CHINA INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY LAW NEWSLETTER
Vol. 3, No. 7 - June 17, 2002
TOPICS THIS ISSUE:
- Lawsuits Against 263.net
- Merger of Panda Electronics Group Co. with Eight Others
- China Will Launch A National Enterprise Information Quotient ("EIQ") to Promote IT Applications in Business
- Foreigners' Court Cases Accessible on Web in China
- Navy Officer Arrested for Spying
- State Initiates US$12b Government Spending Plan
- Remarkable Change is Hallmark of China and IT Industry
China Litigation and Arbitration
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Lawsuits Against 263.net
The 263.net provider, which has registered some 20 million e-mail users, was the first Chinese website to provide free e-mail service in 1999. However, it started to charge e-mail users on May 21, promising to offer safer and upgraded services for paid-up mail users. This decision aroused strong complaints among users, resulting in many users giving up their e-mail accounts previously registered with the provider.
Four days after 263.net announced that it would charge its email users, a lawsuit against 263.net was filed at the People's Court of Chaoyang District in Beijing. However, the court said that the lawsuit was withdrawn because the 263.net Group is not a qualified legal person.
Notwithstanding the above, 263.net is likely to face further litigation since another lawsuit has been filed against it recently.
China had more than 30 million Internet users at the end of 2001. Official statistics show that for every user, there are 2.2 e-mail accounts and 6.8 items of mail sent out every day.
(Source: Beijing Youth Daily)
Merger of Panda Electronics Group Co. with Eight Others
Panda Electronics Group Co. announced that it would merge with eight other companies to form China's third-largest electronics manufacturer, as part of a government effort to make domestic companies more competitive after China's entry into WTO.
According an official at the Nanjing-based Panda Group, they are in the process of completing the deal. They believe that after the merger, Panda Electronics Group Co. shall be more competitive and shall become more profitable.
Panda Electronics is the parent company of the publicly-traded Nanjing Panda Electronics Co., which used to be a television manufacturing company and became a telephone equipment manufacturer in its cooperation with the telecommunications giant, Ericsson AB.
The takeover, which was ordered by the Jiangsu provincial government, will give Panda Group combined assets of 20 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion). The new company is expected to have annual sales of 55.5 billion yuan by 2005, surpassing personal computer manufacturer Legend Group Ltd.
According to Shi Qiusheng, the board secretary of the listed firm, the merger will include all Panda subsidiaries, including Panda Electronics and Ericsson Panda Communication Co., Listed Panda Electronics, China's fifth-largest manufacturer of mobile phones, satellite communications equipment and other electronic products.
The eight companies include DVD maker Jianggui Co., Nanjing Mechanics Industry Group, and Huafei Color Display System Co.
(Source: North Asia News)
China Will Launch A National Enterprise Information Quotient ("EIQ") to Promote IT Applications in Business
The EIQ, an index to measure the application level of information technology among enterprises, will be used for ranking the top 100 electronic companies beginning from next year.
"We are collecting opinions from governmental departments, experts and enterprises on the composition of indices that can be adopted in the system and the preliminary survey will soon start," Jiang Qiping, deputy director of the National Information Evaluation Center, said recently in a forum promoting EIQ.
He said the key indices will be set this year and surveys in some pilot enterprises will also be finished.
While the national organization is still studying the way to conduct EIQ evaluations, local governments have begun to put it into practice on a trial basis.
Yu Xuelin, deputy director of the information working office of the Tianjin Municipality said that Tianjin had selected 20 enterprises to conduct a survey on the scale of IT applications in their operations and management.
The municipality will expand the survey from 300 to 500 manufacturing businesses soon and will eventually include all enterprises in the city. Enterprises also placed high hopes on the establishment of a national EIQ system. "The release of EIQ will provide us with a good source to judge the potential of our market," said Arthur Chang, managing director of U.S. domain name registry provider VeriSign's Asia Pacific operations.
(Source: People's Daily)
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Foreigners' Court Cases Accessible on Web in China
China's first website dealing with trials in commercial and maritime affairs lawsuits involving foreigners, www.court.gov.cn, is now online. This is sponsored by the No. 4 court of the Supreme People's Court. The website bulletins give notices of trials in local courts in Shanghai, Shandong, Fujian, and Guangzhou. Written judgments of courts in Beijing, Guangdong and Shanghai are also posted on the website.
Translations in traditional Chinese characters and English are also available.
The website enables the world to learn about judicial trials involving foreigners in China; this is one of the measures adopted by China to comply with the WTO transparency principle. "This means the transparency rule of the WTO will be guaranteed," said a court spokesman. He acknowledged that global access to the website's announcement of written judgements could exert pressure on courts to improve the quality of trials. This will help to put pressure on the judges to improve themselves and eventually help China to improve the legal system and law enforcement.
(Source: China Law)
Navy Officer Arrested for Spying
A Taiwan Navy officer, Liu Yueh-lung, was arrested recently for allegedly leaking confidential military information to China via the Internet, the Taiwan defense ministry said in a recent report. Liu was accused of collecting pictures of Taiwan's warships and military base facilities for China after two years of investigation.
(Source: Taipei,China Times )
State Initiates US$12b Government Spending Plan
China will make a government procurement of 100 billion yuan (US$12billion) this year, almost doubling last year's figure.
The money will largely go to domestic enterprises in order to stimulate their development. To stimulate domestic demand, the purchase will offer preferential policies to domestic enterprises, especially in the software sector.
"Software for governmental use is essential for a nation's security," said Zhang Hanlin, director of the WTO Research Center under the University of International Business and Economics ("UIBE"). Further, Zhang Hanlin also said, "A company's credit is more important than the price itself. Besides, China's software sector is in desperate need of governmental support. The government has to use domestic products, so as to influence its people to use them."
Statistics indicate that the Chinese Government will spend 20 billion yuan (US$2.4 billion) on information technology products this year.
(Source: China Daily)
Remarkable Change is Hallmark of China and IT Industry
Oracle Corporation's Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Larry Ellison, gave a speech on June 12, 2002 in Beijing, attending by more than 6,000 delegates. His theme: "Competition In The Face Of Change".
"It's great to be in China. It's great to be in Beijing. The last time I was here in Beijing was five years ago and the changes are the most remarkable I've seen. The whole world is changing, and Silicon Valley is changing. My industry is growing up, becoming mature" said Ellison.
Referring to the information technology (IT) industry, he said, "I'm often asked if the IT industry is slowing down. It's not slowing down, though the changes we've seen in the last two years are going to be permanent. There used to be hundreds of new companies starting up in Silicon Valley, but there will be a relatively smaller number of new companies. Yet, people and business are more reliant on the Internet today than ever before."
Ellison also spoke about the importance of partnership with Chinese companies in China to deliver better services, education, systems integration and applications. "These partners make up the Oracle economy and we are working hard to train partners so we can do a better job getting to these vast new markets."
(Source: Internet Wire)
The China Information Technology Law Newsletter is intended to be used for news purposes only. It should not be taken as comprehensive legal advice, and Lehman, Lee & Xu will not be held responsible for any such reliance on its contents.
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