China managed to surpass the United States as of this year, when its Internet population reached 221 million users, as the Ministry of Industry and Information revealed. The findings show that despite China’s Internet policy, which limits access to certain content, the online population is growing every year.

Last year’s measurements found China 5 million users-short compared to the United States, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) reported at the time, according to the Xinhua news agency. At the end of 2007, the proportion was 16 percent compared with 19.1 percent of the world average (by comparison, 71 percent of the U.S. population uses Internet).

“Despite a rapidly increasing Internet population, the proportion of Internet users among the total population was still lower than the global average level,” the Ministry said, as quoted by the Xinhua news agency.

China’s Internet population made a remarkable progress in the past few years: in 2006, there were 137 million Internet users in the country. In 2007, the population grew by 53 percent, and the numbers continue to increase.

Last year, CNNIC revealed that the China’s most popular Internet application is online music (181 million users or 86.6 percent), closely followed by Instant messaging (170 million users or 81 percent). Video (76.9 percent), news (73.6 percent) and searches (72.4 percent) have also ranked high in the list of favorite use of the Internet in China.

Chinese users have had to deal with the censorship for some time now, as the Chinese government has initiated a campaign to put a stop to the threat to social stability the uncontrolled Internet access poses. The “cleaning campaign” includes banning all messages, whether text, audio or video, sexually suggestive, including ads, as well as sites that promote violence, religious cults or unveil national secrets.

As of January 31, Chinese authorities limited the broadcasting of Internet videos to sites ran by the government, so as to avoid any content that could alter the minds of Internet users. In their vision, the Internet audio and video providers “must be resolute in the service of the socialist ideal and of the people.”

While some see censorship as a necessary measure for the Chinese Internet viewers, foreign analysts consider it to restrain freedom of speech and to give a hard time to foreign companies, which may lead to a certain degree of economic instability, as no one knows exactly what to expect and how they will be able to comply with the government’s demands.