It also needs to do a much better job of explaining how Chinese society is structured – politically, socially and economically – so that non-Chinese nationals with an interest in the culture aren’t forced to reach their own, often incorrect, conclusions.

China’s international web presence continues to be limited by the lack of outgoing bandwidth, itself a product of the Great Firewall which in addition prevents domestic internet companies from taking advantage of global content delivery networks. The result is that Chinese video sites, web applications
and social networking are often doggedly slow to anyone outside the country.

Up until now, the Firewall, lack of outside bandwidth, and language barrier protected domestic industry by restricting access to the competition. If however, the government is really serious about a global internet presence, it will need to substantially redesign that censorship system.