China's internet users reach record high of 1.12 billion

The number of internet users in China had reached a record high of more than 1.12 billion as of June 2025, according to a report released by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) on Monday.

The report also noted that internet penetration in China had reached 79.7 percent by June 2025.

According to the report, China has made significant strides in internet development so far in the 14th Five-Year Plan period (2021-2025). In particular, efforts to make the internet more inclusive have allowed key groups, such as the elderly and rural residents, to share in the benefits of this progress.

As of June 2025, China had 161 million internet users aged 60 and older, and 322 million of the internet users nationwide are living in rural areas. The internet penetration rates among the aged and the rural population have reached 52 percent and 69.2 percent, respectively.

"There are two main types of innovation driving this growth: age-friendly services and grassroots-level rural industries. On the one hand, mobile apps are introducing 'care modes' or 'senior modes' with larger words and simplified operations, allowing elderly users to engage in online shopping and create short videos, becoming "silver internet celebrities." On the other hand, with over 90 percent of administrative villages covered by 5G, farmers are increasingly engaging in live-streaming to sell local products and promoting 'cloud tourism' to attract visitors. Such innovations allow elderly and rural residents to truly enjoy the conveniences and benefits of the digital age," said Liu Yulin, director of the CNNIC.

Meanwhile, continued development of the internet in China has played a key role in promoting Chinese culture both domestically and internationally, the report said, citing the rising export of Chinese online literature and games, along with the growing synergy between popular web series and related tourist destinations.

China's internet users reach record high of 1.12 billion

China's internet users reach record high of 1.12 billion

China's internet users reach record high of 1.12 billion

China's internet users reach record high of 1.12 billion

China's internet users reach record high of 1.12 billion

China's internet users reach record high of 1.12 billion

The Exhibition Hall of Evidence of Crimes Committed by Unit 731 of the Japanese Imperial Army in northeast China's Harbin released on Thursday a 38-minute video of a former member of Unit 731, a notorious Japanese germ-warfare unit during World War II (WWII).

In the footage, former Unit 731 member Tsuruo Nishijima detailed how the unit used meteorological data to carry out bacterial dispersal and frostbite experiments.

The video was recorded in 1997 by Japanese scholar Fuyuko Nishisato and donated to the exhibition hall in 2019, according to the hall, which was built on the former site of the headquarters of Unit 731 in Harbin, capital city of Heilongjiang Province.

Nishijima joined Unit 731 in October 1938 and served in the unit's meteorological squad. The squad was not a simple observation section but rather an auxiliary force supporting the unit's human experiments in the field by measuring wind direction, wind speed and other conditions to ensure optimal experimental results.

Nishijima confirmed in the footage that "the meteorological squad had to be present at every field experiment." He testified to the "rainfall experiments" conducted by Unit 731, which involved aircraft releasing bacterial agents at extremely low altitudes.

At a field-testing site in Anda City, Heilongjiang, Unit 731 aircraft descended to about 50 meters above the ground and sprayed bacterial culture liquids onto "maruta" -- human test subjects -- who were tied to wooden stakes. Each experiment involved about 30 people, spaced roughly 5 meters apart. After the experiments, the victims were loaded into sealed trucks and transported back to the unit, where their symptoms and disease progression were recorded over a period of several days.

Nishijima also revealed that a Japanese military doctor once died after removing the mask and becoming infected during an experiment, indirectly proving the extreme virulence of the bacterial agents.

The video further disclosed details of the meteorological squad's involvement in frostbite experiments. To study wartime needs in frigid regions, the invading Japanese army forced the victims to expose their bodies for five to ten minutes in temperatures ranging from minus 20 to minus 35 degrees Celsius and observed their physical reactions.

"For example, during frostbite experiments, we would be sent outside to observe the weather. They wouldn't bring many people out at once, only two or three, who would be forced to take off their upper garments or all their clothes. In fact, it was already quite tough to stay out there for five to ten minutes, because it was too cold," Nishijima said.

According to the exhibition hall, Unit 731 had a separate frostbite laboratory, with Hisato Yoshimura serving as the leader of the unit's frostbite study squad from 1938 to 1945.

In a paper on frostbite published in 1941, Yoshimura recorded data from live human experiments to study the occurrence of frostbite and pathological changes in the human body under different conditions.

"This is a form from the paper. Titled 'The Severity and Process of Frostbite,' it divides frostbite into three stages. The symptoms of the first-degree frostbite are redness and swelling. Blisters appear in the second stage. And the third-degree frostbite features necrosis and ulceration. It says here that, in the third stage, from the 50th to the 60th day, toes and fingers detached. There is no doubt that these data were obtained through numerous human experiments," said Tan Tian, a researcher of the exhibition hall.

Nishijima's video, a piece of oral history from a perpetrator's perspective, further reconstructs the criminal chain of Unit 731 and once again demonstrates that the invading Japanese army's biological warfare crime was systematic and inhumane, and was an undeniable historical truth, according to the exhibition hall.

"Unit 731's frostbite experiments were essentially conducted to prevent and treat frostbite during combat in cold environments. However, for the so-called prevention and treatment of frostbite, they caused frostbite on living people for experiments and data analysis. So in nature, it still serves the purpose of war," said Jin Shicheng, director of the Department of Publicity, Education and Exhibition at the hall.

Unit 731 was a top-secret biological and chemical warfare research base established in Harbin as the nerve center for Japanese biological warfare in China and Southeast Asia during WWII.

At least 3,000 people were used for human experiments by Unit 731, and more than 300,000 people in China were killed by Japan's biological weapons.

Video offers new evidence of Japan's wartime germ-warfare crimes in northeast China