Technology investment

China's science and technology investment in 2007 maintained stable growth, according to the Science and Technology Financial Input Report jointly issued by the National Bureau of Statistics, the Ministry of Science and Technology and the Ministry of Finance.

The gross domestic expenditure on R&D (GERD) amounted to 371 billion yuan, 70.7 billion yuan more than last year, up by 23.5 percent year on year, according to the report. GERD as percentage to GDP reached a record high of 1.49 percent in 2007, the report said.

Top IT inventions

TD-SCDMA terminal solutions, satellite digital TV integrated SOC (system on chip) and six other projects were recently selected as top IT inventions in 2008 by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT).

TD-SCDMA terminal solutions, developed by Leadcore Technology, is a combination of several essential technologies supported by self-reliant IPRs, which include TD-HSDPA protocol stack, TD-SCDMA/GSM-GPRS automatic dual mode switch, enhanced terminal energy saving and WAP2.0.

Hangzhou NationalChip, allied with Zhejiang University, to develop a SOC chip for reception and decoding of satellite TV signals and commercialize the technology by adding solutions in software and hardware for TV set-top-box.

Illegal publications

China confiscated about 83.84 million pornographic, pirated and unauthorized publications in 2008, the National Office for Cleaning Up Pornography and Fighting Illegal Publications said recently.

Law enforcement departments investigated 25,384 cases involving the production, sale and distribution of illegal publications last year, including 328 criminal cases, Xinhua reported.

The office said eight illegal disc production lines were closed and 46,000 shops and 1,420 printing and copying enterprises were shut down.

Also, 14,000 illegal websites were closed and more than 490,000 items of "harmful" content were deleted, Xinhua reported.

The office said a nationwide campaign launched in October to crack down on false reports, unauthorized publications and fraudulent journalists and media organizations achieved "major progress."

(China Daily 02/09/2009 page9)