As it encourages development of Chinese content, Beijing is making it surprisingly easy for foreign companies. While they cannot own equity in mainland telecom operators, they can own majority control of Net companies such as Zhaodaola. And although Beijing jealously guards its monopoly on traditional print and broadcast media, it lets entrepreneurs publish on the Web. All the same, Beijing raises many obstacles to a truly freewheeling Net culture. The government limits what Chinese Net users can see by telling them to block portals run by dissident and human-rights groups.
Determined surfers can get what they want by going through offshore services.
But because Beijing bans imported encryption technology, state snoops can easily eavesdrop on traffic and arrest violators or seize their computers. That makes the Chinese Net unsafe for sensitive political topics and means that much commercial data isn't very secure either. Other portals have similar ways of dealing with Big Brother. That will take a lot of heat off our back,'' says Chiang. Some content providers have experienced first-hand the limits of Beijing's patience.