Internet: China not to have own nodal servers

By Staff
|
Google Oneindia News

Beijing, Sept 9: As part of efforts to check Internet-linked problems, China has no plans for the present to have its own nodal servers and search engines as an alternative to the domination of the US on the Net world.

''Western countries possess matured experience and expertise in this field. The situation is different in China, which, like India, is a developing country and is new in this arena,'' State Council Information Office Vice-Minister Qian Xiaoqian told a press delegation from India.

''Key technology and software is in the hands of the west, which was the first to realise the IT pinnacle while we came later.

China's software industry will take some more time to mature while India's is more advanced than China's,'' he said while denying that China threatened to launch an alternate Internet protocol if the US did not democratise Net management for top domain registration.

Mr Xiaoqian also discounted reports that the Chinese language would overtake English on the Internet in the next two years. ''At present, the Internet language is English. It is hard to imagine that Chinese will outclass English on the Net.'' Chinese account for 3 to 4 per cent of all webpages and Internet users in China are less than 10 per cent of its population.

Apparently to maintain control on Net management, the Vice-Minister said western countries such as the US, UK and Germany ''quite often'' push through consensus in the International Committee on the Internet. ''China cannot go beyond the consensus,'' he quipped.

However, Mr Xiaoqian said China had ''administrative and regulatory'' norms to manage the Net within the country. It has framed specialised laws on Internet to prevent use of the Net in violation of constitutional provisions, law, ethics and tradition besides anything that abetted secessionist activity, violence, spread pornography and encouraged fraud.

Besides, ''we feel Internet surfing may waste precious time of youth.'' Thirty-five per cent of Chinese Net users are below 35 years. Internet management in China is a combination of social supervision, self-restraint by the industry and administrative control.

China witnessed sharp Internet development with 20 per cent annual growth in users. There are 0.12 billion Net users in China and 700,000 websites. The government never attempted to control development of the Internet. ''It is impossible to control 700,000 sites.'' Referring to expansion of media in China, the Vice-Minister said there are over 2,000 newspapers, 9,000 magazines and 300 TV stations that operate more than 2,000 channels and over 3,000 radio stations.

The major problem facing the country was how to make development more balanced and harmonious so that benefits percolated to every section. To maintain fast growth and enhance living standards, the government was adopting a scientific approach.

To overcome economic and social imbalance between urban and rural areas, Mr Xiaoqian said attention was being paid to taking advantage of resources to utilise opportunities both in domestic and international markets. ''This is primarily due to a large population hampering balanced development, rendering some areas poor and with comparatively low level of cultural and economic standards.'' China experienced a transformation from an agrarian to an industrial society as well as from a planned to a marketing economy, giving rise to certain problems such as economic and social imbalance. The country had been witnessing large-scale migration of rural peasants to towns, which is causing grave concern to Chinese authorities. ''An estimated 100,000 peasants move to urban areas in search of jobs, placing pressure on the employment system,'' the Vice-Minister pointed out.

Though the government's poverty alleviation programmes drastically reduced the number of those below poverty line, there were ''still 30 million living below poverty line in the country.'' Besides, he said, the government had committed to make education compulsory and free for the first nine years in school but this could not be fully implemented even as the government was fully seized of the problem. ''We are competent to settle this problem,'' Mr Xiaoqian claimed.

UNI

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