Post(s) tagged with "China"
China emerges as new force in drone warfare - CBS News
China’s move into large-scale drone deployment displays its military’s growing sophistication and could challenge U.S. military dominance in the Asia-Pacific. It also could elevate the threat to neighbors with territorial disputes with Beijing, including Vietnam, Japan, India and the Philippines. China says its drones are capable of carrying bombs and missiles as well as conducting reconnaissance, potentially turning them into offensive weapons in a border conflict.
China’s increased use of drones also adds to concerns about the lack of internationally recognized standards for drone attacks. The United States has widely employed drones as a means of eliminating terror suspects in Pakistan and the Arabian Peninsula.
Source: cbsnews.com
f reports from the Hong Kong press and China’s blogosphere are correct, a remarkable upset has occurred on the eve of the ten-year power shift next week — the greatest turn-over of top cadres since Mao’s revolution.
The South China Morning Post says the new line-up of the Politburo’s Standing Committee is “packed with conservatives”. The succession deal agreed over the summer has been scuppered.
The 86-year Mr Jiang — who rose to supreme leader on the bones of Muxidi and Tiananmen in 1989 — has placed his accolytes in charge of the economy, propaganda, as well as the Shanghai party machine.
The hardliners seem poised to snatch control of the seven-man Committee, tying the hands of incoming president Xi Xinping and premier Li Keqiang. If confirmed, long-term investors may have to rethink their core assumption about the future course of China.
Full Story: The Telegraph
Some interesting insights and numbers
- The two countries will have nearly 1 billion middle class consumers by 2020
- Billionaires are rising. In 2001, China had 1 billionaire and India had 4. There are 115 billionaires in China and 55 in India now.
- The two markets will give rise to some of the worlds most powerful companies.
- About 83 million Chinese and 54 million Indians will become college graduates over the next 10 years.
(via Indian and China $ 10 trillion prize: BCG)
Source: pluggd.in
Rich Chinese flee
Rich folks in China simply want to leave the country.
That is not news. A survey did point this out more than a year ago, and survey after survey is pointing to the same conclusion. And they are going everywhere, sometimes to places that we have not heard of, like Prince Edward Island, not to mention other more popular destinations, like Vancouver, Australia, or… whatever…
Full Story: Macrobusiness
China: witnessing the birth of a superpower
Jonathan Watts, guardian.co.ukAs he prepares to leave after almost a decade reporting from China, our reporter reflects on his ringside seat watching a developing country transform itself
When I moved to Beijing in August 2003, I believed I had the best job in the world:…
Interesting overview of China the last 9 years of development!
A recent study found that a U.S. military chip manufactured in Chinawidely used in systems for weapons, nuclear power plants, and public transportcontains a built-in backdoor that allows the Chinese regime access to critical U.S.…
Note that even if this is not true, the effects of such rumors might cause enormous effects on the global security agenda, which in turn might affect a lot of other things…
The Forbidden City has—at least to Western eyes— been shrouded in mystery over the course of its almost-600-year history, and the headlines it’s making today tell a classic tale, not only of East meeting West, but of Old meeting New. It turns out, the Forbidden City is about to undergo an extreme home makeover of monumental proportions but, instead of construction crews, the renovators will be using 3D printers.
This is yet another symbolic push in favor of the 3D technology - another technology which seems to be sneeking up on the world, not from the traditional business and industrial logic, but from the crafts area as well as from the bottom-up DIY/innovation world. It seems somewhat similar to how the Internet early on was ignored by the businesses but grew exponentially in a world of connected hackers and enthusiasts.
More smartphones now sold in China than in U.S. — Mobile Technology News
Smartphone adoption may be high in the U.S. but overall smartphone sales are highest in China. A new research note published by Strategy Analytics on Wednesday estimates that 23.9 million smartphones shipped in China during the third quarter of 2011. That figure is slightly above the 23.3 million smartphones shipped in the U.S.
Clearly, China’s much larger population is part of the reason, but this data suggests that in a country with 1.3 billion people, China is where it’s at for smartphone sales growth going forward. If the smartphone numbers aren’t convincing, consider that China is expected to surpass 1 billion mobile connections by May, 2012.
Source: gigaom.com
Self-publishing: it’s exploding in popularity, we all know that, with self-published authors selling millions via Amazon’s Kindle, pushing traditionally published authors out of the top spots on new ebook charts, etc etc. But did you know that self-publishing websites are attracting more than 40% of all China’s internet users every month? I didn’t, and I am reeling, a little, from the statistic.
These aren’t Authonomy-esque, publish-and-be-encouraged-by-fellow-writers sorts of sites, though, or even collections of self-published novels. The websites host what is being dubbed “freemium” publishing. Publishing Perspectives has more details: a growing number of self-publishing websites host thousands of free-to-read web serials – anything from historical epics to sci-fi – posted by their authors. As a serial gathers critical mass, the author is invited to become a “VIP”, and readers have to pay for the new instalments – only a few yuan, but these micropayments from readers can number in the millions: China Daily reports that one author, the 26-year-old Huang Wei, makes more than more than Y1m a year (£100,000).
“It’s pure entertainment, written, downloaded, read and deleted all at top speed,” says Beijing-based literary translator and publishing consultant Eric Abrahamsen, who also writes for the Chinese publishing industry newsletter Paper Republic. “Basically all of this writing is genre fiction. It is produced by young writers and aimed at young readers.”
» via The Guardian
Considering the global impact of any innovation anywhere on the planet it is important to keep track of these kind of seemingly odd phenomena. Who knows where this idea will spread tomorrow…
Super Girl, China’s version of Pop Idol, is to be dropped from television schedules in spite of attracting 400m viewers at its peak, following government pressure on a programme that some officials saw as subversive because the audience voting too closely represented Western-style democracy.
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P A Martin Börjesson
To be able to see the future emerge we have to throw a wide net to catch the weak signals. In this tumble I collect things I find valuable for my work as scenario planner, strategist and futurist - for more info about me go to www.futuramb.se.
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