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China's 'Net policies in spotlight
 Chinese journalists use the Internet this past March to cover the National People's Congress in Beijing. RELATED
SPECIAL REPORTYOUR E-MAIL ALERTS(CNN) -- China's booming Internet usage continues unabated, with latest figures suggesting that as many as an estimated 110 million Web surfers are on the mainland. The New York Times said that such figures -- second only to the United States -- augurs well for the country's future online commerce, with Wall Street analysts predicting China will be the world's biggest Internet revenue producer by 2010. But this rapid growth also has seen a massive attempt by Beijing to keep control over Internet activities. One ploy has been to introduce sophisticated Web filtering systems, as well as using at least 30,000 people to patrol the Web, according to estimates. Chinese authorities say they have shut down more than 2,000 sex and gambling sites during the past few years, and will continue to strictly monitor Web sites, according to the Times. Yet the U.S. State Department's annual report on human rights (for 2005) argues such vigorous patrolling has seen China increase its censorship of the Internet. "The country's Internet control system reportedly employed between 30,000 and 50,000 persons and was allegedly the largest in the world. According to a 2002 Harvard University report, the government blocked at least 19,000 sites during a six-month period and may have blocked as many as 50,000," the report said. "At times the government blocked the sites of some major foreign news organizations, health organizations, educational institutions, Taiwanese and Tibetan businesses and organizations, religious and spiritual organizations, democracy activists, and sites discussing the 1989 Tiananmen massacre," it added. Detainment in ChinaWestern media also has reported on numerous arrests of Chinese citizens who have fallen foul of Beijing's Internet policies. The most recent of these include the detention of an Internet writer for "incitement to subvert state power," Reuters reported. Li Yuanlong, 45, a reporter for the Bijie Daily in southern Guizhou province, was detained in September 2005 and indicted on February 9 after writing about unemployment and rural poverty under a pseudonym on the Net. The group called Human Rights Watch said China has jailed about 60 people for peaceful expression of opinion on the Internet and imposes sophisticated Internet controls known as the "Great Firewall of China," according to a Reuters report on February 28. Another activist group, the Paris-based based Reporters Without Borders, blamed Internet giant Yahoo Inc. for the jailing a Chinese citizen for eight years, The Associated Press reported on February 10. The rights group said Yahoo gave information about Li Zhi to authorities, who was subsequently jailed in 2003 for subversion after attacking official corruption in a story that was published on the Web. A Yahoo spokeswoman said the company was looking into the matter. Critics also say Yahoo's partner firm, Yahoo China, helped Chinese police identify Shi Tao, a Chinese journalist who had criticized human rights abuses online. He was given a 10-year jail term. Web giants attackedYahoo has also found itself in strife with other Internet giants after it was accused of putting profits before freedom and collaborating with China to suppress dissent. U.S. lawmakers accused representatives from Microsoft, Google, Cisco and Yahoo on February 15 of helping China's government crack down on political unrest by censoring their Web sites, branding their actions "abhorrent" and a "disgrace." "Your abhorrent actions in China are a disgrace," The Associated Press quoted Rep. Tom Lantos, the top Democrat on the House International Relations Committee, as saying. "I simply don't understand how your corporate leadership sleeps at night." Companies operating in China have to satisfy a government that restricts what searchers on the Chinese Internet can see, and what information they have access to. To do business, U.S. companies must satisfy Beijing's stringent Internet policing, according to the AP. Policies include filters that block objectionable foreign Web sites; regulations that ban what the Chinese consider subversive and pornographic content; and the requirement that Internet service providers enforce government censorship. Some critics say the moves show corporate America doesn't always follow the agenda that the U.S. president George W. Bush espouses: spreading democracy around the world. But Yahoo's senior vice president Michael Callahan admitted his company was "very distressed" at having to comply with Chinese law, according to AP. Still, they argue it is better to be in China in a limited fashion, rather than not at all. In the meantime, Beijing continues to maintain a hard line. It says that if Western firms don't play by China's rules, the country will build its own Internet, thereby dividing the worldwide Web. Copyright 2006 CNN. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Associated Press contributed to this report. 
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