According to statistics taken from the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), China has outpaced the US's online population, which has been at the forefront of Internet usage since records began to be kept of online users.

71% of the US's population has taken to the Net compared to China's 19%, a number that has increase by 56% from last year.  The potential of China's net penetration is set to reach 490 million by 2012.

The chinese government has recently been attacked by Western journalists for their planned censorship of the media during the 2008 Beijing Olympics. China's Net economy, according to a recent BBC article, "still has a long way to go to match or exceed that of the US or even that of South Korea."  Censorship may play a large part in the difference of Chinese net firms reported total revenue, $5.9 billion, compared to US firms' advertising revenue at $21.2 billion.

Hundreds of millions of Chinese citizens are seeking web access; however, they are only getting a mere glimpse of the actual breadth of the entire Internet.  How will China's government be affected by the continuing onslaught of Internet users?  How would the Web change if these chinese netizens were allowed to access all portals and features of the Web, with no government censorship?