China’s Internet population is visibly growing every month, and despite all restrictions imposed by the government, it became the world’s largest Internet population, counting 253 million users, according to the latest government report.

By the end of June, the proportion of online users was of 19.1 percent in China, which still accounts for less than a quarter of the country’s population. The percentage is small compared to that of the United States, where almost three quarters of the population uses Internet, but the Chinese online population seems to be growing every month.

The China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) informed that while the U.S. Internet population reached 223.1 million users in June, the Chinese population added over 40 million users from the beginning of the year. Overall, China’s online population had a 56 percent increase compared to the same period last year.

The figures are as strange as it gets, if we look at the government’s efforts to regulate life online and to limit access to certain websites. Over the past few years, the Chinese online population had a sustained growth of over 50 percent each year, starting from 137 million users in 2006.

According to a report released by CNNIC at the beginning of this year, rural netizens have had a significant contribution to the numbers we see today, with a 127.7% annual growth rate and plenty of room for development.

Entertainment is the number one Internet application in China: online music holds the number one spot (over 86 percent of users), followed by instant messaging (81 percent), online film and TV (over 76 percent), online news (over 73 percent), search engines (over 72 percent), network games (over 59 percent), and e-mails (over 56 percent).

In January this year, Chinese authorities decided to limit the broadcasting of Internet videos to sites ran by the government, as part of their plan to stop harmful Internet content from altering the minds of Internet users.

The government is also leading a “cleaning campaign,” which includes banning all messages, whether text, audio or video, sexually suggestive, including ads and sites that promote violence, religious cults or unveil national secrets.