Surging Internet usage has made China the Number 3-ranked user of the Internet in the world, a new report claims.
It says more than 45 million citizens now log on regularly even as the government struggles to control subversive content.
The figures, reported by official newspapers today, marked a 72 per cent rise over last year. They continue a trend of strong growth in Internet use among China's 1.26 billion people, according to the China Internet Network Information Center, an industry group funded by the Information Industry Ministry.
Only the United States and Japan have more people connected to the Internet, according to the report, which was quoted in the Communist Party's People's Dailyand other newspapers.
China has 16 million computers linked to the Internet, an increase of 61 per cent over June 2001, the report said. The average Chinese Internet user spends eight hours and 20 minutes online each week.
Although Internet usage was formerly limited mostly to academics, 68 percent of users do not have college degrees.
China has strongly promoted the Internet's commercial potential, despite concerns among communist leaders that the Web would weaken its ability to control access to information and political debate.
But authorities keep as tight a rein as they can on citizens' Internet usage. Police monitor online content and block links to websites run by foreign media and government critics. People who use the Internet to transmit material deemed subversive have been given long prison terms.
In addition, the government ordered all Internet cafes shut down after a fatal fire in Beijing last month, and only selected establishments have been permitted to reopen.
AP