SUNS 4353 Thursday 14 January 1999

Beijing, Jan 13 (IPS) -- Chinese leaders are caught between the desire to pull the country to the forefront of information technology, and caution dictated by concern about security breaches and political activity on the Internet.

Indeed, while China advocates the desire to be a high-technology country, it has had to grapple with the problems that come with freeing up technology as well as trying to regulate it across this vast country.

According to China's public security departments, illegal activities involving computers and the Internet have gone up by 30 percent annually in recent years.

A recent report says 95% of China's network management centres with Internet access have been attacked by hackers from both home and abroad. As in the other places, banking, financial, and securities institutions are the main targets.

Also as in other countries, many hackers are youngsters. Recently, a 13-year-old middle school student in China's Inner Mongolia autonomous region was arrested for hacking. However, he was immune from legal action because he was below the age of 14. Such cases are no longer new these days in China, where almost every day the newspapers report similar incidents.

A few months ago, two people were sentenced to death in east China's Jiangsu province for transferring 2.6 million yuan to their own account from a local bank via a computer network.

But by far most alarming problem for the Chinese government is the fact that dissidents have been using computers and the Internet for their cause.

A Shanghai software entrepreneur was tried in December for providing 30,000 e-mail addresses to 'VIP Reference', an electronic magazine based in Washington DC that circulates material on democracy movements and issues.

It is e-mailed into China everyday, finding its way to dissidents, ordinary citizens as well as senior Chinese officials.

Dissident groups, especially overseas, say they are able to get through Internet fire-walls and barriers put up to prevent Chinese from accessing one-line news and opinions that may conflict with official views.

In short, China has had to temper its aims of becoming a modern technology power with the risks inherent in this campaign, even as Internet use continues to grow.

The China Internet Network Information Center, which surveys network users, reports that people aged from 21 to 35 form the largest group of users. This is almost 80 percent of some two million Chinese users, but the centre had no estimate for the number of hackers.

Internet use in China has surged from just 10,000 five years ago to 1.17 million last year, and could reach 5 million by 2000. "The growth rate has exceeded the world average," said Mao Wei, director of the China Internet Network Information Centre.

The Internet was introduced by China's scientific institutions in 1986 through long-distance dialling, but Internet service entered its second stage in 1994 when Chinese Academy of Sciences established a Computer Network Information Centre.

So far China has four public servers that have been approved by the state, and through which individual servers can directly connect to the Internet.

China's first Internet cafe appeared in Shekou, Shenzhen in 1993. Beijing now has nearly 200, but Shanghai is still the leader with more than 400 since 1996.

In 1996, the State Council introduced interim provisions for the management of the Computer Information Internet Network.

These provisions say: "No unit or individual, who subscribes to the Internet, may engage in criminal activities endangering national security through its use" and provide penalty clauses for offenders.
They also ban hacking, spreading computer viruses and disseminating "vicious information".

Dissident groups, especially overseas, say they are able to get through Internet firewalls and barriers put up to prevent Chinese from accessing one-line news and opinions that may conflict with official views.
Some groups have resorted to e-mailing material from different addresses, to dodge detection. But this remains a tricky endeavour, not least because distribution of "subversive" material could mean legal trouble.

But Zhu Lin, a student from China's prestigious Qianghua University, says: "In an attempt to stop 'unnecessary elements' coming in to the country, the government keeps on blocking the websites of different organisations from abroad. But it is not so far able to cope with the problems inside."

To safeguard national security and penalise hackers, China's latest criminal law has added new provisions to combat computer-related crimes.

Glitches or not, China is however determined to forge ahead with information technology and is preparing for its first international exhibition of Internet-related products and technology in June.

Its huge market continues to woo some of the world's biggest software companies.

Microsoft established its office in China last year and has already spread its links to various sectors including education. In late November, Microsoft offered $12 million in software to 50 Chinese
universities and pledged to help train Chinese computer professionals, and started its authorised academic training programme.