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Agreed--I'd like to see some real evidence too (Chinese language is fine). As far as I can tell, this is the story: CNNIC does have a "Chinese Language Surfing" product, which enables the use of Chinese domain names, among other things. (ICANN approved non-ASCII ccTLDs late last year, but the Chinese have been using browser plugins and the like to get the same effect for years. This probably isn't the best article about it, but it was what came up when I tried to search for an article that explained it: China's New Domain Names: Lost in Translation.)

AFAICT, "Chinese Language Surfing" isn't malware--it does what it says it does. However, it does seem unusually protective of itself once installed--but not to the point that the uninstaller doesn't work. Also, while CNNIC doesn't endorse this, apparently "Chinese Language Surfing" gets automatically installed (without user consent) by other programs. This has led to some antimalware-software vendors listing it as malware. E.g., MS calls it BrowserModifier:Win32/CNNIC, and has this to say about it:

BrowserModifier:Win32/CNNIC enables Chinese keyword searching in Internet Explorer and adds support for other applications to use Chinese domain names that registered with CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center). This program is often installed as part of a shareware or freeware program, with or without user consent. BrowserModifier:Win32/CNNIC also contains a kernel driver that protects its files and registry settings from being modified or deleted. The program also includes automatic self-update functionality.

FWIW, I tried installing CNNIC's product in a virtual machine while running Sysinternals' ProcMon, and didn't spot anything super-suspicious--it did install a driver as MS said, which did seem excessive. And it did add a menu item to IE, but it didn't cause me to get any more popup ads. Seemed well-behaved, as far as I could tell (not that I spent much time with it). I then uninstalled it, and it seemed to remove itself cleanly, including the driver.

Personally, I would definitely be annoyed if it got installed without my consent, but the program itself does not meet my definition of "malware". Now if anyone has evidence that it's secretly nefarious and does more than what it claims to, please post the details.

TG should've written "The Associated Press has an article about a recent study (English PDF) released by a Chinese Internet research group that shows Google losing market share to their Chinese rival, Baidu.com. From the article: 'The survey, conducted by the Beijing-based China Internet Network Information Center, reported that Baidu.com Inc. boosted its market share in Beijing by 10.8 percentage points to 52 percent. Google Inc.'s share was at 33 percent, as the American Internet search engine kept its customer base steady while the overall market grew, said the survey, seen Tuesday on CNNIC's Web site.'" Factual analysis or results driven by self interest? Or just another interesting article posted to Slashdot with editorial opinions but no editorial checking?

The report itself has a pie chart with the following breakdown: Baidu 51.5%, Google 32.9%, Sohu 4.6%, Sino 4.0%, Yahoo 3.7%, and 3.3% other in Beijing; 43.9% Baidu vs. 38.2% in Shanghai; and 48.0% Baidu vs. 28.7% Google in Guangzhou.

However, the next page breaks down searches by category, and Baidu is only in the lead (55% vs. 15% Google) in downloadable music. In all other categories, Google is in the lead. Indeed, 60% of users who use Google primary and Baidu secondary say that the reason is Baidu's music search.

This confirms that Google is a better (more popular at least) search engine, of course, but Baidu is either better at searching Chinese music or, as another poster said, Baidu can link to MP3s without the RIAA being able to do anything about it.

They could call it google.cn...

No they couldn't. CN NIC gives out third-level domains only. Second-level domains (SLDs) of the cn TLD are fixed at one of com, net, org, gov, ac, bj, sh, tj, cg, he, sx, nm, as well as ln, jl, hl, and also the domains js, zj, ah, fj, jx, not to mention sd, ha, hb, hn, gd, don't forget gx, hi, sc, gz, yn, xz, sn, yet theres more gs, gh, nx, xj, tw, hk, or mo.

These regional domains where originally intended to provide censorship of finer granularity, as to match the legislation or lack thereof in specific providences of China.

As of September 2nd 2002, the United States Internet surpasses the China Internet by a tenfold. Rebuild China Internet today.

My personal site does have some political content (not too much) that China's Government would surely find objectionable. No one from China has accessed my site. However, my site is small and gets very little non-US traffic to start with. I'd be interested (as I'm sure China also would be) in finding out how many of slashdot readers websites are getting traffic from China, and whether or not they have content China would rather not have it's citizens have access to.

The Chinese version of Network Solutions, CNNIC, would be more than happy to help you track users on your .cn site
Short Quote from page:
The third party web site traffic audit of CNNIC can collect data from the under-investigated web sites in a long term and possible for long term save of data.

I'm finding some interesting statistics on internet use in China from the CNNIC Working Committee's (don't you love that title?) Jan, 2000 report on internet usage.

China has 8+ million internet users, 20% leased line and 80% dialup. There are a full 36 million email addresses. Usage is concentrated in cities, especially Beijing (no suprise here). Interesting though is that usage is not concentrated at the high end of the income bracket as one would expect, but disproportionately toward the low end. The highest percentage of users (36%) make only between 1001-2000 RMB monthly, and the second largest (29%) only 500-1000 RMB per month. These users are also paying 100-200 per month for internet access!

CNNIC is China's version of the Internic. Linked to it is a list of Chinese ISP's (well, telecoms actually) one could host.

HKNIC is the Hong Kong equivalent.

Who wants to be first to try this? (BTW, I checked. mp3.cn and mp3.hk are still available.)