Apple Apps Blocked In China

Apple appears to have blocked iPhone applications related to the Dalai Lama in its China App Store, according to news reports.

This would make Apple the latest U.S. technology company to censor its services in China.

It is  also another skirmish between Chinese officials desperate to keep control of information in the country and rapidly advancing technology, which is making that aim more and more difficult.

A report on the IT World website says apps, appearing in most countries’ versions of the App Store, do not currently appear in the Chinese version.

And it is not only information about the Dalai Lama that’s being cut off. Another app related to Rebiya Kadeer, who like the Dalai Lama is an exiled minority leader out of favor with the China’s authorities, is also unavailable in the China App Store.

IT World says the apparent censorship comes after carrier China Unicom launched iPhone sales two months ago, making regulatory approval of the phone’s contents in the country necessary for the first time.

“We continue to comply with local laws,” Apple spokeswoman Trudy Muller said in an e-mail when asked about the missing apps. “Not all apps are available in every country”

Tibetan Characters Now Supported by Smart Phonesb

Social activist and software designer Nathan Freitas has found a way for Tibetan writing characters to be supported by the new  Android smart phones.

The software enables Tibetan support in all applications on Android, including the web browser, e-mail apps, instant messaging, and short messaging (SMS), among others.

Freitas says on his Web site: “thanks to the open-source movement and the hard work of many Tibet supporters and typography experts, I am happy to announce that  rendering of Tibetan characters is now supported on the most fantastic of mobile smartphones, Google Android!!!

Tendor’s Yarlung Raging blog viewed on a T-Mobile myTouch3G Android Phone

For those interested the Freitas’s Web site has for no charge the technical “how to” to support the Tibetan language on Android.

Daily RFA News Summary December 10

This a summary of stories being carried on Radio Free Asia today December 10, 2009. Please use the links to go directly to the relevant RFA language website to listen to the stories or read original language transcripts. Some items are translated into English and are available on RFA’s English language page.

If there are stories that you want to hear more about or you would like to see covered we would love to hear from you. If you have a story to tell we will listen.RFAs main page has contact details for all the language services.

Chinese Crackdown On Video Sharing Websites

Chinese regulators ordered shut hundreds of video sharing websites in a new push to control Internet content, reports said Monday.

The AFP wire service quoted the China Business News as saying “several well-known websites were either closed down or ordered to delete all links to downloaded films or TV series in the past week.”

Most content offered by peer-to-peer websites violates copyright and is not “above board”, the business daily said.

AFP said popular sites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter have been blocked in China as authorities try to tighten the flow of information, especially following unrest in Xinjiang this year and Tibet last year.

RFA daily news summary Thurdays Nov 12

Radio Free Asia’s Daily Language Service News Summary

RFA EXCLUSSIVE:  TODAY AN INTERVIEW OF PRESIDENT OBAMA’S BROTHER BY THE CANTONESE SERVICE .

This a summary of stories being carried on Radio Free Asia today November 12, 2009. Please use the links to go directly to the relevant RFA language website to listen to the stories or read original language transcripts. Some items are translated into English and are available on RFA’s English language page.

If there are stories that you want to hear more about or you would like to see covered we would love to hear from you. If you have a story to tell we will listen.RFAs main page has contact details for all the language services.

Lao:

1. Lao Ministry of Energy and Mining to inspect investors for those who get mining concessions but never start operations, hoping to sell to bigger players for profit.
2. UXO Lao severely short of funds and labor. The Government is under pressure to clear land for farmers but officials say they lack money and employees to keep up with demand.
3. AIDS center estimates 5000 HIV cases in Laos. Earlier the Government announced 3,900 HIV/AIDS cases, but has now increased the estimate.
4. Lao sports official says only 1000 tickets left for SEA Games’ opening and closing ceremonies.
5. Sky-rocketing prices in Vientiane generate more land-related conflicts.
6. According to health official, 1,500 people seek medical help every month for skin problems caused by fake cosmetics.
7. Vientiane lacks data about mining potential need to attract investors.
8. Lao university students concerned by the lack of education opportunities for underprivileged youth.

Tibetan:

1. Dalai Lama ends public teachings in Arunachal Pradesh by exhorting thousands of his followers to maintain Buddhist culture.
2. Chinese FM spokesman Qin Gang says President Barack Obama’s race and background should mean he is sympathetic to China’s opposition to the Dalai Lama and Tibetan independence.
3. China should abolish secretive “black jails” used to hold aggrieved citizens, Human Rights Watch says in new report launched ahead of President Obama’s visit.
4. President Obama leaves on his debut presidential tour of Asia seeking to revive America’s prestige as regional power. It is seen as a trip much heavier on symbolism than diplomatic substance.
5. U.S. Treasury Sec Timothy Geithner says a strong dollar is “very important” to the U.S. and praised China’s role in the global economic recovery.
6. The Dharamsala-based Active Non-violence Education Center calls for objective reporting by media to spread the message of peace according to Tibetan Administration-in-exile reports.

Burmese:

1. Japan most likely will resume Official Development assistance to Burma after the 2010 election according to the Japanese based NGO Burma Info.
2. India’s policy towards Burma one sided, says Human Rights Watch Asia director in press conf in India.
3. 88 student leader Ma Mee Mee transferred again from Insein to Kathar prison and Ko Thet Zaw from Moulmein to Insein.

Vietnamese:

1. Vietnam Parliament to supervise creation of schools and improvement in teaching standards.
2. Vietnam Parliament prepares the next week’s Q&A for Vietnam PM Nguyen Tan Dung.
3. Price of gold on Vietnamese market continues to soar.
4. OSC: French PM arrives in Vietnam for talks on economic ties.
5. UN Food and Agriculture Organization hails achievement of Vietnam in fighting hunger.

Mandarin:

1. RFA EXCLUSIVE – Family vows to resist forced demolition with blood in eastern China city of Linyi. PHOTO
2. Longtime Sichuan rights activist Liu Zhengyou arrested on charges of fraud.
3. Police round up petitioners in Beijing and Shanghai before arrival of President Obama.
4. Tiananmen mother Ding Zilin urges President Obama to rescue jailed dissident Liu Xiaobo.
5. Wife in letter calls on President Obama to help locate kidnapped rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng.
6. LA-based Chinese groups request President Obama push China on rights.
7. Human Rights Watch blasts China over “black jails” in which petitioners for justice and detained.
8. Panel: Obama’s China trip and US-China relations.
9. Shanghai petitioners express support for rights activist Feng Zhenghu, stuck in limbo at Tokyo airport as entry to Shanghai denied.
10. Canada-based Chinese activists mobilize to help Feng Zhenghu stuck in Tokyo airport.
11. Panel – New policy for addressing petitioners’ complaints: Central government officials will visit provinces, municipalities to meet local petitioners.
12. Reform of China’s education system.
13. Chongqing government promotes “Red-themed” stage plays.

Khmer:

1. Outsted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin speaks to 300 govt officials and business representatives at the Ministry of Finance in Phnom Penhy. He thanks Hun Sen for the opportunity. Later meets with Thai supporters in Siem Reap, visits Angkor Wat. No press interview.
2. Poipet security situation is normal but cross-border business is estimated down 60%. No Thais are allowed to cross the border to visit the Cambodian casinos.
3. National assembly set for Nov. 16 session on suspending Sam Rainsy’s immunity in order to investigate allegations he damaged state property by removing a Vietnam border marker.
4. A Chinese road construction company awarded U.S. $73M loan from China begins 50-km detour of Road 78 from Stung Treng to Ratanakiri to bypass hydroplant Sesan 2.

Cantonese:

1. RFA EXCLUSIVE: INTERVIEW with President Obama’s half brother who suggests his visit to China “has to respect the other side.” PHOTOS AND VIDEO
2. U.S. Embassy in Beijing, Guangzhou and Shanghai consulates invite local bloggers to one hour video meeting for background on Obama
3. visit. Bloggers speak on China’s Firewall.
4. Many organizations continue to urge Obama to speak on China’s human rights situation. HK group will demonstrate tomorrow. Dissidents in China under tight control.
5. Human Rights Watch report on “black jails.”

Korean:

1. Human Rights in Asia, a Japanese human rights group, stages campaign urging EC to press the Luxemburg Government to report transfers of Kim Jong Il’s allegedly illegally obtained funds from Switzerland.
2. Former State Dept senior economist William Newcomb recommends financial sanctions to counter North Korea’s illicit activities.
3. South Korea lambasts North Korea for what it calls its planned provocation in the West Sea.
4. FAO report on crop prospects in North Korea.
5. US envoy Stephane Bosworth to visit North Korea soon for direct talks.
6. News analysis – North Korea secret power succession.
7. News analysis – North Korea observatory: A song in praise of Kim Jung Un.

Uyghur:

1. East Turkistan Republic Day.
2. Conference on Uyghur region in Turkey’s Kocaoli city.
3. On the issue of illegal prisons in China.

 END

Hard Times in Tibet

Getting news out of Tibet remains extraordinarily difficult since the March 2008 uprising that rattled Chinese authorities on the eve of last year’s Beijing Olympics. But now a number of sources are reporting that at least three people have been executed for their roles in the unrest. They would be the first people executed in Tibet in connection with the uprising.

This latest news came from Tibetan exile groups and local sources, and the Chinese authorities so far haven’t said a word. One of the men executed was identified as Lobsang Gyaltsen, age 22 or 23, from Lhasa’s Lubuk township. He was reportedly allowed a last visit from his mother where he asked her to make sure his son was received an education.

A spokesman for an exile group identified the other two people executed as a young woman and a Tibetan youth from Amdo Aba in Sichuan province.

Another source said,“I got information from Lhasa that three Tibetans who were involved in the 2008 protests were executed on Oct. 20, in Lhasa, around 11 a.m.. The Chinese authorities execute Tibetans in secrecy and never reveal details.”

Rioting rocked Lhasa in March last year and spread to Tibetan-dominated regions of western China, causing official embarrassment ahead of the August 2008 Beijing Olympics. Officials say 21 people—including three Tibetan protesters—died in the violence.

Last Thursday, the U.S. Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC) released a report saying at least 670 Tibetans have been jailed in 2009 for activities that include peaceful protest or leaking information abroad. It qualified the number saying it was “a figure certain to be incomplete”

The report says the crackdown concentrated on Tibetan communities, monasteries, nunneries, schools, and workplaces. It noted “security measures intensified in some Tibetan areas” during the 2009 anniversaries of the protests.

By the end of April 2009, TAR courts had sentenced 84 Tibetans to punishments ranging from fixed jail terms to life, as well as to death or death with a two-year reprieve, in connection with the 2008 riots, the CECC report said.

It also detailed a widespread “patriotic education” campaign that requires monks and nuns to pass examinations on political texts, agree that Tibet is historically a part of China, and denounce the Dalai Lama.

“The government has in the past year used institutional, educational, legal and propaganda channels to pressure Tibetan Buddhists to modify their religious views and aspirations.”

Amnesty International says it has documented “a pattern of unfair trials, including a failure on the part of the Chinese authorities to distinguish between individuals engaged in peaceful protests and those perpetrating criminal acts.

Tibetans say the official media never report on executions in Tibet—but they do cover capital punishment and criminal trials in the case of ethnic Uyghurs, who had their own violent run-ins with the authorities earlier this year

Tibetan writer, TV presenter detained

RFA’s Tibetan service has been chasing down details about the detention in Sichuan province of a Tibetan writer and television journalist. Washu Rangjung, 26, was taken away by police on Sept. 11 just before midnight by officials from the Kardze [in Chinese, Ganzi] Autonomous Tibetan Prefecture, which comprises Serthar [in Chinese, Seda] county.

The Tibetans you’ve never heard of

Who hasn’t heard of Tibet? And who outside of Asia can even pronounce “Uyghur”?

Millions of Uyghurs (pronounced “WEE-ger”) live in China’s northwesternmost province, Xinjiang. They, like the Tibetans, are a religious as well as an ethnic minority; they have chafed under Beijing’s heavy-handed rule for the last six decades; and Chinese authorities have faced persistent accusations of repression and abuse against them. But the latest news is that Chinese authorities have closed a Web site aimed at promoting understanding between Han Chinese and ethnic Uyghurs following allegations that the site was linked to foreign “extremists,” the site’s owner said.