Most Chinese applaud government intervention at the internet

A report by Deborah Fallows, Senior Research Fellow, Pew Internet & American Life Project, based on new research by China's best-known internet researcher Guo Liang concludes that 85% of the respondents (both internet users and non-internet users) say the internet should be managed and the government is the most obvious entity to do so.
That number has gone up from 80% from 2000 when the surveys started, reflecting worries about the direction the internet in China is moving.

The Chinese government has long tried to control its internet in many ways. It censors or blocks politically-outspoken blogs. It has arrested citizens on charges of “inciting subversion” for posting articles in chat rooms critical of the Communist Party. It passes internet traffic through a “Great Firewall” designed to deny access to such international websites as Wikipedia, Technorati, all blogs hosted by Blogspot, and many sites maintained by the BBC. It also censors content on Chinese-based sites dealing with a host of topics, including the religious group Falun Gong, the 1989 Tiananmen incident, corruption among government officials, the independence movement in Taiwan, a free Tibet, various human rights issues, political incidents, or citizens’ uprisings.

While the conclusions are no surprise for those who actually talk now and then to ordinary internet users in China. Guo Liang assumes that worries for the well-being of their children, fed by many stories in China's state-owned media, have increased negative feelings about the internet. It has not stopped the growth of the number of internet users that is now estimated to be well over 220 million.
The full report can be downloaded here. The report was originally published in Chinese in November 2007 and is now available in English.

Update: Another take-away from the original report:

The percentage of respondents who find that the Internet should be controlled or managed has also increased. More than 80 percent of all those surveyed believe that it is necessary or very necessary to have certain types of Internet content controlled. Porn, violence and junk mail remain of highest concern. In addition, there was a steep increase in the percentage of respondents who felt that political content should be controlled--from 8 percent in 2005 to 41 percent in 2007.
There was also an increase in the proportion of respondents who advocated greater control of chatting (from 8 percent to 28 percent), gaming (from 16 percent to 49 percent), and online advertising (from 33 percent to 60 percent).