The Great Firewall of China

by Jennifer Mason _My little brother, this month returned from several years living in small-city (population less than 2 million) China, leaped straight from the 14-hour flight onto his laptop, and fired up online poker with an ease to which he was not accustomed.
Avoiding the hassles of proxy servers which apparently only connect to gambling or gaming-related sites one in six times, or trying to get a game via .net sites, he was delighted to spend a high proportion of his time on UK soil on accessible virtual felt.
He mentioned something interesting while enjoying a spot of low-stakes full-ring cash, after a min-stacked player did what they do best, namely double through with pocket kings and immediately leave.
“I bet I can guess where this guy’s from,” he said, “It’s probably China.” In fact a quick search for this shortstacker, who did indeed list his location as the PRC, found him at several other tables at $0.15/$0.25 and $0.25/$0.50 level, along with about 15-20 others. “They’ve already started, and it’s 8:30 in the morning over there,” he said, “And they’ll be there all day, and I mean all day.”
Zhu Hai, Yi Chun, Beijing, Huazhou, Shanghai, and Hong Kong were usually to be found as the listed players’ home cities after a cursory mouse-wave over their names, which poses a couple of interesting questions.
The only area sanctioned (or not restricted) for gaming is currently Macau, the ex-Portuguese colony island. It is, incidentally, soon to be connected to Hong Kong by a very large bridge which will make transfer from mainland China to the “Monte Carlo of the Orient” take around an hour. With access to gambling growing easier in China, these hometowns, apparently providing new poker players to the online melting pot, are however most definitely not on the gambling-OK list.
Nor is online gambling legal anywhere in the country. So do these few poker players appearing now herald a coming relaxation of legislation online to mirror that which appears to be slowly happening in the real world?
There are over 300 million Internet users currently active in the People’s Republic of China, which makes it the largest online user base in the world. No corner of the country is free from Internet cafes crammed with people (mainly young and male) playing online massive multi-player online role-playing games. QQ, China’s all-purpose messaging software, already hosts a plethora of online games, from the ubiquitous mah-jong to Texas hold’em (for points, not money).
The framework and liquidity exists for a home-grown platform to take advantage of the Chinese people’s national fascination with gambling, but as it stands only the determined and computer-savvy get to try online poker for real, and only at a couple of US-friendly sites. Live gambling happens, officially, only in Macau or via the Chinese national lottery, which no longer has an online arm after lottery scam sites spiralled out of control.
It happens unofficially all over the place. China is credited with bringing Keno to the world during the Han dynasty, and exports a host of gamblers, including a large number of high rollers, to places like Las Vegas, where the visa requirements are apparently less of a hassle than those for Macau in some cases.
The government isn’t as bothered with the innumerable back-room mah-jong games between acquaintances (where cards take the place of gaming tokens and stakes run from pennies to fortunes) as with venues open to the public, and external online companies. The latter are pretty efficiently filtered out of the Chinese web (along with YouTube and Facebook); although you can search for any of them, clicking through doesn’t happen.
Last year, Reuters reported that the General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) was prohibiting investment by foreigners in the online gaming industry (estimated at around $3 billion a year) although co-development of online games is still allowed to some extent.
This isn’t poker or casino-related, but aimed at restricting foreign interest in the huge multi-player and interactive gaming culture which has taken China by storm. A large proportion of these types of gamers are young and with low income, which throws up a potential societal problem with the relaxation of online gambling.
In order to introduce a potentially even more addictive form of online game play, regulations and support infrastructure need to be in place for these players. Quite a few scandals came out of World of Warcraft and similar over the last four years, including a murder (over the theft of a virtual sword) and the accidental death of a young man consigned to a mental institution by his parents for addiction to online gaming. When China develops a country-wide fascination, it is really on a spectacular scale, and dealing with the problems thrown up by un- or poorly-regulated online casinos would be a colossal task.
So far there are no signs of this regulation in development, and round the corner it definitely isn’t. The fact that the Chinese government does respond relatively quickly to fast-growing trends these days with regulation (and restriction) does suggest that if and when the PRC is ready to legalise online poker, it will have learned from its mistakes over the online lottery.
China will be ready if it decides to tap into a huge potential revenue source as the currently illegal live gamblers and the more liquid among online gamers move into a regulated virtual arena in which poker could easily become the next boom trend, the effects of which would be felt online the world over.

Tehran to carry on peaceful atomic energy activity – supreme leader

MOSCOW, February 28 (Itar-Tass) -- Iran will carry on peaceful atomic energy activity no matter what, Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Hoseini-Khamenei told Foreign Ministry staff members on Sunday.

“Despite the pressure the Islamic Republic is experiencing, it has achieved impressive results in nuclear research. The research will continue regardless the slanderous speculations started by certain countries, among them the United States, the United Kingdom and the Zionist regime. The research will continue as long as it takes Iran to achieve complete and scientific self-sufficiency,” Khamenei said.

He criticized the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which condemned Iran last November for building a new nuclear site in Qum and recently expressed doubts about the peaceful nature of the Iranian atomic program.

“Some latest steps and reports of the Agency show that this international organization has a deficit of independence,” the Iranian supreme leader said. “The IAEA should not yield to the influence of the United States and some other countries, as this yielding does not add authority to the agency.”

The uranium enrichment in Iran causes serious concern about the actual target of the Iranian nuclear program, Russia, the United States and France said in a joint letter to Amano on February 16.

The letter criticized the Iranian production of higher enriched uranium.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manuchehr Mottaki said Tehran knew about the letter but noted that the letter did not contain any new proposals.

Russia will have a measured attitude to possible sanctions against Iran as long as the latter cooperates with the IAEA, Chairman of the Federation Council International Affairs Committee Mikhail Margelov told Itar-Tass on the same day.

“As long as Iran cooperates with the IAEA, our policy will be measured and cautious. I do not believe in the efficiency of sanctions. They do not work, as a rule,” Margelov said.

“The Russian stance is rather precise and clear. Being an Iranian neighbor, we want the Iranian nuclear program to be exclusively peaceful and strictly controlled by the IAEA. Not a single responsible politician in Russia is interested in the Iranian development of a bomb,” he said.

Iran is still ready for nuclear fuel exchange, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad told a February 16 press conference in Tehran.

“This is not a closed subject and we are ready for the exchange, even with the United States,” the president said.

The consultations go on, he remarked.

“We did not plan higher enriched uranium production because that was not expedient. However, our partners did not show goodwill and we had to tell them that we would have to produce the fuel ourselves,” he said. “The situation will change with the delivery of fuel,” he added.

The sides developed a general formula of nuclear fuel delivery for the Tehran research reactor producing medical isotopes. The sextet proposed to higher enrich Iranian uranium in Russia and to make fuel assemblies in France. Iran expressed its basic consent at first but then insisted on exchanging its uranium for ready fuel. No agreement was reached, and Iran launched higher enriched uranium production.

Higher enriched uranium production started in Natanz a week before to the president’s order. The 20% uranium is being manufactured for the Tehran research reactor, a maker of medical isotopes.

The decision of Iran to start higher-enriched uranium production disappointed Russia, which was traditionally reserved about proposed sanctions.

“The Iranian decision to start higher-enriched uranium production not only disagrees with resolutions of the UN Security Council and the IAEA Board of Governors but also deepens doubts about the Iranian sincere wish to lift the remaining international concerns about its nuclear program,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Andrei Nesterenko said.

“Definitely, we are disappointed with the Iran step, which did not allow diplomats to agree on mutually acceptable ways of the fulfillment of the IAEA proposal of higher-enriched uranium fuel production for the Tehran research reactor outside Iran,” he said. “We are confident that further discussion of possible ways of the fulfillment of that project would have yielded results within a short time and become a major step towards the restoration of confidence in the exclusively peaceful atomic program of Iran and an appropriate atmosphere for the dialog.”

Russia does not rule out the drafting of a new UN Security Council resolution enacting sanctions against Iran, Nesterenko said.

“There is no work on the possible new sanctions against Iran now, but we cannot rule it out under the current circumstances,” he said.

“Russia is adherent to the two-track policy in settling the situation around the Iranian nuclear program. That implies efforts of the sextet (five permanent members of the UN Security Council and Germany) on negotiations with Tehran and sanctions if Iran does not act constructively,” he said.

“Russia is searching for additional options in the implementation of the October 1 agreements reached between Iranian representatives and the sextet political directors in Geneva,” Nesterenko said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow opposed sanctions that might be harmful for the country but did not rule out the UN Security Council measures due to the Iranian unwillingness of closer cooperation with the IAEA. “We are absolutely positive that sanctions per se can hardly bring desirable results. If such a proposal is made at the UN Security Council, we will scrutinize it very carefully,” the minister said.

“Russia has no doubts that Iran shares the same rights with other non-nuclear members of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, including the right to enrich uranium. However, Iran must comply with related commitments in order to use this right freely. In this case, it is necessary to answer all the remaining questions to the IAEA satisfaction,” Lavrov said.

“As no progress has been made and the Iranian administration has not responded to the constructive compromises, including the offer to supply fuel to the Tehran research reactor, I do not rule out that the UN Security Council may have to review the situation once again,” he said.

The UN Security Council has already applied sanctions to Iran in support of the IAEA requirements, Lavrov remarked.

The scale of possible sanctions on Iran will not be discussed at the Monday negotiations of Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his French counterpart Nicolas Sarkozy, a high-ranking diplomat said on Friday.

“It would be premature to discuss the scale of possible sanctions,” he noted.

“The Russian president emphasized his readiness for cooperation with the sextet in New York last September. He also noted that sanctions were inevitable under certain circumstances, and the Russian readiness for joint work was important,” the diplomat said.

“I do not think that the presidents will have time to go into details [at the Paris meeting],” he said. “Possibly, they will discuss Russia-France interaction at the sextet and the United Nations at large. The leaders will compare their positions. In fact, there are no large disagreements between Russia and France.”

Toyota Chief to Visit China

BEIJING—Akio Toyoda's planned visit to Beijing reflects the importance for Toyota Motor Corp. of containing damage to its reputation in China's huge market, where the Japanese company was struggling even before its recent recall problems.
The 53-year-old Toyota president and grandson of the company's founder is expected to hold a press conference in the Chinese capital Monday to address quality concerns, the company said. He also is expected to meet with high-level government officials to remind them of the company's commitment to safety and quality, according to Toyota executives who briefed reporters Sunday night.
"Given China's strong sense of rivalry with the U.S., after we explained our situation to American lawmakers and apologized to U.S. customers last week, there isn't an option for Mr. Toyoda and the company to skip China," one U.S.-based senior Toyota executive, who is close to the Toyota president, said in a telephone interview Sunday.
Toyota's quality issues haven't been as severe in China as in the U.S., where it has recalled millions of cars over problems with accelerator pedals and other issues. In China, Toyota has recalled 75,552 RAV4 vehicles, a tiny fraction of the 8.5 million vehicles it has recalled world-wide.
But Toyota's overall recalls in China rose sharply last year—it recalled a total of 989,000 vehicles in China in 2009, up from the 209,000 in 2008. And China's quality watchdog warned in a notice late last week that there could be more Toyota cars in China affected by the current recalls, pointing to the existence of Toyota cars brought into China outside its formal distribution channels. A Toyota spokesman said the number of such cars in China should be "very small."
Toyota was late to expand in China, and it has lagged behind global rivals like Volkswagen AG and General Motors Co. That has hurt the company, as China overtook the U.S. last year as the world's biggest car market, with sales surging about 50% to 13 million vehicles, compared with just over 10 million in the U.S.
Toyota fell severely behind the market last year—its sales grew just 21% in 2009 to 700,900 vehicles—because it failed to provide cars that matched consumers' growing appetite for smaller, more fuel-efficient cars. China's government has encouraged the purchase of such cars through incentives and other stimulus measures, a policy the car maker didn't anticipate.
The planned China visit follows a multistop fence-mending tour in the U.S. last week during which Mr. Toyoda appeared before a Congressional committee to answer often-angry questions about Toyota's quality problems. He also apologized to victims of sudden acceleration accidents and to customers concerned about the spate of quality problems, and sought to reassure Toyota's dealers and workers that the company will regain its footing. The trip was highly emotional, with Mr. Toyoda occasionally choking up.
Sales of Toyota vehicles began picking up toward the end of last year, but the Toyota executive said it was deemed desirable for Mr. Toyoda to personally reach out to consumers here to contain any damage from the quality debacle.
Hitoshi Yokoyama, a Toyota spokesman, said it was tough to gauge the effect of the current problems on sales in China in part because the country's Lunar New Year holiday, during which retail sales tend to slow, fell in February this year but in January last year, making comparisons difficult.

A senior Beijing-based Toyota sales executive said sales have slowed "noticeably" in Beijing and Shanghai, where he said local media outlets reported more aggressively about Toyota's latest quality lapses. Southern China, a major market for Toyota in China, was more immune to the bad news, but Toyota is considering sales incentives or other measures to maintain customer traffic into showrooms, the executive said.
Liu Jiaxiang, a Toyota dealer in Shenzhen, said sales at his stores in southern China have been "steady" since late January. "What keeps me awake at night is a possible long-term erosion of customer confidence in the Toyota brand" because of the recall problem, he said.
Toyota has suffered criticism over a recall before in China. Last April it recalled 259,119 Camry sedans because of brake problems—the company's biggest single recall announcement in China. China Central Television, the state-run broadcaster, in a report on the brake problems featured an interview with a legal adviser from the China Consumers Association who accused Toyota of hiding the problem. Toyota issue the recall three days after that program aired.
Mr. Yokoyama, the Toyota spokesman, said the accusation it hid the problem was "completely groundless" and that the recall wasn't related to the CCTV report.