HONG KONG (AFP) - It was spring 2002 when Isaac Mao, a Shanghai-based software engineer for US chipmaker Intel, first came across Internet blogs. He was immediately struck by the freedom of expression the online journals offered ordinary citizens, and with a fellow blogger from a remote part of east China’s Fujian province he set up CNBlog.org, China’s first online discussion forum about blogging technology. "We discussed how blogs may change China," Mao said in an interview. "We didn’t imagine how this would make social and even political changes to the whole Chinese community in the next five years."

In Communist Party-ruled China, the media — including the regular Internet — is tightly controlled by the government. But blogs offer a means of dodging the censors, allowing more freedom of expression and, ultimately, freedom of thought. "It’s only natural for human beings to express themselves and share their views. But the Chinese people have been repressed for so long and they have always kept silent. They couldn’t find an exit," Mao said. "They need this tool to give them the freedom to express themselves. Blogs can be a very empowering tool to them," he said.

The power of Chinese blogs was demonstrated recently by the international coverage given to a lone woman whose defiance of developers had spared her home from demolition in central China’s Chongqing city. Photographs of her house balanced precariously on a mound in the midst of a construction site were circulated all over the world after first appearing in China’s blogosphere. Bloggers manage to evade the censors by posting their comments on websites and then linking the site to many other blogs and webpages, allowing them to form a social network. "Due to political reasons from the past, Chinese people don’t like to share their viewpoints, they tend to hide themselves so they don’t trust each other. But blogs help people to trust. "They can form more trusting relationships in this way. And unlike the traditional media, this is not controlled by anyone," he said. "There is a cascade phenomenon."

Such grassroots media are fast emerging in China where the population of bloggers has surged to 20.8 million, the largest in the world, according to state press. There were only 1,000 bloggers in the country in 2002, Mao said. He said blogging had transformed community links throughout China, allowing urban bloggers to team up with surfers in the rural areas and international users to develop new technologies to get around censorship. "A lot of people only worry about how to make a living and nothing else, but blogging is a disruptive technology that helps open up people’s minds," he said.

Now making a living through blog-based advertising and other online investments, the 35-year-old advocate for grassroots power helps people create their own blogs and runs or advises several non-profit programmes in China. He also encourages web users to translate Chinese blogs into English. "It has become valuable in helping the world learn about China and vice versa, instead of just relying on traditional media," he said. "Our intention is to generate more social interaction and sharing."

He said the new media has also helped dissolve misunderstandings between citizens of China and Taiwan, considered by Beijing a renegade province. "Many Chinese and Taiwanese bloggers try to understand each other. Instead of the traditional quarrelling, this has built a new bridge between the two sides," he said. But as the number of bloggers increases, the censors are becoming more stringent. China announced last year that it will require bloggers to register with authorities under their real names to prevent people anonymously disseminating "irresponsible and untrue" information.

Mao, however, believes it is simply too late for the authorities to take control — tech-savvy online users are outsmarting them all the way. "It’s too late but they will try harder. It’s a game of cats and rats," he said. Chinese bloggers do face stiffer challenges from unexpected quarters, however: international Internet portals like Google and Yahoo! As these companies seek access to the lucrative Chinese market, they are increasingly prepared to do Beijing’s bidding in the censorship wars. Both, for instance, use sophisticated filtering technology to prevent users accessing information on issues considered politically sensitive by the Chinese government.

Such is the concern that Mao wrote an open letter to Google this year challenging it to support anti-censorship efforts. "Most of the people would compromise (with the authorities) because they are businessmen. They don’t care about universal values and human rights," he said. "Some of the top executives of international companies have said to me: don’t tell me about this. I know there’s a problem but it’s my business," he said.

Mao believes the biggest barrier to free thinking is, ultimately, self-censorship within the Chinese mind — the traditional Chinese education system that makes people reluctant to express their opinions. They are too used to being controlled, he said. "A lot of people are accustomed to one-way thinking. They don’t know how to respect diversified opinions. "People are reluctant to comment on social problems. The majority of people are still in such a thinking mode. That’s why I think blogging in China is still at a very early stage," he said.

For his part, he would seek to persuade any officials he comes across to allow more freedom of expression. "I would tell them to respect the voices of the people because one day they will change faster than you. "I think they are trying to adapt to the changes. Unfortunately the system is very authoritarian; it would be hard to do within the ruling party. I can’t see obvious change soon," he said.