China's internet watchdog agency, the Cyberspace Administration of China, announced rules (link in Chinese) this week governing online news publication, codifying existing practices that require online news broadcasters to obtain government licenses. South China Morning Post says that it's the first major revision of regulations on online publication in 12 years while Reuters opines that it's a further step to secure the internet and maintain party control over contents.  The new rules ban private and foreign companies from engaging in news production and dissemination, in a move that effectively extends current restrictions governing print news media to cover online news publishing, according to Caixin.

Meanwhile, Caixin says in a separate story that Facebook is preparing to open an office in Shanghai as it moves towards its goal of launching its core service in the world's biggest internet market. Facebook has an office in Beijing, primarily handling advertising needs, and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg has made overtures in courting public opinion and government support by infamously running in smog-choked Beijing and giving a speech in mandarin Chinese.

On May 4th, 1919, the May Fourth Movement began when over 3,000 students of Peking University and other schools gathered in front of Tiananmen Square after news from the Paris Peace Conference that the Allies intended to give Shandong Province to Japan. They shouted such slogans as, "Struggle for the sovereignty externally, get rid of the national traitors at home," "Do away with the 'Twenty-One Demands,'" and "Don't sign the Versailles Treaty."  The May Fourth Movement served as an intellectual turning point in China; it was a seminal event that changed the course of intellectual thought with many now rejecting the Western-style liberal democracy that had begun to gain popularity in the country. The movement also spurred the successful reorganization of the Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) and partly stimulated the birth of the Chinese Communist Party as well.