Doing business in China: September 2009 Archives

By Owen Fletcher, IDG News Service | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
September 25, 2009

Security forces with black masks and machine guns on the streets of China's capital are just the more visible side of a security clampdown in the country this month: there is also its secretive battle to control the Internet.

The heightened security comes ahead of a massive military parade Beijing will hold in the heart of the city next week to celebrate China's 60th anniversary of communist rule, an event the government hopes will showcase the country's development and go untarnished by security threats or shows of dissent. China's newest nuclear missiles will be included in the arsenal of weapons and equipment shown off in the parade, according to state-run media.

Security measures have included a crackdown this month on online tools that help users circumvent the "Great Firewall," the set of technical measures China uses to filter the Internet, according to providers of the tools.

"They put more resources into the blocking," said Bill Xia, president of Dynamic Internet Technology, which makes a widely used anti-censorship program called Freegate.

"It has been getting worse and worse this month," he said.

Many expatriates and savvy locals in China rely on Freegate as well as proxy servers and virtual private networks (VPNs) to bypass blocks that China places on Web sites like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter. But accessing some of those tools has become more difficult in recent weeks.

China has always blocked IP (Internet Protocol) addresses it believes are used by Freegate, which routes users' communication through foreign IP addresses to grant access to Web sites blocked in China. But this month it became more aggressive and began blocking a wider range of IP addresses, risking taking down unrelated targets in order to hit more Freegate users, Xia said. The moves have left most users unable to use the program, prompting Xia's company to ready an updated version of Freegate that will be available in a few days.

China also cranked up its efforts to stifle Freegate ahead of another sensitive date this year: the 20th anniversary of its bloody crackdown on student democracy protests in Beijing's Tiananmen Square in June 1989.

Measures China uses to limit access to certain Web sites include altering entries in the DNS (domain name system), which translates URLs like google.com into the numeric IP addresses used to relay information online, and resetting a computer's connection when it tries to visit a banned site. The country's police force also patrols the Internet for sensitive or pornographic content.

Authorities appear to have stepped up efforts to block other circumvention tools as well. China-based users of Hotspot Shield, another popular program that encrypts and reroutes online activity, have had problems accessing the program's Web site since last month, a representative of developer AnchorFree said in an e-mail.

China last month also started blocking the Web site of Blacklogic, a VPN provider, a company representative said, though the Web site can currently be accessed from China. The company had to switch to a new tunneling protocol when some users recently became unable to connect to any servers, the representative said.

"I'm unable to tell you with a 100 percent guarantee what [technical] measures are taken in China to interfere with our service, but these measures are being taken," the representative said.

Not all VPN providers appear to have been affected. China has mainly blocked free VPNs and proxies while allowing similar paid services, a representative of VPN provider 12vpn said in an e-mail.

Accessing blocked Web sites is fairly easy in China and many users do so through free Web-based proxies. Most VPN users in China are expatriates, but more local Chinese may be signing up as well. 12vpn and other tool providers said their number of China-based users rose after early July, when China blocked Facebook and Twitter.

Some VPN providers declined to comment for a news story for fear of drawing China's attention and potential restrictions on VPNs.

At least one Chinese city has adopted a further measure to monitor Internet traffic. The southern city of Guangzhou this month ordered Internet service providers to install "security monitoring" software on all servers and threatened punishment for failure to do so, according to government notices posted on the blog of one data center management company. Two such software programs, called Blue Shield and Huadun, were recommended in one of the government notices. Huadun's Web site says the program helps server owners remove illegal and pornographic content from their systems.

The software is meant to "create a favorable online environment" for China's National Day celebration next week, the government orders said. A representative of the data center company reached by phone said it put the orders on the blog for reference by clients and that the order applied only to Guangzhou.

Some of China's new security measures could remain in place long after the 60th anniversary celebrations, but others are likely to be lifted. China has long gone through cycles of blocking and allowing access to Web sites such as YouTube and Wikipedia, and updates to Freegate have repeatedly allowed the tool to bypass evolving government security measures against it.

Still, Chinese users have posted skeptical notes on Twitter about China's newest Internet controls. When asked if Twitter and Facebook would be unblocked after the National Day celebration next week, one user said they would not.

"Last year we had the Olympics, this year is National Day (which actually happens every year), and next year is the World Expo," the user wrote. "Actually, every year and every month and every day are sensitive."

>> Original source

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | The New York Times
September 22, 2009

China has banned foreign tourists from traveling to Tibet ahead of a parade in the capital to mark 60 years of Communist rule, an official said Tuesday, amid stepped-up security across the country to ensure nothing mars the celebrations.

Tan Lin, an official with the business administration office at the Tourism Bureau of Tibet, said foreign tourists would be banned from Tuesday onwards, but those who have already arrived would be allowed to stay.

China has tightened security in recent weeks ahead of the Oct. 1 holiday that will see a military parade through the heart of Beijing, a speech by President Hu Jintao and a huge fireworks display.

Sales of knives have been banned at some stores including large retailers such as Wal-Mart and Carrefour after two separate knife attacks near Tiananmen Square last week, according to store officials and state media.

A female staffer who gave her last name Lazhen at the sales department of the International Grand Hotel in Lhasa -- 2,500 miles (4,023 kilometers) from Beijing -- said the ban was in effect until Oct. 8.

No foreigners came to her hotel on Monday and business has now down 20 to 30 percent, she said.

>> Complete report

By Radio Free Asia
September 14, 2009

Chinese authorities detain parents observing the anniversary of a far-reaching milk scandal that sickened their children.

Three parents of children sickened in China's 2008 tainted-milk scandal were detained after observing the one-year anniversary of the milk scandal, and another who planned to join them has been taken to an unofficial "black prison," victims' parents say.

Guo Caihong and Zhou Jinzhong from central Henan province and Xiang Qingyu from southern Jiangsu province met last Friday at a restaurant in suburban Beijing's Daxing county, parents said. But authorities then detained and questioned them.

Milk powder contaminated with an industrial chemical killed at least six babies and sickened nearly 300,000 others with painful kidney stones last year. Friday marked one year since Sept. 11, 2008, when a Chinese dairy recalled hundreds of tons of baby formula and the government vowed "serious punishment" for those responsible.

Chinese authorities are jittery and eager to crack down on dissent ahead of the 60th anniversary of Chinese Communist Party on Oct. 1. Police have arrested or detained leading dissidents and are harassing lawyers who defend them.

Zhao Lianhai, a representative of victims' parents, said a local official from Henan contacted Guo Caihong on Friday and promised to take her home from Beijing.

"But on Saturday afternoon, a volunteer told me that the three parents had been taken by their respective local officials to an unknown place instead of home. When they were led away, local police were there as well," Mr. Zhao said.

Zhou Jinzhong, one of the three parents, described what has happened.

"On Saturday, I was taken away by staff members from the Henan Province Office in Beijing, and then they questioned me. Now I am with local officials from our township and our village. I will be heading home tomorrow," Zhou said in an interview Monday.

He said the two other parents received similar treatment.

Another parent of a tainted-milk victim, Liu Hai from Siyang city, had planned to attend anniversary activities in Beijing but was sent to a "law study group," an unofficial detention center also known as a "black prison."

"My husband has been taken away by an office of the local government," Liu's wife said.

"This is the news his uncle managed to get through his connections. For me this is the end of the world."

Original reporting by Qiao Long for RFA's Mandarin service. Mandarin service director: Jennifer Chou. Translated by Ping Chen. Written for the Web in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.

>> Original source

By Dikki Sinn - Associated Press writer | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News Philippines
September 13, 2009

Hundreds of Hong Kong journalists, lawmakers and residents marched Sunday to protest the alleged police beatings of three reporters covering recent unrest in western China and demanded a government investigation.

Demonstrators wearing black rallied outside a police station before marching to local offices of China's central government.

"This time the authorities are over the line," Mak Yin-ting, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Journalist Association, told the gathering. "They did not only beat reporters, but blamed them for inciting the public disorder."

Organizers put the crowd at about 700 people. Police did not immediately provide estimates.

The TV journalists were covering the aftermath of a mass protest by Han Chinese in the troubled city of Urumqi earlier this month after a series of attacks with syringe needles that China's government blames on Muslim separatists.

The three, who worked for TVB and Now TV news outlets in Hong Kong, said they were kicked, punched, and shoved to the ground by police before being detained for about three hours.

>> Complete report

By Marianne Barriaux - Agence France Presse | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
September 10, 2009

China has announced that all songs posted on music websites must receive prior approval and foreign lyrics must be translated into Chinese, in a new push to control online content.

The culture ministry says the rules are designed to step up regulation of the Internet, curb rampant piracy and protect intellectual property rights, but experts say they will be difficult to implement.

"If there are thousands of websites that provide content, how can a single government check all of the content in just a few months?" said Liu Ning, an analyst with Beijing-based high-tech consultancy BDA.

The official Global Times said Thursday that music providers would have to submit songs for approval by December 31, at which date the new rules are to go into effect.

They would also have to translate the lyrics of foreign songs into Chinese, the report said.

In a statement sent to AFP, the ministry said the rules were necessary "to regulate the transmission of cultural information, guarantee the safety of the nation's culture, and regulate public ethics."

It said information that violated public morality or spread pornography and violence "continuously appeared" online, "seriously damaging the healthy development of China's online cultural market."

China has at least 338 million Internet users, more than any other country in the world.

The government regularly blocks online content it deems unhealthy, which includes pornography and violence, but also information critical of the government, a censorship system dubbed the "Great Firewall of China."

>> Complete report

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | The New York Times
10 September 2009

Chinese police have tried to prevent parents of children sickened by tainted milk powder from traveling to Beijing to mark the anniversary of last year's scandal, an activist said Thursday.

Milk powder contaminated with an industrial chemical killed at least six babies and sickened nearly 300,000 others with painful kidney stones -- making it one of China's worst food safety scandals.

Zhao Lianhai, the father of a sickened child who has rallied other families through a Web site he created, said 11 parents had planned to hold a small commemoration in Beijing on Friday with a dinner, lighting of candles and prayers for the children.

''The scandal has affected a whole generation of China's future,'' Zhao said in a phone interview. ''This day is a humiliation for all Chinese. It is a national disaster. We should have the courage to remember this day.''

Friday marks one year since Sept. 11, 2008, when a Chinese dairy recalled hundreds of tons of baby formula and the government vowed ''serious punishment'' for those responsible for the contamination, days after the scandal was first reported in Chinese media.

The commemoration also comes amid efforts by Chinese authorities to curb dissent in the lead-up to the 60th anniversary of the Communist Party's rule. Police have arrested or detained leading dissidents and are harassing lawyers who defend them. The Oct. 1 celebration will be marked by a military parade.

Liu Hai, a father whose two children developed kidney stones after taking tainted milk powder, said he was detained by police Wednesday in Kunshan city of Jiangsu province while waiting for a train. The police told him they had to stop him because he was headed to an ''illegal gathering,'' Liu said by phone while being taken in a county government car to his hometown of Siyang.

An official at the Kunshan police propaganda department who refused to give his name said he has no information about Liu's case.

Zhao said in the days running up to the anniversary, several parents have reported being warned by police that their group was an illegal organization. However, Beijing's public security bureau on Thursday issued him a letter saying the anniversary event had been approved. The discrepancy in official positions on the commemoration could not immediately be explained.

>> Original source

By Jonathan Ansfield | The New York Times
September 05, 2009

News Web sites in China, complying with secret government orders, are requiring that new users log on under their true identities to post comments, a shift in policy that the country's Internet users and media have fiercely opposed in the past.

Until recently, users could weigh in on news items on many of the affected sites more anonymously, often without registering at all, though the sites were obligated to screen all posts, and the posts could still be traced via Internet protocol addresses.

But in early August, without notification of a change, news portals like Sina, Netease, Sohu and scores of other sites began asking unregistered users to sign in under their real names and identification numbers, said top editors at two of the major portals affected. A Sina staff member also confirmed the change.

The editors said the sites were putting into effect a confidential directive issued in late July by the State Council Information Office, one of the main government bodies responsible for supervising the Internet in China.

The new step is not foolproof, the editors acknowledged. It was possible for a reporter to register successfully on several major sites under falsified names and ID and cellphone numbers.

But the requirement adds a critical new layer of surveillance to mainstream sites in China, which were already heavily policed. Further regulations of the same nature also appeared to be in the pipeline.

And while the authorities called the measure part of a drive to forge greater "social responsibility" and "civility" among users, they moved forward surreptitiously and suppressed reports about it, said the editors and others in the media industry familiar with the measure, who spoke on condition of anonymity to avoid putting their jobs at risk.

Asked why the policy was pushed through unannounced, the chief editor of one site said, "The influence of public opinion on the Net is still too big."

Government Internet regulators have been trying to usher in real-name registration controls since 2003, when they ordered Internet cafes around China to demand that customers show identification, nominally to keep out minors. Last year, lawmakers and regulators began discussing legislation on a more extensive "real name system," as it is known.

But such proposals have aroused heated debate over the purview of the state to restrict China's online community, which is the largest in the world at about 340 million people and growing.

Proponents, led by officials and state-connected academics in the information security field, argue that mandatory controls are necessary to help subdue inflammatory attacks, misinformation and other illegal activity deemed to endanger social order. They often note registration requirements on large sites in South Korea to support their point.

Critics counter that government regulation represents an incursion on free speech, individual privacy and the watchdog role of the Web in China.

The critics say sites and users should retain the right to discipline themselves. Given the country's huge population of Internet users and its failure to guarantee freedom of expression, they argue, the case of China is hardly analogous to that of South Korea.

In 2006, Internet users and the news media rebuffed one official proposal to require real-name registration on blog hosting sites. Star bloggers denounced the notion, while ordinary users overwhelmingly rejected it in surveys conducted on sites like Sina.

In another key test of the policy earlier this year, the legislature in Hangzhou, near Shanghai, passed a regulation that would have placed the requirement on users who comment, blog or play games on sites based there. Amid a popular outcry, however, the city shied away from enforcing the regulation.

Central authorities have gone to new lengths to tame online activity in 2009, a year peppered with politically delicate anniversaries.

Government censors have closed thousands of sites in a continuing war on "vulgarity," closed liberal forums and blogs for spreading "harmful information," blocked access to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and cut off Internet service where serious unrest has erupted, notably in the Xinjiang region of the west after deadly clashes between ethnic Uighurs and Han in July. Increasingly, officials have defended the Web shutdowns on the grounds of national security.

The government recently set off an international furor when it ordered that all computers sold in China come prepackaged with pornography filterting software that authorities could remotely control. Officials were forced to retreat from the order after international companies and trade bodies protested and Chinese hackers showed that the software was designed to block politically offensive content as well.

The authorities had aimed to avoid a similar showdown over the new real-name requirement. "We had no recourse to challenge it," said the news editor of another portal.

Ta Kung Pao, a Hong Kong-based newspaper loyal to Beijing, first leaked news of the State Council edict in late July. But the report was scrubbed from the paper's Web site within a few days.

Another state newspaper tried to follow up on the Ta Kung Pao report soon thereafter, the paper's editors said, but they were forced to abort their article because they were warned that the order was a state secret.

The State Council Information Office had yet to respond to a list of submitted questions about the move.

The new mandate did not appear to affect formerly registered users of the portals. Nor did it affect blog hosts, forums or government news sites like People's Daily or Xinhua.

Whether because it had an impact mainly on rookie users or because of the void of news about it, bloggers in China were unusually slow to recognize the measure. But those who did were critical.

One commentator on the popular forum Tianya wrote, "Not daring to write one's real name, in truth, is a form of self-protection for the weak."

There were signals in the state media in recent weeks that more name registration measures would follow.

An influential advocate of the policy, Fang Bingxing, the president of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, told a forum in August that the "time was ripe" to roll it out widely to bolster information security, newspapers reported.

A trail of comments on Sina thrashed the report.

Late last month, the Communist Party-run Guangming Daily ran a positive story about a city government portal in western China that imposed the requirement on new bloggers, calling it a "forerunner."

Hu Yong, a new media specialist at Peking University, said government-enforced registration requirements carried long-term side effects.

"Netizens will have less trust in the government, and to a certain extent, the development of the industry will be impeded," he said.

From a comparison of the most commented-on articles in July and August on a number of portals it was hard to determine whether the volume of posts had been affected so far.

But both editors at two of the major portals affected said their sites had shown marked drop-offs.

>> Original source

By Keith Bradsher | The New York Times
01 September 2009

China is set to tighten its hammerlock on the market for some of the world's most obscure but valuable minerals.

China currently accounts for 93 percent of production of so-called rare earth elements -- and more than 99 percent of the output for two of these elements, vital for a wide range of green energy technologies and military applications like missiles.

Deng Xiaoping once observed that the Mideast had oil, but China had rare earth elements. As the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries has done with oil, China is now starting to flex its muscle.

Even tighter limits on production and exports, part of a plan from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, would ensure China has the supply for its own technological and economic needs, and force more manufacturers to make their wares here in order to have access to the minerals.

In each of the last three years, China has reduced the amount of rare earths that can be exported. This year's export quotas are on track to be the smallest yet. But what is really starting to alarm Western governments and multinationals alike is the possibility that exports will be further restricted.

Chinese officials will almost certainly be pressed to address the issue at a conference Thursday in Beijing. What they say could influence whether Australian regulators next week approve a deal by a Chinese company to acquire a majority stake in Australia's main rare-earth mine.

The detention of executives from the British-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto has already increased tensions.

China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has drafted a six-year plan for rare earth production and submitted it to the State Council, the equivalent of the cabinet, according to four mining industry officials who have discussed the plan with Chinese officials. A few, often contradictory, details of the plan have leaked out, but it appears to suggest tighter restrictions on exports, and strict curbs on environmentally damaging mines.

Beijing officials are forcing global manufacturers to move factories to China by limiting the availability of rare earths outside China. "Rare earth usage in China will be increasingly greater than exports," said Zhang Peichen, the deputy director of the government-linked Baotou Rare Earth Research Institute.

Some of the minerals crucial to green technologies are extracted in China using methods that inflict serious damage on the local environment. China dominates global rare earth production partly because of its willingness until now to tolerate highly polluting, low-cost mining.

>> Complete report