China's online population touches 450 million

Beijing, Dec. 30 (ANI): China's netizen population has reached 450 million by the end of November, up 20.3 percent year on year.

The China Daily and Xinhua news agency quoted Wang Chen, head of China's State Council Information Office, as saying here on Thursday that around 33.9 percent of the Chinese population has gone online.

The Internet has grown in popularity since 1994, when China connected to the Internet, Wang said, adding that China has the biggest online population in the world.

Though praising the role of the Internet in boosting China's development, Wang admitted that online pornography, hacking, viruses and online fraud haunt China, like the rest of the world.

China will improve its policies to facilitate the development of the Internet and related supervision, Wang said.

Greater efforts will be made to fight online crime, safeguard online security, protect legal rights of Chinese citizens, and create a fair and competition-friendly market for China's Internet industry, he added. (ANI)