Information/Technology - 66. page

According to the China Internet Network Information Center’s annual report issued on January 16, 2014, there has been an overall decline in the use of such social media as weibo (microblogging), social media websites, and forums. In particular, the number of weibo users declined by 27.83 million users compared to the 2012 end of year statistics. The instant mobile messaging services showed an increase, reaching 532 million users. 

Established in March 2013, the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SGAPPRFT), which integrated and replaced the previous General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), is a grand central government agency overseeing the nation’s news media and all channels of broadcasting.

In October, SGAPPRFT officially recommended the 2013 News Reporters Training Materials to the nation’s media organizations. The publisher is the People’s Publishing House, the publisher of official ideology. The Training Materials, written by SGAPPRFT as preparation materials for the 2014 general examination of the nation’s news reporters and editors, is also China’s very first compendium of government-issued news media training materials. Liu Binjie, former president and Party chief of GAPP, is the editor in chief and Jiang Jianguo, Party chief of SGAPPRFT, is the deputy editor in chief.

SGAPPRFT distributed over 10,000 copies of the Training Materials to all the nation’s news organizations. It consists of four parts: training courses, news gathering and editing regulations, regulations on news organizations’ management of news gathering and editing, and exercises. It also includes six episodes of 45-minute teaching videos. The focus is on training courses and teaching videos, contents including "socialism with Chinese characteristics," "Marxist views of the news," "journalistic ethics," "regulations on news," "norms of news gathering and editing," and "prevention of false news."

On October 19, at a forum for the publication of the Training Materials, leading officials, including the deputy chief of the Party’s Central Propaganda Department, the Party chief of the All-China Journalists’ Association, the editor in chief of Guangming Daily, and vice deans of the Journalism Schools of Renmin University and Tsinghua University took the opportunity to discuss the Marxist views of news media, and ask news organizations to  attach great importance to the training and assessment of reporters, so as to "conduct a systematic political and operational education, comprehensively enhance the quality of the news gathering and editing staff, and firmly hold onto the leadership in ideological work."

Source: Guangming Daily, October 19, 2013
http://news.gmw.cn/2013-10/19/content_9220596.htm

Qiu Shi, a magazine of the CCP Central Committee, recently published an article discussing a key point the new Chinese President Xi Jinping made in a conference. Xi suggested that those who do propaganda and ideology work should shift their focus toward managing public opinion online. The article analyzed the development trend of the Internet and concluded that it fundamentally changed human society and how public opinion can be influenced. Traditional one-way communication channels like newspapers, the radio and even television are losing ground. China now has a netizen population of nearly 0.6 billion; it has 0.46 billion cellphone users and 0.3 billion microbloggers. China is becoming the largest “new media” country in the world with the “most noisy” public opinion “field.” The author emphasized the importance of the fact that the government must tightly control the online leadership position, administrative power, and the highest right to speak. If the Communist Party does not “occupy the battlefield,” then “someone else will.” The author called for establishing a talent pool to provide the government with qualified government officials and superior technical teams to deliver Internet control in a timely, deep, accurate and effective fashion.

Source: Qiu Shi, November 27, 2013
http://www.qstheory.cn/zywz/201311/t20131127_296081.htm

Recently, the 9th Scientific Journal Development Forum was held in Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province. Over 600 scholars from the domestic and foreign scientific journal industry participated in the forum.

Guangming Daily published an article summarizing the discussion on the topic of how the fact that China’s scientific journals lag behind other countries is incompatible with China’s image as a scientific and economic giant. The article said that China has the largest number of researchers who publish the second largest number of scientific papers and it also holds the third largest number of patents in the world. China has close to 5,000 scientific journals. They account for 50 percent of the total number of journals in China. Thus China ranks second in the world next to the U.S. However, only 239 or 5 percent of those journals are in English. Their quality is considered to be low and they do not have much of an impact in their respective scientific fields. The article disclosed that over 80 percent of the Chinese researchers have chosen to publish their papers in foreign journals rather than in domestic journals. It also said that China’s journal industry is behind in online and digital publishing. Currently scientific groups, research agencies, or universities publish articles, but they have a limited publication size and sales channels and can hardly compete with international publishers.

The article also reported that the General Administration of Press and Publications, Radio, Film and Television has and will continue to introduce policies to assist in the development of the scientific journal industry and to improve its international influence.

Source: Guangming Daily, November 30, 2013
http://news.gmw.cn/2013-11/30/content_9652103.htm

The China North-South Lung Cancer Summit was held in Beijing on November 15 and 16. Statistics reported at the summit show that that lung cancer has become the number one cancer in China. By 2025, it is expected that China will have 1 million lung cancer patients, which will be the highest in the world. The statistics also showed that, out of 1.1 billion cigarette smokers in the world, 350 million of those are in China. Among those who are age 15 and above, 33.5 percent are smokers. One million people in China die from cigarette related diseases every year. While, at present, this accounts for 22.7 percent of the people who die from cancer, the number is growing by 26.9 percent every year. Lung cancer is said to be the highest among male patients.

[Editor’s note: According to the World Cancer Research Fund International (WCRF), at present, Hungary has the highest rate of lung cancer per 100,000 of population, followed by French Polynesia and the United States.]
 
Source: Xinhua, November 17, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/tech/2013-11/17/c_118170600.htm
The WCRF,
http://www.wcrf.org/cancer_statistics/data_specific_cancers/lung_cancer_statistics.php

On October 14, China Daily reprinted an article first published in Beijing Youth Daily about the abuse of R&D funds. On October 11, China’s State Council of Information Office held a press conference at which Wan Gang, China’s Science and Technology Minister, stated that the “dreadful problems” with research and development funding were shocking. 

The State Internet Information Office, an agency under the State Council, recently issued a directive that demands the "rectification" of mobile news apps that "obtain Internet news illegally or conduct Internet news services illegally." It named news aggregator Zaker, which has 17.5 million users, and Chouti, which uses the slogan "Publish what shouldn’t be published," as being among those failing to comply with government guidelines.

Some of the apps provide Chinese users the news from overseas and foreign media, including those banned by the authorities, such as New York Times. The government demands all mobile news apps register with the authorities in charge of Internet information and meet the appropriate qualifications. All mobile apps stores are also forbidden to provide uploading or downloading and other services for illegal news apps.

This move comes after Chinese police conducted an intensive campaign to strike "Internet rumors." Earlier this month the Chinese Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued a judicial interpretation that the use of the Internet for slandering and defamation that leads to mass incidents causes "serious harm to the social order and the national interest," which should be characterized as a criminal offense subject to the investigation of police and prosecution by the People’s Procuratorate.

Source: BBC Chinese, September 30, 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2013/09/130930_china_news_apps_closure.shtml