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BBC Chinese: Chinese Official Media Gaining Ground on Facebook

BBC Chinese recently reported that official Chinese media channels such as the People’s Daily (newspaper) and CCTV (Chinese Central Television) are gaining popularity on the English Facebook platform. People’s Daily enjoys 18,923,312 followers, surpassing the New York Times. And CCTV has 25,838,015 followers, surpassing CNN. Most of the posts by these two channels are related to Chinese sightseeing, panda pictures and cultural reports. Sometimes there could be some news regarding South China Sea events and the U.S. Presidential Election. The front page stories these two carry in China never appear on Facebook. In the meantime, western studies raised some doubts. For example, a quarter of the People’s Daily followers were from India and Pakistan, as well as 12 million followers from Myanmar, which is one sixth of that country’s population. Facebook is blocked in China, so no Chinese domestic netizens can even read Facebook – very few can bypass the Great Firewall.
Source: BBC Chinese, May 18, 2016
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/china/2016/05/160518_china_state_media_facebook
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Guangming Daily: China to Regulate Personal Information Collection and Safety Management

Guangming Daily carried an article that pointed out that the personal information safety violations of Chinese online users are very serious. The China National Information Technology Standardization Committee recently held a conference in which it disclosed that the committee plans to issue guidelines to standardize the personal information collection process. In particular, proper guidelines will be provided for businesses to collect customer information as well as for information management. According to a 2015 Investigation of Online Users Personal Information Safety Report, 63.4 percent of the telephone communication and online purchase information as well as 78.2 percent of the personal identification information including name, home address, personal ID number and employer information of the online users has previously been leaked.

Source: Guangming Daily, May 8, 2016

http://politics.gmw.cn/2016-05/08/content_19996534.htm 

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Apple Closed Down Chinese iTunes and iBooks Stores

Well-known Chinese IT news site ITHome reported on April 22 that Apple closed down Mainland China region’s iTunes Store and iBooks Store. Devices in that region lost all of the related services. The reopen date is currently uncertain. According to undisclosed sources, the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SAPPRFT) shut down  the two Stores. The SAPPRFT required Apple to review its Store content and to establish content monitoring mechanisms. Not long ago the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) and the SAPPRFT jointly released Administrative Regulations on Internet Publishing Services, which went in effect on March 10. The Regulations included Internet music and movies in its scope. The Regulations required that content served in China must locate servers and storage inside China and the legal representative of the service provider company must be a Chinese citizen who is also a permanent Chinese resident. Companies registered as fully or partially owned by foreign investors are not allowed in the Chinese Internet publishing market. The Regulations did leave some room for exceptions after review and approval by the SAPPRFT.
Source: ITHome, April 22, 2016
http://www.ithome.com/html/iphone/220056.htm
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The State Council Led the Effort to Regulate Internet Finance

Well-known Chinese news site Sohu recently reported that the Chinese State Council organized a conference, which ncluded 14 cabinet-level ministries and commissions, to kick off a one-year long “clean-up” operation to deal with the chaotic Internet based finance market. The Chinese online Peer-to-Peer (P2P) finance market has recently been booming. Small but high volume personal loans and transactions have been spreading widely across the Chinese Internet like wild fire. However, in the past five years, 1,523 out of 3,984 online financial service platforms went bankrupt or simply disappeared. This resulted in significant risks in the financial market as well as increased tension in society. In recent months, several multi-billion-dollar level online P2P platforms have been investigated and ceased operation. Those investigated covered the markets of online investment management, loans, payments, consumer financing, mutual fund sales, trust management, and online advertising. 
Source: Sohu, April 17, 2016
http://news.sohu.com/20160417/n444534662.shtml
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China Plans to Require International Companies to Register Domain Names in China

The well-known new Chinese news site The Paper recently reported that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has released a draft of the amended Internet Domain Name Regulations to the public for comments. Article 37 of the new Regulations caused considerable controversy. It requires the Chinese authorities to service and administer domain names (such as Microsoft.com) that connect to the Internet from within China. If they do not, Chinese Internet Service Providers (ISPs) are prohibited from connecting the domain owner’s computers to the internet. In addition, according to earlier business regulations, all companies conducting business in China must locate server and storage computers in China. In theory, under the new Regulations, international companies such as Apple and Microsoft will have to move their domain names to China to continue doing business in China. China started its amendment work on the Internet Domain Name Regulations in 2013, hoping to strengthen Internet administration, resource management, and “purify” the Internet environment. Chinese technical experts contend that China’s domain administration lacks the level of security protection that matches the current standard that the major foreign providers offer. 
Source: The Paper, march 29, 2016
http://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1449565
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Liu Yunshan Met Zuckerberg

Liu Yunshan, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee and of the Secretariat of the CCP Central Committee, met with Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook, in Beijing on March 19, 2016. Liu is the top CCP official in charge of propaganda. 


Liu said that the Internet is the new home that mankind shares. It is the common responsibility for the international community to build a ‘community that will share the future’ in cyberspace.  Liu pointed out that President Xi’s four-point principles and five-point proposals on global Internet governance have won much popularity. 

Liu said that after over 20-years of development, China’s Internet industry, has blazed a path of development and governance with Chinese characteristics. He hoped that Facebook, with its advanced technology and governance mode, would work with Chinese Internet enterprises to enhance exchanges, share experiences, promote mutual understanding, and push for an outcome for the Internet’s development that would improve the benefits for the people of all countries. 

Source: Xinhua, March 19, 2016 
http://big5.news.cn/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2016-03/19/c_1118382522.htm
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Xinhua: China Plans to Build Several National Labs

Xinhua recently reported that China is actively planning to build several national labs in some areas of key innovation. This is considered a major change in the Chinese national science research structure. The Chinese Academy of Science just hosted a forum with well-known national lab managers from the U.S., Germany, Britain, Switzerland, Italy, Japan, and Singapore. China’s plan is to concentrate the nation’s talent in the establishment of a series of cross-field and integrated research bases, which are aligned with China’s national goals and strategic needs. The large-scale and comprehensive national labs are first set to establish the Comprehensive Experimental Device in Extreme Conditions, Advanced Light Sources, and the Digital Earth Simulation System. The planned national labs will also cover the research areas of clean energy, materials genome, environmental science, brain science, accelerators and X-ray technologies. The mission of the labs is to address science and technology related needs that may impact national security or national economic and social development.
Source: Xinhua, February 2, 2016
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2016-02/02/c_128696147.htm
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Police Close Down Chinese Company’s Booth at CES

Well-known Chinese technology news site Tencent News recently reported that a Chinese company named First International Trade set up a booth at the CES (International Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, where it was selling a scooter named Trotter. The Trotter was later identified as a counterfeit which replicated the well-known U.S. product that Future Motion made, called Onewheel. Future Motion founder Kyle Doerksen said the Trotter violated several Future Motion patents. His company then went through the proper legal process to obtain a Temporary Restraining Order to have the police shut down First International Trade’s booth. Future Motion discovered the Trotter last year and contacted First International Trade to request that it discontinue the Trotter. Future Motion received no response. The CES host, the Consumer Technology Association, refused to comment on this incident. It had accepted the fees that First International Trade paid and allowed the booth to be set up despite Future Motion’s before-show complaint.
Source: Tencent News, January 8, 2016
http://tech.qq.com/a/20160108/031302.htm
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