Beijing-based research firm BDA claims that China has surpassed the U.S. in the number of Internet users.

According to Nielsen/NetRatings, the States had 216 million Internet users at the end of 2007. BDA researchers claim that China had around 210 million at the same time. However, after factoring in the market growth they concluded that the Chinese Internet population has already "comfortably" surpassed the U.S.

They based their growth estimate on last year's growth rates. It turns out that the yearly growth is around 13.5 percent, with around 2.35 million Chinese hooking up to the net each month.

More here.