 What's New
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The Internet Situation in China |
| Liu Jin Cong |
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Several years have passed since the Internet was introduced to Japan. It has become extremely popular and millions of Japanese now use it. Students about to graduate from university look for employment information. Others enjoy communicating with strangers through the Internet. Internet use has spread to China. The Internet era in China began in 1993, when the Institute of Higher Energy Science of the PRC (IHEP), was connected to Stanford University through an exclusive line. This connection was orignaly used for e-mail, but now it is used as a scientific research network in China. In 1994, the National Computing and Networking Facility of China (NCFC) which connected Peking University, Tsinghua University and the PRC Science Academy, with assistance from the World Bank, was activated. The same year, the China Education and Research Network (CERN) was initiated under the auspices of the PRC State Education and Research Committee. The aim was to build a nationwide connection with Tsinghua University as its core. Now, eight regions, Beijing, Shanghai, Xi'an, Nanjing, Guangzhou, Wuhan, Shenyang and Chengduo are connected through the exclusive network, and the Chinese environment for Internet users is getting better and better. ChinaNet, under the Data and Traffic Department of the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications (MPT) is an Internet service for business run by the Post and Telecommunications Office . |
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A January 1999 report by the China Internet Information Center noted that the number of PCs connected to the Internet in China had reached 747,000 at the end of 1998. This number implied that the Internet was popular among not only among the elite, but also with ordinary people. The content of the report is summarized below. Most of the users are male, with the majority in their twenties, with the second largest number in their thirties. Most of the users live in large cities such as Beijing, Canton, etc. Eighty nine percent of users graduated from universities or received higher education. |
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Who pays Internet expenses? 26% public expense, 45% at their own expense and 9% both.What operating system is used? 92.3% use Windows 95 / 98 ,5.7% Windows NT, 0.9% Linux and 0.8% UNIX. How many hours per week are spent on the Internet? 4% less than one hour, 31% one to less than five hours, 29% five hours to less than ten hours and 36% ten hours or more. Where is the Internet used? 50% at offices, 44% at home, 3% at Internet cafes and 3% other locations. What is the purpose for using the Internet? 95% research, 94% sending E-mail, 77% for downloading free software, 42% for exchanging opinions, 35% for recreation, 19% for obtaining information about new technologies such as IP and 15% for online shopping. What is the main information source? 76% science and technology, 66% economics and politics, 65% leisure, amusement and sports, 51% market research, 40% education, 34% finance and securities, 30% job hunting and 24% advertisement. You can see from this report that the Chinese are making good use of the Internet. |
| The "Internet Cafe" | ||
| The larger the population using the Internet, the more popular Internet cafes become. At these cafes, individuals can use computers to do research, study, exchange views and so forth. The fee is 15 yuan per hour. The average salary of a businessmen in China is about 1,000 yuan, so 15 yuan is about the same as the cost of lunch. That's why businessmen make up the majority of users. In Shanghai, there are more than one hundred such cafes and more than 1,000 more are in the process of application. Use of the Internet at these cafes, called Public PC shops, is booming. When this business first began, the proprietors for the most part, rented computers and customers net-surfed in order to obtain information. But now, the Internet is a mainstream business and customers can not get only information, but can also send and receive e-mail and exchange questions and answers at these Internet cafes, which also offer network services. However, the shops can not provide technical support or any security system, so the Internet can not be used efficiently at these Internet cafes, so they have become an amusement center. Also, some proprietors allow gambling and pornography on their premises. The PRC Ministry of Public Security and the State Administration for Industry and Telecommunications have announced new regulations, which decree that proprietors and customers cannot not violate the legal rights of individuals, commit a crime or disturb public order through the Internet. The government has also approved tentative regulations which prohibit individuals from leaking classified secrets and obtaining pornography on line, and they are putting into operation a number of measures to control international information networks with computers including the Internet. Violators can be prosecuted. The regulations state that Internet service providers must have the security systems and techniques which prevent any secrets from being leaked and also that they must have the permission of the government to operate. In case of an illegal connection, they will be ordered to close their shop and can be fined up to 15,000 yuan. | ||
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| (c)1999 LEC TOKYO LEGALMIND CO.,LTD. |