China has accomplished remarkable things in the past 20 years, including building one of the world’s largest economies. Computers helped speed that development — and will be even more important in the future. So Beijing’s decision to require that all new personal computers sold in China contain software that bars access to certain Internet content seems particularly self-destructive and foolish.

The new rules say all PCs sold in China after June 30 must include special software — designed by a company with links to China’s military and security agencies — to filter out pornography and other “vulgar” material. Beijing claims that it is trying to protect children. Don’t believe it.

Surely China’s government must recognize on some level that using software to try to keep a lid (and spying eye) on Internet activity is a fool’s errand at best, and dangerous at worst.

The biggest story along these lines is that Olympics highlights will be made available via YouTube. While it’s being called a “financial deal [that is] is tiny compared to the traditional TV rights deals,” this is surely yet another sign that we’re entering an age in which the Internet is directly competing against broadcast television.

Also in the news:

Google is rolling out a free music service that could compete with popular Chinese search engine Baidu.com. Again, we’re seeing another intersection between China and Google (Google owns YouTube). Probably not a coincidence that Google has set its sights on getting as deeply enmeshed into the Chinese side of the web as possible.

Also not a coincidence that Internet companies are falling in line to engage in a “voluntary code of conduct” in China and other “restrictive countries.”

With over 30,000 reporters covering the upcoming Olympics in China, drumming up an original angle is at a premium. So much so that Beijing “Internet pundit” Kaiser Kuo is advising foreign journalists to be careful in their use of tired or inappropriate puns, such as “coming out party” or “great leap forward.” (And this is coming from someone who writes a monthly column called Ich Bin Ein Beijinger?)

Meanwhile, in other world web news, a guy is being jailed for four years for using malware to spy on a 17-year-old girl he met in a chat room. And Thailand has halted the sale of the popular Grand Theft Auto videogame after a teen blamed it for the murder of a taxi driver.

And to avoid ending on a downer note: scouts in the UK are using Facebook to keep in touch and get their virtual scouting on, and the French are illegally downloading as many movies as they are paying to see.