Slashdot Mirror
China Deploys IPv9 Network
jeber writes "At the New Generation Internet Ten-Digit Network Industrialization & Development Seminar held on June 25th at Zhejiang University, it was announced that China's Internet technology, IPv9, had been formally adapted and popularized into the civil and commercial sectors.
Based on a ten-digit computing method, IPv9 has its own address protocol, nameplate protocol, transitional protocol, and digital domain name regulations and standards as stated by Mr. Xie Jianping, founder of the IPv9 protocol and leader of the Ten-Digit Network Technology Standard Team. Along with being compatible with IPv4 and IPv6, IPv9 can also realize logistic separations between them and safely control them. On small-scale trials in Shanghai's Changing and Jinshan Districts, IPv9 technology has proven stable and safe."
Does anyone have a link to an RFC detailing the IPv9 standard? Or did China just decide that they needed that much more addressing space and create thatir own standard?
-Wes
This is the old April fools joke, yes, but I have to ask if this is some sort of new thing. Doing a Google search for IPv9 returns bunch of IETF mailing list postings talking about that joke, and then loads of chinese pages. Is the article a new and improved version of the joke or something that really exists?
Googling for IP V9 reveals an april fool's joke from 1994:
RFC 1606
RFC 1607
Under construction: swpat politics overview article
China is currently doing all it can to "re-invent" everything that carries information.
There are reasons for this:
- Chinese are very nationalisitc by definition (in chinese, China (Zhong Guo) mean the "Kindgom of the middle", they really thought -and still do to a certain extent- that China is the center of the world) and they are proud to "re-invent" or "re-conquer" to make it their own.
- they do not want to license foreign Intellectual Property, so they develop their own video format for instance, for both pride and economic reasons as well.
- The Chinese government think it needs to control information.
I believe that the latest is probably behind the move to IPv9.
By encouraging non-standard protocols, they ensure that the equipment has more chance to be manufactured in China, and they have more ways to control the information passing through it.
China recognizes the importance of the Internet and know it is essential to its progress, yet they also realize that it is the most dangerous way to propagate those "subversive" ideas like democracy and freedom of speech. So the best thing to do is probably to "embrace and extend"...
Now, where have I heard that before...?
It's very interesting, actually. From a US perspective we see China as a supplicant, who has to do things our way to be allowed to participate in the "developed" economic world that we created, and therefore own and control. This means that we get to charge an admission fee (e.g. license our "intellectual property" to them), and they are morally in the wrong if they don't pay it.
China sees us as warlords holding temporary advantage due to the outcome of WWII. Chinese warlords have always extorted horrific tribute/taxation from their subjects, but wrapped it in a framework of celestial-academic (or, more recently, communist-rhetorical) self-justification. This is what they think we're doing to them when we say "you have to pay us billions of dollars because (mumble software patent mumble genome license mumble royalty blah blah)".
China has made numerous moves lately that indicate they no longer consider us to be an unstoppable force. They haven't done anything drastically provocative, but they will. The Taiwan question is intolerable for the Chinese government. Sooner or later, if China stays on its current path, they will arrive at the point where they think they can get away with an invasion. And all I can say is, I sure as hell hope there's a moderate in the White House on that particular day.
-Graham
I recently received a chatty email from a fellow who just spent some time in China. His wife was working on a Rotary project there and then they played tourist.
Several things stood out to me. This is a dynamic society, with construction everywhere. Yet they also spend money making their freeways signs look good, with a little extra neon. At night, the big cities are a neon wonderland. The freeways themselves have lighted lane markers and such. Lots of use of light.
And to the point on this topic, everyone he talked to seem to consider Taiwan a province of China, even the Taiwanise tourists, of which there are many. Now what I actually think is that neither government tolerate anything but the party line, and so people do not speak candidly on this issue. The real deal is that China considers Chinese populated territory to be properly under common rule. And most of the Taiwanese share that view. The Taiwanese government of course thinks it should be ruling China.
My idea is that everyone should agree that Taiwan is part of China and set a date, say in the next century, to realize it.
Of course not, They drive Mercedes.
It's not a shame that HK was returned to its rightful owner.
The China that HK was a part of was Imperial China. This country does not exist any more. It's just as true, and just as irrelevant to say that the Communists stole China from its "rightful" owner, the Emperor.
And we're not talking about real estate, but 6 million people who were delivered to the rule of a government that many had risked their lives to escape from when they came to Hong Kong, of their own free will.
Genghis Khan ruled China by force, no one liked him
One thing I have to agree with, he wasn't even Chinese. However, Mao Zedong was, he did kill upwards of 50 million in the Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution, when of course people were risking their lives to escape in to Hong Kong.
A standard is what the majority of people use. Not what they want to use. Or what they should be using. Or what some foreign institution has taken it up to themselves to declare. Or whatever power abusing government or mega-corporation enforces. As such China's protocols are the standards, as far as they are concerned.
I remember taking a Chinese history course back in college. It was a requirement, and Eastern Studies had never really gripped my interests. But as we started it I became fascinated with the oceanic depth of their culture and history. I'm sorry I never persued it.
I remember that the *"People of Han" (as they called themselves) who founded the original Chin Dynasty considered themselves the center of the universe. So naturally, they too considered themselves the center of all culture and refinement. I see modern communism as a more contemporary expression of this belief. It seems almost bred into their cultural psychology. A very deep meme that is very difficult to erase.
So, while control may or may not have anything to do with the nature of IPv9, my interpretation of the matter (after taking that class) is that they are a very prideful people. It must irk them on some level that all of the important technologies (cars, computers, networking, flying, you name it) come from the west. Maybe this is their way of reasserting themselves as a force to be reckoned with. Which they are.
*Interestingly enough, they were so sure of their superiority that when they had their first runins with westerners they would make them cow-tow to the emperor. Which REALLY pissed off the European Nobles when they came to visit because cow-towing is literally debasing oneself in front of imperial greatness. Getting down on both knees and bowing repeatedly. The Chinese of that day (I forget what Dynasty it was) considered ALL westerners to be barbarians! I don't necessarily think they were wrong about that, after what I've learned about history.
The name "Han" actually meant in their language "The People" just as it does in almost all languages. It's the same in Navajo (Dine) and Cherokee (Tsalagee). Interestingly enough, when the Cherokee first encountered westerners THEY thought they were the most civilized people. They thought the Europeans were babrarous. Mainly because the English and other European languages have the 'b' and 'r' sound which sounded awful to them. It may seem odd that the Cherokees would have no 'r' sound. The reason for that is that the language of the main body of Cherokee speakers don't have those sounds and call themselves Tsalagee. Europeans totally misheard that sound and started calling them Cherokees.
Quod scripsi, scripsi.