Page 70 - Feasibility Study of New Media Technology on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Feasibility Study of New Media Technology
on Constructing Online Public Sphere

Table 1. The internet Timeline of China

The Initial Stage
1987-09-20 The first email was sent from China to Germany. The content of the
email was ‘Across the Great Wall we can reach every corner in the
world’.
1990-11-28 The registration of the top-level domain .CN was completed, symbol-
ising China’s own identity on the internet.
1994-04 On 20 April, 1994, the National Computing and Networking Facility of
China (NCFC) project accessed the internet via an American company –
Sprint, representing the realisation of China’s global function connec-
tion with the internet. China was officially recognised as a country that
had the full function of the global internet.
1994-05 The first BBS in Mainland China was put into operation – Shuguang
BBS, developed by the National Crime Research Centre for Intelligent
Computing Systems.
1996-11-15 China’s first coffee bar with network was opened in Beijing.
1997-01-01 The first key news propaganda website of the central government
was opened in China. People.com.cn sponsored by People’s Daily joined
the internet.
1997-06-03 Under the authorization of the Information Work Leading Group Office
of the State Council, Chinese Academy of Sciences set up China inter-
net Network Information Centre to perform the duty of National inter-
net Information Centre.
1997-11 CNNIC issued the first Statistical Report on internet Development in
China: by 31 October, 1997, 299,000 computers in total had access to
the internet; there were 620,000 internet users, 4066 domain names regis-
tered under CN, approximately 1500 WWW websites, with an interna-
tional bandwidth of 25.408M.
1999-01-22 The launch of Government Online Project was proposed. The home
site www.gov.cn was put into trial operation.
1999-12-23 The Information Work Leading Group of the State Council was es-
tablished.
2000-05-17 China Mobile Net (CMNET) was put into operation. China Mobile
officially launched the ‘GoTone WAP (wireless application protocol)’
service.
2000-07-19 Unicom Net of China Unicom was officially put into operation.
2000-12-12 Websites such as people.com.cn, Xinhua.net, china.com.cn, CCTV.com,
CRI Online, China Daily and China Youth International were approved
by the State Council Information Office to publish news, becoming the
first key news websites that had obtained the permit to publish news.

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