A café with the sign "Free Wi-Fi" in Wudaoying Hutong. Photo: Guo Yingguang/GT
The company that designed Dongcheng district's Wi-Fi monitoring software may not be authorized to offer their product in the Chinese mainland.
Local Dongcheng district police ordered bar owners in areas like Wudaoying Hutong to pay at least 20,000 yuan ($3,100) to install the software.
The hutong's bar and café owners chose instead to cut their Wi-Fi, rather than face a fine of at least 20,000 yuan for allowing Web access without the system.
The bidding notice from chinabidding.org.cn, on behalf of Dongcheng police, issued by the official website of the Beijing Finance Bureau, states the software is supposed to be used in public places that provide free Internet access.
But Shanghai Rainsoft Company, which won the bid, is in the category of companies that are Hong Kong, Macao or Taiwan-invested, which are treated as overseas companies, according to the official website of the Shanghai Administration for Industry and Commerce.
Regulations of the National Administration for the Protection of State Secrets state that this sort of company can't get involved in controlling classified private networks for reasons of security.
"[Why] let a overseas invested enterprise safeguard online security in Beijing?" A sharp-eyed sina.com microblogger questioned the official microblog of the Beijing police. Beijing police has yet to reply.
Rainsoft Company declined to answer questions. "Our leaders are all abroad and can't talk to the press," a receptionist at the company's Shanghai headquarters said over the phone.
"We also don't have a public relations office, because our business is classified," she said.
"According to the product description I think Rainsoft has engaged in control of private networks," Jia Jinghua, a noted IT Industry commentator, told the Global Times, saying that he is unfamiliar with the company as it keeps a low profile.
Apparently not only bars and cafés are affected. "on Thursday I was in the Wada Youth Hostel in Beimao Hutong, [Dongcheng district] and hostel staff told me that local police had asked them to install Web monitoring software," Shi Meng, a photographer said on Thursday.
Some public venues in Dongcheng district remain unaffected by the new policy, although bar and café owners in Nanluoguxiang told the Global Times Tuesday police had already approached them.
Bars and cafés in other districts in Beijing like Sanlitun and Lido in Chaoyang district have not been informed of any new policy, and continue to provide free access as normal.
Beijing police spokesman Zi Xiangdong told the Global Times on Thursday that he still needs more time to look into the matter.