news Beijing Seeks to Tighten Reins on Websites in China

[Michael M]

Interesting read from the NY Times:

China’s government said on Monday that it would take steps to more strictly manage websites in the country, its latest push to set boundaries in the wider Internet.

A draft law posted by one of China’s technology regulators said that websites in the country would have to register domain names with local service providers and with the authorities.

It was not clear whether the rule would apply to all websites or only to those hosted on servers in China. Chinese laws can be haphazardly enforced and are usually vague, and because the new rule is only a draft, analysts said they expected the regulator, the Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, to specify later to whom the law would apply.

If the rule applies to all websites, it will have major implications and will effectively cut China out of the global Internet. By creating a domestic registry for websites, the rule would create a system of censorship in which only websites that have specifically registered with the Chinese government would be reachable from within the country.

Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communications Law Research Center at the China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, said he believed that under the current wording, the law would block foreign websites not registered with China.

Original article: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/30/technology/china-internet-censorship.html?_r=0

 

[domainking9999]

I am guessing .com will still remain as the king!

 

[GravityEleven]

These draft rules, although in an early phase, are to be taken serious enough..
it's all part of the Chinese government enforcing a more nationalistic path for the coming years (and maybe decades) in light of the public going more and more western in many ways..

see also here:
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/976451.shtml

 

[CJ6]

Does anyone have the list of approved extensions? Are any fully approved?

I know that .club & .xyz are in the process.

 

[Michael M]

No need for the dislike of the post @Dotintra

I just ran across the story and thought it was worthy of a post. It's a little disappointing that it resulted in my first dislike.

 

[brindle123]

I'm hoping they start dropping all the domains they own. It will be a buyers market if that happens. Then a couple years from now they will be buying them back from us.

I think this is just a way to control the money moving around, not controlling the internet. Nothing to worry about until something happens.

 

[Nile Patel]

I feel it will not impact that much on domain investment side since every one know majority of chinese domainers are only buying domain names from their local auction houses either 4.cn or ename and always prefer we move our name there first to sale to them.

Regarding the hosting and website contents it is already under control so nothing much changed here minor impact may be big drawback to marketing or ecommerce platform who selling their service to china but they can register their too if doing big business.

 

[domainking9999]

I honestly think we need not worry because if China kills/restricts .com then they are indirectly killing/restricting their foreign trade which in return kills their economy.

.COM will be the king whatsoever!

 

[domainking9999]

I honestly think we need not worry because if China kills/restricts .com then they are indirectly killing/restricting their foreign trade which in return kills their economy.

.COM will be the king whatsoever!

 

[coolool]

They want to make bamboo's wall. It's idiot policy.

 

[brindle123]

I honestly think we need not worry because if China kills/restricts .com then they are indirectly killing/restricting their foreign trade which in return kills their economy.

.COM will be the king whatsoever!

They are not going to shoot themselves in the foot. They won't do anything to hurt investor relationships with the outside world. They are not as stupid as Obama.

If they start spooking foreign investors/trade, then that money input will slow down, which is exactly what they don't want or need to happen to them right now.

domainking9999 is correct.

 

[JayT]

They are not going to shoot themselves in the foot. They won't do anything to hurt investor relationships with the outside world. They are not as stupid as Obama.

If they start spooking foreign investors/trade, then that money input will slow down, which is exactly what they don't want or need to happen to them right now.

domainking9999 is correct.

During a full blown collapse, countries tend to lock the doors, but china is different...but maybe they will still do this, let's see...


China has a very recent history of closed doors. China has almost exactly opposite of USA problem. USA has no manufacturing because of strong money for so long, which encourage import and killed business. China has a problem that their wealth is not being spread by their super rich to the poor. Super rich is spending money overseas. They need to encourage Chinese consumerism, an in turn increase in standard of living for the most poor. It can happen but first china must buy as much basic materials from rest of world. Also they will need a stable money without risks of inflation (it will be gold). I know I am talking about this gold so much around here but this is on the topic. With so much gold they can do whatever they want with few negative repercussions. 'he who has gold makes the rules', you know. This whole mess is a currency war in the first place.

Money input is not so important. Wealth comes from production and happy population. China is already trying hardest to get rid of money for things of real value, but if they go too fast it's bad too.

 

[newviewit]

Yep China's collapsing and they're doing anything to try and keep momentum going building their 'service' economy.

But seriously this is no small issue.

China has cut off lots of their economy from the world recently to gain an advantage, and the WTO hasn't done anything before... so I doubt them blocking all foreign websites will be any different. It will not be technically blocking all foreign websites - it will be only blocking those websites that don't register with the Chinese gvnt and follow the rule of the law (censorship) inside China. Red tape is really difficult to get around inside China unless you have connections.

Think of the end game here if China is not connected to the world internet... scary stuff. It could have huge implications in the domain marketplace especially if they only allow consumers in China to purchase domains through government certified marketplaces. There might not be any Chinese buying domains internationally in the future. Maybe the big Chinese players buying all the chips knew this and they were just building their stockpile of domains when they turn into the kings of the internet in China?

I've said it before but now I'm really starting to think they might actually block all tld/.com/.net in the future and force everyone in China to use the .cn domain. What a crazy place.

 

[JayT]

Yep China's collapsing and they're doing anything to try and keep momentum going building their 'service' economy.

But seriously this is no small issue.

China has cut off lots of their economy from the world recently to gain an advantage, and the WTO hasn't done anything before... so I doubt them blocking all foreign websites will be any different. It will not be technically blocking all foreign websites - it will be only blocking those websites that don't register with the Chinese gvnt and follow the rule of the law (censorship) inside China. Red tape is really difficult to get around inside China unless you have connections.

Think of the end game here if China is not connected to the world internet... scary stuff. It could have huge implications in the domain marketplace especially if they only allow consumers in China to purchase domains through government certified marketplaces. There might not be any Chinese buying domains internationally in the future. Maybe the big Chinese players buying all the chips knew this and they were just building their stockpile of domains when they turn into the kings of the internet in China?

I've said it before but now I'm really starting to think they might actually block all tld/.com/.net in the future and force everyone in China to use the .cn domain. What a crazy place.

A lot of what you say is true. But you are not agreeing to my above reasoning (china making this move is smart for them given their situation, bad for everyone else). Chinas problem is money leaving the country. They are stuck producing low cost items to sell around the world while big investors are spending most of their money on bigger ticket items outside of China. They are building cheap, but making investments not inside, but outside! It is cliche, but really taking advantage of their own people. People are starting to realize this and become upset.

Blocking foreign sites is just a small step to a bigger picture. China has the capacity and infrastructure to raise the standard of living if produced goods are kept within. They don't want to import anything except raw material anymore. Most surely, they don't want to export their money. <- which is exactly what is happening when they buy ANYTHING from overseas. Devaluing the currency as they are is one method. Now these foreign products are even more expensive in Chinese terms, and not such good investment.

Their goal is to make yuan the only world currency. This can only be done if other currencies are not accepted. As long as they accept USD they will never move forward with that plan. The objective is ban the import of other goods, starting with online purchases or any digital investment involving foreign capital.

Once other world currencies lose most value, everyone will practically have to beg them for business. The money we have is only PERCEPTION VALUE, and they are attempting to destroy this perceived value in other currencies by making theirs a clear choice...and that is a whole another topic into HOW. The foreign investment isn't over yet though! They still own Trillions of USD. They need to use that to buy all real assets before they go too far.

This is a very big game with a lot of detail, every little thing is a puzzle piece. If you know true motive you can see what are good moves and bad to achieve said objective.

Basicly usa did export of dollars to create value, spread it around world so everyone values it. China wants to do it another way, keep it all inside china and create 'illusion' that it is precious. I think they KNOW this won't work forever, which is why they will back by gold. Steps are in play already. Starting tomorrow they are going to to have their own FIX on gold @ Shanghai . just another step to control the value of it in the future.

 

[newviewit]

Yes China is having huge problems with money leaving the country as I've touched on further down in the thread (https://www.namepros.com/threads/ch...stment-advice-for-chips-china-domains.930030/).

But you're missing missing quite a few important pieces in the puzzle. This is NOT a smart move by China. It is a desperate move being done by a government that is losing control and ready for a big crash...

First of all every country in the world wishes they could have the 'word reserve currency', which China has no hope in hell of ever achieving - especially if they further isolate themselves internationally. Their economy is just not that valuable, and foreign investments into China for the most part have not produced the kinds of returns that they had hoped. Foreign companies are actually moving out of China at the moment. Manufacturing is moving elsewhere. Money is flowing away from China - people see less and less value in the Chinese currency... Every rich Chinese person has already, or is planning on moving their wealth overseas. Have a quick look at the most recent Chinese stock market collapse and the reasoning behind China's unwinding... no faith in the currency, no transparency, huge bad debts, and no plan to transfer into a service driven economy without a hard landing. If you think China will take over the world economy and every other currency will be devalued because China is so strong... you might want to do a bit more research on this because it will never happen anytime soon.

If you think any country has a chance of making it by cutting itself off from the rest of the world then have a look at Venezuela, Argentina, etc and the effects of getting cut off from the rest of the world - it's not pretty and China does not have any chance of making it on their own. Even if they wanted to they couldn't do it without ruining their economy because of the huge amount of $US debt/treasuries they own. China is a big bubble waiting to pop. They have no real power in the world. Isolating themselves from the rest of the world will do no good in today's global marketplaces. But it sounds like they're going to try anyway... which means nothing good for those selling to China eg. domains/chips

 

[JayT]

I see your point of view and it is valid. I am not suggesting china will succeed, but they are trying for this goal we are talking about. The 'lack of transparency' plays a big role in what I think its really happening, something even experts don't want to admit. TBH, me neither. I appreciate your sayings but don't want to debate anymore. I will leave with us in agreement, $ is leaving china and gvt is trying to stop it.

 

[Chris Rice]

Great discussion guys @JayT @newviewit

Both of you made valid points and it is an interesting topic.

There is one thing that you guys failed to mention though, and that's the willingness of companies like Google and Facebook to go along with China's policies.

 

[168]

spot on guys @JayT @newviewit


"Even if they wanted to they couldn't do it without ruining their economy because of the huge amount of $US debt/treasuries they own."
"Once other world currencies lose most value, everyone will practically have to beg them for business. The money we have is only PERCEPTION VALUE, and they are attempting to destroy this perceived value in other currencies by making theirs a clear choice...and that is a whole another topic into HOW."
"which is why they will back by gold"


From my readings America has been selling China a lot of gold for at least 3 years due to the huge trillion dollar treasury deficit.The globe has to go back to a standard other than the us dollar, as we have demonstrated we are not immune to economic collapse thus huge implications for China and the rest of the world for that matter. The bloomberg article below explains a bit about the "basket" the global economy relies on.
The value of any economy is perceived trust. Sadly, China has failed to promote, manufacture or export Trust. Gold is the only way around Trust for China. As for the web, I think China will have it's own system that will equal the rest of the world just by sheer numbers inside the country and others willing to abide by the rules. An example of this is China's desire to maintain their own "who is" data, blocking vpn's, and restricting extensions and now websites.

bloomberg, 2015-11-30, imf-backs-yuan-in-reserve-currency-club-after-rejection-in-2010