In an otherwise nondescript room, Wu Jianping stands before a giant wall of frosted glass. He toggles a switch and the glass turns transparent, looking down on a network operations centre full of large computer displays. They show maps of China and the world, pinpointing China?s IPv6 links, the next generation of the internet.
China already has almost twice the number of internet users as in the US, and Dr Wu, a computer scientist and director of the Chinese Educational and Research Network, points out that his nation is moving more quickly than any other in the world to deploy the new protocol.
IPv6 ? Internet Protocol version 6 ? offers advanced security and privacy options, but more important, many more IP addresses, whose supply on the present internet (IPv4) is almost exhausted.
?China must move to IPv6,? Wu said. ?In the US, some people don?t believe it?s urgent, but we believe so.?
If the future of the internet is already in China, is the future of computing there as well? Many experts in the US say it could very well be. Because of the ready availability of low-cost labour, China has already become the world?s dominant maker of computers and consumer electronics products. Now, these experts say, its booming economy and growing tech infrastructure may thrust it to the forefront of the next generation of computing.