A girl with Journalism Ideality

October 2009, a new term started as usual in the University of Westminster. However in this is a quiet and small come from China dream to start her journalist career in the university. Her name is Anli Wang.

Anli is come from Anhui province. It is not an economic centre as Shanghang or Hongkong, neither like the political capital Beijing. It is the place where is on the top 10 list of population, and also centre with mixed culture. The story around Anli is the real life story. She knows how hard a farmer family is to feed up a graduate. She knows how hard it is for the people from poor country site to find a job and a room to live in a middle size city.

Not a normal Girl

Dreamed to be a journalist, Anli do not want to report the topical news of domestic or international. Anli Wang is a very normal girl, if you don’t her deeply, you could not understand how could be a little person with such a strong spirit with her career.

She prefer to do deep report, to find the story behind, to investigate the secret which was not published to the mass. She said, “I like the feel that I could close to people, to know them, to see their real life, and then I could help them.”

The change of career

However, the final dream is really hard to achieve. The bachelor background of Anli is Chinese. It has nothing related to journalism. However, Anli started her dream of Journalist since her study in Chinese. When she was a high school student, she started reading Lu Xun, who is one of the greatest writers in China. She likes his critical essays because they are telling the true China. They were waking Chinese up during the World War II. Although it is a peaceful period, people are still feeling the painful of the social. Those kinds of news are the report that Anli want to do.

It is destiny

Hold the ‘same’ dream as Lu Xun, Anli gave up her writer dream and become to a freelance writer. The hardest time of her is the period her preparing the exam for a graduate study in the University. The lack of background knowledge, the language problem, pushes Anli to give up time to time. However, today Anli recruited in the University of Westminster. To reach the success, it is because the power of her dreams, and also the spirit of her insistence.

At last, she said “to start the class here, it is just a star, the road to her dream is still long. But I will never give up, it is because that is what I love and it is my destiny.”

China's new tackling climate change target

There are two weeks distances a global summit on climate change in Copenhagen. And today China has unveiled its first firm target for limiting greenhouse gas emissions. The target would aim to reduce its "carbon intensity" by 40-45% by the year 2020, compared with 2005 levels.
Carbon intensity is china’s preferred measurement. It is to count the amount of carbon dioxide emitted for each unit of GDP. However, now it is hard to say the new target will reduce China's overall levels of carbon dioxide. It is because the economy in china is still growing and polluting coal remains to be the mostly fuel. The target also reveals China wants to play a leading role in tackling global climate change. In addition, China government said Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao would attend the talks in Copenhagen.

Cut down number of buses against Oxford St congestion

Christmas is in the offing. Shopping streets are bustling with people. However, retailers on Oxford Street have called for a reduction in the number of buses traveling through it everyday.

There are 24 bus routes sending more than 220 buses an hour along Oxford Street and Regent Street. Besides of the retailers, the Westminster Council has received complaints from customers too about excessive traffic congestion. The TFL is acting upon the Westminster council's suggestions, the shoppers on Oxford Street seem to be worried.

As the Westminster Council said, millions of pounds have already been spent on improving the area. And here is yet another step in the direction, aimed at further improving the shopping experience of the visitors.

In order to provide a better shopping experience, the transport for London has decided to reduce the number of buses by 10% by the end of the year, and another 10% by the end of next year, after recommendation of Westminster Council.

China product promotes via new ad

China, the country that introduced the world to formerly obscure chemicals like melamine and diethylene glycol via a series of product safety scandals, is now hoping to salvage its image through an advertising campaign.

The 30-second ads, played initially on CNN, show images of MP3 players printed with "Made in China with software from Silicon Valley," and clothes labeled "Made in China with French designers."
A jaunty soundtrack plays over happy Westerners jogging, eating, dancing, posing for a fashion shoot and looking out an aircraft window at a "Made in China, with engineers from all over the world" aircraft engine.

It ends with an American-accented voice saying: "When it says Made-in-China, it really means 'Made-in-China, Made with the world'."

The "charm offensive" is designed to promote Chinese-made goods "in a fair and objective way," to tell overseas consumers "that Chinese companies work with overseas firms to produce quality products," the official English-language China Daily said.

The campaign "reflects the Chinese companies' attitude and aspiration of strengthening cooperation with other countries to provide quality goods for foreign consumers," it added.

China, often called the world's factory, is struggling to convince a skeptical global audience that it has won a battle to improve safety standards after recent scandals involving everything from pet food and dumplings to children's toys.

The issue has proven a huge irritant in ties between China and the United States and European Union, the country's largest trade partners.But Beijing insists it is getting tough after endless promises to crack down.

What is Green Dam for?

Computer software companies and International Internet constrain “freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.” A software, which is pushed to be installed on computer by China’s government, gives a good sample of blinding netizen’s eyes.

China demanded that until July 1, 2009, all personal computers sold in the country, must be shipped pre-installed software named Green Dam, in order to prevent access of pornographic websites. The government also urged the international PC makers, which sell computers in China, should also pre-install the software on computers. Green Dam is a new kind of anti- pornography software. It aims to make efforts to protect 'young people from harmful web contents.

However, cases had been shown that the software was not only block pornographic websites, but also sensitive political words. “In the 3.17 version, language processing turns on blocking for political and religious content by killing browser tabs and applications and even other user applications like notepad. The kill action is triggered by entering a particular URL into the location bar or window of the browser.” Following pornographic websites, some legal websites were blocked too. This ‘additional function’ is far away from the purpose of software be used. Meanwhile, consumers were not informed of that function and some information was filtered. Netizen is deprived of freedom of gaining information. That is against Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

The second violation is that the software keeps monitoring personal communications and Internet browsing behaviour of users. The software “actively monitors individual computer behavior, such that a wide range of programs including word processing and email can be suddenly terminated if content algorithm detects inappropriate speech.” The fact of monitoring of users behaviour refers to violation human rights. Either article written by users or email are belongs personal privacy. They should be protected by national law. According Constitution of the People’s Republic of China Article 40, the freedom and privacy of correspondence of citizens of the People's Republic of China are protected by law government treated this new software in a special way. It probably duo to monitoring and filtering forbidden words and event are of benefits to the government.

As an enforcement act, all computer companies have to install Green Dam. However, the cost of the software will be shared by companies. It could be seem no companies would like to add this part of cost on themselves. They would probably shift the cost to consumers. The government has paid 41.7million RMB (approximately 3.79million GBP) for develop Green Dam. Although government announced that Green Dam is free for consumers, who will pick up the tab for government? It might be either computer producer or consumers. For the more, the consumers have no choice to buy a computer without Green Dam software.

The feedback of consumers leans to rescind the announcement. Local media and netizen published thousands of articles to accuse the government of violation of human rights. At the end of Green Dam controversy, the government have to abolish the announcement. Although it could be count to success of human rights, there is still no one to accuse the huge payment of software developing.

True stroy about twitter you probably do no know.

Web security SaaS company Purewire evaluated the profiles of millions of Twitter users to show the depth of a new tool it has created called Tweet Grade. While the tool itself is not unlike numerous other Twitter grading services, the company has uncovered some very interesting user statistics.

It seems as though far less people are actually using and contributing to the site than Twitter's recent hype and massive growth would suggest. In fact, the data shows that a large percentage of Twitter users have not "tweeted" since the first day they joined the service and at least a quarter of its users don't have any followers at all.This is what it found:

First, many Twitter users "have abandoned their accounts shortly after creating them, and a significant percentage are not showing signs of account activity". 40 percent of Twitter users have not tweeted since their first day on Twitter (i.e., the account was most likely created and subsequently forgotten about).

Approximately 25 percent of Twitter users are not following anyone, while two-thirds are following less than 10 people (i.e., the account was created but is not actually being used regularly).

Second, the data shows that "Twitter is used more as a mass medium for receiving information, rather than as a way to interact with others. Proof is shown by evaluating the followers and friends of Twitter users".

More than 1/3 of Twitter users have not posted a single tweet, and almost 80 percent of the users have less than 10 tweets (i.e., while Twitter is billed as a great collaboration tool, a large number of users are there to consume content, not distribute it).

Approximately 30 percent of Twitter users do not have any followers, and 80 percent of Twitter users have less than 10 followers (i.e., for many users, their posts are not being widely tracked or read).
50 percent of Twitter users are following more people than they have as followers, and another 30 percent of Twitter users are following the same number of people that are following them (i.e. users are aggressively trying to attract followers by hoping they will "follow back" but have been unsuccessful).
There are bound to be folks trying out different Web apps that won't end up using them, we do it all the time.

I still think Twitter has become a valuable mainstream communication platform and its usage will continue to evolve and grow.

US President Barack Obama visits China for the first time

President Obama will visit Shanghai and Beijing November 15–18 to meet with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Prime Minister Wen Jiabao. While in China, Obama hopes to emphasize the importance of the U.S.-Chinese relationship and build trust between the two nations. He arrived in Shanghai on Sunday, and then flew into Beijing late on Monday.

Obama told President Hu Jintao that more people-to-people exchanges between the U.S. and China would lead to greater cooperation on economic and security issues.

Obama said at a meeting of senior government officials in Beijing's Great Hall of the People that the American people were interested in stronger relations with the people of China.

"The more that we can encourage people to people exchanges that are consistent with the discussions that we're having at the government level, the more that China and the United States will be able to work cooperatively on a whole range of issues -- both economic issues, security issues and global issues -- that are in the interests not just of our two nations, but the entire world," said Obama.

He told Hu that the smaller group discussions between the two leaders before the formal talks were very constructive.

"As we both affirmed, the United States and China have a great many mutual interests, and after 30 years of bilateral relations, I think it's fair to say that our two governments have continued to move forward in a way that can bring even greater cooperation in the future," Obama said.

"We hope the US understand and support China's government's stance and concerns, properly manage the Taiwan issue, and disallow any 'pro-Tibet independence' and 'the East Turkistan' forces to commit to any moves on the American soil to separate China," Hu said.

The East Turkistan has long sought to separate Xinjiang from China.

Obama stressed that the US recognizes and respects China' sovereignty and territorial integrity on Taiwan and other issues.

He said Washington is not intent to interrupt China's core interests.

Obama reiterated that the US follows its one-China policy and abides by the principles of the three Sino-US joint communiqués. Washington's one-China policy is solid and lasting, he added.

Obama also said Tibet is part of China.

"We did note that while we recognize that Tibet is part of the People's Republic of China," Obama said at a Joint Statement with Hu. "The United States supports the early resumption of dialogue between the Chinese government and representatives of the Dalai Lama to resolve any concerns and differences that the two sides may have."

Apart from enhancing the strategic mutual trust, Hu suggested both countries keep close high-level exchanges and dialogues on all other issues.

At Obama's invitation, Hu will visit the US in next year.

Hu also called for more bilateral cooperation to jointly deal with "all sorts of" regional and global challenges.

Obama also said international cooperation is necessary for the world to face all global challenges.

He said the current US government, which is quite different from its predecessors in foreign policy, supports dialogues between nations and multilateralism.

The US goes not seek to contain China, as it welcomes a strong, prosperous, and successful China with bigger role in international affairs. He said the US appreciates China's effort to help resolve the nuclear issues of Iran and the Korean Peninsula.

The 21st century is different the 20th century, Obama said. Inter-state relations should not be a "zero-sum game" and countries should move beyond the "Cold War mentality".

Obama, 48, is the first US president who started a state visit to China within the first year since taking office.

After meeting Hu, Obama visited the Forbidden City.

Obama will meet with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao on Wednesday and visit the Great Wall in the afternoon.

His team will then leave for the Republic of Korea.

The rising travel fares in london

The world’s most expensive city will increase travel fares in 2010.

The cost of a single central London tube journey will rise from £1.60 to £1.80 on Oyster. The bus journey will rise from £1.00 to £1.20.

Boris Johnson, the mayor of London, announced that he would make this decision later this year. The fare rise will impact the London Underground and the expanded bus network.

The fares have been rising during the past decade. Although the Oyster card cut the price down, the average cost of travel in London is higher than others in Europe.

According to research done by London's Liberal Democrats, ”London's cash single fare is over two and a half times that of Tokyo, the next most expensive city, and almost three times the price of the European average, £4.00 compared with £1.37.”

The mayor defended the sharp rise is going to help plug a multimillion-pound hole in transport funding in the capital.

Johnson wrote for the Evening Standard "We are coping with the colossal costs of the failure of Metronet and the disastrous PPP, and we are dealing with the costs of years of irresponsible politically motivated jiggery-pokery in setting fares”.

Johnson also said, "Nobody wants to make an announcement like this, especially when Londoners are feeling the effects of the recession,"

Researching the recent years’ figures about the London transport fares. It is easy to find out last year Johnson had announced an inflation-busting 6% rise in tube and bus fares from 2009.

The comments from Londoners show their about the rising fares. They said, “Without the fare increase we would not get the much needed tube update that we are all crying for.”

Sharon Grant, chair of the commuter watchdog London TravelWatch, said the rises were unacceptable. "We are particularly appalled at the 20% rise in single bus fares, and the rise of a single Oyster trip in zone 1," she said. "While the freeze on the price of a weekly Travelcard is welcome, it appears that infrequent, irregular users, such as part-time workers, will be disproportionately punished. It is these people who may well decide not to use public transport, not travel at all, or use their car instead."

Web restriction in China

Government blocked numbers of websites related to human rights. It is because Obama came. All these make me membered the period of Olympic Games. The government did the same thing. They kept restriction on Internet during Beijing Olympic Games has increased heavily compare with other period of time.

Throughout the Olympic Games in Beijing across the country have increased and intensified its repression and control of human rights defenders, including religious people, ethnic minorities, lawyers and journalists. The authorities maintain strict control over information on Internet, many Internet sites blocked. Journalists and Internet users were warned by the authorities. They were prohibited for peaceful expression of their views.

Two weeks before the Olympic Games, the government was established three "protest zone" in Beijing’s park, allowing people to protest. It is too late but glad that China finally have legal areas for speech. However, no indications have shown that any one had received official permission, and carried out protests in protest zone, till now these three areas is still empty. According to Constitution of the People’s Republic of China Article 35, citizens of the People's Republic of China enjoy freedom of speech, of the press, of assembly, of association, of procession and of demonstration. Nevertheless, the liberalization of “protest zone” is still doubtful. The first reason is whether the permission was executed. The application procession of protest might be complicated and long. It is hard to say when the applier could get the permission. The second reason is whether citizens trust the government. Protestor would probably afraid to go to the protest zone, because long repression of government.
More than 20 Chinese journalists have been prohibited of engaging in journalistic activities during the Olympic Games, this figure is more than any other country in the world. About 20,000 accredited journalists plan to Beijing. However, some of them had been denied, because they failed to explain the reasons for visa.

Since January 1, 2007, foreign journalists had released by restriction of interview in China. New temporary regulations had been under way. It gave foreign journalists the permission of doing investigation and interviews outside Beijing. While in the past, all foreign journalists could do report only after authorizing by China’s government. The new regulations outlined the rights of journalists: “to interview organizations or individuals in China, foreign journalists need only to obtain their prior consent.”The ambiguity of the regulations is whether it also applies to Tibet and Xinjiang autonomous regions. The result is by April 2009, “the Foreign Correspondents Club of China (FCCC) had logged more than 50 incidents of police harassing reporters in Tibetan areas.” The interference not only refers to freedom of expression, but also the human rights.

A number of internet websites was blocked during the Olympic Games. “Internet users and journalists were at risk of harassment and imprisonment for addressing politically sensitive topics. Numerous people were detained and put under surveillance in connection with their applying for permission to protest.” When the Olympics Games arrived, the government was so indifferent to the freedom of expression. They blocked and filtered at least 50 websites, including foreign news, human rights, and other websites related to pro-Tibet, according to OpenNet Initiative.

From our correspondent in China

When western people think about China, they often think about cheap products.This is because China products more than half of world’s clothes and small products with low labour costs. These products are sold all over the world. Therefore, China has a nickname as "The factory of the World". However, things have changed in recent years. There are more and more competitors in manufacturing market.

The boom started at the end of the 1980s, following the southern revolution. It is the first time that China opens its door to the world. After that in few years later, foreign visitors, business man eared their first barrels of gold. ‘Made in china’ start from then. Twenty years past, the processing industry is declining. One of the reason is cost of labour is not cheap any more. After that American people become to worry about the price of Christmas tree is rising. Following that, international traders were looking forward to cheaper processing market like Vietnam.

Economic recession happens in the southeast province in China, because of global economic environment. In last year, 50,000 factories closed down. The local government could not live on the rental land and factory. Rural workers prefer working in their own town instead of getting adventure in modern city. The government made a series polices to encourage local employment for example cut down the tax.

Now in southeast part of china, the foreign investment is reducing. Local people are trying to launch their own business. However, most of these small factories still lean upon international markets. Therefore, their devolvement is limited.