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China and the internet.

The Chinese government had long tried to censor the internet in China, striving for the CCP to save face.

Companies like Google and Yahoo have been grilled by the West for bowing to censorship laws in China, although they argue that, while they believe in freedom of speech, they must obey Chinese laws.

However, the number of internet-connected computers has doubled since the end of 2002, to 45.6m and internet users have risen by 75% to 111m. China has more users than any other country, except for the US.

Unfortunately, people are still going to jail for speaking out against the government on the internet. The number is 50 so far.

Blogs are the way to overcome the censorship issue, as they are difficult to monitor, especially if users avoid certain keywords. Over 20% of people in Chinese cities last year claimed the internet had allowed them to contact people who shared the same political views.

Domestic internet companies are beating down firms like Yahoo and Google (which dropped from being the market leader to having only a third of the market, against Baidu, which has 56%)