While Beijing regularly launches web censorship campaigns, the new crackdown is the first to target heavyweight companies such as Google and Baidu, the local rival that leads the Chinese search market. In the last campaign a year ago, authorities listed only small and little-known websites as responsible for unhealthy content.
The 19 internet sites cited by the government yesterday included Sina, Sohu, Tencent and NetEase – among the country's biggest web portals and each run by overseas listed companies – and blog-hosting websites and forums such as Tianya.
The move comes as the internet is used to organise a number of challenges to the political leadership in Beijing. Censors are currently blocking reporting and debate about Charter 08, an appeal for democratic reform that has attracted signatures from hundreds of prominent intellectuals. Other forms of dissent, such as demands for compensation in China's poisoned milk scandal, have also been organised through the internet.