China's population of Internet users has surpassed 100 million, the government said Tuesday.

China already has the world's second-largest population of people online after the United States, which has 135 million.

The latest Chinese figure was announced by Xi Guohua, an official with the Ministry of Information Industry, according to the official Xinhua News Agency.

Last week, China's government threatened to shut down Web sites that fail to register with regulators in a new campaign to tighten controls on what the public can see online.

China's communist government promotes Internet use for education and business but also tries to block its public from seeing material deemed pornographic or subversive.

Authorities also are trying to tighten controls on what children can see online.
 
Source: Associated Press

China makes 90 percent of the DVD machines sold worldwide now, and the country produced 92 million players and recorders last year -- an 8 percent increase from 2003, the media firm Global Sources said Friday in a new industry report.

The company said Taiwanese firms are the leading makers of DVD recorders, producing more than 3 million of the machines last year. But most of the Taiwanese firms manufacture in China, the report said.

"Mainland China's DVD player industry produces nine out of 10 DVD players sold worldwide today," said the report's publisher, Mark Saunderson. "Due to competition and falling prices, the industry has shrunk to approximately 150 makers from more than 400 makers a year ago."

Global Sources operates an online business-to-business market for import and export traders.

Source: Associated Press