As China intensifies its surveillance over the Internet in preparation for one of the country’s most sensitive holidays, October 1, the National Holiday, Southern (Inner) Mongolia’s three popular Internet sites, namely Mongol Ger Association (http://www.mongolger.net), Mongol People Chat Room (MGLhun), and Mongolian People (www.mongolhun.com), have been shutdown and one website, Home Place of Mongolia (www.mglzaluus.com ), has been blocked by the Chinese authorities since September 9 for discussing issues related to the ethnic problems of Mongolian people in China.Two of the four sites were given the authorities’ request of “bei an” as the reason for the shutdown. “bei an” is an Internet surveillance policy by the Chinese authorities adopted for screening and registering all internet sites hosted in China under which owners must file official records with the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China ICP/IP Address Domain Name Record Keeping and Administration System. Personal information on the site owners including their full name, ethnicity, organizational affiliation, age, address, contact number, photo copy of ID card and site registration information including domain name, IP address and web hosting company’s contact must be submitted to the ICP/IP Address Domain Name Record Keeping and Administration System in order to get an approval to run the site.The remaining two Internet sites were given no reason as to why they were shutdown.

SMHRIC