Zhang Chenmin

The Chinese manufacturer of Internet-filtering software that must be distributed with all new computers next week has received death threats, state media said Wednesday.

Workers at Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co. received more than 1,000 harassing phone calls this month, according to Zhang Chenmin, the general manager of the company. He said personal information of some of the programmers had been leaked online, and one caller threatened to kill his wife and child.

China is sticking to its planned launch of a controversial Internet censoring software in about one week, an official newspaper said Tuesday, despite Washington's concerns over the move's possible impact on trade and access to information.

The China Daily said the plan to require the Web-filtering Green Dam Youth Escort software on all personal computers sold in China starting July 1 remains unchanged, citing an unnamed source from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology. It is to be pre-installed or included on a compact disc with all PCs sold in China.