Flat World Update 1-24-07

Just a quickie. According to this article from China Daily:

China is expected to overtake the United States to have the world's largest Internet population within two years . . . The CNNIC report found that Internet access in China is going increasingly broadband and mobile. The country had 90.7 million broadband users by 2006, up 41.1 percent year-on-year. And about 17 million mobile phones users are now using their handsets to access the Web.

Of course they still have a long way to go to match the percentage in the U.S., and there's that "minor" issue of censorship (one of the recent examples), but it's still worth noting. I think a lot of folks are almost taking comfort in China's lack of openness at the moment, counting on that to "protect" Western nations and economies. What if China actually does what we say we want them to do and becomes a more open, democratic society? What if the great firewall of China comes down?

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