The runup to March's dual government extravaganzas, the meeting of the full National People's Congress and the (take a breath) national committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Congress, is always a good time for campaigns to rectify this or that. The Government likes a tidy ship--or at least the appearance of a tidy ship--while the big show is on.

The Internet, which is apparently completely devoted to the undermining of correct socialist values, is a common target of these campaigns. This year's votes are in on China's latest effort to sanitize the uruly Internet. The lucky recipient of this month's crackdown will be Internet gambling.

A good sign that the campaign is related to the upcoming party congress is the use of florid propaganda language, as is liberally employed in this brief Xinhua report:

China on Sunday launched a three-month crackdown on Internet gambling, aiming to purify the cyber environment.

"The prevalence of online gaming has ruined the online environment and harmed young people's growth, which runs against the policy of building a harmonious society," said a circular jointly issued by the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Information Industry and the State Press and Publication Administration.

Beijing, Shanghai, Guangdong and Zhejiang are key places to be supervised, it said, adding the Government should clamp down on online games that involve gambling and online betting.

It said local government departments should strictly supervise online game service providers who are not allowed to exchange "virtual money" with real currencies or properties, or use it to launder money.

The policy of "building a harmonious society" is Hu Jintao's major plank, along with the somewhat more cryptic "scientific concept of development" (which probably also excludes Internet gambling). It's always nice to see the wooden slogans popping up in every conceivable campaign, whether it's to smite Internet gambling or get people to queue up properly.

In fairness, the Chinese do love a) the Internet and b) gambling, so this seems a fairly reasonable campaign as they go. Lest we think this harsh, it's worth noting that the US has essentially banned all online gambling, prosecuted the operators of overseas online gambling sites, and banned US credit cards from being used on overseas gambling sites. Of course, the US did this in response to lobbying from the casino industry, while in China all gambling except for sanctioned lotteries has been illegal since 1949.

Still, if you can't go online (or if you are being treated for Internet addiction with electric shocks), there is always Mah Jongg. The Internet may go dark, but after living next to a house where Mah Jongg was frequently played literally all night long, I can report that the tiles are never silent.