Christ's sacrificial offering of himself serves to "cleanse our consciences," says the reading from the Letter to the Hebrews. The Chinese government, saying it wants to cleanse computers of "unhealthy information," has issued a sweeping directive requiring all personal computers sold in the country to include sophisticated software that allows the government to control an ever-changing list of banned websites.

Free-speech advocates say the new software could make it even more difficult for China's 300 million Internet users to access uncensored news and information.

The rules, issued last month, heighten Internet restrictions that are already among the most stringent in the world. China regularly blocks websites that discuss the Dalai Lama, the 1989 crackdown on Tiananmen Square protesters, and Falun Gong, a banned spiritual movement.

"This is a very bad thing," said Charles Mok, chairman of the Internet Society, an advocacy group in Hong Kong. "It's like downloading spyware onto your computer, but the government is the spy."

In recent months China has tightened its Internet restrictions, including an "anti-vulgarity" campaign that has closed down thousands of pornographic sites but also shuttered nonsexual sites, including some of the most popular bulletin boards and blog hosts.

China already employs more than 30,000 censors and thousands others who "guide public opinion" by flooding bulletin boards with comments favorable to the Communist Party.

Last week, as the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen protests approached, the government blocked a host of Internet services, including Twitter, Microsoft's live.com, and Flickr, a photo-sharing site. Youtube has been inaccessible here since March.

The use of blocking software is not the first time foreign companies have been enlisted in Chinese government efforts to police the Internet. Google already blacks out politically sensitive results yielded by its popular search engine, Microsoft allows censors to block content on its blog service, and Yahoo was widely criticized for turning over information that was used to jail a journalist.

The U.S. government has been meeting with industry groups to discuss the issue, said Susan Stevenson, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Beijing.

"We would view with concern any attempt to restrict the free flow of information," Stevenson said. "Such steps would be incompatible with China's aspirations to build a modern, information-based economy and society. The U.S. is concerned about actions that seek to restrict access to the Internet as well as restrictions on the internationally recognized right to freedom of expression."

Source: Articles by David Pierson for the Los Angeles Times and Andrew Jacobs for the New York Times