Chinese shrug shoulders at possible Google pull-out

With speculation swirling that Google Inc will soon announce the closure of its China-based Internet portal, the reaction from some Chinese has been hurry up and leave, or simply: so what?

On Friday, the China Business News reported Google may make an announcement as early as Monday on whether it will pull out of China.

The Financial Times, citing a person familiar with the situation, said the company could say on Monday that it will close its Chinese search engine.

Google has not formally unveiled any such plans.

Two months since Google said it would no longer agree to abide by Beijing's censorship rules even if that meant shutting down its Google.cn site, some Chinese Internet users and state newspapers are baying for the company to pull out.

The burst of angry Chinese comments suggested that, in spite of the widespread popularity of Google amongst educated Chinese, the government is steering state-run media and websites to lump the company together with other recent disputes with Washington that have stirred nationalist rancour in China.

"Get the hell out," wrote one user on the website of the nationalist tabloid the Global Times (www.huanqiu.com), in remarks echoed by other readers.

"Ha ha, I'm going to buy firecrackers to celebrate!" wrote another, in anticipation of the company confirming its departure from the online search market.

Joseph Cheng, a City University of Hong Kong politics professor, said China's ruling Communist Party was deploying nationalism to stifle debate about censorship.

"The criticism of cultural exports, or cultural imperialism, is a kind of defence to justify the Chinese authorities' censorship controls," said Cheng.

"In dealing with the American government, the Chinese authorities will try to emphasise that this is only a commercial dispute and has nothing to do with Sino-American relations," he added.

GOOD RIDDANCE?

A Global Times editorial cited online surveys as showing 80 percent of respondents said they could not care less if Google withdrew from China, the world's largest Internet market with an estimated 384 million users.

The saga was a reminder of the country's need to develop its own technology and not rely on foreigners, the editorial said.

"This is a high-tech competition, and also a competition to uphold the state's sovereignty," the editorial said.

Some bloggers went a step further and accused Google of being in cahoots with U.S. intelligence.

"It is understood that Google is very tight with the CIA," wrote "Xiaogui" on the popular portal sina.com.cn. "Take this opportunity to leave now, you spies."

Though Google has remained mum on the progress of talks, the firm's chief executive said earlier this month that an outcome is expected "soon".

The Google case has spread beyond censorship and hacking and has become a diplomatic knot in Sino-U.S. relations, already being challenged by spats over Taiwan, Tibet and the value of the Chinese currency.

The United States is studying whether it can legally challenge Chinese Internet restrictions, a top U.S. trade official said recently.

Over the weekend, a commentary by the official Xinhua news agency accused Google of pushing a political agenda by "groundlessly accusing the Chinese government" of supporting hacker attacks and by trying to export its own culture, values and ideas.

BLOW TO INNOVATION?

Analysts said if Google withdrew from China, the biggest losers would be its millions of Internet users.

With two research and development centres in China, hundreds of sales staff and engineers working on the Google Android platform and other initiatives, analysts said all may come to a halt if Google decides on a pull out.

"This is not a good thing for Chinese netizens because Google has been the leader in innovation in the search engine field," said Cao Junbo, chief analyst with iResearch, a Beijing-based research firm specialising in technology matters.

Currently, Google offers Google Maps, Gmail and free music downloads to Chinese users, all of which could be in jeopardy if the company walks.

Even Google's mobile platform Android is not safe, as Google products such as search which are embedded into the platform will stop working if Google withdraws, making the platform less desirable to consumers, analysts said.

Google's withdrawal will open up China's $1 billion search market to more local firms, Cao said.

The biggest beneficiary will be domestic search leader Baidu Inc, which already has a sophisticated search advertising display system and a robust sales and customer support team.

Others such as Tencent Holdings, China's most valuable Internet company, may also benefit as the firm runs the country's largest instant messaging platform that it could tap into to expand its search network.

"The biggest gainers of Google leaving will definitely be the local firms," Cao said.

US business feeling unwelcome in China, says survey

US companies feel increasingly unwelcome in China because of what they see as discrimination and inconsistent legal treatment, according to a survey.

The American Chamber of Commerce in China (ACCC) found 38% of its members felt unwelcome, from 26% last quarter.

Inconsistent regulation and judicial treatment topped the list of concerns for American businesses, ACCC found.

It follows alleged cyber attacks on Google, and Chinese claims that the firm is too close to the US government.

Companies surveyed by the ACCC cited claims that Beijing wanted to squeeze foreign technology companies out of the multi-billion dollar market for selling computers and office equipment to government departments.

New rules stipulate sellers of high-tech goods must contain Chinese intellectual property as part of an "indigenous innovation" campaign, in order for them to be included in a government procurement catalogue.

"The survey shows that US companies believe they face product discrimination in state-owned enterprise purchases, as well as in government procurement," the survey said.

Of the American technology companies surveyed, 57% said they expected the preferential purchasing policy to have a negative impact on their operations in China while 37% said they were already losing sales.

Member-companies believed some policies in China were "increasingly restrictive and protectionist" which could limit foreign participation in the world's third largest economy, the survey said.

The survey was released as the trial opened in Shanghai of four employees of Anglo-Australian miner Rio Tinto on allegations of bribery and espionage.

The defendants were arrested last July during contentious iron ore contract negotiations that later collapsed.

Cancer genes switched off in humans

For the first time, researchers have used short sequences of RNA that can effectively treat skin cancer in people by silencing specific genes behind tumour production.

Mark Davis from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena and his colleagues have used the technique, called RNA interference (RNAi), to deliver particles containing such sequences to patients with the skin cancer melanoma.

When analysing biopsies of the tumours after treatment, they found that the particles had inhibited expression of a key gene, called RRM2, needed for the cancer cells to multiply.

The researchers created the particles from two polymers plus a protein that binds to receptors on the surface of cancer cells and pieces of RNA called small-interfering RNA, or siRNA, designed to stop the RRM2 gene from being translated into protein.

The siRNA works by sticking to the messenger RNA (mRNA) that carries the gene's code to the cell's protein-making machinery and ensuring that enzymes cut the mRNA at a specific spot.

When the components are mixed together in water, they assemble into particles about 70 nanometres in diameter. The researchers can then administer the nanoparticles into the bloodstream of patients, where the particles circulate until they encounter 'leaky' blood vessels that supply the tumours with blood.

The particles then pass through the vessels to the tumour, where they bind to the cell and are then absorbed. Once inside the cell, the nanoparticles fall apart, releasing the siRNA. The other parts of the nanoparticle are so small, they pass out of the body in urine.

"It sneaks in, evades the immune system, delivers the siRNA, and the disassembled components exit out," Nature quoted Davis as saying.

When researchers analysed tumour samples from three of the patients who volunteered samples, they found fragments of the mRNA in exactly the length and sequence they would expect from the design of their siRNA.

And in at least one patient, the levels of the protein were lower than they were in samples of the tumours taken before treatment.

They also found that patients who were given higher doses had higher levels of siRNA in their tumours. "The more we put in, the more ends up where they are supposed to be, in tumour cells," said Davis.

Davis says that by targeting specific genes he hopes these treatments will not have major side effects. "My hope is to make tumours melt away while maintaining a high quality of life for the patients. We're moving another step closer to being able to do that now," he said.

The study has been published in Nature.

Quantum film might replace CMOS

QUANTUM FILM could replace conventional CMOS image sensors in digital cameras.

According to EETimes, the film is made from materials similar to conventional film - a polymer with embedded particles.

Howver instead of silver grains like photographic film, the embedded particles are quantum dots, which we guess are only in the camera if you see them.

Quantum films can image scenes at higher pixel resolutions and are four times more sensitive than the finest grained photographic film.

Developed by the firm Invisage, the technology would be ideal for mobile phones as it creates the next generation image sensor because it gathers more light, so you can either build a higher resolution mobile phone camera or make a smaller image sensor to turn out a less expensive one with the same resolution.

Conventional digital cameras would gain much higher resolution sensors by using quantum film material.

The technology was developed by University of Toronto professor Ted Sargent. It involves suspending lead-sulfide nanoparticles in a polymer matrix to form a new class of semiconducting polymer.

Quantum film is put on a low-cost wafer that has the electrode array for super-dense, high pixel-count images. It is cheaper to produce than CMOS photodetectors that make up the bulk of conventional digital camera sensors.

Tiger Woods reveals how wife reacted over infidelity

Tiger Woods has revealed in a television interview how his wife Elin Nordegren reacted when she discovered he had cheated on her.

"She was hurt, she was hurt, very hurt. Shocked. Angry," the Mirror quoted Woods as saying in an interview with sports station ESPN.

"And you know, she had every right to be and I'm disappointed as everyone else in my own behaviour because I can't believe I did that to the people I loved," he added.

The disgraced golfer also revealed what led him to cheat on the mother of this two children, Sam, two and Charlie, one.

"Well I had gotten away from my core values. I'd gotten away from my Buddhism. And I quit meditating," he said.

"Stripping away denial and rationalism you start coming to the truth of who you really are and that can be very ugly. But then again, when you face it and you start conquering and you start living up to it. The strength that I feel now, I've never felt that type of strength," he added.