Information/Technology - 95. page

Outlook Weekly, a magazine by Xinhua News, published an article on the expansion of the Chinese Space Technology Group. The Group currently has four bases. In addition to the Beijing Base and Chengdu Base, the Shanghai Base focuses on solar cells, composite materials and mechanical & electrical equipments. The Xi An Base focuses on space equipment manufacturing and special technologies.

Four more bases have been added to the Group. The Tianjin Base focuses on spacecraft, environmental protection, and unmanned aircraft. The Inner Mongolia Base focuses on polycrystalline silicon and space biology. The Hong Kong (Shenzhen) Base focuses on microsatellite, and mechanical & electrical equipment. The Hainan Base focuses on launching sites, conferences & exhibitions, and science education.

Source: Outlook Weekly, June 22, 2009.
http://news.sohu.com/20090622/n264683019.shtml

Beijing News reported on June 17 that Beijing is taking several Internet control measures. All Web site owners, editors, and bloggers need to provide their real names when registering. By the end of this year, Beijing will establish a ten-thousand volunteer Internet patrol team to monitor websites. All websites with permits for publication of audio-visual programs through the Internet or other information networks will go through information review, publication management, recording, and retaining processes. The Beijing Public Security Department will develop Internet filtering software for computers at Internet Cafes, schools, and in the home.

Source: Beijing News, June 17, 2009
http://www.thebeijingnews.com/news/beijing/2009/06-17/008@021703.htm

Xinhua News recently republished an article from Guangming Daily, a Beijing city based national newspaper, on "occupying the internet battlefield with Chinese socialist culture." The article suggests the enhancement of government involvement in managing the internet with the following measures: (1) establishing a dedicated government branch for internet control; (2) making enforcement laws; (3) setting up mechanisms to approve registration and to control network entry; (4) deploying tiered governance.

The article urges the government to build up the "core ethics value" of Chinese socialism and to increase the financial and labor investment to educate the population and to "occupy the battlefield" – through the mainstream sites.

Source: Xinhua News, April 20, 2009.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/theory/2009-04/20/content_11218500.htm

The International Herald Leader, a newspaper under the Xinhua News Agency, posted an article stating that the hacker business is an established gray industrial chain China. The article stated, “‘Hacker’ does not necessarily mean ‘wrecker." But the ‘wrecker’ part of the hacker business has become a large-scale industrial chain with more than 200 million yuan in annual income.” The hackers’ industrial chain includes: the “thief hackers,” who steal valuable network information; the “gun sellers,” who sell hacker tools and provide after-sale technical support; the “hired network killers,” who normally use a DDOS approach to attack web sites; and hacker trainers, whose teaching covers the technology of virus and Trojan creation and network attacks. It was said that a typical hacker’ web site can bring at least two to five million yuan annually.  

Source: Xinhua, June 12, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2009-06/12/content_11529888.htm

Xinhua reported that on June 10 the Chinese Academy of Sciences announced China’s bio-resource technology development road map to 2050. The road map outlined six strategic paths to transform China from a bio-resource large country to a bio-resource and bio-economy super power.

1. Photosynthesis mechanism research and bio-plants’ light power utilization improvement, to achieve large scale application and commercialization of renewable bio-energy
2. Bio-energy research and energy plant production base establishment, to achieve large scale commercial application of bio-energy, reducing oil imports by 30%
3. Development and utilization of micro-organisms and related industry chains
4. Sustainable development and usage of strategic bio-resources
5. Gene sequence and gene resources research
6. Bionic material and technology research.

Source: Xinhua, June 6, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/society/2009-06/10/content_11521711.htm

On June 10, the Chinese Academy of Sciences published the Chinese Technology Roadmap Towards 2050. The Roadmap includes three strategic targets of Space Science and Technology: (1) Space Science targets major breakthrough in frontier scientific areas such as black holes; (2) Space Application targets earth observation infrastructure; (3) Space Technology targets bottleneck technologies such as high resolution and high precision time space datum, miniaturized and self-guided spacecrafts, and manned space missions.

Source: Xinhua Net, June 10, 2009.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/society/2009-06/10/content_11521661.htm

Radio France International reported that, on June 10, the Publicity Department of the CCP sent a notice to all media and propaganda management organizations requesting that media should not criticize the forced-pre-installation of Green Dam, an Internet filtering software, which has received widespread negative publicity both domestically and internationally. Though it claims to protect youth from accessing indecent content, a study at the University of Michigan found that this software performs text filtering, with a majority of its blacklisted words being about Falun Gong and quitting the communist party.

The Publicity Department’s notice states, “According to instructions from the Central Committee’s top leader,” no media should publish statements that question or criticize the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s decision to pre-install the Green Dam Internet filter software. The Publicity Department suggested, “(Media) can have experts and parents give statements, focusing people’s concern on openly supporting the ministry’s action to protect growing youth.” Also, the Publicity Department requested that all media strengthen the management of their websites and “immediately block and remove” any words of criticism from their public forums.

Source:
[1] Radio France International, June 11, 2009
http://www.rfi.fr/actucn/articles/114/article_14265.asp
[2] Computer Science and Engineering Division of the University of Michigan
http://www.cse.umich.edu/~jhalderm/pub/gd/

On May 19, 2009, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT) issued a notice regarding the pre-installation of Internet filtering software. The notice said that, in order to control the low and vulgar contents on the Internet and to protect minors from exposure to the harmful "bad information," all computers manufactured or sold in China after July 1 should have "Green Dam-Youth Escort" software pre-installed. The software provides functions to block sexual content, filter websites deemed improper, control Internet browsing time, and record the web site visiting history.

According to Computer Science and Engineering Division of The University of Michigan’s research, "Green Dam scans text entry fields in various applications for blocked words, including obscenities and politically sensitive phrases (for example, references to Falun Gong). Blacklisted terms are contained in three files…" The researchers "also found what appears to be a word list for a more sophisticated sentence processing algorithm in the unencrypted file FalunWord.lib," which is dominated by Falun Gong related terms and sentences.

Many newspaper and Netizens expressed their angst with MIIT’s forceful imposition of more Internet control. China News Services’ survey on June 11 showed that only 20% of the people supported MIIT’s position. MIIT declared that "(the Green Dam-Youth Escort) software will not monitor user’s Internet behavior, nor was it to collect any user information."

Source:
[1] Miit.gov.cn, June 9, 2009
http://www.miit.gov.cn/n11293472/n11293832/n11293952/12398220.html
[2] Nanfang Daily, June 9, 2009
http://www.nanfangdaily.com.cn/nfjx/200906090005.asp
[3] China News, June 11, 2009
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/it/it-itxw/news/2009/06-11/1729900.shtml
[4] The Computer Science and Engineering Division of the University of Michigan
"Ananlysis of the Green Dam Censorware System"
http://www.cse.umich.edu/~jhalderm/pub/gd/