THE thousands of censors who patrol the internet in China must feel a little like King Canute. One Chinese expert described their task as showing the futility of trying to hold back the sea.

“Everyone knows where the controls are and that makes it pretty easy to get around them,” said one anonymous internet specialist. He cited a Chinese proverb about a man who buried his silver for safekeeping and put up a sign reading: “No cache of silver is buried here.”

China’s Communist Party rulers are acutely aware that the internet has become an essential tool for the reform and modernisation of a country with 1.3 billion people to feed and clothe. They got a taste of China without the internet when Google’s search engine was blocked for ten days in 2002 and scholars and government officials rounded in fury on the censors, complaining that they could no longer work.

China has more than 111 million users — second only to the US, and with 20,000 new users a day that figure will reach 130 million by the end of the year.

Monitors of the internet in China have spent years honing their skills to try to block pornography and politics. A glance at Sina.com, China’s leading internet portal, provides a measure of their success. A popular section entitled “body photographs” and displaying hundreds of images of the naked female form disappeared recently. Yet, many more nudes are still to be found by a quick click on bulletin boards.

Politics is of little interest to most Chinese, particularly the younger generation who are the most avid users of the internet, the internet expert said.

It is censoring of political references, most recently by Google to conform to Chinese regulations, that has sparked outrage in America. A search for Tiananmen Square on Google.com brings up images of a lone man standing in front of a tank during the army crackdown s on June 4, 1989. Click on the newly opened Google.cn and pictures appear of smiling tourists. Nevertheless, a recent survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences found that the internet was already becoming an important political instrument. “The internet has become a prominent forum where the public can make its opinions known to the government,” the report said. “It is undeniable that the internet is building a bridge between the governing and the governed.”

The survey concludes that as the Internet becomes more popular so its impact on politics will become stronger.

Times Recommends

• Rio Tinto four held as China prepares case
• Diplomats must keep heads down and trousers up
• When in Rome should one make like Berlusconi?