World Tibet Network News Wednesday, March 11, 1998

BEIJING, March 11 (Reuters) - China's ranks of Internet surfers have swollen to 620,000 from less than 20,000 five years ago, the official Xinhua news agency said on Wednesday.

About 300,000 computers were now wired to the global computer network, Xinhua said, quoting a report by the Data Communication Department of the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications.

The number of Internet subscribers was expected to more than triple to top two million by the end of the century, the agency said.

Industry analysts have estimated the number of users will soar to seven million by 2001.

More than 60 percent of Internet surfers were 20 to 30 years old, Xinhua said.

Most users sought material on the information industry, business and finance, it said.

``The expanding network and increasing net-users provide massive business opportunities for content providers, especially those who can provide Chinese-based information,'' Xinhua said.

The report said although China had more than 100 Internet service providers, or companies offering access to the network, few carried political, economic or social information on China.

China's Ministry of Public Security last December implemented sweeping controls on the Internet to check the dissemination of what it called ``harmful information'' and to stop the leaking of state secrets.

The curbs were seen as an effort to combat use of the computer network by political dissidents and separatists movements in Tibet and the Moslem region of Xinjiang.

Personal computer sales in China were expected to top 700,000 units this year, Xinhua said.