Results tagged “google”

Since our live blogging of Obama's town hall meeting with Chinese students earlier today, a few interesting things have come to light.

A blogger out of Fujian has compiled an open-source google map that places major pollution sites around china. While similar sources have existed in the past, this is the first one that allows other users to contribute sites with pollution problems. The map, which was created by Guo Baofeng, has attracted a lot of interest on Chinese BBS' and Forums: check it out while you still can, because you never know when it could suddenly disappear.

If you've got a Nokia S60 series and happen to speak Chinese, you can now use Google voice search on your mobile in China. The new service, the first non-English voice search Google has released, is one of many recent attempts to wrestle some more of the market away from current leader Baidu. According to the company, it works best with sharper Mandarin accents (Beijingers might have a little more trouble being understood) and will be rolled out to other phones sometime soon.

• Black Future: The coal bosses of Shanxi are tired of being the government's whipping boys [Forbes] "One of the most reviled and reclusive villains in the Chinese economy has been the coal mine boss. The archetypal robber baron of the Chinese Gilded Age, he has been caricatured as ruthless, greedy, corrupt and uncivilized. Now the coal mine boss is casting himself as a human rights case. The government of China's coal-rich Shanxi Province, southwest of Beijing, is trying to drive almost all private mine owners out of business, forcing more than 1,500 mines to shut down or sell out to state-owned enterprises at prices so low, coal bosses say, that some may go bankrupt."
• Google's Eric Schmidt on What the Web Will Look Like in 5 Years [Read Write Web] "Google CEO Eric Schmidt envisions a radically changed internet five years from now: dominated by Chinese-language and social media content, delivered over super-fast bandwidth in real time."
• The French Connection’s China Connection [WSJ] "A French court Tuesday sentenced two businessmen convicted in the arms-for-oil “Angolagate” scandal that implicated 42 defendants including top politicians, civil servants and even the son of late Socialist President Francois Mitterrand. One of the two, and a chief defendant in the case, is Pierre Falcone, who’s now in jail pending an appeal on the charges he helped arrange shipments of $790 million worth of weapons to Angola in the mid-1990s."

• Critics howl at pooch's pampering, price tag [China Daily] "A welcome worthy of a world leader that was given to a 4-million-yuan ($588,000) dog has raised the hackles of critics. The Tibetan mastiff, or Zang'ao in Chinese, arrived in his new masters' hometown of Xi'an, Shaanxi province, by air on Wednesday after he was bought for the colossal sum. After his safe landing, a motorcade comprising 30 Mercedes-Benz vehicles escorted the canine to his new digs."
• China and U.S.: Tire-d of Fighting [Forbes] "There was a time not too long ago when little seemed more important in U.S.-China relations than the politics of trade -- when a dispute over steel tariffs or the value of Chinese currency would bring out fire-breathers on either side of the Pacific. Now we'll find out if that time finally has passed. By Thursday Sept 17th, President Obama will take up the first big China trade issue of his presidency: tires, as in the cheap Chinese tires that millions of Americans have on their cars. Obama must decide whether to impose a tariff of as high as 55 percent that has been recommended to him by the U.S. International Trade Commission."
• High hurdles for China's commercial aviation ambitions [Reuters] "As Boeing and Airbus grapple with problems from global recession to manufacturing glitches, a longer-term worry looms: China's ambition to compete in the aerospace business. Beijing has declared its goal to manufacture large passenger jets with more than 150 seats and freighters capable of handling over 100 tonnes of cargo, with the explicit aim of taking on Boeing and Airbus."

• Black is White, White is Black [Asia Sentinel] "“Even now I still cannot calm down. Only rage, rage and rage. Only extreme (expletive) rage! I can never imagine how a government, a great nation, which has more or less squeezed itself in on the international stage, and which has earned a bit of status in the international community, can be so shameless, knavish, lawless, unable to tell right from wrong, black from white, turning a victim into an accused, twisting facts and twisting truths - how can such a nation and motherland be so thick-skinned as to tell Hong Kong people to be patriotic?"
• China unveils high-speed railways [BBC] "China has announced plans to build 42 new high-speed railway lines over the next three years. In a breakthrough, China has developed trains that can run on both high-speed and normal lines, said railway official Zhang Shuguang. A 500km/h train will be tested by the end of next year, Mr Zhang said. China will have added 13,000km of high-speed lines by 2012, shortening journey times considerably for the expected seven billion annual passengers."
• Thomas Friedman Demands Communist Revolution [Gawker] "Flat-earther Times columnist Thomas Friedman thinks we should probably "outsource" our form of government to China, where they have streamlined the whole process by eliminating the bit where idiots "vote." No, seriously, he is outright saying that the autocratic one-party Chinese government is superior to our own. There is no equivocation in this line: "There is only one thing worse than one-party autocracy, and that is one-party democracy, which is what we have in America today." And why are things better in China? Because the current "reasonably enlightened group of people" in charge of China, at the moment, can just impose "politically difficult but critically important policies" like raising gas prices to encourage clean power investment and so on."
• China tip-off 'sparked' fighting [Al Jazeera] "A senior Myanmar official has said that last month's clashes in the northeast of the country were sparked after a Beijing tipped them off about the location of an illegal arms factory. Up to 30,000 people fled across the border from Kokang into northern China during the fighting which followed the raid on the arms factory in the mainly ethnic Chinese region."

• China says 35 killed in blast at coal mine [latimes.com] "Chinese officials says a blast in a coal mine has killed 35 in central Henan province and left 44 other miners trapped. The State Administration of Work Safety said the predawn explosion today happened at a pit in Pingdingshan city. A statement on the administration's website did not give a cause for the blast. It said 14 miners managed to flee to safety. Ninety-three men were working underground at the time of the blast, it said."
• China enters list of lower-middle-income countries: NBS [China Daily] "China's economic aggregate ranked third in the world as of 2008, pulling it into the list of lower-middle-income countries from low-income ones, according to a Sept 7 report released by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS). The report, featuring the nation's 60-year development since 1949 when new China was founded, also said China has gradually become a large manufacturing country as it strengthened industrial infrastructure construction and expanded productivity."
• Taiwan premier quits over typhoon [BBC NEWS] "Taiwan's premier Liu Chao-shiuan has resigned, after the government was heavily criticised for its slow response to last month's typhoon. Mr Liu will be replaced by the ruling party's secretary general, Wu Den-yih. Mr Liu told reporters that someone had to take political responsibility for the fact that at least 600 people had died as a result of Typhoon Morakot."

• China's Top Muckrakers Stop Digging [Foreign Policy] "There are no pyres of magazines burning, no information police combing the newsstands every morning. Magazine censorship in China is banal. Almost all of the control has long been done in-house before publication, by reporters and editors who know just how far they can and cannot go. The closest many private magazines get to an official censor is someone they call "Teacher," sent from their own publishing houses, to patrol content. But these days, it's not just editors who are drawing in the lines. It's the investors — the owners and backers of China's few independent media outlets. And there is no better example than Caijing, China's leading business magazine, for which I used to work as an editor."
• Tanks out in Beijing in 60th anniversary rehearsal [The Associated Press] "Tanks, armored personnel carriers and rocket launchers rolled along a major Beijing boulevard Sunday in practice for a parade next month to mark China's 60th anniversary. The main east-west artery of Beijing was closed for a rehearsal of the elaborate military parade planned for Oct. 1, when the People's Republic of China celebrates six decades since its founding. The parade is intended to highlight accomplishments China has made in its defense sector."
• China Urged to Subsidize 'New Energy' Vehicles [WSJ] "The head of BYD Co., one of China's leading makers of electric vehicles, urged the Chinese government to subsidize private purchases of all-electric battery cars and other "new energy" vehicles, saying their widespread adoption in China depends on it. Speaking at an industry conference Sunday, BYD Chairman Wang Chuanfu said a lack of consumer incentives and subsidies has kept BYD from making a plug-in hybrid car available for private buyers. He warned that a continued lack of government assistance might doom all-electric cars and plug-in hybrids in the marketplace because of their currently high cost."

• Regulation on puppy love sparks controversy [China.org.cn] "The first local regulation in China to list puppy love as "misconduct" and suggest parents reprimand and stop it has sparked controversy across the country. Heated discussions on the regulation has spread across media and websites nationwide, after the Regulation for the Protection of Minors of Heilongjiang Province, the first of its kind to tackle puppy love, was revised and adopted by the local legislature last month."
• Drugs Don’t Work for Half of China’s AIDS Patients, Study Says [Bloomberg] "Half of China’s AIDS patients stopped responding to treatment over five years and didn’t have access to the back-up drugs available in developed nations, researchers found. Among 48,785 HIV patients who received free treatment under a government program from 2002 to 2008, the drugs curbed AIDS- related deaths but failed to treat 50 percent of the group over the period, researchers led by Fujie Zhang at China’s Center for Disease Control and Prevention found. The results are similar to those for other low- and middle-income countries, they said. "
• Chief of Google in China Leaving [NY Times] "In what is likely to be seen as a blow to Google’s ambitions in China, Kai-Fu Lee, the prominent head of the company’s operations there, is leaving to form a new venture. Google said in a news release early Friday in Beijing that Mr. Lee, who was president of Google Greater China and vice president for engineering, would leave the company in mid-September."

The crackdown on Google in China seems to have had little effect on its internet traffic. After dropping to 29th place on Friday, Google.cn returned to its original position of 21st place yesterday. While this is still much lower than Baidu (which has remained a stable position in the top 10), it's not bad for a site that's been consistently targeted by Chinese authorities - including campaigns complete with fallacious name-smearing interviews and fudged statistics, as well as a firewalling of several of its auxiliary services. Source: SCMP (paywalled)

Some enterprising cyber-Sherlock has used Google's Insight for Search service to discover that certain pornographic search terms experienced suspicious growth in the days prior to the the anti-Google CCTV reports.

We already know about the Chinese government's obsession with blocking porn. It's brought us the web portal clean up, the Green Dam and - most recently - the heinous Google block. But now they're even tearing down websites that are about sexual health.

So after a night without Google, it seems like the block is slowly rolling back and people are finally able to access their gmail around the country once again (though, at this moment, Shanghai users are still reporting problems). But why did it happen? According to the Guardian surmises that it was a "warning shot" over Google's "porn filters" (we quotemark that because it seems like Baidu, which has equally lax porn filters, is "safe"). Chinese netizens think it's to distract attention away from the Green Dam. If that's the truth, one can only wonder who's brain child this could've been: distract from controversy over web blocking by blocking the web? Good going.

It looks like sometime earlier tonight, almost all Google services stopped working in China. Now, at least Gmail's back up, but anything on the google.com domain is still inaccessable, though Google.cn and Google.uk are still able to be used. According to Herdict, Google works only one out of every six tries, and the blackout seems to have affected all parts of the country. Nobody's sure why the government has decided to hate on the G-ster, but it's got to be insane how many businesses and people this move affects.

• China to recruit 120,000 college graduates to join the army in 2009 [People's Daily Online] "The People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China will recruit more than 120,000 college graduates this year, a military source said here Sunday. According to a website run by the Ministry of Education to help college graduates find jobs, it is the first time the PLA has recruited college graduates on such a large scale, as the army seeks to improve its overall quality by drawing more talent and advancing its science and technology."
• Building of dams goes on despite halt order [SCMP] Construction had continued on two highly controversial hydro dams on the Yangtze River in Yunnan province , despite orders from the mainland's top environmental watchdog for the projects to be abandoned, state television reports. The two dams are being built by power giants China Huaneng Group and China Huadian Group, which together produced a fifth of the mainland's electricity last year.
• Peking Opera troupes take bold steps to be profitable [China Daily] "The China National Peking Opera Company, China's top operatic troupe, entrusted Beijing Guoyishengping Culture Development Co, Ltd to manage the theater and make it commercially viable one and a half years ago. Zhang Delin and his wife Yu, a famous BTV anchorwoman, own the Beijing Guoyishengping. That move marked a turnaround for the State-owned firm used to government funding to run its operations. An opera ticket at the theater is priced between 2,080 yuan to 50 yuan."

• Audit Finds Beijing Games Produced Surplus [Wall Street Journal] "The 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics produced a surplus of about 1.16 billion yuan ($171 million), according to the latest audit issued Friday by China's National Audit Office. Revenue from the Olympics, which China hosted for the first time in August, totaled CNY20.5 billion and expenditure totaled CNY19.34 billion, according to the auditor's report."
• Gingrich comments on Uighurs don’t sit well with some in GOP [Freep] "Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich got into a public spat with fellow Republicans this week after he denounced the 17 Chinese Muslims who are being released from the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, military prison as 'terrorists' who should be sent back to China, where they’re likely to face persecution."
• The U.S.: Always Making Trouble For China [Forbes] "Instead of offering the usual foreign-correspondent musings about China, Forbes invited an outspoken Chinese essayist to take a few shots at the U.S. and the rest of the West. Wang Xiaodong, a researcher at the Communist Youth League-affiliated China Youth and Children Research Center, urges that China strengthen its military and stand up to the U.S."

• Computer-makers fight China's filter order [SFGate] "Responding to another citizens' revolt, 4,000 miles from Tehran, China reportedly won't force individual computer users to install software to filter out "harmful" stuff. But it has not backed down on its order that, as of July 1, all PCs sold in China must have such software installed. That, as we've noted, puts No. 1 U.S. seller of PCs in China, Palo Alto's Hewlett-Packard Co., in a serious bind. Especially, as is now known, because the software can be used to block considerably more than "pornography.""
• Beijing Says 'Buy China' Directive Is Not Protectionist [VoA] "China is defending its so-called "Buy China" directive that gives Chinese companies first, and nearly exclusive, priority in winning contracts under the country's nearly $600 billion stimulus program. When the U.S. government debated adding a "Buy American" requirement to its stimulus bill, China protested loudly. Chinese officials called the move toxic and protectionist."
• Report on effects of Climate Change [Boston Examiner] "As Congress acts to enact a Climate Change bill, China is still seen as being unwilling to make carbon reductions. It would quite possible to have a carbon cap and trade program in place and then have the Senate not ratify the upcoming Copenhagen Protocol if China and India fail to enact law to reduce carbon emissions. The U.S. should lead by example and pave the way for developing countries to participate. Failure by the Senate to ratify the Copenhagen Protocol will send the wrong message to China, Brazil and India."

• The Seven People You’ll Meet in Hotel Quarantine [A Product Guy] "Having now spent almost 3 days here in Hotel Quarantine, and adjusted to life in the Big House, I’ve noticed some common patterns among the types of people I’m encountering and sharing these experiences with. Generally, they fall into one of seven categories."
• Police fatally wound man during protest in China's Xinjiang [AFP] "Police in China's western-most Muslim region of Xinjiang fired warning shots to disperse a crowd protesting against a real estate project Tuesday, fatally wounding a man, state media said. The incident occurred in the regional capital Urumqi when a policeman identified as Kudelet Kurban accidentally fired his gun into a crowd of about 60 people, Xinhua news agency reported."
• U.S. may be within N. Korea missile range in 3 years, official warns [LA Times] "North Korea may be able to overcome technical difficulties and assemble a missile capable of hitting West Coast cities within three years, a top Defense Department official said Tuesday, but it is unlikely to be able to deliver a nuclear warhead in that time frame. The U.S. assessment came as North Korea's rulers show signs of preparing for additional weapons tests in the face of international condemnation and new United Nations sanctions."

• China's communists celebrate with 'red tourism' [AFP] "Sixty years after founding the People's Republic of China, the communist regime is keeping the revolutionary fires burning while promoting its version of history through "red tourism" destinations such as that in the eastern city of Wuhu."
• Google to "Develop" 10,000 Hangzhou SMEs [JLM Pacific Epoch] "Google plans to "develop" 10,000 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province over the next three years, reports Today Morning Express quoting Google Greater China Director and General Manager of Sales Song Zhongjie. Song said Google plans to double its Zhejiang distributors and employees in 2009. The Hangzhou government aims to help 10,000 SMEs enter the e-commerce industry each year, said Song."

Oh look! While we're still waiting for anything besides a rumor that the HTC Magic (G2) Android phone will come to China, Sciphone's released their version: the Dream G2. It's here and, at only 750~800RMB, even cheaper than we originally thought it would be.

After the launch of Google China's free music service we couldn't resist taking it for a test drive - especially since all the pundits have been saying this was too little too late for Google as Baidu has been offering free (albeit illegal) MP3 downloads for ages.

As is the tradition, each year Google creates a rumor or a hoax that is designed to give the internet community a bit of a giggle. This year Google rehashed an old theme especially for us Chinese "fools."

By Matt Doyle

• Deadly sex story puts 2 bloggers in court [Shanghai Daily] "The widow of the late Chinese film director Xie Jin has filed a libel lawsuit against twin-brother bloggers for claiming her husband died while having sex with a prostitute."
• Beijing teen hot-wires bus, causes chaos [AP] "A 13-year-old boy apparently hot-wired a public bus and took it on a joyride in downtown Beijing and crashed it into a dozen vehicles in a scene witnesses likened to a blockbuster movie, state media reported Monday."
• China plans to launch its own 'Google Earth' [China Economic Net]"Compared with Google Earth, the pictures provided by the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping feature higher resolution and cover a wider range of national territory. As long as the place is not subject to significant security restrictions, online users can search wherever they want in the country."

Jesus Diaz at Gizmodo typed "I am extremely" into his Google search bar and came up with these results. Hmmm... Maybe it's because we aren't afraid to sue over racial slights.

Of no surprise to most people, the Baidu scandal has caused the search engine to lose some of its massive lead over Google in the Chinese market. While the company says its taken steps to correct the problems underscored by a CCTV expose, and U.S. investors are confident that Google won't ever win the race in this country, the numbers are still enough to make Baidu sweat a little. Google's share of the local online ad market rose 4.4% to 27.8% from the prior year. Baidu's rise was smaller, at 2.9% during the same period. Meanwhile, 4Q Internet traffic levels shrunk at Baidu, but gained at Google. Source: Bloomberg

2009 is shaping up to be a very interesting year for China's mobile market. All that excitement over Google's Android phone is finally making its way to China. On the right you see a sleek new gadget codenamed "OPhone" that is making its rounds on gadget forums lately. Said to be a joint effort between Lenovo and China Mobile, this is the first in a series of phones that will be "based on China Mobile's OMS (Open Mobile System) which is essentially Android + TD SCDMA (China's home-grown 3G standard)." ITProPortal says the phone is expected to debut sometime in February or March.

In the latest Google Zeitgeist rankings which aggregates billions of search queries and ranks top search queries around the world, Edison Chen and Sarah Palin took top honours in China and the world respectively. The Beijing 2008 Olympics would have been the fastest rising search term hands down but was edged out by Edison Chen in the China category, and Sarah Palin in the Global category.

Via Andrew Sullivan we learn of this extraordinary project:

Recent actions by the Alibaba Group and Taobao to protect their market share may not be enough given the multi-front strategy taken by search engine juggernaut Baidu. With their profits up by 91% in the last quarter, Baidu seems to be using their financial success to attack other Chinese online markets.