12.28.11
Cablegate: US Government Talks About Providing Free Software that Helps Chinese Netizens Overcome Filters
Summary: A look at Free software in China based on cables that Wikileaks released about a year ago to selected journalists
According to the following Cablegate cable, “if the USG [US government] provided free software that helped Chinese netizens overcome filters, this might politicize the issue of Internet freedom and force the PRC government to react.”
It is interesting in the context that, in another Cablegate cable, it says that “China’s 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2011) calls for the development of embedded software [and] open source software,” so here are the two cables in full:
VZCZCXRO6497 OO RUEHBC RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHKUK RUEHTRO DE RUEHBJ #0183/01 0250728 ZNY CCCCC ZZH O 250728Z JAN 10 FM AMEMBASSY BEIJING TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7730 INFO RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE RUCNIRA/IRAN COLLECTIVE IMMEDIATE RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC IMMEDIATE C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 05 BEIJING 000183 SIPDIS DEPT FOR S, P, D, EAP/CM, EEB, AND H NSC FOR BADER, MEDEIROS, AND LOI E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/23/2030 TAGS: PREL [External Political Relations], PGOV [Internal Governmental Affairs], ECON [Economic Conditions], PHUM [Human Rights], EINV [Foreign Investments], CH [China (Mainland)] SUBJECT: SECRETARY'S INTERNET FREEDOM SPEECH: CHINA REACTION Classified By: DCM Robert Goldberg fo Reasons: 1.4(B), (D). Summary ------- ¶1. (C) Secretary Clinton's January 21 speech on Internet Freedom touched a nerve in China. Official reaction was negative, with harsh criticism coming from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an official statement and from other parts of the Chinese system through critical articles and editorials in the official press. Chinese Internet censors were deployed in force to block online commentary and coverage of the Secretary's speech, and as of January 24, sites in the United States that carried transcripts of the speech were inaccessible without VPN or other firewall-evading software. The few Chinese netizens and bloggers who did manage to access the speech and then dared write about it were generally supportive of the Secretary's message. Other Embassy contacts, including academic USA-watchers and journalists, lamented that the Secretary's speech would strengthen and embolden those in the Chinese system who advocated greater control over the Internet in China. They expressed concern that Internet freedom would be made into an "us vs. them" issue rather than a "right vs. wrong" issue. Contacts warned that Chinese officials see U.S. efforts to promote Internet freedom as an attack, repeatedly invoking the specter of "color revolution." Some contacts in the tech industry praised the speech as being "spot on" in its coverage of U.S. firms' difficulty with the Chinese business environment. Contacts outside Beijing were cautious with their comments. Embassy and consulate officers will continue to follow the reaction to the Secretary's remarks in the weeks ahead to assess their continuing impact on government, think tank, media, blogger and business actions with regard to the Internet. End Summary. Official Reaction Negative -------------------------- ¶2. (C) In a January 22 statement in reaction to the Secretary's Internet freedom speech, Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Ma Zhaoxu, said "we firmly oppose such words and deeds, which are against the facts and harmful to U.S.-China relations." Ma's remarks followed a January 21 press conference by Vice Foreign Minister He Yafei's in which he did not refer to the Secretary's speech, but urged the United States to refrain from "over-interpreting" the Google case, saying it should not be allowed to impact bilateral relations. Ma's statement was much more negative than initial unofficial comment from working-level MFA officers the morning of January 22. Asked about the speech, MFA North American and Oceanian Affairs Department U.S.A. Division Director An Gang told poloff that the MFA noticed that specific Chinese cases or individuals were not mentioned in the speech, and that "we are very happy about that." (Comment: the contrast between the "softer" comments from the USA desk and the harder language from the Spokesman several hours later suggests that the negative reaction to the speech originated at higher levels in the foreign policy hierarchy.) Media Reaction Dutifully Echoes MFA Criticism --------------------------------------------- ¶3. (SBU) Chinese media coverage of the Secretary's speech widely quoted the MFA statement. January 22 coverage included assertions that the Secretary's call for unrestricted access to the Internet could be regarded "as a disguised attempt to impose U.S. values in the name of democracy." Articles in the nationalist daily Global Times stated that the bulk of Internet comment originated in the West, "loaded with aggressive rhetoric against other countries," against which other countries cannot hope to defend. Beijing University Professor of Communications Hu Yong, quoted in the 21st Century Business Herald, said the Secretary's discussion of sharing technology to allow users to circumvent Internet censorship meant that the "Google incident is only the beginning of a rolling snowball." ¶4. (SBU) Most regional reporting in China emphasized that Internet freedom has now become embedded as a new diplomatic tool the U.S. foreign policy. Shanghai's influential Wenhui Daily ran a January 23 commentary calling Secretary Clinton's remarks "arrogant, illogical, and full of political shows and calculations," accusing her of having a "Cold War mentality." Some Chinese outlets rebutted U.S. charges by praising Chinese Internet practices. January 22 televised news programming reported on the benefits for Chinese users of Chinese governmental supervision of the Internet. Shanghai TV January 22 broadcast programming which painted Chinese online police in a positive light. BEIJING 00000183 002 OF 005 Blogger Community: Those that Saw it, Liked it --------------------------------------------- - ¶5. (SBU) Chinese netizens accessed the Secretary's speech and shared reactions through rough real-time translations on Twitter, blogs, and Google. The range of opinions among the self-selecting demographic of Chinese netizens, who had circumvented Chinese government blocks to blog and participate in Twitter-based discussions, ranged from supportive to skeptical, with the majority expressing agreement with the principles outlined in the Secretary's speech. In general, Chinese netizen comments focused on speculation about linkages between the Secretary's speech and Google's announcement that it was considering withdrawing from China. ¶6. (SBU) Many netizen reactions echoed the statements by blogger Lian Yue who tweeted that Secretary Clinton's speech "clarified the relation between Internet freedom and business prosperity, which gave better guidance for American companies operating in China." A Chinese blogger named Zhou Shugang wrote that the speech was "certain to have a positive effect and was welcomed by Chinese Internet users regarding the censorship problem in China." Others commented that the speech was an indication that the United States was leading the U.S.-China relationship in the right direction. ¶7. (SBU) Some Chinese bloggers viewed the Secretary's speech as "confrontational," but nonetheless inspiring to the Chinese people. - Chengcheng, a cartoonist-blogger, depicted Secretary Clinton as Joan of Arc, with a widely distributed graphic of "Hillary leads the people." Another Chinese Twitter user wrote, "What a historic speech( it is the launching of an Internet war, the confrontation between democracy and authoritarianism becoming public, and the beginning of a new Cold War." - Wen Yunchao, a blogger based in Guangzhou, similarly characterized the speech as "a declaration of war from a free nation to an autocracy. It might be as important as Churchill's Iron Curtain Speech... I will wait with hope. The direct mention of China also calls for a frank and honest discussion between Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao." -Gadfly artist and blogger Ai Weiwei, attending a Mission sponsored event in Beijing (see para 21), said the Secretary's speech "showed the power of the Internet to the world" and raised the U.S. Internet strategy to a new level. ¶8. (SBU) Some bloggers expressed skepticism. - Novelist and blogger Yang Hengjun tweeted, "the U.S. government has been talking about supporting world-wide Internet freedom for ages, but it hasn't done much yet." - Rao Jin, the founder of anti-CNN.com, a website critical of western media reporting, doubted the sincerity of the United States' commitment to the freedoms mentioned in Secretary Clinton's speech due to competing commercial and national security interests. Chinese bloggers, regardless of their outlook, have widely reported that Chinese web monitors have been aggressively deleting posts and content related to the Secretary's speech. China Watchers: Speech Will Provoke the Authorities --------------------------------------------- ------ ¶9. (C) Other contacts analyzed the Secretary's speech the way bloggers did, but were pessimistic about the effect of the speech on Chinese authorities. On January 22 Chen Jieren (protect), nephew of Politburo Standing Committee member He Guoqiang and editor of a Communist Youth League website, told poloff that following the controversy generated by Google's announcement, the issue of Internet freedom had been discussed several times within the Politburo Standing Committee which had agreed that the issue of Internet freedom had supplanted traditional human rights issues as a new "battleground" between the United States and China. Although he was not aware of any specific Standing Committee decisions, Chen said that President Hu Jintao had provided general guidance that the issue should not be allowed to cause major disruptions to U.S.-China relations. ¶10. (C) On January 21, speaking before the Secretary's speech, Yang Jisheng, Deputy Editor of the reform-oriented political digest Yanhuang Qunqiu, told poloff that the Communist Party viewed Internet freedom initiatives as a direct challenge to its ability to maintain social and political stability and, therefore, its legitimacy. He said that, in this context, the Party would resist international pressure on the Google issue and would increase restrictions on the Internet in the period leading up to the 18th Party Congress in 2012. He predicted that the Secretary's speech BEIJING 00000183 003 OF 005 would be viewed as directed at the Communist Party and would therefore generate uncertainty about U.S. intentions towards China. ¶11. (C) On January 23, a prominent Tsinghua University media and public opinion researcher pointed out that most Chinese media reactions to the Secretary's speech had simply republished the MFA statement and were not printing any quotations from the speech itself. Given the political sensitivity of the speech and the Google case, this was the only safe thing to do, he said. Any perceived support for the Secretary's speech in the press would "cross a red line" with censors. The researcher said the Chinese public had mixed feelings about the speech and the Google issue. While many in China were dissatisfied with Internet censorship, they also resented public criticism from U.S. officials, he said, predicting that the speech would increase nationalist sentiment in China. Another contact, a journalist at a Communist Youth League magazine, agreed that while it might cause a nationalist response, the Secretary's message "needed to be said." He predicted that the Chinese government would attempt to appeal to nationalism to counter the Secretary's speech. However, he noted that most current media commentary critical of the speech, and Google, was not being written by well known journalists, intellectuals or scholars whose silence could be read as a show of support for the speech - and for Google. ¶12. (C) Beijing University School of International Studies Assistant Professor Yu Wanli, one of Beijing University's better-known U.S.A. experts, told poloff January 23 that he had been "disappointed and depressed" when he read the Secretary's speech. "Those who tried to control the Internet more in China never had much support before," he said. "Most people believe information should be open, and the Internet should be open. The conservative, security people were the minority and many people just laughed at them." The Secretary's speech, however, gave great new energy to the "controllers" who could now plausibly argue that the United States was explicitly using the Internet as a tool for regime change. "The Internet belongs to every country," he complained; "we all can go there, we all can add to it, we all can learn from it. We Chinese were free there. Now the United States has claimed it for itself and so it will become an ideological battlefield." He asserted that, in the past, the Chinese authorities had paid relatively little attention to controlling the Internet, focusing only on the issues that were the most urgent and letting most netizens alone. "That is finished now. The Secretary's 'information curtain' remark will give the authorities what they need to 'harmonize' the Internet for all Chinese citizens." (Comment: 'harmonize' is an acidly sarcastic term in Chinese to describe official deletion or blockage of Internet content. Yu is nearly always laid back and even-tempered. His commentary on this issue was more emotional and bitter than poloff has seen from him in dozens of encounters over three years, even on extremely sensitive issues such as the Xinjiang riots or the demonstrations abroad against the Olympic torch relay in early 2008.) ¶13. (C) Yuan Peng, Director of the Institute of American Studies at the Ministry of State Security-affiliated China Institutes of Contemporary International Relations (CICIR), warned that Google's announcement had become a new irritant to the bilateral relationship with the potential to be even more dangerous than the Taiwan and Tibet issue. Yuan said that many Chinese citizens believed that Google's decision was part of a coordinated public/private effort by the USG to impose U.S. values on China, what he referred to as an "E-color revolution." As confirmation of this theory, Yuan cited Secretary Clinton's January 7 "21st Century Statecraft" dinner with several tech sector CEOs (including Google), Google's donations to President Obama's presidential campaign, and Secretary Clinton's January 21 speech on Internet freedom. ¶14. (C) CICIR researcher Guo Yongjun warned that there were people in China and other countries such as Iran who might see the "shadow of color revolution" in recent USG policies promoting Internet freedom and 21st century e-diplomacy. For example, Iranians might perceive Washington's new initiatives on Internet freedom or the advocacy of new technologies such as Twitter to be "aggressive" or harboring ulterior motives, such as promoting regime change, said Guo. Informed Chinese netizens already know how to circumvent the Great Firewall to access Facebook and Twitter, Guo said, including by using commercially available software. He feared, however, that if the USG provided free software that helped Chinese netizens overcome filters, this might politicize the issue of Internet freedom and force the PRC government to react. One possible BEIJING 00000183 004 OF 005 consequence, warned Guo, was that China might make it illegal to download either U.S.-provided or commercially available software that helped Internet surfers circumvent the Great Firewall. ¶15. (C) Professor Xu Jianguo of Beijing University's National School of Development said January 22 that restricting the Internet access of Chinese netizens would theoretically hamper development of cutting edge industries, but was skeptical this had happened in reality. Professor Wu Bingbing, also of Beijing University, said in the same meeting that the problem was that China's leaders did not yet feel comfortable with these new communications technologies and thus preferred to proceed cautiously. The Google issue and Secretary Clinton's speech were likely to prompt them to shift from a low-profile to a higher-profile response on Internet freedom. IT Industry: Speech Accurately Portrayed Business Environment --------------------------------------------- ---------------- ¶16. (C) The president of a strategic international trade consulting business in Beijing and chair of AmCham's working group on export controls, called the Secretary's speech "spot on, "directly capturing industry concerns about a business climate that is getting worse on a "day-to-day basis." He applauded the Secretary's speech as a means of bringing the Chinese to the table to address key concerns about the business environment and said the decision taken by Google was of enormous magnitude, indicating the depth of concern over issues it is facing here. As a result, he believes, the Chinese government's failure to respond to its people's opposition to censorship would embolden the netizen community in its efforts to evade government controls. ¶17. (C) Another high-tech industry consultant expressed concern that the Secretary's speech would dampen the U.S.-China business climate and drive it "to a new low." The consultant observed that "China has noticed that the NSA and the Pentagon have dominated cyberspace policy for over a year." Key officials, academics, and military leaders, according to this consultant, hold paranoid fears that the U.S. would one day launch a "zero-day" attack on all of China's critical infrastructure. The Secretary's speech and Google's recent actions, would amplify this belief. ¶18. (C) Reaction in northern China, where Intel has a multi-billion dollar manufacturing factory investment under construction, however, has thus far been limited. Intel's Dalian-based General Manager told Congen Shenyang poloff that the Secretary's speech had thus far not created a stir. Intel's GM had in the past several days met with several Dalian Vice Mayors, and reported Google and Internet freedom issues had not been raised. ¶19. (C) South China-based Internet portal contacts were reluctant to talk with ConGenoffs about ongoing media coverage of Google or broader internet freedom issues. A public relations manager from Netease initially refused to comment, saying it was not appropriate for her to offer an opinion on policy matters, but then guardedly reverted to official-sounding comments about why Internet regulation is important for the well-being of Chinese users and the maintenance of a positive online environment. ¶20. (C) A working-level official from the Guangzhou Municipal Informatization (sic) Office went further in sharing pro-government comments with ConGenoff, saying that Google is a business and should restrict itself to business matters, rather than venturing into political territory. The official said 2009 was a very strong year for internet companies in China and that internet restrictions had not dampened individual user's online experiences or companies' earnings. Mission Outreach on the Secretary's Speech ------------------------------------------ ¶21. (C) January 22, Embassy Beijing and Consulates General Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenyang hosted a simultaneous digital video conference viewing of the Secretary's speech for dozens of local bloggers, with an additional 300 netizens attending via the Internet. Mission estimates indicate Twitter communications and blog entries will reach a combined audience of millions of persons. Following the speech, participating bloggers, who were generally supportive of the Secretary's message, engaged in a lively discussion focused on what specific measures the United States government could take to promote Internet freedom in China and whether the speech constituted a new direction for U.S. foreign policy on BEIJING 00000183 005 OF 005 China. HUNTSMAN
And the second cable:
VZCZCXRO5289 RR RUEHCN RUEHGH RUEHVC DE RUEHGZ #0562/01 1350859 ZNR UUUUU ZZH R 150859Z MAY 07 FM AMCONSUL GUANGZHOU TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 6057 INFO RUEHC/DEPT OF LABOR WASHDC RUEATRS/DEPT OF TREASURY WASHDC RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC RUEHOO/CHINA POSTS COLLECTIVE RUEHGV/USMISSION GENEVA 0445 RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC RUEKJCS/DIA WASHDC RHHMUNA/HQ USPACOM HONOLULU HI UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 GUANGZHOU 000562 SIPDIS SIPDIS USPACOM FOR FPA STATE FOR EAP/CM, EA/CIP, AND EB/CBA STATE PASS USTR FOR STRATFORD, WINTER USDOC FOR 4420/ITA/MAC/MCQUEEN E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: ECON [Economic Conditions], ETRD [Foreign Trade], EINT [Economic and Commercial Internet], TSPL [Science and Technology Policy], CH [China (Mainland)] SUBJECT: Guangzhou's Software Industry: Perspectives from a Software Park and a Software College ¶1. (U) Summary: The development of Guangdong Province's software industry has been a key priority in recent years for China's Ministries of Commerce, Information Industry, and Education, among others. Guangzhou has emerged as a focal point for the establishment of the province's leading software parks and schools of software engineering. Tianhe Software Park, Guangzhou's first and largest, boasts 1,203 enterprises and was recently designated by the Ministry of Science and Technology as a "Software Industry Export and Innovation Base" with a mandate to boost China's participation in the international software export and out-sourcing markets. The South China University of Technology School of Software Engineering ranks 15th out of China's 36 software schools, and is one of only two such schools in Guangdong. Both the Software Park and the SCUT Software School maintain extensive ties to leading Chinese companies as well as multinational companies. End Summary. Overview of the Software Industry in China - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶2. (U) According to Zhan Yanzun, Vice President of the China Software Industry Base, Administrative Commission of Guangzhou, Tianhe Software Park, the value of the domestic Chinese software market is between RMB 100 billion to 150 billion (USD 13 - 19.5 billion) per year. Currently, Beijing, Guangdong, and Shanghai are the top three locations in the country in terms of the size of the software industry. China's 11th Five-Year Plan (2006-2011) calls for the development of embedded software, open source software, and middleware which are key focal points for Guangdong. Zhan also noted China's interest in pursuing overseas markets. The National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC) and the Ministry of Commerce (MOFCOM) encourage domestic software companies to compete in the international marketplace. The Ministry of Science and Technology (MOST) and MOFCOM have both recently sent delegations to North America on market exploration trips. According to Zhan, the delegation's biggest target market is North America, followed by Europe, and then Southeast Asia. In the North American market, Chinese government officials hope to set up representative offices in San Francisco and New Jersey; they will be responsible for collecting market information and carrying out marketing functions. The Making of Guangzhou's Top Software Park - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶3. (U) Guangzhou Municipality boasts four software parks: the Guangzhou Software Park, the Guangzhou Tianhe Software Park, the Nansha District Software Park and the Huanghuagang Information Park. The Tianhe Software Park is the largest of the four in terms of size (it is the largest among all 11 national-level software parks in China, with a planned area of 12.25 square kilometers) and output (70 percent of software output in Guangzhou). Established in 1991, it is also the oldest of the four. In the last 16 years, Tianhe Software Park has been named "National Hi-tech Zone" by the National Commission of Science and Technology (or MOST), a "Software Industry Export and Innovation Base" and "National Industry Base for Online Games" by the NDRC and the Ministry of Information Industry (MII). The Tianhe Software Park has 19 branch parks. ¶4. (U) By the end of 2006, according to Qiao Xizhong, Director of Service Industries at Tianhe Software Park, there were 1,203 enterprises (290 were foreign-invested and the rest were domestic, largely Guangdong local enterprises) in Tianhe Software Park, employing about 50,000 persons, with a total annual output of RMB 25.3 billion (USD 3.3 billion). Forty percent of the park's output came from the telecom and value-added services, 25 percent from financial services and the remainder from office automation (OA) and business intelligence (BI). -- The top three domestic enterprises in the park are Netease, which had revenues of RMB 2.6 billion (USD 338 million) in 2006, Digitalchina and Sinobest. -- Other key enterprises, which have an annual output above RMB 120 million (USD 15.6 million), include ChinaWeal, Excellence, Asinfo, Chuangxiang, and Keyou. -- The top three foreign-invested enterprises are Ericsson from Sweden, and two Hong Kong enterprises. -- Other key foreign-invested enterprises include Trans Cosmos from Japan and the RIB Group from Germany, both of which are engaged in software outsourcing. GUANGZHOU 00000562 002 OF 003 ¶5. (U) Projects currently underway in the Park include: -- the Internet Digital Center (IDC), which will house more than 3,000 servers. -- the Southern R&D Center of China Mobile, which will cost RMB 1.7 billion (USD 221 million) in the first phase with a 490,000 square meter work area, -- a four-star hotel and apartment buildings for foreign staff, namely project managers and technicians from countries such as India, the United States, Germany, Japan, and Holland. A road is also being built and this will cut travel time to ten minutes between the software park and the Eastern Railway Station by the end of this year. Encouraging the Growth of the Software Park and Industry - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶6. (U) Software Park Vice President Zhan noted that MOFCOM granted the title "Software Exports and Innovation Base" to Guangzhou, Nanjing, Hangzhou, Jinan and Chengdu in December 2006 to boost China's participation in the international software market, especially in software exports and outsourcing. Zhan said 35 enterprises in the park are engaged in software outsourcing, and that all are members of the park's Software Outsourcing Association. ¶7. (U) The Guangzhou Municipal Government released "No. 44 document" in 2006 to attract investors to the software industry. Incentives offered to enterprises to settle in the park include house rental subsidies, post-doctoral study subsidies, and income tax preferential policies for top management members. Software Park Officials address IPR issues - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶8. (U) Zhan said that IPR protection has been a focus of both the Guangzhou and Tianhe District governments alike. He also noted that the Tianhe Software Park is a member of the Guangzhou IPR Protection Team, which is headed by Vice Mayor Wang Xiaoling. The Software Park is involved in drafting and implementing the team's action plans on IPR protection. The Human Resources Component of the Park - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶9. (U) Zhan said Guangzhou's goal is to have 200,000 professionals in the software and cartoon/animation industries by 2010. Zhan believed that there is a current shortage of high-end software professionals in Guangzhou. Enterprises in the park recruit both new graduates and experienced workers, but company-specific training is provided to both before they begin work. Most enterprises conduct training on their own, but Zhan said that enterprises will likely utilize on on-site training center after completion. Enterprises in the park last year recruited roughly 1,200 college gradates from across China, with most coming from Guangdong. According to Zhan, Sun Yat-sen University and the South China University of Technology (SCUT) have excellent software schools so they do not need to look far to recruit qualified graduates. South China University of Technology - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶10. (U) South China University of Technology (SCUT) was established in 1952. In 2003, SCUT ranked the 20th among the 570 universities in China. SCUT has been named a key university of China by the Ministry of Education. The university is famous for engineering and has 29 schools, 67 undergraduate programs, 177 master programs, and 75 doctoral programs. SCUT has a state key laboratory, two national engineering research centers, one "National Class A" architecture design and research institute, and four key labs certified by the Ministry of Education. In 2005, SCUT professors published 2,326 papers in academic journals; in 2006, SCUT applied for and received 207 patents. In 2006, SCUT won more than USD 43 million in funding from the central and provincial governments. The Software Engineering College at SCUT - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶11. (U) China currently has 36 software engineering schools. The software school at SCUT was established in 2001 by MOE and the GUANGZHOU 00000562 003 OF 003 Economy Development Planning Committee; it ranks 15th in China. It has been named one of the "National Pilot Schools for Software Engineering". The school includes master's programs for computer software, theory, and software engineering, and also has an undergraduate program in software engineering. In 2006, the school carried out 44 research projects and received RMB 7.78 million (USD 1 million) in government funding. The school was awarded five patents and registered 18 types of IPR in software. According to Deng Huifang, dean of the software school, MOE periodically evaluates the schools' academic and research achievements and decides if they measure up to established criteria. At present, Guangdong Province has only two national pilot schools of software engineering, the other one at Sun Yat-Sen University. With the pilot school designation, SCUT can charge high tuition fees, which are about 60 percent higher than other schools. ¶12. (U) SCUT's School of Software Engineering currently has 30 full-time teachers and 46 part-time teachers. Fifteen of the teachers are from foreign countries. Of the school's 1,475 students are 1,132 undergraduate and 343 postgraduates. Most of the students are from Guangdong Province, the ratio of male students to female students is 6:1. Each year, the school graduates 300 with bachelor degrees and 200 with a master's degree. Most of the graduates currently work in IT-related fields. More than 70 per cent of the graduates are working in private enterprises, and about two percent are self employed. About 96 percent of SCUT graduates found employment rate in 2005 and 2006. Collaborating with Foreign Companies and Institutions - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶13. (U) The School of Software Engineering of SCUT cooperates extensively with multinational IT companies such as IBM China Ltd., Microsoft Asia Research Center, HP China Ltd., Intel China Ltd., Oracle Beijing, BEA, CISCO, and SUN. The school currently has an IBM mainframe education center, a Linux education training center, eight labs which work jointly with the companies, three student innovation studios and one student industrial practice center. Companies like IBM and Microsoft not only provide funding and equipment to the research centers, but also work with the centers to design courses for the students. To keep up with the development of international software, the school also incorporates courses from universities like North West University from U.S., York University from U.K., SAP from Germany, and IIT from India. Guangdong's Software Exports - - - - - - - - - - - - - - ¶14. (U) According to Deng, Guangdong's exports of software products amounted to USD 1.9 billion in 2005, or 50 percent of the country's total software industry exports, which stood at USD 3.8 billion. Shenzhen, Guangzhou and Zhuhai are the top three cities in the province in terms of software exports. The major overseas markets for Guangdong are Hong Kong, Japan, Southeast Asia, Taiwan, Europe, and the U.S. Guangdong currently has 1,181 software companies. Guangdong has 14 of the top 100 software companies of China; six are headquartered in Guangzhou, seven in Shenzhen, and one in Zhuhai. These companies include Guangzhou GaoKe Communications Technology Co., Ltd., Sinobest, Guangzhou Haige Communications Industry Group Co. Ltd., and Guangzhou Ziguang North America Science and Technology Ltd. GOLDBERG
That’s all from China for now. █
