The Financial Times points out that the drop in stature may not be as much to do with the UK as it is with China:

Gordon Edge, director of economics and markets at the British Wind Energy Association, said the report was unfair on the UK: “I think this report says more about China than it does about the UK.”

The improvement in China’s score is partly down (sic) to the country’s renewable energy policy, which aims to generate 15 per cent of energy from non-carbon sources by 2020. The government’s focus on infrastructure had made China especially attractive for investors, Mr Edge said.

The United States tops off the list, though its future remains uncertain due in part to the upcoming election, according to the report.

Dong allegedly tipped off his younger brother, Dong Dewei, and a former classmate, Zhao Shuya, about the acquisition, and both allegedly profited from the deal. According to Xinhua News Agency, they raked in 50 million yuan ($7.3 million) and 1 million yuan ($146,000) respectively, after buying Yan Bian Road stock before the deal was finalized and publicized. Although the three defendants have reportedly already confessed to the crimes, they denied their confessions in court, claiming they were extracted through intimidation and inducement by Chinese police.

Authorities discovered Jin was carrying about $30,000 in cash as well as over 1,000 confidential electronic and paper proprietary documents, all belonging to her former employer, known only in federal documents as “Company A.” According to the indictment against her, Jin was storing the information on a laptop, various hard drives, a thumb drive and a number of data CDs when her luggage was searched.

“We have to be vigilant in preserving the integrity of trade secrets to provide an honest playing field among business competitors, whether foreign or domestic. Trade secrets often are a business’s most valuable assets, and protecting them from theft and betrayal is a high priority for law enforcement,” Patrick J. Fitzgerald, the U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois, said in a statement released on Wednesday.

While an official release from the Department of Justice claims that Company A spent “hundreds of millions of dollars on research and development for the proprietary information” that Jin had in her possession, reports by the Chicago Tribune and Information Week both put that price tag at $600 million. If convicted, Jin faces a maximum penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine for each charge.

A whopper of a sentence came in on Monday for the Chinese-born engineer who last May was convicted of conspiring to hand over U.S. military secrets to China. Chi Mak, 67, was given 24 1/2 years for smuggling top secret data, acting as an unregistered foreign agent in the U.S., attempting to violate export control laws and lying to the FBI, according to a story by Fox News. Mak’s defense asked for 10 years in prison while prosecutors asked for 30, though he could have been sentenced with as many as 35 years based on his convictions.

U.S. District Judge Cormac J. Carney presided over the ruling. Mak reportedly asked the judge for leniency before the sentence came in. Carney had this to say:

“He’s a very humble man, a very warm man and he wants to be helpful, but it’s those traits and that persona that allowed him to pass information to the People’s Republic of China.”

He added:

“I do believe a high-end sentence is appropriate here.”

According to the Fox News story, Mak worked for Anaheim-based naval defense contractor Power Paragon. He was arrested late in 2005. Both his wife, Rebecca Laiwah Chiu, and brother, Tai Mak, pleaded guilty last year as well. Chiu is currently serving three years in prison while Tai Mak faces a 10 year maximum.

Mak’s attorney said they will file an appeal.

“Alpha has suffered and continues to suffer irreparable damage as a result of defendant’s misappropriation of Alpha’s confidential, proprietary and trade secret information.”

Vance hasn’t shown up to any of his eight scheduled court appearances, maybe because he was so busy acquiring jobs at rival companies. In 2005, according to the Herald Tribune, he worked for Florida-based Alpha Mining Systems, Alpha’s China-based competitor Guizhou Tire Co. and United Arab Emirates-based Al Dobowi Group. His job description? Hand over secret Alpha documents to its rival firms, including design blueprints, and advise rivals’ clients that they now can get Alpha designed tires directly from Guizhou.

There’s no word on whether Vance can afford to pay the $19.7 million fine or not (as the Herald Tribune puts it, he may not have the “wherewithal”). It’s also unclear how Vance got the idea to work for Alpha’s overseas rivals in the first place – whether he was disgruntled and reached out to them, or the other way around. Whatever the case, he’s been barred “from working in mining worldwide or contacting his current employers or any current or former customers of Alpha.”

There is one minor fault in the story worth noting: The Herald Tribune states, “Del-Nat Tire Corp. and American Tire Corp. were buying a combined average of $1.9 million per month from Alpha until April 2005, when they stopped buying anything.” American Tire Corporation fervently denies having ever heard of Alpha, yet alone conducting business with the company. So, for all of you conducting business with ATC, don’t worry they’re in the clear.

Motley Fool attributes some of the company’s success to consumers having “the attention span of the kids for whom they’re buying toys.” While that might be partly true, the company also did pro-actively work to fix the situation and ensure that the same problems don’t come up in the future. Whatever the reasons for its success, Mattel can be happy it didn’t go the way of Topps Meat Co., which suffered a recall around the same time and immediately went out of business.

Motley Fool also notes that Hasbro, obviously a big rival to Mattel, is expected to release very “upbeat” reports on its own fourth-quarter results, which will likely overshadow Mattel’s meager but important progress. Hasbro, which recently bought the Cranium board game, is predicted to announce “a 30% increase in profits on a 9% increase in sales to $1.2 billion.”

The trips typically lasted 14 days and cost between $25,000 and $55,000 each. The money came out of Lucent’s sales department and was falsely documented as “factory inspection” or “training” trips, but little to no time was actually spent in either regard. Although by 2001 Lucent had outsourced the vast majority of its work and had no factories for customers to tour, the company still paid for factory tours across the world to countries such as the United States, Europe, Japan, Australia, Canada, etc.

The Justice Department will not prosecute Lucent should the company agree to all the terms of the agreement. This includes the aforementioned fine, as well as adding stronger internal controls, maintain fair and accurate books and records, implement a new FCPA compliance program and, most importantly, stop bribing customers. In a separate but related settlement with the SEC, Lucent agreed to pay $1.5 million but neither admitted nor denied guilt. These decisions come from alleged violations committed before Alcatel bought out Lucent in 2006.

According to the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, “The contents of [Evans'] letter highlight the following: the Director-General’s concerns about the possible damage to UK business resulting from electronic attack sponsored by Chinese state organisations, and the fact that the attacks are designed to defeat best-practice IT security systems.”

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) has allegedly been supporting computer hackers for some time now, and it’s thought that they have already used limited cyber-warfare as a response to recent public U.S. missteps – such as the bombing of the Beijing Embassy in Belgrade in 1999 and after a U.S. spy plane collided with a Chinese fighter in 2001.

Although Beijing denies any connection to the recent attacks, China is undeniably building up what Time Magazine appropriately labels a “cybermilitia” (see the linked story above). One example is a recent cash contest sponsored by the PLA to recruit the most talented local hackers across the country.

The letter from Evans shows the growing concern that western nations have over electronic security threats but, according to Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, it is “unusual for a country to so openly accuse another of engaging in this activity – especially when it can be extraordinarily difficult to prove an attack is being sponsored by a government or is a lone hacker acting independently.”

According to one report, LDK’s stock dropped by a quarter immediately after the accusations became public. Morgan Stanley, the company that underwrote LDK’s IPO, sent out something of a press release to inquiring minds:

“The CFO also thought that [the whistleblower, Charlie Situ] might have incorrectly classified scrap silicon as unusable raw material, whereas in fact scrap silicon accounts for more than 80 percent of the raw material needs at LDK.”

Since the announcement, LDK Solar has been downgraded by more than one financial firm.

A San Jose U.S. District Court grand jury indicted Lan Lee, 42, of Palo Alto and business partner Yuefei Ge, 34, of San Jose for allegedly developing microchips through their company, SICO Microsystems Inc., based on stolen designs. They are accused of reaching out to Chinese government agencies for funding, including a branch of the Chinese military.

Mountain View-based NetLogic Microsystems Inc. and the San Jose office of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. are two of the companies from which Lee and Ge allegedly stole classified documents.

Only three people have ever been found guilty of economic espionage in the United States – all were from Silicon Valley.

Government officials have said that the new rules will not differentiate between foreign or domestic companies.  However, China has not yet released the specific wording of the law.

State-run monopolies will still be legal among specific industries such as military-related manufacturing, petroleum and civil aviation. The American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing, consulted in drafting the legislation, praised the new law.

Read the article as posted in Forbes.

The game went live last week on July 25th and it has already been downloaded over 100,000 times, with hundreds of players engaging online simultaneously.

Why so popular? Because the hero of the game is an “honest and upright official” whose mission is to weed out corrupt officials (along with their mistresses).

Weeding out, however, does not mean “putting in jail.” It means by torture and slaughter. Whenever the player kills a corrupt official, he or she gains “experience points.” As points add up, the player increases powers in “Combating Corruption,” “Moral Character,” and a rating of being “Corruption Free.”

The highest level of the game is the “Honest and Corruption-Free Paradise.” Reportedly, that level is full of singing birds, fragrant flowers, and representations of a “peaceful and prosperous nation.”

Commentary: To increase the game’s appeal nod to China’s long history, the designers of the game used 165 characters from history – both good and bad. For example, Hai Rui and Lord Bao represent strong and honest leaders, while corrupt and evil players are represented by such individuals as the angry enuch Zhao Gao and Heshen.

While we like the historical element of the game, we are a bit perplexed as to how all of the women in China seem to walk around in communist red bikinis. How things must have changed since our last visit! Anyhow, if you can speak Chinese (or if you can’t and simply want to see more pictures), you can visit the NanFang Daily newspaper website for more about the game.

On another interesting note, as some game users have pointed out, the graphics are heavily “borrowed” from another game, “Romance of the Three Kingdoms,” offered by a for-profit software company. Not surprisingly, this might leave some wondering if the fact that the government itself made this game means that they don’t have to respect copyrights?