Oppressive China Opens Public 3D Printing Booth

While 3D printing may be touted as bringing manufacturing back to the United States, that doesn't mean the rest of the world hasn't taken notice of the technology.

Earlier this week, a 3D Printing Experience Pavilion opened in Beijing's DRC Industrial Design and Cultural Industry Base, where visitors were able to see how 3D printers work firsthand.

With a few hours to spare, they could even have their own head scanned and printed as a bust, which follows the 3D printing booth that opened in a Japanese mall last year.

Among the printed objects on display were custom phone cases, miniatures (including Aldebaran Robotics' NAO, which featured prominently at the Shanghai World Expo), and jewelry.

Visitors who wanted to be scanned had to remain still for around 15 minutes for the process to be completed, whereupon their likeness was printed in single color ABS plastic – a process which takes between two to three hours. 3Ders reports that the 3D Printing Pavilion was spear-headed by Beijing company Suntop-Tech, which is the Chinese distributor of Stratasys' Fortus and Dimension 3D printers.

China Internet Users already Exceed Population of the USA - Only 1 in 4 currently have internet access

China's Internet users have surpassed the U.S. population in number, and more Chinese than ever are using e-commerce and accessing the Web through mobile phones, according to official statistics.

China's broadband users and the number of .cn Web sites coming on-line, are also first in the world, China reports.

Slideshow: 10 ways the Chinese Internet is different from yours

China had 338 million Internet users at the end of last month, the most in any country, the China Internet Network Information Center (CNNIC) said late Thursday.

Message Boards Chat

Chatting on message boards, cruising around social networking sites and pursuing other entertainment were among the most popular activities for Web users, the center said in a report posted on its Web site. The number of Internet users who watched videos online rose 10 percent from six months ago. More than one-fourth now shop online.

China also led the world in the number of registered Web sites, nearly 13 million, using its .cn top-level domain, the report said

All Figures on the Rise

Almost all of the reported figures rose substantially this year. Nearly all of the Internet users had broadband, which China is working to link to more remote areas

Mobile Broadband

The report gave some mixed signals on the prospects for mobile broadband, which China is also pushing. The number of Chinese who used mobile phones to access some online services rose to 155 million, but just one in four of those people said they would use 3G to surf the Web in the future, the report said.

High prices and limited coverage so far have kept down 3G take-up despite aggressive marketing by China's three mobile carriers.

Malware and Security Issues

The report also showed the severity of malware and other security problems in China. Over 100 million Chinese had passwords or account numbers stolen in the first half of this year, and almost twice as many experienced virus or trojan attacks, it said.

Despite the huge numbers already connected, only one in four Chinese is already an Internet user, the report said. So, brace yourself for the sudden upsurge in Chinese internet activity in the coming year.

China Human Rights Violations: Electric Shock Treatment for Internet Users is Banned

Internet Webmasters and Bloggers have written about being tied down and given electric shocks for 30 minutes at a time at one notorious hospital

China has finally banned the use of shock therapy to treat, what they describe as, ' Internet addiction', after its use at one hospital sparked nationwide controversy.

Widespread Protests
The hospital drew widespread protests and media coverage in recent months after Internet users, claiming to have received shock treatment, wrote in their blogs and forums about being tied down and subjected to electric shocks for 30 minutes at a time.

Chinese Health Ministry
A statement on the Chinese health ministry's Web site said the practice had no medical foundation and forbid its clinical use. The order banned the practice nationwide but specifically mentioned the notorious hospital in eastern Shandong province.

Shandong Hospital
Calls to the notorious Shandong hospital went unanswered Wednesday morning, but a hospital spokeswoman last week said "sensationalised" media reports had already led it to a cesation of the shock treatment. The shocks were meant to cause subjects to associate a negative result with Internet use, according to the hospital. Subjects were forced to admit to faults in their behaviour and thinking, while receiving the electric shocks.

Government Funded
Government-funded treatment centers for Internet addiction have sprouted up around China in recent years, though the health ministry has not officially labeled it a diagnosable condition. Many children are coerced and tricked by parents into going to the centres, which often deliver a mix of military boot camp treat ment and shock therapy sessions.

World of Warcraft
Staff at the 'treatment centres' blame hugely popular online games like World of Warcraft for getting most Chinese teens hooked on the Web.

Many Chinese medical experts still believe that electric shock treatment for Internet addiction and other 'behavioural issues' does not harm children, but others disavow it, said Tao Ran, during a recent interview. He is the founder of a Beijing 'treatment centre' for Web-addicted teens. Experts meeting at the health ministry last month signed a document recommending its ban, he said.

Internet users celebrated the move

"This news should truly make people happy," one user wrote in a forum run by local search engine Baidu. "After all, this kind of thing is inhuman cruelty."