On the date (June 8) when the Chinese State Council issued its white paper on Internet policy, asserting the significance of online public opinion in monitoring the government, a labour research website (zggr.cn) was forced to shut down for publishing “inappropriate content”.

The so called inappropriate content was a statement signed by 11 local academics and 60 overseas intellectuals in support of the Chinese workers’ strike in Honda. (English version of the statement)

According to the open letter issued by the website, they wrote to the Beijing authorities back in June 12 and requested the reopening of the website, however, there isn't any response so far. They also called the Internet management office but they avioded giving any concrete reply.

The website, initially called China labour (zggr.org), is founded in May 1, 2005 and registered properly in the authority. In 2006, the website was forced to shut down after publishing a statement to the People's Congress by state corporate workers. They claimed that the website was illegal as it had not paid the RMB10 million for registering as a news portal. They were forced to change the nature of the website to a labour research blog. This time, the shut down was due to the publishing of “inappropriate content without permission”.

The open letter, circulated via email, was addressed to the head of the State Council Information Office's Internet Affairs Bureau criticizing its hostility towards a pro-working class website.