Information/Technology - 93. page

On October 7, the eve of the World Media Summit held in Beijing, a Xihua report gave statistics on China’s expansion of media outlets since 1978, the year that marked the start of the “reform” era.

Currently, there are 257 radio stations and 277 TV stations nationwide. In 2008, the country published 9,549 periodicals and 1,943 newspapers. The report quoted from the World Association of Newspapers statistics that China’s newspaper market remains the world’s largest, with a daily circulation of 107 million. The official China Internet Network Information Center released that, by the end of July 2009, the population of Internet users exceeded 300 million. By June 3, China was leading the world in number of Internet users, users of broadband, and in the number of country domain name registrations.

Source: Xinhua, October 7, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/misc/2009-10/07/content_12192136.htm

The Chinese government has blocked tens of thousands of web sites that mainly host personal videos, as well as site access means that foreign reporters widely use when they bypass the Chinese government’s technical control. According to Reporters Without Borders (RWB), this has been a nightmare for a lot of Chinese netizens, because Facebook and Twitter are both blocked – along with a large number of blogs. The authorities conducted a comprehensive security control operation, which included security checks on around 4500 reporters from 108 countries.

Source: Radio France International, September 30, 2009
http://www.rfi.fr/actucn/articles/117/article_16471.asp

Qiushi Journal, a publication of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, started its quarterly English journal publication on October 1, translating selected theoretical articles from Qiushi and other important publications.

Established on June 1, 1958 and originally called “Red Flag,”  the Chinese version of the official party journal had a makeover on July 1, 1988 and changed its name to Qiushi.

Source: Xinhua, September 30, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-09/30/content_12137151.htm

In the time before the celebration of National Day, China’s Golden Shield Internet blockade project has become stricter than ever before. Lately, many Chinese Internet users, who have been utilizing software developed by the Global Internet Freedom Consortium to access overseas Internet sites, are complaining about difficulties in making connections.

Source: Secret China, September 17, 2009
http://www.secretchina.com/news/311166.html

The Tianjin government held the 2nd Overseas Chinese Media Conference on September 15, 2009. Over 20 overseas Chinese media attended the conference. Ha Wenlong, Director of the Tianjin Overseas Chinese Affairs Office said, “Currently there are more than 500 Chinese-language media around the world. They transmit information, keep in contact with overseas Chinese, build up Chinese sentiments and have played an important role, especially when it comes to today’s world economic integration process and the process of raising the Chinese voice throughout the world.” The Xinhua report states that domestic and overseas Chinese media “reached a common understanding to deepen cooperation and join hands in accepting the challenge.”

Source: Xinhua, September 15, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-09/15/content_12057814.htm

A Website alleging to represent the post-90s (Ed – people born in the 1990s) declared that this group of people will “black out” all antirevolutionary websites inside and outside of China, as their gift for the 60th anniversary of the communist region in China, according to the Global Times. The declaration said that the post-90s are also patriots and there are many forms of patriotism. They want to change people’s perception that the post-90s advocate individualism, are selfish and aren’t loyal to their country. They want to define “Hacker” with a positive meaning.

Source: Global Times, September 9, 2009
http://china.huanqiu.com/roll/2009-09/571386.html

Xinhua reported recently that the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) was undergoing a major operation to hit “lowbrow” Internet based games. There have been more than 200 games investigated since June. Among them, 45 unauthorized foreign games such as America 1930 were closed down.

GAPP believes the main issues are: (1) some gaming companies carry foreign games without permission; (2) some domestic games did not register with the authorities; (3) some games added porno, gambling and violent content after registration; (4) some did not set up a government required anti-addiction control system; (5) some games used lowbrow language for marketing.

Source: Xinhua, August 31, 1009.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-08/31/content_11972262.htm

Chen Zhonghua, assistant director of the Chinese Society of Organ Transplantation recently disclosed that China has 1.5 million liver and kidney patients waiting for organ transplants every year; however, there were only 130 deceased citizens who donated organs from 2003 to May of 2009.

Chen said China conducts 11,000 organ transplantation surgeries every year, out of which less than 30 of those are donations from deceased Chinese citizens. He said organ donation in the US for the first half of the year has already reached 2,304.  There is a need to increase the organ donation volumes in China.

The China Organ Donation and Transplantation Cooperation Project plans to have a conference in Shanghai in September to discuss building an organ donation system, setting up testing units, regulating and increasing live organ transplants, and other related issues.

Source: China News, August, 23, 2009
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/jk/news/2009/08-23/1830388.shtml