Chinese officials have announced that beginning on July 1, all computers sold there must include government-designed software that blocks pornography.

OK fine, but a few Internet savants smelled a rat and set out to test the so-called Green Dam-Youth Escort software.

Their conclusion: Green Dam also censors religious and anti-government Web sites, disables programs after people input certain words, monitors personal communications, and tracks the Internet explorations of Chinese citizens, according to the Wall Street Journal’s Gordon Krovitz.

China is in effect asking computer makers to help block access to information and punish citizens if they visit unsavory sites or express themselves freely online.

Green Dam, dubbed derisively by its own citizens as the “Great Firewall of China,” has also been found to close computer applications without warning and create serious security problems.

So far Dell, HP, Apple and Lenovo—whose biggest shareholder is China’s government—have tread lightly around the subject, allowing their trade associations to gently press the matter with Beijing.

But now, US Trade Representative Ron Kirk and Commerce Secretary Gary Locke have begun quietly pressuring China to shelve the program altogether. They claim the program may violate commitments that China made to the World Trade Organization.

In letters to 2 Chinese ministries yesterday, the US officials said, “China is putting companies at an untenable position by requiring them, with virtually no public notice, to pre-install software that appears to have broad-based censorship implications and network security issues.”

The letters encouraged China to seek ways to promote parental control without restricting freedom to roam the Internet, freedom of expression and the free flow of information, according to the Washington Post.

Since forever, the Big O has argued that comprehensive health reform was a prerequisite to revivifying the nation’s flagging economy.

Last week, his argument got support from a report by the Council of Economic Advisors, which claimed that cutting annual growth in health-care spending from 6% to 4.5% could create 500,000 jobs per year and increase annual family income by $2,600 over the next decade.

Alas, the report lacked details regarding how such goals would be met, and failed to mention the extra dollar or two in government spending that would be needed to jump-start the process.

The report also acknowledged that the 25% reduction in the rate of growth in spending was “near the upper bound of what is feasible.”

Republicans and independent analysts were deeply critical of the report, decrying in particular the assumption that a broad expansion of health insurance could translate into long-term savings for the government and the economy as a whole.

“This report is nothing more than smoke and mirrors,” seethed House Minority Leader John Boehner to the Washington Post. “The administration hasn’t offered a credible plan to (cut costs) without raising taxes or rationing care.”

Nevertheless, the Unflappable One pushed onward, releasing the contents of a letter from a consortium of industry stakeholders that promised to help save money over the next decade. 

In it, American Hospital Association pledged to fight nosocomial infections and readmissions. The AMA said it would coax physicians to follow evidence-based guidelines for back pain, heart disease and prenatal care. Big Pharma said that starting drugs earlier in the course of certain illnesses could reduce the need for more costly interventions later on.

One can only wonder why these obviously good ideas weren’t implemented long ago.