China's number of Internet users rises to 450 million _ more than one-third of its population

China's number of Internet users — already the world's largest — rose to 450 million this year, more than a third of the country's population, a senior official said Thursday.

Official statistics show that the number of users, as of the end of November, is an increase of 20.3 percent compared to last year, Wang Chen, head of China's State Council Information Office, told a news conference. China's population is more than 1.3 billion.