The Glorious People's Republic of China said that it has the right to block Web sites its says break its laws. It made the statement after it halted web censorship during the August Olympic Games.

Now, Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said certain Web sites had breached Chinese law by recognizing Taiwan. He didn't say if any Web sites had been censored. Apparently, the way to get yourself banned behind the bamboo curtain is to refer to Taiwan as an independent country.

Liu said that treating Taiwan as an independent country is against China's law of anti-secessionism. This has apparently meant that lots of foreign Websites are now being banned again.

The BBC said that its Chinese language news site and Voice of America in Chinese had all been blocked. These sites had been unblocked after journalists attending the Beijing Olympics complained that the government was censoring sites deemed sensitive.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said it was clear that China had no intention of fulfilling the hopes it raised when it was awarded the 2008 Olympic Games that the Chinese media universe would enter a period of expansion.