Officials from the Ministry of the Information Industry said the blockage was only targeting a small number of email servers in China.

An official who declined to be named said: "Only a few email service providers are blocked by outside sources. I do not see that there is a big problem. If you doubt that, just try to email your friends outside China."

The news broke last Friday when Nanfang Weekend, a Guangzhou-based weekly, reported that Chinese email servers were being blocked from outside.

It quoted the UXN.com, a London-based Internet business dealer, as saying that China was growing into a source of junk mail.

UXN.com has compiled a global blacklist, vowing to block emails from 84 servers. Among them are Chinese cyber firms such as Sina, Sohu and NetEase.

Mike Andrews, a chief state government network administrator in the United States, said: "We see four (thousand) to 10,000 junk mails from China to our network every day at work. Most of them are from commercial sources in China, asking me to buy cloth, metal, electronics and other goods."

Sina said some emails sent from it were blocked by some small foreign firms but that its business relationship was good with large Internet firms such as Yahoo and Hotmail.

Liu Yunli, Sina's chief technology officer, ruled out the possibility of an all-out blockage against emails from China.

Liu's words were echoed by Zeng Xiaozhen, a legislator from Northeast China's Jilin Province. Zeng said he had no problem corresponding by email with his son in the United States.

Internet firms and anti-spam experts reached by China Daily said other countries had been affected, such as Japan, Singapore and South Korea.

Peter da Silva, a Canada-based anti-spam expert, said an inordinate number of Chinese hosts are open relays - that is, they will accept mail from anyone and deliver it anywhere.

The US and Europe have mapped out laws to curb junk mail but China, a latecomer to the cyber community, has yet to draw up any specific legal weapon against the problem.

The Chinese mainland has witnessed an explosive growth in Internet users, who numbered 33.7 million at the end of last year. Official statistics indicate that, for every user, there are 2.2 email accounts and 6.8 items of mail are sent out every day.

Analysts said China's entry into the World Trade Organization last year will be another catalyst for international email exchanges.

Legislator Zeng said junk mail should be dealt with in a global effort via laws and consultation.

"Many developing countries, such as China, are short of advanced knowhow on checking the flood of junk mail. It needs global co-operation to put the nuisance in check," said Zeng.

(China Daily March 5, 2002)