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Kaixin001 v. Kaixin: Social Networking Goes to Court

Social networking site Kaixin001 has brought a lawsuit against Kaixin, a different social networking site that was created after Kaixin001. Kaixin001 is asking Kaixin to cease using the ‘Kaixin’ name and for compensation of lost advertising revenue.

From the Wall Street Journal China Journal:

The operator of one of China’s most popular social networking services, Kaixin001.com, has filed an unfair competition lawsuit against Beijing-based online entertainment company Oak Pacific Interactive, which started a competing service in October under the very similar name of Kaixin.com.

[...] The plaintiff’s site, Kaixin001.com, was launched in March 2008 and had recorded 20 million registered accounts and 700 million page views by April 2009, according to Chinese-language media. It is best known for its addictive online games, including some that are similar to Facebook’s “Parking War” and “Friends for Sale.” To monetize its traffic, in December Kaixin001.com began placing in-game advertisements in its Web game apps.

But the rapid growth of Kaixin001.com posed a direct challenge to Xiaonei.com, currently the biggest and most influential social networking Web site in China, which also happens to be owned by Oak Pacific Interactive. Created in 2005, Xiaonei.com, like Facebook before it, started out by focusing on college students (its name, in Chinese, means “on campus”). It was acquired by Oak Pacific Interactive in 2006 and currently has around 70 million registered users, half of whom use the site at least once a month.

See another look at the case, from People’s Daily Online:

“A domain name is just the door of a social networking site. People keep revisiting our website because it has a good reputation for games,” Xu Chaojun, vice-president of Qianxiang company, told China Daily yesterday.

“Kaixin.com is not a copycat! We will fight for our right and reputation in court,” he said.

For a comprehensive background of Kaixin001, please read the coverage at littleredbook.cn.
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- May 22, 2009 6:39 PM
Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao Halts Construction of Power Plant on Nu River

Premier Wen Jiabao has again suspended construction on the Liuku power station on the Nu River until after a thorough study of the hydroelectric dam’s potential environmental impact. Work on damming the Nu River has proceeded in fits and starts since 2004 in a tug of war between environmental activists and the power industry. Jane Macartney reports for the Times Online:

The Prime Minister of China has ordered a halt to construction of a hydroelectric plant on one of the country’s most remote and beautiful rivers. He has demanded an in-depth study of the likely impact on the local ecology and communities.

The decision, which will enrage power companies as well as local vested interests, was welcomed by China’s increasingly vocal environmental campaigners.

[...]One campaigner said that the importance of the Premier’s decision should not be underestimated. “The Nu River is one of only two rivers in China that have not yet been dammed. There has been no research on the biodiversity of the river where there may be many valuable and endangered animals and plants. If they are overwhelmed the losses can never be reversed,” she said.
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- May 21, 2009 12:04 PM
Hangzhou’s “Real-name Web Registration System” Is “On the Shelf”

Plans by the Hangzhou government to become the first city in China to require real-name registration for web users to participate in local chatrooms and forums are being shelved, according to Xinhua as reported by the China Media Project:

We can confirm what Xinhua is reporting — that users can, at present, get into major forums at Hangzhou portals, including Hangzhou Online, without providing any additional information.

After reading a statement in the registration section of Hangzhou Online stating that we would not “use this Website to harm national security, to twist or manufacture facts,” etc., we clicked “Accept” and went directly to the registration form.

Registering was as simple as typing in a username, setting a password and providing an e-mail address. There was no need whatsoever to provide valid proof of identity.
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- May 21, 2009 11:22 AM
Guardian: China’s Water Crisis

As part of their China at the Crossroads series, the Guardian looks at China’s water crisis. One article visits eco-refugees in Gansu:

Huang is one of millions of Chinese eco-refugees who have been resettled because their home environments degraded to the point where they were no longer fit for human habitation. The government says more than 150 million people will have to be moved. Water shortages exacerbated by over-irrigation and climate change are the main cause.

The problem is most severe in the north-west, where desert sands are swallowing up farmland, homes and towns. Huang lives in Mingqin, a shrinking oasis area that government advisers privately describe as an “ecological disaster area”.

The Yellow river is diverted more than 62 miles (100km) to replenish dried-up reservoirs and aquifers in Minqin, where the population has swollen from 860,000 to 2.3 million over the last 60 years, even as water supplies have declined.

It is not enough. The Tengger desert is encroaching from the south-east and the Badain Jaran desert from the north-west. Since 1950 the oasis has shrunk by 111 square miles (288 sq km), while the number of annual superdust storms has increased more than fourfold. In Liangzhou district, 240 of the 291 springs have dried up.

Watch the video report.

Another report (and video) looks at critics of the south-north water diversion project:

The Guardian was the first foreign news organisation to enter the pits and tunnels at Jiaozuo in Henan province, which are at the centre of China’s latest, greatest engineering project, the South-North Water Diversion Scheme. In the spirit of President Hu Jintao’s drive for “scientific development”, the aim is to engineer a solution to the most pressing environmental problem – the alarming depletion of water resources in the arid, heavily populated north.

More than twice as expensive as the Three Gorges Dam and three times longer than the railway to Tibet, the 50-year, $62bn (£40.67bn) project aims to channel a greater volume than the Thames along three channels – each more than 600 miles long – from the moist Yangtze basin up to the dry lands above the Yellow river.

[...] The project has sparked so many ecological, financial and political concerns that government advisers are calling for the plan to be delayed and, possibly, curtailed, raising the possibility that this could prove a mega-project too far even for China. First proposed in 1962, the scheme was approved by Mao Zedong, who said it was fine for the south to “lend a little water”, but until recently the government has not had the money or technical ability to go ahead.

Read more from the Guardian’s China at the Crossroads series.
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- May 20, 2009 10:46 AM
Microsoft, China’s Hangzhou Set ‘Model City’ Pact

Microsoft is partnering with the city of Hangzhou to strengthen intellectual property rights. From Elaine Kurtenbach of the Associated Press:

Microsoft Corp. announced a partnership aimed at helping make the eastern Chinese city of Hangzhou a model for innovation and protection of intellectual property, in the company’s latest attempt to combat rampant software piracy.

A three-year agreement signed Friday calls for setting up two new centers in Hangzhou to focus on developing the local technology industry. Microsoft will provide curriculum support, technology and training for teachers at Hangzhou Normal University through an institute set up to nurture local innovation.

“Partnering with leading IT companies like Microsoft will greatly boost Hangzhou’s innovative capabilities and help us build a model information technology city in China,” Cai Qi, Hangzhou’s mayor, said in a statement.
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- May 16, 2009 6:30 PM
Video: Guanzhou Modernized

China Green, a multimedia venture of the Asia Society that focuses on China’s environmental challenges, has posted a new video about Guanzhou Island, off of Guangzhou:

Guanzhou Modernized explores the development of Guanzhou Island, a pocket of untouched farmland in the center of Guangzhou, south China’s metropolis of light industry.

Guanzhou sits to the southeast of the Guangzhou economic machine. It’s a place that was simply leapfrogged by development. Further south, beyond University City, is Panyu, a suburban area now boasting Asia’s largest water park. To the north and west is the dense urban network of buildings and streets of a massive city on the make. Once you zoom out a bit, the wresting of land from villagers not too far from some of the most expensive land in China seems not only inevitable but long overdue.
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- May 15, 2009 1:44 PM
Why China is Acting Aggressively on Swine Flu

On the Christian Science Monitor blog, Peter Ford looks at China’s reaction to the swine flu outbreak:

Nobody could accuse Beijing of a coverup over swine flu. The national TV evening news Monday, when the first confirmed case was reported on the mainland, reported little else, and the authorities broadcast a very public manhunt. Within 24 hours, they had tracked down and quarantined more than 80 percent of the people who had come in contact with the victim between Tokyo and the provincial Chinese city where he was hospitalized.

If all this seems rather like overkill, it illustrates just how determined China is to be above reproach in its reaction to this public-health scare after failing so badly over SARS. It also reflects a particular worry in a country where bird flu is endemic in many regions.

Bird flu has killed more than half the people it has infected, but is hardly transmissible among humans. Swine flu is benign in about 99 percent of cases, according to a study published this week in Science magazine, but it is very contagious.

Officials are afraid of a “reassortment,” a mix of two flu strains, the head of the Beijing office of the World Health Organization, Hans Troedsson, said earlier this year.
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- May 12, 2009 11:48 AM
As Hacking Hits Home, China Strengthens Cyber Laws

PC World reports on the state of anti-hacking legislation in China:

Although the Western media has been awash with stories of Chinese hacking for years, cybercrime was until recently governed by three articles added to China’s criminal code in 1997. The laws were out-of-date and “failed to correlate proportionately with the tremendous social harm” caused by cybercrime, according to a recent paper on Chinese cyber-law published in the International Journal of Electronic Security and Digital Forensics.

“China has made significant progress in cybercrime legislation and is putting in great efforts to strengthen it,” said Man Qi, one of the paper’s co-authors, in an e-mail interview.

However, the paper concludes that the country’s laws are still in the early stages of development. “Gaps and inadequacies exist in traditional offense provisions,” said Qi, a senior lecturer in the Department of Computing at Canterbury Christ Church University in the U.K.
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- May 12, 2009 11:42 AM
China: Where Patience Meets Speed

Sarah Lacy of TechCrunch is reporting from China for a new book on entrepreneurship:

China has just exploded with entrepreneurship, funding and economic opportunity over the last five years or so, and unlike most of the world there doesn’t seem to be a slow down yet. In 2002, U.S. investors pumped $437 million into China. By 2007 that had grown to $2.8 billion. And last year, it swelled again to $4.2 billion. All numbers courtesy of Dow Jones/VentureSource which should be releasing its first quarter China figures this week. Imagine Silicon Valley in 1999 times a huge sprawling country and population, and that’s what I’m wading into for the next two weeks.

On one hand, it’s exhilarating. In the US, we’ve all heard so much about the amazing Chinese economic engine, looking on with a mix of terror, greed and awe. It’s stunning actually to be on the ground here. But sifting through hundreds- even thousands- of Mandarin-speaking entrepreneurs is also a bit like trying to do an estate sale for Howard Hughes. There are priceless old films, keepsakes from starlets and antique aviator equipment, but also stacks of milk bottles, newspapers and nail clippings- where do you start?

This mild panic I?m finding myself in has me thinking a great deal about two characteristics of China that people have been referencing in the last few weeks as I’ve been planning this trip and doing pre-interviews: Patience and speed. They’re seemingly contradictory, and perhaps part of that is the collision of tradition and modernity in China right now.
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- May 10, 2009 9:46 PM
China Isolates Passengers on Flu Suspect’s Flight

China is reporting its first case of H1N1 flu, or swine flu, and have quarantined 130 passengers who shared a flight with the patient:

The 30-year-old man’s girlfriend, father and a taxi driver had also been quarantined, said Xinhua, which cited officials at a press conference held in the provincial capital of Chengdu, in southwestern China.

The man took a Northwest Airlines flight from Minneapolis/St Paul, Minnesota which stopped in Tokyo and landed at Beijing. He also took a flight on Sichuan Airlines from Beijing to Chengdu.

It was not clear from the report which passengers were quarantined, although it said the man had developed symptoms of fever on the flight from Beijing to Chengdu.

The remaining passengers and others who came in contact with the man, who was studying in the state of Missouri in the United States, were being sought by authorities, said Xinhua.

The man had tested “weakly positive” to A/H1N1 virus twice by the Sichuan Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and was conscious and in stable condition, it said.
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- May 10, 2009 9:29 PM
China Emerges as a Leader in Cleaner Coal Technology

Despite China’s abundant use of coal which worries environmentalists around the world, the country is also at the forefront of developing cleaner coal power plants, the New York Times reports:

While the United States is still debating whether to build a more efficient kind of coal-fired power plant that uses extremely hot steam, China has begun building such plants at a rate of one a month.

Construction has stalled in the United States on a new generation of low-pollution power plants that turn coal into a gas before burning it, although Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Thursday that the Obama administration might revive one power plant of this type. But China has already approved equipment purchases for just such a power plant, to be assembled soon in a muddy field here in Tianjin.

“The steps they’ve taken are probably as fast and as serious as anywhere in power-generation history,” said Hal Harvey, president of ClimateWorks, a group in San Francisco that helps finance projects to limit global warming.
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- May 10, 2009 8:25 PM
The Green Dawn in U.S.-China Relations

China is making progress in its environmental practices, according to a Xinhua article by Lucy-Claire Saunders:

In 2006, Forbes magazine named Shi Zhengrong, a little-known Chinese scientist, one of the world’s billionaires. Three years later, his company, Suntech Power Holdings Ltd, is worth an estimated 6 billion U.S. dollars and stands as the world’s fourth largest producer of solar panels.

It is no coincidence that China is home to one of the world’s leading solar energy companies. Recent legislation like the country’s landmark 2005 Renewable Energy Law has contributed to China’s rapid success in emerging renewable energy markets, Christopher Flavin, president of World Watch Institute, a think tank on sustainability based in Washington D.C., said in a recent phone interview with Xinhua.

In fact, it is hard for environmental experts like Flavin not to be optimistic about China’s initiative in combating climate change. The Chinese National Development and Reform Commission, the nation’s top economic planning agency, said in early December that about 40 percent of China’s 586-billion-U.S.-dollar stimulus package is allocated to “green” themes such as biological conservation, environmental protection, and transportation infrastructure, including rail and power grids.
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- May 9, 2009 4:08 PM
A Map of China’s Cancer Villages

Chinese reporter Deng Fei and Doubleaf have Google Mapped China’s cancer villages. A screenshot is below. See the Google Map here.
The map also provides news report details on each of the listed villages. The following is a portion of that list, translated by CDT:

(1) Yancheng City, Funing County, Guhe Township, Yangqiao Village
Jiangnan Times: 2004 report

Due to its proximity to an agricultural chemical plant and two chemical factories, this village saw 20 people die of cancer (primarily lung cancer and esophageal cancer) between 2001-2004. Because the air and water were polluted, villagers would cover their mouths with a moist towel while sleeping. Ducks were raised not by the waterside, but rather in pig pens.

盐城市阜宁县古河镇洋桥村
（《江南时报》2004年报道）

因为靠近一家农药厂、两家化工厂，该村于2001—2004年有20多人死于癌症（以肺癌、食道癌为主）。因空气和水污染，村民睡觉时以湿毛巾捂口鼻，鸭子不在水边而在猪圈里放养。

(2) Yancheng City, Funing County, Yangji Township, Dongjin Village
China Business Report: 2008 report

After receiving heavy pollution from the Julong chemical factory, 100 villagers died of cancer between 2001-2006 (mainly esophageal cancer and lung cancer). Villagers would eat liver tablets every day. Villagers brought a lawsuit against the chemical factory, but each person would only receive a 70 yuan subsidy.

盐城市阜宁县杨集镇东进村
（《中国经营报》2008年报道）

受巨龙化工厂严重污染，2001—2006年5年间死于癌症（以食道癌、肺癌为主）的村民近100人，村民每天吃护肝片。化工厂曾被村民起诉，只开出每人70块钱的补助条件。

(3-4) Zhenjiang City, Dantu Region, Gaoqiao Township, Gaoqiao Village
Zhenjiang City, Dantu Region, Huangxu Township, Shimen Village
China Environmental News: 2004 report

Due to the pollution of the drainage network, treatments for malignancies at the regional hospital began to increase in 1997. 71% of those treated came from southeast village townships that were fairly economically developed.

镇江市丹徒区高桥镇高桥村
镇江市丹徒区黄墟镇土门村
（《中国环境报》2004年报道）

因水系污染，仅在区医院收治的恶性肿瘤病人从1997年起呈显著上升趋势，71％是来自本区经济比较发达的东南部乡镇。

(5) Nanchang City, Xinjian County, Wangcheng Township, *****
Jiangnan Metropolis Paper: 2004 report

When a chemical factory’s polluted water flowed into rice paddies, the paddies’ seedlings were all blackened. In 2004, in 80 households, nearly 20 people contracted cancer. Laryngeal cancer and lung cancer were the main types of cancer.

南昌市新建县望城镇璜溪垦殖场

（《江南都市报》2004年报道）

从化工厂里外漏的污水流进水稻田，将田里的水稻苗全部染黑。2004年，80户人家近20人患癌，以喉癌、肺癌为主。

(6) Yushan County, Yanrui Township, Guanshan Qiao Village
People’s Daily: 2006 report

Six limekilns near the village emitted fine coal ash throughout the year, leading to a decrease in production for over 100 acres of food provision fields. Even when it rained, the tops of leaves would retain a layer of white ash. In recent years, over 60 household groups had over 10 people die of cancer.

玉山县岩瑞镇关山桥村
（《人民日报》2006年报道）

村子附近的6个石灰窑常年外喷灰粉末、煤烟，导致关山桥村100多亩粮田减产，即使在下雨天，菜叶上也一层白灰。近年60余户的小组有10多人死于癌症。

(7) Deyang Shifang Shuangsheng Township, Tingjiang Village
China Economic Times: 2008 report

This village evaded the earthquake, but couldn’t escape pollution. In 2008, the number of people who died of cancer numbered at 50 to 60 people. Yang Jia was a young person of this village who helped with disaster relief efforts after the Wenchuan earthquake. His mother contracted oral cancer and then commited suicide by imbibing agricultural chemicals.

德阳什邡市双盛镇亭江村
（《中国经济时报》2008年报道）

该村躲过了地震却难逃污染，至2008年，癌症致死者达五六十人。该村在汶川地震中的抗震救灾英雄少年杨佳，其母于3年前因患口腔癌而喝下农药自尽。

(8) Shenqiu County, Zhouying Village (Huangmengying Village and 21 other villages)
Xi’An Evening News: 2004 report

For 14 years (1990-2004), over 100 people died of cancer in Shenqiu’s Huangmengying village, accounting for nearly half of all total deaths. Cancer developed as a result of industry on the waterfront, and uncontrolled discharge of sewage was caused by heavy water pollution. In all of Shenqiu County, 21 townships were contaminated. Villagers had to use credit to buy purified water.

沈丘县周营乡（黄孟营村等21个村庄）
（《西安晚报》2004年报道）

沈丘黄孟营村14年（1990-2004）间因癌死亡逾百人，占死亡总人数近半。癌症源于沙颍河上游工业、生活污水任意排放所造成的严重水污染。沈丘全县21个乡镇全部被污染，村民只得赊账买纯净水。

(9) Shaoguan, Wengyuan Counties; Xinjiang Township, Shangba village and 5 other villages.
Legal Daily: 2001 report

A large amount of mining waste water flowed into Shangba village. The little “village of fish and rice,” saw its arable land take on a brownish-red color. According to reports, an increasing number of villagers are contracting skin disease, liver disease, and cancer. As for ducks that go into the water, the fastest death happens within 4 to 5 hours, and the slowest occurs within 3 to 4 days.

韶关翁源县新江镇5个村庄
韶关翁源县新江镇（上坝村等5个村庄）
（《法制日报》2001年报道）

矿山开采产生的大量废水流入上坝村、小镇村，曾为“鱼米之乡”的小村，耕地变成了棕红色。至报道时，该村皮肤病、肝病、癌症患者越来越多，鸭子下水后，最快四五个小时就会死掉，最慢三四天也会死掉。

(10) Xiangfan City, Zhuji Township, Diwan Village
Changjiang Industry Paper: 2006 report

Within 3 years, a village of 3000 had over 100 people die of cancer. Among those, most were laborers between their thirties and fifties, in the prime of their lives. Villagers blame the nearby polluted river.

襄樊市朱集镇翟湾村

（《长江商报》2006年报道）

3年内3000人的村庄里100多人死于癌症，其中大多是30到50岁的青壮年劳力。村民认为这些是因为流经村旁的那条他们赖以生存的小河受到了严重污染。

Read more about China’s cancer villages, here.
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- May 8, 2009 9:39 PM
High-speed Railway to Link China’s West With Biggest Cities

Construction of a new high-speed rail between Zhengzhou and Xi’An has just begun. From Xinhua:

China began Thursday to lay tracks for the first high-speed passenger line in its western region, which will ultimately shorten trips between the ancient capital of Xi’an and Beijing to four hours from the current 11.

The 500-km line linking Xi’an in northwestern Shaanxi Province with Zhengzhou in central Henan will run at up to 350 km per hour.

“When it becomes operational at the end of this year, a ride between the two cities will take less than two hours compared with the present six,” said Li Hengman, deputy manager of the Zhengzhou-Xi’an Railway Company, operator of the 10.3-billion-U.S.dollar project.

He said the track-laying would be completed by June 10 and the railway was scheduled to be operational on Dec. 28.
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- May 8, 2009 7:59 PM
Why Are The Thirty-Year-Old Execution Photos Of A Corrupt Female Government Official So Popular On The Internet?

Roland Soong of EastSouthWestNorth translates a Xinhua article on the unexpected popularity of execution photos taken in 1980.

On April 23, 1979, the People’s Daily had an exclusive news report: In Heilongjiang province, the largest corrupt gang was busted. The criminal Wang Shouxin and others were arrested and investigated for the crimes of sharing illegal profits and then hiding and covering up the loot.

On February 28, 1980, this principal criminal of this internationally known crime — Heilongjiang Province Bingyuan County Combustible Fuel manager and party secretary Wang Shouxin — faced the legal consequences. You can call her a “corrupt official” but she is a merely a manager of a combustible fuel company. Nobody knows what the rank might be in the hierarchy of officialdom but it is probably the lowest possible.

A few years ago, the process of her execution was published by the photographer at the scene and then broadly circulated on the Internet. Recently, someone posted these photos on Sohu.com. Within a few days (ending 4pm on May 3), those photos had been seen by 1.132 million persons. The popularity was astonishing.

Ordinarily speaking, when a life is terminated, one should be studying the pathos of the death, no matter how much this person deserves to die. But why are so many people looking at these photos in so many different ways (calmly, emotionally, carefully or thoughtfully)? Some people even long for this scene to occur today. Now that is truly thought-provoking.
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- May 7, 2009 8:31 PM