Interesting findings.
Isaac Mao, a pioneer blogger and researcher, says the number of users
is less im****tant than the quality of their online experience, where
he says there is a big gap with the United States.
His organisation encourages netizens to connect their real and their
virtual lives through blogs and discussions of social issues,
including censor****p.
Behind the Great Firewall
210 million Chinese have web access and any day now China will have
more users than the US. But instead of spreading freedom, the net has
been tamed by Beijing's iron grip
" Jonathan Watts in Beijing
" The Guardian,
" Saturday February 9 2008
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/09/internet.china
There were two very different snowstorms that blanketed China in the
run-up to this week's Spring Festival. The first, re****ted by the
state media, was a natural disaster heroically battled by half a
million troops and Communist Youth League volunteers. It left 5.8
million people stranded, but the people ultimately prevailed.
The second, reflected through the prism of internet cynics, was a
calamity exacerbated by official incompetence, indolence and
optimistic weather forecasts. While the old media have quoted
"heartwarming words" of appreciation for the government's response and
praised its own "heroic" re****ters, the internet has been abuzz with
furious denunciations of state broadcasters, forecasters and officials
for getting the picture wrong.
Such competing public opinions - unheard of 10 years ago - are
becoming familiar in China these days as the world's biggest censor
struggles to cope with the explosive growth of the internet. With
200,000 new netizens every day, China's online population is on the
brink of overtaking the United States as the biggest in the world.
That landmark could come today, next week, or next month. According to
the China Internet Network Information Centre, there were 210 million
internet users at the end of last year, just 5 million behind the US.
But China is adding 6 million new users a month - more than 10 times
the pace of US growth.
In an Olympic year, and at a time of surging economic growth, the new
figures are taken by some as proof of Beijing's irresistible rise. Not
everyone likes it. Free speech activists fear it will increase the
influence of China's censors in the virtual world. Foreign governments
have raised concerns that the country has become a breeding ground for
pirates, hackers and cyber spies.
It was not supposed to be like this. After the internet was connected
to China in 1987, civil rights campaigners hoped it would be a
catalyst for political reform. But 21 years on, the Communist party is
still in power and its model of a tightly controlled internet is
gaining ground, if only by force of numbers.
The world's most popular blog? Lao Xu, written by the actor and
director Xu Jinglei, which boasts 137 million visitors. The biggest
distributor of online video? Tudou, which claims to have overtaken
YouTube with over 1bn megabytes of data transfers every day. Then
there is Baidu, which has trounced Google in the Mandarin search
engine market, and Alibaba, whose boss Jack Ma is a national hero for
humbling eBay and taking over Yahoo's operations in China.
Language, culture and the Great Firewall of China - the state's
information ****eld - protect the government and big business players
from competition. Instant messaging and social networking are
dominated here by Tuscent's QQ service. The game world is ruled by
Shanda Entertainment and Giant Interactive rather than Nintendo and
Sony. Sina and Sohu have a lockhold on the news. In every sector in
China, domestic players are on top. Some are now starting to look
overseas. Baidu recently launched a Japanese service.
Experts say that by overtaking the US as the world's biggest user
base, China will attract investment, commercial traffic and
technology. With this will come influence.
"This is a big landmark. The US has almost reached the point where it
has not much room to grow. China is the opposite. In terms of new
connectivity and economic growth, China is definitely the place," says
Xiao Qiang, the founder of the California-based China Digital Times.
Beijing is thought to have the planet's most sophisticated blocking
equipment, which is used to guard virtual walls against external
threats. Internally, it relies on a system of official monitoring and
cor****ate self-censor****p. Most of the routers and other parts come
from US companies, such as Cisco. Campaigners suspect China is passing
its censor****p know-how to Cuba, Vietnam and several African
countries.
"China is ex****ting a model where the internet is a tool for
economical development, social networking, marketing business and
propaganda, but not for free expression. China is very proud of this.
They spent dozens of millions of euros to build firewalls,
cyber-police and cyber-censors," says Vincent Brossel of Re****ters
Without Borders.
Passionate
He says China is lobbying at an international level for more state
control of the net, which is currently managed by a US-based
independent organisation. "If this happens, it will be the end of the
freedom of expression on the web."
But the internet is also changing China and taking on characteristics
not seen elsewhere. Compared with their counterparts in the US,
surveys suggest Chinese netizens are more passionate about the web,
three times more likely to feel freer in the virtual world than in
reality, and more than twice as likely to consider themselves
addicted.
With an average ago of 35 - seven years younger than in the US - they
are primarily interested in entertainment, and believe the net is more
satisfying in this respect than TV, movies or meeting friends.
****ography, a key driver of the internet elsewhere, is less of a
factor in China, where the government routinely announces sweeps of
online "spiritual pollution". Last month, state media announced the
closure of 44,000 websites and arrests of 868 people accused of
providing "unhealthy" content.
The web in China may be far from puritanical but while "***" is the
most popular search term in many countries, Google re****ts that in
China the most sought-after themes are related to money and
technology. "Stock" is in the top six, along with the names of three
leading banks.
The means of access are different too. The fastest growth last year
was in rural areas. A third of users go online at net cafes, known as
wangba (web bars).
The scene this week at a suburban wangba in Beijing was typical:
scores of young people hunched in front of screens in a dimly lit
room; the men in hoodies and parkas jabbing at their keyboards,
blasting aliens and soldiers, while the women are transfixed by weepy
Korean soaps and Taiwanese gameshows.
A few sleep at their consoles. One woman knits. There is an occasional
grin, the odd laugh. But for the most part, the only sound is the
clicking of mice and keyboards amid a motionless, expressionless
multitude. However, the visitors say the wangba fills a hole in their
lives.
"My life would be very boring without the net," admits Yang Jing, a
19-year-old art student from Anhui, tearing herself away from a glitzy
movie. "It's just occupied with school and this - I watch films, play
games and chat to friends. If we didn't have the net, I wouldn't know
what to do."
The Yi You cafe opened only a year ago, the newest in a chain that
boasts half a dozen branches in Beijing alone. In the evenings the 300
chairs are quickly claimed; other outlets have even more screens. "The
internet cafe business has developed very quickly in the last two
years. They're everywhere," says the manager, Zong Cheng.
Jeremy Goldkorn, founder of the media blog Danwei.org, says the surge
in users is changing China. "It is extremely significant that the
internet growing at this rate because it makes it easier for
information to get out," he says. "I believe Chinese society in
general is opening up. The internet is a cause of that, but it is also
an effect. It won't lead to revolution, but it will play a part in the
evolution of public debate."
Roland Soong, whose Zonaeuropa blog is one of the most respected
sources of information about mainland websites, believes people in
China have higher expectations of the internet.
"In other countries, there are other platforms for ordinary people to
express themselves. In China, the internet is the sole platform for
citizens to raise their voices."
Fabricated
This enthusiasm sometimes manifests itself in alarming ways. Soong
believes more stories are fabricated by people who want to promote
themselves or their companies than in other countries. Online
campaigns often turn into mob witchhunts, such as the recent targeting
by BBS (bulletin board system) groups of a 13-year-old girl who was
used by the authorities to justify tighter restrictions on online
video content. In an interview with the state broadcaster CCTV she
described it as "very yellow [****ographic], very violent", which is
fast becoming one of the slogans of the year.
But other cases suggest the net is proving a positive social force, by
making unelected local governments more accountable. The recent
killing of Wei Wenhua, who used his mobile phone to film a fight
between municipal officials and villagers, rapidly became nationwide
news thanks to the fury of internet bloggers. The authorities had no
choice but to arrest four suspects and fire a local official. A
Guangdong newspaper re****ts the case of a judge being supended after
pictures were posted online of him chatting on his mobile phone during
a court hearing. Forestry officials in Shaanxi face a furious backlash
after confirming new pictures of the endangered South China tiger that
later appear to be faked.
The proliferation of mobile phones, internet messaging services and
bulletin boards has been cited as a major factor in recent
middle-class street protests. The biggest last year saw a
demonstration of thousands in Xiamen, Fujian province, against plans
for a chemical factory. Mindful of public opinion, the authorities
have backed down.
At a national level, the State Council Information Office - which
overseas the internet - can still exert a tight grip. The recent
detention of human rights campaigner Hu Jia and the house arrest of
his wife and two-month-old daughter made headlines around the world.
In China, it is as if it never happened. The two main news ****tals,
Sina and Sohu, make no mention of the case. Searches on Baidu and
Google produce a list of pages, many of which are blocked. Others are
censored by the search engines themselves, but only Google admits this
alongside the results. The authorities keep a permanent block on some
sites, such as BBC news, Amnesty or non-government sources of
information on Tibet, Taiwan, the Tiananmen Square massacre and Falun
Gong. Propaganda officials send weekly lists of restricted topics to
web administrators, who are then expected to censor themselves.
But with the internet expanding so fast, there is a limit to the
number of blocking orders the government can send out or how widely it
can impose its authority on small websites, such as blogs and bulletin
boards. For that, it must rely on self-censor****p, which is far from
guaranteed.
Hong Bo, who blogs under the name Keso, says the op****tunity to speak
out online is cherished by a growing band of bloggers and BBS users.
"The Chinese internet has a distinctive character. Its one of the most
strictly controlled in the world, but netizens' behaviour still
confounds the government's expectations. They ban websites and delete
posts, but they haven't got everything under control."
Isaac Mao, a pioneer blogger and researcher, says the number of users
is less im****tant than the quality of their online experience, where
he says there is a big gap with the United States.
His organisation encourages netizens to connect their real and their
virtual lives through blogs and discussions of social issues,
including censor****p.
"Rulers believe they can build a better system and get others to
follow. But even though they want to change the internet, it is part
of a globalised world and nobody can afford to build an isolated
system.
"I believe the internet will change China more than China changes the
internet."
Popular searches: love or banking
Most popular search words in world
1 iphone
2 badoo
3 facebook
4 dailymotion
5 webkinz
Most popular search words in China
1 qq (an instant messaging service)
2 China Merchants Bank
3 Industry and Commercial Bank of China
4 stock
5 xiaoyouxi (game site)
Most popular "what is" questions in the world
1 what is love
2 what is autism
3 what is rss
4 what is lupus
5 what is sap
Most popular "what" questions in China
1 what are blue chips
2 what are stock index futures
3 what is cpi (consumer price index)
4 what is qfii (qualified foreign institutional investors)
5 what is gdii (qualified domestic institutional investors)
ยท 2007 Google re****t
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