Chinese bloggers told US Secretary of State John Kerry that the US should aid the Chinese people in removing restrictions placed on Internet freedom in the country, Bloomberg reported.
Four bloggers met with Kerry today at the US Embassy in Beijing before culminating his one and a half day visit to China before heading for Indonesia. The report quoted Kerry as saying that apprehending those who advocated for reform run counter to "all of our best interests."
China has indicated that it sees online opposition as a risk to the authority of the Communist Party as economic growth slows. In a policy setting Communist Party Plenum held in November, the government of President Xi Jinping launched an Internet crackdown and formed a new security body to fight against local threats, including putting new limits on critics and others who may publish reports online about the transgressions of party cadres, the report said.
Blogger Wang Keqin said that after the plenum, there is less Internet freedom in China. Wang is known for his blogs about the corruption plaguing the taxi industry in Beijing and the work he does on the health hazards of air pollution, the report said.
Another blogger, Zhang Jialong, said that US companies are aiding the Chinese government in preventing Chinese users to access the Internet and micro-blogging platform Twitter. Kerry said he would look into the issue as this is the first time he has heard complaints about US firms helping the government control online access, the report said.
Chinese bloggers have been questioned or detained after posting comments that criticized the government. Last month, a scholar Xu Zhiyong was sentenced to imprisonment of four years for disturbing public order. Venture capitalist Charles Xue, meanwhile, got detained last year allegedly for soliciting prostitutes. He wrote about subjects that were politically sensitive and had 12 million followers, the report said.
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