Chinese Government Sole Access to Internet

In a country where the state runs newspapers and broadcast stations and censors the arts, it came as no surprise when the government declared it wanted to regulate the Internet.

Since the government started allowing commercial Internet accounts last spring, the number of Internet users in China has grown from a few thousand in the universities to 100,000. Hundreds of thousands more are expected to get online in the next few years.

“It can broaden our vision,” said Shi Hong, 26, as he looked over computers set up in a Beijing coffee shop to demonstrate links to the Internet.

But the government sees too much freedom of information as a dangerous thing.

It announced in February that China’s laws against pornography, social disturbances and breaches of state security apply on the Internet. All are offenses that can carry long prison terms.

People with Internet accounts now must register with the police and report if they switch to private service providers or cancel their links.

The new regulations make the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications the sole provider of connections to the Internet, a global, often anarchic web of interconnected computers.

People who apply for accounts must sign an agreement to abide by Chinese law and not endanger state security. They must also promise not to put business ads on the Internet or delay their monthly payments.

The registration fee is 400 yuan, or about $50, which is what the average urban Chinese earns in a month. The monthly fee is 100 yuan for six hours online.

Although the government is wary of the Internet, the information it carries is simply too important for economic development. And China’s leaders reportedly met several months ago and concluded that full control of the Internet was impossible.

The government’s monopoly on access enables it to keep certain news groups--for example, those that post documents and appeals about human rights abuses in China--off China’s personal computer screens.

But new sites are being added to the Internet by the minute. If one site is blocked, material can be switched to another.

Although it is not hard to close certain sites, “there’s no way to automatically detect the content,” said Chi Chihong, a computer science professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Still, China’s state security apparatus is formidable. It already is well equipped to selectively monitor telephone calls and faxes. It would have no problem watching some electronic mail messages as well.

The tiny dissident community that remains outside prison in China is not known to use the Internet much, partly because it is not a secure way to exchange ideas.

The main abuse of the system has involved pornography, Chi said. Indeed, business users had feared the government would close off local Internet access altogether because of pornographic material. The government runs frequent propaganda campaigns warning of the evils of pornography.

Chi and other analysts don’t think the government plans to restrict the number of Internet users.

Martin Hu of the Beijing Internet-Networking Institute predicts 1 million people could be using the Internet in China by 2000.

The government has invested heavily in telecommunications and is promoting computer education from grade schools up. It also uses the Internet. Zhejiang province, for example, posts projects that are open for foreign investment.

Government coordination could be helpful in some respects. For example, it may encourage the development of standards for how Chinese computer systems handle Chinese characters, Chi said. Unless these systems are compatible, people using Chinese software cannot communicate.

The cost will be a strong brake on average Chinese logging on to the Internet. Spending the equivalent of $2,000 for a computer and modem is only a dream for most.

But surveys show PCs are on many families’ wish lists and those who can afford them are buying.

Of the 1 million personal computers sold in China last year, about 20% went to families. Telephones, needed to connect to computer networks, are also becoming more common in urban homes--17% have phones now and up to 40% are expected to have them by 2000.

For now, the strongest demand for the Internet comes from businesses, said Yang Jie, a telecommunications expert for the World Bank.

“The price is low, and electronic mail is the cheapest, fastest and most convenient way to communicate,” he said.

The government prefers that business users opt for an internal network on a leased line that would offer electronic mail but limited access to Internet sites outside China.

China Internet Corp., a Hong Kong-based joint venture of the state-run New China News Agency and foreign investors, hopes to offer this network soon.

“China is not closing the door to all information,” said James Chu, the venture’s chief executive. “It’s just requiring that all information coming in has to follow Chinese laws.”