Computers and politics in China

Computers in the People's Republic of China can be described solely in terms of their size, operating speed, and other tech nical characteristics which allow easy comparison with computers throughout the world . These examples indicate that this is a particularly narrow perspective for understanding computers and computing policy in China. In this article I have attempted to cull from various sources the available technical details about computing in China . But I have attempted as well to express some of the political and social issues which are salient to a discussion of computers in that vast country . I believe that computing in China is revealing about larger issues in their society and that an understanding of Chinese priorities can teach us as much about ourselves as about the Chinese .