China’s web police block US ambassador’s name

BEIJING (AP) — China is widening its Internet policing following online calls for protests like those in the Middle East, with social networking site LinkedIn and searches for the U.S. ambassador’s name both blocked.

Searches for Ambassador Jon Huntsman’s name in Chinese on popular microblogging site Sina Weibo were met with a message Friday saying results were blocked due to unspecified “laws, regulations and policies.”

A video circulating online shows Huntsman at a protest site in Beijing last weekend. An unidentified Chinese man asks Huntsman what he’s doing there and whether he wants to see chaos in China.

The U.S. Embassy says Huntsman was just passing through.

LinkedIn, not widely used by Chinese but previously accessible, could not be opened Friday.