Information/Technology – Page 53

China Conducted the First Head Transplant on Dead Bodies

Italian Neurosurgery specialist Sergio Canavero said that his team has performed the first head transplant in China by taking off the head from a dead body and connecting it to another dead body. The surgery took 18 hours and was successful.

Ren Xiaoping, a Chinese Professor at the Harbin Medical University, performed the surgery.

Canavero said earlier this year that he plans to conduct a head transplant in two years. He said this will lead to “living forever,” where people transplant their heads to younger bodies which were cloned from their original bodies.

Arthur Kaplan, a professor at New York University, who is strongly against organ harvesting, vehemently opposes this transplant practice. “The head transplant talk is like (the talks) from Mengele.” “It will be very brutal and definitely will bring disaster.”

Josef Mengele was a German Schutzstaffel officer and physician at the Auschwitz Concentration Camp during World War II. He used live humans to perform experiments to “improve the human race.”

“Canavero’s team said that the first transplant might be done using the body of a Chinese organ donor, because there is a higher chance of getting a Chinese organ donor.”

However, there have been accusations that the Chinese government conducts live organ harvesting using Falun Gong practitioners and political dissidents.

Ethan Gutmann, a human rights defender and former adjunct fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, believes that there are 500,000 to 1 million Falun Gong practitioners imprisoned in China and from 2000 to 2008, about 65,000 of them were already killed when the Chinese regime harvested their organs.

Source: BBC, November 23, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-42100245

Briefings | | November 29, 2017 | Government/Politics Information/Technology

Microsoft Skype Removed from China’s App Stores

Well-known Chinese news site Sohu recently reported that both the Apple iOS version and the Google Android version of Microsoft’s Skype app have been removed from China’s app stores. Apple’s spokesperson explained that Skype does not meet China’s local VoIP (Voice-over-IP) laws, so Apple removed the app per the Chinese government’s requirement. The Google Play Android app store does not operate in China. However, multiple Chinese run Android app stores removed Skype as well. A Microsoft spokesperson commented that the removal is temporary and Microsoft is trying to restore the app and its service as soon as possible. At this point there is no known schedule for when Skype will be made available again in China.

Source: Sohu, November 22, 2017
http://www.sohu.com/a/205778180_114760

Briefings | | November 27, 2017 | Information/Technology

BBC Chinese: China’s “Internet Czar” Lu Wei under Investigation

BBC Chinese recently reported that the Central Discipline Inspection Commission of the Communist Party detained Lu Wei, the former Deputy Minister of the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party and Director of the Office of the Central Leading Group for Cyberspace Affairs. Lu was detained for a corruption investigation. He was widely known as the Chinese “Internet Czar” and was in charge of China’s online censorship management. He initiated many critical actions to tighten up control of the Internet, such as blocking commercial websites from news editing rights, promoting self-regulation among well-known online public figures, bringing criminal charges against people who re-posted content that the government had banned, and strengthening the blockage of international websites such as Google, Twitter, and Wikipedia. Publicly Lu even refused to admit “bringing down” these international sites in China. However, while celebrating the fall of Lu, Chinese netizens remain widely concerned about China’s online censorship. Many said that this positive event may not fundamentally change China’s long-lasting censorship policies.

Source: BBC Chinese, November 22, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-42077473

Briefings | | November 22, 2017 | Information/Technology

Sinchew: China Ranked at the Bottom in an Internet Freedom Study

Singapore Chinese newspaper Sinchew recently reported that the well-known American human rights group Freedom House just released its annual global Internet freedom report. The report showed that the global degree of freedom on the internet had shown a decline for seven consecutive years. For three years in a row China was found to be the worst country in the world in terms of online information control. The Freedom House study included 65 countries, covering 87 percent of the global online population. The report pointed out that Internet information played an important role in the elections in many countries and that political messages were heavily manipulated around the world. In 2017, (this control) impacted elections in at least 18 countries. The governments of more and more countries are following China and Russia to hire online “commentators” to use the Internet to manipulate public opinion. More and more governments are quietly influencing and suppressing different opinions via social media and social discussion groups. The Freedom House study found that, among the 65 countries in the scope of its research, 30 governments implemented online information manipulation and monitoring. Some governments expanded their operations beyond their own borders.

Source: Sinchew, November 15, 2017
http://www.sinchew.com.my/node/1701486

Briefings | | November 20, 2017 | Government/Politics Information/Technology

Springer Nature Asked to Block Part of Its Contents inside China

BBC Chinese published an article which reported that Springer Nature, a scientific publishing company, {whose publications include Nature and Scientific American}, confirmed that it was asked to block part of the contents on its website inside China. This is a second incident following the same fate that the Cambridge University Press, “The China Quarterly” suffered. According to Financial Times, over 1,000 papers that Springer Nature published in two of its political research journals are “politically sensitive papers.” They are no longer accessible in China. Springer Nature called the decision deeply regretful while stressing that it was trying to meet the requirements of the Chinese authorities and follow the local legal requirements. It stated that the blocked contents only account for less than one percent of the total contents and their customers in China can still access 99 percent of the contents. It emphasized that if they did not take any action, they would face the risk of being completely blocked in China. A Hong Kong scholar told the BBC that this is part of China’s propaganda policy. Chinese authorities did an investigation ahead of time and compiled a list of contents that “incorrectly portray China” or were “unfriendly to China.” According to the Hong Kong scholar, “China has the market. It is so attractive that these publishers want to penetrate the market to win a share of the market.”

Source: BBC Chinese, November 2, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-41841836

Briefings | | November 6, 2017 | Information/Technology

Apple Watch Cellular Connection Cut in China

Well-known Chinese news site Sina recently reported that the newly released Apple Watch Series 3, which added support for the LTE cellular connection, is facing governmental challenges in China. The LTE functionality was available on China Unicom at launch. However, the Chinese government abruptly terminated the LTE access for the new Apple Watch Series 3 subscribers a few days later without explanation. Industry analysts expressed the belief that the Chinese government was concerned about the fact that it could not track who was using the new Apple Watch. Apple’s new eSIM technology used in the Watch made it very difficult to track the user’s identity and China heavily regulates the mobile communications industry. The Chinese regulator, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, didn’t respond to the media’s requests for comment. Not long-ago the Chinese government forced Apple to remove more than 400 VPN apps from the local version of its App Store. VPN technology offers a way to bypass China’s Great Firewall.

Source: Sina, October 20, 2017
http://tech.sina.com.cn/mobile/n/n/2017-10-20/doc-ifymzqpq2652918.shtml

Briefings | | October 23, 2017 | Information/Technology

WSJ Chinese: Chinese Government Trying to Gain Shares of Private High-Tech Companies

Wall Street Journal Chinese recently reported that the Chinese government is considering investing in one or two percent of the shares, called “special administrative stock” in Chinese domestic high-tech companies. Trials have started in two companies. This ownership investment is intended to acquire one or more seats on the board of privately owned large high-tech companies in order to participate in their management and operations. Over the past 20 years, Chinese high-tech companies have enjoyed massive growth and obtained significant shares in critical industries such as financial, insurance, transportation, communication and entertainment. These companies also own a large amount of data regarding the day-to-day behavior of the Chinese population. Examples of these companies are Tencent and Alibaba. Owners of these companies privately expressed their deep concerns about this potential move, since this type of government stock ownership may result in lawsuits for those companies that trade overseas. For the Chinese government, the cost is also a concern. For example, just to hold one percent of Tencent will require US$4 billion. The biggest worry among shareholders and the company owners is the potential to lose independence as well as the capability of innovating.

Source: WSJ Chinese, October 12, 2017
http://cn.wsj.com/gb/20171012/biz132448.asp

Briefings | | October 16, 2017 | Government/Politics Information/Technology

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