Imagethief was interested to see in this morning's China Daily a report from a seminar held earlier this week by the Internet Society of China in Hainan. From the article, the annual meeting of the Internet Information Service Commission was a shining opportunity for local Internet companies to suck up to the government by publicly proclaiming their right-thinking attitudes toward content control. It was also a further opportunity for recycling of the tenuous diplomatic line that China's content controls are in line with world norms.

The early part of the article is given over to standard-grade cheerleading for the growth of the Internet in China. In a masterful propaganda move, this stellar growth is then attributed, in part, to the government's enlightened approach to content regulation:

"Among the countries whose per-capita yearly GDP is less than US$2,000, China has witnessed the fastest Internet sector growth, and the boom is a manifestation of China's effective yet market-friendly regulation," Wang said.

Up to 20 Chinese firms have been listed abroad, mainly in the United States, with a gross market value exceeding US$10 billion, and more are waiting to get on the bandwagon.

Wang said that this success partly testifies to the authorities' guiding and overseeing the sector, and he believes there may exist a misunderstanding among some foreigners who criticize China's Internet system.

People in some foreign countries have recently questioned the supervision of Internet content in China, accusing some world-leading technological companies of helping to maintain the so-called "Great Firewall" by filtering out some sensitive items. Web executives and sector experts at the seminar retorted that keeping out "illegal and harmful" information from the Internet is a worldwide common practice.

Imagethief would like to take this moment to apologize to the Chinese propaganda apparatus. Often ridiculed in this space, it is clearly a much more daring and innovative organization than I had thought. Linking the growth of the Chinese Internet and even the success of its firms listing abroad to government intervention is a creative, outside-the-box move that clearly tests the limits of conventional PR thinking, which normally teaches you to minimize bizarre statements.

Needless to say, Chinese industry luminaries wasted little time hopping on the bandwagon:
Participants of the seminar echoed Professor Ming's views. He Hongzhen, corporate affairs manager of the Nasdaq-listed Chinese top search engine baidu.com, said that it is all Chinese Internet companies' responsibility to strive for a healthy, orderly, and well-regulated Internet environment. He deemed that China's Internet management mode of "government regulation hand in hand with sector self-discipline" is effective and beneficial to the long-term net growth in China.

It remains an arduous task for the Internet sites to keep a somber mind in constantly ferreting out "illegal and harmful" information, typically obscene and p*rnographic content that poisons the young and vulnerable, particularly children. According to a recent survey, young people under the age of 18 consist of 60 percent of China's total netizen population.

Since its launch in June 2004, the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center has received more than 240,000 tips from the public complaining of illicit or irregular Internet-related content and acts. Of the total clues reported, 68.2 percent are p*rn related, and 8.2 percent concerns Web gambling and fraudulence.

Well, it's hard to keep a somber mind when confronted with state-sanctioned monkey-love photos, but with enough resolve and a steady supply of ice-cold showers I am sure it can be done. One thing I find interesting about the statement in the final paragraph, above, is that it points out that 68 percent of all tips received by the spookily-named "China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center" are p*rn related, while 8 percent are gambling and fraud related. This leaves 24 percent of complaints unaccounted for, and Imagethief finds himself wondering what they might be. Hello Kitty websites? Obnoxious foreign bloggers? Dudes in thongs?

There are other fabulously optimistic statements in the article, which you can read at your liesure, if you're not too busy surfing the Xinhua girlie pages and reporting them diligently to the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Center (I've submitted 862 pages already). However, Imagethief is reminded of something by this article. We are reminded that somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 Chinese Internet firms have listed in the United States. Now, at a time when US Internet firms are being publicly pilloried for making concessions to the Chinese government's censorship regime, I am surprised that no-one has mentioned access of Chinese Internet firms --who are, of course, complicit in the same regime-- to US capital markets. While I suspect that your smarter investors are staying well away from shares in Baidu, Sina, Shanda and such, these firms are listed on US exchanges, traded by US investors and advised by US investment banks (and, possibly, --ahem-- PR firms).

Why doesn't that bug people as much as US Internet firms conceding to Chinese censorship requirements?

Imagethief suspects there are a couple of reasons. They haven't spent time selling their brands in the US as transformational forces and, thus, don't generate the same sense of betrayal by adhering to Chinese regulations. They're Chinese companies, so they are "expected" to do so. Also, the financial link is, perhaps, a touch too abstract to serve as a useful plank for firing up the voters (midterm elections are coming in November, you'll recall). Nevertheless, as companies listed in the US, they are vulnerable to pressure, as are the investors who support them. If you're going to sell this issue as rooted in moral absolutes, which is what is happening, why the double standard?