China has closed nearly half of the Internet cafes around the country in the past five months as it toughens regulations governing these businesses.
Since a fire at an Internet cafe in Beijing killed 24 young people in June, officials have cracked on the growing number of online outlets, closing more than 90,000 of the country's 200,000 cafes.
An ongoing nationwide inspection of web cafes will continue until the end of the year, the Wen Hui Dailyreported.
There are more than 200,000 Internet bars in China, of which only 46,000 are legally registered, according to the Chinese ministry of culture.
The closures, as well as new regulations tightening rules on cafes' operations, are meant to ensure public safety, but authorities have also used the clampdown to curtail access to information on the web.
Last week China passed a set of new laws regarding cyberspace, further restricting freedom of access to the Internet and the operation of Internet cafes.
Among those regulations, online cafe owners will be required to put in place mechanisms that prevent users from accessing information considered off-limits by the government.
Internet cafe owners and users are forbidden from using the computers to create, download, copy, browse, send or spread content considered "anti-constitutional" and which may harm national unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity, the regulations state.
AFP