(Clearwisdom.net) In December, 2003, Shanxi Province Authorities began forcing all internet users to use disclose their identities to access the internet at internet caf¨¦s in order to monitor and control their usage of the internet. The Provincial capital of Taiyuan naturally became the first target of this measure. Several caf¨¦s that I visited frequently have been forced to install a special-purpose software to ask users to prove their identities before accessing the internet.

All the internet users now have to show their personal ID card, driver's license ID or other valid identification in order to buy an "Internet Shield ¨C Internet Access Identity Card." The regular price of each card is 15 Yuan, and the member price is 12 Yuan. After buying the card, the information of each individual user is stored in the monitoring system. Users have to slide the card through the scanning device installed in the caf¨¦s by the police to validate their identity in order to access the internet each time. Then, the users have to use a password to login to the computer. After the users logoff, they have to run their cards through the scanning device again to exit the monitoring system. This means that all the users' activities while accessing the internet in the caf¨¦s have now been brought under tight control and are being closely monitored.

Based on what I have seen, this measure has stopped many internet users. Many who were members of the caf¨¦s requested to discontinue their membership, pay off the balance and close their accounts. But the owners rejected all of their requests. If the users do not want to buy the "Internet Shield ¨C Internet Access Identity Card" to access the internet anymore, the funds in their accounts will be withheld and kept by the internet caf¨¦s. The owners all blame the police, which has raised users' contempt for the overbearing measures of the government. Disputes caused by this measure are frequently seen and curses can be heard everywhere. The owners of the bars also complain a lot because of losing many customers and incurring additional costs.

Ever since the scandal of the Chinese government's covering up the outbreak of SARS and hiding it from its citizens and the rest of the world, the people have realized the importance of having the right to know the truth, and they also understand the government's policy of trying to keep them uninformed or misinformed. Thus, accessing the internet has become a very important and possibly the only channel to get true information. This measure of forcing people to prove their identities when accessing the internet is obviously to block internet users from trying to learn the truth as well as to monitor and control their individual privacy. The result is that yet another human right has now been taken away from the Chinese people. It is no wonder that this measure has raised the people's dislike of the government.

We would like to appeal to all the people upholding justice in the world to pay attention to, expose and stop this, yet another evil event occurring in China to trample and infringe upon the people's basic rights.