Surfing the Dragon
by Rick Montgomery
published in the Georgia Straight-Canada's largest urban weekly

Around the Himalayas, through the Gobi Desert, over the Great Wall, the Internet's invasion of the Central Kingdom is complete. Considering its xenophobic past, it is remarkable China has met the Internet with such little resistance. Some mainland Chinese believe that Beijing's willingness to relinquish any control at all over its information monopoly (something Mao would never have let happen) is a vestige of Deng Xiaoping's pragmatic reformist approach. Others say the crumbling of the Soviet Union sent a "reform or perish" radio wave to authoritarian regimes around the world. Development, therefore, is now the "absolute principle" in the world's most populous country, as a billboard in the central-coast city of Suzhou proudly declares. The old men in Beijing, despite announcing recent rules governing on-line conduct, have grudgingly accepted the Net as an economic tool that can help China become a 21st century superpower. Premier Li Peng and other hard-liners in Beijing, however, are worried about the Internet. Can it be tamed, controlled, and used exclusively for business purposes or will the Internet become a medium for exiled dissidents to spread the gospel of rebellion across China? In a country where a permit is required for a group to assemble, will Cyberspace become a new Tian'anmen Square where radical intellectuals and industrial unionists anonymously congregate? Beijing is trying to prepare for all eventualities. The Internet, to be sure, must overcome an array of obstacles besides government control before it can become a pervasive force in Chinese society. Only one in ten Chinese have telephones and a small minority boast enough disposable income to afford a personal computer and fee for on-line service. With China's immense population, however, it is easy to get the wrong idea from averages. Because 80% of China's 1.2 billion people live in rural areas, a line must be drawn to separate rural and urban realities. Most of the mainland Chinese interviewed for this article hail from urban areas, and the questions, "Where did you get the money to buy a computer?" and "How do you afford on-line service?" were usually met by laughter. "Anyone who thinks we can't afford computers and the money it costs to go on-line clearly has not been to China lately," said Wang Xingming, who manages a four star hotel in Beijing. "Though it took a lot of time, I recently downloaded the first chapter of an American children's book I'm using to teach my seven year old daughter English." In urban centres such as Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, the latest Air Jordans are selling well and it sometimes seems every Chinese on the street is equipped with a cell phone or beeper. Due to the success of China's 17-year-old single child policy, there is now a generation of single children whose parents are accordingly wealthier and are lining up to buy the technical tools they think their "little emperors and empresses" need to gain an edge in an increasingly competitive meritocracy. Though the financial benchmarks are different, much of rural China is also gaining wealth rapidly. Televisions and cars are being purchased in areas that only recently acquired electricity and running water. A number of China's rural poor are now able to afford the considerable fine levied for having a second or third child. Though it will be many years before a PC finds its way into the average countryside dwelling, government and private outposts in many rural areas are steadily coming on line. Jiang Zemin, China's new technocratic chairman, recently hinted in Newsweek magazine at a plan to use the Internet to unite China's largely impoverished provinces with others that have achieved relative prosperity. China is developing so quickly that it would be a mistake to assume the Internet's presence is still a minor one. According to the Xinhua News Service, an estimated 600,000 mainland Chinese are on line, and this number will grow exponentially as China's telecommunications infrastructure improves. The Ministry of Post and Telecommunications just finished connecting its many analog and digital cellular phone networks across 26 mainland provinces, making this the largest cellular phone network in the world (sorry, AT&T). In addition, the Wall Street Journal Reports, Beijing has earmarked 60 billion dollars to modernize its telecommunications infrastructure by the year 2000, a project so immense that its equivalent in North America would constitute the complete rewiring of the state of California during that time period. Besides infrastructure, another major obstacle the Internet confronts in China is language. Most of the World Wide Web's content today is in English, but only a small proportion of mainland Chinese, with the exception of those who studied abroad or learned English for business purposes, are proficient enough in that language to browse the Web in English. Many international companies, however, foresaw the potential for the Internet in China years ago and have already invented competing Chinese-language programs that allow Chinese speakers to e-mail in Chinese characters and access Chinese-content web pages. Zi Corp is one of these companies. Based in Calgary, Zi Corp is hoping its diverse line of network-compatible, Chinese-language programs will remove the language barrier in China. "How many people would be on-line in Canada if you had to first learn Greek to use it?" asks Roland Schatz, Zi Corps manager of investor relations. "We are designing technology specifically for the Chinese market. not just localizing western technology for a region." The final and arguably greatest obstacle for the Internet in China is government control and regulation. In November, 1997, however, Hong Kong's leading (and still somewhat free) newspaper, the South China Morning Post announced that China's two-year-old effort to control access to the Internet was in disarray. The Post claimed that previously blocked web sites were now available, including western news outlets such as the New York Times site, radical "cyber-magazines" such as the dissident-produced China News Digest, and Web pages chronicling human rights abuses in China, such as those of the Tibet Freedom Network and Amnesty International. Shocked by the Post story, hard-liners in Beijing reacted predictably. Two weeks later, after conferring with government officials from the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, Beijing introduced regulations promising penalties for anyone e-mailing or accessing material that "threatens social stability" in China. According to the Reuters News Agency, the new rules called for "unspecified criminal punishments" and fines up to US$1,800 for anyone--individuals or companies--who uses the Internet to "split the country". Though rules had already been issued for on-line conduct in 1996, this was the first time Beijing spoke of penalties. This reaction was, surprisingly, greeted with relief by Internet users in China, many of whom had feared Beijing might pull the plug entirely on the only commercial line that keeps China wired to the Internet. None of the mainland Chinese interviewed for this story were really worried about the new rules. Though they must now register for an Internet account most said they have no desire to access western news services or Playboy magazine's home page. Support for the Internet had already snowballed by the time Beijing announced plans to control it in early 1996. The first link occurred in 1993 between China's Institute of High Energy Physics and a scientific research lab at Stanford University. University research, mostly in the sciences, has been the main engine for the Internet's growth in China ever since. Thanks to an international line leased from the government by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, all 1,049 Chinese universities are scheduled to be connected to the China Education and Research Network (CERNET) by the year 2000. Beijing has given no indication it plans to control CERNET. China's commercial Internet infrastructure has been growing steadily since service was first offered in 1995. ChinaNet, the commercial state-run Internet service operated by the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, is in the process of moving beyond Beijing and Shanghai with a new 31-city, high- speed nationwide network. China sank 9.5 billion dollars (US) into ChinaNet and other information services in 1995 and even summoned foreign assistance. US Sprint recently signed a multi-million dollar contract with Jiangsu Provincial Data Telecommunications Bureau to attract users to the Internet in the province's 11 major cities. Though China may occasionally purchase a few western training wheels for its telecommunications infrastructure, it has been careful not to surrender control. Foreign companies such as Sprint, AT&T and Northern Telecom have signed big deals in China, but most of the business has to do with the supply of telecommunications hardware or "turnkey" (show us how to use it, then get lost) software. Only one commercial trunk line connects China's Ministry of Post and Telecommunications to the Internet, and Wu Jichuan, China's ultra-conservative Telecommunications Minister, says China will retain 100% control of its public phone networks. Because all Internet service providers in China must "resell" the same service from the Ministry of Post and Telecommunications, the government can control, to a degree yet unknown, what comes in and goes out of the country via the Internet. Beijing has never revealed how many resources it has committed to this end but rumor has it that thousands of "cyber-cops" are working around the clock to block World Wide Web sites that offer what Beijing, officially atheist, terms "spiritual pollution.According to Vaughn Ravenscroft, Director of Information Systems for the Multi Media Division of the Vancouver Film School, controlling access to the Internet is technically feasible. "If a government controls all international switches and funnels all information through one central location, it can block any range of addresses on the World Wide Web it deems undesirable," Ravenscroft says. Ravenscroft explains further that every piece of electronic mail, even if encrypted, must have a source/destination address. This "electronic equivalent of an envelope" makes monitoring the Internet relatively easy as long as there is not a lot of volume. Using a "packet sniffer," a network analysis tool favoured among hackers, Ravenscroft says that a copy of electronic mail can be made as it passes by without a significant transmission delay.

Any monitoring of the Internet will become more and more difficult as the number of mainland users multiplies, according to Dr. Jim Tom, a Vancouver telecommunications expert who has been working for years to develop a high-speed link between Canada and China. Although controlling access to the Internet may still be a viable concept, Tom is doubtful the Chinese will be able to keep that up in the long term. "What will they do when there are 10 million users on the Net?" he asks rhetorically. "There will always be leakage with modern technology."Beijing has slowly come to realize how resilient the Internet is. If a web page is blocked, a simple web browser may be used to access the site via alternate links. "Computer hacking" was therefore cited as a punishable offense under Beijing's new regulations. No one is quite sure, however, if using a search engine constitutes hacking; Beijing has yet to thoroughly spell out its new rules. With regard to monitoring e-mail, so many messages already go in and out of China that it would take immense resources to copy and read everything. More likely, if the Public Security Bureau wanted to monitor the e-mail of a certain individual, it would simply tap the individual's phone line. Thanks to the mandatory registration process, the Public Security Bureau knows the telephone number of every user, unless, of course, the user has a portable computer and simply accesses ChinaNet from another phone. Because controlling Internet access will more than likely turn out to be an exercise in futility, Beijing may eventually move in another direction. Announced a year ago and now being researched, a country-wide "intranet" system would effectively replace China's commercial reliance on the Internet. A country-wide intranet is a network system that, theoretically, could allow users unlimited access to a controlled database while permitting only screened links to the outside world. Users would still be able to e-mail internationally (the most used aspect of the Internet in China) but would be denied access to the World Wide Web. Because e-mail only requires a basic level of Internet Protocol (IP) and because the World Wide Web's protocol (HTTP) is much more complex, this level of control is possible. Though separate small intranets are in use in China, all users still have access to the World Wide Web. The question is whether or not this access will be allowed indefinitely. Some mainland Chinese think the Internet issue has been blown out of proportion. "China's leaders should not worry about the Internet," declares Li Min, a UBC graduate student from China. Mr. Li, who communicates with his father in mainland China over the Internet on a daily basis, claims that the few people who can afford a computer and Internet access in China are precisely those who have a stake in maintaining the present system. These members of China's status quo, explains Li, are careful about what they access when they go onto the World Wide Web. "Why would someone rock the boat in China if their situation is getting better and better?" he asks. Regarding Beijing's new requirement for Internet registration, Li says his fellow citizens know what information they should and should not access. Though China's laws pertaining to Internet usage are vague, Li says the situation just requires common sense. "China is not on a law basis but on a moral authority. In many cases, whatever society thinks to be right for the common good is the law." Students like Li, who calls himself a conservative, feel the Chinese government has responded well to China's call for development. Li hopes, however, that development implies many things besides just making money. "Without the long term concern over education and culture, the development frenzy would be a like an economic version of the Cultural Revolution. It has the same zeal without the political ideology." Li says the Internet will have a stabilizing effect on China's development. "Given increasing access to the Internet, public interest and opinion in China will diversify. Politics and money are just some of the issues people are interested in. They may use the Internet to talk about their shared interests such as Qi-gong, collecting art, music, sport etc. This pluralism will stabilize society rather than create more tensions and crisis." Zhong Zhang, who lectures on database technology at a vocational school in Beijing, is confident the Internet will give the rest of the world a better idea about what is going on in China. Frustrated by western news reports that he feels bring only "the dark shadows of Chinese society" to the West, Zhong believes that American reporters lurk in Chinese streets looking only for negatives they can turn into sensational headlines. "I used to read the New York Times and Time magazine but I find almost all the articles about China distort the facts," Zhong says. "For me they are all a pack of rubbish. They pay too much attention to other nations and never condemn themselves for what they are doing. I do not know why they think Tibet should be separated under the banner of human rights. Why? Justice? Where is the original Indian and who does the land belong to now? They were invaded by westerners. Where is the human rights?" Zhong, who learned his fluent English in Australia, is optimistic about the prospects for the Internet in China. "The government's worry is unnecessary. The Internet, like anything, has two sides: good and evil. We should conduct ourselves properly. I love my motherland and I want it to get rich and powerful. The Internet will help bring China the advanced management skills needed to improve efficiency." Though many people in China are willing to converse freely with reporters nowadays, it is usually hard to find someone who has benefited from China's development and is still willing to speak out--unless he or she lives far from Beijing's long tentacles. Joe Chu is at sufficient remove to be outspoken. Chu lives in Guilin, a city in southeastern China located in a semi-autonomous province that boasts some of the world's most stunning landscapes. Co-owner of a private tour company which, thanks to Hong Kong investment, has the resources to compete with the state-owned China International Travel Service, Chu says he thinks it is too late for Beijing to control the Internet. "I use the Internet all the time and I don't care if the Reds (Beijing) see what I write," says Chu defiantly. "I only write the truth and nothing can stop the truth. Beijing is a long way from here anyway. We do things the way we want to and nobody interferes with us as long as we pay our taxes and share our profits with the right people. China has changed. The government can no longer control the people and they cannot control the Internet. I don't think they are really trying anymore. I can access whatever I want even if I have to use a third party. But I'm a businessman, not a dissident. I, too, want a stronger China but China can only be strong if we know what is going on in the rest of the world. The Internet provides this service." Eric Ryan, a California-based industrial consultant maintains offices in both Beijing and Shanghai, says the Internet is already having a profound impact in China. He differs from many Chinese conservatives who think Internet users in China are part of the status quo and therefore slow to push for change. "It is clear to me that people who have the most Internet access are those who continue to push for political reform the fastest," says Ryan. He says the new rich have become the most vibrant force in China. "Their increasing affluence gives them the strength to influence political leaders and the motivation to establish laws to protect their wealth and property. These laws will ultimately lead to the concept of individual civil liberties and will likely spawn others, such as freedom of speech and right of assembly." Ryan says the Net has already had tangible effects in China. "I think the Internet has helped China to overcome a lot of infrastructure barriers--such as poor distribution, postal time, and cost--which used to delay, if not totally block, the flow of information into China. It is also increasingly a motivation and tool for young people to gain or improve their English skills. On the political side it makes it difficult for the government to control the flow of information into China and provides a relatively anonymous way for the Chinese to communicate with each other." Not all people have compliments for China's commercial Internet services. Jeffrey Chong, a Vancouver-born Chinese who frequently attends industrial conferences in China, says he became so frustrated by the frequently unstable line connecting ChinaNet with the rest of the world that he searched for another way to access the Internet while in China. After securing an account with CompuServe in Hong Kong, Chong now calls Hong Kong from China whenever he wants to pick up his e-mail. Chong says that, after browsing some of Compuserve's business forums, he noticed that a lot of mainland Chinese are connected to the Internet through an account in Hong Kong. "The call from China to Hong Kong is getting cheaper all the time since the Big Guava (Hong Kong) became part of China," reports Chong. "I guess it's nice for them to know their e-mail is always there and can't be intercepted." From stolen Mercedes to Golden Triangle opium and, now, electronic packages, Hong Kong has historically served as a way station to get merchandise secretly in and out of China. As it stands, there are no controls over the Internet in Hong Kong. Unlike China, Hong Kong has many gateways connecting it to networks all over the world through carriers such as Global One, AT&T and Hong Kong Telecom. Fifteen of the more than 90 Internet service providers in Hong Kong have leased or bought circuits providing international links of their own. Although it is true Beijing has been angling to buy as much stock as possible in Hong Kong Telecom (now 30%), industry analysts tend to diagnose this as a strategic business move, devoid of political motivations. Attempts to regulate or control Hong Kong's telecommunications industry would surely deflate market confidence, something Beijing probably wouldn't dare do to its new cash cow. Ryan, whose company employs nine mainland Chinese, echoes Chong when he says there is a great desire in China for confidentiality. According to Ryan, pagers became popular several years ago in China partly because people wanted their conversations to be private. "A person would beep a friend from a public phone with a code and return number and the recipient could call back from a public phone," Ryan explains. "They could then speak freely without having to worry about their identities being known to the authorities." Many citizens of mainland China work at foreign-owned companies such as Ryan's and have access to the latest computer technology. Though it makes him nervous at times (his office computers are connected to ChinaNet with his ID), Ryan claims his employees use his computers to access western news sites that could potentially anger Beijing. A large number of Chinese companies also boast modern computer systems. Not surprisingly, some bosses at privately-owned businesses care less about political edicts from Beijing than their counterparts at state-run corporations. "My boss lets me go onto the Internet as much as I want as long as I pay him back for any extra charges," says Xing Peng, a salesperson for a private industrial supplier in the coastal city of Suzhou. "He doesn't care what I access because he answers only to himself and knows I make him a lot of money." A desire for confidentiality may have also inspired the creation and spread of "cyber-cafes" in China's largest metropolitan areas. Prepaid access cards give users a specified amount of on-line access and, thankfully for some, no ID is attached to the card. Though many cyber-cafe patrons prefer to access domestic Intranets full of Chinese-content Web sites, a few go to the cafes to access sites on the World Wide Web without fear of recrimination.

Wei Jingsheng, arguably China's most famous dissident, supports Internet confidentiality. After nearly 17 years in prison, Wei was recently allowed to exit China purportedly for western medical attention. One of his first stops, not surprisingly, was the White House. Wei, who has been critical of Clinton's 1994 decision to separate human rights considerations from the granting of most favored nation status, recently declared he was going to continue his battle for human rights in China and that he plans to use the Internet to spread his message of freedom.

Opinions vary, however, on whether the Internet should be used as a tool to beam concepts such as democracy and human rights into China. Some activists feel the Internet should be avoided until Beijing's monitoring abilities are made clear, while others feel the Internet simply doesn't reach the right people.

Sophia Woodman of Human Rights in China, a Hong Kong activist group, claims that most dissidents are not even on line. "Dissidents are mostly very poor. The authorities prevent them from finding jobs or running businesses, mostly, and they have to scrounge off relatives and friends to survive. Internet access is totally beyond their means."

According to Woodman, other more effective techniques are being used to send information into China. French radio, the Voice of America and the BBC broadcast Chinese-language reports into China daily while Hong Kong and Taiwan radio and television creep unmolested into the Guangdong and Fujian provinces. The work of activists like Woodman has paid dividends. Beijing's decision to release dissidents like Wei Jingsheng is proof that China is vulnerable to influence from the international community, but this influence only goes so far. China's leaders are more concerned with transforming their country into an international superpower than a democracy based on individual rights. China is opening to the West on its own terms for the first time. This process, which began in 1972 when Henry Kissinger met with Zhou Enlai, is a major historical departure. The majority of China's dynastic emperors believed the world had nothing to offer the Central Kingdom. In the fourteenth century a Ming emperor reputedly closed China off from the world by destroying the Chinese naval fleet. As evidenced by their decision to connect China with the Internet, China's present rulers have clearly opted for a different course. Time will only tell if Beijing hard-liners, in the tradition of their dynastic ancestors, will succeed in their efforts to limit, control, or even sever China's access the World Wide Web. Should this last occur, and the Internet is replaced by a country-wide intranet, the Chinese people will still have access to each other, an eventuality against which Beijing hard-liners have no defense.