censorship - What a change a restart makes

Another observation: after a restart of my internet connection at another IP address all access happens without any problems. Guess that somebody is watching... :-)
Would appreciate more detailed reports, that would perhaps make it possible to get more pieces of the puzzle together.

Censorship – And comments from Haloscan of course

 

My posting on what I cannot get to in the weekend is of course just a glimpse of what is really happening. I should have mentioned also haloscan.com; that means that one of my two commenting systems is not working. Again a nuisance, but I’m sure that haloscan will be around again on Monday.

Censorship – Changing patterns

 

Over the past few weeks the way how the internet is being filtered has changed greatly. I have not yet a sensible explanation for it, so for the time being, I would limit myself to share with you my observations. Logic has never been a strong point in the way how these systems work, but the changing patterns are of course reason to pay a bit more attention to those systems.

I do differ greatly with in my assessment of those filters with others who see China as the empire of evil. The internet has contributed greatly to both prosperity and the freedom of speech in this country. There is a lot of room for improvement, too many things go not like they should, but we also should not be overdoing the importance of those internet barriers. I think they are a nuisance, not really effective, although they do have an effect. I see them more as a political signal of what is happening, than really as a barrier, since it is fairly easy to go around them. Not everybody does agree with this assessment.

What I noticed is that the problems with blocks seems to be must more a problem at night and in the weekend. In the past you were blocked or not blocked, without those differences in the time when problems would occur. Traffic being stopped like this weekend include the blogger interface, the famous online encyclopedia wikipedia, and some of the international chat programs like ICQ and Yahoo. But at the same time, I would have similar problems in getting access to the online editions of Dutch newspapers and a site like www.weather.com or other perfectly innocent sites. Other chat programs have no problem at all, it is only a nuisance my online friends have to use different programs at the same time.

Again: this is what I see is happening; it does not yet make sense to me.

The scientific leap forward – the WTO column

 

(coming week at Chinabiz)

 

Discovering a new dead angle in the way I look at China is an almost ongoing activity in this vast and fast-changing economy. But last week I stumbled, almost by accident, on a major one when I joined a Dutch academic delegation that was on a visit in Shanghai.

We toured the Zhangjiang Hitech park as I have toured many “successful” hi-tech zones in China before. Since I discovered that assembling washing machines and refrigerators was included in the Chinese definition of hi-tech, I have decided that – unless it was proven otherwise – ‘hi-tech’ zone was just a nice label, that did not mean that much.

Fortunately, we visited also some companies– apart from the obligatory speeches with PowerPoint presentations of the leading officials in the zone. Those visits and speeches of top-managers of those companies convinced me that the world might see yet another giant leap forward China is going to make – in science.

A few facts I did not know. China is now the third largest spender on scientific research in the world and as a percentage of its GDP China’s expenditure on scientific research went up from a poor 0.6 percent ten years ago to an impressive 1.6 percent now, making it the number three in the world in the percentage of its GDP.

That is a fairly recent development, as the many buildings under construction in the Zhangjiang Hitech zones showed. Also in influx of larger numbers of R&D centers of multinationals is fairly new.

The ministry of science and technology has developed a set of incubator programs for hi-tech zones in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen that have just taken off, offering government funding and free facilities to both domestic and foreign research projects.

The Dutch delegation found out that the ministry is seriously thinking of setting up its first scientific park outside China, in the Netherlands, to encourage scientific exchange in Europe.

 

Much of the ongoing scientific research in China is not available for the outside world, since 85 percent is only published in Chinese, in one of the few thousand academic magazines of this country nobody is able to monitor. “That is not always top-notch research,” said a researcher of a foreign chemical company in Shanghai. “But some is and some of it has already been very useful for our company.” Among the registered patents in China the company discovered products, it did not know it existed.

This company only monitored the research on food additives, but similar material might a useful in almost any industry.

 

Foreign researchers look with envy at what China might be able to achieve in the coming years. “For a project we might be able to get 1.5 researcher,” says one university professor from Holland. “The Chinese can put one hundred on it.”

 

All of the Chinese winners of the Nobel prize were working abroad when they got the prestigious prize. That might change very soon.

 

Fons Tuinstra

 

travel - Staying in Buddhist temples

Is it possible to stay in China in guesthouses of Buddhist or Taoist temples, I was asked today. According to my observations that is not possible or allowed. I have seen temples where even the monks are not living at the temple itself. Is there any other information that could conflict with my observations, people who have stayed at temples?

science - China plans science park in Europe

The Chinese ministry of Science and Technology is contemplating to set up a science park in the Netherlands, a Dutch academic delegation learned this week in Beijing and Shanghai.
A decision is expected before November this year, said Frank Zwetsloot, who organized the delegation on behalve of Science-Alliance. The delegation was received in Shanghai by the governor of Pudong, who mostly only received delegations on the level of a government minister.
The ministry is on a spending spree to push up science to international levels, and is worldwide the 3th largest spender on global research. As a percentage of the national GDP expenditure has gone up from 0.6 ten years ago to 1.6 today, putting China on the sixth place worldwide.
State-level science parks in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen have started to deploy incubator programs for both domestic and foreign research initiatives.
Much of the Chinese research is still not available worldwide, because 85% is only published in Chinese, said a researcher of a foreign chemical company, working in Pudong. His company would scan research and patents for their own business and has found surprising discoveries, he said. "Of some products, we did not know these products existed."
China has between one and two thousand scientific magazines.

breaking story - New investment rules offer chances for foreign SME's -Chinabiz

A breaking story about sweeping changes that increases dramatically the chances of smaller companies to set up shop in China. Most of the larger companies are already here, so lowering the barriers to allow smaller companies in makes very much sense, although it will not lead to a reduction of the economic growth.

rumor - Shanghai will annex Ningbo, Wuxi

I have been running around visiting incubators along with a Dutch academic delegations - reason for the light blogging - since all those high tech buildings did not yet have a wireless internet connection I could use. But I did pick up an interesting story I should share: Shanghai is going to expand its borders greatly by the end of this year and will include neighboring cities like Ningbo and Wuxi.
My source is well connected, but has set me up with false rumors in the past. It would make Shanghai into the largest cities of China (beating Chongqing) and perhaps even the world. With the port of Ningbo connected, it will be the largest port in the world very soon too. It would defy the need of building its own deepsea port, but that is another story.

blogging – Another Dave Winer rumor

 

At the SFCC meeting this evening the rumor sang around that one of the first US bloggers, Dave Winer, father of the RSS, would be coming very soon to China to preach the RSS gospel. That is long overdue since almost nobody here knows what RSS is. But then, who believes all those rumors on the internet?

Blogging – A great evening with Rebecca and Isaac

 

Foreign correspondents, webloggers and other communicaters gathered for an informal meeting of the Shanghai Foreign Correspondents Club with Rebecca MacKinnon on the future of foreign correspondence, weblogging and the internet. Rebecca’s own transfer from CNN to weblogging is a good illustration of the media revolution taking place, but then in a very personalized way. She for sure took also her presentation skills along from CNN. Isaac Mao came with the latest war stories from the Chinese blogosphere.

On a question on whether money could be made with blogging, Isaac told that he as a VC had just put money in the first Chinese host of weblogs.

He came also with a great example on the growing influence of China’s weblogs. One of the more popular webloggers, Topku, had revealed how the new logo of Lenova, China’s largest computer manufacturer, had interesting similarities with another website. A few days ago the website was taken out of the air ‘for technical reasons’.

Of course the question came up about the reliability of weblogs. But that did not matter anymore, argued Rebecca. “It is out there nobody can stop it, so we should deal with it.”

jobs - Penalties to stop leaving staff - FT

Officially most labor contracts have clauses that would stop staff from leaving a job without notice or joining competitors for a certain period. It did not stop staff from doing just that, causing HR departments a major headache. Never I heard of a company that would actually try to fine those employees. Those days are over, writes the Financial Times today. (A tip of the headline service of Chinabiz).
The shortage of senior engineers, managers and technical staff, triggered off by China's economic growth, has sparked off this latest change on the labor market. I'm not sure it is going to work: it might even have a contraproductive reactions as qualified people would be hesitant to sign contract with companies that enforce fines.

media - Mister Kaktus hits China


When foreign media companies contact me about their adventures in China the tone is mostly an optimistic one. This is anyway a huge market, they think. They do not know that I divide those companies up in two categories: those that have severe problems and those who do not know yet.
Today an email from the company that is running Mr. Kaktus, a widely popular show in the Netherlands when I was there.
They suggest an ongoing exchange of ideas. I guess they do not know they are in trouble.

Blogger – Rebecca stays in the blogging business

 

Tonight I had dinner with a freshly arrived Rebecca MacKinnon (together with Paul French and his wife Lisa). Tomorrow there will be much more to tell, but a first joyful announcement. Rebecca continues her work as a blogger and journalist at the Berkman Center of Harvard Law School. The Berkman Center has a bit of a IT-focus and having a journalist there is definitely good news.

Book – German translation in place

 

Very soon I might have my own signing ceremony. A deal about the translation of my Dutch book on China (fifteen misunderstandings about China and the Chinese) is almost in place for Local Global in Germany. Later than I expected, but at least things are moving. Now getting other translations done might also be easier.

blogging - Last call for Rebecca's weblog meeting

Final call for the public conversation with Rebecca MacKinnon on Tuesday 22 June. Please RSVP (mail or call me) before Monday noon and tell me which of both events you want to attend.

jobs - Stay away from Shanghai

I just answered a question of a 28-year old consultant who is thinking for coming to Shanghai to get a job or start a business. 'Stay away', is my advice.

The auto craze continues – The WTO column

(Tomorrow in Chinabiz)

Last year I decided I should put a brake on my skepticism regarding the automotive industry and would allow myself only one rant for every one billion US dollar that would pour into the industry. With the industry exploding, I’m getting behind and the Beijing auto show should be enough reason to take off again.

The reports I got from the Beijing auto show reminded me vaguely of the mental institutions I visited in the past for professional reasons. There seemed to be two kinds of patients, the once who want to buy a car and those who wanted to sell them. Getting both groups of patients together seems a sensible idea as a therapy, since they can make each other happy. But the first signs show that the symptoms got worse during the heated exchanges at the show.
Some of my friends who follow my writings a bit longer argued that we journalists were also very skeptical when GM started in the second half of the 1990’s and transferred 140 US expats with their families, including dogs and cats to Shanghai. We indeed did not believe at the time GM would ever be able to earn back that kind of investment. The market size could not justify such investments, unless a miracle took place. They not only did earn money back, they now decided to reinvest a handsome three billion US dollar of those returns in China.
Why did that happen? A miracle took place. Not the number of cars justified the huge investment, but the high profit margin per car. What we got wrong at the time was that we looked at China as a market economy, while the automotive industry enjoyed heavy government protection and forced the customers to buy overpriced cars with a margin of 20 percent. The small group of people could afford to buy a car was very happy to be ripped off. In Shanghai they even paid the equivalent of a Volkswagen Santana for the governmental permission to drive a car.

Maybe we are wrong again, but it certainly looks that to make the automotive competitive not only the efficiency of the Chinese industry should go up, but the profits per car should to down. Both GM and Volkswagen have already started a minor price war that is – when we believe the assessment of some reports in the Chinese media – the beginning of much more. Xinhua even forecasted a buyers strike until the beginning of next year because buyers expect a more dramatic reduction in car prices.
That might be political wishful thinking, as the central government wants to cool down the economy. In any case, government policies seem less inclined to support the massive profits of the automotive industry in the recent past. To even marginally justify the current investment an unsustainable hike in sales seems necessary.

A city like Shanghai will have to decide how it will look like in ten, twenty years time. Will it take on the model of a city of Los Angeles, spreading out to cities like Ningbo, Nanjing and Hangzhou, incorporating them as suburbs in a metropolis that has been made to force its citizens into cars. Or is it going to be like New York, much more concentrated with an excellent public transportation system? I just toured a few days ago Shanghai with a friend from New York. She has a car, she says, but uses it only four, five times a year to leave the city.
Shanghai wants to equal New York it decided a few years ago, but I estimate it might in twenty years time look more like Los Angeles looking at the behavior of the patients at the Beijing car show. That might be too late for some parts of the automotive industry that need an earlier return on investment.

Fons Tuinstra