Microsoft Corp. has shut down the Internet journal of a Chinese blogger that discussed politically sensitive issues, including a recent strike at a Beijing newspaper. The action came amid criticism by free-speech activists of foreign technology companies that help the communist government enforce censorship or silence dissent in order to be allowed into China’s market. Microsoft’s China-based Web log-hosting service shut down the blog at the Chinese government’s request, said Brooke Richardson, group product manager with Microsoft’s MSN online division at company headquarters in Redmond. Although Beijing has supported Internet use for education and business, it fiercely polices content. Filters block objectionable foreign Web sites and regulations ban subversive and pornographic content and require service providers to enforce censorship rules. “When we operate in markets around the world, we have to ensure that our service complies with global laws as well as local laws and norms,” Richardson said. Richardson said the blog was shut down Dec. 30 or Dec. 31 but wouldn’t give any other details about the reason. But the blog, written under the pen name An Ti by Zhao Jing, who works for the Beijing bureau of The New York Times as […]