Beijing district police last month enforced regulations requiring café owners and other businesses to install web monitoring software. The software costs businesses around 20,000RMB (2,000 GBP), and provides public security officials the identities of customers logging on to the wireless service, while monitoring their online activity. Since this fee is costly for most cafés, a solution chosen by many has been to stop providing free Wi-Fi. The result? A Wi-Fi drought in some of the busiest – and most touristy – areas in Beijing, say regular users who are unhappy about the new rules.
It remains unclear how strictly these rules will be enforced, with districts across the city receiving different orders. Eastern areas such as Chaoyang have reportedly not been subject to any regulations, while Wudaoying Hutong, a spot with bars and boutique cafés in Dongcheng district frequented by the technology savvy Chinese youth, has. While authorities might not always know how to control the surfing habits of China’s new Mac-owning, cappuccino-swilling generation, they certainly keep trying.
