They routinely block Web sites for some international media outlets and are training special police units to monitor Internet activity. But China's leaders, clearly, have decided that the benefits of the Internet outweigh the risks. Even before the government decided to promote the Internet, it was laying the groundwork by investing heavily in telephone lines. The Ministry of Information Industry, or MII, says 1.58 million people had Internet accounts in 1998 and predicts 3 million more will open accounts this year. But some industry experts estimate that 5 million people are already using the Internet without opening personal accounts.
Surveys show China's Internet users so far are a well-educated and serious group.
For such users, the returns can be significant. Even simple e-mail has radically changed the way that the King Deer Cashmere Group, one of China's Big Four cashmere manufacturers, does business. It used to take days for King Deer's U.S.-based agent to send designs via courier to headquarters in Baotou, Inner Mongolia. High costs, slow speeds and bureaucratic hassles have discouraged many Chinese from getting on-line, but these barriers are starting to fall. But on February 4, the MII said it was seeking cabinet permission to cut the prices of a range of services, from phone installation to Internet fees.