41170625
submission
hackingbear writes:
Chinese moon probe Chang'e-2 made a flyby of the near-earth asteroid Toutatis on December 13 at 16:30:09 Beijing Time (08:30"09 GMT), the State Administration of Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense (SASTIND) announced today. The flyby was the first time an unmanned spacecraft launched from Earth has taken such a close viewing of the asteroid, named after a Celtic god, making China the fourth country after the US, the EU and Japan to be able to examine an asteroid by spacecraft. Chang'e-2 came as close as 3.2 km from Toutatis, which is about 7 million km away from the Earth, and took pictures of the asteroid at a relative velocity of 10.73 km per second, the SASTIND said in a statement. Chang'e-2, originally designated as the backup of Chang'e-1, left its lunar orbit for an extended mission to the Earth-Sun L2 Lagrangian point on June 9, 2011, after finishing its lunar objectives, and then again began its mission to Toutatis this year. "The success of the extended missions also embodies that China now possesses spacecraft capable of interplanetary flight," said Wu Weiren, chief designer of China's lunar probe program.
41082203
submission
hackingbear writes:
One of the Chinese Web censorship’s central features has long been blocking searches for the names of top leaders to maintain their public images. Sina Weibo, China’s largest microblog service, unblocked searches for the names of many top political leaders in a possible sign of looser controls a month after new senior officials were named to head the ruling party, though a number of other senior leaders are still blocked on Weibo, including Premier Web Jiabao. That (President) Xi might be leading by example on softening Web censorship could be a promising sign for future reforms. It isn’t on a major shift, but it could portend one.
40531349
submission
hackingbear writes:
In China, the whole team of medical staff and their brokers were sentenced to jail yesterday over their involvement in the case of a teenager who sold a kidney to buy an iPhone and iPad. He Wei, who organized the illegal transaction in April 2011, was sentenced to five years' imprisonment by the Beihu District People's Court in Chenzhou City. The court added that the defendants had paid compensation worth more than 1.47 million yuan (~ US $237,000) to Wang. Ministry of Health statistics show that about 1.5 million people in China need transplants, but only 10,000 operations are performed each year.
39756155
submission
hackingbear writes:
Foxconn is planning to build manufacturing plants in the U.S., probably in cites such as Detroit and Los Angeles. “Since the manufacturing of Apple’s products is rather complicated, the market watchers expect the rumored plants to focus on LCD TV production, which can be highly automated and easier.” Nice to think they will be hiring herebut still a fascinating insult to U.S. manufacturing prowess, dontcha think – the idea that actually making Apple products is a little too complicated for Americans to handle (Or maybe they won't be able to hire enough workers sitting 8 hours a day screwing really tiny screws into iPhone 5; despite of the higher unemployment rate, laborers here may not be as desperate as the millions of migrant workers looking for work in China.) Foxconn chairman Terry Guo, at a recent public event, noted that the company is planning a training program for US-based engineers, bringing them to Taiwan or China to learn the processes of product design and manufacturing.
39512735
submission
hackingbear writes:
Pointing to China’s plummeting birth rate and numerous impending demographic imbalances in arguing that the one-child policy has outlived its usefulness, a think tank affiliated with China’s State Council issued a report saying the country should start loosening one-child restrictions in areas where controls have been strictest as a prelude to eventually doing away with child limits altogether by 2020. Chinese family planning authorities credit the one-child policy with preventing around 400 million births, but concerns over the economic implications of China’s rapidly aging population, a widening gender imbalance and growing rights consciousness have led increasing numbers of academics and regular citizens to openly question the policy, which is sometimes enforced in brutal ways. Citizens, however, express split views on this plan through online forums (in Chinese); some calling for faster termination of the policy while others argue the country still have too many people.
39285557
submission
hackingbear writes:
China Unicom, the country's second largest telecom operator, has replaced Cisco Systems routers in one of the country’s most important backbone networks, citing security reasons [due to bugs and vulnerability.) The move came after a congressional report branded Huawei Technologies Co. Ltd. and ZTE Corp. security threats in the United States, citing bugs and vulnerability (rather than actual evidence of spying.) Surprising to us, up to now, Cisco occupies a large market share in China. It accounts for over a 70 percent share of China Telecom’s 163 backbone network and over an 80 percent share of China Unicom’s 169 backbone network. Let's wait to see who's the winner in this trade war disguised as national security.
37435751
submission
hackingbear writes:
China's largest e-commerce firm, Alibaba Group, expects to sell merchandise this year worth more than that sold by Amazon Inc and eBay combined. The company is aiming for 3 trillion yuan ($473 billion) in annual transaction value from its Taobao e-commerce units in the next 5 to 7 years, rising from the 1 trillion yuan of sales expected for 2012. "From their annual reports we did a rough calculation and we were similar last year but we are growing faster than them this year, so this year we are probably larger than them," Zeng Ming, Chief Strategy Officer of Alibaba, said of Amazon and eBay.
34960751
submission
hackingbear writes:
While nerds at Slashdot have marveled at the powers of engineers in China, the era of technocrats has gone over there and the country is on the path to be ruled by MBAs and lawyers. According to a report by an oversea Chinese media (Google translation), in the latest round of high-level political position bidding war, only 25% of provincial party leaders possess engineering degrees, while 38% have (business) management or economics degrees and 13% majored in Chinese literature. The rest are picked up by people in fields like laws, agriculture, statistics. At its peak at 2001, 63% of leaders were engineers. In this opinionated reports, technocrats are blamed for overemphasizing in economic development — building more stuff — and ignore social development, causing widespread wealth gap in China. Consequently, they have been disfavored to place more emphasize on social developments. Like all other modernized societies, it will eventually be taken over by MBAs and lawyers.
34358751
submission
hackingbear writes:
While we are importing billions of "cheap" products labeled "Made in China", the fastest growing exports from US to China does not even need a label. Chinese parents are acutely aware that the Chinese educational system focuses too much on rote memorization, so Chinese students have flocked to overseas universities and now even secondary schools, despite the high cost of attending programs in America. Chinese enrollment in U.S. universities rose 23% to 157,558 students during the 2010-2011 academic year, making China by far the biggest foreign presence. Even the daughter of Xi Jinping, the presumed next president of China, studies as an undergraduate at Harvard. This creates opportunities for universities to bring American education directly to China. Both Duke and New York University are building campuses in the Shanghai area to offer full-time programs to students there. Maybe one day, our education export can save our own education system or even the economy.
31062133
submission
hackingbear writes:
After China unblocked certain sensitive keywords in search engine baidy.com last week, YouTube is now partially, quietly unblocked (Google Translate.) Users inside China can, without bypassing the Great Firewall, visit the site, search for sensitive keywords, and see uncensored results and comments. The videos themselves, including those not related to politics, remain blocked, however. Given that the Chinese government likes to make major changes in gradual, experimental steps, it is unclear what this round of Internet loosening will lead to eventually. At the meantime, many netizens in the country express their welcome of the moves as a good start through microblogging.
30876829
submission
hackingbear writes:
Reports from oversea (in Chinese) and Hongkong-based Chinese media report that China appears to have unblocked several sensitive political keywords. Using Baidu.com the country's leading search engine, users within the mainland border find, in Chinese, uncensored web page links and images using keywords like Tiananmen and "June 4". (Readers can click on the first one to view the images.) Given that the unblocking of these most sensitive keywords (of all) comes one week after Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao publicly denounced left-wing leader Bo Xilai's movement of "striking down the ganster while reviving the red culture" as going down the path of Cultural Revolution, it could signal the silent start of a major political change. Separately, the Financial Times reports that the Premier has proposed the rehabilitation and re-evaluation of the 1989 Tiananmen Incident, but he met strong resistance from the left-wing fraction led by Bo. Bo has been sacked following the denouncement. Also the linked sites of the search result appear still being blocked and that other keywords, such as "Dalai Lama", are still being censored.
30607483
submission
hackingbear writes:
A group of 22 Chinese authors have filed a claim against Apple, alleging its App Store sells unlicensed copies of their books.
The Writers Rights Alliance, founded by Han Han a young popular Chinese author and the worlds' most popular blogger who is known for his cynical criticism of the government, petitioned Apple last year to stop electronic distribution of the writers' books and had earlier persuaded Baidu, China's largest search engine, to stop publishing their material on its Baidu Library product.
29411611
submission
hackingbear writes:
In the dispute centers on whether Apple acquired the iPad name in China when it bought rights in various countries from a Proview affiliate in Taiwan in 2009 for 35,000 British pounds ($55,000), Chinese officials face a choice in Apple's dispute with a local company over the iPad trademark — side with a struggling entity that a court says owns the name or with a global brand that has created hundreds of thousands of jobs in China. Experts say that means Beijing's political priorities rather than the courts will settle the dispute, flavoring Apple, if it escalates. "If this becomes political — and it's very easy to see this becoming political — then I think Apple's chances look pretty good," said Stan Abrams, an American lawyer who teaches intellectual property law at Beijing's Central University of Finance and Economics. "The government cares about jobs. The government cares about industry. And who is Proview? Nobody cares about (Shenzhen) Proview." Shenzhen Proview is a legal entity separate from the Taiwanese subsidiary but under control of a common shell parent in Hongkong. Taiwan, Hong Kong, and mainland China are three separate jurisdictions, regardless whether they are considered one China politically. Could China's non-independent judicial system suddenly become a friend of US companies?
27550528
submission
hackingbear writes:
You may regard China as an oppressive totalitarian regime, but China foresees a flood of foreigners looking for jobs as its economy keeps growing. China aims to curb illegal entry, stay and employment of foreigners, which has developed into a "prominent problem" in the world's second largest economy. As a populous country, China would like to introduce more high-end professionals and limit the inflow of low-end workersThe draft law also stipulates that a foreigner can apply for a permanent residence certificate to the police if the individual makes a significant contribution to China's economic and social development, or meets relevant requirements of permanent residence. As a populous country, China would like to introduce more high-end professionals and limit the inflow of low-end workers. In other words, it is equivalent to the US green cards but only for people holding Master or Ph.D., or well-recognized specialists in a field, or the super-rich.
26765894
submission
hackingbear writes:
Sina Weibo, the extremely popular micro-blogging service in China, was ruled wrongfully shutting down a user's account without notice. (Here is the google translation.) Sina accused the user, by the last name Ms. Chiu, posted defamation against a TV anchor woman and shut down her two accounts. But a Beijing court ruled that the user's message does not constitute as a rude defamation and order Sina to pay 2520 Yuan (~ $400) to the user. This legal case is first of its kind in China. However, the number of blocks and shut downs due to politically sensitive message will not likely decrease, according to a lawyer interviewed in the article. During an interview with CNN, Sina CEO Charles Chao claimed "there are people working in terms of looking at the content itself and the message itself. There are a lot of rumors on the microblog itself, a lot of fraud on the microblog. There are a lot of things we need to take care of." But look like his people are not very accurate in their job. Recently, the service starts asking users to register real identities to prevent the use of fake identities and make it easier to trace the source of online rumors.
