China's Internet users top 100 million
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-29 00:06

China's population of Internet users has surpassed 100 million, the government said Tuesday.

China already has the world's second-largest population of people online after the United States, which has 135 million.

The latest Chinese figure was announced by Xi Guohua, an official with the Ministry of Information Industry, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Last week, China's government threatened to shut down Web sites that fail to register with regulators in a new campaign to tighten controls on what the public can see online.

China promotes Internet use for education and business but also tries to block its public from seeing material deemed pornographic or subversive.

Authorities also are trying to tighten controls on what children can see online.