China already has 30 million people hooked up to the Internet, but the country has little impact on the international stage, according to Wu Jichuan, minister of the information industry.

Wu made the remarks at Friday's launch of the Internet Society of China, the country's first non-governmental regulator for Internet industry.

This non-governmental body has support from top government authorities, including the Ministry of Information Industry (MII), the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Civil Affairs and the State Council Information Office.

The international Internet organization, the Internet Society (ISOC), began in the US in January 1992. It issues rules to regulate the sector.

China is still not member of the ISOC, which has 175 institutional and 8,600 individual members.

As one of the most rapidly growing Internet markets, China still has little say in the Internet world.

"China should make its voice heard in the Internet sector and join the ISOC as soon as possible,'' said Wu, head of the MII.

The Internet Society of China should join the world body as soon as possible to give the country's 30 million Internet users a voice, he added.

The minister said although there are already 260,000 Chinese websites and 9 million computers linked to the Internet, the Internet's development level is still far behind international leaders.

The narrow bandwidth of the telecom network, and the shortage of patent-owned core technology and information applications are the major three barriers that hinder the Internet's rapid growth in China.

The Internet Society of China will be a bridge between the government and the people, it will represent people's rights and advises the government, the organization said in a statement.

(chinadaily.com.cn 05/26/2001)