【英语中国】中国互联网状况白皮书误赞Twitter

China on Tuesday released an official white paper on the country's Internet industry. It reviews the history of China's Internet, from its first connection in 1994, a single 64-kilobit line in Beijing's Zhongguancun district, to the present day, when China boasts more Internet users than any other country.

At the end of 2009, the number of Chinese Internet users reached 384 million, or 28.9% of the population, a higher penetration rate than the world average, the paper notes. The paper states that China aims to raise the Internet penetration rate to 45% of the population within five years.

'China still needs to make arduous efforts to bridge the 'digital gap' between different regions and between the urban and rural areas,' the report states. At the end of 2009, 40% of residents on China's wealthier east coast had access to the Internet, as compared to 21.5% in rural areas, it says.

The paper contains an entire section on 'guaranteeing citizen's freedom of speech on the Internet.' But it adds all the usual caveats that leave ample room for the government's extensive censorship: 'While exercising such freedom and rights, citizens are not allowed to infringe upon state, social and collective interests or the legitimate freedom and rights and other citizens.'

Ironically, the English-language version of the paper cites Twitter, the social networking service blocked by Beijing, as a positive development for China's Internet and evidence of Internet freedom. 'The newly-emerging online services, including blog, Twitter, video-sharing and social networking websites, are developing rapidly in China, and provide greater convenience for Chinese citizens to communicate online.'

The shout-out to Twitter may be a translation error. The Chinese version of the paper refers to 'micro-blogging' in general, not Twitter specifically. Many Twitter-like applications, such as Sina Corp.'s 'weibo' (http://t.sina.com.cn/) (http://t.sina.com.cn/) service, operate in China. But like any Chinese site, it is subject to censorship, and also vigorously self-censored by its operators to avoid attracting the ire of regulators.

中国周二发布了有关国内互联网业的官方白皮书。白皮书回顾了中国互联网的历史，当中国在1994年首次开通互联网时，只有一条容量为64Kbps的专线，位于北京中关村，而现在，中国的网民人数已居世界首位。

白皮书说，截至2009年底，中国网民人数已达3.84亿，相当于中国总人口的28.9%，高于世界平均水平。白皮书还说，中国打算在五年内将网民人数占总人口的比例提高到45%。

白皮书强调，中国要弥合城乡之间、国内不同地区之间存在的“数字鸿沟”还需要做出艰苦努力。白皮书说，截至2009年末，中国东部地区的互联网普及率为40%，西部地区的互联网普及率为21.5%。

虽然白皮书专门有一节内容来谈“保障公民的互联网言论自由”，但它也全部列出了政府在这方面通常使用的告诫，从而为政府广泛审查互联网言论留下了充足空间。白皮书说，公民在行使自由和权利的时候，不得损害国家、社会、集体的利益和其他公民的合法的自由和权利。

具有讽刺意味的是，白皮书的英文版将微博客称做Twitter，而名为Twitter的社交网站恰恰在中国是被屏蔽的。白皮书将微博客当作中国互联网的一项积极进展，并以此来证明中国的互联网自由。白皮书说，博客、微博客、视频分享、社交网站等新兴网络服务在中国迅速发展，为中国公民通过互联网进行交流提供了更便捷的条件。

白皮书为Twitter叫好可能是一个翻译错误。白皮书的中文版只笼统提到“微博客”，并没有特别提及Twitter。中国有许多与Twitter类似的微博客服务，比如新浪网(Sina Corp.)的“微博”。但与中国所有其他网站一样，微博客网站也要接受审查，这些网站的运营者为了不触怒监管部门，还在积极进行自我审查。