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By Jo Best, 26 November 2003 16:40

NEWS China's rapidly growing online community is set to get another boost following the opening of a chain of internet cafés in Beijing.

The chain got the nod from China's cultural watchdog when the government handed out licences to ten operators back in June. One of the operators, Asia United Telecom and Network Company, opened the doors to the first café in the Chinese capital.

The company behind the venture is reported to have signed a 'memorandum of understanding' with IBM to allow the two firms to gain a stranglehold in the growing internet market. IBM will bankroll the building of a huge internet café in downtown Beijing - fitted out with Big Blue's hardware, of course – which the Chinese café chain will pay back from any profits it makes from the project.

The Chinese government's decision to licence the chain came hot on the heels of the forced closure of thousands of other small internet cafés earlier this year. While it blamed the decision on several disasters at other web-enabled establishments – including a fire which killed 25 – many remain to be convinced.

A student, Liu Di, who criticised the ruling Communist party on the internet has been in jail since November last year after she took exception to the arrest and imprisonment of another dissident who had expressed his disaffection with the party over the web.