State control of the Internet in China

"The Internet landed in China in 1987, only 9 years after the "Open-Door Policy" III 1978. Although the history of the Internet in China is not long, the speed of the Internet's development has been rapid. According to the statistics of China National Network Information Center (CNNIC), the number of Chinese Internet users already reached 33.7 million at the end of 2001, and this number quickly increased to 45.8 million by the end of June of 2002. The Chinese government also recognized the huge potential brought by the Internet to the economic growth in the country and started to launch several projects to enhance its development in 1990s. But, for regimes of democratic centralism, like China, the Internet is a double edged sword. Dramatically distinguished from other traditional mediums, the Internet enhances a much freer information flow and implies libertarianism and anarchism in the virtual world, which collides with the Chinese government's conventional practice of media control. Although the Internet is not as easy to control as other traditional mediums, the Chinese government is intent on maintaining control and censorship on it."--Page 3.