The Chinese authorities detained during the year just ended in 5400 amid a suspected operation to combat Internet pornography, and have vowed to strengthen supervision over the network.
Surveillance of Beijing on cyberspace and its attempts to block certain Internet sites are already among the most stringent in the world. On Friday morning, in a statement, the Ministry of Public Security reported that the "cleansing of the internet" and combating crimes closely connected with it the government's stability.
"Lewd and pornographic content seriously pollutes the online environment, social and moral degenerates poisons the physical and psychological health of the masses of youth," the statement said. "This must be firmly controlled.
The ministry said that nearly 9,000 pornographic Web sites have been deleted from the internet and that 5394 suspects were captured in 2009, but did not say how many of them were indicted.
He added that future efforts will focus on Chinese operators of sites registered abroad, as well as companies providing Internet services or engaged in registering addresses or rent virtual space that pages with pornographic content. The ministry also offered rewards to people who provide information useful for the surveillance measures.
The communist government says that the main targets of censorship on the Web are pornography, gambling and other sites deemed harmful to society. However, critics point out that such arguments tend to mask the steps to detect and block content from political dissent.
Many foreign sites have been blocked by Chinese authorities, including YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and other pages, mostly of a news story.
Last year, China backed down, after it said it would require that new computers have a controversial program to filter Internet content. There was criticism of Chinese and computer manufacturers.
This filter had been announced as a system to combat pornography.
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