BEIJING -- China is moving ahead with plans to build its "very own information superhighway," a second-generation Internet-like network designed for China's government and industry, the government's Xinhua News Agency said Saturday.
At a signing ceremony Saturday in Beijing, several unidentified companies agreed to form the China C-Net Strategic Alliance, which will develop the new network, the report said.
China is one of the fastest growing Internet markets in the world. The government estimates that the number of Web users has more than doubled in the last year, to about 20 million from 9 million, the Beijing Evening News said Saturday.
"In the new century, the Chinese people will build our very own information superhighway," the Xinhua report declared. "The current one by itself has too many faults and is incapable of satisfying the needs of the Chinese government and companies as they enter the digital age."
New software and hardware are already being developed for the system, the report said. It didn't give a time for start of construction or completion of the project.
The new system will be safer, faster and handle a greater volume of information than the existing one, the report said. It will rely upon technology now being developed abroad for a planned international upgrade of the Internet, plus technology developed exclusively for China.
The report didn't say if foreigners would be allowed to use the new system. It also didn't say how compatible C-Net will be with the existing Internet or future international systems.
Analysts have warned that China may try to build a "Great Fire Wall" in cyberspace, cutting itself off from the rest of the world to shield its citizens from information deemed subversive.
The communist government routinely blocks Web sites of foreign news organizations and groups it opposes, such as democracy activists and the outlawed Falun Gong sect.
