[photopress:IT_Lou_Qinjian.jpg,full,alignright]Ministry of Information Vice-Minister Lou Qinjian has announced that, as of September 2007, China had 172 million Internet users.
This figure represents a 10 million increase over the last count. That was in July by China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) which said China had 162 million Internet users.
This rate of increase is consistent with the rate of growth of China’s Internet population since January 2007, when CNNIC counted 137 million Internet users.
Work on the basis that about four million Chinese people go online for the first time every month.
The story of the great Internet Wall of China gets a big press — outside China. Most users do not, in fact, even notice that it is there. Those that do are mainly Westerners living in the country and using the Internet to search for news and information.
In China, the typical activity on the Internet is not to search for news and information. It is to search for entertainment in whatever form that might be; sometimes multi-user games, sometimes contact sites.
Yes, thousands of websites may have been shut down but that plainly does not deter Chinese people from going online. And, indeed, a substantial percentage of Chinese net users are unaware that they are restricted in access.
In the West it can be different but just as difficult. To illustrate this article a portrait of Lou Qinjian would be appropriate. Indeed, we have used one before. Go into Google and do a search under the minister’s name under Images and the picture we have here comes up first. Charming but most certainly not the minister.