BEIJING — Hours after the government announced new regulations this week tightening Beijing's grip on foreign news agencies, Chinese Internet users went on a tirade.
"Dear officials," said one anonymous posting on NetEase, a popular Web portal. "Since modern technology is so advanced, why don't you invent some pills which people can take and lose their ability to think? Then you'll have nothing to worry about."
Similar outbursts have followed the release of rules aimed at tightening the state's hold on books, the Internet, magazines, karaoke, broadcasting, video games, satellite dishes, even children's cartoons.
With every passing year, Chinese are increasingly expecting freer information from varied sources and with less government spin, to the consternation of a Communist Party that has long been reliant on an information monopoly to bolster its political monopoly.
The growing appreciation among young Chinese for unfettered news -- and their ability to convey their opinions rapidly across cyberspace -- is a key reason why Beijing will ultimately lose the information war, analysts say, even if it wins some near-term battles.
"The fact that Chinese officials are trying harder and harder means they're actually having less and less control," said Xiao Qiang, director of the Berkeley China Internet Project at UC Berkeley's journalism school. "Between now and the Olympics, it will continue to weaken. They're fighting a losing game."
The European Union and the State Department weighed in against Beijing's new plan, which gives the state-run New China News Agency censorship authority and exclusive distribution rights over foreign wire service competitors such as Reuters and the Associated Press. Analysts say the change appears to be as much a New China News Agency profit grab as a state bid to control information.
Faced with growing criticism at home and abroad, the news agency on Wednesday defended the change on grounds of global fairness.
"The dissemination of financial information is mainly concentrated in the hands of a small group from developed countries, meaning it is hard for developing countries to have the right to distribute financial news or discuss market prices," it said, quoting its vice president, Lu Wei.
Although China has a long history of downplaying foreign criticism, ignoring the uproar from the cheap seats at home is more difficult.
