Beijing, Nov. 2 -- The Communist Party of China's (CPC) 18th National Congress - that will set in the motion a once-in-a-decade leadership change process - starts next Thursday. For the first time, the secretive party has to ensure that it controls the vast number of Internet users so that they behave during the Congress. <\/p>\n
There 538 million web users in China - the largest in the world; in 2002, there were less than 60 million. <\/p>\n
On China's Twitter-like microblogs, called Weibo, phrases like 'Party Congress' have already been banned. Any mention of the Congress on Sina Weibo throws up a blank. Searches on the names of top leaders are also blocked. <\/p>\n
But Chinese citizens are finding a way around. The website, Offbeat China, said the word \"sparta\" is what Internet users are typing in to mean the Congress. <\/p>\n
\"A search for Sparta yielded more than 3.2 million results on Sina Weibo,\" said the website Tea Leaf Nation. <\/p>\n
\"The 18th Congress, if pronounced in Chinese sounds very similar to the word Sparta,\" the Offbeat China website said. <\/p>\n
Jailed for trying to set up oppn party <\/p>\n
A court in China has sentenced a man to eight years in prison for trying to form an opposition party and for online messages criticising the Communist Party. <\/p>\n
The court in Kunming sentenced Cao Haibo, 27, for \"subversion of state power\", his lawyer, Ma Xiaopeng, said. Cao had tried to form a party called the China Republican party. GNS <\/p>\n
Published by HT Syndication with permission from Hindustan Times. <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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\nGetting around web censorship<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"