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Chinese state-run newspaper accuses Apple of lacking openness
The People's Daily newspaper has slammed Apple's behavior in China, accusing the company of being "empty and self-praising" in the way it has shrugged off customer complaints and refused journalists' requests for interviews. The paper's comments, as reported by the Wall Street Journal, refer to a saga that has been brewing for a while, in which Chinese customers have claimed they're not receiving the same quality of after-sales care as those in the US. These allegations were given prominence in a recent show on national TV, prompting Apple to rebut them in a press release. It was this press release, claiming that Apple's warranties are "more or less the same... all over the world", that evidently provoked the ire of the People's Daily. And since the paper is a mouthpiece for the Communist Party that runs China, its outburst could signify a worsening in relations at the highest levels of government -- potentially making it harder for Apple to conduct its growing business in that country. Whatever Apple does next, we'd suggest it doesn't point out the obvious irony in this situation, as that might only make things worse.
China requires real names for internet and phone sign-ups, handovers for illegal posts
It's no secret that China keeps a tight lid on internet freedoms, and it's not about to lighten up today. The government has passed regulations requiring that locals use their real names whenever they sign up for internet- and phone-based services (not just the access itself); while those were already common practices, there's now the real threat of punishment behind them. Anyone who clears those hurdles also has to be more mindful of what they write. If a page or post is deemed "illegal information," service hosts now have to delete its public presence, archive it and pass the content along to authorities. The state unsurprisingly argues that those who already stay on the sunny side of the law have nothing to fear from the new measures (where have we heard that before?), but the reassurances won't be much help to privacy advocates or those challenging corruption.
Google services grind to a halt in China, political transition suspected as the culprit (update)
As eagerly as Google has gone through routing acrobatics to minimize the Chinese government's ability to censor and spy on its its services, it's still at the mercy of the Great Firewall. The company might have just run head-first into the bricks as of Friday. As confirmed by some of our own staff, all of Google's services stopped working in China for at least the better part of a day despite the search firm verifying that everything was in good working order. Officials haven't confirmed that anything was afoot, but it's easy to raise the specter of possible censorship given local political maneuvering. The once-a-decade Communist Party Congress began on Thursday, and the establishment may have wanted to cut off a relatively unfiltered line of communication for dissidents during a transition of power. We're hearing that access may have ameliorated in at least parts of the country, which would be a pleasant surprise -- not that a sudden improvement in service will cheer up those who know they still face a backlog. Update: As SlashGear notes, Computerworld / IDG has reported that Google's services were up and running in country again after about 12 hours of being inaccessible. Official details on the blocking are still slim as ever (and will likely remain as such) about the happenings, but you can click through the links above for more in the meantime.
Chinese government to track users of free WiFi, small businesses react with service cutoffs
Thought Google had a mountain-sized stack of your up close and personal online habits? Think again, because the omnipresent search king's all-seeing eyes are nothing compared to the Chinese government, which recently enacted stricter regulations to identify free WiFi users. The government-issued monitoring software will cost the cafes and restaurants it targets $3,100, putting small business owners in a sticky situation -- pay up, or shut down the free surfing. An informal survey conducted by the New York Times found not one owner willing to bow to the Republic's pressure, citing the out-of-pocket cost and low number of actual users. It's possible the move to clamp down on anonymous browsing was spurred by recent youth-embraced, social networking-backed uprisings, like the one in Cairo earlier this year. Seems a loophole in China's net management policy allows "laptop- and iPad-owning colleges students and expatriates" -- the very same group behind recent revolts -- to go online undetected. It remains to be seen if the Communist Party will make this new measure widespread, or just restrict it to central Beijing. For their sake, we echo one owner's hope that "official fervor [will]... soon die down."
