In recent years, authorities have issued regulations to control Internet access and content for the country s one million users and have closed dozens of Internet Web sites. Authorities use a complex process to weed out groups that could potentially oppose the government. State Council Order No. 43 of 1989 banned identical or similar social organizations . . . NGOs must report to specific government departments, and authorities can arbitrarily shut them at any time.
Freedom of assembly is limited.
In recent years authorities have tolerated numerous public protests regarding labor, housing, and other ostensibly local issues but have forcibly dispersed others, particularly in the countryside. In August, a Hunan province court imprisoned nine farmers for organizing a January protest against arbitrary local taxation that drew more than 10,000 farmers. The government tightly controls organized religious practice. Authorities pressure Roman Catholic and Protestant churches to register with either the official Catholic Patriotic Association or its Protestant counterpart. Students at state-approved seminaries must pass exams on political knowledge.