Roundup - 20/01/2010

• In a move which many analysts suggest is linked to the Google affair, Chinese search engine, Baidu, is suing an American company for negligence after its site was hacked. Baidu says that Register.com, Inc. was guilty of gross negligence after Baidu was hacked by a group calling itself the Iranian Cyber Army on January 12^th.
  
  Baidu has been largely reported as being the dominant search engine in China. However, this dominance is in crisis as loss of market share and the loss of key managers are revealed. Analysis International has followed recent announcements by Statcounter.com by releasing figures that give Baidu a 58.6% share of China's online search market in the last quarter, a 5.3% drop on the previous three months.
  
  Baidu has also lost both its chief technology operator, Li Yinan, and its chief operations officer, Ye Peng, in the last ten days.
  
  
  
• Google has delayed the launch of two new phones using Google's Android software. The phones, made by Samsung and Motorola, were to have used the China Unicom network. Insiders have suggested that Google did not want to launch a product utilising its Gmail and web search functions if the companies presence in China was uncertain.
  
  
  
• China's banking Regulatory Commission has set China's lending target at 7.5 trillion RMB (US$1.1 trillion). In 2009 Chinese banks lent a total of 9.5 trillion RMB (US$1.4 trillion) and has led to fears over the creation of bubble in China's economy.
  
  Meanwhile, Chinese stocks fell 3% on Wednesday due to fears of further interest rate hikes.
  
  
  
• Zhou Yongjun, a former democracy activist, has been sentenced to nine years in jail on charges of fraud. Zhou came to prominence during the protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989 during which he knelt on the steps of the Great Hall of the People to plead with Chinese leaders.
  
  He was controversially handed over to China by Hong Kong after he attempted to enter Hong Kong on a fake passport. He was reportedly put on a money laundering watchlist by Hang Seng bank after the signature on a transfer for HK$6 million (US$773,000) did not match the original.