Information/Technology - 98. page

Finding their names blacklisted on an internet file of the company’s website, three democracy activists have asked for an open apology and plan to sue Netease Com Inc, a Chinese internet company listed on NASDAQ (code: NTES).

Zheng Cunzhu, a businessman in Anhui province and chairman of the board of Jiahe Food Inc. Ltd, was the first to find from the official website of Netease a file named "badwords.txt," where his name was placed aside a list of dirty words. Zheng also spotted the names of Wang Zhaojun, a member of the standing committee of the political consultative conference of Anhui province, and Guo Quan, a professor at Nanjing Normal University. The three of them intend to file a lawsuit in the U.S. against Netease, providing no apology is heard by Nov. 14.

Zheng, Wang, and Guo are famous as each of them wrote an individual open letter to the leaders of the communist regime, calling for political reform and criticizing the regime’s policy on  the 1989 prodemocracy movement and the Falun Gong religious group. Censored in the Mainland, the letters  spread widely on overseas Chinese websites.

Other forbidden words on the list discovered by Zheng include those related to democracy, religion, and the domestic civil rights movement. The lawsuit aims to call attention to freedom of expression in China, with the hope of reforming the political system.

Source: Radio Free Asia, November 11, 2008
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/guoquan-11112008102038.html

Breast cancer is rated the number one cancer killer for Chinese woman, according to the statistics released by the Cancer Hospital of Shanghai Fudan University. The statistics showed that between 1991 and 2000, the death rate for urban woman has grown over 39 percent and is still growing at 3.5 percent each year.  The experts attributed the rate increase to unhealthy diet and delay in child birth age as well as no breast feed chosen by certain women.

Source: China News, October 26, 2008
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/jk/kong/news/2008/10-26/1425434.shtml

Patent applications by universities in China have brought little licensing fees, Guangming Daily reported. Comparing to 3 to 5 % world average, patent applications have increased at an annual rate of 20% in China since 2000. Applications by higher education institutions account for 11.7%. Scientists and researchers find no incentives to apply due to low economic returns and high application costs.

Source: Guangming Daily, October 19, 2008 reprinted by China News http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/news/2008/10-19/1417105.shtml

Whoever uses Beijing Internet cafes for the first time will be photographed and their Identification Cards scanned. The data is transmitted to the database of the monitoring platform maintained by the “culture policing forces.”  By mid December, the installation and implementation of the system will be completed in all Internet cafes in Beijing.   At the monitoring platform, the authorities can monitor remotely any computer in any Internet café, real time.  Owners of the Internet cafes have no access to the data.

Source: Chinanews.com, October 16, 2008
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/news/2008/10-16/1414600.shtml

According to a recent 2007 Survey on Internet Usage by Juveniles issued by China Youth Social Service Center (CYSSC), 85.6% of population between 9 and 16 has experiences of Internet. The proportion among urban young Chinese is close to 90%, while the figure in rural area is as high as 69.4%. 71.9% of those surveyed accessed Internet from home. 58.50% of the questioned claimed that they use Internet mainly for entertainment.

The survey, targeting 7,700 juveniles falling in the age group and their parents and teachers in 10 provinces including Beijing, Shanghai, and Chongqing, was conducted jointly by CYSSC, Youth Center under Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS), and China Youth Political Academy between August and November of 2007.

Source: Xinhua, October 15, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-10/15/content_10195758.htm

According to All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU), by the end of September, 82 percent of the Fortune 500 companies have established unions in its China operation with total membership above two million, up 32 percent from June. The effort to speedup the union setup was coordinated by ACFTU in order to carry out China’s Employment Contract Law which was put in force at the beginning of this year. ACFTU will continue to push the establishment of the unions for the remaining companies including those who have had relocations.

Source: People’s Daily, October 13, 2008
http://mnc.people.com.cn/GB/8162041.html

Following the criticism from the World Health Organization on lack of updates on hospitalized children caused by tainted milk powder, China’s Ministry of Health released a set of data on October 8, first time since the last update on September 22. The data from October 8 disclosed that hospitalized children were 10,666, with 8 in serious condition and 36,144 being dismissed. On October 8 alone, hospitalized children were 539 and 2067 were dismissed.

Source: BBC, October 8, 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_7660000/newsid_7660200/7660231.stm

Japan reported two more types of China made food products containing Melamine.  It reported on October 8 that they have found Melamine in the frozen Takoyaki or Frozen Poulp Squid imported from Long Wei Seafood Company in Fuqing of Fujian Province. Skim milk power was used as the raw material which contained up to 1.1 ppm of Melamine.

In addition to tainted Takoyaki and tainted dumplings which caused over 170 people ill in February of this year in Japan, on October 2, Japan also reported Melamine found in Egg Custard Tart imported from China which contains 1.4 ppm of Melamine.

Source:
The Epoch Times, October 8, 2008
http://epochtimes.com/gb/8/10/8/n2289592.htm
Now News, October 2, 2008
http://www.nownews.com/2008/10/02/334-2344183.htm