2. Large wave of resignation from the Chinese Communist Party is happening
More than 35 million Chinese have quit the CCP till Apr. 2008, people are continue quitting at a rate of 44,000 to 56,000 per day in April 2008.
- China: 35 Million Chinese Quit the Communist Party
10.Videos: Tiananmen Square Massacre - June. 4, 1989
Thousands of students shot to death by tanks and soldiers on Tiananmen square in capital city Beijing in 1989
Reporters Without Borders said in it’s 2005 special report titled “Xinhua: the world’s biggest propaganda agency”, that “Xinhua remains the voice of the sole party”, “particularly during the SARS epidemic, Xinhua has for last few months been putting out news reports embarrassing to the government, but they are designed to fool the international community, since they are not published in Chinese.”
Your Opinions can be sent by email (see About This Site section for email address) for posting Here. Critical comments and hate mails, however, may be not published at the Blog owner's decision.
On the afternoon of November 17, 2009, when U.S. President Barack Obama was scheduled to visit the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, a U.S. citizen, Julie Harms, who was waiting outside the embassy in order to deliver an appeal letter for the President, was picked up by Chinese police officers. According to Ms. Harms, she was then detained and interrogated for two-and-a-half hours at the Maizidian Police Substation in Chaoyang District, Beijing.
Julie Harms, a graduate of Harvard, told Human Rights in China (HRIC) that over many months she had petitioned unsuccessfully to central authorities – including the National People’s Congress, Ministry of Public Security, Supreme People’s Procuratorate, and State Bureau for Letters and Calls (the state agency responsible for receiving petitions) – on behalf of her fiancé, Liu Shiliang (刘士亮). Liu was detained on June 17, 2009, by the Wuhe County Public Security Department in Bengbu, Anhui, and was tried at the Wuhe County People’s Court on September 14, 2009, for “trespassing” (非法侵入他人住宅), a charge brought by a neighbor with whom Liu had a dispute in 2007. (The neighbor is now serving a five-year prison term after being convicted of beating and seriously injuring Liu.) The court, required under the Criminal Procedure Law to issue a ruling within one month after accepting a case, has yet to render a decision on Liu Shiliang’s case.
Harms first met Liu in 1999 in Hefei, Anhui, during her travels. Liu was then working as a security guard at a local post office. They were engaged in 2007, but have delayed their wedding because of the legal problems involving Liu’s neighbor.
“Sadly, Ms. Harms’ experience is a microcosm of the ordeal that hundreds of thousands of Chinese petitioners go through when they try to appeal to higher authorities for justice,” said Sharon Hom, HRIC executive director. “In this case, the Chinese authorities prevented a U.S. citizen from delivering a petition to her own president. This incident should be a cautionary tale for the U.S. government and the international community about the true face of China’s progress and the limits of redress for Chinese citizens.”…… (more detailsfrom Human Rights in China)
Jane Macartney in Beijing, Times Online, Oct. 9, 2009-
China’s vast security operation to ensure the smooth running of celebrations marking the 60th anniversary of Communist Party rule is starting to fray.
After a week of holidays to mark the October 1 festivity, signs of normality began to return to the streets of Beijing. The brothels are back.
Alleys and streets throughout the capital are still festooned with huge national flags. Almost every home has a flag, depicting five gold stars against a red background, displayed outside its front door. The bigger, the better.
But the thousands of volunteers recruited to police the celebrations are disappearing and police vigilance is wavering. The shutters have been lifted from the windows of hole-in-the-wall rooms down narrow alleys where heavily made-up girls have reappeared – sitting on sofas, combing their long hair or just gazing out at passers-by.
Police had announced with great fanfare in June the launch of a three-month crackdown on prostitution. Rising joblessness early in the year had led to an increase in gang crimes, prompting the Ministry of Public Security to create a special division to tackle organised prostitution, gambling and trafficking of women. Police targeted entertainment venues such as dance halls and nightclubs as well as beauty salons and massage parlours that operate as fronts for brothels. Police say they investigate about 140,000 cases of prostitution a year involving 250,000 prostitutes and their clients.
In a country of 1.3 billion people that marks barely a dent in an enormous industry. In almost every hotel in every city, women call guests each evening offering a massage or presenting services in even more direct language. Karaoke halls provide girls as the norm. Barber shops are well known for being a front for brothels. Many girls simply set up shop in the backstreets of Beijing, sitting in their windows backed by a glimmering pink light just a stone’s throw from the local police station.
The reappearance of these girls under the noses of the local police highlights the co-operation that exists between the two. In many cases, girls are expected to turn in a quota of their clients to police who can then either blackmail or arrest them.
A survey this year showed that prostitutes are not universally reviled in China. More than 7.9 percent of respondents to the poll by Insight China magazine said that they considered sex workers to be trustworthy, placing them above politicians and scientists. Only farmers and religious workers scored higher.
Security is still tight in parts of Beijing, with guards in camouflage stationed at bridges round-the-clock. But some are starting to doze on the job with offices due to open today and the nationwide excitement generated by the military parade through Tiananmen Square on October 1 starting to dissipate. …… (more details fromTime Online)
Yang Xiaojing and her husband Cao Dong. (Minghui.net)
BEIJING— Falun Gong practitioner Ms. Yang Xiaojing died on Oct. 1 in Beijing as a result of the Chinese communist regime’s persecution.
Ms. Yang Xiaojing, 45 years old, was employed in the Beijing Power Supply Design Institute’s computer center. Because she refused to write a guarantee statement to give up the Falun Gong practice, she was removed from the computer center. The Institute’s stated reason for her firing was that she had “breached labor discipline.”
Ms. Yang had been arrested twice and detained in the First Division of the Beijing Women’s Forced Labor Camp, where she suffered brutal persecution.
To rescue his imprisoned wife Yang Xiaojing, Falun Gong practitioner Cao Dong met with the Vice President of the European Parliament Mr. Edward McMillan-Scott on May 21, 2006. He informed Mr. McMillan-Scott about the severe persecution that the couple, and other Falun Gong practitioners, had experienced. Two hours after the meeting, plainclothes agents from the State Security Bureau arrested Cao Dong.
He was detained, illegally according to Chinese law, and sentenced to five years of imprisonment on February 8, 2007. He is currently held in Tianshui Prison in Gansu Province.
At the end of August 2006, Ms. Yang was released from the forced labor camp. She, along with Cao Dong’s friend, musician Yu Zhou, contacted lawyers for help. Yu Zhou later died from the persecution. It is believed the grief and pressure had a negative impact on Yang. Soon after that her health deteriorated.
In August 2008 a medical examination at the Xijin Hospital in Xi’an City of Shaanxi Province showed that she suffered from lymphoma. She was unable to lie down in bed or eat due to the severe pain.
On the day of Yang’s death, her father asked the Tianshui Prison to allow her husband, Cao, to pay a farewell visit to his wife, but they refused.
Ms. Yang Xiaojing and Mr. Cao Dong were married on February 24, 2000. They had been together for only nine days during their entire nine-year marriage. For the rest of the time they were either in prison, in forced labor camps or visiting each other in detention.
HONG KONG—Chinese authorities have clamped tight security curbs on the capital, Beijing, blocking off major tourist spots and taking precautions against possible unrest, ahead of a huge parade marking 60 years of Communist Party rule.
Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City, along with some hotels, restaurants, and shops in the city center closed ahead of the celebrations on Thursday, Oct. 1, aimed at showcasing the rise of the world’s largest country from war-torn poverty to economic superpower.
On Chang An Avenue, the major boulevard that runs east-west through the city, all restaurants were closed, according to a foreign visitor who asked not to be named. “To get meals, you must go to a restaurant outside the Third Ring Road. It’s inconvenient.”
“The atmosphere is very tense. Glass [doors and windows] on houses near Tiananmen Square have been reinforced with tape to prevent cracking or shattering during the fireworks display, or in case of an explosion,” the visitor said.
Authorities have been stepping up security for weeks, notably in the wake of violent unrest since early last year among the country’s minority Tibetan and Uyghur populations, many of whom resent Chinese Communist Party rule.
The Chinese government is eager to celebrate its economic might and what it says are close ties with its 1.3 billion people.
But it also clearly fears unrest and dissent that threaten to undermine its authority—maintaining surveillance over dissidents, shutting down Web sites and discussion boards critical of the government, suspending foreign television broadcasts, and detaining “petitioners” who come to Beijing to lodge complaints about local authorities.
Armed SWAT police stood guard beside armored vehicles at many intersections along Chang An, while subway riders passed through metal detectors and had their bags scanned, witnesses said.
Sales of knives have been banned, kite-flying is prohibited, and residents of the diplomatic apartments that line the parade route have been told not open their windows or go out on their balconies to watch.
Beijing police advised residents to avoid travel within the city and to watch the televised performance at home.
Staying at home
“Since this afternoon we have not been able to go out,” one Beijing resident, surnamed Peng, said Wednesday. “We are staying home and doing chores around the house.”
Another Beijing resident who asked not to be identified said many residents had a reduced work schedule.
“We worked a half-day this morning and were let go in the afternoon. Some people didn’t even work a half-day. I visited the train station today—it was crawling with armed special police,” the resident said……. (Radio Free Asia)
As China gears up to mark the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic on Oct. 1, the country’s security watchdogs are on alert for threats to the big celebration. The government is calling for “greater efforts to maintain public order and social stability,” the official Xinhua news agency reported on Sept. 28. In Beijing alone, 800,000 people have offered themselves as “safety volunteers,” Xinhua reports.
Part of the campaign to ensure a smooth anniversary includes an intensified effort to limit access to China’s Internet, say anti-censorship activists outside the country. “They have tried everything they can” to block software that helps people evade censorship, says Bill Xia, president of U.S.-based Dynamic Internet Technology, a company that has developed Freegate, software that enables users to circumvent censors by rerouting traffic through proxy servers. While there’s always a high level of censorship in China, says Xia, the campaign ahead of National Day this year is more comprehensive than usual. “This time they have really put a lot of resources to this,” he says.
Other censorship foes report similar problems. The Onion Router, or TOR, also uses proxy servers to help users gain access to restricted sites. Some half a million people rely on it daily, according to TOR Executive Director Andrew Lewman, who says China is one of the service’s top users. TOR, originally developed for the U.S. Navy, depends on volunteers to run its network and publish addresses to 2,000 “relays” that give people access to servers. “Since Sept. 25 we have seen a number of people saying that TOR has stopped working,” says Lewman. More than half of the relays were blocked.
Some Anti-Censorship Progress
The new campaign against services such as Freegate and TOR comes after critics of online censorship in China won a rare victory. On July 1 the government had planned to force all PC vendors to install or provide filtering software called Green Dam, which was meant to limit access to online pornography. But critics said it also restricted access to politically sensitive sites. After an outcry both abroad and at home, Beijing backed down and announced companies would not have to comply with the requirement.
Since then, though, the Chinese government has taken a hard line in the far western region of Xinjiang, where fighting between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese in July led to the deaths of 197 people and injuries to 1,700 others. The local government blamed Rebiya Kadeer, an exiled leader of the World Uighur Congress, for the unrest and said she used the Internet to communicate with “secessionists” in the vast region. After the rioting, the government began blocking the Internet in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital, and connections are still down, according to the official China Daily newspaper.
On Sept. 29, China Daily reported on new regulations designed to control use of the Internet throughout Xinjiang. “Online activities compromising national security, damaging national and social interests, undermining ethnic unity, instigating ethnic succession, and harming social stability will be severely punished,” the paper reported.
“The Electronic Great Wall”
The renewed efforts to limit access to the Internet inside China, as well as recent attacks against foreign journalists, prompted Reporters Without Borders, the international group that advocates for press freedom, to criticize the Chinese government. “The Electronic Great Wall has never been as consolidated as it is now, on the eve of the 1 October anniversary,” the group said in a Sept. 29 statement.
That said, Lewman says TOR is staying ahead of the authorities. Although access is difficult, TOR “is [working] and has been,” he says. The project’s volunteers regularly change the Internet protocol (IP) addresses that people can use to gain access to TOR, he says. “It’s in constant churn,” Lewman says. “You can block it at one point in time, but by noon 20% of them have already changed IP addresses.”
Unlike other regimes, he adds, there are limits to how far the Chinese government will go to control the Internet. During the upheaval following the Iranian presidential election, for instance, “Iran wasn’t afraid to block secure Web sites across the board, which breaks e-commerce, access to Gmail, everything,” says Lewman. “I don’t think China is willing to do that.”
Einhorn is Asia regional editor in BusinessWeek’s Hong Kong bureau.
“Government security paranoia in the run-up to the celebration of the 60th anniversary of the proclamation of the People’s Republic of China on 1 October has led to a reinforcement of online censorship and abusive behaviour towards foreign journalists,” Reporters Without Borders said today. “A case of police brutality towards three foreign journalists was particularly unacceptable.”
The press freedom organisation added: “What the authorities are trying to portray as a big celebration is turning into a major head-ache for Internet users and a reporters.”
Internet control agencies have redoubled efforts to prevent Internet users based in China, including foreign residents, from using censorship circumvention software such as Freegate and virtual private networks (VPN). Experts have told Reporters Without Borders that tens of thousands of IP addresses suspected by the authorities of using Freegate and VPNs, especially those that are free, have been blocked in the past few days.
“The Electronic Great Wall has never been as consolidated as it is now, on the eve of the 1 October anniversary, proving that the Chinese government is not so sure of its record,” Reporters Without Borders said. The new restrictions are making it even more difficult to access social-networking websites such Facebook and Twitter, or YouTube’s video-sharing sites, which have been blocked since July.
China’s leaders have made combating separatism one of the watchwords of the 60th anniversary, and new regulations have just been issued for combating online separatism in the far-western province of Xinjiang.
A Reporters Without Borders study of Uyghur-language and Xinjiang-based websites has established that the clampdown imposed during last July’s rioting in the province has not been loosened. Most of the sites that existed before the unrest are either still inaccessible or their content has not been updated. Of the 65 sites included in the study, 54 are still blocked for Internet users in China or abroad.
Even Tianshannet.com, a Xinjiang-based website that was held up by the authorities as an example of a site that respected the regulations, is no longer accessible. Xinjiang residents have been cut off from the Internet for almost three months and Uyghurs are being deprived of all news and information that is independent of the official media.
Three China-based Mongol websites – Mongol Ger Association (http://www.mongolger.net/), Mongol People Chat Room (MGLhun), which is hosted on the Sina.com site (http://www.sina.com.cn/), and Mongolian People (http://www.mongolhun.com/) – have been rendered inaccessible in the past few weeks. Read the rest of this entry »
BEIJING– Beijing PSB and Religious Affairs officers continue to crack down on house churches as the Oct. 1 National Day celebrations approach. Four authorities “escorted” Pastor Zhang Mingxuan (Pastor Bike) and his wife from his home on a “forced vacation” at 9:30 AM Wednesday morning, September 23. Concerned with suppressing any negative reports on the communist party during the festivities, the officials reportedly detained Pastor Bike in order to “preserve stability in the province.”
Pastor Bike was warned not to speak or communicate with anyone, especially with foreign media, for fear of jeopardizing the operation and raising awareness of his removal. He was taken to an undisclosed location in the mountainous area of Henan, and will allegedly be held there until after October 1st.
On the morning of September 24, President of ChinaAid Bob Fu spoke with him secretly on his cell phone, the sound of the guards playing cards loudly in the background masking their soft speech. Pastor Bike confirmed the incident, and informed Bob that the Beijing PSB officials had placed them under house arrest and were supervising all movements. …… (more from ChinaAid)
Beijing (dpa) – About 200,000 performers are to put on a spectacular show amid unprecedented security in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square next week with a similar number of troops marching across the square.
Thousands of members of China’s political and business elite are to watch parades of tanks, planes and missiles plus 60 carnival floats representing every Chinese region and key concepts in the nation’s development since 1949 in commemoration of the founding of the People’ Republic of China on October 1 that year.
Communist Party leader and state President Hu Jintao plans to deliver a landmark speech from Tiananmen Gate, where Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People’s Republic of China the same day 60 years earlier.
A day of festivities was scheduled to end with a massive fireworks display directed by award-winning filmmaker Zhang Yimou, who also is staging an anniversary performance of the opera Turandot in Beijing’s iconic Bird’s Nest Olympic stadium.
Yet there will be no crowds lining the route of the parade to Tiananmen Square along Beijing’s Chang’an Avenue.
Security cordons are to ensure that no one without an invitation can get within a block of Chang’an Avenue while police have instructed people living nearby not to open their windows to see the National Day parade.
Even pigeons and kites are banned from the skies to ensure that they do not interfere with the parade, which includes a fly-by by China’s first group of female fighter pilots.
The government has encouraged most of Beijing’s 15 million people to stay at home and watch live broadcasts of the celebrations from state-run China Central Television or join one of the many peripheral events held at parks in the city, such as the display of 600 national flags at the Olympic Green.
The city has mobilized 800,000 security volunteers to assist hundreds of thousands of security guards, uniformed and plainclothes police, paramilitary units and anti-terrorist forces.
Dissidents, rights activists and others labelled security threats have no choice but to stay indoors on October 1 because most of them are likely to be under house arrest or taken out of Beijing for compulsory ‘holidays’ in the company of state security police.
‘The state security police called me in for a chat,’ well-known dissident Qi Zhiyong told the German Press Agency dpa.
Qi said the officers asked him, ‘Do want to leave Beijing voluntarily or do you want us police to take you out of Beijing?’ …… (more detalsfrom MonstersAndCritics)
BEIJING-- At about two o’clock on Sunday afternoon (September 13, 2009), a crowd of strangers violently broke down the door to brother Xu Wenli’s apartment in Daqing district, Beijing. Brother Xu had previously denied entry to several strangers outside the residence before the violent break-in. According to the prayer request sent by members of the Tent-makers Christian Fellowship in Beijing, twenty local officials “swarmed into the living room with overwhelming scolding, and commanded that [Brother Xu] should stoop down, as about twenty people entered the living room, some with uniforms and some without.” Their uniforms and self admissions confirmed that the crowd included men from the local Public Service Bureau (PSB), National Security Bureau, and the Religious Affairs Bureau.
According to the Fellowship, Brother Xu was commanded to show the officers the rooms in his home and surrender the training materials produced by ministry. “Brother Xu would not comply with their commands and replied “Who are you for me to obey you? I am a legal residence of Beijing and a child of God.” He was not intimidated and pressed on the issue of legality. Brother Xu demanded that they show him the warrant for the raid, which they could not furnish. Some left for an hour or so and returned without the warrant, while the others kept questioning brother Xu and threatening him with violence. He refused to cooperate based on the illegality of their actions. Someone without uniform warned brother Xu that printing Bible verses and messages on scrolls and tote-bags is illegal and threatened to confiscate them. Brother Xu refused them entry into the rooms without the certified paper work.”……(more detailsfrom ChinaAid)
A group of armed police patrols a railway station in Zhejiang Province. This is just a fraction of the strict security arrangements that have been set up around China. Authorities here want nothing to disturb the October 1st events that will celebrate 60 years of communist rule.
Over the weekend, city streets around Beijings Changan Avenue were shut down. Tanks and rocket launchers replaced cars on the roads for a rehearsal parade for October 1st. Residents here are being asked to re-register for identity cards, as authorities try to maintain control over individuals entering the region.
Victor Gao, Director of China National Association of International Studies, told Globe & Mail that while pedestrians and drivers may experience unhappiness with the inconveniences, these feelings will be overwhelmed by the great zeal of the happy occasion.
It appears, however, that not everyone shares this great zeal. Scores of petitioners in Beijing are being sent back to their hometowns. There, they may face illegal detention or even so-called re-education.
[Hongren Liu, Jiangsu Petitioner]:
We were petitioning at the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. They treated us very badly. There isnt much hope for petitioning during the 60th anniversary celebration. There are plain-clothed police everywhere. The ones from your prefecture will take you away and beat you up, and send you to re-education classes. Yesterday there were 2,000 petitioners at the Bureau of Letters and Visits, and they were all sent away……. (more)
(Chinese Human Rights Defenders, September 1, 2009) – On August 31, detained Beijing writer and intellectual Liu Xiaobo (刘晓波) met with his lawyers Ding Xihui (丁锡奎) and Shang Baojun (尚宝军) for the third time since his detention began last December. The lawyers revealed to CHRD that the police have extended the period of investigation of Liu’s case for an additional month, through September 23. Liu appears to be in good spirits.
On August 31, Liu and his lawyers met for thirty minutes at Beijing No.1 Detention Center. The police were present throughout the meeting despite requests from the lawyers to meet with Liu without monitoring. Liu told his lawyers that he is being interrogated once a week. He is allowed to leave his cell for thirty minutes every day, but must remain in the corridors of the detention center and is not allowed out into the open air; he is permitted to watch TV and read a restricted selection of books.
On August 24, Liu’s lawyers were told by the Beijing police that they had extended the investigation period of Liu’s case for another month. According to the Criminal Procedural Law (CPL), after a suspect is formally arrested, the police have a maximum of two months to investigate the case. After that, the period can be extended three times. Altogether, the investigation period can last for a maximum of seven months (CPL Articles 124, 126 and 127). The police must then either release the suspect or transfer her or his case to the Procuratorate for public prosecution……. (more detalsfrom Chinese Human Rights Defenders)
Persistent torture: Ten months after the UN Committee against Torture recommended the Chinese government “take immediate steps to prevent acts of torture and ill-treatment throughout the country”, the use of torture remains widespread in China, as evidenced by the harrowing tales of five ordinary individuals, Zhang Qingsong, She Shouliang, Li Yufang, Yang Qi, Wang Jiuyun, documented in this issue of CHRB. Their stories revealed that, not only are officials accustomed to using torture to extract confession and to punish those who dare challenge their authority, but victims’ calls for accountability and redress are also invariably ignored.
Gongmeng Xu Zhiyong Released, Zhuang Lu Still Missing: The release on August 23 of Xu Zhiyong, director of recently-banned legal aid center Gongmeng, came as a welcome surprise to many as he was formally arrested for “tax evasion” just days before his release. However, Xu is not yet cleared of the charge of “tax evasion” and Gongmeng remains shut down. Zhuang Lu, a staff member at Gongmeng who disappeared on the same day as Xu, remains missing. Her family, friends and colleagues still have not heard from her at the time of writing.
Beijing Rids Itself of Petitioners as Anniversary Approaches: As October 1, the 60th anniversary of the founding of the PRC, approaches, the Chinese government has stepped up its unacknowledged campaign to drive petitioners out of Beijing. Petitioners staying near Beijing South Train Station have been rendered homeless as hostel owners are no longer willing to host them due to threats by Beijing police. The CCP Central Committee Political-Legal Committee has just issued a formal document encouraging “the solution of petitioners’ problems at the grassroots level”, which essentially give the local authorities a green light to prevent petitioners from entering the capital at all cost. (details)
(New York) – The release of three leading Chinese civil society advocates shows that the Chinese government can be responsive to domestic and international human rights concerns, Human Rights Watch said today. The advocates – Xu Zhiyong, Zhuang Lu, and Ilham Tohti – had been arrested in recent weeks in Beijing.
While welcoming their release, Human Rights Watch stressed that the government’s restrictions on nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) continued to leave tens of thousands of civil society organizations across the country vulnerable to arbitrary political and administrative interference.
“These releases are a step in the right direction, but we remain deeply concerned about the government’s tight grip on civil society,” said Sophie Richardson, Asia advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. “The arrests all appear to have taken place as a result of peaceful activities, and these releases should not be confused with an overall improvement in the government’s attitude toward civil society.”
Xu Zhiyong, the founder of the legal advocacy group Open Constitution Initiative (also known by its Chinese name, Gongmeng), and Zhuang Lu, its financial manager, were released by the Public Security Bureau on August 23 and 22, 2009, respectively. They had been arrested on July 29, for allegedly evading tax payments on a grant from Yale University, while Gongmeng itself was fined 1.4 million yuan (US$206,000). Although Xu was released on bail and can technically still be prosecuted, his lawyer has indicated that the authorities were most likely to drop the criminal charges against him.
Under China’s highly restrictive NGO regulations, only organizations that have gained approval by the government prior to their establishment can register as non-profit entities; many who were set up without prior government approval opt to register as commercial enterprises to try to comply with the law. The Beijing authorities’ decision to suspend Gongmeng on the grounds that it had “falsely registered as a commercial enterprise in view of carrying out civic non-commercial activities” has sent waves of concern through China’s non-profit community. While Xu and Zhuang have now been released, it is not clear whether Gongmeng will be able to resume its operations and to continue representing clients in court given that it has no registration as an NGO and that all its work files, computers, and archives remain in the hands of the police……. (read more of Human Rights Watch’sreport)
A 70-year-old professor from Beijing’s prestigious Central Conservatory of Music confessed on August 18 to accepting sexual and monetary bribes from a prospective female student. The case led to a flurry of comments from Chinese netizens and the loss of the professor’s teaching privileges.
Professor Liang Maochun was approached by a Masters student from the Shenyang Conservatory of Music, Zou Jiahong, who was seeking entry into the Ph.D. program he oversaw. She paid 50,000 yuan (US$7,315) tuition, then later directly gave Prof. Liang another 50,000 yuan and engaged in sexual intercourse with the professor. She said Liang could keep the money if she was accepted into the Ph.D. program.
Liang later chose not to enroll Zou out of fear that she would expose the transaction, and confessed his deeds to the Conservatory, returning the bribe money. The institution later banned Prof. Liang from teaching and enrolling students, according to the China Daily.
Ironically, speaking at the fiftieth anniversary of the Conservatory’s Music Department on November 5, 2006, Liang had said, “Dare to speak the truth, think independently, be willing to endure loneliness, and be content to live in poverty. Devote yourself to things spiritual.”
Liang had served as Deputy Director of the Music Department, and is currently Deputy Director of the Theory Committee of the Chinese Musicians’ Association, according to the Wangyi Education Forum, a popular website in China.
The incident has also brought up the question of China’s doctoral quality. The China Youth Newspaper reported in March that more than 50,000 Ph.D.s graduated in China in 2008, compared to 40,000 in the U.S. The United States has more than 250 universities capable of awarding doctorates, while China over 300.
One Internet user wondered how many of those 50,000 obtained their degrees through plagiarism or “sleeping” and how many through diligent study.
“In China, to get a better future, or to just be able to find a job after graduation, female college students have to be ready to sell their bodies. Too many stories show this,” complained another netizen, Qin Jianzhong, in a Sichuan internet forum. “Except for those with strong backgrounds or from wealthy families, women often have only one path to take when choosing between food and virginity.”
Xu Zhiyong Reportedly Arrested: According to one unconfirmed source, Xu Zhiyong (许志永), the detained director of the Open Constitution Initiative (Gongmeng), has been formally arrested on the charge of “tax evasion.” Xu’s lawyer, Zhou Ze (周泽), reported that Xu had been arrested and that the arrest warrant had been sent to his work unit, the University of Post and Communications. However, no one that CHRD has spoken with has seen the arrest warrant, and CHRD has been unable to confirm Xu’s arrest with other sources.
Authorities Expand Harassment against Beijing NGOs: In the wake of the closure of Gongmeng, two more public interest organizations in Beijng have been singled out by government officials for scrutiny and harassment. On August 13, officials from the State Administration of Industry and Commerce (SAIC) arrived at the offices of Yirenping and Aizhixing in Beijing to conduct official inspections. This is the second time in two weeks that Yirenping has been subjected to such an inspection. Adding to this general atmosphere of tension among Beijing NGOs was the forced closure on August 11 of the website of Mr. Democracy Research Center, a legal aid group, because it contains “fake information and too many political topics”.
Tan Zuoren Tried Amid Myriad Legal Abuses by Officials: The trial of Tan Zuoren, a Sichuan environmentalist and human rights activist, for “inciting subversion of state power”, demonstrated a complete disregard of the rule of law by the Chinese government. The three witnesses called by Tan’s lawyers were prevented by Chengdu police from attending the trial, and one witness, architect Ai Weiwei, was punched in the face; Tan’s lawyers were repeatedly and rudely interrupted at the trial; and hundreds of Tan’s supporters were barred from entering the courtroom.
Despite official boasts of increased “blue sky days,” hourly Twitter updates from the U.S. Embassy in Beijing report air quality as “very unhealthy” and even “hazardous.”
“Blue sky days” are when the air quality is rated as “moderate,” averaging a reading of 100 or less on the Air Quality Index. Beijing’s Environmental Protection Bureau reported meeting its targeted 256 “blue sky days” per year, early last November.
On the same days that Beijing deems the air quality “moderate”, readings from the U.S. Embassy’s own monitoring station reflect otherwise, appearing to contradict official claims that air quality has significantly improved since the 2008 Olympics. On June 18, the embassy reported air quality as hazardous, while Beijing’s official data read “slightly polluted.”
Part of the reason for the difference may be a matter of standards. The embassy measures air quality based on the United States’ EPA standard, which measures airborne particles such as soot, dust and liquid droplets with diameters smaller than 2.5 micrometers (PM 2.5). China measures air quality based a less rigorous scale of particles less than 10 micrometers (PM 10). Particles with PM 2.5 pose greater health risks than those with PM 10, since they are not as easily expelled via coughing.
The embassy has been conducting its own measurements as a resource for the health of its staff, according to embassy spokesperson Susan Stevenson, interviewed by Time. The data is shared on the embassy’s Twitter feed, BeijingAir.
Another possible factor behind the discrepancy is the location of monitoring systems. Steven Andrews, an American environmental consultant, has suggested that Beijing officials have moved monitoring stations to less polluted areas so they would reap better data. Du Shaozhong, deputy head of the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau, denies such allegations, though he did not elaborate on possible reasons for the inconsistent figures.
Since the Olympics, Beijing’s pollution levels have been under scrutiny. To reach the basic air quality required for the Olympics, Beijing closed its surrounding factories, limited traffic, and stopped construction projects.
The report Beijing 2008 Olympic Games – Final Environmental Assessment released during the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Governing Council meeting on February 18, noted that “there remains significant room to improve Beijing’s air quality.”
Reporters Without Borders, 10 August 2009 -
Reporters Without Borders is alarmed by the lack of impartiality of TV reporter Li Min’s trial by the Xinghualing district people’s high court in the northern province of Shanxi, which gave her a three-year suspended jail sentence on 4 August after she pleaded guilty to receiving 37,000 yuan (3,700 euros) from a man, Wu Xiaohua, whose businessman brother’s conviction she had criticised in a report.
He Shusheng, the prosecutor responsible for convicting Wu Xiaohua’s brother, is the chief prosecutor of the court that has just convicted Li Min. Aged 31, Li Min had a romantic relationship with Wu Xiaohua. Her jail sentence will be put into effect if she violates the terms of a four-year probation imposed the court.
“This powerful prosecutor, He Shusheng, had himself been accused by Li Min of using his influence to convict Wu Xiaohua’s brother, businessman Wu Xiaohui, in November 2008,” Reporters Without Borders said. “He cannot be judge and plaintiff at the same time and must therefore be removed from the case.”
“The doubts about the prosecutor’s impartiality are reinforced by the fact that measures were taken to prevent journalists from other provinces attending the 4 August hearing,” the press freedom organisation added.
Li Min, who worked for the leading Chinese state television broadcaster, CCTV, went from Beijing with two colleagues to Shanxi to cover a dispute between Wu Xiaohui and another businessman, Hao Jianxiu. When prosecutor He Shusheng obtained Wu Xiaohui’s conviction last November, Li Min tried to accuse the prosecutor of being cahoots with Hao Jianxiu and of having financial interests in the dispute. CCTV ended up not broadcasting her report.
Li Min was arrested on 12 December for allegedly taking a bribe from Wu Xiaohua to use her position as a journalist to influence the outcome of the investigation into his jailed brother. Li Min admitted to taking the money, but said it was just a gift from a man with whom she had a romantic relationship.
This is not the first time that a court where He Shusheng works as prosecutor has convicted a journalist for investigating his activities. According to a report by the state news agency Xinhua, while Jiancaoping district court prosecutor in 2003, he got the court to order the publishers of the magazine Towards the WTO to pay 455,000 yuan (45,000 euros) in damages for printing a list of 150 allegedly corrupt officials the previous year. He Shusheng was on the list.
