Roundup - 19/01/2010

• 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.
  

Roundup - 18/01/2010

• China has confirmed the deaths of eight missing officers in Haiti. The four members of the UN peacekeeping force and four officials from the Ministry of Public Security were killed after the UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince collapsed during last Tuesdays earthquake. 18 Chinese nationals are now believed to have been killed in the earthquake. It is feared that the total death toll may rise to 100,000.
  
  
  
• A small earthquake in south west China has triggered landslides which killed 7 people. The earthquake struck 100km south west of Guiyang, Guizhou on Sunday afternoon. One person is still missing and nine others are in hospital.
  
  
  
• Two Chinese engineers have been kidnapped along with four Afghans in northern Afghanistan. The team were working on a road project with a Chinese company in Qaisar district. Afghan Islamic Press has reported that the kidnapping was conducted by the Taliban. Qaisar was previously considered one of the safest areas of Afghanistan but the war has been spreading over the last year and in October the Taliban attacked the police station in Qaisar's Faryab, kidnapping eight police officers.
  
  
  
• Yahoo has been criticised by its Chinese partner, Alibaba, over its stated support for Google. Yahoo announced that it was 'aligned' with Google on the dangers of hacking at the weekend. Alibaba, which runs Alibaba.com and Taobao.com, said that Yahoo's statement was 'reckless.'
  
  Yahoo has, like all other foreign internet companies in China, bowed to the will of the PRC. A source for the Straits Times says that China knew about the cyber attacks on foreign companies before being told by Google, but had taken the decision to remain silent on the issue.
  
  
  
• Texting services have been restored to Xinjiang more than six months after riots left almost 200 people dead. The July riots led to texting, the internet and international phone calls in the province being stopped in an effort to prevent the organisation of mobs and the circulation of photos which could inflame ethnic tensions in the region. These service have finally been restored over the last few weeks.
  

Roundup - 15/01/2010

• China's Ministry of Public Security has announced that its director of equipment and finance and deputy director of the international cooperation department are among eight Chinese missing inside the collapsed UN headquarters on Haiti. A total of four of the missing were officials from the ministry visiting the UN mission according to Xinhua. The other three men and one woman were police officers serving with the UN mission.
  
  UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said on Thursday that a total of 22 peace keepers had been confirm dead but that figure is likely to rise as around 150 are still missing including around 100 in the collapsed headquarters.
  
  A Chinese rescue team is said to be working 24 hrs a day in an attempt to save as many lives as possible within the crucial first 72 hours.
  
  
  
• The US has responded to the response to the attack on Google has been hindered by a lack of concrete evidence according to a report in the International Herald Tribune. The reports shows that while most hold the opinion that the attacks came from the Chinese state, concrete evidence of this is not available. The White House did not ask for the Chinese government to investigate the attacks and President Obama has declined to personally take on the issue in public. However, the report quotes a senior official as saying that there would be greater diplomatic action in the coming days.
  
  The attacks have now been shown to have affected at least 33 different institutions including a research institute closely link to Washington and the US defence contractor Northrop Grumman.
  
  Meanwhile, Microsoft has admitted that it was a weakness in its Internet Explorer that allowed the attack to happen.
  
  
  
• The China Internet Network Information Centre reports that China's online population has grown to 384 million. The figure increased almost 29% since the end of 2008 when China already had the worlds largest online population.
  
  
  
• China has chosen a new governor for Tibet after the resignation of Qiangba Puncog. Padma Choling is an ethnic Tibetan who has served 17 years in the People's Liberation Army before becoming a government official. Although the Tibetan governor is often an ethnic Tibetan. The most powerful official, Secretary of the CPC Tibet Committee Zhang Qingli, is Han Chinese.
  
  No reason has been given for the sudden resignation of Qiangba Puncog. He was 62, three years shy of the mandatory retirement age of 65.
  
  
  
• A court in Beijing has begun the trial of the most senior judicial official ever arrested. Huang Songyu was vice-president of the Supreme People's Court when he was dismissed after accusations of accepting bribes and embezzlement. Mr. Huang is now on trial for accepting more than 8 million RMB in bribes and embezzling 1 million RMB from a court in Guangdong. A Xinhua report also suggested that he was known for being 'sexually corrupt' with an interest in 'underage girls.'
  
  
  
• Kang Rixin, formerly head of the China National Nuclear Corporation, has been removed from the Central Committee and stripped of his Communist Party membership. Mr Kang was dismissed from his post at CNNC after suspicions of corruption. Although no charges have yet been brought he has been linked to bribes paid in return for construction contracts on China's nuclear infrastructure and also to an alleged multi-million dollar bribe from a leading French nuclear company.
  
  
  
• In economic news, China's FDI rose 103% year on year in December to reach US$12.1 billion. This brings FDI for 2009 to US$90.03 billion. A slight decrease of 2.6% compared with 2008.
  
  Meanwhile China's foreign exchange reserves grew 23.28% to nearly US$2.4 trillion.
  

Roundup - 14/01/2010

• China has issued its first official response to Google's warning that it may leave China if it is not allowed to publish uncensored search results. A statement on Thursday by Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Jiang Yu said that China was opposed to any form of internet attack and wanted further details so that it could investigate the matter. Ms Jiang also said that she would 'like to stress that China welcomes international Internet enterprises to conduct business in China according to the law.'
  
  Meanwhile Google chief legal officer and vice-president of corporate development David Drummond said that Google was 'not saying one way or the other whether the attacks are state-sponsored or done with the approval of the state.'
  
  Google users have by and large welcomed Google's decision. Flowers were left at the entrance to Google's offices in Beijing yesterday. One user on said on Twitter that 'it's not Google that's withdrawing from China, it's China that's withdrawing from the world.'
  
  
  
• Chinese police have shot and wounded at least five demonstrators at a land protest in Guangxi. The clashes, which also left 11 policemen injured, occurred in Longyatun village in Guangxi after police tried to arrest 12 villagers for obstructing public works. This charge is often brought against citizens who try to stop construction on government requisitioned land. China News Service reported that police fired in self defence after being attacked by villagers wielding rocks, knives and clubs.
  
  
  
• Hong Kong police have arrested two people on suspicion of carrying out an acid attack on a crowded market. The two men, aged 18 and 23, were arrested in connection with an attack on December 12^th on the Causeway Bay shopping district which injured six people. No comment was made as to whether the pair were suspected of carrying out other similar attacks.
  
  The latest in a series of such attacks came on Saturday when two bottles of acid were dropped on the Temple Street night market injuring at least 30 people.
  
  
  
• A poll by Taiwan's Common Wealth magazine suggests that nine out of ten Taiwanese corporate executives want a trade pact with the mainland. President Ma Yingjiu has placed the pact at the centre of his policy agenda but has received criticism from the opposition who fear that Ma will bring Taiwan too close to China. A previous poll suggested that the majority of Taiwanese voters opposed the pact and local elections, in which the pact was the central issue, delivered a defeat for Ma's Nationalist Party.
  
  Negotiations on the pact will begin next week and President Ma hopes to sign a deal in May.
  
  
  
• China's General Administration of Customs statistics show that China's oil imports continued to rise rapidly, reaching 204 million tons in 2009. China's oil imports now account for 52% of total consumption. Analysts believe that by 2020 nearly 65% of China's oil consumption will be supplied by imports.
  
  China is looking at ways to limit oil consumption by producing more fuel efficient cars and electric cars. However, with the number of vehicles on China's roads increasing so rapidly China's oil consumption is likely to continue to rise.
  

Roundup - 13/01/2010

• Google has said it is no longer willing to collaborate in Chinese censorship and will shut down google.cn if it is not allowed to publish uncensored results. The announcement comes after Google claimed that an attack on its servers, and those of up to twenty other companies, were primarily designed to hack into the email accounts of Chinese human rights activists. According to Google only the inbox and subject line of emails was taken, no actual emails were compromised.
  
  Although Google made no specific allegations as to who is responsible for the attack, it has reacted strongly against the Chinese state. It says that it is willing to negotiate the presence of an uncensored version of google.cn but that if negotiations do not succeed it will simply pull out of China altogether. In an apparent attempt to put pressure on China censored images were recently found to be available on google.cn. For example, an iconic photo of a man standing in front of a column of tanks, taken in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre of 1989, could be easily found on the search engine.
  
  Human rights activists have universally praised Google's decision. Arvind Ganesan of Human Right Watch said that Google's actions set 'a great example.' foreign internet companies in China have often been criticised for bowing to the Chinese state's wishes. Yahoo, for example, was willing to give private details of bloggers to China in exchange for access to the Chinese market.
  
  While Google's actions have been widely praised outside of China, its motives have been questioned. Google seemed to have no problem with censoring its results until now and has not linked the attacks specifically to the Chinese government. Some have suggested that this move is actually an attempt to head off future criticism. After all, Google's operations in China have managed to make little headway against China's Baidu search engine and China accounts for only US$300 million of Googles US$22 billion of annual revenue. Evgeny Morozov from Georgetown University said that it seemed as if Google was playing the 'innocence card.'
  
  
  
• 8 Chinese peacekeepers have been buried and are feared dead and another 10 are unaccounted for after Tuesday afternoons devastating earthquake in Haiti. The 7.0 magnitude earthquake struck at 16:53 local time and was Haiti's worst earthquake in two centuries. It is believed that the casualties may number in their thousands.
  
  On Wednesday China sent a rescue team of 50 earthquake experts, 3 dogs and machinery to aid in the crisis. China has 125 peacekeepers in Haiti as part of a several thousand strong UN presence. The UN headquarters is believed to be one of the buildings that was destroyed in the quake.
  
  
  
• China has raised the bank reserve ration by 0.5%. The ratio, the amount of money banks must keep in reserve compared to how much they lend out, has been increased in an effort to curb excess lending which could overheat the economy and lead to asset bubbles. China has already seen inflation begin to growth in recent months. China's stimulus package and lax lending policies led to a doubling in the the amount lent by banks in 2009 compared with 2008. Almost 600 billion RMB (US$87.7 billion) was lent in the first week of January. Many analysts had not expected such a move to come before the second quarter, however, it was expected to come eventually as China tries to rein in growth to sustainable levels. China has also raised the interest on one-year bills to 1.84% after raising that on three-month bills last week.
  
  
  
• China's restive province of Xinjiang is to up its security budget by almost 90% Xinhua reports. The budget proposal, to be decided on this week, suggests that spending on public security should be increased to 2.89 billion RMB (US$423 million) to combat the 'three forces' of terrorism, separatism, and extremism which the government says were behind the riots which left almost 200 dead last July.
  
  Xinjiang's regional government chairman, Nur Bekri, said that security forces should improve their response mechanisms to react quickly to 'mass incidents' and should find ways to prevent the use of new media, such as the internet and mobile phones, to coordinate these events.
  
  China denies that it is subjecting Xinjiang's 8 million Uighurs to religious and cultural oppression.
  
  
  
• In another sign of openness to homosexuality, China Daily's front page today bore a photo of China's first 'married' gay couple. Zeng Anquan and Pan Wenjie held a public ceremony at a gay bar in Chengdu. Although the marriage is not officially recognised by the state and there had been no official government response, Zeng and Pan hope that this is a first step in making same-sex partnerships a possibility. The couple have suffered a significant amount of predjudice since they announced their marriage. No family members attended the ceremony and Zeng's brother froze all the capital in Zeng's company when he heard the news.
  
  Discrimination against homosexuals is still extremely widespread in China. A survey by Zhang Beichuan of Qingdao University suggests that 8.7% of homosexuals are fired after revealing their sexuality, 4.7% feel their salary and chances of promotion are affected and 62% choose to keep their sexuality secret in the work place.
  

Roundup - 02/01/2009

• Thousands of protesters have been marching through Hong Kong demanding full democracy. Hong Kong was returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a constitution which guaranteed that Hong Kong's Chief Executive and Legislature should eventually elected democratically. However, in 2007 China postponed the change, the Chief Executive will now be elected from 2017 and the legislature from 2020.
  
  Reports on the size of the demonstrations vary from 4,600 to 9,000. While the protests are a boost to democratic campaigners in Hong Kong, the numbers fall far short of previous protests. In 2003 a national security bill was shelved after 500,000 took to the streets in protest.
  
  Although the democratic movement has been weakened in recent years, it is hoped that the resignation of five pro-democracy legislators later this months will provoke elections which could be interpreted as a referendum on democratic reform.
  
  
  
• The China-ASEAN Free Trade Area has now come into effect. The agreement, initially prompted by the Asian financial crisis of the 1990s, covers a region which contains 1.9 billion people and and combined GDP of almost US$6 trillion. ASEAN Secretary General Surin Pitsuwan has said that the Free Trade Area will benefit both China and ASEAN and help to lift the global economy out of recession.
  
  
  
• The Shanghai Panda Dairy Company has been shut down and three of its executives arrested for selling milk products contaminated with melamine. Authorities are currently overseeing the recall of its products from other parts of China. In 2008 six children died from drinking milk containing melamine. Several people were jailed and two executed for their role in that scandal. However, cases of melamine contamination continue to be discovered. Last month three people were arrested in Shaanxi for producing milk powder containing melamine.
  
  
  
• Apple has followed Google's lead in self-censorship in China. Applications for the iPhone relating to the Dalai Lama and Uighur activist Rebiya Kadeer are not available from the Chinese app store. Apples runs different app stores for each country and has the final say on what applications are available in which stores. Reports suggest that searches on iTunes only find apps relating to the Dalai Lama if the search is in English but not in Chinese.
  
  
  
• Nine people have been killed and another eight injured after an explosion at a fireworks factory in Shaanxi. On Friday afternoon a massive blast destroyed all seven workshops of the Xinping Firecrackers Co. Ltd. Police are looking for Qu Pingxing, the factory boss, who is believed to have fled following the explosion.
  
  
  
• 606,100 tourists from the mainland visited Taiwan last year according to the Association for Tourism Exchange Across the Taiwan Straits. Restrictions on mainlanders visiting Taiwan have been relaxed by both sides since commercial flights resumed between the two territories in July 2008. The visitors brought an estimated US$1.13 billion to the Taiwanese economy.
  

Roundup - 17/12/2009

• Chinese negotiators and officials are signaling that they no longer believe that a binding deal is possible at the Copenhagen summit. Reports suggest that China now favours a simple political statement at the end of the summit. It is not known whether this is only a bargaining position or if it is genuinely felt. Some leaders had hoped to agree to an interim arrangement which would have some immediate effect but it seems that China is not cooperating on this. They want a final treaty or none at all.
  
  Negotiations have stalled over who will bear the burden of combating climate change. While most developing countries favour a continuation of the Kyoto treaty, which would place the responsibility for funding on the developed world, richer countries want a new deal which would spread the burden far more widely.
  
  China has vowed that it will make its previously announced cuts of 40-45% in carbon intensity whether or not a deal was signed at the summit. Chinese media has said that 3 trillion RMB will be invested in the environment over 5 years from 2011.
  
  
  
• There are growing signs that rules on demolition may be changed. Call for reform of he rules has grown after details of a number of deaths of people defending their homes from demolition. Yue Xiyou, who died trying to defend his fiance's apartment from being wrecked and Tang Fuzhen, who died of her injuries after setting fire to herself have rallied public opinion and intellectuals to put pressure on the National Peoples Congress and the State Council to reform the rules. Xi Xinzhu is currently in hospital after setting himself on fire in Beijing on Monday in a similar incident.
  
  However, while China's legislature appears to be backing reform of the law, other elements are opposed to it. The NPC recently declared that the regulations should have already been withdrawn due to the 2007 Property Law, however, the State Council Legislative Affairs Office said that the regulations were still valid. Although in theory laws made by the NPC carry more weight than the regulations set by the SCLAO, in the absence of a developed legal system where the issue can be settled in court, the ambiguity is enough for the regulations to remain in place.
  
  
  
• China's crackdown on internet porn is continuing to expand. Thanks to a new hotline for reporting sites 775 sites were closed down in just five days. A total of 15,775 sites had been shut down as of 8pm on December 15^th.
  
  The government has also begun to insist on a business license for any one wishing to register an internet domain name. The move is aimed at reducing the amount of user generated content on the net. The government says this is aimed at tackling pornography and breach of copyright, however, it is also a way of limiting political ad social comment.
  
  
  
• Five miners have been trapped since Wednesday after a mudslide at Manaoshan Mine in Chenzhou, Hunan which produces iron ore. Rescuers have said that they have heard cries for help and believe that the miners are still alive. More than 100 people are working to free the miners.
  

Roundup - 12/12/2009

• 22,884 cases of officials holding public money for personal use have been uncovered since June. He Guoqiang, secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection of the Communist Party of China, said that the sums of money involved totaled 10.16 billion RMB, or about $1.49 billion. He said that 270 officials had received administrative punishments and 81 had been prosecuted.
  
  Nationwide sweeps between 1998 and 2006 found 140.6 billion RMB however, this is thought to be a very small percentage of the total amount of public money lost to corruption.
  
  
  
• The Chinese stance at the Copenhagen summit is continuing its previous course. Liu Zhenmin, deputy permanent representative to the UN, emphasised the continuation of the Kyoto Protocol, differentiated responsibility, and financial support and technology transfer from developed countries.
  
  Meanwhile, in Beijing, an influential think-tank, Chinese Economists 50 Forum, has published suggestions for an Inter-Country Joint Mitigation Plan to facilitate technology transfer from the developed to the developing world.
  
  
  
• Xinhua has announced that more than 3,470 people have been arrested this year in a crackdown on internet pornography. According to the Ministry for Public Security 1.25 million items of 'lewd content' and nearly 7,000 websites were shut down.
  
  Earlier this month authorities launched a crackdown on WAP sites with pornographic content. China maintains very strict control over the internet arguing that it must 'purify social environment and protect minors' mental health.'
  
  
  
• President Hu Jintao is currently in Kazakhstan. President Hu and President Nazarbayev will hold talks on strengthening their bilateral ties. Kazakhstan is also a member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and a key ally and source of natural resources in the region. The 'Friendship Pipeline' is the longest oil pipeline in the world and is expected to begin operating fully next year.
  
  
  
• Chinese police arrested three people on Tuesday for selling milk contaminated with melamine. The three men worked for Shaanxi based Jinqiao Dairy Company. Only a few weeks ago two men were executed for their role in selling melamine-contaminated milk in a scandal which caused the deaths of six children and illness to some 300,000.
  
  
  
• Taiwan's Bureau of Foreign Trade is looking into allegations that Taiwanese companies sold specialised equipment which could be used to make weapons grade uranium to Iran. A report in the Daily Telegraph suggested that Iranian defense officials acquired pressure transducers from Taiwanese companies after being denied by American and European companies.
  

Roundup - 07/12/2009

• Delegations from around the world are meeting in Copenhagen for the climate summit this week. The Chinese media largely avoids discussing the treats that China faces from climate change. Reports are also consistent with their negotiating position that it is largely up to the West to deal with the problems they have caused. In cloned articles in the People's Daily and China Daily the US is criticised for announcing its emissions cuts too late, Japan for not stating how its cuts would be achieved, Russia for announcing cuts that were not actually cuts at all, and Canada for announcing what amounted to only a 2% cut on 1990 levels. Meanwhile Brazil, India, and, of course, China are praised for their independent actions to curb greenhouse gas emissions.
  
  The Chinese press is also boosting China's green image by announcing China's first electric-only powered vehicle and publishing articles on a 'Green Bank' project in Guizhou which aims to turn environmental assets into a source of profit for the local community.
  
  Meanwhile, in Copenhagen, Minister for Science and Technology Wan Gang has stated in an interview that China's carbon emissions will peak at some time between 2030 and 2040.
  
  
  
• The opposition Democratic Progressive Party has gained ground in local elections in Taiwan. There are now fears in the Nationalist Party that current President Ma Yingjiu, if current voting trends continue, will have difficulty winning reelection in 2012. While a slow reaction to Typhoon Morakot and the economic slump were major issues, President Ma's relationship with the mainland is believed to have been the biggest factor. The president has tried to forge closer economic ties with the People's Republic and to reduced military tensions. However, with fewer and fewer Taiwanese having any direct link to the mainland, the pro-independence DPP is winning popular support.
  
  
  
• Key Chinese leaders have stated at the Central Economic Work Conference that China will continue its current economic policies until the end of the current 11^th five-year plan in 2010. The policies, designed to counteract the global recession, will remain in place while experts monitor China's recovering exports, industrial output, and domestic consumer demand. Leaders expressed hope that these policies would allow for a solid economic basis to begin the 12^th five-year plan.
  
  
  
• Zheng Dajing, a Chinese activist who has spoken out against China's black jails, was detained on Friday. He and several other activists were held after planning protests to mark China's 'Legal Publicity Day.' Zheng, speaking to The Associated Press on Saturday through locked metal door in an alleyway in Beijing said he did not know when he would be able to leave. China has often denied the existence of a system of illegal jails meant to discourage petitioners from coming to Beijing. However, last month, the state-run Outlook magazine run a feature on the prison system detailing 73 prisons.
  
  
  
• Chinese regulators have announced that they have shut down hundreds of video-sharing sights in a new drive to control online content. 414 sites including the popular BTChina and Uubird sites have been ordered to close or to stop showing audio and video content.
  
  Meanwhile, a new reward scheme for reporting pornography has led to a surge in calls to the China Internet Illegal Information Reporting Centre. The rewards range from 1000 to 10,000 RMB and will be decided by a special committee.
  
  
  
  

Roundup - 25/11/2009

• The Chinese press is reporting a statement by Vice-Foreign Minister Zhang Zhijun that greater flexibility may be introduced in the Renminbi's exchange rate. China has already made the exchange rate slightly more flexible after the recession and the People's Bank of China said it was in the process of reforming the exchange rate system a month ago but there is still strong international pressure for further reform.
  
  The statement is in part aimed at the European Union. The 12^th China-EU Summit is due to be held in Nanjing next week and exchange rate reform is expected to be the central issue alongside trade and climate-change. EU Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet, Luxembourg Prime Minister Lean-Claude Juncker and Joaquin Almunia, EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs will hold talks on the issue with Premier Wen Jiabao and central bank officials the day before the summit.
  

• 'Fog' has delayed at least 280 flights in and out of Beijing today. The 'fog,' often a term used instead of pollution, followed several days of hazardous pollution levels reported by the US embassy's Twittered air quality index.
  

• Xinhua reports a statement by Li Gao from the National Development and Reform Commission and a key negotiator at the upcoming Copenhagen summit. He says that China will make a 'constructive contribution and 'will not accept that it ends with an empty and so-called political declaration.' The statement follows US President Obama's attempts to dispel widespread pessimism surrounding the summit.
  

• The BBC reports that web browser Opera has closed a loophole allowing users in China to access government banned websites. Users were asked to upgrade to a Chinese version at the weekend to find that the new version does not allow access to sites such as Facebook. The BBC reports that Opera was not prepared to discuss the 'background for this decision.'
  

• Xinhua reports that three Chinese policemen have been jailed for torturing a student to death to extract a confession. Xu Gengrong was questioned over the death of a female student in Shaanxi and died on the 8^th of March shortly after 'suddenly falling ill.' The police, including a county-level police chief, were jailed for between 1 and 2 and a half years for charges including criminal abuse of power and using torture to extract a confession.
  

• The People's Daily carries an article on Hu Jintao's elaboration of his Theory of Profound Changes. Stating that the time we live in is full of 'opportunities and challenges' he highlights the importance of science and technology, newly-emerging industries and the knowledge economy for China's future. This seems to be a way of countering the current relationships of power; 'strong north and weak south, strong west and weak east.'
  
  He also points to the issue of global security and make a veiled comment on the US presence in Central Asia, 'certain hot issues can not get resolved for a long time.'