China Media Observation

new principle of Chinese state media

Will — Sat, 22 Nov 2008 23:46:57 +0000

It seems that Chinese state media now have a new principle of reporting. That is “report the facts quickly, but be cautious on the causes behind the facts”（快讲事实，慎说原因）. I would like to regard it as one of the new strategies and skills of public relation which Chinese government learned from both the lessons of 2008 and the professional PR companies and experts.

Via guardian.co.uk, China tells state media to report bad news. Because that “It’s almost impossible to block anything nowadays when information can spread very quickly on the Internet.” “We also noticed that it will benefit us if we report the news first.”

Well, at least everyone noticed the power of Internet.

I just wonder if they are really effective, I mean, the skills of “spin doctor”.

Below is related article from Guardian:

The Chinese government is allowing the media to report on unrest in the hope it can manage the impact of bad news, Reuters has reported.

The decision appears to be a response to protests and disorder around the country, and to the speed at which stories spread on the internet.

Unusually detailed coverage of incidents such as a mass riot in Weng’an, Guizhou this summer – when 30,000 people took to the streets – has been published. There have been several articles this week about protests in Gansu and Chongqing, and today Xinhua reported on a mass petition by 400 people outside government offices in Beijing.

“The Chinese government has started to loosen its control on the negative information,” an academic source close to propaganda authorities told Reuters.

“They are trying to control the news by publicising the news.

“The central government has permitted local authorities to publicise negative news themselves, with no need to report to upper governments any more.

“They have a principle of ‘report the facts quickly, but be cautious on the causes behind the facts’.”

Tight controls on reporting mean that even when the media is initially allowed to cover a subject in detail, it is often reined in later.

There was unprecedented coverage of the May earthquake in Sichuan, but after a week or so questions about sensitive issues such as why so many schools collapsed were deemed off limits.

A blackout on bad news during the Beijing Olympics in August contributed to the delayed reporting of milk tainted with melamine that ultimately killed at least four babies and hospitalised thousands.

But the regime is finding that the internet can spread information – or rumours – as fast as censors can delete comments.

A party official told Reuters: “It’s almost impossible to block anything nowadays when information can spread very quickly on the Internet.

“We also noticed that it will benefit us if we report the news first.”

Last week, Xinhua reported that Li Changchun, China’s propaganda chief and one of nine members of the Politburo standing committee, had urged China’s media to report “more original, timely and popular stories” and to enhance their domestic and international influence.

Another case of human flesh search engine, also the power of networked users

Will — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 14:27:22 +0000

Below are lots of news story about the official sex harassment scandal in Shenzhen:

Official who misbehaved with 11-yr-old girl, sacked
<http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/World/Official_who_misbehaved_with_11-yr-old_girl_sacked/articleshow/3682067.cms>
Times of India, India
BEIJING: For three days, a large section of internet users saw video clips of a senior official fondling a scared 11-year old girl at a restaurant in the *…*
Shenzhen official cleared of child molestation charge
<http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-11/06/content_7178318.htm>
China Daily, China – Nov 5, 2008
By Chen Hong (China Daily) Shenzhen – Police here said on Wednesday that there was insufficient evidence to show Lin Jiaxiang, former Party chief of the *…*

Investigation: Sacked China official was drunk, not child molester
<http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/06/content_10313508.htm>
Xinhua, China – Nov 5, 2008
SHENZHEN, Nov. 5 (Xinhua) — An investigation has found that an incident in which a former official grabbed a young girl was “drunken misbehavior” not *…*

Abusive Chinese official sacked after
<http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24607197-2703,00.html>
The Australian, Australia – Nov 5, 2008
INTERNET outrage has forced the dismissal of a senior Chinese Communist Party official after video footage from a restaurant security camera showed him *…*

Fired After Web Outrage
<http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/World-News/Chinese-Official-Fired-Over-Assault-On-Girl-After-Internet-Outrage/Article/200811115142045?lpos=World_News_News_Your_Way_Region_4&lid=NewsYourWay_ARTICLE_15142045_Chinese_Official_Fired_Over_Assault_On_Girl_After_Internet_Outrage>
Sky News, UK – Nov 4, 2008
Use the drop down menu below to filter stories and videos the way you want – when you want it! A Chinese official accused of attacking an 11-year-old girl *…*

Chinese official sacked over attack on girl, 11
<http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/nov/05/china-lin-xiaxiang-communist-party>

guardian.co.uk, UK – Nov 4, 2008
A high-ranking Chinese official has been sacked for accosting a young girl while drunk, the state media reported yesterday, after an internet storm over his *…*

Chinese Communist Party Official Dismissed After Alleged Assault *…*
<http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,446924,00.html>
FOXNews – Nov 4, 2008
The closed-circuit video shows a disput between the girl’s father and the Chinese official. A senior Chinese Communist Party official was dismissed after he *…*

Chinese official accused of assaulting girl tracked down by mass *…*
<http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/asia/china/3378456/Chinese-official-accused-of-assaulting-girl-tracked-down-by-mass-web-search.html>
Telegraph.co.uk, United Kingdom – Nov 4, 2008
A government official accused of assaulting a girl in a restaurant has become the latest victim of a new Chinese internet phenomenon. *…*

Chinese official sacked after web video triggers outrage over *…*
<http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5077899.ece>
Times Online, UK – Nov 4, 2008
Internet outrage has triggered a police inquiry and the dismissal of a high ranking Chinese Communist official after video footage showing him shoving the *…*

Online uproar in China as drunken official grabs girl
<http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5i264fK6eg7UPi4EkwMuU98Uy-CNg>
AFP – Nov 3, 2008
BEIJING (AFP) — Video footage of a Chinese official’s drunken attempt to force himself on an 11-year-old girl has triggered a police inquiry and a torrent *…*

China: Official fired for drunkenly grabbing girl
<http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1225715332110&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull>
Jerusalem Post, Israel – Nov 3, 2008
By AP A Communist Party official in the southern Chinese boomtown of Shenzhen has been fired for accosting a young girl while drunk, state media said *…*

<http://www.news.com.au/comments/0,23600,24600476-5014239,00.html>
NEWS.com.au, Australia – Nov 3, 2008
By staff writers and wires A CHINESE official has been sacked after web users identified him in an online video allegedly showing a man attempting to molest *…*

Shenzhen marine official sacked for molesting child
<http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2008-11/04/content_7169949.htm>
China Daily, China – Nov 3, 2008
By Chen Hong (China Daily) SHENZHEN — Lin Jiaxiang, the Party secretary of the Shenzhen marine affairs bureau has been sacked for molesting a young girl *…*

China sacks drunk official outed on Internet
<http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSTRE4A22NN20081103>
Reuters – Nov 3, 2008
BEIJING (Reuters) – China’s ministry of transport has fired an official in the southern boomtown of Shenzhen after photos and video clips of his drunken *…*

Official in Shenzhen sacked over public drunken behavior
<http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2008-11/03/content_10301000.htm>
Xinhua, China – Nov 3, 2008
BEIJING, Nov. 3 (Xinhua) — The Ministry of Transport announced on Monday that a local official in Shenzhen had been sacked over drunken behavior in public. *…*

Fired minister cleared of molestation
<http://www.upi.com/Top_News/2008/11/05/Fired_minister_cleared_of_molestation/UPI-24371225937493/>
United Press International – Nov 5, 2008
SHENZHEN, China, Nov. 5 (UPI) — A former Chinese government official who grabbed a young girl was drunk, an investigation found. *…*

Video: Chinese official accused of assaulting girl, 11, is sacked *…*
<http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1083303/Video-Chinese-official-accused-assaulting-girl-11-sacked-internet-video-shows-restaurant-scuffle-father.html>
Daily Mail, UK – Nov 5, 2008
By Mail Foreign Service A senior Chinese official has been sacked after an internet video showed him fighting the father of an 11-year-old girl the official *…*

China’s Internet Zorros
<http://www.themalaysianinsider.com/index.php/world/11811-chinas-internet-zorros>
The Malaysian Insider, Malaysia – Nov 4, 2008
BEIJING, Nov 5 — You could call it the “People’s War” version 2.0. That clarion call to mass mobilisation Mao Zedong used in revolutionary China has found a *…*

Lin Jiaxiang is Shenzhen Pervert <http://celebrity.rightpundits.com/?p=4586>
Right Celebrity, CA – Nov 4, 2008
By Jeanette Meet Lin Jiaxiang, a communist party official from Shenzhen, China. See photos, video and read a biography of Lin Jiaxiang below. *…*

Official tried to pay girl’s family
<http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200811/20081105/article_379491.htm>
Shanghai Daily, China – Nov 4, 2008
By Lydia Chen | 2008-11-5 | NEWSPAPER EDITION AN official who was sacked on Monday for an alleged attempt to molest a young girl in Shenzhen offered *…*

Chinese official sacked for allegedly grabbing 11-year-old girl *…*
<http://news.trend.az/index.shtml?show=news&newsid=1336548&lang=EN>
TREND Information, Azerbaijan – Nov 3, 2008
State media is reporting that a Communist Party official in southern China has been sacked for allegedly accosting a young girl while drunk, the Associated *…*

Official sacked for attack on girl
<http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200811/20081104/article_379359.htm>
Shanghai Daily, China – Nov 3, 2008
By Lydia Chen | 2008-11-4 | NEWSPAPER EDITION THE Ministry of Transport has sacked a government official in southern China’s Shenzhen City after he held an *…*

Sexual harassment Shenzhen official in trouble on the Internet *…*
<http://www.danwei.org/internet_culture/sexual_harassment_shenzhen_off.php>
Danwei, Hong Kong – Nov 2, 2008
In the last few days, China’s energetic Internet users have identified an official accused of sexually harassing an 11year-old girl in a restaurant in *…*

Official in strife after ‘grabbing’ young girl
<http://www.shanghaidaily.com/sp/article/2008/200811/20081103/article_379260.htm>
Shanghai Daily, China – Nov 2, 2008
By Lydia Chen | 2008-11-3 | NEWSPAPER EDITION A SHENZHEN City government official is under investigation after he held an 11-year-old girl around the neck *…*

Sacked official to avoid charges
<http://www.shanghaidaily.com/article/?id=379647&type=National>
Shanghai Daily, China – Nov 5, 2008
By Li Xinran | 2008-11-6 | NEWSPAPER EDITION THE official who was sacked over an alleged attempt to molest a girl in south China’s Shenzhen city will not be *…*

China Media Forecasts 2008 from GroupM

Will — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 09:47:57 +0000

A report titled with “This Year, Next Year: China Media Forecasts 2008″ was released by GroupM, a global media investment management operation, in 21 July 2008. There are some conclusions drawn by the report below:

Growth in 2007 was relatively restrained, as many marketers are conserving funds for the anticipated Olympic bonanza in Q3 this year. The Beijing Olympics will accelerate media investment growth to 22% in 2008.
How the slower global growth will affect China is hard to tell. Domestic demand and manufacturing output are still booming. Media investment driven by local and multinational advertisers continues to keep pace and grow spectacularly across all sectors.
We are confident of a strong media investment growth in our 2009 forecast as demand in China becomes a more important source of growth for global giants and indigenous Chinese companies focused on brand-building. However hard the comparatives may be in 2009 and however strong the imperative for the incoming US administration to rein in its imbalances, China media investment will
still have Expo 2010 (in China for the first time) to look forward to.
Television continues to dominate media investment in China with a high revenue share in 2008, and thus sets the pace of the total media investment.Cable DTV in China develops rapidly. Penetration varies by city. SARFT wants all cities in China to be digital by 2010. Most cities in China are in the early stages of growth, but the growth rate is extremely high.
China has as many as 228.5 million Internet users, easily surpassing US to be the world’s biggest Internet community. It is thus not surprising that Internet is the fastest-growing advertising medium with high revenue growth expected in 2008 and 2009.
Among the emerging media formats in China, mobile and LCD screens deserve mention. The combined advertising spend on these is likely to grow at higher pace than the Internet.

“The China media market will continue to be among the most exciting and challenging in the world. Due to its size and diversity, China is no longer seen by marketers as a single market, but a collection of evolving, complex and differing markets. Advertiser options multiply correspondingly, especially in digital, events, sponsorship and other branded content opportunities, all offering new ways to reach and engage with consumers. This may come as a surprise to those who might not normally associate choice with China.” said Sara Si, General Manager, GroupM Knowledge Center, China.

you can download the resource .pdf file here, for Chinese version, here.

China Earthquake Donation Guide: 35+ ways to give now

Will — Mon, 19 May 2008 11:20:10 +0000

How to donate for Sichuan China in the earthquake? All informations below are copied from: CNRviews.com：

photo (h/t ifgogo.com, zuosa.com)

There has been a tremendous outpouring of energy from the blogosphere and on Twitter to determine the best way to help out. This post provides a guide to how you can donate toward China earthquake relief efforts. We’ve now compiled over 35+ ways to give. Please add comments and links and I will keep this post updated. A SlideShare version of this post was also created by Oliver Ding.

I. Red Cross and various conduits

There is widespread consensus that donating to the Red Cross is the most reliable way to provide immediate disaster relief. Tuesday night BJ time, Bill Bishop (Niubi) hosted an auction with 15 mostly Chinese friends, and the consensus was the best way to give is to provide funds directly to the Sichuan provincial Red Cross. The next best option would be to give to the national Red Cross of China.

“With how much media attention is given, [people believe there will be] lot less graft than in the past. This is unprecedented media coverage in China,” said Bill. “We are watching the evolution of the Chinese government before our eyes. Ideally, so much coverage and press will provide less opportunity for graft” and more funds reach the victims.

CNReviews believes that the unprecendented press coverage, including that of the state agencies, is helping people overcome fears that their funds will be misused. There is some discussion that international aid agencies believe the Chinese crisis is being relatively well handled compared to Myanmar such that they should shift their focus to Myanmar.

1. Red Cross Society of China

Details on Shanghaiist, Reuters (h/t @Chinafubar), China Crossroads, and Alibaba (EN):

RMB wire instructions
foreign currency wire instructions
hotline
Note: many people have reported problems with their Website.

1.5 Chinese Red Cross Foundation (in Chinese)

Details on IfGoGo.com

See “Method 3″ on IfGoGo page
wire transfer instructions at IfGoGo
online donation link (for IE browsers only)
home page

2. Red Cross Society of China Chengdu City

website: http://www.chengduredcross.org/ (chinese)
Online donation button here (h/t @Dedlam, @Chengdoo).

3. American Red Cross

CNReviews interview with Christy Feig, Director of International Communications, American Red Cross, 5/13.

Post is coming soon. Here’s an excerpt from the interview:

Q: Is there a way to make a directed donation toward China specifically?

A: Yes. If you would like to designate your donation to the earthquake please visit our website at www.redcross.org or call 1-800 RED CROSS. If you would prefer to donate to all our international disaster response, the option of giving to the International Response Fund is also available.

Q: Does 100% of funds donated pass to the Red Cross Society of China?

A: The American Red Cross takes donor intent very seriously. As a policy, no more than 9% of donated money is used for management expenses…the rest goes toward the designation.

Based on my interview, I feel comfortable donating to the American Red Cross with a specific designation to China. For more info, go to the American Red Cross website.

4. Canadian Red Cross (h/t China Web 2.0 blog)

A separate fund has been established for the China earthquake, according to China Web 2.0 blog.

information page on China earthquake
donation link: https://www.paypaq.com/redcross/new/index.php

4.3 British Red Cross (h/t sichunlam.com)

4.5 Hong Kong Red Cross (h/t IfGoGo.com Donation Guide)

information page on China earthquake
instructions provided for payment by wire transfer, cheque, credit card
online donation link
home page

5. Jet Li One Foundation (Outside China)

From China Web 2.0 blog:

You can make donation via Paypal to Jet Li One Foundation, a charity foundation by Kung Fu movie star Jet Li. The donations will goes to Red Cross Society of China. The page is all in Chinese, but I think you can find the Paypal button on the right. But it seems you cannot specify the donation is special for earthquake when paying through Paypal

6. Jet Li One Foundation (Inside China) (h/t China Web 2.0 blog)

via Taobao with Alipay or Tenpay account
or via QQ

II. Other Aid Organizations

7. China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation (CFPA) or China Fupin Foundation
中国扶贫基金会 (Beijing)

website: http://www.fupin.org.cn/en/index.asp (English)
website: http://www.fupin.org.cn/index.asp (Chinese)

Donate RMB

* Account Name: 中国扶贫基金会
* Account Number: 8145-11681908091001
* Bank Name and Banch: 中国银行北京科技会展中心支行

Donate Clothes and Food, etc

* Address: Floor 5, South Building, Shuangyuxili, Haidian, Beijing |北京市海淀区双榆树西里36号南楼五层
* Tel: 010-62655199
* Working hour: 8:30am – 9pm

8. Shanghai Charity Foundation
上海慈善基金会

website: http://scf.88547.com/home/

Donate RMB

* Account Name: 上海市慈善基金会
* Account Number: 033351-00043984343
* Bank Name and Banch: 农行黄浦区陆家浜路支行

Donate Clothes and Food, etc

* SCF HQ: Floor 6, 88 Zhiizaoju Rd. 制造局路88号6楼 |62584343、63124091
* SCF Logistics Center (Puxi): No. 164, # 405 Lane, Zhengning Rd.| 镇宁路405弄164号 52394294
* SCF Logistics Center (Pudong): 2795 Middle Yanggao Rd |杨高中路2795号 62124343
* SCF Education Aid Dept: 80 Shanxibei Rd.| 陕西北路80号 62560695

Working hour: 9am – 9pm (Monday – Sunday)

9. China Women Development Foundation (with Sohu.com)

中国妇女发展基金会

Website: http://www.cwdf.org.cn

Donate RMB or foreign currencies via bank transfer。

Account Name:中国妇女发展基金会
Bank:中国工商银行北京市分行东四南支行
Account Number: 0200001009014423956
Remarks: 抗震救灾捐款 Donate for Sichuan Earthquake Relief

The foundation will mail you the receipt afterwards. And the report (in Chinese) also says the donation is tax-refundable. But the detail process didn’t include.

10. China Children & Teenagers Fund (CCTF, 中国少年儿童基金会)

Website: http://www.cctf.org.cn/English/index.htm

CCTF has formed a charity foundation for earthquake relief with with China Merchant Bank (CMB). Source from Sohu.

Account Number：0582626510001
Account Name：中国儿童少年基金会
Bank：招商银行北京分行长安街支行

You might also find regular international donation information to CCTF here with SWIF code.

11. World Vision

Through World Vision, I’ve sponsored one child in Tanzania for 10+ years, and one child in Kenya for 1+ years, so I know World Vision well.

website: information on World Vision’s viewpoint on China Earthquake
donation link: Emergency Aid Disaster response fund

Interviewed Jeff Wright, Sr. Program Officer for Humanitarian and Emergency Affairs, 5/13

Blog post coming soon, but here’s a quick synopsis:

World Vision has been operating in China since 1962. Operating legally with some kind of government approval
Primary country office in Beijing, with support office in Hong Kong, and regional offices in Yunnan, Gansu, and Shaanxi provinces
Has existing national offices with large local Chinese staff
Staff is not full-time focused on disaster recovery, but serving in other development projects like HIV/AIDS and agriculture, but all have training in disaster response
World Vision has sought to be effective through “pre-positioning” of three key assets: people, relief supplies/materials, and funding.
Funds have already been set aside to provide rapid relief
Clear and stringent operational guidelines for WorldVision volunteers or employees to directly deliver aid to the victim or “end user”

12. Care for Children (CFC)

China consultancy Dezan Shira has been supporting this organization (h/t This is China! blog). On the Dezan Shira blog, China Briefing, they write:

CFC works with the Sichuan and Chengdu Civil Affairs government for disadvantaged children in: Chengdu, Guangyuan, Deyang, Zamtang, Maoxian, Neijiang, Zigong, Bazhong, Mianyang and Yibin in Sichuan Province in addition to Chongqing City.

On this difficult occasion we would like to ask our subscribers, readers, and other members of the China blogging and business community to rally together and show their support of the Chinese children caught up in this disaster by making a donation, no matter how large or small, to CFC in assistance of their regional work. All money raised will be directed to support children and their families affected by the earthquake.

website: http://www.careforchildren.com.cn/home.htm
earthquake appeal: http://www.careforchildren.com.cn/appeal/

13. PledgeBank challenge (h/t Rconversation)

Rebecca MacKinnon (at Rconversation) is challenging people via Facebook and Twitter to sign her PledgeBank to commit to giving. I signed up for this. Here’s what she recommends:

International Red Cross
WorldVision (interview coming soon,. they confirmed that directed donations can be made)
Chinese Philanthropy Global Partnership – apparently a U.S. tax deductable conduit to Red Cross Society of China.
In China (Chinese) via Taobao

14. Global Giving (h/t ChristineLu.com)

Global Giving is a 501(c)3 tax-deductable organization that highlights vetted projects.

15. Mercy Corps (listed in Global Giving, IfGoGo.com)

China earthquake page: http://www.mercycorps.org/chinaearthquake/
Local partner is China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation(CFPA) (see above)
Also mentioned by IfGoGo (see Method 7): Mercy Corps online donation link
Mercy Corps donation via Google Checkout on Google

16. Half the Sky Foundation

Focus on orphaned children; providing infant care, preschools, and foster homes
Half the Sky’s Children’s Earthquake Fund

III. Other Sources

China Crossroads

Richard Brubaker’s China Crossroads blog lists a number of other options. I added links and tried to conform names to the official names (but might have guessed wrong):

17. China Charity Foundation (same as 28 below?)

18. Medicins Sans Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders)

19. China Youth Development Foundation (CYDF) (wikipedia)

CYDF Website (Chinese)
CYDF Website (English)

20. Project Hope China (wikipedia) or 21. Project Hope US

Mercy Corps (see above)
Habitat 4 Humanity (Only if they announce China program)

22. Donating via China Mobile (Inside China)

According to the Mukokuseki blog (@Papajohn):

One of my coworkers sent a fast and easy way to donate money to the relief efforts ongoing in Sichuan province. If you have a China Mobile phone, just text a number between 1 and 30 to 10699988, and the corresponding amount will be deducted from your China Mobile account balance and donated. I just tried it and got this message in response:

成功捐款30元。感谢您对地震灾区奉献爱心，我们相信爱心将驱走灾难带来的黑暗，使他们迅速从废墟中勇敢地重新站立起来。询01065630527。

It’s nice to see ubiquitous technology put to work for a good cause.

23. Isaac Mao

Isaac is working on identifying an NGO to support. More on this later.

24. Douban: 目前为止所有捐助方式汇总

More donor resources here

25. Contribute to Red Cross via Yeepay (inside China)

26. Doron Vermaat of NewChinaCareer.com

We have uploaded several banners to the homepage of NewChinaCareer asking our visitors to support emergency relief efforts to help those affected by this earthquake. We currently link these banners directly to the donation form of the Red Cross website: American Red Cross China Earthquake relief fund.

IfGoGo.com Donation Guide

The blogging team at IfGoGo.com has also listed many other options. I’ve integrated their suggestions above wherever possible. Here are some more suggestions from them:

27. Chinese Consulate in New York (for US givers)

see Method 1 on IfGoGo for instructions
method: via US check
address provided
phone number provided
Consulate website (in Chinese)

28. China Charity Foundation

see Method 4 on IfGoGo for instructions
also mentioned by China Crossroads (see above)
wire instructions provided
China Charity website (in Chinese)

29. OxFam Hong Kong

see Method 5 on IfGoGo
online donation link

30. Bullog via PayPal

see Method 8 on IfGoGo
IfGoGo: “Bullog, a famous right-wing web forum in China, founded by Yonghao Luo.”
online donation link

31. MITBBS

see Method 9 on IfGoGo
MITBBS website
PayPal instructions provided on IfGoGo
Note from IfGoGo on tax deductability: “Note that MITBBS/Bullog are both popular and high-ranked BBSs among Chinese community, they are doing everything they can do to help the victims in the earthquake, but keep in mind that they are not a non-profit/tax free agency. [If you want a tax-exempt receipt. this might not be a good choice]”

32. Silicon Valley Tsinghua Network (on IfGoGo as SVNT)

see Method 10 on IfGoGo
listed as “SVNT US non-profit” but it should be SVTN
SVTN website: http://tsinghua.net/events/20080512/DonationforEarthquake20080512.html
wire transfer, check, PayPal, and contact information provided.
Tsinghua Foundation donation via Google Checkout on Google

33. 1kg.org (h/t Web 2.0 Review)

main website
CNReviews profile of Andrew Yu and 1kg
relief special website (Chinese)
Web 2.0 Review description: “1kg has set up a special site to offer relief efforts, including collecting information about schools in epicenter, organizing relief activities, and helping to provide necessary resource to rebuild schools”

34. Library Project (h/t co-blogger @DavidFeng at CityWeekend’s Beijingologist blog)

Library Project homepage
Library Project China Earthquake project page
description from the project page: “The Library Project has created a program, “Project: Earthquake Relief”, to help rebuild the educational system that was affected as a result of the earthquake. It is projected that hundreds of elementary schools have been damaged in the Sichuan and Shaanxi Provinces. The Library Project will be providing educational resources for the displaced children attending temporary schools.”

35. Samaritan’s Purse

People’s Daily (h/t Shanghaiist) announces Franklin Graham donation:

American evangelist Franklin Graham yesterday donated 2 million yuan ($285,000) to help the victims of the Wenchuan earthquake.The CEO of the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, established by and named after his father, and the international Christian relief organization Samaritan’s Purse, said from Shanghai that in the days and weeks ahead, he and his organizations will do all they can to help.

Samaritan’s Purse homepage
Samaritan’s Purse China earthquake information page
Online donation page. Can select “China projects” to designate funds to China.
Aid efficiency similar to American Red Cross. According to Website, about 10% operations and fundraising cost, and 90% goes toward min1stry work.
Samaritan’s Purse is a Chr1st1an emergency relief organization.

36. Give2Asia / Committee of 100 Earthquake Relief Fund (h/t Cup of Cha)

Sponsored by a prestigious overseas Chinese organization, the Committee of 100
Give2Asia is the online fundraising arm of Asia Foundation
information about Committee of 100 Earthquake Relief Fund (pdf)
online donation link

37. AmeriCares (h/t @ChrisBrogan)

38. Jackie Chan Charities China Earthquake Fund (h/t shuaijiao.tv)

Jackie Chan donation link. Select China Earthquake Fund.

39. Tzu Chi Foundation (h/t Kevin @ Stanford)

From Kevin: The Tzu Chi Foundation is an international humanitarian NGO with experience in disaster relief and reconstruction, particularly in Asia. Volunteers are already on the ground in Sichuan distributing aid, including blankets, food and medicine, and it is one of the few groups the PRC government has authorized to bring in outside aid workers (from Taiwan). It coordinated with the Red Cross and others to bring in two planes of relief supplies to Chengdu.
Tzu Chi Foundation website (English)
Tzu Chi Foundation website (Chinese)
credit card hotline, check, and wire transfer instructions on the website

40. Beijing Bookworm donation drive (Jenny Niven)

Jenny: “We’re urgently in need of funds to support relief efforts by The Bookworm Chengdu”
Website
Sichuan earthquake donation drive page

Chinese Websites helping collect donations online (h/t ChinaVortex)

ChinaVortex highlights the following websites making online donations easy for Chinese:

Tianya
Shanda
The9
Giant Interactive

IV. SlideShare, Badges and Widgets

Oliver Ding

Oliver created a SlideShare version of this post. See more here.

Lost Laowai
Get the embed code to add a badge like this:

Lost Laowai embed code here

POPOEVER

See POPOEVER Flickr set “Help China Earth Quake Refugees”

More to come…last updated 5/15 10:35 pm BJ time

Earthquake Relief Efforts on China’s Web

Will — Sat, 17 May 2008 17:12:34 +0000

From Tangos:

Regarding tsunami of late 2004, Richard MacManus of Read/Write Web has summarized three ways that people used the Web in response to the disaster:

1) as a constantly updated source of news about the disaster;
2) as a way for ordinary people to respond emotionally;
3) and probably most importantly, to organize aid efforts.

In this post, we try to collect the ways how Chinese Internet users take the web to provide news updates and offer relief efforts.

Source of news. At the beginning of the earthquake, we can only rely on main stream media and web portals to get news about the quake. But when more and more rescuers and volunteers reached the epicenter to offer help, much more user generated content can be found online, which enable us to know more about the aftermath.

You can easily find many photos and text reports by users in Sichuan Province in various BBS, such as Tianya, Xici.net and Baidu Tieba. Especially, since Baidu Tieba is a keyword-based BBS, that’s Baidu Tieba has a board for each keyword, so you can use the name of the county in epicenter to enter a dedicated discuss board on that county, such as Wenchuan and Beichuan, to get information.

Besides general BBS, people also discuss and exchange info in SNS, such as Douban, and in IM groups, both QQ and Baidu Hi has dedicated groups for earthquake; they use blogs, and microblogging tools, such as Twitter, Fanfou to share information; and they upload videos. Besides video uploaded by users, PPLive, a p2p video streaming site, partners with various TV channel to bring live TV reports about earthquake online.

Pray and bless. People in China express their prayers and blessings to victims of earthquake in BBS, widgets and IM. Almost all main web portals have message board for users to express their prayers and blessings; Feedsky has a blessing widget ready to be add to blogs.

MSN China initiated an MSN Messenger campaign called Rainbow, you can add “(R)” before your MSN Messenger screen-name, which will display a rainbow icon, to express your blessings. (via Danwei). Actually, it is not only a blessing, for each signature, MSN China and Guangzhou Toyota will donate 0.1 yuan separately to a fund for rebuilding the school destroyed by the quake.

In additional to news source and blessing, it is more important to use web to provide aid and relief efforts.

People Finder: Though Baidu Tieba and QQ both have a message board dedicated for users to find people and seek help, it is more convenient to use people finder tool of Sina and Netease. Google China just launched a useful tool which enables users to search people information in various BBS, so you need not to check each main BBS to find people.

Online donation: Almost all sites call for donations. Users of Taobao.com and QQ can use Alipay and Tenpay to donate online. When I write this post, QQ users have donated over 10 million yuan. Some other third-party online payment solution providers also support online donations, such as 99Bill and Yeepay.

Taobao launch a campaign, call for sellers of Taobao to join and sell goods, then donate at least 50% of their proceeds.

Alimama encourage its users, most are webmaster of their website, to replace ads on their websites into an images ad to call for donation. By May 15, over 500k donation ads have been online on Alimama’s affiliated website.

If you want to donate, check this post to find the best way for you.

Organize aids: Web is also effective in spreading information and organizing aids efforts among users. Alibaba encourages its users, almost all of them are manufacturers or service providers, to donate not only cash, but also various goods needed in disaster zone. Blogbus let users to register their information for blood donation when needed. On many BBS, you can also easily find posts which people are planning various kinds of aid initiatives.

NGO is a very important force for disaster aid. NGO Aid blog keeps updating latest news of aids efforts by NGO across China. 1kg, a grassroot NPO in China which is dedicated to build a volunteer network to help kids in remote area to have better education, (CNReviews.com has a good profile about 1kg), has set up a special site to offer relief and aids efforts, including collecting information about schools in epicenter, organizing relief activities, and helping to provide necessary resource to rebuild schools.

Collaborative translation: Immediately after the earthquake, users of Yeeyan.com, the collaborative translation community, started to translate related earthquake guides from FEMA, they’ve finished Earthquake Search Strategy and Tactics, and Earthquake Safety Checklist, and are working on Epidemics After Natural Disasters. After the translation, many users distributed the guide through various BBS and website.

CNNIC’s China Youth Internet Behavior report 2007

Will — Fri, 16 May 2008 16:53:17 +0000

From Kaiser Kuo:

CNNIC (China Internet Network Information Center ) issued the report last month. That’s not surprising given that all the data were drawn from the research for that report. But it does drill down a bit into the under-25 set’s behavior. Reading through it I highlighted a few items that are worth pondering, for sure:

Internet Cafe use: Though this isn’t news to people who’ve spent time in China, and especially in lower-tier cities, the CNNIC report puts some numbers to the importance of Internet Cafes as an Internet access point for younger Chinese people. 33.5% of primary and middle school Internet users report accessing the Web from i-cafes, and 47.8% of Chinese netizens under-25 do so. Internet cafes are the primary point of access for 59.5% of rural Netizens, compared with 43.5% o urban users. (The higher proportion of urban to rural Netizens puts the overall average much closer to the urban average).
Time spent online: While the average Chinese netizen spends 16.2 hours per week online, non-students in the under-25 set are far above this, with an average of 20.8 hours per week. College students average 14.8 hours per week, while primary through high school students average 6.4 hours a week.
Importance of Online Games: CNNIC reports that 73.7% of the Chinese youth Internet users under 18 play online games, and primary through middle school students are playing games for an average of 3.3 hours a week. Just among middle school students, 5.5% are spending more than 10 hours a week on online games.
Prevalence of Internet Addiction: Again, no surprises here: The report claims that almost 27.1% of youth Netizens have “an inclination toward Internet addiction.” Non-students in the under-25 age group have higher rates of addictive propensity, with about 36.5% exhibiting “withdrawal symptoms” within days or even mere hours of their last Internet fix — agitation, an irrepressible urge to get online, fear that they’re missing something. Somewhat surprisingly, youth Net junkies represent a smaller proportion of their age group than junkies in the overall population, where 40% are addicted or something close. (38.3% respond agree that “If I don’t go online for 1 day, I feel like I’ve missed something.”) Sign me up for treatment, then, because I can barely go the 6 or 7 hours of sleep I usually allow myself.
Mobile Internet Access Higher Among Youth: 31% of youth Netizens report having used mobile phones to access the Internet in the six months prior to the survey, significantly above the 24% reported nationally. College students are the heaviest mobile Internet users, with 40.2% having accessed the Internet during that period.
Youth are Heaviest IM Users: No duh, but penetration is at 91.3% for the under-25 set — almost 10 percentage points higher than the national average of 81.4%. The differential in usage rates of online games (9.5% higher) and online movies (6% higher) are also significant but not surprising.
BBS Use Much Higher: Finally, no one who watches the Chinese Internet will be shocked to learn that youth are the heavies users of BBS. CNNIC reports that over 60% of college students report having posted messages on BBSs — a whopping 26.6 percentage points above the same figure for overall Chinese Internet users.

SOFTBANK Leads Investment totaling $430 million in Oak Pacific Interactive

Will — Sat, 03 May 2008 16:37:33 +0000

From Yahoo,

BEIJING, China–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Oak Pacific Interactive (OPI), the leading provider of Web 2.0 communities in China, announced today that SOFTBANK Corp. has agreed to lead an investment totaling $430 million for approximately 35% of the company. The investment will be used to augment the market leadership of Oak Pacific’s Xiaonei.com, China’s largest social-networking site. SBI and JOHO Capital also participated in the funding.

Xiaonei.com is a full-featured community and social networking destination that provides an immersive experience for its users. Features of the site include multiplayer gaming and wireless value-added services for mobile users. In the college market, Xiaonei.com has a dominating market share. OPI also owns and operates Mop.com, the largest entertainment portal, and Donews.com, one of the leading IT blogging services in China.

Oak Pacific also announced that Masayoshi Son, President and CEO of SOFTBANK Corp. will join its Board of Directors.

Joseph Chen, Chairman and CEO of Oak Pacific, said, “We are honored to welcome SOFTBANK as an investor and to have Mr. Son join our Board of Directors. SOFTBANK’s commitment reinforces our mission to develop world-class, scalable businesses that leverage the tremendous growth potential of consumer internet market China. We will use this capital to further our aggressive growth strategy for Xiaonei.com and ensure that it sustains its leadership and innovative spirit for many years to come.”

Existing investors of OPI include General Atlantic, DCM, Technology Crossover Ventures, Accel Partners, and Legend Capital.

Related comments can be found from the links below:

Techcrunch,
VentureBeat
DigitalWatch
Tangos
plus8star

China cracks down on illegal online map services to protect state security

Will — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 10:55:20 +0000

According Xinhua,

BEIJING, March 25 (Xinhua) — The Chinese government is to crack down on illegal online map and geographical information websites, claiming they threaten state security, said an official of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping (SBSM) on Tuesday.

Eight departments, including the SBSM, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Ministry of Public Security, said they would tighten supervision over online map and geographical information service websites.

Min Yiren, deputy director of the SBSM, said almost 10,000 online map websites operated in China, most of them showing maps without approval.

“Some websites publish sensitive or confidential geographical information, which might leak state secrets and threaten national security,” Min said.

He said those websites would be closed down.

Foreign organizations and individuals engaging in making and publishing online maps in China would also be stopped.

The campaign would also target websites that made mistakes such as labeling Taiwan a “country”, wrongly drawing national boundaries, or omitting important islands including the South China Islands, Diaoyu Islands and Chiwei Island, said Min.

These websites would be punished and required to make corrections, he said.

A hotline has been set up for the public to report illegal websites.

The SBSM put 418 Chinese and world maps on its website for the public to check and download.

Last year, China issued a regulation restricting surveying and mapping by foreigners to protect national security.

It stipulated foreign organizations and individuals who intend to engage in surveying and mapping must obtain approval from the central government and accept supervision from local governments.

Editor: Yan Liang

QQ announces 2007 earnings | Facebook should look carefully

Will — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 21:13:53 +0000

There are some numbers you should notice. All of them are about Tencent’s QQ, China’s leading online community (270 million accounts, 400 million USD in revenues in 2007).

Here is the pdf version of TENCENT ANNOUNCES 2007 FOURTH QUARTER AND ANNUAL RESULTS from it’s offcial site.

From plus8star.com:

QQ’s 2007 figures

Active accounts: 300 million
- This is 50% more than the number of Internet users in China (many have multiple accounts)
- This is about the size of the US population
Revenues: 523 million USD
- This is close to 4x Facebook, at 150 million USD
- This is real money from IM/SNS. Something even serious companies like The Economist who just wrote an article titled “Everywhere and nowhere” seem to not believe is possible. We hope they will look outside of Silicon Valley next time.
Operating profit: 224 million USD
- Facebook recorded a 50 million loss last year. How sad.

Though this should already be enough to raise a bit of interest, the most interesting is the split of revenues:

Internet services (digital goods, games…): 344 million USD (66%)
Mobile services: 110 million USD (21%)
Online ads: 67 million USD (13%)

Yes, ladies and gentlemen: QQ gets only 13% of its revenues from online ads! (vs. close to 100% for MySpace, Facebook and the like). All the rest is Internet and mobile digital goods (we stopped calling them “virtual goods” as they are as real as the money in your bank account: digital).

Some interesting conclusions on those figures

QQ is big and still growing. Notably, the ad market is largely untapped – mostly due to the misunderstanding of IM and SNS by ad agencies and brands. Lots of work to convince those folks that a service that attracts so many millions is – maybe – a media in its own right! QQ has been beefing up its ad team and is preparing a roadshow for its new MIND platform – maybe some good news in a quarter or two?
Facebook / MySpace and others also have a largely untapped market: digital goods. We estimate that with the US strong GDP/capita, Facebook could generate 5 times more revenues per user than QQ, which has 5 times more users. So about 300~400 million USD per year. And this only on Internet.
On mobile, QQ is underdelivering due to terrible market conditions in China – with tough policies from operators. Facebook could generate easily 100 MUSD with mobile thanks to various personalization services (please, do not mention messaging, this is so 2003… right, 2003 in Europe, not in US).

Tudou, Tangwei and SARFT

Will — Thu, 20 Mar 2008 02:00:18 +0000

From Danwei:

Update: Tudou is back up, 00:05 Beijing Time, 15 March.

The story about online video site Tudou, recently censured by SARFT takes another twist.

Since early this morning, the site has been offline, offering only the following message in explanation:

Potatoes:

To provide you all with better service, we are migrating and expanding Tudou’s central servers.

Our service will be suspended from 0:00 to 24:00 on 14 March.

At 0:00 on 15 March, our migration will be complete and Tudou will promptly return home.

Nobody in the industry believes the explanation of the server move: see for example this article on Enorth.com.cn which says that the server moving explanation is “suspicious” and also says that this may be the “most serious case” of a website shutting down in the history of the Chinese Internet.

For their part, Tudou seem to be confident that they will restore services at midnight tonight: Tudou videos embedded in other websites currently show a clock counting down the seconds until midnight (see screenshot above).

Perhaps Tudou will return so harmoniously that their troubles will be over, but it is probably going to take some work. On Tuesday this week, research and consulting firm Marbridge released this bit of information:

42 Online Video Sites to Sign “Self-Discipline Agreement”

After 8 companies signed the “Self-Discipline Agreement for Chinese Internet Audiovisual Programming”, another 42 online video sites have applied to join them. Among them, some of the better-known names include: Netmovie, Jeboo, Vodone, Sina, PPStream, Youku, Quacor, UUsee, 6Rooms (6.cn), Hupo.tv, UiTV, QQ.com, and PPLive.

Editor’s note: Tudou, which recently saw its cooperation with CCTV.com put on hold and is now awaiting possible punishment from the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) for alleged violations of rules on banned content, is not listed among either the first 8 or current round of 42 existing/applying signatories of the Self Discipline Agreement.

An expensive omission, perhaps?

*****

In other SARFT news, Normandy Madden of Advertising Age has an article about the crazy media regulator’s ban on actress Tang Wei (reported on Danwei here), that looks at at affair from the point of view of Unilever, whose Ponds brand has been using Tang as a celebrity endorser:

[Unilever] recently selected Ms. Tang as the face of Pond’s in the mainland, a major skin-care market, as part of an effort that began last month to lift Pond’s into the mid- to high-end category. Ms. Tang’s celebrity endorsement deal with Unilever is reportedly worth $845,000…

In a statement given to Advertising Age by Unilever in China, the company said: “The advertising itself was produced and distributed in accordance with Chinese rules and regulations. Government approval was received before distribution and airing. We have not received any official notice for the ban and we are currently trying to ascertain what lies at the root of the issue. The Pond’s contract with Tang Wei remains intact.”

The agencies handling Pond’s creative and media in China, Ogilvy & Mather and WPP sibling MindShare, respectively, declined to comment.

Tudou: online video problems

Will — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 15:17:48 +0000

Source: Danwei

Last night Chinese language portal Netease published an article saying that SARFT had made use of the new online video regulations and ordered popular Chinese video sharing website Tudou to cease operations. The story has been picked up by several bloggers and made its way into English on Fons Tuinstra’s blog and on Pacific Epoch, an investment information service.

According to yet another blog post on TechBlog86, the news was also published on Sohu.com.

The article on Netease seems to have been deleted, but Sohu still has the story (in Chinese).

Tudou.com is still working, as you can see from the Danwei TV video above. One Danwei source says that the shutdown story is a vicious rumor started by a competitor website.

Update: Beijing Business Today (via Hexun) reports that Tudou is denying the entire thing: “Tudou has received no such document,” said one source with the company. And in regard to the CCTV deal, another source said, “It’s not convenient to discuss this now; we will make a public announcement in a while.”

Update 2: The Chinese language report is still online at CE.cn, whilst consulting firm Marbridge yesterday reported the following in its daily newsletter:

Sources say that the direct cause of the breakdown between Tudou and CCTV.com is the Shutdown Order Regarding Punishment of Tudou for Illegal Online Video Broadcasting issued by the State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT) to Shanghai broadcasting authorities on February 24.

The order states that Tudou is suspected of transmitting pornographic and other clearly proscribed content, and of continuing to be lax in its monitoring of content following the promulgation of SARFT’s new regulations on online broadcasting. Tudou was ordered to shut down for an unlimited duration to reorganize its content. On February 26, word of the order, which had circulated throughout all levels of the broadcasting authorities, reached CCTV. An inside source revealed that Wang Wenbin, head of CCTV.com, saw the letter on that day – one day before the CCTV.com, MySpace China, and Tudou press conference. The next day Tudou CEO Wang Wei’s speech was dropped from the press conference, and media at the press conference were told not to report this.

When contacted, Tudou’s public relations department said that they had not received a Shutdown Order targeted at the company.

Editor’s note: In a telephone interview with Marbridge, relevant authorities confirmed that such an injunction had been issued against Tudou. However, no confirmation was given concerning the details outlined in the article above. A check of Tudou’s site (www.tudou.com) as of the close of business today found it still functioning normally.

Your correspondent is inclined to think this is just a shake down for penalty fees, and a shot across the bows of all the video sites to warn them that big brother SARFT is watching.

The accusations of pornographic content are absurd: Tudou is one of the least salacious video hosts out there. Lots of the smaller ones seem to be trying to compete by pushing the boundaries of what’s permitted, but Tudou and the other big ones don’t have the same sexy, sexy movies. Copyright infringement’s a different story, but there again, Tudou is no worse than any of the others.

CCTV-China goes online for Beijing Olympics

Will — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 23:30:07 +0000

China’s national television broadcaster, CCTV, is teaming up with two Internet ventures to exploit the Beijing Olympics’ status as the first Summer Games expected to attract droves of online viewers, reports the Wall Street Journal.

CCTV announced yesterday that it is working with the MySpace China social-networking site and online-video site Tudou.com to run an interactive website for the August games.

CCTV’s Olympics website will be a dedicated one within CCTV.com, with a video channel supported by Tudou.com and a social-networking section supported by MySpace China, which was launched last April in a joint venture with News Corp.

The CCTV site will offer streaming video broadcasts of events, which will be viewable only in China, and web profiles through which users can contact Olympic athletes.

The Olympics video site – to go live on 8 August, the first day of the Games – will include live video, playbacks from the Games, commentary and user-generated content.

“We want to make full use of the interactive characteristics of the Internet,” said Wang Wenbin, General Manager of CCTV.com.

The Games are “the best opportunity to help MySpace China build its brand”, said Luo Chuan, Chief Executive of MySpace China.

Although details like which languages will be used on the website are still being worked out, Mr Luo expects the site to be open to users worldwide for social networking.

(Source:ABU)

China bows to public over chemical plant

Will — Tue, 04 Mar 2008 22:03:28 +0000

Note: It is an article from Nature, a little bit old but still worth reading.

China bows to public over chemical plant

Environmental protesters score landmark victory.

Jane Qiu

BEJING
Marchers on the streets of Xiamen protest against plans for a chemical plant in the region.Marchers on the streets of Xiamen protest against plans for a chemical plant in the region.AP/COLOR CHINA PHOTO

In an unusual capitulation to public pressure, Beijing is to relocate a controversial billion-dollar chemical plant away from the picturesque seaport of Xiamen in southeast China.

The decision, hailed as a milestone for China’s environmental and democratic movements, follows the release of an environmental-impact assessment of the project at a public hearing in December. The relocation is even more surprising given that sources close to central government reveal the plant had been given the go-ahead because of the special relationship between Chen Youhao — the plant’s Taiwanese investor and a fugitive of Taiwan — and some of China’s top party leaders.

“This is the first time public opinion was properly expressed through official channels and had an impact on government policies,” says Liu Jianqiang, a Beijing-based environment writer who is a visiting scholar at the University of California, Berkeley. Some commentators regard the orchestrated incident as the most significant public event in China since the 1989 Tiananmen Square student demonstration that was so brutally suppressed.

Construction of the plant, owned by Dragon Aromatics, part of Chen’s Xianglu and Dragon Group, began in November 2006 in Xiamen’s Haicang district, which has a population of 100,000. It is set to produce 800,000 tonnes of paraxylene annually, used to make plastics and polyester.

The plant’s health and environmental dangers were made public last March when Zhao Yufen, a researcher at the College of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering at Xiamen University, led a petition to the Beijing parliament calling for the plant to be relocated away from residential areas. “Paraxylene is highly toxic and could cause cancer and birth defects,” said Zhao in an interview with the Chinese newspaper China Business .

Lian Yue, a prominent writer living near Xiamen, posted the article on his blog, prompting fervent national debate. On 1 June, tens of thousands Xiamenese protested peacefully against the ‘Xiamen PX Project’ and the company’s pollution records in the region.

This development alarmed officials in Beijing. A few days later, deputy environment minister Pan Yue called for an independent environmental-impact assessment of the plant as well as of Xiamen’s urban development plans. Pan also suggested that the relevant parties should comply with recently announced regulations on environmental-impact assessments that require a public-consultation process and the release of relevant information to the public.
On 5 December, a 14-page version of the strategic environmental-impact assessment report, conducted by the Chinese Research Academy of Environmental Sciences, was released on Xiamen Net, the government’s official website. The report criticized the Xianglu and Dragon Group’s repeated emissions breaches and their disregard of requests since 2003 from the local environmental protection bureau to tackle the problems. Although it was less concerned about the environmental effects of the plant, the report pointed out serious flaws in a development scheme for Haicang that was pursuing the conflicting goals of industrialization and urbanization in such a small region. The plant may now be moved to Zhangzhou.

The relocation is the latest incident in which China’s environmental problems have catalysed a democratic movement where the public has challenged the collusion between big business and local governments in their pursuit of economic growth at any cost.

Film Studios Sue Chinese P2P Site Xunlei for $1 Million

Will — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 01:07:24 +0000

From Reuters, Fri Feb 15, 2008,

Six U.S. film studios have filed civil complaints against Chinese file-sharing firm Xunlei Networking Technology Co Ltd, part-owned by Google Inc, for copyright infringement and are seeking more than 7 million yuan ($1 million) in damages and costs, the Motion Picture Association said.

MPA, a trade group, said in a statement on Friday that the plaintiffs were also seeking a public acknowledgement of the infringements as well as a pledge from Xunlei to refrain from future infringements.

A representative for Xunlei could not be reached for comment.

MPA said that Xunlei facilitated the unauthorised transmission of hundreds of Hollywood movies produced by its members, including “Spiderman 3,” “War of the Worlds” and “Miami Vice.”

Google said at the beginning of 2007 that it had bought a stake in Shenzhen-based Xunlei, but declined to disclose the size of the stake or financial details of the deal.

($1=7.180 Yuan)

(Reporting by Sophie Taylor; Editing by Edmund Klamann)

Also can see here:

The Motion Picture Association (MPA) announced on Friday that six of its member studios have filed civil copyright infringement complaints totaling $1 million against Xunlei, a popular file-sharing network in China that is partly owned by Google (NASD: GOOG). The MPA stated that Xunlei’s network offers “hundreds” of its members’ titles, including “Spider-Man 3″ and “Miami Vice,” and noted that it sent 78 separate notices of infringement to Xunlei over a five-week period before initiating the litigation.

“These actions demonstrate that copyright holders can and will vigorously defend their property by any legal means, including redress before the courts where necessary,” said Frank Rittman, VP, deputy regional director and regional legal counsel, Asia-Pacific for the MPA.

“P2P piracy is a huge problem in China, which if left unattended, will threaten the continued development of legitimate online services supported by copyright owners.”

Reuters reports that Google paid an undisclosed sum early last year for an unspecified stake in Xunlei.

http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSSHA34521220080215

http://www.xunlei.com

China to extend ban on foreign cartoons

Will — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 00:50:45 +0000

According to Xinhua News Agency (see website of China Daily), China’s State Administration of Radio, Film and Television bans all foreign cartoons from 5 to 9 p.m. in order to promote domestic product.

China will extend its ban on foreign cartoons during prime time by an hour, its latest initiative to “spur the domestic cartoon industry”, said a circular by the country’s TV watchdog.

According to the circular issued by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), no foreign cartoons or programs introducing foreign cartoons can be shown from 5 pm to 9 pm, the “golden hours”, on all domestic cartoon channels and children channels starting May 1.

The original ban, imposed by the SARFT in August 2006, required foreign cartoons to appear on TV only before 5 pm or after 8 pm.

Cartoons co-produced by domestic and foreign producers will have to get approval from the SARFT to air between 5 pm and 9 pm from May 1.

Only domestic cartoons approved by SARFT can be aired during the “golden hours”, it said.

The ban will “enhance the SARFT’s management over cartoon programs and will create a favorable environment for the domestic cartoon industry,” the circular said.

China’s cartoon industry produced more than 101,900 minutes of animation in 2007, a 23 percent jump over 2006 when the output was 81,000 minutes, according to the circular.

The first foreign cartoon introduced to China was Japan’s “Astro Boy” series in 1981. Since then, a large quantity of foreign cartoons have flooded into China.

In 2000, a SARFT regulation required local TV stations to get approval from the administration and set quotas for imported cartoons to air on TV. By that time, China’s cartoon programs had nearly been monopolized by Japanese cartoons.

In 2004, the SARFT issued another regulation, requesting at least 60 percent of cartoon programs aired in a quarter to be domestic.

In September 2006, the SARFT decided to ban all foreign cartoons from 5 pm to 8 p.m.. The regulation resulted in a sharp decrease of foreign cartoons on local TV.

Aside from foreign cartoons, China has issued a series of bans over “vulgar” and horror videos, audio products, illegal sex-themed adverts and medical ads that over-exaggerated their effects.

It also requested in January last year the country’s satellite TV broadcasters only screen “ethically inspiring TV series” during prime time, reflecting the reality of China in a positive way.

Dominic of suite101.com says,

The current ban, which the regulatory body instituted in September of 2006, extends from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m., the “golden hours” of Chinese television. Since that ban was put in place, foreign cartoons had a much smaller presence on Chinese TV.

It also led, according to SARFT, to Chinese animation houses producing 101,900 minutes of cartoon footage, up 23% from 2006’s total of 81,000 minutes.

Foreign Cartoon Ban Designed to Encourage China’s Domestic Product

The move is an attempt by SARFT to encourage the production and support of domestic cartoons, which had been hammered by foreign produced serials like The Simpsons, from the U.S., and Japan’s Astro Boy.

A poll conducted in August of 2006 showed that 80% of Chinese schoolchildren preferred to watch foreign-produced cartoons rather than domestic product.

This new extension to the ban will “enhance the SARFT’s management over cartoon programs and will create a favorable environment for the domestic cartoon industry,” according to a circular distributed by the State-run regulatory body. SARFT also instituted stricter guidelines for their approval of domestic cartoons during the “golden hours” between 5 and 9.

In addition to extending the ban on foreign cartoons, SARFT also decreed that the ratio of domestic product to foreign shows on China’s television channels be increased. Under the new regs, 7 out of 10 shows aired on Chinese television must be produced in China.

Even though American shows like Family Guy and The Simpsons have been an irritating presence for SARFT, the true target of this ban is the prolific Japanese anime industry, which had a stranglehold on Chinese TV since 2000. Astro Boy was the first anime to appear on Chinese cartoon channels back in 1981, and has been a continuous presence since then.

As before, foreign and Chinese co-productions will require approval from SARFT before they are allowed to air on Chinese television’s “golden hours.” Sino-foreign co-productions (usually Chinese companies collaborating with studios from Taiwan or Hong Kong) will also have to jump through SARFT’s censorship hoops in order to get air time.

One such Sino/Hong Kong co-production is Cyber Weapon Z, a cartoon television series based on the manhua comic by Andy Seto.

In addition, state, local film, TV and radio departments get to vet these productions before they are approved for broadcast.

Fun Fact: Ironically enough, the current underdog status of Chinese animation can be directly attributed to the so-called “Cultural Revolution” from 1957 to 1976.

Fearing middle class and intellectual resistance and reeling from the misguided policies of the Great Leap Forward, Communist party chairman Mao Zedong instituted a purge of all intellectuals, religious figures and “liberal bourgoisie.” As members of two out of those three groups, animators were forced from their jobs, and many were assaulted by gangs of Red Guards. The Cultural Revolution would leave millions dead, the Chinese economy in shambles, and bring the country to the brink of civil war.

China Media Observation

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