Chinese workers link sickness to n-hexane and Apple iPhone screens

Staff suffer health decline after supplier's use of toxic chemical to clean western gadgets Next month, amid the usual hoopla, Apple is expected to officially unveil its latest gadget: the much-awaited iPhone 4G . But halfway round the globe from the company's California headquarters, a young worker who has spent months in an eastern Chinese hospital wants consumers to look beyond the shiny exterior of such gadgets. "People should know what we do to create these products and what cost we pay," said Bai Bing as she perched on a bed in her ward. She is one of scores of young workers in the city of Suzhou who were poisoned by the chemical n-hexane, which they say was used to clean Apple components including iPhone touch screens. Wu Mei – who, like the others, asked the Guardian to use her nickname – recalled her fear as her health suddenly deteriorated last spring. At first, she thought she was simply tired from the long working hours at Wintek, a Taiwan-owned electronics giant supplying several well-known brands. She was weaker than before and noticed she could not walk so fast. "Then it became more and more serious. I found it very hard to go upstairs and if I squatted down I didn't have the strength to get up. Later my hands became numb and I lost my balance – I would fall over if someone touched me," she said. By summer, she was admitted to hospital, where doctors struggled to diagnose the cause. "I was terrified. I feared I might be paralysed and spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair," she said. Because she was using n-hexane directly, she was one of the first and worst affected. But more and more workers from the same room were suffering headaches, dizziness and weakness, and pains in their limbs. An occupational diseases hospital which saw several victims diagnosed the problem in August and Wintek stopped using the chemical.

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Chinese workers link sickness to n-hexane and Apple iPhone screens

Chinese hack Melbourne film festival website to protest at Uighur documentary

Beijing unhappy at decision to screen film about exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer, accused of plotting Urumqi riots Chinese hackers have attacked the website of Australia's biggest film festival over its decision to screen a documentary about the exiled Uighur leader, Rebiya Kadeer . Yesterday], two days after the Melbourne international festival opened, hackers replaced programme information with the Chinese flag and anti-Kadeer slogans and sent spam emails in an attempt to crash the site, according to reports in the Australian press. "We like film but we hate Rebiya Kadeer," one message said, demanding an apology to the Chinese people. The festival director, Richard Moore, said staff had been bombarded with abusive emails after he rebuffed demands from the Chinese government to drop the film about Kadeer, The 10 Conditions of Love, and cancel her invitation to the festival. "The language has been vile," Moore told the Melbourne Age. "It is obviously a concerted campaign to get us because we've refused to comply with the Chinese government's demands." He said the festival had reported the attacks, which appear to be coming from a Chinese internet protocol address, and was discussing security concerns with Victoria's state police. Private security guards are being hired to protect Kadeer and other patrons at the film's screening on August 8. Kadeer denies Beijing's claim that she masterminded this month's riots in Xinjiang's capital, Urumqi, in which almost 200 people died.The 10 Conditions of Love, directed by the Australian filmmaker Jeff Daniels, describes Kadeer's relationship with her activist husband Sidik Rouzi and reveals the impact of her campaign for more autonomy for China's 10 million mainly Muslim Uighurs on her 11 children, three of whom have received jail sentences. Once one of the richest women in Xinjiang and held up as an exemplar of China's purported multi-ethnic harmony, Rebiya Kadeer now heads two prominent Uighur exile groups, speaking out against Beijing's oppression of the Turkic-speaking minority. Kadeer's persecution by the Chinese and her stature as a public face of the Uighur people have earned her comparisons to the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. Like him, she has been an unrelenting target for Chinese opprobrium

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Chinese hack Melbourne film festival website to protest at Uighur documentary

China cracks down on virtual economy

Faced with the prospect of an underground virtual economy developing inside internet games, the Chinese government is cracking down on those who use virtual money to buy real-world goods. With millions of young Chinese regularly playing online games, the practice of trading in-game currency or virtual credits for real goods is growing in popularity - and is even so profitable that it has led to the creation of a virtual sweatshop industry known as gold farming . But according to a joint statement from the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Culture, new rules will be put in place to stop the trade of virtual currency for real items. "The virtual currency, which is converted into real money at a certain exchange rate, will only be allowed to trade in virtual goods and services provided by its issuer, not real goods and services," it said. Media reports suggest government officials are largely concerned with the creation of an uncontrollable black market that operates in parallel to the Chinese economy, rather than in closing down traders themselves. And although this is being reported in some places as a potential death knell to gold farming entirely, players will still be able to buy virtual goods with virtual cash. Earlier this year we reported on the business of gold farming - an industry that seems almost too surreal and postmodern to be true: Workers can expect to earn between £80-£120 a month which, given the long hours and night shifts, can amount to as little as 30p an hour. After completing his shift, Li is given a basic meal of rice, meat and vegetables and falls into a bunk bed in a room that eight other gold farmers share. His wages may be low, but food and accommodation are included. These virtual industries sound surreal, but they are fast entering the mainstream. According to a report by Richard Heeks at Manchester University, an estimated 400,000 Asian workers are now employed in gold farming in a trade worth up to £700m a year. This new law appears to be the latest step in trying to bring the legal systems of the real world and virtual worlds in line with each other . It will be interesting to see where things go from here: GamePolitics suggests the first result may be to drive up the price of virtual goods inside games like World of Warcraft. Games Internet Virtual worlds Computing E-commerce China guardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2009 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds

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China cracks down on virtual economy

NAQ: Is China stepping towards cyberwar

A cyberattack on Tibetan separatists has led to fingers being pointed at the Chinese government - but finding out who's responsible for such strikes is notoriously tricky You may have already seen the news that more than a thousand computers have been compromised, in what appears to be a well-directed attack against Tibetan exiles. We've covered it extensively , and it's got plenty of headlines. While the basic details are clear - and well illuminated by reports from researchers in Toronto, Illinois and Cambridge - plenty of questions remain unanswered. The most important revolve around the origins of the strike: where did it come from, and is the Chinese military actively sponsoring these hackers to steal about other nations and administrations? All this talk of silicon warfare is more than a little reminiscent of the Cold War - tales of hi-tech espionage, secrets being stolen, and brinkmanship by the spokesman of various national factions

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NAQ: Is China stepping towards cyberwar

China accused over global computer spy ring

• Dalai Lama and foreign ministries bugged • Cambridge researchers point finger at Beijing An enormous electronic espionage programme run from servers in China has been used to spy on computers in more than 100 countries, according to two reports published at the weekend. The reports, published by the universities of Cambridge and Toronto, detail a "murky realm" where cyber spooks infiltrate email, take over humble desktop computers and use them to spy on organisations, individuals and governments. The reports name the system GhostNet, and claim that it has been used to attack governments in south and south-east Asia as well as the offices of the Dalai Lama. In two years, the reports suggest, the operation infiltrated 1,295 computers in 103 countries. While one of the reports remains mute on the identity of the perpetrators, the other has no such qualms, warning that the Chinese government ran a series of cyber attacks on Tibetan exile groups. The Chinese foreign ministry could not be reached for comment. "What Chinese spooks did in 2008, Russian crooks will do in 2010 and even low-budget criminals from less developed countries will follow in due course," conclude the Cambridge authors of The Snooping Dragon: Social Malware Surveillance of the Tibetan Movement. But the authors of Tracking GhostNet argue that things may not be as they seem in the world of electronic espionage. "We're a bit more careful about it, knowing the nuance of what happens in the subterranean realms," said Ronald Deibert from the University of Toronto. "This could well be the CIA or the Russians. It's a murky realm that we're lifting the lid on." The attacks were simple and direct. Infected emails bearing attachments or links to websites were sent to organisations including the private office of the Dalai Lama. Once opened, the virus allowed hackers to operate the host computer, including moving files and sending and receiving data. Their potential control was such that they could turn on an infected computer's camera and microphone, creating a surveillance bug

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China accused over global computer spy ring

Massive Chinese computer espionage network uncovered

A mystery electronic spy network apparently based in China has infiltrated hundreds of computers around the world and stolen files and documents, Canadian researchers have revealed. The network, dubbed GhostNet, appears to target embassies, media groups, NGOs, international organisations, government foreign ministries and the offices of the Dalai Lama, leader of the Tibetan exile movement. The researchers, based at Toronto University's Munk Centre for International Studies, said their discovery had profound implications. "This report serves as a wake-up call... these are major disruptive capabilities that the professional information security community, as well as policymakers, need to come to terms with rapidly," said researchers Ron Deibert and Rafal Rohozinski. After 10 months of study, the researchers concluded that GhostNet had invaded 1,295 computers in 103 countries, but it appeared to be most focused on countries in south Asia and south-east Asia, as well as the Dalai Lama's offices in India, Brussels, London and New York. The network continues to infiltrate dozens of new computers each week. Such a pattern, and the fact that the network seemed to be controlled from computers inside China, could suggest that GhostNet was set up or linked to Chinese government espionage agencies. However, the researchers were clear that they had not been able to identify who was behind the network, and said it could be run by private citizens in China or a different country altogether. A Chinese government spokesmen has denied any official involvement. GhostNet can invade a computer over the internet and penetrate and steal secret files. It can also turn on the cameras and microphones of an infected computer, effectively creating a bug that can monitor what is going inside the room where the computer is. Anyone could be watched and listened to. The researchers said they had been tipped off to the network after having been asked by officials with the Dalai Lama to examine their computers. The officials had been worried that their computers were being infected and monitored by outsiders.

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Massive Chinese computer espionage network uncovered

Case study: the World of Warcraft gold farmer in China

Li Hua, 20, recently joined the power-levelling department of Wow7gold in Changsha, Hunan province What does your job entail? You need to repeatedly kill monsters and creatures in-game and run instances [generate copies of events or situations] in-game

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Case study: the World of Warcraft gold farmer in China

In the net with the Canon EOS5D MkII

The second video filmed by Guardian photographer Dan Chung entirely on a Canon EOS5D MkII camera shows its high-definition quality in a film about a Chinese basketball hopeful

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In the net with the Canon EOS5D MkII

Report: Chinese hack into White House network

Chinese hackers have penetrated the White House computer network on multiple occasions, and obtained e-mails between government officials, a senior U.S. official told the Financial Times.

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Report: Chinese hack into White House network