Information/Technology - 86. page

According to Beijing Youth Daily on February 17, 2010, the Department of Cultural Marketing, which is under the PRC Ministry of Culture, recently issued the “Department of Cultural Marketing’s Key Jobs in 2010” to each cultural marketing administrative and law enforcement division. The document lists 9 key jobs for the Department of Cultural Marketing in 2010. The development of “Online Games Regulations” and the drafting of “Mobile Phone Entertainment Regulations” are among these 9 key jobs. In addition, improviing cultural product content inspection and monitoring systems are also included as key jobs.

Source: Beijing Youth Daily, February 17, 2010
http://bjyouth.ynet.com/article.jsp?oid=63386597

On January 25, 2010, two Xinhua reporters interviewed the chief of the Beijing Municipal Population and Birth Control Commission regarding a news report on the possibility of allowing the birth of a second child in a family. The Birth Control Commission chief said that the news was unfounded. The journalist responsible for reporting the news has made an apology.

Source: Xinhua, January 25, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2010-01/25/content_12872311.htm

Global Times, under the Chinese state’s daily news Renmin, recently published an article on the Google incident. The report stated that the US State Department has been behind the scenes “throughout the event.” It is a reflection of the US strategy of promoting U.S. political, commercial, and cultural values using the U.S. Internet’s competitive advantages in technology, capital and market areas. The report calls the US strategy “coercive selling in the name of ‘universal values.’” The U.S. carefully picked the “Google excuses” of hacking and censorship. The author believed that hacking is happening every day and censorship is also present in the States, France, Germany and India, etc. The conclusion drawn by the article is that, Google is just one chess piece of US Internet hegemonism.

Source: Global Times, January 22, 2010
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/roll/2010-01/697246.html

On January 12, construction begam om Minhang, Shanghai, for a Chinese Large Aircraft Development Facility. Project completion is earmarked for 2013. The building will have 300,000 square meters, and the cost will amount to RMB 3.23 billion.  

The primary mission for this center is research and development for the production of a 150-seat passenger aircraft C919 engine. It is projected that engines for 250-seat level aircraft will also be built in the future at that facility. It was reported that China is the third country, after the U.S. and France, that has the know-how and expertise to assemble world class aircraft engines.

Source: Xinhua, January 12, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2010-01/12/content_12796745.htm

On January 14, two days after Google’s announced threat to pull out of China, the People’s Daily published an interview of Wang Cheng, the Vice Chief of the Chinese Communist Party’s Department of Publicity and Director of the State Council Information Office. 

"Capable radio and television stations must vigorously develop Internet radio and Internet TV, breaking away from the traditional mode of production, so as to gather the resources and wisdom of Internet users," said the Zhu Hong, of the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television (SARFT), on January 14. 

 Boxun reports that Google’s withdrawal was inevitable according to a Communist propaganda official.

“The Chinese officials said that Google’s withdrawal from China is a matter of time, except Google has not reached that point yet. He said that this time the so-called Google’s withdrawal from China is a bluff, so it can negotiate better terms. But this is clearly a miscalculation. The threat might have been effective a few months ago, but now it is just empty air, because the current Internet rectification is considered a matter of life and death for the Communist Party and the country. The ultimate goal is to bring search engines like Google that have such a great influence in China under control.”

Source: Boxun, January 13, 2010
http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/01/201001131208.shtml

Google said on January 12 that it may pull out of China after a “sophisticated” computer network attack against its email service originated from China. The attack, discovered in December, was against the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. Most of the attack attempts were blocked. Only two accounts were accessed. The jeopardized information was just the account information (e.g. account creation time) and emails contents were intact.

Google questioned the feasibility of continuing its business operations in China and decided that it is no longer willing to continue censoring its search results on Chinese Google sites, which was required by the Chinese government.  

"We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn our offices in China," said David Drummond, Google Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer.

Source:
1. BBC Chinese, January 13, 2010
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2010/01/100113_google_china_internet.shtml
2. Washington Post, January 12, 2010
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/01/12/AR2010011203024.html?hpid=topnews