China Surpasses U.S. in Number of Internet Users

SHANGHAI — China said the number of Internet users in the country reached about 253 million last month, putting it ahead of the United States as the world’s biggest Internet market.
The estimate, based on a national phone survey and released on Thursday by the China Internet Network Information Center in Beijing, showed a powerful surge in Internet adoption in this country over the last few years, particularly among teenagers.
The number of Internet users jumped more than 50 percent, or by about 90 million people, during the last year, said the center, which operates under the government-controlled Chinese Academy of Sciences. The new estimate represents only about 19 percent of China’s population, underscoring the potential for growth.
By contrast, about 220 million Americans are online, or 70 percent of the population, according to the Nielsen Company. Japan and South Korea have similarly high percentages.
Political content on Web sites inside China is heavily censored, and foreign sites operating here have faced restrictions. But online gaming, blogs, and social networking and entertainment sites are extremely popular among young people in China.
The survey found that nearly 70 percent of China’s Internet users were 30 or younger, and that in the first half of this year, high school students were, by far, the fastest-growing segment of new users, accounting for 39 million of the 43 million new users in that period.
With Internet use booming, so is Web advertising. The investment firm Morgan Stanley says online advertising in China is growing by 60 to 70 percent a year, and forecasts that by the end of this year, it could be a $1.7 billion market.
China’s biggest Internet companies, including Baidu, Sina, Tencent and Alibaba, are thriving, and in many cases are outperforming the China-based operations of American Internet giants like Google, Yahoo and eBay.
“The Internet market is the fastest-growing consumer market sector in China,” said Richard Ji, an Internet analyst at Morgan Stanley. “We are still far from saturation. So the next three to five years, we’re still going to see hyper-growth in this market.”
Baidu, for instance, said on Thursday that its second-quarter net profit had jumped 81 percent. During that period, Baidu had a 63 percent share of China’s search engine market, while Google had about 26 percent, with Yahoo trailing far behind, according to iResearch, a market research firm based in Beijing.
Tencent, a popular site for social networking and gaming, now has a stock market value of $15 billion, making it one of the world’s most valuable Internet companies. In comparison, Amazon.com is valued at about $30 billion.
One measure of the growth of the Internet here, and its social and entertainment functions, is the popularity of blogs.
The site of China’s most popular blogger, the actress Xu Jinglei, has attracted more than 174 million visitors over the last few years, according to Sina.com, the popular Web portal, which posts a live tally. According to Sina, 11 other bloggers have also attracted more than 100 million visitors in recent years.
The Internet’s popularity often poses serious challenges to the government. Online gambling, pornography, videos of protests and addiction have led to regular campaigns to crack down on what the government views as vices. But Internet users have also used the Web for nationalist campaigns to criticize the Western news media or foreign companies, as was the case after riots broke out in Tibet this year.
While several organizations had projected that China would surpass the United States in Internet users this year, the new survey results were the first time a government agency had released figures showing China’s market to be larger than that of the United States.

Guess who's not invited to the Olympics?

Reuters[Monday, July 21, 2008 00:23]By Benjamin Kang LimBEIJING - The Dalai Lama may be the guest of honour of U.S. President George W. Bush, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other world leaders, but you won't find Tibet's exiled spiritual leader on the Beijing Olympics guest list.Also missing from the list is Ma Ying-jeou, the Harvard-educated, democratically elected president of self-ruled Taiwan which Beijing has claimed as its own since their split in 1949 amid civil war, despite a recent thaw in relations.The Dalai Lama's appearance could have helped repair China's international image, which was dented by a government crackdown following rioting among Tibetans in March -- the worst in the Himalayan region since 1989. But China fears he would steal Chinese President Hu Jintao's thunder."It's supposed to be Hu Jintao's Olympics, but it'll become the Dalai Lama's Olympics if he attends," a source familiar with government policy said requesting anonymity.The Dalai Lama, who fled into exile in India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against Chinese rule, had said during a visit to London in May that he hoped to attend the August 8-24 Games if talks between his envoys and China produced results.China has not rejected the Dalai Lama's overtures outright, but hopes were dampened when the closed-door talks ended with the government-in-exile accusing China of lacking sincerity.The Chinese government has blamed the Dalai Lama and his followers for instigating the March unrest and attempting to sabotage the Olympics, charges he has repeatedly denied.For China, the Games are supposed to showcase the prosperity and modernization of what is now the world's fourth-biggest economy after three decades of economic reforms and rapid growth.AND MA?Ma is a different story. China has mixed feelings for the Taiwan president, who is opposed to Taiwan formally declaring independence, a stance Beijing welcomes.But Ma has repeatedly urged China to politically reassess the 1989 Tiananmen Square pro-democracy protests -- anathema to the country's leaders.Beijing has sought to push Taiwan into diplomatic isolation and considers the island a province that must eventually return to the fold, by force if necessary."(Dignitaries) attending the Olympic opening are all heads of state, but China does not recognize Taiwan as a state," Taiwan political analyst Andrew Yang said by telephone."How will (Hu Jintao) address Ma Ying-jeou? 'Taiwanese leader' won't be acceptable to the Taiwan people or Ma."Hawks in the Chinese government are opposed to the Dalai Lama's visit, worried that thousands of Tibetans would flock to Beijing by plane, train, bus or horseback to catch a glimpse of their revered god-king, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989.There are more than 10 ministerial-level government and Communist Party bodies with a stake in blocking the Dalai Lama's return, including the local governments of Tibet, Qinghai, Gansu, Sichuan and Yunnan provinces, the Ministry of State Security, the Ministry of Public Security, the People's Liberation Army and the paramilitary People's Armed Police.For China, domestic stability during the Olympics is far more important than international applause."Even if there are people who want to change things, they would have all sorts of worries," Wang Lixiong, a Chinese author and expert on Tibet, said in an interview."In China, government officials do not hope for achievements but they hope to avoid committing mistakes," Wang said, referring to political risks for the leadership.

John Nichols: Obama, McCain & Tibet

The Capital Times[Monday, July 21, 2008 00:21]President Bush has announced that, despite China's violent crackdowns on dissent in Tibet and its support for the brutal dictatorships of Sudan and Burma, he will attend next month's opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics.In response, Barack Obama distinguished himself from the man he seeks to replace.Asked whether he, as president, would convey legitimacy on the Chinese government's recent actions by attending the opening ceremonies, Obama said, "In the absence of some sense of progress, in the absence of some sense from the Dalai Lama that there was progress, I would not have gone."This was not Obama's first statement regarding Tibet or the Dalai Lama, who this week is in Wisconsin as part of a visit to the United States.In a foreign policy address delivered in March, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee member said that the advancement of human rights must be a central U.S. priority. And he pointedly declared, "We can start now by speaking out for the human rights and religious freedom of the people of Tibet."Around the same time, Obama announced, "If Tibetans are to live in harmony with the rest of China's people, their religion and culture must be respected and protected. Tibet should enjoy genuine and meaningful autonomy."While Obama's election would represent a clear break with the compromised commitments of the Bush administration -- and of the Clinton administration before it -- the jury is still out on Republican John McCain.Without a doubt, McCain is more sensitive to concerns regarding China's human rights abuses than Bush. This spring, when the Chinese crackdown in Tibet turned particularly violent, the senator from Arizona issued an excellent statement."I deplore the violent crackdown by Chinese authorities and the continuing oppression in Tibet of those merely wishing to practice their faith and preserve their culture and heritage. I have listened carefully to the Dalai Lama and am convinced he is a man of peace who reflects the hopes and aspirations of Tibetans. I urge the government of the People's Republic of China to address the root causes of unrest in Tibet by opening a genuine dialogue with his holiness, the Dalai Lama, aimed at granting greater autonomy."At the time, McCain suggested that he might also boycott the opening ceremonies as a protest against Beijing's policies.In recent months, however, McCain has been increasingly critical of Obama's emphasis on diplomacy and respecting human rights when it comes to international affairs. When Bush announced he would attend the opening ceremonies, McCain made no formal move to condemn the decision.While Obama has been firmer in his embrace of human rights, McCain's past statements suggest a consciousness of what is at stake in the dispute over China's treatment of Tibet that runs far broader than that evidenced by George Bush or Bill Clinton during their presidencies.As such, though Bush's decision to attend the opening ceremonies is both disappointing and embarrassing, 2008 might yet be the year when America moves from the shadow of complicity into the sunlight of a more genuine commitment to human rights.