Anonymous says it will hack more Chinese sites

BEIJING - Agence France-Presse

Pro-democracy demonstrators wearing Anonymous masks, scuffle with police during a protest against the Chinese government's meddling into the Hong Kong's chief executive election, in Hong Kong April 1, 2012. REUTERS Photo

The hacking group Anonymous said today it would continue targeting China, after announcing it had hacked hundreds of Chinese websites to protest against Internet censorship in the country.
 
Most of the sites Anonymous China claimed to have hacked were working normally early Friday, although some still carried error messages, among them an official site for the ruling Communist Party in the southern city of Hezhou.
 
But the group, which announced its existence last month via Twitter, told AFP in an email it would continue targeting Chinese sites.
 
"It will keep going. The targets are selected," it said.
 
Anonymous said this week it had hacked 300 Chinese websites and posted messages to the government and the Chinese people.
 
One read: "To the Chinese people: your government controls the Internet in your country and tries to filter what he sees as a threat to him." Another said: "Dear Chinese government, you are not infallible. Today websites are hacked, tomorrow it will be your vile regime that will fall." China has the world's largest online population, with more than half a billion users, but its government tightly controls the web, using a vast and sophisticated censorship system known as the "Great Firewall".
 
This week's hackings came after the government last month shut down websites, made a string of arrests and punished two popular microblogs after rumours of a coup linked to a major scandal that brought down a top politician.