Wandering China

An East/West pulse of China's fourth rise from down under.

Whistleblower welcome in China [People's Daily] #RisingChina #

Interesting response from the People’s Daily suggesting the floodgates of intertextuality are wide open…

To further understand the likes of Snowden, let us end with a narrative by the character Red from the Shawshank Redemption as he rationalizes the escape of his friend Andy: “Some birds are not meant to be caged. Their feathers are just too bright. And when they fly away, the part of you that knows it was a sin to lock them up does rejoice.”

For more, see US suggests whistleblower ‘in league with the Chinese’ (The Age, June 15, 2013)

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Whistleblower welcome in China
By Xu Peixi (China.org.cn)
Source – People’s Daily, published June 14, 2013

By Gou Ben - China.org.cn

By Gou Ben – China.org.cn

Last week, a bright idealistic young man named Edward Snowden almost single-handedly opened the lid on the U.S. National Security Agency’s PRISM program, a program which marks the bleakest moment yet in the history of the Internet due to its scope, exact country of origin and implications.

In terms of scope, major transnational service providers ranging from Google to Apple are involved in allowing the NSA to access their customers’ data for the purposes of “surveillance.” Nearly all types of services ranging from email to VoIP have come within the program’s scope and it originates in a country which dominates the world’s Internet resources – a fact which is acknowledged in the information leaked by Snowden clearly states: “Much of the world’s communications flow through the U.S.” and the information is accessible. The case indicates that through outsourcing and contracting, Big Brother is breaching the fundamental rights of citizens by getting unfettered access to their most personal communications.

As the case unfolds, there are many things to worry about. How do we make sense of the fact that the market and the state colluded in the abuse of private information via what represents the backbone of many modern day infrastructures? How do we rationalize the character of Snowden and his fellow whistleblowers? How do we understand the one-sided cyber attack accusations the U.S. has poured upon China in the past few months? To what degree have foreign users of these Internet services fallen victim to this project? Among all these suspicions, let us clarify two types of American personality.

Please click here to read the full article at People’s Daily.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Communications, Culture, Cyberattack, Domestic Growth, Economics, Government & Policy, History, Ideology, Influence, Internet, Mapping Feelings, Media, military, Modernisation, Peaceful Development, People's Daily, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Reform, Soft Power, Strategy, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), Technology, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, U.S.

Chinese telco Huawei tries to shake off spy image after NBN ban [ABC News Australia] #RisingChina #Huawei #Telecommunicatioms

So it seems to wearing made in China is fine, or eating out of plates made there does not require too much afterthought. However, using their information infrastructure and equipment to send messages from A to B – requires an ideological leap of faith for some.

Well, it’s not quite time to chuck away the image of China simply being the world’s factory of cheap and good, where excellent margins to those willing to leverage the Chinese model are the key draw. Today, they’re moving up the food chain and it will be a mistake not to take notice.

The land down under is seeing an increasing number of rising China’s foreign vanguard of products tested with the Aussie market prior to going global. This even includes the Great Wall make of SUV and Utility Vehicles.

Rewind – a year back Huawei was barred from tendering for Australia’s National Broadband Network based on intelligence and cyber espionage concerns. See China hits back at NBN bid rejection (The Age, March 29, 2012)

Fast forward a year and check out how Huawei has responds in  the 7.5min video accompanying the article – with ABC’s China correspondent Stephen McDonell.

- Over in the UK – Huawei has become embedded into UK telecoms infrastructure [Financial Times] - June 6, 2013

- Can it look any more ominous than this  (see photo below)? Inside The Chinese Company America Can’t Trust [Time Magazine] – April 15, 2013

Source - DOMINIC NAHR / MAGNUM FOR TIME myth of photographic truth exploited to paint a sinister Huawei

Source – DOMINIC NAHR / MAGNUM FOR TIME
myth of photographic truth exploited to paint a sinister Huawei

That said, it is probably useful to get a clearer picture of what Huawei does:

To read a perspective of Huawei Its annual revenue is more than $35 billion. It is the world’s largest telecom equipment maker. Huawei components feature in networks serving one-third of the world’s population… Huawei is not really a manufacturing company. It makes some of its most sensitive equipment, but it contracts out most routine manufacturing. Just under half – 70,000 – of its staff are directly involved in research and development. It has sought 55,000 patents and been granted 30,000 of them. Thirty thousand of its employees worldwide are non-Chinese. It is really a giant R&D, design, marketing and brand company. A questionable risk to security – Huawei an extraordinary creation (The Australian, May 18, 2013)

See also from WC //

Huawei a victim of its success [China Daily] – May 26, 2013

Huawei calls US Congress report ‘China bashing’ [AFP/Sydney Morning Herald] – October 8, 2012

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Chinese telco Huawei tries to shake off spy image after NBN ban
By China correspondent Stephen McDonell
Source – ABC News Australia, published June 10, 2013

The Chinese company blocked from working on Australia’s National Broadband Network has set its sights on shaking off its image as a stalking horse for Chinese spies.

Telecommunications giant Huawei was banned from tendering for the network as Australia followed the lead of a similar government ban in the United States due to espionage fears.

The company, based in southern China’s Shenzhen province, has refuted claims by the US House Intelligence Committee that the company could potentially build so-called “backdoors” into the likes of the NBN to allow for Chinese eavesdropping.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, International Relations, Media, Politics, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), Mapping Feelings, Australia, Internet, Strategy, Economics, Technology, military, Resources, U.S., Social, History, Finance, Communications, Charm Offensive, Domestic Growth, Greater China, Soft Power, Influence, Population, Chinese Model, Public Diplomacy, Beijing Consensus, U.K., Great Firewall, Trade, Government & Policy, Reform, Democracy, Advertising, Infrastructure, Modernisation, Peaceful Development, Intellectual Property, ABC News, Cyberattack, Ideology, China Dream

Redefining relations [China Daily] #RisingChina #XiObamaSummit #TransPacificCooperation

The vast Pacific Ocean has enough space to accommodate the two big nations of China and the US,” Xi Jinping said before the meeting.

Trans-Pacific cooperation seems the end game for Xi in this informal game of leverage between two very important decision makers. Representing the hearts, hopes and aims of the China’s fourth rise, Xi the torchbearer can ill afford to come across as simply, amicable. That said…

Neither China nor the US wants confrontation… It’s especially notable that they pledged to improve military ties, the most sensitive issue that have occasionally strained relations” Ma Zhengang, deputy president of the China Public Diplomacy Association

However rhetoric remains verbal hot air till mutual understanding arrives…

“If we cannot understand each other, it can cause problems,” Yang Jiemian, president of the Shanghai Institute for International Studies

Bridging a communicative gap involves more than semantic and consensus. Understanding – addresses only part of the equation – what of subtext, meta messages, and perceptual tendencies and noise, just to name a few.

For more, see

Shirtsleeves summit’ warms relations The Age, June 9, 2013

President Xi Jinping visits three Latin American nations, meets Obama in U.S. Xinhua Special Coverage website.

Also, check out the China Daily infographic below to get a sense of China’s transpacific posturing intent.

20130609-190505.jpg

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Redefining relations
By Zhe Zhe in Rancho Mirage, California, Chen Weihua in Washington, and Zhang Chunyan in London
Source – China Daily, published March 9, 2013

20130609-092548.jpg

President Xi Jinping and US President Barack Obama meet the media after their talk at Sunnylands in Rancho Mirage, California, on Friday. Photo by Lan Hongguang / Xinhua

China and the United States will increase comprehensive exchanges, as the countries commit to building a new type of power relationship, the presidents of the world’s two largest economies said on Friday.

After the first meeting of their two-day summit, President Xi Jinping and US counterpart, Barack Obama, stressed the importance of the countries’ ties in a globalized economy.

“I am confident of building a new type of relationship, as long as we are committed to it,” Xi said at the Walter and Leonore Annenberg Estate at Sunnylands, California.

Please click here to read the full article at China Daily.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, China Daily, Chinese Model, Communications, Culture, Economics, Finance, Government & Policy, Greater China, Hard Power, History, Ideology, Influence, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, Media, military, Modernisation, Nationalism, New Leadership, Peaceful Development, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Reform, Soft Power, Strategy, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), Territorial Disputes, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Trade, U.S., Xi Jinping

Censoring Remembrance: China’s Twenty-Fourth Unrealized Commemoration [Three Torches] #RisingChina #TianAnMen

How China sees itself: An encouraging college student post on Tiananmen and the agenda setting chasm of the Great Firewall – between true events and their representations.

Official recognition for this wrong is a long way off, and moving forward, online activity will continue to be a forum where people can lament and lash out, but much of it will remain in electronic form — digital dust in the large scheme of things. Dissent will become more creative, but so will the censorship regime, and at year number twenty-four, Tiananmen is still just one more irreconcilable trauma. Soon it might even cease to exist online, and with that little else can serve as an effective platform for remembrance and discussion in China. Three Torches Blog, June 5, 2013

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CENSORING REMEMBRANCE: CHINA’S TWENTY-FOURTH UNREALIZED COMMEMORATION
by Jonathan Lin, Three Torches Blog
Source – Three Torches Blog, published June 5, 2013

Much has been said — and much more has gone unaddressed — about China’s June 4th 1989 Tiananmen massacre. Yesterday marked the 24th anniversary with still no sense of closure, justice, or answers. One can get a small glimpse of the events of that chaotic and tragic day from Pulitzer-winning journalist Nicholas Kristof, and his New York Times article from more than two decades earlier. But as the years pass, and less of the younger generations realize the significance of the famous ‘Tank Man‘ image or ‘Statue of Democracy‘, anniversary commemorations remain an important annual reminder for something yet to be be laid to rest. The city of Hong Kong, a special administrative region located to the south of mainland China, has been the site of Tiananmen anniversary commemorations for a few years now, though this year local journalists have come away with photographs that show important variations in this year’s peaceful vigils, including shots of a demonstrator carrying placards saying “Thank you, Hong Kong”

As reporting of the events that commemorate the 24th anniversary still unfold, I would like to draw attention more to the state of Chinese censorship and the online crackdown of anything remotely related to the events back in 1989. According to The Guardian, China’s biggest blogging platform Sino Weibo — the homegrown Chinese variant of Twitter — kicked its censorship platform into overdrive, banning search terms such as ‘today’ ‘tomorrow’ and date references, where numerous combinations of digits and figures bring netizens to dead links and webpages. Such combinations include ’25′ (89 subtract 64), ’10′ (6 + 4), ’17′ (8+9) or ’24′ (twenty-fourth anniversary) — all have become taboo in recent days because of the political sensitivity of the anniversary. Though Hong Kong journalists and netizens are savvy and adopt a range of parody, panache, and perseverance to reference the anniversary, China’s authoritarian Internet censorship regime remains in place and will prevent the government’s power from eroding. Indeed voices of resistance, grief, and frustration on the mainland are largely stifled by what the authorities have put in place online.

Please click here to read the full article at Three Torches.

Filed under: Beijing Consensus, Censorship, Charm Offensive, Chinese Model, Communications, Culture, Democracy, Disaster, Domestic Growth, Government & Policy, Great Firewall, History, Human Rights, Ideology, Influence, Mapping Feelings, Media, Modernisation, Peaceful Development, People, Politics, Population, Public Diplomacy, Reform, Social, Soft Power, Strategy, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), The Chinese Identity, Tiananmen 20th anniversary, Tiananmen security, U.S.

Summit to avoid ‘inevitable’ US-China tensions [The Age] #RisingChina #SinoUS

Torn in a great and powerful friends dilemma, Australia’s strategy to finely leverage both its American and Chinese friendships is a challenging one.

The article below was fed across Aussie broadsheets as it comes from one of two transnational media corporations operating in Australia.

However, great power relations and perceptual tendencies (whether institutionalized, enculturated or indoctrinated) needs a twenty first century update. Using a polarizing and primal set of us and them software to decode meaning in the networked global village – raises the question, what is preventing the update – why are tensions inevitable? By design, consequence or care-lessness?

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Summit to avoid ‘inevitable’ US-China tensions
By Nick O’Malley, US correspondent for Fairfax Media
Source – The Age, published June 6, 2013

The so-called “shirt-sleeves” summit to begin between President Barack Obama and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping at a glamorous estate in California on Friday will be the first of its kind in half a century, a chance for the two great powers to stave off what some fear to be inevitable tensions.

“It harkens back to Nixon and Kissinger and Mao Zedong and Zou Enlai sitting on overstuffed couches late into the night in Beijing discussing the state of the world,” says the US State Department’s former top Asia official, Kurt Campbell.

Those meetings in 1972 began the Chinese-American diplomatic relationship, a relationship that since then has been marked by mutual mistrust, not aided by the rigid formality of meetings between the two leaders.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: Australia, Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, China Dream, Chinese Model, Communications, Culture, East China Sea, Economics, Finance, Government & Policy, Human Rights, Ideology, Influence, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, Media, Modernisation, Nationalism, New Leadership, Peaceful Development, Politics, Public Diplomacy, Resources, Social, Soft Power, Strategy, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), Territorial Disputes, The Age, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Trade, U.S.

BY INVITATION: The slow boat in China is good for the region [Straits Times] #RisingChina #Growth

East Asia Institute professional fellow John Wong with an overview on China’s rejigging of its growth rhetoric and how ASEAN stands to benefit.

China has sustained hyper growth for more than 30 years. This is because it has much greater internal dynamics. A case in point is that only half of China’s population today is urbanised. China may therefore still have plenty of room for expansion in the medium term.

Still, China must also start adjusting to the inevitable transition from double-digit hyper expansion to more sustainable growth levels.

And perhaps quite saliently, this is something many miss – China can afford to do it.

A recent projection by the World Bank shows that China’s average growth through most of this decade will still be around 7 per cent to 8 per cent, easing to 6 per cent or 5 per cent in the 2020s. What is “low growth” for China is actually not low at all by regional and global standards.

Zooming out, while rising China takes a deep breath from hyper growth, it may be an opportune time for ASEAN to gear itself up further. The sustained ideological Sino-US chest beating will continue but it also needs to keep an eye on a multipolar future.

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BY INVITATION: The slow boat in China is good for the region
China’s growth is slowing, in line with long-declared policy to prevent overheating. Asean too will benefit from less competitive pressures in exports and investments.
By John Wong
Source – The Straits Times, published Jun 01, 2013

20130602-050224.jpg
– ST ILLUSTRATION by ADAM LEE

HAVING chalked up 9.9 per cent growth a year for over three decades, China’s economy is showing clear signs of slowing down.

No economy can keep on growing at such a breakneck rate for so long without running into constraints. An economy that has experienced high growth for a prolonged period inevitably slows as its original growth-inducing forces weaken. This is simply a result of the working of the market forces.

China’s slowing growth is not only inevitable; it is a desirable phenomenon, not only for the country, but also for its neighbours.

Please click here to read the full article a the Straits Times.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: ASEAN, Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, China Dream, Chinese Model, Communications, Culture, Domestic Growth, Economics, Environment, Finance, Government & Policy, Ideology, Influence, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, Media, Modernisation, New Leadership, Peaceful Development, Politics, Population, Public Diplomacy, Reform, Resources, Social, Soft Power, South China Sea, Straits Times, Strategy, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), Territorial Disputes, The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Trade, U.S.

8 things about independent Chinese travelers [Affinity China] #RisingChina #OutboundTourism

Affinity China offers a first-hand account that can also be seen as eight resets to update one’s view of the Chine outbound upper crust. As the author states, her time studying in the US was helpful in more than one way during her travels in Europe.

More about Affinity here.

Cue expiring 20th century sepia-toned postcard-themed notions of Chinese travelers?

Bottomline – despite its steady climb the yuan at today’s rates, is still 5-6 yuan to a greenback. It is not hard to quickly extrapolate where Chinese outbound tourists stand in the Chinese food chain. Especially so if they have the means to flaunt it with the Euro.

The luxury market in a way is at the tip of China’s spear to send feelers experimenting with the best the world has to offer. In a positive light, Where they travel, there is a more synergistic transfer of wealth to host country where common language grows to common cultural respect. Over time the good ones too will enculturate the rest of the Chinese demographic.

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8 things you should know about independent Chinese travelers
LIN XU
Source – China Luxury Network, published month n.d, 2013

Tell us how much we are saving when we shop in your store.
Everyone already knows by now that Chinese travelers love shopping for luxury goods when they travel overseas. Everyone also knows by now that this is because retail prices of luxury goods in mainland China are much higher than Europe and North America. Many of my friends from China travel overseas just to shop. They often complain about the complexity and the long wait at the airport to receive tax returns and all the research they have to do on prices in each different market on the globe before they go shop.

It would be a really effective sales tactic if the brand’s sales representatives saved them the trouble of researching and let them learn how smart a purchase they would have made on items in the store – how much lower the prices are, how the styles are exclusive in your store vs. the counterparts in China. Keep the fact sheet handy for the big spenders. I understand that from a global brand perspective this is probably not a standard sales training tactic on how to sell to Chinese travelers, but the fact is they are already going to great lengths to do this research themselves before they walk into your store. From a customer experience perspective, being greeted by friendly sales staff overseas who can share exactly how much the Chinese travelers would be saving by shopping in their store would help generate more short term sales and help create a long term affinity for the brand.

Do you offer a global warranty and customer service in China for products we buy overseas?
If you present yourself as a global brand in China, you need to ensure your customer service is global too. It really becomes an uncomfortable dilemma for the Chinese traveler when they have to choose between a better priced item that is 20% lower overseas but comes with no warranty once they bring it back home or buying the higher priced item in China with a 2-year standard warranty. Again, from a customer standpoint we don’t understand why there should be a difference. Your brand is a global brand to us and therefore the warranty and service you offer should be too. Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: The Chinese Identity, Culture, International Relations, Chinese overseas, Media, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), Mapping Feelings, Internet, Economics, Education, Overseas Chinese, U.S., Social, Finance, Communications, Lifestyle, Food, Domestic Growth, Nationalism, Soft Power, Influence, Population, Chinese Model, Public Diplomacy, Beijing Consensus, Reform, Advertising, Modernisation, Peaceful Development, Europe, Entertainment, Ideology

China Day at Cannes Lions 2013 #RisingChina #Advertising #ChineseMind

11,000 creatives from around the world converge at Cannes Lions in France mid-June this year. On the agenda in the seven-day program? A day devoted to understanding the $53b Chinese market of wish and need fulfillment.

For more, check out the China Day program.

CHINA DAY

20130531-092519.jpg

The advertising sector is one of the fastest growing industries in China; as evidenced in the last few years, which now sees advertising spend in China ranked at number two in the world at $53 billion.

In the last few years we have also seen China flex its muscles in terms of creativity, winning numerous Lions at Cannes including a Press Lions Grand Prix in 2011 and an Outdoor Lions Grand Prix in 2012.

The potential of the market is huge, and the need to understand the market is significant. Cannes Lions, in association with the China Advertising Association, is bringing China Day to the Festival in 2013, which will see some of China’s leading thinkers, thought leaders and experts in creativity, the internet, cultural understanding, and marketing together to present a series of forums on what is really happening in this vast country, with the objective of giving an understanding of how to be part of this exciting opportunity and how to better understand how to engage with the market.Cannes Lion website, 2013

Filed under: Advertising, Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, China Dream, Chinese Model, Communications, Culture, Domestic Growth, Economics, France, Government & Policy, History, Ideology, Influence, International Relations, Lifestyle, Mapping Feelings, Media, Modernisation, Peaceful Development, Public Diplomacy, Social, Soft Power, Strategy, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, Trade

A better way to learn Chinese? [BBC] #RisingChina #LearningChinese

To find consensus through a common language is great, but unmatched by the narrative when two are able to speak the other’s native tongue to comprehend the ideologies behind each other’s world view.

That there is much attention in mastering Chinese is inspiring for the future. The Chinese are still sparing no expense to master English. A return in favor by the global village will be a positive reply.

Apart from committed socialization, perhaps watching Mandarin MTVs (they usually come with lyrics and feature commonly used words and expressions) could be added to the learning repertoire. Have a mental singalong and play mix and match with the lyrics while the visuals provide a useful imprint.

Move up to TV shows next. With reading of Chinese characters upgraded, the semantic toolbox gets pre loaded with familiar symbols.

Just recall scenes from the MTVs for more advanced idioms for instance.

In any case, to treat it as an academic subject is a whole different ball game altogether. The BBC talks about the constructivism underlying Chinese characters and meaning.

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A better way to learn Chinese?
By Philip Ball
Source – BBC, published March 18, 2013

20130529-045431.jpg

There’s been a rising dissatisfaction with current language teaching methods in China, but scientists think they may have an answer.

There’s no way round it: learning Chinese is tough. As far as reading goes, what most dismays native speakers of alphabetic languages is that Chinese characters offer so few clues. With virtually no Spanish, I can figure out in the right context that baño means bath, but that word in Chinese (洗澡) seems to offer no clues about pronunciation, let alone meaning.

There seems no alternative, then, but to slavishly learn the 3,500 or so characters that account for at least 99% of use in written Chinese. This is hard even for native Chinese speakers, usually demanding endless rote copying in school. And even then, it is far more common than is often admitted for Chinese people to forget even quite routine characters, such as 钥匙 (key). As a result, there’s been a rising dissatisfaction with current language teaching methods in China in recent years.

Is there a better way? Physicist Jinshan Wu of Beijing Normal University, a specialist in the new mathematical science of network theory, and colleagues have investigated the structural relationships between Chinese characters to develop a learning strategy that exploits these connections.

Please click here to read the full article at the BBC.

Read the rest of this entry »

Filed under: BBC, Beijing Consensus, Charm Offensive, China Dream, Chinese Model, Communications, Culture, History, Ideology, Influence, International Relations, Mapping Feelings, Media, Modernisation, Peaceful Development, People, Public Diplomacy, Research, Science, Social, Soft Power, Strategy, Tao Guang Yang Hui (韬光养晦), The Chinese Identity, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities, U.K.

New licensing scheme for news websites that reach 50,000 people a month [Straits Times] #Singapore #IntelligentNation2015

So with all the high speed cables promising high-speed connectivity due international envy, gate keeping was optimistically kept low key in public headspace.

This happening then, was a matter of when.

It may affect only those with a set amount of visitors, but it also means a broader range of hotbeds for public opinion have to toe some kind of line. Even those out in the fringes. Especially and traditionally more so for those in the power centre.

Singapore’s clockwork orange narrative thus extends to the digital frontier as it sets new standards in agenda setting reach. The image of a relatively harmonious and compliant workforce continues into the knowledge economy, now rubber stamped and enforceable by policy.

It seems increasingly to look like this – an overarching climate that says the tree is growing rapidly to adapt to global changes already, don’t try to shake it, too much. Public opinion online is more and more privilege to be taken with trepidation.

This, perhaps is the big reveal for their Intelligent Nation 2015 masterplan. Or a sudden jam brake. One of its big goals? 90% of the population on broadband. However, this happens at a time of its first strike alongside two public demonstrations, both a first in living memory. Last time it happened during its adolescent years as a nation the government struck down hard. As a young adult now, if you excuse the analogy, it will find it extremely hard to shake off the memories of those formative years.

Leave no stone unturned, and this might be a message that resonates with the Chinese.

Further reading – [PDF] REALISING THE iN2015 VISION – iDA, 2009

And

iN2015 Masterplan – An Intelligent Nation, A Global City

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20130529-051742.jpg

New licensing scheme for news websites that reach 50,000 people a month
By Tessa Wong
Source – Straits Times, published May 28, 2013

From June 1, websites that regularly report Singapore news and have significant reach will require individual licences to operate.

Currently, most websites are covered automatically under a class licence scheme. But the Media Development Authority (MDA) will require websites to be individually licensed once they meet two criteria.

These are: if they report an average of at least one article per week on Singapore’s news and current affairs over a period of two months, and have at least 50,000 unique visitors from Singapore each month over a period of two months. The individual licenses have to be renewed every year.

Under the new framework, these sites must also put up a performance bond of $50,000, similar to that required for niche TV broadcasters.

Announcing the ruling on Tuesday, the MDA said the move would place such sites on a “more consistent regulatory framework” with traditional news platforms like newspapers and television stations, which are individually licensed.

The licence makes clear that online news sites are expected to remove content that is in breach of MDA standards within 24 hours, once notified to do so.

This material could cover content that is against the public interest, public security, or national harmony.

When the MDA deems that a site has met the criteria for individual licensing, it will issue a formal notification and work with the site to move it to the new framework.

Ten sites currently fit the media regulator’s criteria, of which seven are run by Singapore Press Holdings.

The 10 are: straitstimes.com, asiaone.com, businesstimes.com.sg, omy.sg, stomp.com.sg, tnp.sg, zaobao.com as well as the sites for Today newspaper, ChannelNewsAsia and Yahoo News.

Filed under: Charm Offensive, Communications, Culture, Democracy, Domestic Growth, Education, Ideology, Influence, International Relations, Internet, Mapping Feelings, Media, Nationalism, Peaceful Development, People, Politics, Population, Public Diplomacy, Singapore, Social, Soft Power, Strategy, The construction of Chinese and Non-Chinese identities

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