The article from Alibaba reports that the website was down on Tuesday but as of a few moments ago when I checked, it was back up and running:

The post-90 generation teens that run 2009.90admin. com, wrote on their website, “We are not Internet attackers, we are just a group of computer fans; we are not mentally handicapped kids, we are the real patriotic youth. We’ll target anti-China websites across the nation and send it as a birthday gift to our country.”

The site was the subject of hot debate on the Chinese version of twitter but could not be viewed Tuesday. Efforts to reach the site’s operators were unsuccessful.

The 500-word statement appeared over a red and black background decorated with a flying national flag.

The film’s showing in Melbourne last month sent Chinese hackers on a mini-rampage, see here, here, here and here.

Now all eyes turn to the Taiwanese film festival:

Anonymous hackers have attacked a Taiwan film festival over plans to screen a documentary on the US-based leader of China’s predominantly Muslim Uighur minority, festival organizers said Tuesday.

A message, posted on a blog run by one of the organizers of the Kaohsiung Film Festival, blamed Rebiya Kadeer for recent bloody unrest in northwest China’s Xinjiang region, which is home to the Turkic-speaking Uighurs.

“I don’t know if you heard about the violence (in Xinjiang) and if you know how many people were left homeless. It is all because of that woman,” said the message, referring to Kadeer.

Green Dam, the censorship software that the Chinese government wanted on all PCs sold in China, turned out to be a flop. Beijing’s still keen on exerting greater control over the Internet, though, and Jonathan Ansfield has a good story in the New York Times about the censors’ latest tactic. According to Ansfield’s story, new “secret government orders” have been forcing popular Chinese websites to require new users register with their real names before posting any comments online.

Despite its suspicious name, hackbase.com’s operators want to let people know it is a legitimate computer school for defensive purposes and not an illegal hacking school.

“We don’t train hackers, instead we provide professional training for Internet security. It’s up to the trainees whether they want to be a hacker or network administrator,” said Chen Qian, director of the training department.

The online classes are given in the evening and cover topics such as computer maintenance, anti-virus, data recovery, code protection and network attack and defense.

The courses, which cost between 398 to 1,998 yuan ($58- 292), are “easy” and aimed at everyone, even those without a college background or without English language skills, Chen said.

Hong Lei

More on Tomato Garden and the arrest of Hong Lei, the author of the pirated software.  Online polls show massive support for Hong Lei as a nationalist hero:

The Chinese IT community is abuzz with news of the arrest of Hong Lei, distributor of the popular “Tomato Garden” pirate version of Windows XP, which means the popular unlocked version of the Microsoft software will no longer be available.

According to Sina.com, more than 90 percent of users they surveyed are or were users of Tomato Garden pirate editions. And 79 percent said they were on Tomato Garden’s side. Less than 5 percent said they supported Microsoft.

The Wall Street Journal has some interesting interviews with people inside China concerning the case and the drivers behind the software theft.

According to the chief editor of the newly launched Chinese Ministry of National Defense website, since its opening on 20 Aug 09, the site has been under assault from a variety of different types of hacker attacks.  The report notes that the attacks have not affected website operation.

Very good article from the NYT comparing social use of networks between the US and China:

Chinese broadband users above the age of 13 number 286 million, nearly double that of the U.S. broadband population, says a new report from market analysts Netpop Research. In five years, Netpop forecasts, that number will double.

When it’s fun, the Chinese Net seems like a wonderfully anarchic playground; when it turns nasty, it’s a nightmare from Lord of the Flies.

In many ways, the Internet simply reflects the diversity of Chinese society offline: you can find everything from Internet groups dedicated to social and environmental causes to prostitutes who exclusively use the QQ instant messaging platform to solicit clients.

Not sure if this article on pirated XP supports or refutes Microsoft’s recent attempt to enlist the cooperation of Chinese hackers:

Four Chinese hackers have been convicted of copyright infringement after pirating Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system. The hackers modified version of Windows XP, called Tomato Garden, which was downloaded by 10 million people…

Comments in a blog at ifeng.com,  which has been viewed 22,473 times and received 106 comments, summarizes the feeling of mainland Chinese netizens:

- Mainland China and Taiwan already have a difficult situation, I hope that Ma Ying-jeou can weather this crisis and continue his great undertaking of peaceful reunification

- Isn’t there a saying about not being “too CNN”!

- This diaster is all brought about by so-called democratic elections.  The DPP uses lawyers to rule the country and the Guomindang uses academics to rule the country, they are both horrible.  Western elections aren’t suitable to Easterners, they cause social unrest!  There isn’t anything beneficial for the people, just a bunch of thieves!!

- The US is afraid of the daily expansion in the harmonious development between the mainland and Taiwan so they increasingly exaggerate these dishonest reports!  CNN is no longer viewed as a celebrated media source to the Chinese people.   To hell with Uncle Sam!

- Don’t be too CNN

- It is because Ma Ying-jeou’s mainland policy scares CNN, they are afraid China knows what it is doing, they are afraid of reunification

- Drive the American imperialists out of China

- I first saw the CNN report on TV and a Washington Post poll that said 82% wanted Ma Ying-jeou to step down.  My first reaction was that this was a US dirty trick to oppose Ma Ying-jeou’s mainland policy.  In the evening, there were a lot of different points of view from different parties that came to the same conclusion, these reports had the same bias as the ones from 14 March and 5 June.

They just go on like that for 106 comments and remember, this is only from one website.  Here is a Google translation if you want to skim through the rest of the comments.