the Chinese government launched a campaign to shut down porn sites. Whether it's been a success or not is hard to say, but it's certainly taken down a huge number of porn sites. The government has shut down some 60,000 porn websites, the official state-run news agency Xinhua reported on Thursday.

At a news conference, the director of the Information Office of the State Council, Wang Chen, said that in addition to the 60,000 sites being disabled, approximately 350 million pieces of pornographic or other indecent content was deleted in the crackdown. 2,197 criminal cases were tried, involving 4,965 people. 58 of those people received prison sentences longer than five years.

Xinhua also divulged the follow statistics:

• Around 44.37 million copies of illegal publications, including 981,000 copies of lewd content, 37.35 million pirated copies, some 3.93 million illegal copies of newspapers and magazines, among others, have been confiscated across China.

• More than 16,000 cases, including over 10,000 ones of pirated publications, 1,669 cases involving pornography, and 371 cases involving fake journalists, news reports or media outlets, have been uncovered this year.

• China has shut down more than 60,000 porn websites since launching a crackdown in December 2009.

• Law enforcers across China during a campaign launched in April had destroyed a total of 36.39 million copies of pirated or illegal publications, audio and video discs.

• The office has received over 170,000 tip-offs, mostly about the online or cellphone-based spreading of porn content this year and 534 people have been rewarded 544,000 yuan (81,964 dollars) for the information provided.

• Authorities in Zhongshan City of southern Guangdong Province shut down a huge disc-producing outfit with five production lines and confiscated 3.87 million illegal discs.

Remembering that Xinhua is the official state-run news agency, the following statement from Xinhua needs to be taken with a grain of salt:

The government values the role of the Internet and is willing to read public opinion through the Internet, he said, noting that the country will also try to regulate Internet order and promote the development of Internet culture, in a bid to create a healthy Internet environment for the public.