DATE=5/10/2000
TYPE=BACKGROUND REPORT
TITLE=CHINA / INTERNET
NUMBER=5-46292
BYLINE=MAX RUSTON
DATELINE=SAN FRANCISCO
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: The Internet and the World Wide Web are posing
new challenges for China. Government leaders are
embracing the popular technologies as tools for
increasing trade and commerce. But they are also
showing concern that these technologies could be used
to challenge the government and Communist Party. The
result has been a somewhat confused approach towards
the Internet, as we hear from technology correspondent
Max Ruston in San Francisco.
TEXT: Over the past few months, the Chinese
government has issued a series of regulations and
directives concerning use of the Internet. Chinese
officials say the new measures are designed to
encourage responsible use of the Internet. Human-
rights groups say they are also designed to strengthen
the government's ability to monitor usage of the
Internet and impose restrictions on the discussion of
issues that challenge or question government
authority.
Ron Erickson is chairman of the online payment company
eCharge. He has been watching China's approach to the
Internet carefully, as his company determines how to
enter that market.
/// ERICKSON ACT ///
I think they are finding their way. I think
this is a new technology and I think it is fair
to say they are trying to understand it,
understand its implications, and understand its
uses and benefits. I think that is not unlike
the situation in a lot of other places where you
have a new technology that is causing people to
stand up and take notice.
/// END ACT ///
Mr. Erickson says studies indicate the number of
Internet users in China will grow from one-point-five-
million last year to well over 16-million in 2003.
/// OPT /// The market there is booming, he says, but
businesses must invest in thorough planning. He says
it is particularly important for businesses outside
China to find local partners and understand the
country's cultural differences. /// END OPT ///
While the use of the Internet is set to increase, its
future as a medium for commerce in China is less
clear. Computers are expensive for average Chinese
wage earners, and there is no popular mechanism in
place that would allow people to pay for goods or
services ordered online.
/// OPT /// Technology analyst Lisa Cosmas has
written research reports on China for several
corporations. She says the development of wireless
technology -- in which the Internet is accessed
through mobile phones and other portable devices --
should help to overcome some of those obstacles.
/// COSMAS ACT ///
Most of this country will then leapfrog into
wireless technology. By distributing wireless
Internet access devices, you have access to a
vast number of people throughout the whole
population of China. This is not going to
include the farmers in the rural regions or the
many people who have not seen a television.
/// END ACT /// /// END OPT ///
However, as access to the Internet does spread, it
brings with it more than just business opportunities,
and Chinese government officials are well aware of
that. It also offers information from around the
world and a fast means of communications between
groups of people everywhere. These factors may be
seen as a threat by some Chinese officials, who are
accustomed to a high degree of control over
information and communications.
Stanton McCandlish is the technology policy
coordinator for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a
nonprofit organization fighting for online freedom of
expression and privacy. He says China is clearly
creating regulations now that will help the government
track down people who use the Internet in ways it does
not approve of.
/// 1st McCANDLISH ACT ///
They create an environment of fear and
suspicion, and that tends to sort of keep a lid
on the most easily silenced people.
/// END ACT ///
But Mr. McCandlish says the nature of the Internet
makes it nearly impossible to monitor and track all
usage. In the long run, he says, the Chinese
government will only be able to catch a relatively
small number of people using the Internet for
dissident purposes.
/// 2nd McCANDLISH ACT ///
They are playing kind of a cat-and-mouse game,
but there is one big slow fat cat and about
eight-billion very fast, small mice. So they
might nail a mouse here and there, and tear that
mouse up and make an example out of that person,
but it doesn't seem to have that much of a
deterrent effect.
/// END ACT ///
This approach is similar to China's so-called "open
door" policy, in which it has allowed increasing
foreign investment while trying to reduce outside
cultural and political influences. China watchers say
even before the spread of the Internet, this policy
created serious contradictions and tensions in Chinese
society. They say applying this policy toward the
rapidly-expanding Internet may accelerate the growth
of those same tensions. (Signed)
NEB/SF/MPR/WTW
10-May-2000 17:11 PM EDT (10-May-2000 2111 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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