The Chinese government has released new rules to police online publishing, formalizing already strict online policies and ensuring that content is stored within the nation's borders, as reported by the Wall Street Journal.
The new regulations were jointly issued by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT).
These new rules ban companies that are foreign-owned from publishing any content online. However, foreign-invested companies can cooperate with Chinese firms on individual projects, provided they secure a permit from the proper authorities.
All content must also be hosted on servers that are physically located inside China. This includes text, pictures, maps, games, cartoons, videos and audio recordings.
Posted online earlier this week, the new set of rules are set to be implemented on March 10. They require all who are involved in online publishing to secure a permit to be able to continue their activities.
Analysts have said that all the regulations to be released, including limitations of foreign-owned companies, already exist in some form. However, putting it all together in a single set of rules allows the government to have a legal justification for intensifying its protection over the Internet, especially against foreign influences.
Chinese authorities have created several regulations and implemented a law over the last year that left foreign business groups fearful that the regulations can be used to restrict foreign investment in telecommunications as well as other sectors, and coerce them to surrender proprietary technology.
Last year, regulations were adopted to require companies to store data only on servers within the country.
"China wants to make sure that everything is localized, one as a defense against foreign interference, and two to have jurisdiction to be able to go to these servers and control them if necessary," according to Rogier Creemers, a scholar from Oxford University who studies Chinese media policy.
"This is about saying, 'We are going to have boundaries in cyberspace, we are going to delineate our territory on the Internet and we are going to regulate it however we see fit," Creemers added.