Posts tagged "China"

Chinese dissident claims NYU is forcing him out

Chinese dissident Chen Guangcheng, who was allowed to travel to the U.S. after escaping from house arrest, said Monday that New York University is forcing him and his family to leave at the end of this month because of pressure from the Chinese government. The university denied Chen’s allegations.

Chen said in a statement that China’s Communist Party had been applying “great, unrelenting pressure” on NYU to ask him to leave, though he did not provide details or evidence to back his claim. Chen said Beijing’s authoritarian government has more influence on the American academic community than is perceived.

“The work of the Chinese Communists within academic circles in the United States is far greater than what people imagine, and some scholars have no option but to hold themselves back,” he said. “Academic independence and academic freedom in the United States are being greatly threatened by a totalitarian regime.”

NYU officials called Chen’s account puzzling, saying that his fellowship was meant to be a one-year position and had simply concluded as planned, and that school officials have been talking with him for months about what his next step might be.

Chen sparked a diplomatic crisis between China and the U.S. last year when he fled to the U.S. Embassy in Beijing from house arrest. Since last May, he’d been a special student at NYU’s U.S.-Asia Law institute. He has been working on a book due out later this year.

NYU spokesman John Beckman said in a statement Monday that the conclusion of Chen’s fellowship had nothing to do with the Chinese government.

“We are very discouraged to learn of Mr. Chen’s statement, which contains a number of speculations about the role of the Chinese government in NYU’s decision-making that are both false and contradicted by the well-established facts,” Beckman said.

Beckman said that even before Chen’s family’s arrival in the States the fellowship he was to take at the university was discussed as a one-year position.

“NYU believes it has been generous in supporting this family, and we are puzzled and saddened to see these false claims directed at us,” Beckman said.

A U.S. newspaper, the New York Post, had earlier reported that NYU’s decision was related to the university’s development of a campus in Shanghai, though the university rejected the claim.

The dissident said that as early as last August and September, three to four months after his family had arrived in the United States, NYU was already discussing their departure. Beckman responded that the university began talking to the Chens “not because of some fictional `pressure’ from China, but so that they could use the months to make their transition a smooth one.”

Marines land Osprey aircraft on Japanese ship

A U.S. Marine Corps MV-22 Osprey aircraft made an unprecedented landing Friday on a Japanese naval vessel off the California coast.

The tilt-rotor aircraft flew from San Diego’s Marine Corps Miramar Air Station to the Japanese ship Hyuga as part of an 18-day drill aimed at improving Japan’s amphibious capabilities.

The Osprey has sparked protests in Japan over concerns about its safety record, which includes two crashes last year in Florida and Morocco.

The Japanese government approved the deployment of 12 Ospreys in 2012 to Okinawa after receiving additional assurances from the Pentagon.

Military officials say the Osprey is critical for regional security efforts. The hybrid aircraft can take off and land like a helicopter. Marines demonstrated its versatility and speed Friday in an exercise that required coordination between the Navy, Marine Corps and Japan’s military members.

“The very first landing of an MV-22 Osprey on a Japanese ship is a historic moment,” said Marine Brig. Gen. John Broadmeadow, adding that the exercise provided the U.S. military “an opportunity to enhance our longstanding relationship with the Japanese and to highlight the capabilities of the MV-22 Osprey, which allows the Marine Corps to quickly respond to a crisis when launched from sea or land.”

U.S. military officials say strengthening Japan’s amphibious capabilities is vital as the U.S. focuses more attention on developing an Asia-Pacific strategy amid ongoing Defense Department budget cuts. The region has been roiled by tensions due to North Korean long-range rocket and nuclear tests and maritime territorial disputes between China and its neighbors.

Japan’s navy is among the world’s best-equipped and best-trained, but its skills storming beaches and other amphibious capabilities have been weak since its national defense force formed in the 1950s.

Military officials say the training also will help Japan to better respond to natural disasters, like the 2011 earthquake and tsunami in which Marines were called in to rescue people from devastated coastal areas.

Largely in response to China’s growing military might — including the acquisition of its first aircraft carrier last year — Japan has been buying amphibious landing craft and strengthening training for potential conflicts in or around small islands. Japan is also repositioning its troops to better monitor and defend its southern borders and sea lanes.

US official: China, US aligned on North Korea

A top U.S. national security official says President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping found “quite a bit of alignment” on the subject of North Korea and agreed that North Korea has to be denuclearized.

White House national security adviser Tom Donilon says that the leaders also agreed that neither country will accept North Korea as a nuclear-armed state.

Donilon says the common ground between Obama and Xi on North Korea provides a key for enhanced U.S.-China cooperation.

He spoke Saturday at the end of two days of meeting between Obama and Xi in an estate in the California desert.

Over 100 Chinese miners arrested in Ghana

A spokesman for Ghana’s immigration service said that 161 Chinese nationals, who were arrested for illegal gold mining this week, will be deported to China.

Francis Palm-Deti, spokesman for Ghana’s Immigration Service, said the miners were arrested between Saturday and Wednesday. It brings to 181 the total number of Chinese that the country’s immigration office has arrested within the past month in this African nation.

The Chinese gold-diggers are accused of forcibly taking over people’s land in farming areas near artisanal mines. Farmer Nana Kwame Yeboah, whose crops were destroyed, said that they arrived at night. When he woke up, he found the Chinese had taken over his farm. He said they waved a gun at him when he tried to approach.

China Candy & Chocolate Industry Profile – CIC1421

Through a comparative analysis on the development of candy & chocolate industry in 31 provincial regions and 20 major cities in visualized form of data map, the report provides key data and concise analyses on the candy & chocolate industry in China, a list of top 20 enterprises in the sector as well as the comparison on investment environment in top 10 hot regions. In addition, the report truly reflects the position of foreign enterprises in candy & chocolate industry across China based on a comprehensive comparison of operating conditions among different enterprise types.This report includes the data for the year 2010 to 2008.This report is based on Chinese industry classification (Industrial Classification For National Economic Activities, GB/T 4754-2002).Additionally, by original creation of ZEEFER Industry Distribution Index, the report directly shows the difference in various regions of Mainland China in terms of candy & chocolate industry, providing an important reference for investors’ selection of target regions to make investment.What will you get from this report? To get a comprehensive picture on distribution of and difference in performance in regions of Mainland China in terms of the candy & chocolate industry; To figure out the hot regions in China for candy & chocolate industry, find out the potential provinces and cities suitable for investment as well as the economic development level and investment environment in these regions; To get a clear picture on the overall development, industry size and growth trend of candy & chocolate industry across China in the past 3 years; To get a clear picture on development status of foreign enterprises, state-owned enterprises, and private enterprises in recent years as well as the industry position of the above ownerships; Present you with a list of top 20 enterprises inside the industry;Regions Covered By This Report All the 31 provincial regions in Mainland China; Top 20 cities in terms of candy & chocolate industry.Enterprise Types Covered By This Report Top 20 enterprises; Enterprises Funded by Foreign Countries (territories), Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan; Chinese State-owned Enterprises; Collective-owned Enterprises; Cooperative Enterprises; Joint-Equity Enterprises; Private Enterprises.ZEEFER Industry Distribution IndexIt is an indicator through aggregate weighted computation based on the three authority statistics of enterprise numbers, sales revenue and profit by region and corporate ownership, and in accordance with the regional distribution of leading enterprises inside the sector. Through horizontal comparison on the candy & chocolate industry development in different provinces, municipalities, and autonomous regions, the ZEEFER Industry Distribution Index is specially designed to truly reflect the conditions of regional distribution for the candy & chocolate industry, providing a quantitative, visual and reliable reference for relevant users to make decisions. The ZEEFER Industry Distribution Index adopts a hundred mark system. For a certain region, the higher the score, the higher the distribution concentration in this region and the industry position of the region shall be more important.Key Statistic Indicators Covered By This Report Industrial Output Number Of Employees Enterprise Number Sales Revenue Profits Rate Of Return On Sales Rate Of Return On Assets Rate Of Return On Net Assets Number Of Enterprises In Red Range Of Loss Total Losses Percentage Of Foreign-Funded And HK-, Macau-, Taiwan-Funded Enterprises In Terms Of The Sales Revenue Percentage Of Foreign-Funded Enterprises In All Foreign-Funded Enterprises And HK-, Macau-, Taiwan-Funded Enterprises In Terms Of The Sales Revenue GDP Growth Rate Of GDP GDP Per Capita Growth Rate Of GDP Per Capita Growth Rate Of The Added Value Of Primary Industry Growth Rate Of The Added Value Of Secondary Industry Growth Rate Of The Added Value Of The Tertiary Industry Industrial Value-Added Of Enterprises Above Designated Size Growth Rate Of Industrial Value-Added Of Enterprises Above Designated Size Industrial Products Sales Rate Of Enterprises Above Designated Size Growth Rate Of Industrial Value-Added Of Foreign-, And HK-, Macau-, Taiwan-Funded Enterprises Investment On Fixed-Assets Growth Rate Of Investment On Fixed-Assets Total Retail Sales Of Consumer Goods Growth Rate Of Total Retail Sales Of Consumer Goods Total Import & Export Growth Rate Of Total Import & Export Realized Foreign Direct Investment Growth Rate Of Realized Foreign Direct Investment CPI PPI RMPPI Urban Per Capita Disposable Income Rural Per-Capita Net Income Freight Mileage Growth Rate Of Freight Mileage Port Cargo Throughput Growth Rate Of Port Cargo Throughput Resident Population
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Chinese-American released from China after five years

A Chinese-American businessman who was held in China for nearly five years after he became involved in a dispute with a competitor has been allowed to return to his Southern California home, his wife said Tuesday.

Hong Li said her husband, Hu Zhicheng, arrived at Los Angeles International Airport from China on Monday night.

“We’re grateful, we’re very, very grateful for everybody’s help and we’re really happy to have him back home,” she said of herself and the couple’s two children.

She told The Associated Press in a brief phone interview Tuesday night that her husband was asleep and still jet lagged and did not want to talk about his ordeal or his return home.

Hu was released just ahead of a summit between President Barack Obama and Chinese leader Xi Jinping, but Li said she didn’t know if that played any part in her husband’s return.

She said the first she learned that he was coming home in a call Monday from a relative in China, who told her was on a plane to the United States.

“I don’t want to say too much at this point,” she said. “I don’t really know too much.”

An internationally recognized expert in the development of catalytic converters that are used to limit pollution in automobiles, Hu holds a doctorate in engineering and more than 50 patents. He has performed research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and worked for international companies.

He returned to China in 2004 after years in the U.S., hoping to get in on the ground floor building cleaner-running automobiles just as smog-choked China’s economy was booming.

Hu became chief scientist and president of a company trying to build top-grade catalytic converters and was honored by the province of Jiangsu as one of its leading innovators. Li, meanwhile started her own business supplying materials to the company that employed her husband. She also holds a doctorate in engineering.

Eventually, a competitor accused Hu of stealing information and providing it to his wife’s company. When Li and the couple’s children returned to the U.S. for a summer visit in 2008, he was nervous enough to warn them not to come back to China. Shortly before Thanksgiving that year, he was arrested.

Hu was jailed for 17 months while police investigated the case. He was eventually cleared of any wrongdoing and released, but authorities refused to let him leave China after his business rival filed a lawsuit seeking financial damages.

Li said Tuesday she didn’t know if that case has been resolved.

After his release from jail, Hu moved to Shanghai and worked for the company that employed him. He was allowed to travel freely within the country, but he could not leave. Asked Tuesday if he would consider returning at any point, Li laughed.

“No, I don’t think so. I doubt it,” she said.

The couple were born in China and became U.S. citizens several years ago. Both of their children were born in the U.S.

Their daughter, Victoria Hu, visited her father in Shanghai in 2010 and since then has kept up a relentless campaign from the United States seeking his release.

She posted a petition to Change.org that collected more than 60,000 signatures and started a Facebook page called “Help Victoria’s Father Dr. Zhicheng Hu Come Home.”

Her mother, meanwhile, contacted the State Department and other officials for years.

All of those efforts had seemed to lead nowhere until Monday.

New dinosaur is a primitive bird

A dinosaur from the Middle-Late Jurassic period, found in China, gives scientists new understandings of how birds evolved, according to a Wednesday report from the journal Nature.

Pentagon programs target of China cyber threat

New revelations that China used cyberattacks to access data from nearly 40 Pentagon weapons programs and almost 30 other defense technologies have increased pressure on U.S. leaders to take more strident action against Beijing to stem the persistent breaches.

The disclosure, which was included in a Defense Science Board report released earlier this year, but is only now being discussed publicly, comes as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel heads to Southeast Asia, where he will discuss the escalating cyberthreat with counterparts from a number of area nations.

While officials have been warning for years about China’s cyber espionage efforts aimed at U.S. military and high-tech programs, the breadth of the list underscored how routine the attacks have become. And, as the U.S. looks to grow its military presence in the Asia Pacific, it heightens worries that China can use the information to blunt America’s military superiority and keep pace with emerging technologies.

“It introduces uncertainty on how well the weapons may work, and it means we may have to redo weapons systems,” said James Lewis, a cybersecurity expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “If they know how it works precisely, they will be able to evade it and figure out how to better beat our systems.”

A chart included in the science board’s report laid out what it called a partial list of 37 breached programs, which included the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense weapon — a land-based missile defense system that was recently deployed to Guam to help counter the North Korean threat. Other programs include the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the F-22 Raptor fighter jet, and the hybrid MV-22 Osprey, which can take off and land like a helicopter and fly like an airplane.

The report also listed another 29 broader defense technologies that have been compromised, including drone video systems and high-tech avionics. The information was gathered more than two years ago, so some of the data is dated and a few of the breaches — such as the F-35 — had actually already become public.

The details of the breaches were first reported by The Washington Post.

According to a defense official, the report is based on more than 50 briefings that members of the board’s task force received from senior leaders in the Pentagon, the State Department, the intelligence community, national laboratories and business. The official was not authorized to discuss the report publicly so spoke on condition of anonymity.

U.S. officials have been far more open about discussing the China cyberattacks over the past year or two, beginning with a November 2011 report by U.S. intelligence agencies that accused China of systematically stealing American high-tech data for its own national economic gain. The Pentagon, meanwhile, in its latest report on China’s military power, asserted publicly for the first time that Beijing’s military was likely behind computer-based attacks targeting federal agencies.

“In 2012, numerous computer systems around the world, including those owned by the U.S. government, continued to be targeted for intrusions, some of which appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military,” said the report, which was released earlier this month.

Cybersecurity experts have for some time been urging the government to use sanctions or other punishments against China for the breaches.

The benefits to the cyber espionage are high and the costs are low, said Shawn Henry, former cyber director at the FBI and now president of CrowdStrike Services, a security technology company.

“There is no cost, there are no sanctions, no diplomatic actions, no financial disincentives,” said Henry, adding that the U.S. intellectual property losses are in the hundreds of millions of dollars. He said that the U.S. needs to have a discussion with Chinese leaders about “what the red lines are and what the repercussions will be for crossing those red lines.”

U.S. leaders, including President Barack Obama, however, have instead been using the bully pulpit to increase pressure on the Chinese to confront the problem. Obama is expected to raise the issue with China’s new leader Xi Jinping during a summit next month in Southern California.

Pentagon Press Secretary George Little said Tuesday that the Pentagon maintains “full confidence in our weapons platforms,” adding that the department has taken a number of steps to strengthen its network defenses and monitor for threats.

Defense contractors, meanwhile, declined to say whether their systems had been breached. But recent filings to shareholders indicate these companies see intrusions as a serious risk to their business, particularly when they must rely on third-party suppliers.

In its most recent annual report, Lockheed Martin — a primary contractor on missile defense programs — told shareholders that prior cyberattacks “have not had a material impact on our financial results,” and that it believed its security efforts were adequate.

However, suppliers and subcontractors have “varying levels of cybersecurity expertise and safeguards and their relationships with government contractors, such as Lockheed Martin may increase the likelihood that they are targeted by the same cyber threats we face,” according to the 2012 report.

In a statement emailed to reporters on Tuesday, Lockheed Martin said it has made “significant investments” in cybersecurity and that the company was trying to secure its supply chain given that “program information resides in a large cyber ecosystem.”

Similar risk disclosures to shareholders have been made recently by Northrop Grumman, Boeing and Raytheon. For example, Northrop Grumman wrote in its 2012 annual report that cyber intrusions “could damage our reputation and lead to financial losses from remedial actions, loss of business or potential liability.”

Company spokesman Randy Belote on Tuesday declined to say whether Northrop Grumman’s systems had been breached, citing company policy. But, he added, “the number of attempts to breach our networks (is) increasing at an alarming rate.”

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Associated Press writer Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.

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Follow Lolita C. Baldor at https://twitter.com/lbaldor

Hacking overshadows closer US-China military ties

U.S. National Security Adviser Tom Donilon has pushed for stronger military relations with China as part of preparations for a summit next month between President Barack Obama and China’s Xi Jinping.

However, difficulties establishing trust between the sides were underscored by new revelations Tuesday that China used cyberattacks to access data from nearly 40 Pentagon weapons programs and almost 30 other defense technologies, ranging from missile defense systems to the F-35 joint strike fighter.

The disclosure was included in a Defense Science Board report released earlier this year, but is only now being discussed publicly. It came shortly after Donilon wrapped up discussions with Chinese officials in Beijing and as Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel was heading to Southeast Asia for multinational talks on issues including the escalating cyberthreat.

While officials have been warning for years about China’s cyber espionage efforts aimed at U.S. military and high-tech programs, the breadth of the list underscored how routine the attacks have become.

Donilon did not directly mention hacking in his opening comments at a meeting Tuesday morning with Gen. Fan Changlong, a vice chairman of the commission overseeing China’s armed forces.

Instead, he emphasized that nontraditional military activities such as peacekeeping, disaster relief and anti-piracy operations offer opportunities to boost cooperation and “contribute to greater mutual confidence and understanding.”

A “healthy, stable, and reliable military-to-military relationship” is an essential part of overall China-U.S. ties, Donilon said at the start of the meeting at China’s hulking Defense Ministry building in central Beijing.

Donilon met with a range of Chinese officials over two days to hammer out plans for the June 7-8 summit, the first face-to-face meeting between the presidents since Obama’s re-election and Xi’s promotion to Communist Party chief last November.

Their informal summit at the private Sunnylands estate of the late publishing tycoon Walter Annenberg in southern California will come months before the two leaders had been originally scheduled to meet, underscoring concerns that the U.S-China relationship was drifting.

Xi told Donilon on Monday that relations were at a critical juncture, and that the sides must now “build on past successes and open up new dimensions for the future.”

Building trust between their militaries is one of the main challenges the sides face in seeking to stop a drift in relations, troubled by issues from trade disputes to allegations of Chinese cyberspying.

A White House statement issued after Tuesday’s meeting emphasized the need to cooperate further on North Korea, cyber-security, climate change and stability in Asia. It called the upcoming summit a “unique and important opportunity” to discuss U.S.-China relations and regional and global challenges facing both countries.

Although Washington and Beijing have talked about boosting military cooperation for more than a decade, distrust runs high and disagreements over Taiwan, North Korea and China’s assertive claims to disputed territories in the East and South China seas remain potential flashpoints.

The U.S. has repeatedly questioned the purpose of China’s heavy military buildup over the past two decades, while Beijing is deeply suspicious of Washington’s new focus on military alliances in Asia and plans to redeploy more weaponry and troops to the Asia-Pacific region.

Steps to increase benign interactions between their militaries have been modest so far, including joint anti-piracy drills in the Gulf of Aden and a classroom natural disaster response simulation. The U.S. has also invited China to take part in large U.S.-led multinational naval exercises, though China has not said if it would participate.

Apart from purely military issues, distrust has deepened as the U.S. feels its world leadership challenged and China, its power growing, demands greater deference to its interests and a larger say over global rule-setting. Chinese officials and state media regularly say Washington is thwarting China’s rise by hemming Beijing in through its Asian alliances and discouraging Chinese investment in the U.S. on grounds of national security.

U.S. officials have been far more open about discussing the China cyberattacks over the past year or two, beginning with a November 2011 report by U.S. intelligence agencies that accused China of systematically stealing American high-tech data for its own national economic gain. The Pentagon, meanwhile, in its latest report on China’s military power, asserted publicly for the first time that Beijing’s military was likely behind computer-based attacks targeting federal agencies.

“In 2012, numerous computer systems around the world, including those owned by the U.S. government, continued to be targeted for intrusions, some of which appear to be attributable directly to the Chinese government and military,” said the report, which was released earlier this month.

Computing and Combinatorics: 11th Annual International Conference, COCOON 2005, Kunming, China, August 16-19, 2005, Proceedings (Lecture Notes in … Computer Science and General Issues)

The refereed proceedings of the 11th Annual International Computing and Combinatorics Conference, COCOON 2005, held in Kunming, China in August 2005. The 96 revised full papers presented together with abstracts of 3 invited talks were carefully reviewed and selected from 353 submissions. The papers cover most aspects of theoretical computer science and combinatorics related to computing and are organized in topical sections on bioinformatics, networks, string algorithms, scheduling, complexity, steiner trees, graph drawing and layout design, quantum computing, randomized algorithms, geometry, codes, finance, facility location, graph theory, graph algorithms.
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