BEIJING—Not to be outdone by the governments in Australia, France or Iran, China, the leading contender in the World Censorship Olympics, has increased its lead this week with the news that people who want to start .cn websites will now have to submit to an application process that will ensure that they are … well, we really don’t have a clue what the Chinese government wants to see from these people other than something they don’t want to see.

“To apply, an individual must visit his or her local Internet service provider’s office, submit an identification card and pose for a photograph,” reported the Los Angeles Times. “Applications will then be sent to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for review.”

One is probably safe in assuming, then, that the review process includes scrubbing the ID card against all manner of databases, including ones belonging to the police and governmental agencies that keep track of suspected dissidents. It is highly questionable that they will have a way to scrub for people interested in opening an adult-oriented site, despite the official party line that the rule is to root out the porners.

“Internet security needs to be cured from its roots,” a government official said Sunday.

The Times reports experts as saying that people will now try to create their sites overseas.

“Things will definitely be much more difficult now,” the paper quotes Chen Nan, a webmaster for an information technology site, as saying. “But people are just going to turn to dot-com domains. If you’re not doing anything sensitive, you don’t have to worry about getting blocked.”

One suggestion, though. If ICANN approves .XXX, Chinese citizens should avoid it at all cost.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has not indicated when the new rule will go into effect.

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