China S Internet

The number of Web users in China soared past 500 million last year, explosive growth that has elevated Chinese Internet companies and challenged social and political discourse in the communist-controlled state. The government-run China Internet Network Information Center said Monday that the number of Web users in China grew to 513 million in December, up 12% from a year earlier. Chinese Internet giants such as search engine Baidu Inc., news portal Sina Corp. and gaming and messaging service provider Tencent Holdings added millions of users, raising the profile of the increasingly lucrative sector.

Watching from China, where web censorship is practically a national hallmark, some can't help but smirk and crack jokes about the controversy raging over Internet freedom in the U.S. “Now the U.S. government is copying us and starting to build their own firewall,” wrote one micro-blogger, relating China's chief censorship tool to the U.S. plan to block sites that trade in pirated material. The Relevant Organs , an anonymous Twitter account (presumably) pretending to be the voice of the Chinese communist leadership, quipped: “Don't understand the hoopla over Wikipedia blackout in the U.S. today.

Zhang Shan never paid much attention to Internet censorship in China. The stylish art gallery clerk said it didn't really matter in her daily life. Then last year, she lost access to some of her favorite websites. First YouTube. Then Twitter. Then Facebook. It was her first memorable brush with the so-called Great Firewall of China -- one of many powerful mechanisms the Chinese government uses to block content deemed too sensitive for the eyes of its 384 million Internet users.

The number of Web users in China soared past 500 million last year, explosive growth that has elevated Chinese Internet companies and challenged social and political discourse in the communist-controlled state. The government-run China Internet Network Information Center said Monday that the number of Web users in China grew to 513 million in December, up 12% from a year earlier. Chinese Internet giants such as search engine Baidu Inc., news portal Sina Corp. and gaming and messaging service provider Tencent Holdings added millions of users, raising the profile of the increasingly lucrative sector.

Watching from China, where web censorship is practically a national hallmark, some can't help but smirk and crack jokes about the controversy raging over Internet freedom in the U.S. “Now the U.S. government is copying us and starting to build their own firewall,” wrote one micro-blogger, relating China's chief censorship tool to the U.S. plan to block sites that trade in pirated material. The Relevant Organs , an anonymous Twitter account (presumably) pretending to be the voice of the Chinese communist leadership, quipped: “Don't understand the hoopla over Wikipedia blackout in the U.S. today.

Tensions ran high again Tuesday when Google Inc. blamed Chinese government censors for a temporary outage of its search engine in mainland China. Even as access to Google was restored, the public outcry over the interruption underscored the heightened sensitivity of Chinese Internet users who fear Beijing regulators will permanently block Google as retaliation for the company's recent defiant public stand against censorship in China. China's powerful filtering system, dubbed "the Great Firewall," has blocked other U.S. sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube that ran afoul of government watchdogs.

The pitch was tantalizing: Just a little training and you too could hack websites, earning thrills, power and, in many cases, money. "Guaranteed successful attack tools!" is how Black Hawk Safety Net advertised its online academy for hackers. "Spare one minute to learn and you'll make your life more exciting." Police in Hubei province announced to the Chinese media over the weekend that they had closed down the operation, which state media said was the largest training site for Chinese hackers, and arrested three of its ringleaders.

President Obama told Chinese students today that the U.S. does not wish to contain China's rise, but also offered a gentle critique of their country's approach to human rights. "We welcome China as a strong and prosperous and successful member of the community of nations," Obama said at the start of a town hall-style meeting in Shanghai as he began the China leg of his tour of Asia. Obama acknowledged that the United States has struggled with race relations over the course of its history, but he said America would "always speak out" in favor of free expression, worship, political participation and access to information -- which he termed "universal rights."

Even as China faces global criticism for its crackdown on Tibetan Buddhists, it's winning the battle that it most cares about: support for its policies among Chinese back home. One key factor is a media strategy that, while still blunt and heavily reliant on censorship and propaganda, shows more nuance than usual for the lumbering Communist Party.

Bouquets were laid in front of Google Inc.'s headquarters in China on Wednesday, a show of support for a company whose threat to exit the country rather than be party to more censorship is a dramatic shot across the bow of the Chinese Communist Party. But while Chinese cyberspace was awash with chatter about Google's gambit, state-controlled media downplayed the story, reporting that Google had been a victim of cyber attacks in China but making no mention of the company's allegations that human rights activists' e-mail accounts had been hacked.

Tensions ran high again Tuesday when Google Inc. blamed Chinese government censors for a temporary outage of its search engine in mainland China. Even as access to Google was restored, the public outcry over the interruption underscored the heightened sensitivity of Chinese Internet users who fear Beijing regulators will permanently block Google as retaliation for the company's recent defiant public stand against censorship in China. China's powerful filtering system, dubbed "the Great Firewall," has blocked other U.S. sites such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube that ran afoul of government watchdogs.

The pitch was tantalizing: Just a little training and you too could hack websites, earning thrills, power and, in many cases, money. "Guaranteed successful attack tools!" is how Black Hawk Safety Net advertised its online academy for hackers. "Spare one minute to learn and you'll make your life more exciting." Police in Hubei province announced to the Chinese media over the weekend that they had closed down the operation, which state media said was the largest training site for Chinese hackers, and arrested three of its ringleaders.

The U.S.-Chinese relationship, already being tested by rising trade tension during President Obama's first year, has been rocked by new turbulence as the administration has sought to prove its commitment to human rights around the world. The two governments are at odds over planned U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, American overtures to Tibet and, now, the issue of Internet freedom that has been vividly raised by allegations against China from Google. After Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton complained in Cold War terms on Thursday about China's Internet intrusions, Chinese officials shot back Friday that her remarks were "harmful to Sino-American relations" and demanded that U.S. officials "respect the truth."

Zhang Shan never paid much attention to Internet censorship in China. The stylish art gallery clerk said it didn't really matter in her daily life. Then last year, she lost access to some of her favorite websites. First YouTube. Then Twitter. Then Facebook. It was her first memorable brush with the so-called Great Firewall of China -- one of many powerful mechanisms the Chinese government uses to block content deemed too sensitive for the eyes of its 384 million Internet users.

Bouquets were laid in front of Google Inc.'s headquarters in China on Wednesday, a show of support for a company whose threat to exit the country rather than be party to more censorship is a dramatic shot across the bow of the Chinese Communist Party. But while Chinese cyberspace was awash with chatter about Google's gambit, state-controlled media downplayed the story, reporting that Google had been a victim of cyber attacks in China but making no mention of the company's allegations that human rights activists' e-mail accounts had been hacked.

President Obama told Chinese students today that the U.S. does not wish to contain China's rise, but also offered a gentle critique of their country's approach to human rights. "We welcome China as a strong and prosperous and successful member of the community of nations," Obama said at the start of a town hall-style meeting in Shanghai as he began the China leg of his tour of Asia. Obama acknowledged that the United States has struggled with race relations over the course of its history, but he said America would "always speak out" in favor of free expression, worship, political participation and access to information -- which he termed "universal rights."

The U.S.-Chinese relationship, already being tested by rising trade tension during President Obama's first year, has been rocked by new turbulence as the administration has sought to prove its commitment to human rights around the world. The two governments are at odds over planned U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, American overtures to Tibet and, now, the issue of Internet freedom that has been vividly raised by allegations against China from Google. After Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton complained in Cold War terms on Thursday about China's Internet intrusions, Chinese officials shot back Friday that her remarks were "harmful to Sino-American relations" and demanded that U.S. officials "respect the truth."

In the United States, video of a wedding party boogieing down the aisle was about to become a summer sensation on YouTube, viewed more than 20 million times. At the same time in China, the latest Internet obsession began with an anonymous post on a computer gaming forum: "Jia Junpeng, your mom is calling you to come home and eat." Was it a vexed parent hunting down her Internet-addicted child in cyberspace? A cheeky gamer poking fun at one of his buddies? Or simply an idler with a sense of humor?