More than 50 million bloggers in China

THE GLORIOUS People's Republic of China has more than 50 million bloggers, according to the State's blessed media.

The Xinhua news agency, quoting figures from the Internet Society of China, said the number of bloggers rose by more than three million over the last year.

Since there are 100 million blogs in China, it seems that many people are keeping more than one or have forgotten the password for their old one and started another.

Gao Lulin, the group's deputy head, was quoted as saying that more Chinese want to express their own views about local and international events through the Internet.

There are about 290 million internet users in China which makes it one of the world's biggest web populations.

However the growth in blogs has worried the Communist Party, which strictly controls the media and Internet.

The problem with the great unwashed speaking its mind is that very often it tends to be very cross about the extremely corrupt local official who is a senior figure in the Party.

Recently the Chinese have required bloggers to register. Such an autocratic system of control has only ever been tried in Italy, where the journalists' union likes to stifle any comments not made its members.

There the overly powerful union told the Italian government it would not be re-elected if it did not do what it was told. µ

L'Inq
AP