China: April 27, 2005

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China has the world's largest cell phone market, with over 340 million users. The number of Internet users is growing fast, and is currently about 100 million. The largest Internet user base is in the United States, where there are 200 million Internet users. China's biggest security problem is its inability to control the flow of information via cell phone and Internet. China is the largest user of cell phone and Internet monitoring software and hardware in the world. But Chinese users come up with ways to evade the monitors, and news spreads quickly anyway. The government was very upset with how news of the anti-Japanese demonstrations spread, and how quickly unauthorized demonstrations were organized. The government could always try to pull the plug on the cell phone networks, but the government is also dependent on this technology, and there is no central location to shut down all cell phone use. There are many cell phone service providers all over the country. The Internet would be easier to shut down, but could not be completely shut off and, of course, the government is also dependent on the Internet to operate.

 

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