No, I think SI, and most likely, You and I, fall into the undesirable sites and generally undesirable categories (ban lists) ;-)
snip
In addition to Telecom's ChinaNet, Unicom's UniNet, Jitong's GBNet, and Netcom there are the academic networks Chinese Education & Research Network and the chinese Science & Technology Network, and three enterprises approved in early 2000: China Mobile Telecommunications Network; China Great Wall network (run by the military); and China International Electronic Commerce Network.
To reach the global Internet, hundreds of domestic ISPs must connect with one of these nine providers, which then connect with the outside world. The government issues ban lists to the national providers to block undesirable sites like CNN.com, the New York Times on the Web, Washingtonpost.com, and sites related to the Falun Gong.
Regulations on Internet companies, published October I, seem to signal at least a temporary victory for hard-liners eager to restrict the flow of information.
The new rules more tightly limit foreign investment, require strict surveillance against "subversive" content, and threaten to close down unlicensed firms.
Mr. Dewoskin points out that beyond the censorship issues, the government's desire to maintain control over the international gateways imposes enormous overhead. Data entering China is routinely diverted to government security bureau servers and scanned for undesirable content, adding delays and costs.
According to a Beijing-based engineer, the network is regularly shut down. In other words, the government can- and does-exercise control. The government is also apparently maintaining tight control on foreign investment in telecoms as the accession to WTO approaches. A recent fiasco with China Unicom, in which attempts to evade restrictions on foreign investment in telecoms through creative deal structuring eventually got shut down, served as a warning. The new telecommunications regulations published in early October restrict Class I (owner-operator) licenses to Chinese companies, and limit foreign participation to the largest operators. If there is a bandwidth surplus in the short term, there is no question that China will eventually need the infrastructure it is rapidly building. There will be plenty of customers, driven by the WTO and the influx of foreign business. A recent study noted that upwards of 170,000 multinational corporations have a registered presence in China, and the number will certainly grow. The coming 3G, or third-generation, wireless technology will be another big bandwidth consumer.
The immediate future promises to be a chaotic battleground of competing interests. Not necessarily the best, but rather the best-connected, may win in the short term. But the result may be a network capable of handling the growth that even skeptics assume China will have. snip |
