China

Developer reaffirms plan to finish world's tallest building in 90 days

A 220-story Sky City tower in the Chinese city of Changsha could take the crown as the world's tallest skyscraper next March with an astounding height of 2,749 feet, edging out the mega Burj Khalifa that currently stands 2,722 feet over Dubai.

What makes the 11-million-square-foot Sky City so astonishing isn't its height or its appearance but rather the three-month construction plan to create the building that kicks off at the end of the year. Broad Group -- the company responsible for assembling the skyscraper -- plans to achieve these insane building speeds by using 95 percent prefabricated modular pieces that are sort of similar to a giant Lego set to construct the building. … Read more

China cyber-espionage threatens U.S., advisory group warns

Congress needs to take action to deflect the growing threat of Chinese cyber-espionage against the U.S., a U.S. commission recommends in a new report.

Released today, the 500-page annual report to Congress by the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission details various security issues concerning China. But the commission expressed particular fear over the country's ongoing cyberwarfare efforts.

Calling China the "most threatening actor in cyberspace," the report found that in 2012, Chinese state-sponsored hackers continued to target computers systems run by the U.S. government and military as well those maintained in … Read more

Apple appeals Chinese ruling over encyclopedia infringement

Apple has filed an appeal after a Chinese court ruled that the company is responsible for an app that contained pirated material.

The tech giant lost a case brought to court by China Publishing House, which claimed that Apple infringed copyright protection by allowing the sale of an app containing large sections of "Encyclopedia of China" without the publishing house's consent.

The iPhone and iPad-compatible app can be downloaded from Apple's App Store.

In September, a Chinese court ordered Apple to pay compensation of 520,000 yuan, which is roughly $83,000.

First reported by the … Read more

Tibetans send China a message, 'Gangnam' style

Tensions have escalated between China and Tibet as the country's government prepares for its once-in-a-decade change in leadership. New protests by Tibetans have included a string of self-immolations that have drawn international attention.

While the protests are serious, Tibetans in Dharamsala, India -- home of the Dalai Lama and the Tibetan leadership in exile -- are also taking a more lighthearted approach to protesting China's long-contested and often brutal rule over the Tibetan Autonomous Region.… Read more

Nexus 7 explodes in China, Asus runs to rescue

The Nexus 7 has been one of the smokin' hot tablets of 2012, and unfortunately for one user in China, that was literally the case.

The user posted the photo above to a forum on Baidu (China's home-grown answer to Google), claiming that the device began smoking while plugged in and charging on its original factory charger. In the process, the guts of the tablet seem to have been totally torched.… Read more

Google access restored in China, says report

Google, Gmail, and other Google services seem to be accessible again in China this morning, according to a report, after an outage that coincided with the start of the once-a-decade meeting to appoint a new Communist government.

Access to the services returned after 6 a.m. local time, after an approximately 12-hour outage, according to IDC News Service, which cited Google's Transparency Report, along with confirmation from GreatFire.org, a group that monitors Internet censorship in China.

Early yesterday, California time, data provided by Google's Transparency Report showed a sharp drop off in traffic to Google's Web sites … Read more

Google disrupted in China, once again

Google has experienced a precipitous drop in traffic from China, which a Web-monitoring group attributed to the search engine being "blocked" by the government.

Data provided by Google's Transparency Report shows a sharp drop off in traffic -- to roughly half the normal amount -- to Google's Web sites as of early this morning California time.

GreatFire.org, which performs real-time monitoring, suggested that the drop meant the Chinese government is "one step closer to fully separating the Chinanet from the Internet."

It wasn't immediately clear whether the block was intended to be … Read more

China Telecom snags iPhone 5 for late 2012 launch

China Telecom, that country's third-largest carrier, will start offering the iPhone 5 soon.

Apple's iPhone 5 is currently not available in China, but has been rumored to be coming to China Telecom for some time. According to the Wall Street Journal, which interviewed China Telecom chairman Wang Xiaochu today, the carrier will start selling Apple's handset in late November or early December.

China Telecom's competitor, China Unicom, announced in September that it too would be selling the iPhone 5. That company said that it would make the handset available around the end of the year. According … Read more

Apple falls out of China's top 5 smartphone makers

Apple dropped off the top five smartphone vendors in China in the third quarter, edged out by local low-cost smartphone player Yulong Computer Telecommunication Scientific, which made its debut at third place.

Citing research from Canalys, a Computerworld article yesterday reported that Apple had dropped out of its fifth placing to sixth during the third quarter. Apple's shipment share in the Chinese smartphone market dropped to 8 percent, from 9 percent in the previous quarter.

Samsung remained the top smartphone vendor in China with 14 percent share in terms of shipment, while Lenovo held on to second with 13 … Read more