The New York times

Friday, February 25, 2000

China Taps Shanghai for Internet Project

By REUTERS

HANGHAI, Feb 24 -- China has selected Shanghai for an experimental project which will help bring Internet access to more of the city's 13 million residents, Shanghai mayor Xu Kuangdi said on Thursday.

While Shanghai wanted to develop the Internet, at the same time city fathers aimed to eliminate "unhealthy things" on the web, he told a media briefing.

China exercises strict control over the Internet, blocking sites it considers politically sensitive or pornographic.

The powerful State Council, or cabinet, had approved Shanghai for a test project to combine its cable television network, telecommunications network and Internet to create a single "broad band" platform, Xu said.

The project will help supply residents with Internet access, cable television and other communications services, he said.

He gave no timetable, but Shanghai officials have said the city will accelerate work on the project this year.

"We want to make the Internet universally available for citizens who want to use it," Xu said. "We also want to think of a way to prevent unhealthy or bad things on the Internet."

"We have noticed in countries where the Internet is more widespread, such as the United States, there is a small number of bad people who use the Internet to violate laws," he said.

China had seven million Internet users among its 1.25 billion population at the end of 1999, official media have said. Some industry experts forecast China will have 33 million Internet users by 2004.

Figures for the Internet users in Shanghai alone were not available, but the percentage is believed to be small.