China's Great Firewall Back Up

China has quietly reinstated the web censorship lifted during its Olympics image cleanup, the New York Times reports today. As in the past, the tightening comes as growing unemployment raises the government’s fears of social unrest. The government defended its right to censor sites that violate Chinese secession laws, which apparently includes BBC, Voice of America, and several Hong Kong publications.

China’s government suggested it was being unfairly targeted for doing “just as what other countries are doing.” Britain and Australia have limited access to online child porn, and Germany bans sites linked to Nazi activity. China’s ban has an inarguably broader reach, and websites are denied appeal. The onus is on sites to “develop conditions for website cooperation,” a spokesman says. (More China stories.)