China

SAN FRANCISCO--Wearing T-shirts reading "Free Tibet," hundreds of protesters raised their fists here Tuesday to protest the Beijing Olympic torch relay's arrival to the city. Most were from the Bay Area, but some came all the way from New York and Canada to mark their opposition to the Chinese government's plans to carry the torch through Tibet and to the summit of Mount Everest.

SF Team Tibet, a coalition of Tibetans and human-rights supporters that organized the event, is calling on corporate Olympic sponsors Samsung, Lenovo, and Coca-Cola to withdraw their support of the torch relay. … Read more

The World Cyber Games, probably the largest global video game tournament, announced Tuesday that it will hold the grand finale of its 2009 event in Chengdu, China.

The 2007 tournament was held in Seattle, while the 2008 final will be held in Cologne, Germany, this November. But that has been known for some time.

The news about the 2009 event is notable because it adds credibility to China as a home for serious video game playing and players. The news comes shortly after the Championship Gaming Series--a professional video game league--announced that it would be opening a training facility and … Read more

Chinese-language search engine Baidu has an unusual new mascot atop its home page: U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

A cartoon version of Obama is depicted next to a donkey, the Democratic party emblem. He's holding a net as though casting it, and attached to the end of the net is a computer mouse--get it? It's the Internet.

This is part of a "person of the month" feature that Baidu has instituted since November, the blog Shanghaiist explains. Each month, Baidu selects a real-life or fictional personality who has ranked high in its search queries. … Read more

Chipmaker Intel has doubled down on China, announcing Tuesday that it has launched its second venture capital fund for the region.

Intel Capital China Technology Fund II is a $500 million fund that will focus on investments in start-ups doing work in areas such as wireless broadband, media, telecommunications, and "clean technology."

Over the past five years, the Chinese government has been trying to promote innovationand is working on developing a Nasdaq-like market for young companies.

"Given the success of the original China Fund--with investments in more than 28 companies--it is time to renew our commitment," … Read more

This blog is often faced with the question of whether to post methods of accessing sites that are inaccessible from China because of government controls. I want to turn the question to readers, who I hope will have some opinions. Help me decide whether to reinstate a workaround for Chinese Wikipedia.

The argument for posting: I tend to believe it would be selfish to keep circumvention methods to myself when others who are less habitually engaged with technology news would also appreciate a way around the blocks. For instance, before the BBC News site was unblocked, I posted information on … Read more

Commenter htchien points out that Chinese users can now reach the Chinese-language Wikipedia through the site's SSL-encrypted gateway.

The standard site, zh.wikipedia.org, is still blocked. (The URL I thought led there, cn.wikipedia.org, sent me to Yahoo China last time I tried.) But for now at least, the secure URL is functional and could open the big wiki to more participation from China.

Htchein is Ted (Hsiang-Tai) Chien, who lists a position as Secretary of Wikimedia Taiwan.

UPDATE: At Ted Chien's request, I have (at least temporarily) removed the secure URL from this post. His … Read more

I just returned from a trip to Shanghai, and in case you didn't know anyway, here's my No. 1 insight: China scales.

Let's take QQ.com as an example, the leading Chinese online social network. The site is reported to have more than 300 million active accounts. That is eight times the member base of Facebook--and it's the same size as the U.S. population.

What's also remarkable (and different from the Western social networks) is QQ's monetization. Facebook posted revenue of $150 million for 2007 (and according to Plus8star a loss of $50 million); … Read more

WASHINGTON--The last time Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang was called from Silicon Valley to the nation's capital, politicians lambasted him as a moral "pygmy" and subjected him to multiple hours of grilling about the company's role in the conviction of a Chinese cyberdissident.

But in a dim, historic library on Georgetown University's campus here on Thursday afternoon, the portal's chief executive was a guest of honor--or, as university President John DeGioia put it, "an individual of such great distinction...someone who deeply understands the importance of scholarship to the advancement of society."

Yang … Read more

I just got done mentioning how hard it is for me to fully participate in Wikipedia from China. But English-language Wikipedia is suddenly accessible tonight from Beijing.

Obviously, Chinese officials read this blog and care very much about my opinions. (Blogspot's available too, but I didn' t ask for that. So whatever.)

I can't say I discovered this on my own. Danwei's "Net Nanny" post tipped me off.

I can confirm that both Wikipedia and Blogspot work from my connection and that this will make my life easier.

But as Danwei, the Chinese media and … Read more