Houston Community News >> China Becomes World's Largest Internet Users
4/23/2008 BEIJING (Reuters)-- China has
surpassed the United States to become the world’s largest Internet-using
population, reaching 221 million by the end of February, said state
media on Thursday. The number of Internet users in China was 210 million
at the end of last year, only 5 million fewer than the US Internet users
then, said Xinhua news agency, quoting the China Internet Network
Information Centre. “Despite a rapidly increasing Internet population,
the proportion of Internet users among the total population was still
lower than the global average level,” Xinhua quoted the Information
Ministry as saying. The proportion was 16 percent at the end of 2007,
compared with 19.1 percent for the world average. Internet censorship is
common in China, where the government employs an elaborate system of
filters and tens of thousands of human monitors to survey surfing
habits, surgically clipping sensitive content. But the Internet has most
recently become an important tool in countering anti-China protest
dogging the Olympic torch relay.