China Now Has 111 Million Internet Users

Telecom News Editorials Reports Glossary

12:30 am on January 18, 2006 | Category: Web Services, Internet

New statistics suggest that there are now 111 million internet users in China, an increase of 17 million users from this time last year. China’s internet population is now second only to the US, which boasts 145 million web users.

Another major trend in the Chinese computing market is a huge increase in the percentage of users that have some sort of broadband technology. Of the 111 Chinese web surfers, 65 million have a high-speed connection, which is a dramatic increase of 50% over last year.

Although it welcomes many of the internet’s economic benefits, China’s highly restrictive communist government has built a so-called “Great Firewall of China” in order to censor content, and prevent their citizens from accessing content about democracy, libertarianism, or human rights activism.

The huge army of tech-savvy Chinese net users, however, has other ideas, and is becoming increasingly capable of breaking through government security controls. The country’s repressive government will eventually have to admit that the internet has taken on a life of its own, and simply isn’t subject to their control.

Perhaps the growing impact of the internet will even help China make progress towards adopting a more fair and democratic system of government. It’s a slow process, but the World Wide Web could easily speed things along by serving as an inroad for the ideals of democracy and freedom.