Who said money can’t buy love?
An elitist and largely exclusive online matchmaking site for China’s growing upper class is taking off as the country’s wealthy bachelors look to spend their money (or their parent’s) on finding the most beautiful partner money can buy. Read the rest of this entry »
The fallout of the China Google drama picked up a notch yesterday, just as things seemed to be cooling off, with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s speech on Internet freedom ruffling some feathers in Beijing.
“Censorship should not be in any way accepted by any company from anywhere,” Clinton said yesterday in Washington. “American companies need to make a principled stand. This needs to be part of our national brand. I’m confident that consumers worldwide will reward companies that follow those principles.”
“Some countries have erected electronic barriers that prevent their people from accessing portions of the world’s networks,” she said in words that clearly ring true in China. “They have expunged words, names, and phrases from search engine results. They have violated the privacy of citizens who engage in nonviolent political speech.” Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese cinemas have confirmed that they are being told to stop showing the international blockbuster ‘Avatar’ in standard format starting as early as Thursday, a move that the media claims is an effort to give domestic films a fair chance at the profits.
‘Avatar’ will retain about one-third of its showings in the popular 3D format while the 2D version is likely to be replaced with the Chinese film, ‘Confucius,’ starring Chow Yun-Fat and Zhou Xun.
Despite being featured in approximately 2,500 theaters across China since its debut on January 4th, patrons are still waiting in line for hours to buy tickets to the international blockbuster, the New York Times reports. Read the rest of this entry »
This article has just been removed from Xinhua’s website. Read it here on CTL:
Google China’s exiting statement has sparked worldwide attention to ties between China and the United States this week.
Discussions included China’s web environment, the China-U.S. trade relationship, and others. But it’s inappropriate to play up the issue, or turn it into a political one.
Recent cyber attacks threatening user security, corporate data, and critical software source codes, as well as expanding censorship restrictions demanded from the Chinese government, have led Google execs to question whether remaining in China is in the company’s best interest and, furthermore, whether a decision to stay would adhere to the company’s official motto, “Don’t be evil.”
Although blocked in China, here is the link to Google’s official statement issued yesterday for our readers abroad.
Here is also the CNBC interview with David Drummond, chief legal officer at Google, who discusses the Internet giant’s reaction.
Google has disclosed that its computer systems experienced sophisticated cyber attacks last month that it suspects originated in China and that targeted Gmail user accounts of Chinese human rights activists.
Taking into consideration the technology, brains, and power behind the Google machine, as well as the severity of the implications, it is pretty safe to say that this isn’t a baseless claim.
Google’s decision to stand up to the Chinese government has earned them praise around the world from human rights advocates, but has undoubtedly irked the powers that be in the Chinese government and has received mixed reactions within China.
China’s largely government influenced media outlets have been trying to downplay the news online and during television broadcasts.
Xinhua: China seeks clarity on Google’s intentions
China Daily: Google pullout threat ‘a pressure tactic’
Shanghai Daily: Mixed bag of reaction to Google quit threat
Since its entrance into the Chinese market in 2006, Google has come under criticism from human rights activists for agreeing to censor a portion of their search results, resulting in some calling Google.cn the ‘neutered Google’ or ‘communist Google’.
Google, however, has defended its decision to enter the Chinese market with a modified version, claiming that it is still a more open option for Chinese Internet users than domestic search engines like Baidu, which controls approximately 61 percent of the market (to Google’s approx. 31 percent) and maintains a close relationship with the government.
While this is largely true, entering sensitive words like ‘freedom,’ ‘freedom of speech,’ ‘freedom of religion,’ and ‘dalai lama’ into Google search within China will not only lead you to a blocked page, but will shut down the Google search function on your computer for 90 seconds, even today.
Regardless of whether or not Google indeed leaves China, the fallout from this will be very interesting to watch.
Here are some more interesting articles on the subject:
Google Gets on the Right Side of History
Google is not alone in calling China’s bluff
What do Chinese people think about all this? China Geeks has compiled and translated excerpts from all over the web. To find out what Chinese people have to say on the topic, click here!
The Cuban Government awarded China’s Ambassador to Cuba Zhao Rongxian with the Friendship Medal on Thursday for his contributions to strengthening friendship and cooperation between the two countries.
China is Cuba’s second largest commercial partner, one of its chief importers, and a longstanding source of credit to the island nation, according to information provided by the Cuban Government.
Xinhua reports that, as urban fixed-asset investment continues to rise, China will see a steady increase in mid to long term lending.
According to a report from Galaxy Securities on Wednesday, monthly new yuan-dominated loans over the next four month are expected to reach 450 billion yuan (USD65.9 billion).
Data from the National Bureau of Statistic showed that fixed-asset investment in China’s urban areas rose to 11.3 trillion yuan, up 33 percent in the first eight months of 2009.
New loans in the first eight months stood at 8.15 trillion yuan, far exceeding the year end target of five trillion yuan, according to the People’s Bank of China.
The detention of four Rio Tinto executives in Shanghai last week is likely to rattle international investors precisely at a time when China needs foreign support as it strives to move away from an export-based, low-end manufacturing center. China’s Ministry of State Security took the four into custody and failed to inform either Rio Tinto or the employees’ families – one of the four was an Australian citizen whose government was also kept in the dark.
With allegations of pricing disputes, tit-for-tat over the recent blocking of a sale of part of the company to the Chinese state-owned Chinalco, and the lack of information coming from the Chinese authorities on the matter, foreign business working in China are beginning to voice concerns. Read the rest of this entry »
China, India and Russia are increasingly calling for a rethink of how global currency reserves are composed and managed, underlining a power shift to emerging markets from the developed nations that spawned the financial crisis.
“There should be a system to maintain the stability of the major reserve currencies,” Bloomberg reported former Chinese Vice Premier Zeng Peiyan as saying in a speech in Beijing.
Leaders from China and India are preparing to join their counterparts from the Group of Eight industrialized nations – the United States, Japan, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Canada and Russia – at a summit in Italy next week. In addition to China and India, Brazil will also send representatives to the summit.
Emerging markets continue to remain dependent on the U.S. dollar, thanks in part to the United States’ status as the world’s largest economy and a US$2.5 trillion export market. Shares of dollars in global foreign- exchange reserves increased to 65 percent in the first three months of this year, the highest since 2007 according to the IMF.
Shi Pei Pu, the Beijing opera singer and spy who was the inspiration for the broadway show M. BUtterfly died in Paris last week. Shi’s sexually convoluted love affair with a French Embassy worker created one of the strangest cases in international espionage.
The New York Times reported:
Mr. Shi, who was convicted of espionage in France in 1986 along with his lover, Bernard Boursicot, was believed to be 70. He had also been believed for years to be a woman, at least by Mr. Boursicot, who served time in prison after the affair and became a laughingstock in France.
