In a letter addressed today to Jia Chunwang, Chinese Minister of Public Security, Reporters Sans Frontières (Reporters Without Borders ­ RSF) protested against the arrest of Lu Xinhua and Guo Qinghai accused of violating the law on the content of information published on Internet. RSF asked the minister to guarantee the release of Lu Xinhua and Guo Qinghai, and for the charges against them to be dropped. "We see the disastrous consequences of the Internet laws promulgated in 2000 by the Chinese authorities. The police services in charge of the Internet are now tracking down all web dissidents" affirmed Robert Ménard, general secretary of RSF.

According to information collected by RSF, Lu Xinhua was detained on 11 March 2001 in Wuhan (centre of the country). According to the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, he was formally arrested on 20 April for "subversion". Lu Xinhua is the author of several articles published on overseas web sites. He reported human rights violations in China and openly criticised Chinese president Jiang Zemin. Moreover, Guo Qinghai, a bank employee, was judged by a Hebei court (north of the country) since 3 April 2001 for having violated the law on the content of news published on Internet. His family was not informed of the date of the trial. He wrote pro-democracy articles on an American web site.

In a report entitled "Enemies of the Internet" (www.rsf.org) published in February 2001, RSF wrote: "Over the past two years, the Chinese authorities have considerably changed their policy for controlling the Internet. The 'Great Cyber Wall' strategy, implemented in 1997 by the Ministry of Public Security and the State Prosecutor, was abandoned in favour of selective enforcement and control carried out by ISPs and site managers themselves. (Š) Chinese web dissidents are considered to be real criminals, and run the risk of hefty prison sentences."

Four web dissidents are currently jailed in China: Qi Yanchen, chief editor of the online review Consultations, arrested on 2 September 1999 and sentenced to four years in jail; Huang Qi, creator of www.6-4tianwang.com, detained since 3 June 2000, whose trial was postponed; and Jiang Shihua, teacher and owner of Internet Coffee Silicon Valley, jailed since 16 August 2000 and sentenced, last December, to two years in jail, and Yang Zili, creator of the web site www.lib.126.com, whose family has not been informed of his whereabouts since he was detained by the police on 13 March 2001.