BDA China, a Beijing-based consulting and research firm has announced that there are 220 million Web surfers in China, a number which slightly surpasses the 217 million in the United States and makes the country the largest Internet-connected population in the world.
By the end of the year it is expected that China's surfers will number as high as 280 million, a full 30% more than the same time in 2007. The majority of Web browsing purportedly takes place inside Internet cafes; locations which may soon begin being require to register every customer so they can keep track on what each person accesses.
Ken Fisher of Ars Technica points out that China may have the most surfers, but they aren't seeing as much of the freedom the Internet offers as other countries are. We posted only yesterday that China bans sites such as YouTube for posting content that does not agree with the Communist Party line. President Hu Jintao last year called for there to be efforts made to "purify" the Internet; a plan which seems to be coming well into fruition now. The AFP reports that the Chinese government announced in January that only state-controlled sites will be able to post audio and visual content.