Lu is one of the new generation emerging in the country in the past ten years, who are learning, entertaining and shopping all electronically. A report released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) in July indicates that China has 103 million netizens, or internet users, like Lu Li.

That means one out of 13 Chinese uses internet. Ten years ago, there were barely 50,000 internet accounts throughout China. A survey on some 2,400 people in five Chinese cities show that an average netizen spends 2.73 hours online daily, reading news, sending or receiving emails, playing games, downloading music, gathering background materials or chatting.

Driving force

Mao Wei, director of CNNIC, hails the country's internet population of 103 million as "a milestone figure," which represents a 100-time increase in 7 years.

In connection, 45.6 million computers across China have been linked to internet, a 25.6% climb over the previous year.

What's more significant, Mao says, is that broadband users account for half of the figure, standing at 53 million.

A major driving force of the rapid development of internet in China in the past decade is the government's promotion. Since its formal integration into the global networks on April 20, 1994, there were"information highway" projects in the late 1990s to bring government departments at various levels to "go online," which made even remote governments on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau accessible to internet.

Business is also a driving force. With the construction of four backbone networks from 1994 to 1996, numerous start-ups and portal websites mushroomed. Then, "in the late 1990s, dazzling web-page is a trump for companies to scrabble for netizens," says Huang Chengqing, secretary-general of the Internet Society of China (ISC).

Despite some"economic bubbles" at its initial stage, internet has promised good returns now. In 2004, internet-related application service in China generated an earning of 11.3 billion yuan (8.11 yuan to 1 US dollar), of which 35% went to the blooming internet-game industry.

Shanda, the largest internet-game provider in China, earned US$154 million out of online-game business in 2004, when a dozen internet companies were listed in the US stock market, signaling the second round of getting listed in the overseas stock markets since 2000.

Alibaba, the largest online commerce company in China, received US$82 million worth of capitals in February this year.

Prospects of China's internet market have drawn foreign companies as well.

MSN, a subsidiary of Microsoft, took the lead by setting up a joint venture in Shanghai this year. Such big names as Google, e-bay, Amazon and Yahoo! are also deploying their expansion programs in China.

More choices

Internet has enriched the Chinese netizens' life with more choices. For Li Jianlu, a Beijing-based netizen, it saves him the time for shopping. "I love to surf on Dangdang.com to buy books," he says. "It's speedy, and it offers good bargain prices."

In November 2004, more than 72,000 college graduates took part in an online recruiting program in Beijing. In contrast, 31 recruitment fairs organized by the city's education commission throughout the year attracted no more than 40,000 students.

And internet is playing an increasingly important role in pushing forward social progress in China, with "profound influence on the life of many Chinese in a comprehensive way," observes Hu Qiheng, president of the ISC, on the tenth anniversary of China's full access to internet.

On July 25, a live online broadcast in east China's Zhejiang Province attracted the attention of 100,000-plus netizens, which allowed them for the first time to watch online a session of the standing committee of the provincial people's congress, the local legislature, which is traditionally met behind closed doors.

In fact, Zhejiang is not alone to apply internet to politics. The Beijing municipal government already launched an online opinion poll in 2003. Logging into www.beijing.gov.cn, local netizens can cast votes on 64 governmental organs under the municipality. In two years' time, more than 140,000 netizens have aired their views on the administrations' effectiveness, transparency and legal awareness. And their votes on issues ranging from whether the city should lift the ban on firecracker to the area of buffer zone of the Forbidden City as a World Heritage Site have been taken into consideration in policy making.

Internet helps the administrators to get first-hand opinions from the grassroots, thus making the policy making process more scientific, says Prof. Cheng Weimin of Beijing University.

Even the country's leaders would go online for people's opinions on government work. Before he gave a press conference during a session of the National People's Congress (NPC) in late March, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao accessed to the xinhuanet.com to search for ordinary people's questions for him.

Meanwhile, internet has partially given rise to Chinese people's individuality. A vivid example is the prevalence of web-blog writing since 2002.

By writing web-blogs, Fang says, netizens have shifted from "passive receptors" to "active producers."

Li Shanyou, vice president of Sohu, one of the three largest portal sites in China, agrees that the internet has impelled a "grassroots" spirit.

Although there exists digital divide, Prof. Xia Xueluan says internet "is no longer a privilege enjoyed by a few in China, but a common area everyone can contributes to."

- End -

2005年国庆特稿(中英)之五: 合作医疗让农民不再为看病发愁

中国特稿社

CHINA FEATURES

Bring Affordable Medical Service to Farmers

By Bai Xu, China Features

Huo Yulan had suffered from hydrocephalus, a brain disease, for decades before she finally agreed to have an operation for it in the Beipiao County Hospital, Liaoning Province in Northeast China last March.

The 51-year-old woman farmer of the Xiafuxiang Village, 22 kilometers away from the county seat of Beipiao, had dragged on with her chronic disease simply because she could not afford the operation cost of nearly 10,000 yuan (US$1,204.8), although Huo's family with an annual income of 3,000 yuan (US$363.8) is considered "well-off" in the village.

But when she caught a cold again last March, the pills didn't work. The helpless Huo thought she was going to die this time, when Beipiao started the program of cooperative medical care in rural areas a pilot county.

Huo became the first beneficiary of the program and had 3,060 yuan (US$368.7), or one third of her total medical cost reimbursed. Although she still paid 6,000 yuan (US$723) on her own, Huo is grateful that the government footed part of the bill for a farmer for the first time in many years, which almost saved a whole year's income for the family.

In fact, the program now under trial run at Beipiao and other counties across the country is part of the effort to re-establish the cooperative medical care system in rural China that collapsed in the early 1980s, following the introduction of the household contract system and the fall of collective economy.

One of the advocates for the restoration of the system is Wang Xianzhen, a 39-year-old doctor of the No.2 Hospital in Chaoyang City which has Beipiao under its jurisdiction, who filed a bill for it at the National People's Congress, China's top legislature, in 2003, when she was first elected deputy to it.

A gynecologist for 16 years, Dr. Wang has seen farmers even poorer than Huo. More than half of Chaoyang's rural population of 2.47 million, 74% of the city's total, cannot afford going to hospital, and half of the 40,000 farmers living below poverty line are impoverished by disease, according to Wang.

Zhu Qingsheng, Vice-Minister of Health, estimates that 40% to 60% of the farmers, or one third of China's total population of 1.23 billion, couldn't afford medical treatment in hospitals or impoverished by hospitalization. In some poverty-stricken regions, especially in western China, up to 60% to 80% of the sick die at home as they have no money for the hospital.

The farmers are reluctant to go to hospital mainly because their meager income and the medical cost are disproportionate. In 2003, says Zhu, the per capita annual income for rural Chinese averaged at 2,622 yuan (US$315.9), while the average medical cost for every hospitalization was 2,236 yuan (US$269.4), almost all their entire earnings of the year.

Meanwhile, the township and village clinics, once supported by the state and collective funding to cover most of the rural population, have been on the wane. In Chaoyang, one third of the township clinics supported by the state funding have closed down. Another one third are run in poor condition.

At Wujianfang Clinic, a "decent" one considered by local health officials, most of the equipment are out of date or in need of repair. The B-mode ultrasonic machine shows no blood vessels; the anaesthetizing machine has its wheels tied to it with plastic ropes; and there is no facility to test blood.

Dr. Wang Xianzhen is not the first NPC deputy to call for the restoration of the cooperative medical care system in rural China. The NPC records indicate that a deputy from Shanxi made a similar proposal as early as in 1994, and to date, it has received 24 bills on the issue, most of which were filed in the past two NPC sessions, including two by Dr. Wang from Chaoyang.

To her pleasure, three months after she submitted her bill in 2003, the Ministry of Health began the piloting of re-setup of cooperative medical care system in rural areas. Till October 2004, the system had been extended to 333 counties in 31 provinces, municipalities or autonomous regions, with 80 million farmers involved.

At Beipiao, a farmer who is willing to take part in the program is to hand in 10 yuan (US$1.2) a year out of his own pocket, while the provincial, municipal and county governments jointly put in another 20 yuan for the farmer. In case he is hospitalized, the farmers could have part of the expense reimbursed, at a rate of 15% to 55%, depending on the cost of medical expenses incurred.

Li Shuyang, head of the Beipiao Health Bureau, says the farmers' response is satisfactory. "Currently, 360,000 farmers, or 91.8% of the farming population in the county, have joined the program."

In just three months, 143 farmers in Beipiao have received a total reimbursement of 460,000 yuan (US$55,421.7). Liu Yajun, a doctor with the Beipiao County Hospital who treated Huo Yulan, is glad to see more patients are coming from the countryside.

Also delighted at the change, Li Shuyang plans to enhance the 28 state-funded township and village clinics with the new system. Under the system, the patient who spends over 4,000 yuan (US$481.9) in village clinic could enjoy reimbursement, while in county hospitals he has to spend over 6,000 yuan (US$722.9). And the rate of reimbursement is higher in village clinics than that in county hospitals.

Regarding it as an opportunity, Wang Dajun, head of the Wujianfang Clinic, is also concerned over the program's sustainability. "Two million yuan (US$0.24 million) is everything but a small amount for the Beipiao government," he says, recalling that they had tried four times to promote cooperative medical service from the late 1970s to 1990s and all failed.

Despite all the problems, says Zhu Qingsheng, the vice minister, the Chinese government is determined to have all farmers involved in the new cooperative medical care by 2010.

by Gong Yidong, China Features

--END--