The information society in China

It’s funny how things happen to fall into your lap at just the right moment. Here I am pondering the nature of the information society, wondering what are the characteristics of an information society and when can we say that we have, or that someone has joined, an information society, when this story of internet use in China (more here, too) pops up. Basically, what happened is that a journalist in China, that does its best to control and filter Internet access, sent out a message about restrictions about to be imposed on a group of editors just prior to a meeting where these restrictions were to be announced. The message proliferated over the Internet so that, eventually, everyone knew what was about to happen before it was announced. The authorities ended up reversing their decision. The questions that arise in my mind are, can a country that tries to control access to the Internet be considered fully integrated with the information society (i.e. is the information society by necessity a democratic society)? And, can a domestic power ever fully control access to the Internet or are they just delaying the inevitable (i.e. integration into the democratic information society)?