The Internet hasn’t changed Chinese people’s lives?

Everyone can agree that the Internet has at least changed her life.

Reporting on CNNIC’s 20th State of the Chinese Internet Development Statistical Report (Chinese-language version downloadable at the link below), China Business News ventured that, for all its netizens, the Chinese Internet has years to go before it will change the lives of Chinese people.

The article reasons that, because Chinese Internet technology is “backwards,” it only really excels in providing amusement. While e-commerce industries, including retail, bill payment, job recruitment and travel, thrive in the US, e-commerce in China can’t compare. Consequently, the article concludes that, when it comes to effecting fundamental changes in people’s life-styles and work methods, the Chinese Internet’s influence is still insufficient.

Undoubtedly, China Business News is correct in its assertion that e-commerce in China lags behind the US. As the article mentions, e-commerce in the US finds a large consumer base at least in part because Americans can use their credit cards securely online. Restricted access to credit in China seems to play a role in stunting the growth of e-commerce.

And, in fairness, while the 162 million netizens counted by CNNIC constitute the world’s second largest Internet market, more than 85% of Chinese are not online.

Even so, the reach of the Internet is not limited to netizens. After Muzi Mei became an Internet celebrity in 2003, millions of Chinese — including those who’d never been on the Internet — learned about blogging (and possibly also about doggy style sex). When Furong Jiejie (pictured) set a new standard for self-confident — if deluded — female behavior, her example no doubt influenced girls who’d never been online, but who’d heard about Furong Jiejie, or who saw their friends imitating her. And you didn’t have to be a netizen to benefit from the refunds Procter & Gamble paid, sans waiver, to consumers of SK-II cosmetics after public outcry on the Internet.

Other examples abound: child slaves in Shanxi have been returned to their families because 400 fathers posted an open letter on Tianya.cn; visitors to the Forbidden City won’t be able to drink Starbucks coffee because Rui Chenggang criticized the store on his blog; citizens of Xiamen have won a reprieve with respect to a planned PX factory because of a protest organized and publicized using Web 2.0 applications.

That the Internet is changing Chinese people’s lives is obvious. That China Business News would deny it is curious.