“The popularity of the Internet in China has driven the explosive growth of profitable Web companies and made fortunes for some Chinese entrepreneurs despite government controls on what the public can see online. The number of mainland Internet users rose to 513 million in December, up 12 percent from a year earlier, the government-sanctioned China Internet Network Information Center said”. – AP Business Writer

Photo: Shi Yongxin, abbot of the Shaolin Temple, works on the computer April 8, 2005 in Dengfeng, Henan Province, China. (Photo by Cancan Chu/Getty Images)

Hurricanes player Xavier Numia and Black Ferns player Marcelle Parkes train in isolation at Polo Ground Park due to the coronavirus lockdown on May 06, 2020 in Wellington, New Zealand. New Zealand has been in lockdown since Thursday 26 March following tough restrictions imposed by the government to stop the spread of COVID-19 across the country. (Photo by Hagen Hopkins/Getty Images)

A winter swimmer, wearing a Santa Claus hat to celebrate the upcoming Christmas, reacts as he plays on a frozen lake at a park in Shenyang, Liaoning province, December 22, 2014. The characters on the hat read: “Shenyang Winter Swimming”. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

A young worshipper holds a lotus flower as Buddhist monks gather at Wat Arun Buddhist temple during Asaha Bucha day in Bangkok on July 20, 2024. (Photo by Chanakarn Laosarakham/AFP Photo)

One woman was pictured sitting bare foot on a pavement in Leeds in the northern English county of Yorkshire on May 30, 2021. With the sun streaming down, Brits have been taking full advantage of the three-day weekend by packing out pub gardens and lining up the beers at bars. (Photo by Nb press ltd)

Newly hired employees for Japan Airlines (JAL) attend an entrance ceremony in a hangar at Haneda Airport on April 03, 2023 in Tokyo, Japan. 2,000 new employees from 37 JAL group companies were welcomed at the event held for the first time in four years following a hiatus due to the coronavirus pandemic. (Photo by Tomohiro Ohsumi/Getty Images)

A police officer sings as a hearse drives along a street as part of a campaign sponsored by the Colombian police and a funerary home to raise awareness during the new coronavirus pandemic in Envigado, Antioquia, Colombia, on April 1, 2020. More than 20,000 cases of COVID-19 were registered in Latin America and the Caribbean by Wednesday, according to an AFP tally using information provided by national health authorities and the World Health Organization. (Photo by Joaquin Sarmiento/AFP Photo)

A demonstrator kicks a riot police vehicle during an unauthorized march called by the Chilean student federations to protest against government's education reform, in Santiago, Chile July 5, 2016. (Photo by Ivan Alvarado/Reuters)