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CHINA
source: www.china.org.cn/english/
2004/Dec/114596.htm
www.clickz.com/stats/big_picture/
geographics/article.php/5911_390981
www.heritage.org/Research/
AsiaandthePacific/
bg1806.cfm
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The explosion of the Net represents a huge opportunity - especially for youth - but it also mirrors the country’s economic and social divides, and lack of freedom…- Internet users in China have increased from 620,000 in 1997 to about 100 million in 2005, making the country second only to the United States in Internet connections. But this massive expansion has been uneven, so that the country's six most developed provinces, municipalities or administrative regions have 50% of these connections, while the six poorest account for less than 1%;
- the estimated 60% of the total Chinese population that lives in predominantly rural areas has access to only 0.8% of Internet connections;
- the possession of domain names and websites also shows a digital divide between developed and developing areas in the country. Take websites as an example. More than 88% of websites have their offices in North China, East China and South China where the economy is developing better. However, Northeast China, Southwest China and Northwest China only have 11.2% of China's websites;
- China's user base is young with 63% between the ages of 15 and 29 versus 24% between the ages of 30 and 44 (in Hong Kong, the equivalent numbers are 48% and 38% respectively);
- by the end of 2000, a total of 70,000 primary and secondary schools nationwide were offering IT education. Some 50 million students per year have begun learning to use the 2.1 million computers provided to these schools. By 2003, more than 10,000 primary and middle schools in the underdeveloped western provinces had been equipped with computers;
- in April 2003, the Ministry of Science and Technology launched a 200-million-yuan (US$24 million) project called "Narrow the Digital Divide - the Western Action." Two years later, great progress has been achieved;
- surveys conducted by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences show that in metropolitan areas more than 1 in 3 people has Internet access. Even in small cities, 27% of residents have access to the Internet; (1)
- for several years during the 1990s, Chinese Internet users gained increasing amounts of information from the Net. By 1998, suppression of Internet dissent has increased. China is said to have the largest prison population of ‘cyberdissidents’ in the world. As of June 2004, the Reuters news service reported there were 61 cyberdissidents in jail for criticizing the Chinese government. In April 2004, The Washington Post described a typical cyberdissidence case involving a group of students who were arrested for participating in an informal discussion forum at Beijing University; (2)
- in other cases, when it is difficult for the state to discern whether or not certain Internet activity is a clear and present danger, the cyberpolice simply shut down web sites. At last estimate, access was blocked to 19,000 political web sites considered threatening. These blocked sites include popular foreign news, political, religious, and educational web sites; (3)
- there is a special task force of some 30,000 ‘cybercops’ who patrol the Net, block select foreign news sites, and terminate domestic sites with politically sensitive information; (4)
- surveillance of the Chinese Internet is greatly enhanced by the custom design of China’s Internet portals. All Chinese Internet traffic is routed through five major channels using devices sold by a US-based corporation; (5)
- the Chinese government has also installed elaborate monitoring systems at all Chinese Internet cafes. For example, the Shanghai Cultural Broadcast and Film Management Bureau is installing software in 110,000 computers in the city’s 1,329 Internet cafes for comprehensive long-term surveillance. This software allows the government to monitor, in real time, the identities of Internet users and the sites that they access or attempt to access; (6)
- online conversations are subject to constant eavesdropping, and web surfing is scrutinized. All Chinese chat rooms, according to an American expert in the Chinese Internet, are watched by surveillance teams who can also monitor e-mails, including web-based accounts, and may use unblocked web sites as ‘tripwire’ stings to locate and trap possible agitators. (7)
(1) San Jiaoshou shangshu Hu Wen, Kangyi Beida Wangzhan bei feng, Gongkaixin dui ‘yi ta hutu’ BBS zhan cao mouming jiangzui biao yihan, tongchen zhengfu weifa, daya yanlun ziyou” (three professors petition Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, protest closure of Beijing University Web site, open letter expresses regret at unspecified accusation against “One Big Mess” BBS site, decry government illegal suppression of freedom of expression), World Journal (New York, in Chinese), September 24, 2004, p. A8.
(2) Reuters, “China Is Largest Jailer of Cyber Dissidents,” June 24, 2004, at www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200406/s1139911.htm (October 6, 2004).
(3) Associated Press, “Officials in Shanghai to ‘Update’ Rules on Religion,” reprinted in The Taipei Times, July 21, 2004, p. 5, at www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/
2004/07/21/2003179804 (September 24, 2004).
(4) Reuters, “China Tightens Its Rules on Internet Address Managers,” The Taipei Times, November 22, 2003, p. 5, at www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/11/22/2003076827 (September 24, 2004).
(5) Reporters Without Borders, “Internet Under Surveillance, 2004: China,” June 22, 2004, at www.rsf.fr/article. php3?id_article=10749&Valider=OK (September 24, 2004).
(6) Adina Matisoff, “News Update—Mid-February–Early May 2004,” China Rights Forum, No. 2, 2004, p. 9, at iso.hrichina.org/download_repository/2/NewsUpdate6.2004.pdf (September 24, 2004).
(7) Gutmann, “Who Lost China’s Internet?”
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