CHINA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LAW NEWSLETTER
Vol. 2, No. 4 -February 19, 2001
TOPICS THIS ISSUE:
- China Determined to Implement Online Commerce
- Trade Between China and Japan Rises by Nearly 30 Percent
- DMC Stratex Inks Deal with China Unicom
- Lucent Sells Equipment to China Education and Research Net
- Report on China's Telecommunications System
- Major Cable Connecting China and US Fails
- Shanghai Prepares for APEC Annual Meeting
China Determined to Implement Online Commerce
Chinese trade officials have announced Beijing's intention to promote e-commerce in the country by establishing a secure environment for online transactions.
Officials at the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC) predicted that upwards of 70 percent of Chinese foreign trade companies will be able to conduct business transactions over the Internet by 2005, and announced that China has developed a security authentication system for the country's e-commerce infrastructure.
China's information infrastructure is rapidly developing and will soon make electronic business possible in the more developed areas.
In the past five years, China has invested RMB 800 billion (USD 96.6 billion) in its telecommunications infrastructure. China now has the world's second largest telecommunications network.
(Source: Agence France Presse)
Trade Between China and Japan Rises by Nearly 30 Percent
The Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), has announced that Japan's trade with China grew 29.5% on the year, to USD 85.77 billion in 2000.
The value of both exports and imports reached record highs for the second straight year.
Imports from China to Japan of office equipment, low-end computers and computer peripherals climbed 77.6%.
Exports from Japan to China increased 30.4% from 1999. The ever-increasing demand in China for information technology, mobile telephones and high-end personal computers contributed to the rise.
China's mobile phone users doubled last year, with 6.7 per cent of Chinese now having their own cell phones, according to statistics provided by China's Ministry of Information Industry (MII).
(Source: Asia Pulse, China Daily)
DMC Stratex Inks Deal with China Unicom
DMC Stratex Networks, a provider of cellular applications and broadband wireless access, recently announced it has received contracts of nearly USD 10 million to supply high-capacity wireless equipment for cellular network infrastructure to China Unicom.
DMC obtained the contracts in partnership with PTIC Capital Group (Beijing Telecommunications Equipment Factory), a manufacturer of telecommunications products.
China Unicom is one of the largest cellular telecommunications service providers in China. China Unicom offers its clients a wide range of services, such as cellular, paging, long distance and Internet services. It will utilize DMC's products to interconnect its base stations in its GSM networks in several Chinese provinces, including Guangdong, Guangxi, Jilin, Hebei, Yunnan, Shaanxi and Ningxia.
(Source: PR Newswire)
Computer Law Association
The Computer Law Association (CLA) is one of the world's largest IT law organizations with more than 2,300 individual members. It is a nonprofit informational resource group for those interested in learning more about the Internet and IT law. The CLA organizes seminars and conferences, and offers world-class publications with IT news and articles. For more information, contact Dr. William A. Wright, a senior attorney at Lehman, Lee & Xu who is active in CLA at wwright@chinalaw.cc or visit the CLA website at www.cla.org.
Lucent Sells Equipment to China Education and Research Net
Lucent Technologies has announced a deal to build an optical backbone network for the China Education and Research Network (CERNET). The deal totals USD 17.4 million. This new network will significantly increase CERNET's transmission capacity and enable it to offer new bandwidth-intensive data services.
CERNET is a national education and research network, constructed by China's Ministry of Education, in conjunction with China's top universities. The CERNET network serves more than 750 education and research institutions across the country. Over the past 6 years, CERNET has been developed into one of the most significant information systems in China. It is quickly becoming a symbol of China's information industry development drive.
Lucent is providing CERNET with a dense wave division multiplexing (DWDM) system with enough capacity to send 40 gigabits per second across a single fiber. CERNET will also receive an optical multiplexer that enables carriers to use synchronous digital hierarchy (SDH) technology to set up optical network rings.
(Source: Business Wire)
Report on China's Telecommunications System
Minister of Information Industry Wu Jichuan opened the APEC symposium this past weekend in Beijing by providing an update on China's telecommunication and information networks. The symposium focused on e-commerce and paperless trading.
Wu said China has recently acquired many new technologies such as optical fiber, digital microwave, satellite communication, mobile telecommunications and data communication.
More than 50 officials, entrepreneurs and professionals from 20 members of the 21-member APEC delivered speeches at the symposium on issues involving law, network security, human resources development, infrastructure construction and protection of intellectual property rights.
Wu announced a 16-fold increase in the rate of China's backbone network and a 100-fold increase in bandwidth in the past year. National telecommunication systems have been created in finance, trade, customs and taxation.
(Source: BBC Worldwide Monitoring)
Major Cable Connecting China and US Fails
A major telecommunications cable running underwater between China and the United States was severed near Japan, cutting Internet access of websites based in the US to millions in the Asia-pacific region.
Reports have surfaced blaming the trouble on a fishing boat, which may have inadvertently cut the cable.
Nippon Telephone and Telegraph is presently trying to repair the cable.
Millions of Internet users in mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Singapore were affected by the cut in services, with Taiwan and the mainland hardest hit.
Much is often made of China's drive to reach international standards in its telecommunications and information networks. The massive results of a single cable failing show exactly how far that development must go. That a single cable connects the largest single economy in the world with what will undoubtedly become the second largest single economy is noteworthy, if not alarming.
Over the next 2 decades, China will continue to upgrade its telecommunication and information network facilities, eventually installing enough satellite receivers so that reliance on underwater cables will not be necessary.
That huge development is only the tip of the iceberg, however, as China is only now establishing a strong telecommunications network within the country. While cities on the eastern seaboard enjoy mobile phone technology, and will soon have 3G WAP technology, outside of these cities even basic phone service is spotty, although improving. Only approximately 20 percent of Chinese nationals have telephones.
The task ahead is daunting. China suffers from a lack of capital and does not have strong institutions to provide the backing to allow small businesses to assist in this development. Hence, the burden is almost solely on the government to allocate enough resources to the telecommunications and information sectors.
(Source: Muzi.com, China Daily, South China Morning Post)
Shanghai Prepares for APEC Annual Meeting
Shanghai, this year's host of the annual Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) informal leadership meeting, is quickly preparing for the meeting, scheduled for October of this year.
Local government departments have begun to set up organizations relating to the meeting, in which the leaders of the 21 APEC members are expected to gather together.
Efforts have been put in place to train staff, build and renovate facilities, and improve the city's infrastructure and environment.
Shanghai will be able to provide good communication services for participants, including ADSL access, call center and video-conferencing systems.
The training is aimed at providing a qualified volunteer team of about 10 thousand people.
APEC has become one of the most important economic cooperation bodies in the Asia-Pacific region and the world as a whole.
Promoting the liberalization of trade and investment and encouraging economic and technological cooperation have become the two major tasks of the regional economic body.
APEC now includes Australia, Brunei, Canada, Chile, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Peru, The Philippines, Russia, Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, the United States and Vietnam.
(Source: People's Daily)
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