The Chinese government has now changed its mind about the internet. It now likes what it sees. Last Tuesday, they have called the internet, ‘the crystallization of human wisdom, the great scientific invention of the 20th century, an important indicator of advanced productivity’. This statement was published in a white paper they released entitled China’s Internet Situation. This paper says that the Chinese government acknowledges the importance of the internet in improving the lives of the Chinese people and its benefit to the economy.

The paper talks a lot about China’s achievements in internet propagation. The government claims that more than 95% of towns now have broadband access. They also aim to improve the internet penetration to 45% from the current 29% in a frame of five years.

They are also proud to say that citizens have freedom of speech on the internet.

Citizens have full freedom of speech on the internet, the paper claims. An excerpt from the paper says, “China now has millions of forums and 220 million blog users, according to sampling statistics. More than 66 percent of Chinese internet users comment regularly on the internet, discuss various topics, fully express ideas and pursue their interests.”
The paper also advocates Twitter as a very good way for the citizens to practice their online communication. Other social networking and blogging sites are a big help as well.

However, the paper strongly upholds that its aim of protecting and properly educating the citizens still stand. This is the very reason why they have banned several sites and search engines before.