Open Comes At A Price For Google And Android In China

Here is an interesting little article that I came across this morning. It seems that 80% of all Android based smart phones in China will be shipped with Baidu, and not Google, as their default search engine. Fact is that being an open platform allows manufacturers to make changes and in China that means no Google for you!

China is a huge market as we all know but it is also one that Google has had it's challenges with as government censorship and heavy handed policies have not been kind to the search giant. In fact, in March of 2010 Google.cn (China) started to redirect all of it's search queries to Google.com.hk (Hong Kong) after much debate over the blockage of YouTube and allegations of Chinese hacking. See Wikipedia's Google China page.

I wonder just how much business Apple does in China and what that represents when comparing authentic Apple product to counterfeits or knock-offs? 

Beating Traffic With Substitute Drivers

Living where I do, it is hard to fathom the type of traffic that would cause hours of delays. In China however, the population of 1.3 billion is rapidly acquiring vehicles, and the capital city Beijing has tied with Mexico City in a 2010 IBM study of the worlds worst traffic jams.

So what is a time conscious or impatient driver to do if they are stuck in one of the worlds worst traffic jams? Place a call to a car service.  Huang Xizhong is quoted by Yahoo as saying  "those with urgent dates or business meetings to go to, and those who have flights to catch and can't afford to wait in a traffic jam for too long," and thus his company employs substitute drivers to wait in traffic on your behalf while another driver on a motorcycle zips you through the congestion in a so called "traffic jam rescue".

Seriously! You can't make this stuff up folks...

Google and China Continue To Air Laundry Publicly While Talks Begin

Google has said that it is stopping the release of two android powered smartphones in China as the result of the recent tensions between the company and the Chinese government. Insiders have told the Globe and Mail that the move comes as Google and China are beginning behind door talks in an attempt to smooth things over. The Globe and Mail is reporting that executives “will be having a series of conversations with Chinese authorities in the coming days and weeks. Without knowing the end result of those discussions, [Google] felt it best to postpone these launches,”

Analysts are predicting that Google's real business interest in China is in the Smartphone market and not in Search, the market place for smartphones is only opening up there now and is expected to be much more lucrative in the long haul.

Check out the article and video from the Globe and Mail here.

Microsoft Responds To Google's Threat To Pull Out of China

Keeping with the never ending theme of Google vs. China, Microsoft Chief executive Steve Ballmer says he doesn't understand Google's reaction.

“There are attacks every day. I don't think there was anything unusual, so I don't understand,” Ballmer told Reuters after a meeting at the White House.

“We're attacked every day from all parts of the world and I think everybody else is too. We didn't see anything out of the ordinary.”

Ballmer told CNBC that Microsoft had no plans to exit China: “We've been quite clear, we're going to operate in China, we're going to abide by the law.”

Of course China represents a small portion of revenues generated by Google and I'm betting the Microsoft has much more to lose, but that's only speculation.

Source: Globe and Mail

China Responds To Google's Pull Out Threat

In a response that is typical of the Chinese government, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said China welcomed foreign Internet companies to operate within their country but that those offering online services must do so “in accordance with the law.” At a news conference Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, Jiang Yu, did not directly address Google’s complaints about censorship and cyberattacks, but simply stated, “China’s Internet is open.”

Wang Chen, the information director for the State Council of China was more direct saying in an interview posted on the agency’s Web site "China’s Internet is entering an important stage of development, confronting both rare opportunities and severe challenges,” he said. “Internet media must always make nurturing positive, progressive mainstream opinion an important duty.”

Source: nytimes.com

On The Official Google Blog the company states it's new approach in dealing with the country.

Google Threatens To Pull Out Of China

After cyber attacks on the gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists and other Chinese dissidents, Google has raised the stakes threatening to pull it's operations from China. The attacks were "very organized" and "clearly targeted" according to Google spokesman David Drummond, chief legal officer at Google.

Drummond Says that the means of the attack where not Google related but rather phishing schemes that obtained user information and originated in December from China. Being careful not to implicate the Chinese government Drummond says "we simply cannot continue to operate a filtered or censored search engine..."

Check out the CNBC interview.

Great Firewall Of China Expanding

The Chinese government is said to be planning to require all PCs sold within the country to be shipped with software that blocks certain Web sites from users. Called "Green Dam-Youth Escort," the software would block access to government banned Web sites by regularly connecting to a database of banned sites and blocking access to those addresses. The government is claiming the intent is to protect young people from "harmful" content such as pornography, however recently during the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre, the Chinese government blocked access to many social media and video sharing sites. It would appear as though their efforts at a network level are insufficient to block access to all of the content they are attempting to censor.

Source: CNet

China Based Spy Network Uncovered - Targets Dalai Lama And Foreign Affairs Offices

Researchers from SecDev Group, an Ottawa-based think tank, and the University of Toronto's Munk Centre for International Studies working on behalf of the Dalai Lama's office have uncovered an elaborate electronic spy network working mostly from within China. After a 10-month investigation the researchers found that as well as the Dalai Lama's office, the ministries of foreign affairs of Iran, Bangladesh, Latvia, Indonesia, Philippines, Brunei, Barbados and Bhutan all appear to had been the targets of the spys. Hacked systems were also found in the embassies of India, South Korea, Indonesia, Romania, Cyprus, Malta, Thailand, Taiwan, Portugal, Germany and Pakistan, according to the BBC. "We uncovered real-time evidence of malware that had penetrated Tibetan computer systems, extracting sensitive documents from the private office of the Dalai Lama," investigator Greg Walton was quoted by the Associated Press.

The researchers point out that there is no conclusive evidence of Chinese government involvement.

China Monitoring Skype Messages

Citizen Lab, a research group based at the University of Toronto, says its found a database of thousands of politically sensitive words which have been blocked by the Chinese government. "These text messages, along with millions of records containing personal information, are stored on insecure publicly accessible web servers," said Citizen Lab's report, entitled "Breaching Trust". The database contains in excess of 150,000 messages which included words such as "democracy" and "Tibet" and phrases associated with the Falun Gong a spiritual movement considered banned by China. Skype president Josh Silverman said China's monitoring was "common knowledge" and that Tom Online, Skype's Chinese partner, had "established procedures to meet local laws and regulations". "These regulations include the requirement to monitor and block instant messages containing certain words deemed offensive by the Chinese authorities," he said. While I'm sure most of us are not surprised at the Chinese Governments monitoring of communications by it's citizens, making such information public opens up a whole new debate. BBC News story here.

China Puts 3 Into Orbit

Yesterday China launched it's most risky space adventure to date, sending 3 astronauts into orbit. During the 68 hour flight the 3 will attempt the nation's first ever space walk. The launch of the Shenzhou VII spacecraft took place at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and was attended by President Hu Jintao and other senior leaders. The Chinese President is quoted as saying "I have come to send you off, to wish you success," Now that's an inspirational speech if I've ever heard one! Discovery Channel story here.

US Congressman Claims Computers Hacked By Chinese

Representative Frank Wolf, a Republican from Virginia, said Wednesday that the FBI found that four of his government computers have been hacked by sources working in China. Wolf is a long-time critic of China's human rights record and a spokesman for the congressman said the four computers were being used by staff members working on human rights issues. “I think this is very bad because you have the Chinese compromising and gaining access to computers of any number of members of the House and a major committee of the House,” Wolf told The Associated Press. “We don't know how many others.”

The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had no immediate comment. Last week, China denied accusations that it's officials had secretly copied the contents of a US government laptop during a visit to China by Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and used the information to try to hack into Commerce Department computers.

Globe and Mail story here.

CNN Website Attacked

In a story on cnn.com the network quoted a CNN spokesperson as saying "CNN took preventative measures to filter traffic in response to attempts to disrupt our Web site. A small percentage of CNN.com users in Asia are impacted". The attack was said to have taken place on Thursday, and administrators took measures to counter the attack and isolate the trouble. The result was a slowdown in service to users in some geographic locations. The spokesperson added "We do not know who is responsible, nor can we confirm where it came from," but the attack comes on the heels of calls for denial of service attacks by hacker groups in China over CNN's coverage of the situation in Tibet. Chinese hacker groups... hmm.

Chinese Internet Users Show Support For Government With Color Campaign

The Globe and Mail is reporting a trend amongst Chinese web surfers. In an act of support for their government which has come under much criticism over it's handling of the uprisings in Tibet, as displayed by the Olympic Tourch Run protests, many Chinese web surfers are adding hearts and “CHINA” to their names when chatting online. In the article "This is aimed at all those forces which want to bring chaos to China," one user who posted a photo of herself dressed in People's Liberation Army fatigues is quoted as saying. I've not encountered it yet but I'm sure it will spread, perhaps there aren't that many Chinese who tweet yet?

International Olympic Committee Warns China About Internet Access During Games

Inspectors dispatched by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have said that China is obligated to provide journalists with web access under its Games contract. The final inspection before the games begin in August is currently underway and IOC's Kevan Gosper has said "There was some criticism that the Internet closed down during events relating to Tibet in previous weeks - but this is not Games time," Gosper added that "Our concern is that the press is able to operate as it has at previous Games during Games time." 30,000 journalists are expected to be in Beijing covering the Olympics. I suspect that if there are incidents during the games and Internet access goes down, there will be a very good technical reason for the coincidence... whether it reflects poorly upon the host nation or not. BBC News Story here.

China Now The Biggest Web Market... According to Chinese Research Firm

A Chinese research firm puts China's Internet user base at 210 million at the end of 2007, and anticipates that at it's rate of growth the Chinese web market will surpass the 216 million US web population this year. “Based on these sources and the assumption that these markets have continued to grow in 2008 to date at the same rates that they grew in 2007, we can conclude that China has by now comfortably surpassed the United States as the world's largest Internet population,” analyst Bin Liu said in a statement. Globe and Mail story here.

China's City of the Future, Today!

Wired describes Beijing's Skywalk-Linked Megacomplex as a City Within a City. The objective is to limit it's inhabitants foray into the real world of polution and uncontrollable climate swings by offering everything they need within a ring of eight 21-story towers, all interconnected and providing for nearly all of its residents' needs. "Galleries, cafés, bars, and shops will line these public passages. With its 82-floor hotel, the project boasts a total interior space of 2.4 million square feet, and the 15-acre grounds feature everything from a skateboard park to tai chi platforms." The project is the design of architects Steven Holl and Li Hu and is expected to be complete this summer.

More Chinese hacking allegations

The head of MI5, Britain's domestic spy agency made famous by Ian Flemming's James Bond character, says that “Chinese state organizations” are spying on British financial institutions, accountancies and legal firms. MI5 apparently sent letters to the heads of 300 British firms warning them of the hacking attempts and telling them how to identify Chinese trojans within their computer systems. The Chinese have not responded to this specific allegation but have previously denied any wrong doing saying that they too have been the target of hackers. I'll bet it's Goldfinger or Scaramanga!

Research in Motion signs deal in China - Market reacts

Apple is not the only smartphone manufacturer that is seeing dollar signs these days. Research in Motion (RIM) and Alcatel-Lucent announced yesterday that they've signed an agreement to distribute BlackBerry smartphones in China. The stock market reacted by driving RIM shares up 8% and Alcatel-Lucent up by 4%. "This strategic partnership perfectly matches Alcatel-Lucent's global presence and strength in the Chinese market with the global awareness and popularity of RIM's BlackBerry brand," said Frederic Rose, president of Alcatel-Lucent's Asia Pacific activities.

China set to launch lunar probe this week

It seems like the space race is heating up in Asia. The Chang'e 1, named after a legendary Chinese goddess who flew to the moon, is scheduled to be launched from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan province in southwestern China. The launch window is set between Wednesday through Friday. The move comes weeks after Japan launched it's own probe into high orbit above the moon and months before India launches a similar probe.

"The mission has a very strong scientific emphasis," Sun Kwok, a professor of physics and dean of science at the University of Hong Kong is quoted "It's not just about technology. It's more than just launching a satellite, it's more than putting the first satellite in orbit."

Perhaps they are just jockeying for Google bucks?

Wired has the story.

China upset by award given to Dalai Lama, hijacks search engine traffic

The CBC has posted speculations that the Chinese government, upset by President Bush's awarding of the Dalai Lama with a Congressional Gold Medal, is hijacking traffic meant for Google and Yahoo and directing it to the Chinese-owned Baidu search engine. The Chinese government routinely censors internet content and blocks web pages but this move is seen as a retaliatory reaction to the US's support for a figure that the Chinese see as a threat. Can't we just all get along and play nice?

Update: InfoWorld is reporting a contrary story saying "Internet users in Beijing and Shanghai said attempts to access Google and other search engines were successful Friday, despite claims on a U.S. blog that traffic to these sites was redirected to Chinese search engine Baidu.com."

cat? mouse?