Chinese Government Tallies Anti-Porn 'Achievements' for 2014

LOS ANGELES—China's official news agency Xinhua reported today that the government organ officially charged with enforcing the country's anti-porn laws issued a press release on Christmas announcing its "anti-pornography achievements in 2014," including the claim that it "confiscated a total of 15.79 million illegal publications." The announcement also asserts that "during 2014, 8,344 cases involving pornography and illegal publications had been dealt with, including 844 cases of pornographic publications, 2,687 cases of piracy, 584 cases of Internet pornography, 128 cases involving fake journalists or media organizations, among other cases." Prison sentences were also handed out, with some of the poor saps even named by the National Anti-Pornography and Anti-Illegal Publications Office, including "a violator, identified as Zhong, [who] was sentenced to 14 months in prison for making 40 yuan (6.45 US dollars) from selling more than 20 disks containing pornography. He was caught with 242 ready to-be-sold disks." In addition to the banned porn, "illegal religious publications was also included on the top 10 major case list."  If recent activity is any indication, 2015 looks to be more of the same. Earler this week, the Chinese government was also touting results from its latest anti-porn and gambling campaign, claiming an astounding 30,000 people arrested in only two months." Reuters reported the government as claiming, "In the latest arrests, police in the southern province of Guangdong arrested 3,014 and put more than 8,000 in criminal detention as of Dec. 15."