After an anonymous netizen filed an official application to the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology for the disclosure of the legal basis allowing foreign websites to be blocked in the mainland by the Great Firewall (see CDT’s translation of the application), the Internet and information regulator sent back this reply:
Applicant: XX
The office of the Government Information Disclosure Leading Group received your application for information disclosure on July 21 2014. According to Regulation of the People’s Republic of China on the Disclosure of Government Information (Decree of the State Council, No. 492), the answer to your inquiry is as follows:
Our Ministry does not have the information you applied for.
August 6, 2014
申请人：XX
我部政务公开领导小组办公室于2014年7月21日收到您提交的政府信息公开申请。根据《中华人民共和国政府信息公开条例》（国务院令第492号）相关规定，现答复如下：
我部无您所申请公开的政府信息。
2014年8月6日
The ministry’s dismissive response, which began circulating on various social media services, led some netizens to comment:
MyDF: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs: The Internet in our country is regulated in accordance with law. The State Internet Information Office: We have never issued an official document to block Google. Relevant agency: Blocking Google is an idea from above. Netizen: Is there anything out there that’s above the rule of law?
外交部：我国的互联网是依法管理的。国信办：未发文要求封锁google。有关部门：封google是上面的意思。网民：法律的上面是什么东西？
陶景洲: The most telling information is that the Ministry of Information has no information.
信息部无信息是最大的信息。
doing：There are ten thousand grass-mud horses running across my heart.
心里有一万只羊驼在奔跑。
wdlth：Department response: We also can’t access those sites, so our Ministry does not have the information you applied for.
宫刑部回答：我们也上不去，所以我部无您说申请公开的政府信息。[Chinese source]
Translation by Mengyu Dong.
