Information/Technology - 78. page

According to a report released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS), the users of Chinese social media continue to increase, while the number of social media is going through adjustment. “In 2010, the number of users of Chinese social media websites reached 235 million, an increase of 60 million over 2009. Current usage exceeds 50%; half of Chinese Internet users use social media. The U.S. Facebook has become the No. 1 global social media. While there are advantages for news reporting and social mobilization on social media websites, social media presents serious challenges to national security and citizen’s privacy.”

Source: People’s Daily, July 12, 2011
http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/1026/15135876.html

China’s Ministry of Land and Resources released new regulations applying to foreigners who conduct cartographic activities in the country. Foreign cartographic work can only take two forms: a joint venture with a domestic company or a one-time job such as cartography preparing for state-approved events. Foreigners are forbidden from performing activities such as geodetic surveys, aerophotographical surveys, administrative district boundary surveys, hydrographic surveys, topographic mapping, world and national administrative mapping, provincial-and-below level administrative mapping, national school mapping, 3-D mapping, and electronic navigational maps. 

For Internet mapping activities, the regulation has even stricter requirements. A joint venture is a must and the foreign share must be less than half. The report mentioned that, in recent years, a great deal of national security related information has been leaked via Internet mapping.

Source: People’s Daily, June 10, 2011
http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/1026/14863757.html

China Internet Network Information Center (CINIC) recently shut down 55 websites that “engage in illegal online promotions.” The operation was based on public tip-offs sent to the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Centre (CIIRC), a self-claimed non-governmental organization that lists “receiving public reports and complaints about illegal and harmful information on the Internet within the border of China” as one of its key functions. 

On May 24, 2011, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China issued a release indicating that, from January to April, the net increase in China’s mobile phone accounts was 41.386 million, bringing the total number of mobile phone accounts to 900.389 million. Among them, 3G accounts increased by 20.521 million, reaching 67.572 million.

Source: Xinhua, May 24, 2011.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-05/24/c _121452959.htm 

BBC Chinese News reported that, on May 18, 2011, eight New York residents filed a lawsuit against the Chinese government and China’s biggest search engine vendor Baidu for blocking pro-democracy Internet content. The suit asks for US$16 million in damages. It is believed that this is the first time a lawsuit against a company has also included the Chinese government. Chinese spokesperson Jiang Yu commented on the lawsuit, saying that the Chinese government follows worldwide common rules to manage the Internet and foreign courts do not have jurisdiction over this matter. Baidu, a NASDAQ-100 index company, proactively filters “sensitive words” based on the Chinese government’s requirements. China also blocks popular websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Source: BBC Chinese, May 19, 2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/chinese_news/2011/05/110519_baidu_lawsuit.shtml

An article appearing in the news section of China.com states that the U.S. government employs technical methods to monitor and control Internet contents in the areas of child protection, national security, intellectual property, and computer security. According to the Internet Protection Act for Minors, the U.S. government exerts financial pressure on public schools and public libraries to force them all to filter their contents. The U.S. government also actively uses Internet blocking and wiretapping technologies to intercept and control international and domestic Internet communications in the name of national security. The Bush administration actively introduced laws to press content providers into cooperating. The article concludes that “the U.S. has the most perfect Internet monitoring and control system in the world.”

Source: China.com, May 1, 2011
http://news.china.com.cn/txt/2011-05/01/content_22472133.htm

On April 10, 2011, Xinhua reported  that the Xichang Satellite Launch Center located in Sichuan Province sent its eighth navigation satellite into outer space for the Chinese global positioning system. The Launch Center has conducted 10 launch missions so far this year, and demonstrated the capability of accomplishing “high intensity tasks.” The Center recently finished the reconstruction of an infrastructure completely centered on IP-based technologies (IP: Internet Protocol). The Center’s local network now supports a 100 mbps data transfer rate, and it has established a central-command-focused integrated information platform.

Source: Xinhua, April 10, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-04/10/c_121286862.htm

On April 13, 2011, the very first military biochip research center was established at the No. 211 PLA Military Hospital. Accordingly to Jia Danbin, director of the hospital, the National Development and Reform Commission through the National Engineering Research Center for Beijing Biochip Technology (NERCBBT) approved the center. It will provide patients with tests on hereditary hearing loss, anti-depressants, glyco-chains of immunoglobulin and autoimmunity, and the hepatitis B virus. It will also provide individualized molecular targeted cancer therapy plans and other research functions.

Source: Xinhua, April 13, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2011-04/13/c_13827451.htm