China selected its top 10 Internet-related events and publicized the list on Monday, disclosing that the number of Chinese netizens has now exceeded 200 million.

The Internet Society of China and Internet News Research Center sponsored the selection with the guidance of the Information Office of the State Council.

The top event: "the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) has proposed new requirements for Internet construction and management."

On Jan. 23 the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee held a group study on the World Internet technology development and China's Internet culture construction and management. General Secretary of CPC Central Committee Hu Jintao stressed building, using and administrating the Internet.

The political report at the 17th National Congress of the CPC said Internet culture construction and management should be strengthened and an excellent Internet environment should be built.

The second event on the list was the national Internet culture construction and management work conference, held from June 3 to 4, 2007.

The third event: websites for the first time broadcast the CPC's five-yearly national congress.

The fourth event: by December 2007, the number of Chinese netizens had reached 210 million, 73 million more than that at the end of 2006.

The fifth event: ten governmental departments jointly cracked down on online spread of pornography. A batch of criminal suspects was arrested.

The sixth event: the Internet Society of China opened an anti-spam processing platform (iscbl.anti-spam.cn).

The seventh event: the Internet Society of China released a "self-discipline code for blog services", as China had more than 70 million blogs at that time. The code, first of its kind in China, will play a significant role for blog development in China.

Other significant events included: the country's 188 websites jointly launched an online product contest; one million university students heard expert's lectures online synchronously; and finally, 11 Chinese major websites opened online classroom for various topics. By December 2007, more than 330 lectures had been given and more than 100 million netizens had attended an online classroom.

(Xinhua News Agency January 15, 2008)