Yahoo settles over China dissident

WEB pioneer Yahoo has settled a lawsuit in the US that had accused the company of helping authorities in China to jail and torture two political dissidents.

The World Organisation for Human Rights USA, which had assisted in legal action agianst Yahoo in California over complicity in “major human rights buses in China”, said in a statement that the company had settled out of court.

The case had generated a growing public backlash, making the company the subject of intense political pressure from the US congress in the past weeks.

Details of the settlement have been kept private, but are thought to include a commitment from Yahoo to provide financial support to the families of the jailed men; to help secure the release of the men; and to reconsider the way it handles certain requests for information from authorities.

“Yahoo had handed over the identifying internet user information of well-known Chinese journalist Shi Tao, and pro-democracy writer Wang Xiaoning, to Chinese authorities, who sought to punish the two men for having done nothing more than expressed their free speech rights – rights that are, ironically, recognised under the Chinese constitution,” Human Rights USA said in the statement.

“As a result of Yahoo's cooperation with Chinese authorities, the two men were subjected to arbitrary arrest, long-term detention, abuse, and torture while imprisoned in China,” the statement read.

“Both men are serving 10-year sentences under the highly dubious charges of ‘subversion of state power’ and ‘sharing state secrets’ – vague charges whose underlying purpose is to detain individuals who make statements unfavourable to the Chinese government.”

For more Web Applications news, click here.

Baidu doubles profit, dominates China

HOME-grown Chinese search engine Baidu.com has doubled third quarter profits on strong traffic growth that continued to outstrip search leader Google’s efforts in China.

Baidu.com reported profits of 181.7 million Yuan (A$26.6 million), more than double the 85.3 million Yuan for the year ago quarter. Revenue also more than doubled, from 237.6 million Yuan a year ago to 486.5 million.

“During the third quarter, we saw solid revenue and earnings growth driven by an increase in user traffic and active online customers,” said Baidu chairman and chief executive officer Robin Li.

“Our results reflect the scalability of our pay for performance (P4P) business model and demonstrate our growing reputation as the Chinese language search provider of choice,” Mr Li said.

“We also saw strong uptake of our community-based products and entertainment platforms, which we continued to enhance and expand over the third quarter to serve the evolving needs of our users. While we maintain our focus on our core search business, we also continue to launch new products and services that leverage our strengths and high user traffic.”

Baidu chief financial officer Shawn Wang said the Chinese search market was still in its early stages of development and Baidu would continue to invest in market growth.

“Looking forward, we will continue to enhance our product offerings, invest in key business segments and improve the overall user experience, as well as explore strategic partnerships that bring value to our users,” Mr Wang said.

Baidu boasts 60.5 per cent of the search market in China, up from 57.6 per cent in the previous quarter according to Analysys International.

Google is the second placed search provider with 23.7 per cent of the market, up from 21 per cent.

For more Web Applications news, click here.

Cisco maps China strategy

COMMUNICATIONS giant Cisco has become a cornerstone investor in the Chinese online B2B marketplace Alibaba.com as part of a multi-billion push into the China market over the next five years.

Cisco chief executive John Chambers said the company’s total commitments in China – including procurement activities – had amounted to US$8.5 billion (A$9.24 billion) since 2002, a number now expected to expand to US$16 billion over the next five years.

Mr Chambers was outlining a broad range of initiatives in China ranging from heavy investment in education through the rapid expansion of the Cisco Networking Academies program, US$400 million in venture funding for China projects and the establishment of the company’s first “green” technology centre for R&D into sustainable development.

Mr Chambers also signed a memorandum of understanding with Chinese B2B online marketplace Alibaba.com that includes a US$17.5 million investment as a foundation shareholder in Alibaba.com’s upcoming initial public offering.

“Our collaboration with Alibaba Group will play an important role in helping extend our industry-leading SMB solutions effectively into the Chinese market,” Mr Chambers said.

“By combining Cisco's technology leadership with Alibaba Group's community of eCommerce in China, we will help drive market transformation through innovation and bring benefits to SMBs as well as consumers in the Web 2.0 Era,” he said.

Under the terms of the MOU, Cisco and Alibab.com will explore ways to jointly offer collaboration and business management solutions to small and medium businesses (SMBs). Cisco also agreed to cooperate in assisting the Alibaba Group’s market expansion outside of China.

“We look forward to cooperating with Cisco to find ways to bring software services to China's SME's,” Alibaba Group chairman and chairman Jack Ma said.

“China is entering a golden era for enterprise software services and collaborating with Cisco will help us meet our goal of bringing world class technology to China's businesses.”

EMC doubles China investment

STORAGE market leader EMC has opened a new research and development facility in Beijing and committed to doubling its planned investments in China to 1 billion (A$1.1 billion) over the next five years.

The investment of US$500 million announced in June last year is now expected to double, the company said, with the additional funds to be used to expand the EMC R&D capability in China, boost its partner community and strengthen sales and service channels.

The new EMC R&D in Beijing is the second for the company, which opened a Shanghai R&D facility in June 2006. The Shanghai centre was subsequently “evolved” into an EMC Centre of Excellence in January this year.

EMC chairman and chief executive Joe Tucci said China’s contribution as a market and as a culture of innovation “has been spectacular.”

“We have demonstrated our success by gaining customer confidence in the local marketplace and our China R&D operation is an integral part of our industry-leading information infrastructure product development efforts,” Mr Tucci said.

“The additional investment reiterates our deep commitment to this rapidly growing economy and emphasises the important role that China will have in EMC’s long-term business success.”

The new center in Beijing, located in Zhong Guan Cun, known as the Silicon Valley of China, will house over 200 engineers and concentrate on the company’s core technologies including information storage, virtualisation, security, resource management and content management and archiving.

The centre will also include EMC Research China, the first EMC research lab to be established outside of the United States.

The Asia Pacific & Japan region now includes 4,700 EMC employees.

IP bingle as senior Chinese delegation heads to CeBIT

FEDERAL Trade Minister Warren Truss has threatened to complain to the WTO about intellectual property protection in China less than two weeks before a senior Chinese information technology delegation arrives in Australia.

Deputy Minister Lou Qinjian from the Ministry of Information Industry (MII) will lead a group of eight senior ministry officials, joining a second group of senior executives from Chinese firms in a delegation from the China Electronic Chamber of Commerce (CECC) to the CeBIT Australia conference and exhibition at Darling Harbour in Sydney from May 1-3.

Minister Lou and the MII delegates will conduct high-level meetings with the officials from the Department of Communications, IT and the Arts, and the NSW government.

Both MII delegates and the CECC will also conduct closed-door meetings with members of the Australian Electrical and Electronic Manufacturers’ Association (AEEMA).

But the Chinese arrive in Australia just as Trade Minister Warren Truss said government is considering joining the United States in lodging complaints with the World Trade Organisation over the intellectual property protection issues in China.

Mr Truss told the ABC last week the US was clearly becoming more aggressive in its trading relationship with China and that Australia may join the US in its complaint to the WTO.

The Minister is in Beijing this week and will meet with China’s Commerce Minister Bo Xilai. He will also co-chair the High-level Economic Cooperation Dialogue (HECD) with the chairman of China’s National Development and Reform Commission.

Mr Truss will also attend the Boao Forum for Asia (BFA) Annual Conference and participate in a panel on Accelerating Asian Growth: Evolution of the Asian Economic Community.\

Styled as an Asian Davos, the BFA is a forum for senior government, business and academic representatives to debate major economic, social and environmental issues facing Asia.

Intellectual property in China is a hot topic right now, and the Australian Trade Commission (Austrade) is organising a series of seminars to be held in Australian capital cities in May.

Austrade has partnered with IP Australia to present the ' View in 2007: Intellectual property and new markets in China' seminars in Canberra, Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth starting on May 7.

For more e-Government news, click here.

Truss talks tough on China’s IP record

JUST as Australian Trade Minister Warren Truss stepped into a growing fight between the US and China over intellectual property, Austrade has announced a series of seminars for Australian companies on protecting IP rights in China.

Mr Truss said last week that Australia was considering joining the US in lodging complaints against China with the World Trade Organisation (WTO) over IP infringements.

Mr Truss will travel to China this week to co-chair a meeting of the Economic Cooperation Dialogue, and to meet with China’s Commerce Minister.

Austrade said last week that it had teamed with IP Australia to host ‘View in 2007: Intellectual Property and new markets in China’, a seminar series that will provide exporters with updated perspectives on IP from experts direct from the coalface in China.

The day-long seminars will be held through May at various locations around the country, including Canberra, Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth.

Speakers will include Mr Truss, as well as Australia’s senior Trade Commissioner to China Peter Osborne, Rouse and Co International manager Anna Booy, and Day Consultants founder Mark Day.

Exporters will also be able to network with speakers and get their questions answered by representatives from Austrade, IP Australia, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Attorney General's Department as well as Australian exporters with current in-market experience.

Meanwhile, one of the nation’s most powerful business lobbies, the Australian Industry Group has backed Mr Truss statement on joining the US in complaining about China to the WTO.

“A lack of enforcement arrangements against IP infringement in China is a critical issue faced by Australian companies in their dealings in China,” Australian Industry Group chief executive Heather Ridout said.

“As a member of the multilateral trading structure, China must meet its WTO commitments on IP and this issue, along with China's undervalued currency, has been central to all the discussions with China over recent years.”

“(The Australian Industry) Group has also suggested to the Australian Government that a consultative mechanism be established now so that IP infringement matters can also be addressed at senior administrative government levels in the context of the Australia-China FTA negotiations,” she said.


For more Export Alley news click here.

Intel approval for $2.5b China chip plant

CHIP-maker Intel has been given approval from authorities to build a US$2.5 billion (A$3.2 billion) fabrication facility in China, local media reported.

China’s top economic planning agency, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), said on its web site that the project to build a factory in Dalian had been approved.

Reports in the US said Intel had not yet announced its intention to build the plant and had declined to comment further.

The NDRC announcement said the Dalian Intel plant would use 90nm (nanometre) fabrication technology most commonly used in mass-production flash memory chips.

Current top of the line Intel manufacturing technology builds chips using 65nm technology, and the company will start production later this year in the US of microprocessors using 45nm technology.

Should Intel go ahead with the Dalian fabrication, the US$2.5 million investment would be one of the largest single foreign investments in the China market.

For more Components and Peripherals news, click here.