China blacklists websites; "Sensitive" websites unblocked

The blacklist is the CIIIRC's attempt to implement a proposal by the Internet Society of China, which sponsors the CIIIRC, to establish a better Internet environment (made on April 25, 2008). The CIIIRC will now conduct regular spot checks after receiving complaints from Netizens. As reported by ChinaTechNews, those websites that refuse to make corrections or make inadquate corrections will be added to CIIIRC's blacklist.

Meanwhile, we learn from Kaiser Kuo of the Ogilvy China Digital Watch who advises us to enjoy it while we can because a ton of websites have been unblocked:

Looks like the high priests of the Kung-fu Web (the 功夫网 is a clever same-acronym-in-Pinyin euphemism for the Great Firewall) have granted a boon to expatriate Internet users in China for the Olympics, as promised. Reports from Twitter pals around China are still coming in, but for at least many of us living here. a huge litany of hitherto verboten sites are now accessible this morning. For me, at least, the list includes a number of controversial Chinese-language sites ordinarily off limits: Apple Daily, Boxun, Radio Free Asia’s simplified Chinese site even. Politically sensitive English sites like China Digital Times have been unblocked, and FeedBurner is once again working in China. Even some, er, sites blocked for non-political, nekkidness-related reasons are now available sans proxy, sans VPN. Not of course that I would surf to such sites for any ignoble purpose, mind you. I’ve heard that Typepad blogs have been freely accessible to some folks in China for a week now, but Wordpress-hosted blogs are now available too, as are Six Apart’s Vox blogs, which had been blocked for God knows how long.