I'm not concerned about that, but it's good that they let me out. I'm only concerned about the end result,'' he said in a telephone interview from his home in Shanghai. Lin was sentenced in January 1999 for ''inciting the overthrow of state power,'' a conviction widely criticized by human rights and press freedom groups. He said he has reopened a Web site he founded before he was imprisoned. His main business before his detention was setting up Web sites for others, he added.
China keeps a close watch on the Internet and has set up special task forces to monitor the system.
Further tightening controls, China recently ordered companies to register computer programs used to transmit sensitive data and expanded its vague state secrets laws to the Internet. Still, Internet use is soaring. Official media reported that in the last six months of 1999, users more than doubled from 4 million to 8.9 million. Copyright 2000 Associated Press . All rights reserved.