Information/Technology - 91. page

China unveiled its fastest supercomputer yesterday, known as a petaflop. At its peak speed, it can do more than one quadrillion calculations per second.

The birth of the supercomputer, named "Tianhe," which means "Milky Way," makes China the second country, after the United States, to build a petaflop computer. This gigantic device can do as many calculations in one day as those done by an ordinary dual-core personal computer in 160 years, said Li Nan, director of the Tianhe Project Office under the National University of Defense Technology, developer of the supercomputer.

The supercomputer has many practical applications, and will be used in seismic data processing, for oil exploration, bio-medical research, development of aerospace vehicles, long-term weather and climate forecasting, financial data analysis and pollution control in the Bohai Sea area.

Source: People’s Daily, October 29, 2009
http://scitech.people.com.cn/GB/25509/10280952.html

In a keynote speech to a group of scientists, Premier Wen Jiabao said that China’s science and technology “will surely support and lead the country toward its grand goal of modernization.”

Quotations from Wen’s speech:

“History tells us that science and technology determine a nation’s prosperity and a country’s fate.”

“The world is experiencing an unprecedented financial crisis in this century. Those who can lead the technological innovation will be able to grasp the initiative in development and be the first to recover and prosper. In response to this international financial crisis, the world’s countries are competing with each other to dominate in the economy and technologies. The world will enter an unprecedented era of innovation-intensive and industrial revitalization. We must strive to grow in this competition by leaps and bounds.”

Wen stressed the research in energy, sensor network, microelectronics, optoelectronic materials, nanotechnology, life science, space and ocean exploration.

Source: Xinhua, November 3, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-11/03/content_12377681.htm

According to Study Times, news media are not only the mouthpiece of the Party but also the Party’s eyes and ears. If what media present are all good news, the CCP Central Committee will be deaf and blind.

For a long time, the opaque information has “taught” the people that the news from the government controlled media has no credibility. In many places, "maintaining social stability" equals "Maintaining stability in newspapers (or on the TV screen)." With the development and popularity of the Internet, SMS and other new communication technologies, the limits of this self-deceiving way of covering up can be seen.

Open and transparent public information can not fundamentally solve any problems, but can discover and diagnose the problems. It can also ease people’s discontent.

Source: Study Times, November 2, 2009
http://www.studytimes.com.cn/WebPage/ny1.aspx?act=0&id=3028&bid=12

Zhang Xiangmu, Director of the Department of Industry Equipment, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology outlined five areas where China has to develop its equipment production industry further, Xinhua reported. The five areas are regulation, technology improvement, self-sufficiency in technology and equipment, the thrust into mergers and acquisitions, and new industry development. At present the targets for establishing new industries are energy-savings and new energy sources for automobiles, oceanic engineering equipment, general aircraft and regional aircraft, high-speed rail system equipment, and high-performance ship sectors.

Source: Xinhua, October 27, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2009-10/27/content_12342093.htm

On October 17, the 42nd Annual Conference of World Association of Newspapers (WAN) concluded in Chongqing. Wang Guoqing, the Division Chief of Newspapers and Periodicals at General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) of China, said that the mainland newspapers and periodicals’ landing overseas and cooperating with international media expanded the global influences of Chinese newspapers and Chinese culture.

At present, more than 60 periodicals from mainland China have copyright cooperation with international partners, with some publications landing outside China, including the China National Geography and ChinaNews magazine. The latter belongs to the official news agency China News Service (CNS).

Source: China News Service, October 18, 2009
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/news/2009/10-18/1916255.shtml

Red Net, the Website for the Communist Party’s Hunan Province Committee and Hunan Provincial government, disclosed that Hunan will advance an Internet monitoring platform soon, as directed by the Ministry of Culture. The platform contains the traditional Internet Café monitoring software and a Hunan Culture Website, providing monitoring and servicing capabilities. This platform prevents users from accessing “harmful” information.

The provincial Cultural Inspection Team and municipal and county-level cultural inspection team will inspect Internet Cafés randomly and penalize businesses that haven’t installed, have stopped using or have removed the platform.

Source: Red Net, October 17, 2009
http://hn.rednet.cn/c/2009/10/17/1840624.htm

According to Xinhua, Liu Binjie, the director of the Press and Publication Administration recently signed administrative orders, No. 44, No. 45 and No. 46, announcing “The Management Methods on Journalist’ Licenses” (hereafter referred to as "the new ‘Methods’"); “Supplementary Provisions II regarding ‘The Management Methods on Foreign-Invested Distribution Companies of Books, Newspapers, & Magazines’”; and “Supplementary Provisions regarding ‘The Management Methods on the ‘Sino-Foreign Joint Distribution Companies of Audio-Video Products.’” The two supplementary regulations go into effect on October 1, 2009. The new “Methods” will become effective on October 15, 2009.

The new “Methods” have strengthened surveillance and regulation of journalists’ licenses. The Press and Publication Administration can suspend any journalist’s license if the journalist is under investigation by a relevant authority. 

Source: Xinhua, October 12, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newmedia/2009-10/12/content_12214718.htm 

UUCall, the self-claimed #1 provider of IP phone service in China, went suddenly dead on October 9, 2009 and has not been revived. The company’s Website was also unavailable. UUCall recorded on Baidu that it was closed down on government orders. It was directed to temporarily stop its services to allow government inspection. Insiders suggest that the government discovered that some individuals were using the IP phones to pass on Xinjiang separatist messages.

Also, Google Docs, a document sharing service provided by Google, was suspended in China recently. Most of the people use it for work-related documents. Google Docs utilizes https protocol for file transferring. China’s Great Firewall (GFW) censorship engine is unable to monitor or apply its censorship to this protocol. Therefore, China blocked Google Docs.

Sources:
1. Radio Free Asia, October 12, 2009
http://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/China_internet-10122009112607.html?encoding=simplified
2. Radio Free Asia, October 13, 2009
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/wangluo-10132009095407.html