By staff reporter Qin Xudong

(Caijing.com.cn) The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's mandate to install all new PCs in China with a website-filtering program has caused quite a stir.

On June 11, two professors of law sent a letter to the State Council to challenge the government's directive to ship all PCs in China with a software, known as "Green Dam-Youth Escort", that filters Internet access.

Wei Yongzhen, professor at Hong Kong Shue Yan University, and Zhou Ze, associate professor at China Youth University for Political Science, wrote that the new requirement violates the Government Purchase Law, the Unfair Competition Law and the Antimonopoly Law.

The two professors also wrote in a letter to the cabinet's Antimonopoly Committee that the requirement will decrease competition, damage the interests of consumers and facilitate abuse of administrative powers.

On the same day, Li Fangping of Beijing's Ruifeng Law Firm urged the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to hold a public forum to explain the directive.

The ministry said it is requiring all computers sold in China starting July 1 to be shipped with Green Dam Youth Escort, citing the need to protect Chinese youth from pornography and other harmful websites.

Green Dam filters sites designated as harmful, controls time spent online, manages computer game playing and records Internet usage to help parents monitor their children's online habits.

The ministry said it bought the software for 41.8 million yuan, with one-year use rights, from Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co and Dazheng Language Processing Science Co. All PC buyers will receive the software for free, installed on either the computers' hard drives or included in a compact disc with each purchase, according to the ministry.

1 yuan = 14 U.S. cents

Full article in Chinese: http://www.caijing.com.cn/2009-06-11/110182910.html