As part of the national campaign against Internet pornography,
the China Banking
Regulatory Commission (CBRC) has issued a circular requiring
all banks to investigate online transactions conducted by porn site
operators.
"Once a website is found to be involved in pornographic
business, banks should immediately freeze its capital," according
to the circular.
The CBRC noted that some pornographic websites have used the
banks' online transaction services as a means to charge clients,
damaging the banks' reputations and business.
The CBRC asked the banks to strengthen the monitoring of their
daily business and report anything abnormal, including suspicious
domain names, IP addresses and bank card numbers, to public
security departments.
The Industrial and
Commercial Bank of China announced that it has checked all 355
of its contracted website operators to ensure that they possess
certificates for online business and have agreed not to engage in
"indecent activities."
The China
Construction Bank designated a liaison in each of its branches,
who is to be responsible for updating information about the
performance of contracted website operators.
The ongoing nationwide crackdown on pornographic websites, which
began in mid-July, is being conducted to quell what the central
government perceives as the harmful influences of the Internet.
There are 87 million Internet users in China, with usage
exploding in recent years.
(Xinhua News Agency August 20, 2004)