18th Statistics Survey Report on the Internet Development in China

According to CNNIC's report, there are 123 million Internet Users in China until 30 June 2006. The number has been increased 19.4% compared to that in 2005. Of these users, 77 million surf internet by broad band.Dial-up users is 47.5 million. The number of total computer hosts is 54.50million. China has approximately 2,950,500 domain names (including names registered in .CN ccTLD and
gTLDs), among which .CN domain names reached 1,190,617. 788,400 websites have been established in China. You can get more information from the link.
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Chinese governments "face to face" online with public

GOV.cn Sunday, January 01, 2006

The Chinese governments at all levels have established "face to face" contacts with the general public online, thanks to the formal launch of the central government website, www.gov.cn, on Sunday.

The website, in both Chinese and English versions, is a network connecting all provincial and city-level governments. As Wang Yukai, a professor with the State Administrative College, has observed, the new website is designed to "kick off a new age for e-government" in China.

Wang said in 1999, a nationwide campaign was launched to set upthe e-government system. Since then, almost all governments above the county level have set up their own official websites, and China now has more than 10,000 government websites.

However, Wang noted, since the domain names and contents of different government websites are separate and diversified, peoplemust first know which government body they should turn to before they can access its website and seek help, causing much inconvenience for the public.

"The launch of the central government website has effectively solved the problem," said Wang. "The website has unified all government resources and information on the Internet, and has alsoset an example for the local governments in running their own websites."

The new website has specific service areas to provide people with policy consultation and administrative services. Zhou Hongduo,a professor with the Network Economy Research Center of Communication University of China, said the website would enable people to schedule their life and work more efficiently as they have now gained a better knowledge of state policies and government information.

Meanwhile, Zhou said, the website will make government organs better informed, as common people can now directly voice their opinions and put forth suggestions online. "This is good for enhancing government efficiency," he added.

Zhou noted that the website will turn out to be very helpful to the country's entrepreneurs, who need to consider state policies first before making major business decisions. As to foreigners who know little about China, now they could also get a comprehensive picture of China through an authoritative official channel, he added.

In the two-month trial operation of the central government website, Internet surfers left more than 770 messages on a forum at www.xinhuanet.com, to express their expectations over the "government online" under construction. Most of them said they look forward to a government that serves the people "with a smiling face" and performs its duties "with high efficiency."

Wang, the professor with the State Administrative College, said the newly-established "government online" will undoubtedly save the time and cost of administrative management in China, yet it will also challenge the government's capability in public service and inter-departmental coordination.

Observing a great potential for China's e-government practice, Zhou, the Communication University professor, said that he foresees a "significant role" of the "government online" in the country's bid to build a "harmonious society."

Editor: Zhang Lihong
Source: Xinhua
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Govt website ranks 744th around world

China's central government website opened early Sunday morning has become one of the most popular government websites by taking up the 744th place among all websites in just 24 hours.

According to Alexa, a professional web information service provider, the traffic rank of "www.gov.cn", out of top 100,000 at the beginning of a trial launch, hit 3803 over the three trial months among more than 12 million websites.

And now it ranks No. 2 among major national government websites, next only to the Canadian government website.

"The opening of the website marks a major step forward in building a transparent government that serves the people," said WuJiang, president of the China research institute on personnel sciences.

The website serves as a platform for the departments under the State Council, and the provincial, autonomous regional and municipal governments across the country to release information on governmental affairs and provide online services.

The website, in traditional and simplified Chinese versions, has four sections which respectively provide information about government affairs, online services for citizens, enterprises and foreigners, interactive communication between governments and citizens, and other applied functions.

The English version of the website also provide commercial and traveling information services for non-Chinese speakers.

Zhou Xisheng, editor-in-chief of the central government website, said that miscommunication between the government and people has become an imperative issue calling for solution as it may give birth to corruption and public misunderstanding of the government.

The establishment of the website, said Zhou, who is also the president of Xinhua website, represents a major move to improve the government's work style and build up a transparent, effective, practical and clean government.

The Taiwan-based United News gave a detailed description of the website, praising that the website can not only issue major official decisions, laws and regulations, official documents, but offers an easy access to the public to facilitate their communication with the government.

China started to promote construction of government websites since late 1990s, with 1999 being the peak time. But the over 10,000 websites of governments at various levels have long faced problems such as lack of planning and management, overlapped or outdated information.

The opening of the central government website is expected to change the situation, said Wang Yukai, professor with the State Administrative College.

Netizens expressed their surprise toward some uncommon activities of the website since its trial launch. It has carried unheard-of live broadcasts of the State Council's teleconferences between the cabinet and provinces to netizens for three times.

"The vice-premier wasn't shy away from the problems and showed responsibility to the public," said a netizen after watching such a lively broadcasted meeting last November in which vice-premier Wu Yi deployed the nation-wide working of anti-bird flu.

Moreover, the communiques, decrees and documents released by the central government since 2000 have been also published on the website.

According to an online survey, 93 percent respondents were "very satisfied" or "satisfied" with the operation of the website.

"It's quite an amazing popularity in this virtual world where everyone could release his comment to others" said Zhou.

Although the construction of e-governance is still at its initial stage and many problems remain to be solved, the netizens'support and suggestions show their strong expectation to government management reform.
Editor: Ling Zhu
Source: Xinhua
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Review on Freedom with Information: Electronic Government, Information Intensity and Challenges to Citizenship

Taylor et al argue that electronic government increases sharing data regarding inter-agency working and intermediaries’ enhanced services and enable to provide personalization of online public services to citizens by government agencies through, for example, the personalization of public websites. However, the concept of layered citizenship arises when the government runs the Gateway project to provide one-stop electronic services. More personal information is captured by government agencies which enable them to classify or sort citizens into some groups for providing personalize service. As a result, the building of citizen trust profiles, personalization and forms of social sorting for conventional e-government services or security reasons challenge the nature of citizenship. The challenge not only comes from the concept of glass citizens who can enjoy the conventional public services at the cost of privacy as they can easily be monitored and scrutinized through digital transaction records, but also from sovereign citizens who are self-directing and easily organize, travel to and deploy forms of terrorism beyond the purview of the individual nation state. Finally, the author argued that an effective freedom of information legislation must consider the new developments of electronic government and provides a clear normative view of citizenship. In the information polity, the status of information flow the relationships between departments of government, between government and other agencies including voluntary and private sector bodies, between administrator and politicians, and between the governmental system and the citizen are changed. Many questions can be deduced from this change and it deserves further research.."> " title="permanent link">#

Central gov't website marks 1st anniversary

Chinese central government's website turned one year old, and its birthday was celebrated with the launch on Monday of a new look and new services. Two new functions were added to the front page. One provides a list of all administrative permits and administrative approvals by the departments under the State Council, and the other provides details of services by various government departments. The columns of "online live broadcasting" and "online interview", through which citizens can witness the policy-making process and directly talk to the policy makers, are more prominent on the front page of the website. Zhou Xisheng, CEO of the government website, said "The website is intended to play an active role in promoting transparent governance, improving public service as well as safeguarding citizens' rights to know, participate and supervise governmental affairs." The website, which is written in traditional and simplified Chinese and English, has four sections which provide information about government affairs, online services for citizens, enterprises and foreigners, and interactive communication between governments and citizens, as well as a search engine. The website releases 1,000 news items on average every day, 800 in Chinese and 200 in English. Over the past year, it has released more than 500 governmental documents and 250 gazettes of the State Council, broadcast live more than 60 important meetings and activities of departments under the State Council, and invited 22 senior officials in the central or provincial governments to talk with netizens. People can access some 1,100 services provided by 71 departments through the website, including tourism information during the "golden week," civil servant examinations and consumers' right protection services. According to the United States-based Alexa web information company, China's government website is currently the world's second most commonly visited government website. The Canadian government's website receives most visits."> " title="permanent link">#