- Reuters and the Wall Street Journal have cited unnamed sources saying that the cyber-attack on Google which has recently made headlines may have had inside help. Analysts have suggested that the reason the attack was so sophisticated was not because of the software used but because they knew exactly who to attack. Google has declined to comment on the reports.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Correspondents Club of China has warned its members that the gmail accounts of at lest two reporters have recently been hacked into and their emails forwarded to an unknown address. Although the two accounts are not named the Associated Press has said that one was an account belonging to one of its journalists.
- The Irish company Statcounter has suggested that Google's market share in China was much greater than previously reported. Reports that suggest Google had barely more than 30% of he market are based on figures from last July. Statcounters new figures show that over the last few months Google has increased its share to 43% while Baidu has fallen to 56%. The figures suggest that Google's low market share in China compared with elsewhere is not a primary motivator for its recent actions.
- Huang Songyou, former vice-president of the Supreme People's Court, has been handed a life sentence for accepting bribes totaling 3.9 million RMB (US$571,000) and embezzling 1.2 million RMB (US$176,000). The sentence comes as part of major crackdown on corruption after Hu Jintao declared it to be a major threat to the legitimacy of the Communist party.
Meanwhile, Chen Shaoyong, former secretary-general of Fijian's provincial party committee, was also given a life sentence for taking properties worth 8.19 million RMB (US$1.2 million) as bribes.
- Two criminal gang leaders, Yang Tianqing and Liu Chenghu, were executed today in Chongqing. Chongqing's campaign against organised crime has resulted in a number of high profile cases involving police and judges as well as gang leaders. The campaign has been a major boost to the career of Bo Xilai who is tipped to be a major player in the next generation of Chinese leaders.
- The China Film Group has decided to stop showing the 2D version of James Cameron's Avatar according to Hong Kong's Apple Daily. This is said to be a reaction to fears that it may encourage unrest. The film depicts a people whose local life is threatened when people arrive to exploit their planets natural resources, a situation which many in China could sympathise with. Due to the rarity of 3D cinemas in China, and their prohibitive ticket prices, the decision will mean that only China's urban middle class will be able to see the film in cinemas.
Tuesday, 19 January 2010
Roundup - 19/01/2010
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The corruption-legitimacy question is an interesting one. Has corruption got worse or is the average Chinese person simply more aware of it?
ReplyDeleteWill this affect the ability of Party members to throw money around with a "magic card"?
*postcript*
ReplyDeleteI've just read about some early Maoist anti corruption campaigns called the 3 Antis and 5 Antis...know anything about them? From what I can gather the "Anti-campaigns" were aimed at reducing corruption between party leaders/local officials and the then-existing Chinese non-Communist bourgousie.
Might it be siad that what goes around comes around??
The three antis and five antis campaigns were about ideology and political control. When the CCP came to power they briefly allied themselves with the urban bourgeoisie to facilitate the transition of power and to stabilise the economy. Once they were no longer needed ideology and the party's consolidation of power over the economy meant that the bourgeoisie had to be removed.
ReplyDeleteThe current leadership are managers rather than idologues. Their concerns are the control of the party, adequate state funding and centralised power. Corruption takes a vast amount of centrally allocated money, it means that the money is not spent on centrally promoted projects and it adds to te funding crisis at several levels of the state.
As to whether corruption has increased, it is really impossible to say exactly. Corruption is extremely high,US$34.4 billion of missing public funds were spotted in the first 11 months of 2009, and the reforms of the last 30 and particularly of the last 20 years have almost certainly led to far greater opportunities for corruption.However, this just goes to show how big the problem is. It will take more than just a few high profile executions to stop corruption.
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