Oh, you gotta love China. No one can put a smiley face on oppression like those guys. Yesterday, the Ministry of Public Security bragged to the world about the successes of their crackdown on “internet crime.” That included online gambling, of course.

The Ministry of Public Security (it’s funny how often oppression is done in the name of “security”) briefed journalists, telling about the 2,500 websites the police have shut down. Most of the websites were shut down due to being related to online gambling, pornography or what they only describe as “criminal activity.” What do you want to bet the undefined criminal activity related to providing information on things like Tiananmen Square or Liu Xiaobo. Educating about human rights issues is a crime in China, right?

In addition to shutting down those websites – for the people’s safety, of course – the government boasted of 4,000 criminal cases they have brought against offenders. They also bragged about arresting nearly 7,050 suspects for internet activity.

If a person is using the internet for child pornography, terrorism, or some other illegal act (like fraud), then I support arresting that person. Aside from those instances, though, I can’t imagine ever agreeing with someone being arrested for something they do on their computer. China’s communist government, though, not only does it but then brags about it, as if it’s a wonderful thing that should please everyone. Yes, thank you for saving people from spending their money on a hand of blackjack! Thank you, China!

In addition to those alarming numbers, the state-run press agency (kind of like MSNBC for Obama) Xinhua triumphantly declared that the Chinese government has found and destroyed more than 1.4 million online messages and posts. That includes emails, Facebook posts, Twitter posts, posts on message boards and more. In case you’re wondering, use of Twitter of Facebook is also illegal in China and the government does everything possible to block both websites.

All year long China’s oppressive communist government has been cracking down on gambling, both online and offline. Now they are taking an extra step by redefining what and who they can punish. According to Xinhua News, China’s state-run newspaper, a new document released jointly by the Supreme People’s Court, the Supreme People’s Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security redefines internet gambling in an attempt to avoid any ambiguity.

The new law defines those who are guilty of “establishing or running a gambling house” and allows the red government to sentence the guilty parties to up to 10 years in prison as well as levy stiff fines. Under the new law, you are guilty of establishing or running a gambling house if you establish a gambling website in mainland China, establish a gambling website overseas that serves Chinese customers, establish a gambling website and provide it to others to organize gambling, act as an agent for the gambling website and take bets or share profits with gambling websites.

That last one is the biggest change. Under the new law, any business partner of online gambling websites could potentially be violating Chinese criminal law. I’m pretty sure if I ever visited China I could be arrested under this new law, which is one of many reasons I never plan to visit China.

Though the law is new, the crackdown on online gambling is not. Though never a fan of freedom, this year China decided to place a new emphasis on making sure people are not able to spend their own money on casino games, so they have gone after sports betting and online gambling operations with a new vigor.

Since beginning the new crackdown in January, China has arrested or detained more than 7,360 people and frozen nearly 1 billion yuan (equal to $148 million USD). The Ministry of Public Security states that they have dealt with 1,364 cases involving online gambling and broken up more than 130 “gangs” connected to offshore online gambling companies.

At least this crackdown didn’t involve running people over with tanks. China has vowed to crack down on gambling in the country and has been doing just that. A recent raid in the province of Yunnan has resulted in an arrest of 21 suspects accused of running an illegal online gambling operation. In addition, their bank accounts containing approximately ¥550,000 have been frozen.

Back in February, China’s Ministry of Public Security placed a new emphasis on putting an end to online gambling in the Middle Kingdom. Since that time, they have arrested over 3,600 suspects and frozen over ¥700 million in funds, according to the state-run Xinhua News Agency.

Gambling – both online and land-based – has been banned in mainland China since the communist government took power in 1949. I think it’s because they don’t like an individual having an influence over whether their amount of money gets larger or smaller. The government wants to be the one that decides that (after all, there are state-run lotteries).

With the World Cup taking place in South Africa, China is currently placing an emphasis on sports betting. All overseas online casinos and sports books are banned from accepting Chinese customers. China monitors those sites to look for activity from its citizens. If any get through, there can be swift “justice” exacted upon the Chinese citizen. Of course, if you’re a Chinese citizen, there’s a good chance that the Communist Party of China monitors everything you do anyway, as we have found from the controversy surrounding their hacking of Gmail.

China defends controlling how people spend their money, what information they get from the news, and what terms they can search on the internet on the grounds that they are protecting the nation by removing things that would harm the people. Letting people gamble is bad because it’s not good for them. Engaging in nuclear proliferation with North Korea – a nation that might be crazy enough to start a nuclear holocaust, denying freedom of religion, freedom of property and the right to vote for their national leaders is what’s best for the people, though.

Oh, those crazy Chinese are at it again. We know that the Communist Chinese government isn’t too high on freedom, including a free flow of information or the ability for people to do what they want with their money. Come to think of it, in China it’s not really your money, is it?

Anyway, those zany folk in Beijing have stated that there will be a crackdown on what they call “overseas hostile forces.” Of course, in China, you are seen as being a hostile force if you are anything other than the Chinese government, which means that everything overseas is automatically hostile.

In Red China, there is actually a department in the government called the Information Office. It is that office that controls what information the people are given and is responsible for telling the people what they want to be known and hiding what they don’t want to be known. So, in that way it’s a lot like Obama’s relationship with the New York Times.

Anyway, Wang Chen (no, I didn’t make up that name) is the chief of the Information Office and he released a statement saying that China “will strengthen the blocking for harmful information from outside China to prevent harmful information from being disseminated in China and withstand online penetration by overseas hostile forces.”

Allow me to translate that from propaganda to English. When China says “harmful information,” what they mean is any information that doesn’t match the official information released by the Information Office. For example, information about freedom, democracy, protests, ownership, property, and human rights would be considered “harmful” information that needs to be kept from the people. Such information is currently being blocked from the Internet in China, but there are always ways around that censorship, which is why they need to crack down.

How this relates to online gambling is that in China’s mainland, gambling is illegal. That includes online gambling. However, there are many online casinos from overseas that currently accept Chinese customers. Online gambling is another thing that is considered harmful by the Chinese government, because it is a way for the Chinese citizens to spend money on something that is not provided by the government.

In response to this statement, many online casinos that were accepting bets from Chinese customers have stopped. Some have delayed deposits and withdrawals from China. Some online casinos have warned Chinese customers that the government may be monitoring their transactions.

So for any Chinese online gamblers, I’m sorry to say that you may soon be out of options for casinos. Of course, I’m also sorry to say that you live in China, don’t have freedom, and may soon be arrested and taken to a secret prison for the “crime” of reading this article.

Just so we’re clear, here’s a list of things that China does and doesn’t like. This is not a comprehensive list.

Chinese government likes: communism, controlling all aspects of the lives of its citizens, manufacturing products and selling them to America, running over protesters with tanks, executing political adversaries and starving millions of people to death.

Chinese government dislikes: freedom, democracy, truth, Google, privacy, religion, public gatherings, private property, self-sufficiency and online gambling.