Roundup - 12/01/2010

• China has conducted a successful test of its missile interceptor technology, Xinhua says. China's HQ9 air defence system is designed to shoot down incoming missiles before they reach their targets in mainland china. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said that 'the test was defensive in nature and targeted at no country.' However, Al Jazeera quotes Shi Yinhong, Renmin Universities leading expert on Sino-US relations, as saying that there was a 'connection' between the test and the US decision to carry on with the sale of Patriot missile components to Taiwan. Taiwan says that there are approximately 1,500 missiles pointed at its territory and it relies on US arms imports to guarantee its security. Taiwanese media has suggested that President Ma Yingjiu will stop off in the US during a visit to Honduras this month in a move that is likely to provoke further anger from the mainland.
  
  
  
• China's leading internet search engine was down on Tuesday morning after being hacked by pro-Iran activists. Baidu's DNS was altered to redirect traffic to a page saying 'This site has been hacked by Iranian Cyber Army.' Below was a sentence in Farsi saying 'in reaction to the US authorities' intervention in Iran's internal affairs. This is a warning.' The name 'Iranian Cyber Army' was used by hackers who shut down Twitter last month.
  
  
  
• Google has apologised to 8,000 Chinese writers for scanning and publishing their books online without their permission. Google offered to publish a list of all Chinese works it has scanned in recent years. It also said that it would work to reach an agreement with Chinese authors by the summer. Currently more than 50 Chinese publishers have agreed to allow around 60,000 books to be published, Google said.
  
  
  
• China plans to build the world's highest airport on the Tibetan plateau state media reports. The 'roof of the world' project will cost 1.8 billion RMB (US$263.62 million) to build an airport at 4,436 meters above sea level. This will be 102 meters higher than Tibet's Bamda airport, currently considered the worlds highest. The new airport will serve the region of Nagqu in the centre of the Qinghai-Tibet plateau. Nagqu currently has a mainly Tibetan population of 400,000 though this may change as it is further opened up.
  
  
  
• China has scrapped restrictions on the use of foreign parts in its wind turbines. The decision by the National Development and Reform Commission was taken last year according to China Business News, but has only just been announced. Previously, manufacturers of China's wind turbine had to source at least 70% of their turbines from domestic markets. However, it is hoped that this move will open up China's wind turbine producers to foreign technology. China's wind power capacity was forecast to reach 20 gigawatts by the end of 2009 making China the world's third biggest wind power producer behind the US and Spain.
  
  
  
• Beijing-based iResearch has reported that the growth of China's internet gaming industry slowed to a nevertheless formidable 30.2% a year reaching 27.1 billion RMB (US$3.97 billion).