The Chinese government has announced a wide-ranging crackdown on what it calls "the 10 Chaoses" of the internet, as figures show that China's online population reached 649 million by the end of last year.

The data means that there are twice as many Chinese netizens as there are people in the US.

The number of people accessing the internet from mobiles totalled 557 million by the end of last year, up 56.72 million year on year and accounting for 85.8 percent of the total online population, according to a report by the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC).

However, the rate of increase is slowing. According to the CNNIC data, there were 31.17 million new internet users in China last year, down from 53.58 million new users in 2013.

In 2014, Chinese netizens spent an average of 26.1 hours online per week, just over an hour more than in 2013, according to figures.

China has been cracking down on dissent, especially online dissent, which includes putting pressure on Virtual Private Networks (VPNs), or external servers, popular services that let citizens get around state censorship systems.

The latest ruling is aimed at the “10 Chaoses”, which include stopping people from using avatars and account handles, or information “that violates China’s constitution or the country’s laws, subverts state power, undermines national security and sovereignty, or is deemed rumour-mongering”.