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TECHNOLOGY A23
Tuesday 8 March 2016
China looks to ramp up Internet growth, and its controls
GERRY SHIH Delegates read the work report delivered by Chinese Premier Li Keqiang during the opening ses- tic product in the five years
Associated Press sion of the annual National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, Saturday, through 2020, which he
BEIJING (AP) — China’s gov- March 5, 2016. said would mark a “remark-
ernment has highlighted able achievement.”
big data, encryption tech- Associated Press
nology and “coretechnolo- The five-year plan calls for
gies” such as semiconduc- measure to maintain do- transparent and interna- facturing to government to all families in large cities to
tors as the key elements of mestic order. tional governance system health care, need to con- have access to 100 mega-
its push to grow into a tech China’s development plan and active participation in nect to the Web and raise byte-per-second Internet
powerhouse, according calls for a better cyberse- international Internet gov- their efficiency as part of service and broadband
to a new five-year plan re- curity approval system and ernance efforts. an overarching national coverage reaching 98 per-
leased Saturday that envis- more “precise” Web man- Premier Li Keqiang high- strategy called “Internet cent of the population in
ages the Internet as a ma- agement to “clean up ille- lighted the promise of the Plus.” He vowed to raise incorporated villages.
jor source of growth as well gal and bad information.” Internet, saying Saturday research and technolo- At the same time, Chinese
as a potential risk. The plan also calls for a that various traditional sec- gy spending to account for leaders, wary of over-rely-
Even as it highlighted the multilateral, democratic, tors, ranging from manu- 2.5 percent of gross domes- ing on foreign technology,
need to improve Internet will seek to boost China’s
infrastructure to rural ar- homegrown industry and
eas and unlock the digital cut down on imports — a
economy’s potential, Chi- strategy that has drawn
nese economic planners complaints from trade part-
called for a more secure ners like the United States.
and better managed Web, Similar to previous years,
with enhanced Internet when Chinese lead-
control systems, Internet se- ers highlighted industries
curity laws and real-name such as e-commerce as a
registration policies. growth focus, the new draft
of China’s development
Chinese officials including plan specifically elevated
Internet czar Lu Wei have big data and cloud com-
played down concerns puting, relatively new and
over what critics have de- promising fields that Chi-
scribed as China’s expand- nese industry experts view
ing Web censorship, saying as not yet cornered by U.S.
that it is the Chinese gov- companies that dominate
ernment’s sovereign pre- other parts of the technol-
rogative and a necessary ogy market.q
Amazon reverses course,
will allow local encryption
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon Amazon spokeswoman and data stored within the In this Sept. 16, 2015, file photo, Amazon’s Fire tablet is displayed
is reversing course and will Robin Handaly said Satur- cloud, is still encrypted. in San Francisco.
let customers resume en- day that a full encryption Amazon is one of 15 com-
crypting locally stored data option will be offered in a panies, including Google, Associated Press
on their Fire tablets. Fire software update com- Facebook and Microsoft,
Amazon removed the abil- ing this spring. who filed court papers says unlocking Farook’s Apple is scheduled to ask
ity to encrypt local data in She said the company had backing Apple in its fight phone would make all oth- the judge to reverse her or-
September because it said no further comment on the with the FBI. er iPhones more vulnerable der on March 22.q
customers weren’t using issue. Farook and his wife killed 14 to future attacks.
the service. Encryption protects user co-workers in San Bernardi-
That decision came under data by scrambling it and no County on Dec. 2.
new scrutiny last week as only allowing access with a The government says Fa-
Apple squares off against password. rook’s encrypted, work-
the FBI over access to the Amazon removed device issued iPhone could con-
encrypted iPhone of San encryption, but commu- tain information about ac-
Bernardino shooter Syed nication between Fire de- complices or other details
Rizwan Farook. vices and Amazon’s cloud, about the case. But Apple
