"The history of China's internet development will remember this day: April 20, 1994." Thirty years later, Ning Yutian, the inaugural director of the Computer Network Information Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Network Center), still vividly recalls that special day.
On that day, a 64Kbps international line successfully connected to the network center, achieving full access to the international internet for China. This marked the beginning of the internet era in China, heralding a new digital age opening its doors to people.
Ning Yutian (second from the right) and Qian Hualin (first from the right) discuss the construction issues of NCFC.
In September 2007, in Potsdam, Germany, Hu Qiheng (front row, second from the left) posed for a photo with some experts who had been involved in promoting the Internet's entry into China.
NCFC Data Center.
The first domestically developed router in China.
The first .CN domain name server in China.
The bronze plaque in front of Building 2 of the Network Center - Birthplace of the Chinese Internet.
Demand Driving
The birth of the international Internet was driven by two factors: the need in politics and military affairs, and the demand for international transmission of massive data generated by large scientific facilities.
To establish a U.S. combat command system capable of withstanding nuclear strikes, the Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) of the U.S. Department of Defense built the ARPANet covering the entire United States in the 1960s. In the 1980s, countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, and France all created their own computer networks, and many key and foundational standards of the Internet were established during this period.
In the field of scientific research, the rise of large-scale scientific projects represented by particle physics and aerospace technology further stimulated strong demand for international cooperation and resource sharing. In 1985, the National Science Foundation (NSF) of the United States established NSFNet to replace ARPANet, becoming the backbone of the Internet at that time.
The earliest demand for Internet application in China also came from the field of science and education. The rapid development of science and the increasingly frequent academic exchanges made the need for networking among Chinese scientists more urgent.
"Researchers would write their research results into preprints and send them to foreign counterparts, and foreign scientists would also send preprints to Chinese scholars. International mail often took months, and by the time researchers saw the papers, the results had been published half a year ago," explained Qian Hualin, Deputy Director of the Tenth Division of the Institute of Computing Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (hereinafter referred to as the Institute of Computing Technology). "With the help of the Internet, scientists can greatly improve the efficiency of publishing papers and accelerate the pace of outputting results."
By the late 1980s, some Chinese scientists had established communication connections with foreign research institutions. Researchers from the Institute of High Energy Physics of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Institute of Computer Application Technology of Beijing had contacted foreign counterparts for sharing scientific data and computing resources via email. At that time, it was limited to sending and receiving emails, and the network could be disconnected at any time.
Opportunities Arise
With the increasingly urgent demand for high-speed computing in domestic universities and research institutes, in 1989, the State Planning Commission at the time included support for the construction of network and computing centers in the "Key Discipline Development Project," envisioning the construction of three local area networks in the Zhongguancun area of Beijing, namely Tsinghua University, Peking University, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences Zhongguancun area institutes. Then, through several nodes, they would be connected to form a high-speed computer communication backbone network and establish a network control center and computer host system.
"If this system is built, on the one hand, scientists can share supercomputers and information resources in their own laboratories, and on the other hand, it can also demonstrate the development of computer network technology in China," said Qian Hualin.
The project was called NCFC (Zhongguancun Area Education and Research Demonstration Network), and the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Tsinghua University, and Peking University were organized by the State Planning Commission to bid and determine the implementing units.
Upon receiving this news, Ning Yutian, then Deputy Director of the Bureau of Technical Sciences and Development of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, immediately reported to the leadership of the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"The leaders of the academy were very knowledgeable about the forefront of science and very sensitive to high-tech. They realized the importance and tremendous potential of the network at that time," Ning Yutian said.
After the report was submitted, approval was quickly obtained. Zhou Guangzhao, then President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, clearly stated: "This matter must be handled well."
0.7 Points Ahead
On June 26, 1989, the Chinese Academy of Sciences organized a bid team for the NCFC project, consisting of computer and network experts from the Institute of Computing Technology, Computing Center (established in 1977, later merged into the Network Center), Institute of Software, Institute of Automation, and Institute of Electronics, among others, to collectively draft the bid document.
"At that time, the competition was very fierce. After rigorous evaluation by a panel of 21 experts, the Chinese Academy of Sciences' proposal was only 0.7 points higher than the second place," said Ning Yutian. "To be honest, the other bidding units were also strong, and each expert was excellent, but our proposal was overall better."
In the end, the Chinese Academy of Sciences won and took charge of the NCFC project.
The NCFC project involved multiple institutions and a large number of resources, posing great difficulties in organization and coordination. On May 15, 1990, the Computer Network Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences (later merged into the Network Center) was established, attached to the Computing Center, and mobilized strengths from various research institutes to form a task force. Ning Yutian served as the director, Ma Yinglin, a researcher at the Institute of Computing Technology, served as the chief engineer, and Qian Hualin and Su Zhenze, researchers at the Institute of Computing Technology, served as deputy chief engineers, leading the formation of the core team.
For the convenience of implementation, a management committee was established by the project team, with Hu Qiheng, then Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, as the director of the management committee, and members consisting of relevant leaders from the State Planning Commission, the Ministry of Education, the State Science and Technology Commission, the National Natural Science Foundation of China, Tsinghua University, Peking University, and other units.
In November of the same year, the State Planning Commission approved the NCFC project.
Prototype Gradually Takes Shape
The primary task of NCFC was to build three local area networks and then connect them into a backbone network. During the project implementation, a unified protocol had to be used for connecting to the backbone network. At that time, there were X.25 protocol, DECnet protocol, and X.400 protocol for networking domestically. The local area networks established by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peking University, and Tsinghua University also used different transmission protocols.
There was some controversy within the NCFC management committee about which standard to adopt for connecting the backbone network internally. At that time, there was no unified network protocol in the world, such as OSI in Europe and TCP/IP being developed in the United States.
Through literature review, practical verification, and detailed discussions, experts of the NCFC management committee ultimately considered the TCP/IP protocol to be more advantageous and decided to adopt it. "Now it seems that decision was absolutely right," Ning Yutian said. "The TCP/IP protocol later became the international standard for the Internet, ensuring we stayed on the right track with our technology roadmap."
After resolving the transmission protocol issue, the challenge of "broadcast storms" emerged. This refers to a situation where broadcasts are excessively replicated within a network due to design and connectivity issues, consuming bandwidth and causing network performance degradation or even paralysis. Since it was difficult to purchase routers from abroad at the time, the project team decided to experiment with connecting using "bridges" while simultaneously working on developing routers.
Qian Hualin, along with his student, the young engineer Li Jun (who later became the third director of the Network Center), utilized open-source RIP routing protocol software brought back from international academic conferences. After digestion, absorption, and overcoming challenges, they assembled the first domestically developed and operational router using a desktop computer (PC) with four network cards installed and modified software.
This marked China's first domestically developed and operational router. Subsequently, during the trial operation of the NCFC backbone network, over 30 PC routers were used throughout the network.
In the network connectivity experiments, from software to hardware devices, virtually everything had to be built from scratch. Even obtaining a single optical fiber took half a year at the time. It took six months for the project team to connect the Institute of Computing Technology's south and north buildings using Ethernet for experiments.
For underground fiber optic connections in the backbone network, approval from the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications was required, and then the process had to go through the Beijing Haidian District Post and Telecommunications Bureau. During the connection with Tsinghua University, several hundred meters of optical fiber conduits were already occupied. Since laying new conduits was impractical, after much discussion, experts decided to use overhead optical cables for the connection. However, imported optical fibers were expensive, and overhead cables were susceptible to damage. As a result, project researchers had to take on the role of "night watchmen," patrolling along the fiber optic routes every night.
With everyone's collective efforts, in December 1993, the NCFC project was successfully completed. High-speed optical cables and routers interconnected three university networks, forming the prototype of the Chinese Internet.
Breaking through barriers
Another important task of the NCFC project was to equip supercomputers as shared network resources. However, achieving this task faced significant obstacles because at that time, the Coordinating Committee for Multilateral Export Controls (COCOM) refused to export supercomputers to China.
The NCFC management committee brainstormed and decided to seize this opportunity to attempt international networking.
"This not only aligns with the development direction of computer science but also meets the needs of universities and research institutes for international cooperation," Ning Yutian said. "However, the process of networking was far from smooth, one might say it was fraught with difficulties."
In fact, when this decision was made, researchers faced immense pressure. At that time, there were no assessment indicators for accessing the international Internet in the NCFC project task list, and the country did not have such requirements for the project team.
"This was an optional topic, or one could say it was a voluntary action by the NCFC management committee," Ning Yutian recalled. "We faced multiple obstacles, including policy, technology, funding, and equipment."
At that time, China's domestic telecommunications regulations stipulated that foreign connections must be dedicated lines, and for the Chinese Academy of Sciences to achieve resource sharing through this line, it had to bear the expensive cost of dedicated lines. Moreover, many advanced equipment and technologies were not readily available even with money.
More crucially, the United States was concerned that China's access to the international Internet would pose a "security threat" to the United States.
By the end of 1993, all technical issues regarding China's access to the international Internet had been resolved, yet the network remained inaccessible. At an international conference, a U.S. expert explicitly told Chinese experts that China could not connect to the Internet due to "barriers beyond technology."
To gain access to the international Internet, efforts were made from scientific management, influential scientists internationally, to members of the NCFC project team. Hu Qiheng, Shi Changxu, Chen Jia'er, Qian Hualin, and others lobbied for this at various international conferences. "In fact, scientists strongly supported China's access to the Internet. At the time, there were American counterparts who expressed that as long as the government didn't oppose it, it would be fine," Ning Yutian said.
In early April 1994, Hu Qiheng went to the United States for a meeting and specifically visited the person in charge of the NSF responsible for the Internet, explaining the nature of the NCFC and the purpose of networking.
Ultimately, both sides reached a consensus, and the United States agreed to China's access to the backbone of the international Internet.
Hu Qiheng once made a brilliant statement when reviewing this history: "China's Internet did not emerge out of thin air, but rather from the twists and turns of a narrow path."
A historic moment
In the late night of April 19, 1994, Li Jun was on duty in the NCFC control room. Without any warning, he suddenly discovered that they were connected to the international Internet.
"Suddenly, we were online and could see things on the U.S. Internet. The excitement was beyond words. I realized I was the first person in China to access the international Internet," Li Jun recalled.
Because it was late at night, Li Jun did not immediately share this "big news" with others. Like a child stumbling upon a mysterious garden, he wanted to "play" alone for a while first.
The next day, when everyone heard the news that they could access the international Internet, they were all excited. April 20, 1994, was officially designated as the commemoration day for China's full access to the international Internet.
"China was formally recognized internationally from then on and became the 77th member of the international Internet family," said Li Jianhui, director of the Technology Cloud Operation and Development Department of the Network Center. "This was a landmark event, and this day should indeed be remembered."
"The full access to the international Internet was the result of the joint efforts and solidarity of Chinese government departments, research institutions, and international friends under the backdrop of reform and opening up. Many national leaders and institute leaders have given instructions on this matter," Ning Yutian said. "This event was also rated as one of the top ten scientific news events in China that year." 7. Domain Name Repatriation
Even after full access to the international Internet, China's national domain (.CN) continued to operate overseas. Sending emails from abroad to China was very difficult, and communication could only be done via IP addresses.
"As a crucial part of the Internet infrastructure, the domain name system is the cornerstone and 'navigation system' that supports the operation of the global Internet, serving as the primary gateway for all applications," stated Mao Wei, Director of the Internet Domain Name System National Engineering Research Center.
In 1990, Professor Wang Yunfeng from the Beijing Institute of Computer Application Technology negotiated with Professor Carlsson from the University of Karlsruhe in Germany to address the issue of .CN domain names. With Carlsson's assistance, the registration of the .CN domain was successful, and Qian Tianbai from the Beijing Institute of Computer Application Technology was registered as the administrative contact, with the domain servers temporarily managed by the University of Karlsruhe.
During the early stages of the NCFC project, Qian Hualin and others began planning the construction of the domain name system. After obtaining approval from the Asia Pacific Network Information Center (APNIC) and authorization from the Chinese government, they discovered that the .CN domain had already been registered by Qian Tianbai.
Hu Qiheng, as the Director of the NCFC Management Committee, immediately invited Qian Tianbai to participate in the NCFC project and held several meetings with Carlsson to discuss the repatriation of domain names to China.
Following China's full access to the Internet, the pace of domain name system construction accelerated. On May 21, 1994, with the assistance of Qian Tianbai and Carlsson, the Computer Network Center of the Chinese Academy of Sciences was established and began managing and operating the .CN domain name server. Qian Tianbai and Qian Hualin respectively served as the administrative and technical contacts for the Chinese .CN domain, ending the historical practice of China's national domain servers being located abroad.
On May 30, 1997, the Office of the Leading Group for Informatization Work of the State Council officially issued a document, entrusting the Network Center to establish and manage the China Internet Network Information Center, responsible for the registration and management of .CN top-level domain names.
According to statistics released by the China Internet Network Information Center, as of December 2023, the number of Chinese internet users reached 1.092 billion, with an internet penetration rate of 77.5%. The internet plays an increasingly important role in accelerating the advancement of new industrialization, developing new productive forces, and promoting economic and social development.
From 64Kbps access rates to households now starting at 100Mbps and research institutions at 10Gbps connections, the achievements of the Chinese internet over the past 30 years have exceeded Ning Yutian's expectations.
"Our initial goal was to facilitate research, but no one could have predicted that the internet would permeate every aspect of our lives today," remarked Ning Yutian.
"In the previous industrial revolutions, we missed out, but in this wave of the internet, China and the world 'started' together," said Li Jianhui. "From this perspective, we are very fortunate that China's full access to the internet happened 'right on time'. This fortune is the result of the Chinese Academy of Sciences organizing various research institutions to collaborate and fully leverage their institutionalized research advantages in response to the country's major needs."
From portal websites, instant messaging, e-commerce, and social networks to mobile payments, the Internet of Things, human-computer integration, and the interconnection of all things... The 30 years of the Chinese internet have been a journey from tracking, learning, and imitating to independent innovation. Today, in many industries and application scenarios, China is creating more and more innovations. All of this began with the early exploration, trial and error, leadership, and demonstration by experts in computer and network sciences at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
Li Jianhui added, "The 'hundred institutions networking' initiative, domain name management, computational grids, IPv6 technology promoted by the Chinese Academy of Sciences later on, the attempts to promote the informatization of scientific research and management, have accumulated valuable experience in the field of the internet. This experience has played an important exemplary role in the development of internet-related technologies and applications in other fields and has provided customized services and basic guarantees for frontier research."
