Innovative IT Tycoon

Kai-fu Lee, the Taiwan-born icon in the Chinese IT world, announced on September 6 that his new company, Innovation Works, would invest about 800 million yuan ($115 million) over the next five years in Chinese technology startups. The announcement came two days after Lee resigned from the presidency of Google China to start his own venture.

Lee, 47, is an information technology executive and a computer scientist. He earned a Ph.D. in computer science from Carnegie Mellon University in 1988. After spending two years at Carnegie Mellon as an assistant professor, he had worked at Apple Computer, Cosmo Software and Microsoft.

In 2005, Lee joined Google to help the owner of the world's most used Internet search engine develop its operations in China. Over the past four years, Google's market share in China rose from 16 to 29 percent.

Drunk Driver Gets Life

A U-turn in Sun Weiming's fate happened on September 8, when the former company executive, who was thought to be given China's first death sentence for drunk driving, was spared the capital punishment and given life imprisonment instead by the Higher People's Court of southwest China's Sichuan Province.

Sun, 30, was found to have driven under the influence of alcohol on December 14, 2008, after his car collided with four other vehicles in Chengdu, capital of Sichuan, killing four and injuring one.

The Chengdu Intermediate People's Court sentenced Sun to death in July on charges of "endangering public security."

The ruling immediately made headlines across China, as drunk driving, which is reportedly responsible for about 20,000 deaths in road accidents every year, is becoming a public concern. Previously, drunk drivers were usually convicted of "traffic offenses," a charge that brings jail time between three and seven years.

The second-instance judgment issued on September 8 said that Sun's original ruling was overturned because he had committed an indirect intentional crime.

A senior judge at the Supreme People's Court, China's top judicial organ, has suggested Sun's case be referenced in future trials of drunk driving cases with fatalities.

Discrimination Fighter

Lei Chuang, a 22-year-old college graduate, has received China's first permit for a person with Hepatitis B to work in the food industry. The young crusader in the fight against discrimination related to chronic Hepatitis B said he hoped the success would help his peers lead a better life.

Lei began to devote himself to the campaign of protecting the rights of Hepatitis B carriers in 2007, after a state-owned enterprise rescinded a job offer to his elder brother who later tested positive for Hepatitis B.

Lei has since organized various Hepatitis B education activities. He has also written to national lawmakers, academicians of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and presidents of almost all higher education institutions in China, appealing for their help to eliminate discrimination against people with Hepatitis B, especially in employment and higher education enrollment.

This July, a new regulation on the implementation of the Food Safety Law lifted a ban on Hepatitis B carriers working in the food industry.