Information/Technology - 56. page

According to an article in Xinhua, China faces a labor shortage of tens of millions of high tech workers while its college graduates are struggling to find a job. The article stated that in Sichuan Province there are only 6.8 million technical workers and only 1 million of them are high tech workers. In the Hangzhou labor market, 71.4 percent of the companies lack high tech workers. In Tianjin, the ratio of the demand for high tech workers to the supply is 10:1. The statistics also indicate that, due to workers’ low skill level, Chinese labor productivity is only at 40 percent of the world’s average or 7.4 percent of the rate in the U.S. The article pointed out that this is one of the main reasons that China is a giant but not strong.

Source: Xinhua, April 17, 2017
http://education.news.cn/2017-04/17/c_129542053_2.htm

In January 2017, China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a document about monitoring the grey area of using a virtual private network (VPN) to break China’s “firewall.” On March 27, China’s Chongqing Municipality re-issued a revised version of the “Guidance for Administrative Punishment for Chongqing Public Security’s Internet Supervision.” The revised document stipulates that anyone falling within the jurisdiction of Chongqing who uses tools to break the information firewall of the Chinese authorities to visit websites outside the wall may be fined.” Those whose acts are deemed to have constituted a crime shall be held for having criminal responsibility.”

For mainland Internet users, the VPN is no stranger. It is seen as an effective tool to break the firewall in China, making the visit to the outside world over the wall simple and inexpensive.

Source: Duowei, March 28, 2017
http://china.dwnews.com/news/2017-03-28/59807821.html

BBC Chinese recently reported that China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology just revealed a one year plan to crack down on “illegal” Internet provider services. The Ministry issued a nationwide memo to identify and remove unlicensed or multi-level leased VPN services, regardless of whether the method was self-established or via leased lines. VPN stands for Virtual Private Network, which is a technology that establishes a virtual “direct connection” between two computers based on encryption. This structure is widely used in countries with Internet censorship to bypass government monitoring. Many Chinese netizens use VPN to visit websites that the Chinese Great Firewall bans, such as Facebook and Twitter. The Chinese government’s latest move was conducted in the name of cracking down on “inappropriate content.”

Source: BBC Chinese, January 23, 2017
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-38714639

Well-known Taiwanese technology news site IT Home recently reported that Facebook is quietly developing content filtering technology to comply with China’s censorship requirements. According to anonymous sources inside Facebook, this initiative has strong support and supervision from CEO Mark Zuckerberg. The new technology was constructed in exchange for being given permission to enter the Chinese market. However early signs show that the mechanism was designed in such a way that it will be operated by a third-party partner rather than by Facebook itself. China’s Facebook is currently blocked by China’s “Great Firewall.” The spokesperson for the company commented that Facebook has always been interested in the Chinese market, which has a population of 1.4 billion. Many observers in the industry expressed their concern over how many of its principles Facebook is willing to give up.

Source: IT Home, November 23, 2016
http://www.ithome.com.tw/news/109764

BBC Chinese recently reported that more than 40 international trade associations and groups wrote a letter to the Chinese authority objecting to China’s newly passed Internet Security Act, which will take effect next June 1. These groups represent hundreds of global companies and technology organizations. The new Internet law prohibits anyone from posting content on China’s Internet that may “undermine national unity, disrupt the economic order or attempt to overthrow the socialist system.” The law also requires “key information infrastructure” service providers to store personal information and critical business data inside China. The providers are mandated to provide “technical support” to national security agencies and to pass national security reviews. The letter indicated that the new law will increase the cost of services and will damage the international companies’ partnership with China. Chinese officials said the law “won’t interfere with foreign commercial interests.” The letter, however, has the signatures of representatives of many key organizations, such as the Information Technology Industry Association, The Internet Society, the American Chamber of Commerce, the Australian Industry Group, and Business Europe.

Source: BBC Chinese, November 11, 2016
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/world/2016/11/161111_china_cyber_law_reactions