Domestic procurement urged

The government should buy more domestic products to enhance innovation capability of Chinese enterprises, said deputies to the Fifth Session of the 10th National People's Congress (NPC), the country's top legislature.

Zhu Jian, deputy principal of Zhejiang University, suggested large government equipment purchases should go to domestic enterprises for their future development.

He cited the example of a 30-million-yuan call for bids in East China's Jiangxi Province for road construction last December, when equipment for the project was required to be "imported or produced by foreign-funded companies in China".

Nan Cunhui, CEO of Zhejiang-based Chint Group and also a lawmaker, said government procurement has a demonstrative role, which can boost recognition of a brand and further develop the enterprise.

In the government work report of 2007, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao vowed to further increase funds for innovation, improve rewards and enhance the government procurement system for innovation.

School applies for trademark

Fudan University based in Shanghai, one of China's elite seats of higher learning, has registered its name as a trademark.

It is the first college to register its name as a trademark in Shanghai.

Liu Jiping, an official in charge of the general affairs office of Fudan University, said applying for the trademark "Fudan" is meant to better protect the university from unauthorized use of its name by private businesses.

"By being confirmed as a famous trademark we are efficiently protected from industrial and commercial concerns in case there is a infringement," said Liu.

There were about 110,000 patented trademarks in Shanghai by the end of 2006.

Domain names for 1 yuan

China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC), the country's domain name administrator, announced that the first-year registration fee for domain names ending in ".cn" will be one yuan.

CNNIC is hoping the move will attract increased registration from enterprises and netizens. Previously the cost was between 80 and 100 yuan to register a domain name in China.

People who register a domain name before May 31 will be charged only one yuan for the first year, while subsequent years will still cost 80 to 100 yuan a year, according to CNNIC.

At the end of 2006, China had 1.8 million websites that ended in ".cn", up 64.4 percent from the year previous. The ".cn" suffix is Asia's largest and the world's fourth-largest, statistics from the CNNIC show.

In all, there are 4.2 million registered domain names in China, with most using the suffix .com or .net.

New jet with own innovations

More than 70 regional jets with China's own innovations have been ordered with the maiden flights scheduled for March 2008, says senior executives of the aircraft makers involved in the project.

Buyers include leading regional airlines such as Shanghai Airlines Co, Ltd. and Shandong Aviation Group. An electric company in Shanghai and an airline company based in Xiamen, in East China's Fujian Province have also signed letters of intent to buy the aircraft.

ARJ-21, which is short for "advanced regional jet for the 21st century", is expected to be delivered to clients beginning in the third quarter of 2009, said Liu Daxiang, a senior executive of the China Aviation Industry Corporation I.

ARJ-21 has a passenger cabin 3.14 meters wide and 2.06 meters high with 78 to 105 seats. It can fly at an altitude ceiling of 39,000 feet.

Begun in 2002, the ARJ-21 is a joint project between eight domestic aviation companies and 19 international component suppliers.

Curse plagiarized?

A political advisor lambasted director Zhang Yimou's blockbuster movie Curse of the Golden Flower for plagiarism, Xinhua News Agency reports.

Wei Minglun, chairman of the Chinese Theater Literature Association, said Zhang's Curse was based on the Chinese classic drama Thunderstorm, but the production team neither mentioned the adaptation in the trailer nor gave credit on the screen after the movie.

"The movie is apparently a plagiarism," said Wei, a member of the 10th National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), the country's top advisory body.

"Although the producers mentioned the adaptation on some publicity occasions, they never gave the original work formal status in the movie," Wei said at the annual session of CPPCC, which closed on March 15.

Thunderstorm by Cao Yu, one of the most remarkable modern Chinese dramatists in the 20th century, has enjoyed widespread fame and been adapted to TV dramas and modern plays many times, but never such as this, when the masterpiece's storyline was borrowed completely in such a casual manner, Wei said.

(China Daily 03/19/2007 page9)