Cyber China

Insight on the News, Nov 13, 2000 by Didi Tang

The Internet opens windows of opportunity -- and dissent -- in a closed society.

In a country where dissidents risk prison terms for putting up political wall posters, the arrival of the Internet has made it possible for Chinese to speak out as never before. "There is one thing I have always wanted to say," reads a recent posting on a U.S.-based Chinese-language Website, addressed to President Jiang Zemin and accessible to millions of Chinese readers. "That is, we only have the freedom to praise the Chinese Communist Party in mainland China. To criticize it, there's no freedom." The three-page letter, teeming with strong words and passionate metaphors, asks the Chinese president to redefine communism, establish an impeachment system, grant freedom of speech and end economic monopolies. Similar messages and political jokes are proliferating on the Web and the electronic bulletin boards at Chinese universities.

But the easing of China's strict limits on public speech is not a sudden embrace of Western notions. Rather, it illustrates a desire, of the leadership to cash in on economic globalization and the business growth that the Internet can bring -- even at the cost of losing its grip on public speech. "China is enthusiastically embracing the Internet because, in various other areas of technological leapfrogging and progress, China has always been behind," said Zhao Qizheng, chief spokesman for China's State Council, during a visit to Washington in August. "So this time, we're determined not to be left behind."

From January 1999 to July 2000, the number of computers wired to the Internet in China soared from 747,000 to 6.5 million. The number of Internet users increased to 16.9 million from 2.1 million in the same period, according to the China Internet Network Information Center. The center, managed by the China Science Academy, has been keeping track of China's Internet development since its establishment in 1997.

"Had it not been for favorable policies, the Internet wouldn't be like this," says Zhang Yuanyuan, a spokesman for the Chinese Embassy in Washington. "We see the Internet as a very good way of popularizing information and helping our people."

China still has a long way to go to catch up with the West. Computers in China, at prices of $1,000 and higher, cost more than an average citizen's annual income, which ranges from $720 in the cities to $365 in the countryside, according to the China Statistical Abstract compiled by China's Census Bureau. China's telecommunications infrastructure also needs development, with just 13 phone lines for every 100 people, according to a report by the Ministry of Information Industry in March. In major cities, the figure is 28.4 phone lines per 100 people.

But political dissidents have been quick to take advantage of the government's increased openness, using the Web to disseminate previously unavailable information and, in the process, forcing the mainstream media to deal with issues they avoided. They do so at some risk, of course. The government has shut down Websites and arrested individuals for Internet-related activities inside China. It also has tried to block foreign Websites and e-mail coming from abroad, setting up a cat-and-mouse game with overseas dissidents.

One such dissident Website is Bignews.org, begun in 1997 by Chinese dissidents living in the United States. The title, parodying the name of a publication available only to high-level Beijing officials, focuses on democracy and human rights in China. While Bignews.org became inaccessible in China last summer, says Richard Long, the Washington-based founder of the site, it has managed to bypass the block, collecting tens of thousands of e-mail addresses to which it sends news and commentaries regularly. "Our style is to test the limits of the freedom of speech in China," says Long. "We have a political agenda."

Even the collection of e-mail addresses is considered subversive by the Communist Party. Lin Hai, a Chinese software entrepreneur in Shanghai, was sentenced to two years in prison last year for supplying e-mail addresses to Long's group. Yet the younger, computer-savvy generation in China seems optimistic about free speech.

"We have much more freedom than 10 years ago," says Thomas Zhang, a 24-year-old Chinese studying in Britain who was interviewed online. "And I'm sure we will have much more 10 years later. The Internet is such a thing that no one can resist it."

Many of the Chinese Websites feature chat rooms, where topics range from government corruption to youngsters' cohabitation, from the Taiwan issue to Hollywood blockbusters, from classic literature to personal finance. Crime, official corruption and scandals involving pop stars all are popular fare on Chinese news sites such as dayoo.com and 21dnn.com, based in Guangdong province and Beijing respectively. The sites usually include articles from major newspapers.

E-commerce is the biggest selling point for China's Websites, however. "Business-to-business," "online bidding" and "e-trade" are buzzwords in fashion magazines targeted at young urban professionals, both male and female. Shrewd businessmen see the Internet as an opportunity to expand business, and entrepreneurs have begun to offer services such as online shopping, hotel reservations and job searching