Archive for March, 2009

Chinese Cyber Espionage Exposed

Posted on March 31st, 2009

In what will come as no surprise to many the Information War Monitor has exposed a Chinese hacking group (the so called GhostNet) who had infiltrated over 1000 computers in over 100 countries, 30% of which were considered to be “high-value” targets (i.e. belonging to government agencies, international organisations etc.). Perhaps most telling were the number of foreign embassy’s infected and possible targeting of Taiwan and the Dalai Lama in particular. The Trojan horse program, typically spread through email attachments, gave the attackers complete control of the infected computers allowing them search and download files, log keystrokes, and control attached devices such as webcams or microphones. Command servers were identified and traced to be in mainland China (Hainan, Guangdong, Sichuan and Jiangsu) as well…

World Connectivity Rankings

Posted on March 27th, 2009

A study conducted by Professor Leonard Waverman (London Business School), commissioned by Nokia Siemens Networks, has recently released their results which ranks the current connectivity levels of 50 countries by analysing the impact of ICT (Information and Communications Technology) on economic growth. While I’m not personally particularly interested in economics the report has produced some interesting findings by looking at usage, skills, and infrastructure across consumer, business, and government sectors. These were then weighted according to their respective contribution to utility and productivity. Although this is essentially a collection of different metrics it differs from previous studies which only looked at infrastructure. Probably the biggest surprise was that the USA came out at the top of the list as, even though its consumer broadband penetration is average,…

Facial Structure Recognition

Posted on March 25th, 2009

Here’s a somewhat controversial question (depending on who you ask it to): Can you tell someone’s “race” by looking at their facial structure? That is to say could you tell the difference between, for example, a native Japanese / Korean / Chinese person just by looking at their face? race – n. A local geographic or global human population distinguished as a distinct group by genetically transmitted physical characteristics. A group of people united or classified together on the basis of common history, nationality, or geographic distribution. This is a question which I’ve found occasionally comes up in conversation with both Asian and non-Asian friends and I’ve never heard a definitive answer. To the latter group Asians generally tend to “look the same” (which will…

Chinese Economic Crisis Comics

Posted on March 23rd, 2009

The world economic crisis created in America is having knock-on effects around the world. As people in the west stop spending so the demand for manufactured goods from China is slowing down putting millions of migrant factory workers out of work.While the government does it’s best to keep the lid on free speech which might insight civil unrest the people still find other forms of expression to vent their feelings and resist censorship (known locally as “harmonization“) through the use of allegory, puns and seemingly innocent comics or videos. The following comics appeared in my inbox today humorously depicting the every-day impact of the economic crisis and how people have reacted in China (which some friends helped me translate). Each should be read from top to bottom…

Conghua Shimen Forest Park

Posted on March 22nd, 2009

Yesterday, much against my better nature for a Saturday morning, I got up at the crack of dawn and joined my company’s photography group on a trip to Conghua Shimen National Forest Park, located about 1.5 hours north-east of Guangzhou and approx 3 hours from Shenzhen. Conghua is known as the “oasis” of the Tropic of Cancer with 68% forest cover and over 300 lakes and 180,000 acres of green mountains. As we left behind the metropolis, driving in convoy, the winding roads took us though small farming villages where life is a much simpler affair and people exist in a style which has not changed significantly over the past half century. We had come to see the blooming of the oilseed rape flower…

Planet Samsung

Posted on March 17th, 2009

With North Korea increasingly sabre rattling and relations with the south breaking down under South Korean President Lee Myung-bak’s conservative hard-line approach things are becoming increasingly tense along the 38th parallel, the most heavily fortified border in the world. Combined with the north effectively being allied with China and the south being allied with the US things could get messy very quickly if there is any further escalation. Whilst there is propaganda on both sides it’s only in the north that you will still find the same type of turgid Soviet-esq Socialist Realism that one might expect from such a repressive regime. No clearer is this illustrated than in the advertisements which permeate everyday life in one of the only forms of artistic expression…

Chinese Guerilla Advertising

Posted on March 13th, 2009

In China a lot of business is done below the radar in the informal sector but while these businesses may be faceless their advertising is not. Littering the pavements and walls of almost anywhere you go you’ll find gazillions of stickers and stencilled signs bearing mobile phone numbers with a short description of the services offered. Most are borderline if not downright illegal. The government employ people full time just to try and clean them off but its an impossible and endless task. A quick perusal of some in my local vicinity with someone to help translate turned up the following services: Locksmith Fake certificates Resident permit Plumber Fake ID card Loans Exam papers Backstreet clinics …and other unmentionable things Many of these activities…

Shanghai Insect Market

Posted on March 11th, 2009

Whilst wandering around Shanghai Old Town last month I came across this curious market selling all manor of creepy crawlies and other things you’d probably not want to get too close to! In fact the market sells a variety of flowers, birds, fish and insect’s as well as all the paraphernalia needed for keeping them (although don’t expect animal rights to be very high up on anyone’s agenda here). Baby turtles by the dozen. They go nicely sautéed with birds nest soup I hear… Looking at these bird cages I was reminded of Chinese apartment blocks. If you can put up with their incessant chirping apparently crickets make very good low-maintenance pets – all they need is a few fresh grubs each day! In…

Chinese Web 2.0 Clones

Posted on March 8th, 2009

Many western web companies have struggled to gain traction into the Chinese market (or ignored it completely) as most Chinese internet users tend to stick to home-grown services which are better localised for their needs and faster as they can be hosted within the country. Added to this the complexity of complying with local laws (i.e. censorship) makes China an unattractive proposition for many foreign startups. Having said this if imitation is the sincerest form of flattery then China is certainly flattering a lot of people and you would be forgiven for thinking that a lot of local start-ups were simply Chinese versions of their western counterparts such is the extent of their similarity. Here I’ve taken a quick look at six of the…

Shenzhen Land Reclamation

Posted on March 3rd, 2009

Today I was looking for my apartment on Google Maps (like you do) since hearing that they recently did a massive imagery update and noticed something curious about the the images for Shenzhen at different magnifications: 12x Zoom: 13x Zoom: You’ll notice that the images have some striking differences, especially in the highlighted areas which show massive land reclamation (the creation of new land where there was once water) and the addition of a bridge linking Shenzhen Bay to Hong Kong. Clearly the higher magnification imagery is newer but what’s more interesting is the massive rate at which the land mass is being expanded. This sort of environmental engineering has a huge impact on the social, economic, and physical environment with one of the most…

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