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Google’s Withdrawal from China Is Part of China’s Control of Internet Strategy

 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

People’s Daily: China should Not Worry about the US Returning to the Southeast Asian Region

The website of the State’s People’s Daily published an article stating China should welcome the United States to the Asian Pacific region to contribute to the peace, stability, and prosperity of the region.  

“Despite U.S. intervention, China should keep a low profile and not be too much ‘in the public eye.’ It can seize this rare strategic opportunity of peaceful development to keep a low profile and good terms with neighbors, focusing on its own development.”  

In light of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the surging protectionism at home, the result of the “Asian return” may be significantly overstated. “In this context, Obama’s ‘return to Asia,’ may not be so terrible.”

Source: People’s Daily, January 12, 2010
http://world.people.com.cn/GB/10750195.html

Chinese Military Expert: War in the Future Not Impossible

Zhang Zhaozhong, a Chinese military expert, warns that the United States will inevitably get entangled in another war, although time and the enemy are yet unknown. “Obama came from the grassroots. During his campaign, accepting the honor to serve his country and now in office, he expressed many good points of view. Yet, I have never held any illusion about him. He is a well-educated person and a member of academia, so he can speak well and express his point of view quite well, but such thoughts cannot be those of a president. He can receive the Nobel Prize trophy for his personal philosophy but as president, he has to launch wars.  

"When reviewing U.S. history, there was no U.S. president that prescribed peace – one cannot be president without a war. Obama must be in a very difficult position. He cannot do what he wants to do and he must do what he does not want to do. There is no other way. 

"This is the United States and this is the nature of imperialism. It is inevitable that the next war will break out. There is no doubt that the United States will be the culprit. But whom to fight and when is the big question."

Zhang is a military theorist and commentator. He is a professor at the National Defense University, and of Rear Admiral rank.

Source: Xinhua, January 11, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2010-01/11/content_12790747.htm

Google May Close Its Chinese Operations

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

Russian Media: China Will Buy 100 More RD-93 Engines

Russian media reported that after Rosoboron export, Russian’s state defense product export company, signed a 43 RD-93 aircraft engine contract with China in December 2009, Russia is likely to sign another contract with China to sell 100 more RD-93s. This engine is to be installed on FC-1 fighter. Currently, China signed another contract to sell 150 FC-1 to Pakistan (Pakistan will assemble the plane using the components provided by China).

Russian military experts believe that although China frequently claims it has made great progress in the R&D of the engines, the fact that it continues buying Russian engines indicates that China still lags behind. Exporting engines to China will allow Russia to control the capability of fighter planes that China exports.

Source: Eastday.com, January 12, 2010
http://mil.eastday.com/m/20100112/u1a4945924.html

China Sued by US Web Filtering Company on Green Dam Software

On January 4, 2010, Santa Barbara, California-based CYBERsitter, LLC filed a lawsuit against China, two Chinese software makers, and seven computer manufacturers for their involvement in creating and distributing Green Dam software. University of Michigan’s scientists found that they had taken CYBERsitter’s code. CYBERsitter seeks $2.2 billion in damages for copyright infringement, theft of trade secrets, unfair competition, and civil conspiracy. The company alleges that the defendants distributed over 56 million copies of the Green Dam software.

In June 2009, China mandated that all new computers must have Green Dam installed starting July 1, 2009. Green Dam was said to protect youth from accessing porn sites, but it was revealed to block people from accessing websites on the government’s black list such as Falun Gong, Dalai Lama, and so on. The mandatory installation was eventually stopped because of strong protests by Western governments and computer manufacturers.

Source:
1. Beijing Youth, January 9, 2010
http://bjyouth.ynet.com/article.jsp?oid=62404507
2. Information Week, January 5, 2010
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222200365

Six Aspects of 2010 Policies toward Ethnic Minorities

Yang Jin, Director of State Ethnic Affairs Commission, recently delivered a speech on six aspects of the 2010 work plan of the Commission: (1) Earnestly deliver on the duties of supervision and policy recommendations; (2) Improve the mechanism for implementing laws and policies relating to ethnic minorities, especially in cities; (3) Significantly widen the scope of publicity and education work; (4) Carefully resolve conflicts in Tibet and Xinjiang to maintain stability; (5) Enhance research and communication to play a better assisting role for the Party Central Committee, the State Council and below; (6) Enhance the work on building the talent pool of ethnic minorities to provide a reliable base for organizational growth.

Source: Xinhua, December 23, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-12/23/content_12695669.htm

Current Land System Provides Soil for Corruption

The CCP Central Party School’s newspaper, Study Times, recently republished an article on the current policies on  land usage. Today in China, people know that the government’s income comes largely from charges based on the state owned land. Most countries in the world create value out of utilizing land, such as producing high quality agriculture products. Indirect and sustainable creation of the national value based on land reflects the true value of land. In China, land is now more of a “private” stock item for real estate resale. The simple relationship between some government officials and real estate developers provides soil for corruption. The people believe it is the system and the policies that caused the situation.

Source: Study Times, December 21, 2009
http://www.studytimes.com.cn/WebPage/ny1.aspx?act=1&id=3145&nid=11430&bid=12&page=1