BERNARD SHOW, CNN ANCHOR: In the past six months, the number of Internet users in China has doubled to 17 million. China's communist leaders have also embraced the Internet, but at the same time, they're trying to control it. More from CNN's Beijing Bureau chief Rebecca MacKinnon.</s>REBECCA MACKINNON, CNN BEIJING BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): The young and the hip are packing into China's Internet cafes, some playing games, many trolling for information and sometimes hitting roadblocks. Sites like this one, listing victims of the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, are banned. The man who ran it was arrested and charged with subversion. Still, surfers here say they're not intimidated. "If you really want to see something," this student says, "you can find most information eventually." Information, faster and more interesting than the competition's, has made Web portal Sina.com number one among Chinese Web users, according to a recent survey. It's also the first Chinese Web portal to list on the Nasdaq stock exchange. But general manager Wang Yan knows there are lines he cannot cross.</s>WANG YAN, SINA.COM (through translator): We have to comply with the government's policies and regulations. Because China has yet to resolve its reunification question and various political questions, we have to offer different Web sites to people in different places.</s>MACKINNON: Sina's Beijing office develops content for one version of its Web site available to mainland Chinese viewers. All content comes from Chinese media only, none of it from overseas. (on camera): Sina has sister sites in Taiwan, Hong Kong, and the United States. All of them are blocked here in China with Sina's knowledge and consent. Managers of Chinese dot.coms admit this kind of creative self-censorship is key to their survival. They say their obligations are to shareholders and investors, not to ideals like freedom of speech. Rebecca MacKinnon, CNN, Beijing.
China Cautiously Heading into Internet Age