China is enthusiastically embracing the Internet. Because in various eras of technological leap-frogging and progress,China has always been behind,whether in terms of the combustion engine,or in terms of the introduction of electricity,or in terms of other kinds of technology,China always started later than everybody else did. So this time,we are determined not to be left behind. I think it would be fair to say that China has already entered the era of the applied Internet.
The core technology of the Internet,both in software and hardware,remains in the United States. China has not yet entered the era of creating its own Internet technology.
Last year,there were four times as many people logging on to the Internet as there were the year before. And last year,we had 8.9 million people online. At the end of June this year,we had 16.9 million people online.
But we have several problems. One is the limited bandwidth in China. Right now,we are only up to 1.2 gigs of BPS. This June,I had the pleasure of visiting the AOL server farm on the outskirts of Washington,and on that server farm alone there are six gigs of BPS. So in the whole of China there is not even as much server capacity as that one server farm of AOL.
Another problem that we have in China is with the contents of Internet sites. Right now,the Chinese-language content is only about 3.8 percent of what is on the Internet,the other 90-plus percent is in English.
Another factor is that people’s understanding of the Internet is still relatively shallow. As of the beginning of this year,people who knew about it knew very little. It wasn’t until the Nasdaq started showing tremendous volatility that people really started paying attention.
This past spring,there was a story about the United States circulating in Beijing. There was a man begging for money in the streets of Beijing,and he had a piece of paper in front of him reading"Beggar",but nobody gave him any money. Then he wrote"E-beggar" and then people started giving him money（Laughter）。
Actually,this was a parody of the dot-com.
That is a reflection of how little confidence they feel in Internet stocks.
By this summer,some people were beginning to wonder about the so-called Internet bubble. But I told people that Internet technology certainly is not a bubble. Beer can have foam,but the beer itself is not going to go away.
We want to work with good foreign Internet technology companies,like AOL,IDG and Intel. I think that with our efforts,this kind of cooperation will become a reality.
I hope AOL gets fully prepared,because opportunity comes to those who are prepared.
Q： The question is from China Central TV. It says that in September,the U.S. Senate will be voting on China’s permanent trading status. At the same time,there is this China cultural activity going on in the United States. Is there some special significance in the timing?
ZHAO： I think that it is natural to assume that there is some sort of relationship. As a matter of fact,we are not that smart. Actually,we were planning this activity last year. As you know,the timing of the Senate vote has been changing all the time.
You know,this exhibition took 70 container-loads of cargo. We cannot keep changing the date of the exhibition. Nor can we change the dates for booking the Javitz Center.
So,the PNTR vote has absolutely nothing to do with the timing of the show. But I think it is fine for the Senate to change its vote to September,because it makes us look smart. （Laughter）。
Q： In my early days,I used to study Chinese history,and I have throughout my working life thought about the questions that you discussed today. Ambassador Sasser and I have talked about these things many times. I have written on them from time to time,including a piece that I am offering to the two presidential candidates this very week.
I think there is one thing in my experience in Washington I’d like to raise with you. Normally I would do it in a private conversation,but you have spoken so forthrightly and so directly and so refreshingly today,I think it is worth doing it in the presence of members of the media.
As we do our work in Washington in the discussion of US-China relations,we encounter over and over again a statement from those who are often highly critical of China today. The statement is that China has not changed in 25 years,or 50 years. I could cite you examples from the political literature surrounding the PNTR campaign making that exact statement.
Now you know and I know,and many of the people in this room know that that statement is ludicrous. But I do remain convinced that certain moments in US-China relations have left a deep and almost permanent impression,and that impression remains very much alive in the American consciousness about China today. What I want to mention here that you did not discuss in detail is the set of images and the set of memories relating to the perception of America in China during the"Cultural Revolution."
I will soon be 58. Everybody of my age was brought up on images of the United States being seen as the colossal enemy of China,within China,during the"Cultural Revolution."
Those images of China from the early and middle and my impressions of life here in Washington today have become very deeply engraved. And I don’t know what the answer to this is. It is not our job to instruct China as to how to interpret its own domestic history,but as China’s spokesman to the world,and someone who has spoken so directly today,I do think it is important to understand the difficulty we face in dealing with these very deeply rooted images of China in the United States at the popular level. I don’t have a specific recommendation,but it is a concern that we work with every day.