China is now regarded as the most powerful nation online with around 200,000 new surfers coming online every day.

By the end of 2007, China had 210 million surfers, putting it just a few million behind the US according to Beijing-based analysts BDA. Growth rates indicate that the Asian powerhouse is now in top spot with around 220 million surfers.

"Based on these sources, we can conclude that China has by now comfortably surpassed the United States as the world's largest internet population," said Bin Liu, an analyst with BDA.

However, China, the world's most populous country with over 1.3 billion people – or 20 per cent of the world's population – has also come in for criticism from Reporters Without Borders over internet censorship and its repressive use of the so-called "Great Firewall" to block sites it deems politically dangerous.

www.bdaconnect.com
www.rsf.org

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