D Day-7: all the rage is about reporters finding out that they don’t have the same access to websites as usual. Type in falun gong or tibet and you get a blank page or an error (something covered during Lift06…).

What strikes me as suprising is the (fainted?) naïvity on both sides. Did foreign reporters really believe that Beijing would “open” China’s Internet during the Games (and potentially leave it open afterwards)? Did the Chinese government really believe that the press would search the Internet in China solely for articles on athletes or sports?

No more surprising is the IOC admitting on July 30 that its officials negotiated with the Chinese that some sensitive sites would be blocked on the basis they were not considered Games related! The Chinese are limiting their promise to providing the media with convenient and sufficient access to the Internet.

Time for the foreign media to [dis]cover how to circumvent China’s firewall…

P.S.: For those who didn’t notice, Eutelsat Communications stopped some time ago broadcasting New Tang Dynasty Television’s (NTDTV) to China - officially due to a power generator subsystem problem, less officially because the network was getting repeated complaints and reminder from the Chinese government. Strange practices since the European Union’s charter that created Eutelsat required the practice of non-discrimination, equal access, and respect for media pluralism. Censorship doesn’t always from where you expect it!

It looks like a Korean TV crew managed to have a peek at a rehearsal of the opening ceremony…. Check it out here.

P.S.: Design and production teams and the thousands of cast members had been required to sign confidentiality agreements. Breaches are punishable by up to seven years jail.

 In 2007 the 530+ million Chinese mobile subscribers received 350+ billion spam text messages: that’s an average of 666 spam text message per year - close to 2 per day.

Representatives from 34 operators and service provider companies, including China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom, China Netcom, Sina, Tencent and Kong.net, joined forces with the Internet Society of China (ISC) to tackle the issue.

The result? A self-disciplinary convention on anti-spam, strongly supported by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology who has also been looking in improving the governance over mobile spam. Users can now download a software with functions including message filtering and screening

The Beijing Airport is trying to get feedback from the passengers. But this very commendable initiative is just slightly biased…. since you can vote before being granted entry and receiving your passport back from the Customs’ officer.

As you can see, in addition to voting you can even leave a “voice” comment. Can you imagine complaining to the machine right in front of the officer?

It was not so long ago that the portrayal of the “other” China was the monopoloy of the odd-foreign journalist braving local authorities and self-censorship to cover sensitive topics (like Tibet, AIDS villages, public demonstrations, etc.).

YouTube (and the other video sharing websites) coupled with blogs are fundamentally altering this. Chinese netizens are posting increasingly daring comments on blogs (e.g. the Weng’An riot). They are also posting more and more videos (easily made with cellphones) on the Internet (e.g. the beating up of villagers by the village head together with a group of thugs as they refuse to leave their homes which will be demolished for a construction project - please note that the images are crude).

This is of course giving plenty of additional work to the Chinese cyber-police… at least for sites hosted within China.

Some of you may remember that Morse was officially abandonned in 1997, when the French navy ceased using the code with a final message ”Calling all. This is our last cry before our eternal silence.”

Well, it looks like Morse has not gone completely forgotten by everyone, and especially not netizens in China who are using it, among other, to escape the vigilance of the cyber-police!

Here is the link for those interested in translating from Chinese to morse or vice-versa.

Ever wanted to learn Chinese? If so, rush to Zon!

To make sure that you get the real feel for China, your avatar first arrives as a tourist in Beijing Airport’s Customs zone (I must have been unlucky since each time I arrived it was a bit more crowded than in the game). You will then move on to the airport’s lobby, to the hotel lobby and finally to the streets! At the different stages, players encounter quests, have access to learning materials — including live Chinese tutors — and are able to organize and participate in social activities. The game even comes with some kind of traditional Chinese music.

The overall goal for the player is to fare well and advance socially and economically, with players moving from “tourists” to “residents” and finally to “citizens” of modern China - note that becoming a Chinese citizen is a rare feat for foreigners and usually a great honour. Let’s hope that the developers enhance the game to include a trip to the Olympic Stadium or to Lhassa…

Beijing is taking another shot at increasing competition in the telecommunication services sector. The new round of restructuring will merge the existing six state-owned companies into three giants who will be able to compete in all segments (mobile, fixed, value-added). Let’s not get too excited though. Lessons from other countries tend to show that it is no easy task to grab market shares from the incumbent. Also, the hoped-for competitive markets tend to turn into duopolies or oligopolies with two dominant players.

The real challenge (and litmus test) for Chinese policy-makers will be to open the fixed and mobile market to both private domestic and foreign investors. In theory, foreign investment is capped at 49% by China’s World Trade Organization commitments; in practice none of the restructured companies will find a significant value in getting an important/strategic investors on board. For sure they will be backed by the government who keeps seeing the telecom sector as both a sovereignty and security issue.

At the end of the day, it is the Chinese consumer and the Chinese economy which might suffer from the government’s unwillingness to open even more to competition.

The Alliance for Universal Power Supplies (AUPS) - an industry standards group that seeks to enable universally compatible and eco-friendly products and services - is counting on China to lead the way towards a universal phone charger.

Because every new CE device comes with a charger, some 3.2 billion power supplies will be designed and shipped in 2008 alone.

China is the first country to pass a law requiring a USB interface for cell phone chargers: all cell phones designed after June 14 2008 must use a USB charger to be sold legally in China. With a production above 500 millions mobile phones for 2007 alone, China’s standardization effort (enlightned self-interest, at last) is poised to have some impact beyond its borders. Let’s also hope that someone, in a not-too-distant future, tackles the standardization of the charger’s other half …the plug!

According to Akamai, China and the USA lead the worlds as the the two biggest sources of Internet traffic attack (with respectively 17% and 14% of overall DDoS and hacking attempts). This is not too surprising since both countries have the largest number of Internet users - more interesting though is Taiwan’s 3rd place. The statistics seem to be confirmed by a recent study which found that more than half of the hacker attacks on computer systems of South Korea’s government and public agencies came from China. Similarly Indian officials claimed that the Chinese were constantly scanning and
mapping India’s official networks.

Some [conspiracy theorists] went as far as arguing that China’s attacks may be responsible for two major power blackouts in Florida and the Northeast. While there has never been any official government accusation of China involvement in the outages, its role is not explicitly ruled out.

According to US cyber-experts ”what makes the Chinese stand out is the pervasive and relentless nature of the attacks”. China’s military history is one of asymetric warfare. Waging cyber-warfare is simply adapting to current practices as, for sure, they are not alone playing that game.