There are almost 600 million Internet users in China

April 14, 2015

It’s not an exaggeration to say that Social Media in China is more powerful than it is in the United States, and if you think that what the Chinese say and think is controlled, think again.

For instance, in 2010, Keith B. Richburg reported in The Washington Post that labor unrest was spreading in China as more workers demanded higher wages. He writes, “Various economists, labor experts and activists said there were many more strikes and work stoppages rolling across China.”

How did that happen if the Chinese Communist Party controls the traditional media? Well, blogging has become the free press of China. The Chinese have more Blogs than any nation on the earth. Watch the next video to discover just how many Chinese are on line and how much time they spend on the internet.

Resonance China, a Chinese Social Media Agency, reported that the numbers of bloggers saw a huge jump in 2008. This is likely due to China’s internet hitting a critical point, combining social networks, with blog networks, with portals, and politically charged events. The drive to express online is a central motivation for the Chinese. Due to China’s strong censorship and control over the traditional media, the internet has become a major destination to receive balanced views, and see how other people think and react to events.

China may never have a political system similar to the United States but freedom of expression has arrived through the Internet and social media.


China has banned Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, WordPress, Blogger, etc. How do people connect, blog and chat in China? Watch the video and find out. You might be surprised.

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of My Splendid Concubine [3rd edition]. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. This is the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

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Growing Cautiously Into a Modern Republic – Part 6/7

October 24, 2010

In parts 1 through 5, I provided evidence showing that China is building a republic that may last for centuries.

What is happening on the Internet offers more evidence that China is moving toward a more open society. In China, there are more Blogs than any nation and a free exchange of ideas via e-mails.

In fact, in China there are more people logging onto the Internet than America’s entire population.

China could have limited all Internet use as North Korea has, but China hooked up to the World Wide Web instead.

What are the real reasons China struggles to censor parts of the international internet like pornography, WordPress, Facebook and Blogger? 

Is it possible that China is doing this because they do not have the confidence that most of their people are sophisticated enough to deal with all the crazy ideas floating around in international cyberspace.

Instead, China is opening to the world like a slow blooming flower allowing the people to adapt instead of being overwhelmed, which might lead to a meltdown and a return to chaos and anarchy.

However, anyone who wants to sneak past China’s Net Nanny may do so.

I’ve known people in China who have slipped past the Net Nanny, which is more like a leaky dam getting ready to burst, and it isn’t that hard. It just takes some time. See Tech Crunch for more information about Internet use in China.

Deng Xiaoping was right. If China had the political gridlock and partisieanship that exists in America today, would the Chinese have achieved the goals to modernize that they have? 

Return to Growing Cautiously Into a Modern Republic – Part 5

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Lloyd Lofthouse is the award-winning author of the concubine saga, My Splendid Concubine & Our Hart. When you love a Chinese woman, you marry her family and culture too. 

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