China demonstrates its authoritarian control system

The New York Times is reporting that China is increasing its efforts to regulate online media by requiring online writers to register their real names before publishing to the internet, which would allow the government to trace all pen names to the real author. While the Chinese government portrays this change as an attempt to promote "healthy" literature and moral journalism standards, this action hurts freedom of expression and the ability of writers to dissent from government policies. In the past, online media in China has not been heavily regulated relative to print media.