Recently in Made in (The People's Republic of) China Category
By Kathrin Hille | Financial Times
24 October 2011
The world's leading software industry body warned on Monday of a jump in revenues lost to software piracy in China as the country's government is failing to rein in rampant copyright infringement.
Robert Holleyman, president and chief executive of the Business Software Alliance, said pledges by the Chinese government to help foreign companies gain more revenues from software sales in China and high-profile anti-piracy campaigns had failed to deliver.
"All that activity led us to believe that we'd see some fairly rapid reduction of software piracy in China," Mr Holleyman said. "But none of what I've picked up with our companies indicates that they're seeing the kind of economic growth associated with the sales of software."
The remarks indicate that software market opportunities for companies such as Microsoft are unlikely to keep up with the pace of China's PC market growth, and that intellectual property rights infringement will remain an irritant in relations with the US and China's other leading trading partners.
In late 2010, the Chinese government, responding to growing criticism of its intellectual property rights protection record, promised in talks with the US that it would help increase foreign companies' software sales in the country.
Since last year, Beijing has also been running a high-profile crackdown on the production and sales of pirated goods. The duration and scale of the campaign initially gave rise to cautious optimism among foreign industry executives that real change could be on the cards.
The US government even expressed cautious optimism in its annual report on intellectual property rights protection, saying Beijing's special campaign against piracy might lead to "lasting improvements".
But Mr Holleyman said: "While [piracy as a] percentage of total software sales is coming down somewhat, the US$ losses are exploding." He added that he expected multinational software companies to launch more legal action against Chinese counterfeiters as a result.
In China, 78 per cent of all software sold in 2010 was pirated, according to BSA's 2011 Global Piracy Report, compared with a global average piracy rate of 42 per cent. While this is not among the world's highest piracy rates, China created the second-highest economic damage through piracy as the industry lost $7.8bn in revenues to pirates last year. In the US, the damage was $9.5bn.
But China is expected to overtake the US in that ranking soon as it is set to surpass the US as the world's largest PC market by unit shipments next year.
By Daryl Loo - Bloomberg-Businessweek
October 2011
The government tobacco maker sponsors schools, earning goodwill
Chinese kids smoking on the outskirts of Shaoyang in Hunan province
Imaginechina via AP Photo
In dozens of rural villages in China's western provinces, one of the first things primary school kids learn is what helps make their education possible: tobacco. The schools are sponsored by local units of China's state-owned cigarette monopoly, China National Tobacco. "On the gates of these schools you'll see slogans that say 'Genius comes from hard work--tobacco helps you become talented,'" says Xu Guihua, secretary general of the Chinese Association on Tobacco Control, a privately funded lobbying group. "They are pinning their hopes on young people taking up smoking."
Anti-tobacco groups say efforts in China to reduce sales, including a ban on smoking in public places introduced in May, have been hampered by light penalties, a lack of education about the dangers of smoking, and the fact that the regulator, the State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, also runs the world's biggest cigarette maker.
While Chinese law bans tobacco advertising on radio, television, and in newspapers, they "do not have clear restrictions on sales and sponsorship activities," according to a report published in January by Yang Gonghuan, a former deputy director of China's Center for Disease Control & Prevention, and Tsinghua University professor Hu Angang. Regional units of the monopoly funded construction of more than 100 primary schools throughout China, such as the Sichuan Tobacco Hope Primary School, the official Xinhua News Agency reported in May. Some schools are named after local tobacco companies such as Hongta or top-selling cigarette brands like Zhongnanhai, named after the compound next to the Forbidden City where China's top leaders live and work. The state tobacco company in September 2010 announced it was sponsoring an additional 42 primary school libraries in Xinjiang and 40 in Tibet, and in November made a ¥10 million donation to a women's development fund for a "Healthy Mothers' Express" campaign.
China National Tobacco lists charitable activities on its website. In a survey of more than 2,000 adults conducted in 2009 by the Association on Tobacco Control, 7 percent had a good impression of the tobacco industry due to its charity work, while 18 percent said they would pick a cigarette brand because of its good works. State Tobacco's press office didn't respond to interview requests or faxed questions about sponsorship.
China has more than 320 million smokers, a third of the world's total, and 53 percent of men there smoke. About 1 million Chinese die from tobacco-related illnesses every year. The tobacco industry grew at an average annual rate of 19 percent from 2006 to 2010, according to State Tobacco. Last year, earnings rose 17 percent, to ¥605 billion ($95 billion), including ¥499 billion paid in taxes.
China created the tobacco monopoly in the 1980s, when the industry supplied more than 10 percent of government revenue. Today, tobacco contributes 6.7 percent, according to Yang and Hu's report. "Especially in tobacco-growing provinces like Yunnan and Guizhou, the tobacco industry is a very important part of local government income," says Wang Shiyong, the World Bank's senior health specialist in Beijing. "There is a lot of internal government lobbying to make sure the health consequences of smoking are not addressed."
A government survey in 2010 found that two in five male doctors light up every day in China. (PFE)Pfizer, whose Champix is the main prescription anti-smoking drug sold in China, funded a three-year program in 2008 to set up 60 smoke-free hospitals in Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou. Smoking among the hospitals' leadership fell to 8.4 percent, from 19.1 percent, while overall rates for doctors fell to 6.8 percent from 10.7 percent, says Pfizer spokeswoman Neena Moorjani.
Still, the education drives have a long way to go. Only one in four adults in China believe exposure to tobacco smoke causes heart diseases and lung cancer, and the percentage among smokers is even lower--22 percent--according to the 2010 Global Adult Tobacco Survey for China.
"We've been trying to get the Ministry of Education to stop the tobacco companies from sponsoring these schools," says Xu, a former deputy director at the Chinese Center for Disease Control & Prevention. "But the ministry wants us to show them proof that this is causing harm."
The bottom line: China's tobacco monopoly funds schools. About 18 percent of Chinese say they'd pick a cigarette brand because of its charitable works.
By Radio FREE Asia
October 11, 2011
Residents of southern China say a planned battery factory could poison local water supplies.
Residents of the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen are mounting a vocal campaign against plans to build a battery plant in their neighborhood, following a slew of cases of lead poisoning in children across the country in recent months.
The plant is scheduled to be built, beginning next year, by China's BYD Group, which numbers among its shareholders U.S. market guru Warren Buffett. If it goes ahead, it will export state-of-the-art rechargeable batteries around the world.
But residents of Shenzhen, a city of 10 million people, say they are concerned that it sits too close to reservoirs which supply the city with drinking water.
They say BYD has already sparked pollution concerns at some of its other Shenzhen facilities.
A private homeowner in Shenzhen's Longgang district surnamed Li said people in his neighborhood have been complaining for two years about foul smells issuing from an industrial plant also run by BYD, but without result.
"We have complained many times, and every time the environmental protection department knows it's coming from BYD as soon as they get our call," Li said.
"They are lagging behind on a number of [environmental] standards," he said. "They have been tested a number of times, and told they have passed, but that they have to make improvements."
"I don't understand this ... because a lot of elderly people and children from our residential complex have been feeling unwell, and have gone to the hospital to get treatment."
A local spokeswoman for the environmental group Greenpeace surnamed Jiang said the Longgang BYD plant was known to be emitting pollution into the atmosphere.
Local media have reported a sharp rise in patients in recent months at the nearby medical clinic.
An employee who answered the phone at the plant said he hadn't heard of any complaints from local residents, and that no one had reported any sickness as a result of its emissions recently.
Environmental crisis
Chinese officials have warned that the country is facing a "grave" environmental crisis, with more than half its cities affected by acid rain and one-sixth of its major rivers too polluted even to water crops with.
Three decades of breakneck economic growth have taken their toll on the country's natural resources, sparking a huge increase in public unrest linked to environmental degradation and health problems caused by pollution.
BYD announced the plans to build what it calls "the worlds' largest battery plant" in May, following a surprise change to zoning regulations on the plot of land it owned.
According to an April report issued by China's cabinet, the State Council, BYD planned to invest more than 8.2 billion yuan (U.S. $1.3 billion) in its "new energy" projects, including 7.8 billion yuan (U.S. $1.2 billion) on the lithium ion battery plant in Shenzhen, and 372 million yuan (U.S. $58.1 million) on a solar cell facility.
A Shenzhen resident and protester surnamed Zhou said the plot of land earmarked for the plant lay between the Bingkeng, Tongluojing and Sanzhoutian reservoirs, amid a network of channels supplying water to Shenzhen.
"Two of those reservoirs supply drinking water to us here in Shenzhen," Zhou said. "I heard that there would be a lot of heavy metals involved in a battery plant ... which [raises questions about] environmental protection."
"This is a huge hidden danger: a time bomb," he said. "That is why those of us who live nearby are very worried."
Lead poisoning
Battery makers and lead and zinc smelting plants have been blamed for a wave of lead poisoning cases affecting thousands of children across China in recent years, sometimes sparking violent protests.
And Chinese children who suffer lead poisoning as a result of industrial pollution are frequently sent back to live in contaminated environments and refused treatment, according to a recent report by the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW).
The plans for the plant are causing great concern and widespread speculation, local people said in recent interviews.
A residential landlord surnamed Yin said there were currently a large number of residential blocks under construction in the area around the proposed BYD plant, which would provide homes for up to 100,000 people when they were finished.
"A lot of people are talking about this now, and the key factor is the battery plant," Yin said. "Recently a customer took a liking to an apartment, but they are now waiting to see whether the battery plant goes ahead before they buy it," he said.
Ordinary Chinese people are becoming increasingly active in support of environmental issues in recent years.
Shenzhen-based rights activist Xiao Chun said an growing number of ordinary Chinese were now prepared to stand up for the environment.
"The residents of Shenzhen are standing up one by one to protect their own environment," Xiao said. "This sort of courage on their part will contribute to a better society."
"The government should back them up, not suppress them," he said.
Moves to cut down some of Nanjing's iconic "wutong" trees sparked protests in the eastern city ahead of the G20 international monetary conference in March.
And thousands gathered in the northeastern port city of Dalian in August to call on the government to close down a petrochemical plant that made paraxylene (PX), a toxic and carcinogenic substance.
The protests, which resulted in a promise to close the plant from the city's leaders, echoed a similar movement in the southeastern port city of Xiamen in 2007, when the municipal government backed down on a planned PX plant following massive popular anger and demonstrations.
Reported by Bi Zimo and Wen Yuqing for RFA's Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
By Radio FREE Asia
August 21, 2011
The U.S. vice president prods China to expand human rights in a speech to university students.
Chinese authorities prevented dissidents and activists from attending a speech by U.S. Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday at a university in Sichuan province where he pushed Beijing to allow "greater openness" in the world's most populous nation.
Petitioners appealing to the government against injustices and potential protesters were detained or warned to stay at home by officials, who feared they would approach Biden on the last day of his visit to China, rights activists said.
"On this visit by the U.S. Vice President, the type of measures of control that the authorities employed against petitioners and dissidents reveals the oppression and controlling thought that the Chinese government has used for a long time," said Huang Qi, a veteran dissident released from jail in June after serving a three-year prison term for his activism.
"We hope that the Chinese government will give up oppressive thinking and pay greater attention to the improvement of civil rights and people's livelihoods in China," said Huang.
Huang, who heads the Tianwang Human Rights Center which campaigns to free detained dissidents, petitioners, and rights advocates, said many volunteers from his group and petitioners had been held by the authorities.
Villagers blocked, led away
A number of villagers who had lost their land tried to enter Sichuan University in Chengdu, the provincial capital of Sichuan, but were blocked by public security officers, with some led away.
Biden used his speech at the university to push for greater human rights in China, whose leaders have stepped up a crackdown against dissent this year amid online calls for a "Jasmine" revolution by Chinese groups inspired by the wave of popular uprisings sweeping the Middle East.
The U.S. leader rejected any notion that American calls for greater human rights would threaten the sovereignty of China or dampen its rapid economic growth.
"I recognize that many of you in this auditorium see our advocacy of human rights as, at best, an intrusion and, at worst, an assault on your sovereignty," Biden said.
"I know that some in China believe that greater freedom could threaten economic progress by undermining social stability."
"I believe history has shown the opposite to be true: that in the long run, greater openness is a source of stability and a sign of strength."
Biden had raised human rights concerns at his meetings last week with Chinese leaders, U.S. officials said, without giving details.
Appeal for rights lawyer
Before the visit, Washington appealed to China to free rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who has not been heard from since last year, and to restore the rights of dissident writer Ran Yunfei, released from detention earlier this month.
Despite the clampdown on dissent during Biden's visit to Sichuan University, some activists and petitioners managed to sneak through to hear his speech.
Hu Jinqiong, a villager who broke free from the public security, told RFA she saw a number of villagers led away by officials.
"Those from Shuangliu County Public Security Bureau brought them to the police car... I took advantage of a moment when they would not notice and ran away. All we wanted was just to listen," she said.
Wang Hui, a villager from Huangshui township who managed to escape the police dragnet, said she saw a petitioner bundled away in a police car.
"We heard that the U.S. Vice President Biden was coming, and everybody wanted to go listen and learn a little about human rights," she said.
Biden also visited a high school close to Dujiangyan, a small city near Chengdu badly hit by the May 12, 2008 earthquake that devastated parts of Sichuan.
In the quake, some 87,000 people were dead or missing, most likely dead, including thousands of children who were killed when school buildings collapsed on them.
Parents who lost children and several other groups have claimed that many of the schools were poorly built, because of corruption and lax standards.
Activist Huang was jailed for campaigning on the issue.
"We hope that the American government will pay greater attention to the Chinese people's human rights," he said.
Reported by RFA's Mandarin service. Translated by Rachel Vandenbrink. Written in English by Rachel Vandenbrink and Parameswaran Ponnudurai.
By Radio Free Asia
August 10, 2011
Unregulated industries contaminate local water sources, sickening thousands.
China is facing a "grave" environmental crisis, with more than half its cities affected by acid rain and one-sixth of its major rivers too polluted even to water the crops with, officials said recently.
Three decades of breakneck economic growth have taken their toll on the country's natural resources, sparking a huge increase in public unrest linked to environmental degradation and health problems caused by pollution.
"The overall environmental situation is still very grave and is facing many difficulties and challenges," deputy environment minister Li Ganjie told a news conference in Beijing in June.
Activists say that China has an exemplary set of environmental protection legislation, but that environmental officials lack the power to impose it on powerful vested interests at local levels.
Li said China's only clean coastal waters are to be found off the resort island of Hainan and some of the northern coastline, while the waters around Guangzhou, Tianjin, and Shanghai are rated as "severely polluted."
He said that 16.4 percent of China's major rivers have failed to meet the standard needed for agricultural irrigation, while the air quality is rated as exemplary in only 3.6 percent of Chinese cities.
He said the impact of heavy metal pollution on people's lives has been particularly severe.
"These heavy metal pollution incidents not only seriously threaten people's health, they affect social stability, and it ought to be said this is a rather severe issue," Li said.
Thousands of children harmed
Battery makers and lead and zinc smelting plants have been blamed for a wave of lead poisoning cases affecting thousands of children across China in recent years, sometimes sparking violent protests.
As Li made these rare admissions, villagers in the southern province of Guangdong were complaining to the authorities of sickness caused by pollution of their water sources by unregulated local industry.
"A lot of the villagers have had diarrhea after drinking this polluted water," said a local resident of Taihangkou village near Shaoguan city surnamed Liu. "Around 30-40 percent of local people have had gastrointestinal pain."
He said some families had sent their children away because of the pollution.
"Nobody is doing anything about it," Liu said.
A second local resident surnamed Liang said large numbers of local people, regardless of age or gender, had complained of dizziness, coughing, and intestinal cramps in recent days, with one hospitalized for pneumonia.
"We use this water for drinking and for irrigating our crops, and all of it is polluted ... We can't not eat or drink."
Authorities 'just ignore us'
Villagers blame a nearby mining operation just meters away from the local primary school, and have called on the authorities to move it out of the village to avoid harming their children's health.
"The river water has been polluted, but the authorities have never paid any attention," Liang said. "They just basically ignore us."
An employee who answered the phone at the Qujiang county government offices declined to comment. "I don't know about this," the employee said.
Taihangkou is home to around 6,000 people, and has the the highest rates of cancer in the surrounding area, residents say.
Local doctors during private consultations had linked cancer deaths to the polluted water, but declined to speak publicly about their conclusions, according to a resident surnamed Wu.
"The doctors refused to issue a detailed appraisal," said Wu. "They just said it was probably the result of drinking polluted water, and told the villagers to avoid the contaminated water source.
"The villagers could hardly believe it. The government refused to take responsibility," he said.
Reported by Fung Yat-yiu for RFA's Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
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