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The Internet Society of China says the number of Chinese bloggers has swelled from 47 million at the end of November 2007 to more than 50 million by the end of 2008, a 6.38 percent increase.

In March of 2008 China's online population surpassed that of the U.S. with 220 million Internet users. Figures from December 2008 show that China now has 290 million Internet users.

Gao Lulin, the Internet Society of China's deputy head, said China recorded the first blog in August of 2002. "More and more Chinese want to express their own views about local and international events through the Internet," said Lulin.

The group said there are now more than 100 million blogs in China with many people writing multiple blogs. The group did not say how it tracks the number of blogs or bloggers.

The Communist Chinese government carefully monitors blogs and requires bloggers to register using their real names.

The population in China continues to increase and it now has more than 1.3 billion citizens.