Jiangxi province, rich in rare earths minerals in China, earned 32.9 billion yuan ($4.89 billion) from this industry last year, but it has to spend 38 billion yuan to tackle the environmental pollution in Ganzhou, one city in the province, according to an Economic Information report ….

“When I saw so many forests turn to dead bare hills because of rare earths exploiting. I only feel sad,” [Su Bo, vice minister of Ministry of Industry and Information Technology of China] said, “The hills are not what you see. It’s deteriorating from within ….”

“Protecting the natural resources and people’s health is our responsibility, not an excuse to limit rare earths exports, purported by the EU,” Su said, “We will not loosen the control on the industry.”

Rare earths are all but ubiquitous in high-tech electrical and electronic goods, from electric motors to earphones. But the threat of supply disruptions and price spikes has led manufacturers to seek alternatives. This week, Hitachi unveiled a new, rare earth-free electric motor. From AFP, via The Verge:

The prototype 11 kilowatt motor does not use magnets containing rare earths and is expected to go into commercial production in 2014, the company said.

Hitachi started work on the project on 2008. Other Japanese firms, including automaker Toyota, have been working towards the same goal, spurred on by high prices of the minerals.

Permanent magnet motors usually contain rare earth such as neodymium and dysprosium and are in increasing demand for the growing number of hybrid and electric vehicles.

A third approach to escaping China’s dominance is to diversify the supply by re-opening old mines and perhaps even exploiting deposits on the Pacific floor. But memos leaked last year from a controversial processing plant under construction in Malaysia, like the new Economic Information report cited by China Daily, illustrate why the rest of the world has preferred to leave rare earth extraction to China.

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Post tags: electric cars, EU, Japan, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, rare earth elements, rare metals, United States, WTO
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Revenue in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan in the first quarter quadrupled to $2.6 billion from a year earlier, [COO, Tim] Cook said during a Jan. 18 earnings call. Those regions will contribute “well over half” and possibly as much as 100 percent of Apple’s total earnings growth in the next two years, Morgan Stanley estimates.

“We put enormous energy into China, and the results of that have been absolutely staggering,” said Cook, who will handle the company’s day-to-day operations while Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs takes medical leave ….

The four Apple stores in China generate, on average, the highest traffic and highest revenue of any company stores in the world, Chief Financial Officer Peter Oppenheimer said on the call.

As well as these four locations, Apple launched an online store and a simplified-Chinese version of the App Store for iPhone and iPad last October. The San Francisco Chronicle article mentions that the 3G iPad has now been approved by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, barely ahead of the expected announcement of a second-generation device.

Not everything in China has gone Apple’s way. A spate of suicides occurred at “iPod City”, the enormous Foxconn plant which manufactures many of Apple’s (and other companies’) products. More recently, a coalition of Chinese environmental groups criticised Apple for the lack of transparency surrounding its supply chain, saying that this prevents independent verification of the company’s own audits (PDF).

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Post tags: Apple, apple store, IPad, iPhone, Lenovo, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
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A Chinese lawyer has demanded a public hearing to reconsider a government demand that all new personal computers carry Internet filtering software, adding to uproar over a plan critics say is ineffective and intrusive.

Li Fangping, a Beijing human rights advocate who often embraces controversial causes, has asked the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology to allow hearings on the “lawfulness and reasonableness” of the demand, which takes effect from July 1 and was publicized only this week.

“This administrative action lacks a legal basis,” Li wrote in a submission to the ministry that was sent to reporters by email on Thursday.

A statement from five groups sent by email said the software threatened to cripple access to many of the gay community websites that have flourished in recent years.

“We need to demand not just the lifting of this software decree, but also an end to restrictions on gay publications,” Wan (Yanhai) told Reuters. “This is about opposing censorship.”

Update: From the Wall Street Journal, “‘Green Dam’ Creator Seeks To Reassure That He’s Not Out To Censor China’s Web“:

The government mandate to ship all PCs in China with a filtering software called Green Dam-Youth Escort has caused quite a stir. Bryan Zhang wants to tell everyone that they needn’t worry.

To try to reassure observers that Green Dam’s function is purely to block pornography and other content inappropriate for kids, Zhang, founder of Jinhui Computer System Engineering, one of the two companies that developed Green Dam, gave a step-by-step demonstration of the software for The Wall Street Journal.

Zhang said that even users who have the software on the hard drive of their new PC would need to use an installer program to activate it. When they do so, they have the option of registering the software by providing some personal information. Users are given a standard password, which they can change, that enables them to access the program’s settings or turn it off.

He showed how parents can turn on or off filtering for five categories of content: “adult/ pornography,” “extreme adult/pornography,” “violent games,” “homosexuality,” and “illegal activities/drugs.” Zhang said that “illegal activities” includes, but isn’t limited to, gambling. Users can also opt to turn on or off the notifications that appear when a Web site is blocked by Green Dam.

Also, bloggers in China who have accessed copies of the software reveal that the filtered words and phrases contain more political content than pornographic, according to another report in the Wall Street Journal:

Shi Zhao, a prominent blogger from Beijing, said he and other bloggers and programmers found several data files that included Chinese phrases such as “6-4 massacre” — a reference to the Tiananmen Square military crackdown on June 4, 1989 — and “the celebration of Tibetan people.”

There are two kinds of keyword documents in the software: one is related to pornographic content, and the other related to political content, he said. “The documents related to political stuff are very big — much, much bigger than those related to pornographic content,” he said.

Mr. Shi posted his findings in a document online that has since been widely circulated on blogs and Internet forums, fueling concerns in China about the program.

© jleung for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Green Dam, Internet filtering, Li Fangping, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Wan Yanhai
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China said Tuesday it would have all new computers in China pre-installed with a filter software, in a bid to protect minors from “unhealthy information” from the Internet.

All computers produced or sold in China after July 1 would be installed with such software, said the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MITT).

Mandatory pre-installation of the ‘Green Dam-Youth Escort’ filter has already come under attack from foreign computer industries.  From the Taipei Times:

China yesterday defended a new requirement that personal computers sold in the country carry a software that filters online content, just hours after Microsoft said the rule raised issues of freedom of expression, privacy and security that “need to be properly addressed.”

The statement by the US software giant came after a US computer industry association denounced the Chinese move and leading US personal computer makers said they were studying its ramifications.

Foreign ministry spokesman Qin Gang (秦剛) defended Beijing’s administration of the Internet, saying it was in accordance with the law and that the software “is aimed at blocking and filtering some unhealthy content, including pornography and violence.”

And from BBC:

Critics have complained that [the new screening software] could also be used to stop Chinese internet users searching for politically sensitive information.

But Mr Qin, speaking at a regular press briefing, said China promoted the healthy development of the internet.

[...]The aim is to build a healthy and harmonious online environment that does not poison young people’s minds, according to the directive [issued July 1 by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology].

Beijing based financial magazine Caijing published the following text on this topic, translated by CDT:

Notice Concerning Pre-installation of Green Web Access Filtering Software

Associated Work Units:

In order to create a green, healthy, and harmonious internet
environment, to avoid exposing youth to the harmful effects of bad
information, the Ministry of Information Industry, The Central
Spiritual Civilization Office, and The Commerce Ministry, in
accordance with the requirements of “The Government Purchasing Law,”
are using central funds to purchase rights to “Green Dam Flower Season
Escort”(Henceforth “Green Dam”) … for one year along with associated
services, which will be freely provided to the public. The software is
for general use and testing. The software can effectively filter
improper language and images and is prepared for use by computer
factories.

In order to improve the government’s ability to deal with Web content
of low moral character, and preserve the healthy development of
children, the regulation and demands pertaining to the software are as
follows:

1) Computers produced and sold in China must have the latest version
of “Green Dam” pre-installed, imported computers should have the
latest version of the software installed prior to sale.
2) The software should be installed on computer hard drives and
available discs for subsequent restoration
3) The providers of “Green Dam” have to provide support to computer
manufacturers to facilitate installation
4) Computer manufacturers must complete installation and testing prior
to the end of June. As of July 1, all computers should have “Green
Dam” pre-installed.

5) Every month computer manufacturers and the provider of Green Dam
should give MII data on monthly sales and the pre-installation of the
software. By February 2010, an annual report should be submitted.

If pre-installation does not happen on time or reports aren’t made on
time, given incorrectly, or not given at all, the MII will mandate
another report or a correction within a limited time period.

ESWN blog translated following comments from Chinese netizens about the “Green Dam” software:

- Hello everybody, I am a teacher at a school and I wish to make the following comments. First, the school computers are always restored to their original conditions each time after they are used. Therefore, all monitoring data will be lost every time that the computer is turned off. Therefore, there is nothing to monitor afterwards. Second, this software does not have a network edition. For a school with many computers, it is not easy to administer this software one computer at a time. This is impractical.

- I don’t want to discuss whether the functionalities of Green Dam are good or bad, but it is a nuisance because of all the upgrading that goes on. We are a rural school, and we are using rural distance learning equipment (namely, Lenovo computers). If we install Green Dam, then we cannot do simultaneous network broadcasts or hard disk protection. Even if Green Dam guarantees safe Internet usage, how are we to maintain the software on our computers? Our computer instructor is going to sit around all day to watch Green Dam being upgraded one computer at a time. I am going to faint! Our supervisory leaders must not know how to use computers!

- Let me say something here. We were ordered to install the software. So I have to come to this website and curse. After we installed the software, many normal websites are banned. For example, it is normal for students to like games such as 4399, but not any more … many news reports have certain normal words but they are banned … for example, when reports that there is a campaign against pornographic websites, the software bans the story because the term “pornographic websites” was used. Don’t tell me how great the software technology is, because this is a piece of junk. When we need to look up some course-related material, there is always some provocative advertisements on the pages so we can’t access them anymore. Why doesn’t the state just ban those advertisements directly? I want to curse someone out …

Also from LA Times:

The order by China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology was unprecedented in scope: All personal computers sold in the country as of July 1 would have to include government-sponsored Internet filtering software.

But just how the plan, which would potentially affect hundreds of millions of computer users, would be carried out remains unclear. The rules, issued last month but made public this week, require computer manufacturers to install software whose stated aim is to shield minors from pornography and other “harmful” material.

Proponents of Internet freedom worry that the plan would expand the reach of one of the world’s most stringent domestic censorship programs. Restricted access to politically sensitive material is a way of life in China. YouTube has been blocked since April.

Update: See also “The Green Dam, be careful probing” by Hu Yong, translated by Danwei and an article from the English-language version of Global Times.

Update (6/11/09): Alice Xin Liu writes at the Guardian:

It is well known that western internet companies such as Yahoo and Microsoft censor content from Chinese blogs. In 2006, Yahoo was lambasted as China’s strictest censor of English language political content; in 2005, Microsoft blocked a popular blog by Chinese journalist Michael Anti for its outspoken content on freedom of speech and press.

However, the censorship efforts of western commercial blog hosts are not in the same league as the measure made this week by the Chinese government, who ordered that Green Dam Youth Escort – a government-developed software that filters pornographic and violent content from websites – be installed on every mainland manufactured computer after 1 July. Although the software’s designers have attempted to reassure observers that the software will only be used to target five categories of content – “adult/pornography, extreme adult/pornography, violent games, homosexuality, and illegal activities/drugs” – concerns remain that the government will use the filtering system to aid its political agenda.

[...]Western companies are hamstrung because the legality of the scheme cannot be called into question. The organisations behind the project are Jinhui Computer System Engineering and the Beijing Dazheng Human Language Technology academy. The former was chosen by the government to develop the software. This in itself is a point of contention – it was “chosen”, despite concerns voiced by critics over a “monopoly”, profits go to the government and the company. Although the academy aided in thedevelopment of the software, Jinhui has been the focus for the anger of online commentaters and forums, who have questioned the financial wastage involved in the project. There are suggestions that the 41.7m yuan (£3.7m) might have been better used elsewhere, such as education, healthcare reform or improving the conditions of the poor – especially as sceptics have suggested the software will prove relatively easy to defeat.

© dwang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | 4 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Green Dam, Internet censorship, Internet filtering, Microsoft, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology
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