China has launched an investigation into online mapping services by Internet giants, including Google and Sohu, in an effort to protect state secrets and territorial integrity, state press said.
Min Yiren (閔宜仁), vice head of the State Bureau of Surveying and Mapping, said that authorities hoped to get rid of online maps that wrongly depict China’s borders or that reveal military secrets, the People’s Daily said on Monday.
The government began the investigation into the problematic maps last month and would continue it until the end of the year, the report said.
Min cited five areas of concern, with the redrawing of China’s borders and placing disputed territory outside the nation the top priority, it said.
Such areas of dispute include Taiwan, the Spratly and Paracel island chains in the South China Sea and the Diaoyudai in the East China Sea, it said.
Previous reports, citing Min, said that there were nearly 10,000 illegal map Web sites in China.
SOHU, BAIDU
The People’s Daily named US Internet giant Google, as well as China’s Sohu and Baidu, as being under investigation. The report was seen as the first time the government media had named specific companies as possible offenders.
Eight ministries including the mapping bureau, the Ministry of Industry and Information, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Ministry of Public Safety are involved in the investigation, it said.
Last year, China restricted mapping and survey activity by foreign entities for national security reasons.
An American scientist convicted of lying to US authorities about payments from China while he was at Harvard University has rebuilt his research lab in Shenzhen, China, to pursue technology the Chinese government has identified as a national priority: embedding electronics into the human brain. Charles Lieber, 67, is among the world’s leading researchers in brain-computer interfaces. The technology has shown promise in treating conditions such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and restoring movement in paralyzed people. It also has potential military applications: Scientists at the Chinese People’s Liberation Army have investigated brain interfaces as a way to engineer super soldiers by boosting
Indonesian police have arrested 13 people after shocking images of alleged abuse against small children at a daycare center went viral, sparking outrage across the nation, officials said on Monday. Police on Friday last week raided Little Aresha, a daycare center in Yogyakarta on Java island, following a report from a former employee. CCTV footage circulating on social media showed children, most younger than two, lying on the floor wearing only diapers, their hands and feet bound with rags. The police have confirmed that the footage is authentic. Police said they also found 20 children crammed into a room just 3m by 3m. “So
A highway bomb attack in a restive region of southwestern Colombia on Saturday killed 14 people and injured at least 38, the latest spate of violence ahead of next month’s presidential election. Authorities blamed the attack in the Cauca department — a conflict-ridden, coca-growing region — on dissidents of the now-disbanded FARC guerrilla army, who have been sowing violence across the country. “Those who carried out this attack ... are terrorists, fascists and drug traffickers,” Colombian President Gustavo Petro said on social media. “I want our very best soldiers to confront them,” he added. The leftist leader blamed the bombing
From post offices and parks to stations and even the summit of Mount Fuji, Japan’s vending machines are ubiquitous, but with the rapid pace of inflation cooling demand for their drinks, operators are being forced to rethink the business. Last month beverage giant DyDo Group Holdings announced it would remove about 20,000 vending machines — about 7 percent of their stock nationwide — by January next year, to “reconstruct a profitable network.” Pokka Sapporo Food & Beverage, based in Nagoya, also said last month it would sell its 40,000-machine operation to Osaka-based Lifedrink Co. “The strength of the vending machine
RSS