University Town Quarantined after H1N1 Outbreak in China

By Fang Xiao, Epoch Times Staff, Sep 15, 2009 -

A H1N1 flu outbreak has lead to the closure of a university town in Langfang, a city in China’s Hebei Province. Students now carry thermometers with them as they walk

There were over 300 suspected H1N1 cases on the campus of the People’s Armed Police Force Academy, according to an instructor there who spoke to The Epoch Times under condition of anonymity.

The instructor said those infected were all transferred to Beijing for treatment, and a series of preventative measures taken on campus.

“They have found two more H1N1 cases in the cafeteria, so [the cafeteria] was closed… School authorities have disinfected and cleaned the campus. Every student carries a thermometer with them,” the instructor said.

Although death rates are low among the infected, the instructor said that in the future victims might suffer complications, such as partial paralysis or damage to the neurological, respiratory, or circulatory systems.

One clerk who works in Langfang told The Epoch Times that there are 14 universities with about 40,000 to 50,000 students in the university town, and over 10,000 people have been quarantined since last Wednesday.

The Public Security Bureau was issuing passes in and out of town.

The library had been closed since the outbreak, according to someone who works there contacted by telephone.

Rumors circulated on the internet that authorities in Xiong County, Baoding City, Hebei Province, had issued an order to towns and villages in the area to not report any fever cases, to not confirm any H1N1 cases, and to treat H1N1 flu like the regular flu. The Epoch Times was unable to verify these claims.

The state’s Xinhua News Agency recently reported a new confirmed H1N1 flu case in the Hebei Technical College of Petroleum Profession and those who were infected with H1N1 in Langfang City had all been hospitalized for quarantine and medical treatments.

Xinhua News Agency also reported on Sept. 12 that the Hebei Province Education Department had ordered schools in the province to report any H1N1 cases to their local Education Bureaus, which will then report to the Provincial Education Department.

- The Epochtimes

Chinese 53-year-old Woman Dies from Torture Six Days after Arrest

THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER, 15 Sep 2009 -

NEW YORK — A 53-year-old from China’s northeastern Hebei Province has died in police custody six days after being taken from her home.

According to sources in Hebei Province, Ms. Wang Huilan was taken away by police on Sept. 1, 2009 by Zhouzhou City police. Sources familiar with her case say Ms. Wang was force fed on Sept. 7, 2009 and died that afternoon from injuries sustained during the force-feeding.

Unlike force-feeding performed by medical personnel to provide vital nutrients to a patient who will not or cannot feed themselves, force-feeding inside Chinese prisons, labor camps or detention centers is often performed as a torture method and is frequently used on Falun Gong detainees. Force-feeding has been the cause of death in approximately 10 percent of all known death cases of Falun Gong practitioners inside China.

The force-feeding is most often carried out by labor camp staff with no medical training, or by criminal inmates who are coerced to assist. Unsanitary rubber tubes are shoved into an adherent’s nose and down the stomach, often rupturing or damaging tissue; sometimes the tube enters the lungs. Detainees are often fed irritants such as highly concentrated salt water, hot pepper oil, boiling water, detergent, or even human feces.

Ms. Wang had been detained at least once before in March, 2006. Her home was ransacked by police at the time of her arrest and she was held for seven days before being released.

Throughout China, practitioners of Falun Gong are subject to arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and often torture as part of a systematic campaign waged by the Chinese Communist Party to “eradicate” the traditional Chinese exercise and meditation practice.

- THE FALUN DAFA INFORMATION CENTER

Christian Sentenced to 10 Years in Prison for Aiding North Korean Refugees

ChinaAid, September 1, 2009 -

INNER MONGOLIA–Christians Li Mingshun and Zhang Yonghu were indicted by the Erlianhaote City People’s Procuratorate on July 31, 2009, for aiding North Korean refugees fleeing to South Korea through China. Li and Zhang were among several Christians helping to provide food, shelter, and transportation for the 61 refugees crossing Northern Chinese provinces into Mongolia, where neutral state laws permit residents to seek asylum in South Korea.

Alerted as the refugees crossed into Mongolia, the Border Brigade of Erlianhaote city traveled to Qindao, Heilongjiang province, and arrested Li Mingshun on April 29, 2009 [View Notice of Arrest]. The trial was held August 17, 2009 in the Erlianhaote City People’s Court. Human rights lawyers defending Li and Zhang hoped to raise awareness concerning the Chinese government’s treatment of North Korean refugees through this case. View earlier press release on Li and Zhang, 7/5/2009, and the English Translation of the Letter of Indictment, 7/31/2009.

On August 30, 2009, Ms. Li was found guilty for her humanitarian work by the Erlianhaote Procuratorate, officially for “human smuggling across the border.” She was sentenced to ten years in prison. Ms. Li’s family in Qindao City received the verdict the morning of August 30. Mr. Zhang received a seven-year sentence for organizing transportation for the refugees to Inner Mongolia. Li’s family reports they will be submitting an appeal for Li and Zhang’s lawful release. (Read more details and See the Official Sentence for Li and Zhang from ChinaAid website)

More than 2,600 ill in China tap water contamination

AFP, July 29, 2009 -

BEIJING — More than 2,600 people have fallen ill in a city in north China’s Inner Mongolia region after the tap water supply was contaminated during heavy rainfall, state media reported Wednesday.

A total of 2,622 people have sought medication for gastrointestinal illness and as of Tuesday night, 59 were hospitalised, the Xinhua news agency said, citing an unnamed spokesman with the Chifeng city health department.

Patients suffered from fever, diarrhoea, stomach ache and vomiting after drinking tap water at home, the report said.

The government has blamed heavy rainfall on Saturday for the pollution, it said.

The downpour caused water from a lake to spill over into a well that provides drinking water for a population of 58,000 in one city district, it added.

Around 30 years of unbridled economic growth have left most of China’s lakes and rivers heavily polluted while the nation’s urban dwellers also face some of the world’s worst air pollution.

More than 200 million Chinese currently do not have access to safe drinking water, according to government data.

- AFP

Thousands of Workers on Strike for Over Seven Days in North China for Being Laid Off

By Gu Qinger, Epoch Times Staff Apr 9, 2009 -

For seven consecutive days, workers at the Yimian Group in Baoding, Hebei Province, have staged a large-scale strike. In order to prevent the new buyer of the company from moving out the equipment, several thousand workers surrounded the factory, and stood on watch day and night. According to workers on the scene, the strike was still going on as of April 3. Some workers have gone to Beijing to appeal for readdress of the injustice. Although the local  authorities sent an investigational group to the factory,  that didn’t remedy any of the issues.

Yimian Group is an old enterprise with a 50-year history. In 2003, the company had 9,021 employees. In 2004, in a re-organization,  all of its shares were sold to the Zhongce Group in Hong Kong. Subsequently, Zhongce Group established a specialized company called Asian Textile Enterprise. After this re-organization, a large number of workers were laid off, with only four thousand  being retained.

The reason  for this large-scale strike was because several thousand workers learned at the end of last month that the company has been secretly sold, but no workers had been told anything about it. Only about one hundred of the nearly four thousand workers will be retained to work at a new factory in Baoding county. The rest will all be laid off. Since last Friday, almost ten thousand workers, including those already retired from Yimian Group, spontaneously went to the factory to watch over the equipment.

The workers disclosed many illegal transactions before and after the reorganizations, including  severe loss of state-owned assets. They explained that after the reorganization five years ago, the promised $50 million investment in three years after the buy-off  was never made. For five years, the payment for employee compensation was delayed, and the retirement insurance also has not been  paid.

Workers stated that the factory originally had $700 million in assets, but now has nothing. The factory has been sold, and the money has disappeared. Now the new buyer and city government cannot or will not answer questions raised by the workers about these transactions.

One worker, Mr. Liu, told this reporter, “This strike has been going on for seven days. The bosses of the factory terminated the contracts with workers for no reason, and halted the production. The factory has been sold. Those  bosses swallowed up all the money, and now the workers have no way to make a living.”

Another worker said, “We are protecting the factory. The leaders planned to sell all the equipment, but the workers protected the factory. Everyone from eighty-year old retirees to young workers and old leaders all came out to ask for justice. Now is the peak time of the strike. Workers are especially angry.”

“Every day there are three to four thousand workers taking turns protecting the equipment, and preventing the buyers from moving the equipment,” he said.

Mr. Liu said, “The city government sent an investigation group to investigate and maintain  order. However, their true responsibility was to monitor the situation. There are many  plainclothes as well as uniformed police outside—nearly 200 to 300 people. We dare not to go in and out freely because we are afraid of being arrested. Now Baoding is blocking the  news of the strike, not publicizing anything.”

When an Epoch Times reporter called the city government of Baoding to inquire about the strike, a staff person there dismissed the call, saying that he is not aware of this matter and that any interview should be directed to the Propaganda Department.”

- The Epochtimes:  Thousands on Strike for Over Seven Days in Baoding, Hebei Province

China struggles with drought

AFP, China, Feb. 06, 2009 -

BEIJING (AFP) — China was struggling Friday to get water to millions of people and save swathes of its wheat harvest, after raising its drought emergency to the highest level for the first time.

The decision to go to emergency level one was taken Thursday at a meeting of the State Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, Xinhua news agency reported.

The increased alert level was made official at the same time as the central government sent out specialists to all eight major drought-hit regions to help residents with relief supplies and technical aid, the China Daily said.

About 4.3 million people and 2.1 million head of livestock are short of water, the relief headquarters said in a statement, as parts of the nation experience their worst drought since the early 1950s.

Eight provinces and municipalities are affected, stretching in a broad belt from Gansu province on the Mongolian border in the northwest to Shandong province on the Yellow Sea in the east.

About 43 percent of the country’s winter wheat supplies are at risk, as some areas have seen no rain for 100 days or more, according to state media…… (more from AFP)

China Vet Exposes Toxins in Food Supply

By Xin Fei, Epoch Times Staff, Nov 23, 2008 -

Ms. Wang Haizhen, a vet from Hebei Animal Pharmaceutical Co., exposes corruption within the industry. (The Epoch Times)

Ms. Wang Haizhen, a veterinarian from the Hebei Province Animal Pharmaceutical Co, recently went public with information exposing corruption in China’s food industry.

According to her, as early as 2005, several toxic substances including melamine were detected in some animal feed, resulting in contaminated milk powder, eggs, and pork having entered the food market and harming consumers. She said after the Sanlu Company’s contaminated baby formula incident, many other companies in the area have still been using chemicals such as the known carcinogen iodized rhodium protein, which is more dangerous than melamine.

Wang’s husband was arrested a few years ago for contacting the authorities in regards to contaminated animal feed. When the Sanlu incident occurred, she made the decision to not only continue appealing for her husband’s release but also follow in his footsteps by appealing for the people.

Wrongfully Imprisoned

Gao Songlin, Wang’s husband, was a sales manager for the Feilong Company, a subsidiary of the Hebei Animal Pharmaceutical Co. In 2005, Gao discovered that certain banned substances were being used in the formulas for some animal feed the company had been producing.  Much of this feed was already distributed, which means counterfeit drugs and toxic feed additives had already entered the market and contaminated the animal husbandry in some areas. This later led to the subsequent emergence of contaminated milk powder, eggs, and pork.

Gao was shocked by all this. He made arrangements to speak with An Diajin, the head of the legal department of the company in an effort to have the toxic substances removed from the animal feed formula. Gao also reported it to the Ministry of Agriculture several times. A month after the seizure of the company, An Dianjin falsely accused Gao of embezzlement. What should have been a civil case turned into a criminal case without a criminal investigation. Gao was arrested and sentenced to four years in prison.

Wang said, “The accusations are entirely false!”

Wang remarked that authorities had long since been aware of the presence of toxic substances in animal feed and its harmful effects but did their best to keep it quiet. She said they failed to take any preventive measures, and in order to protect their own best interests, they retaliated against the whistleblower.

“When my husband said he would report it, the person from the Pharmaceutical Company said, ‘Go ahead! Many of our men are the authorities.”

Toxic Materials Still Being Used

According to Wang, Hebei is the largest manufacturing base in China. It contains several large animal pharmaceutical companies for food additives, animal feed and animal pharmaceuticals. The Feilong Animal Pharmaceutical Company is one of them.

Wang said, although the Feilong Company was closed, it quickly changed its name and went on with business. Its plant and employees never changed. Just like the Sanlu Company, it changed its name and went right on with business.

According to Wang, a lot of manufacturers are still using melamine even after the Sanlu Scandal was exposed. Besides melamine, they also add large doses of Rh proteins, Lipiodol, Clenbuterol, attractant agents, just to name a few, to get the effect of accelerating the growth rate of animals. But the chemicals and toxic materials they are adding can easily have carcinogenic effects. Some of these additives are more dangerous than melamine.

She reported that in Hebei alone, there are several hundred companies like this. Besides these, there are several thousand unregistered companies. There are many cases like these in other parts of the country.

According to Wang, people on the inside know all the dirty tricks. Therefore they are usually very careful when it comes to eating meat. Consuming meat containing these additives on a long-term basis can lead to serious health consequences. Higher cancer rates nowadays are directly associated with eating contaminated meat.

She said it’s a secret trick of the trade to avoid meat as much as possible……. (more details from The Epochtimes)

Retracing the Path Toxic Powder Took To Food in China

By Maureen Fan and Ariana Eunjung Cha, Washington Post Foreign Service, USA, Saturday, November 8, 2008-

SHIJIAZHUANG, China — Xue Jianzhong never posted a sign on his ground-floor shop, but somehow everyone knew what he was selling. Customers from all over this dairy farming region in the northeastern province of Hebei flocked to Xue’s dusty street to buy special concoctions that he said would make milk more nutritious — and more marketable.

Advertised as a “protein powder,” the substance was sold in 44-pound bags and was tasteless, odorless and white, like talc. It wasn’t cheap, about $1 a pound, but it could be mixed into inferior milk or even with specially treated water and the result would be a milklike liquid that would pass government quality tests.

It wasn’t until September, when Xue was arrested in connection with the investigation into the poisoning of tens of thousands of babies across China, that it became clear his secret ingredient was a toxic industrial chemical called melamine.

Melamine can mimic protein in nutrition tests for milk and in products such as wheat gluten and chicken feed. But when ingested in large amounts, it can cause kidney stones or death in children and animals.

The problem is not just a domestic one. Melamine has surfaced in foods sold across Asia and, earlier, in pet food that poisoned animals in the United States, tainting China’s reputation as the world’s factory.

How the same substance that had killed pets and was officially banned in China as an additive in food just last year wound up in baby formula and so many other food products is a story of desperate farmers, complicit chemical companies, and government officials who looked the other way. All were part of a system that allowed the network of melamine dealers to thrive.

Farmers and companies involved in food and feed production said that the doctoring of their products was an open secret in the countryside but that the salesmen had told them it was harmless.

“Actually, every milk collection center bought a lot of melamine,” said Wang, a 60-year-old farmer in the village of Yudi, in the Shijiazhuang area, who would not give her full name because she feared retribution. “Everybody did this.”

China’s melamine trade is run by a criminal syndicate that has relied on chemical companies and underground laboratories for its supply. The trade has been supported by a customer base so eager for the substance that for years it turned a blind eye to its potentially deadly effects. Traditionally used in the manufacture of plastics and leather, melamine has made its way into the food supply in a way that was never supposed to happen.

Initially covered up by officials afraid of losing their jobs and besmirching the Beijing Olympic Games, the melamine contamination scandal began with infant milk formula that killed at least four infants and sickened 54,000 babies. It soon spread to candy, instant coffee, yogurt, biscuits and other products made with Chinese milk, prompting bans or recalls in 16 countries.

In recent weeks the toxin has been discovered in eggs and in animal feed, sparking fears that tainted foods go well beyond dairy products and may include fish, shrimp, beef and poultry.

“Almost all the animal feed companies I know added protein powder to their product until this September. So did our factory,” said a sales manager surnamed Li, in a branch factory of the Liuhe Group, a large animal feed company in Shandong province. “Of course, no one dares to add it now.” …… (more details from washingtonpost)

China’s Persecution of Christians Intensifies After Olympics

China Aid, October 29, 2008-

CHINA – Since the end of the Olympic Games, ChinaAid has received reports of intensified religious persecution from across China.

- In Beijing, Pastor “Bike” Zhang Mingxuan and his family members have been evicted from their home, beaten and arrested.

- In Heilongjiang province, one city called Yichuan recently banned all of the house churches.

- In Yunnan province, some house church members were attacked right after the Olympics.

- In Shandong province, Pastor Zhang Zhongxin was sentenced to two years of re-education through labor, and after the Olympics his appeal was denied. Pastor Zhang’s lawyer, Li Fangping, was refused permission to meet with him because authorities claim Pastor Zhang could endanger state security.

In another shocking new discovery, ChinaAid learned 29 house church leaders have been serving time in a labor camp and prisons in Henan province since July 9, 2007. They are accused of being “evil cult” members.

Among the 29 house church leaders, 21 are being held in No. 3 Prison of Henan province. One leader was released in September 2008. The other seven house church members belong to a house church group in Lingbao city that is part of the “Born Again Movement”. They were sentenced by the court as “evil cult” members on July 9, 2007. One leader was sentenced to seven years imprisonment, which is the harshest sentence against a house church leader in recent years besides Pastor Zhang Rongliang who was sentenced to seven and a half years in 2004 for allegedly “attempting to illegally cross the border and forgery of an official document”.

- ChinaAid.org

China Egg Farmers Desperate As Melamine Crisis Worsens, Over 10,000 Chickens Slaughtered Everyday

The Epoch Times,  Oct 31, 2008-

Since Hong Kong detected melamine in Chinese eggs on October 26, egg farmers in northern China’s Dingxing county, Baoding city have been increasingly anxious about their livelihoods.

In the past five days, the egg wholesale price has not been over US88 cents per kilogram, and in Zhongtaoshen village, the 120 egg farmers have had to slaughter over 10,000 chickens everyday, according to wholesaler, Mr Liao’s estimation.

According to the Jinghua Times report, most of the local eggs are sold to Beijing and Guangdong, and wholesalers have already reported that all eggs will be rejected if there is not a “No Melamine” certificate attached.

Facing cash flow pressure, many farmers have had to sell their chickens to slaughterhouses at prices as low as US$1.20 per kilogram.

Egg farmer Lu Shuanxi from Zhongtao Shenyi village recently sold 1,000 chickens to the slaughter house for money to buy several more days chicken feed for the rest of his 5,000 chickens.

On October 27 and 28, no one came to his village to buy eggs, and on October 29, the egg price offered by wholesalers was only US64 cents per kilogram.

According to one Zhongtao Shenyi village committee staff member, there are few refrigeration facilities in the area, and the first batch of eggs produced after October 26 is expected to expire in 9 days.

However, those farmers are also victims, as recent media reports indicate that chicken feed is actually the source of the melamine in the eggs. The use of melamine is an open secret in the animal feed industry in China, which initially started in aquaculture farming, and spread to poultry and livestock farms.

Internet reports from mainland China argue that most of the melamine comes from chemical plant waste.

- The Epochtimes

Anger after 128 killed by huge China mudslide

By Ben Blanchard, Reuters, Wed Sep 10, 2008-

TASHAN, China (Reuters) – Angry residents wailed and protested as rescuers in northern China hunted on Wednesday for dozens of victims still missing two days after a deluge of sludge from a collapsed mine waste reservoir killed at least 128 people.

The death toll from the wall of mud that roared through a market and submerged some buildings to their roofs had more than doubled from earlier estimates to 128, state television said late on Wednesday.

An earlier report on a state radio website said that “several hundred” were missing, although it did not give further details.

Mud blanketed fields and houses for several kilometers below the Tashan mine, while hundreds of rescue workers clambered past clothes, furniture and uprooted trees that stuck out of drier sections, and used excavators to dig through viscous muck.

Many of the victims were apparently migrant workers from southwest China. It may be harder to pin down the number of dead and missing because they have no family in the area.

Dozens of friends and relatives hoping for news of people feared trapped were kept away from the site by police, and some accused officials of cold-hearted incompetence.

“It’s not because of the rain. It wasn’t a natural disaster, it was man-made,” said a migrant worker surnamed Zhang, who said his friend was probably killed.

“Whole families have gone. So many are dead. Why aren’t you digging out our relatives?” a middle-aged woman, Zheng Xiongmei, screamed at a local official.

The Chinese government took extraordinary steps to ensure the nation was trouble-free throughout the Beijing Olympic Games in August. But this disaster, the first big accident since then, is a reminder that the country’s mines remain perilous.

Heavy rain triggered the disintegration of the holding pond at the iron mine after it had been overfilled with waste ore, state media quoted an initial investigation saying.

CROWDED MARKETPLACE

Residents from seven nearby villages had packed a marketplace that was buried by the mudslide, the Beijing News reported.

The Communist Party propaganda chief of Xiangfen county, where the mine in located, dismissed reports of hundreds of dead as “rumor” but refused to estimate the toll.

“It’s all conjecture at the moment,” the propaganda chief, Dong Fengyi, said in an interview. Teams of officials were registering names of people who locals and migrant workers said were missing, she said.

By Wednesday morning the rain that hampered early rescue efforts had eased. More than 2,200 police, firefighters and villagers have been hunting for survivors, state television said.

But hopes appeared dim of finding any more two days after the disaster, and some areas were so deep in thick mud that it was hard to imagine residents moving back any time soon.

Officials announced earlier this year plans to crack down on reckless mining in this polluted region that is scattered with small mines and smelters. But local governments often lack the power or will to police companies that provide jobs and revenue.

“They knew about that reservoir and did nothing,” cried one woman, trying to get past the police cordon to the mudslide. She said seven relatives were missing, including her husband.

China’s mines are the world’s most dangerous, killing nearly 3,800 people last year, as high demand for raw materials from a booming economy pushes managers to cut safety corners.

Most victims are coal miners. But strong iron ore demand has encouraged miners to dig up even low-grade ore, often with little regard for safety or the environment.

- Original: Reuters

‘Underground’ Catholic Bishop Detained in North China on Last Day Of Beijing Olympics

UCA News, August 25, 2008-

HONG KONG (UCAN) — Underground Bishop Julius Jia Zhiguo of Zhengding was taken away from his residence by public security officers and government officials on the closing day of the Beijing Olympics.

A Catholic source told UCA News that the 73-year-old bishop was resting in his room in the Christ the King Cathedral compound and talking with some Catholics there when the officers took him away at 11:20 a.m. Zhengding diocese is in Hebei province, which mostly surrounds Beijing.

The incident, the source said, occurred after the prelate celebrated Sunday Mass on Aug. 24 at the cathedral in Wuqiu, a village near Shijiazhuang, the provincial capital, 270 kilometers southwest of Beijing.

The officers, from the Shijiazhuang area, told the Catholics at the scene that the authorities have arranged “a summer tour for the bishop” and that “he will not be back soon,” the source added.

Some of the hundreds of Catholics who attended the bishop’s Mass that morning were still in the cathedral and saw security officers lead Bishop Jia away.

A press release from the United States-based Cardinal Kung Foundation dated Aug. 24 said “six government officials in two automobiles arrested Bishop Jia” at the cathedral at about 10:45 a.m.

As of Aug. 25, the prelate, who is in ill health, has been under house arrest in Shijiazhuang, the source told UCA News.

Local Catholics do not know the reasons for removing their bishop, the source said, but surmise that it could be linked to the upcoming Paralympic Games in Beijing, which run Sept. 6-17. Bishop Jia runs an orphanage that also cares for disabled children, the source noted.

Earlier, on Aug. 15, Bishop Jia had presided in Wuqiu at the Mass celebrating the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Mother. More than 1,000 Catholics attended even though public security officers had warned Catholics in the diocese to stay away from the feast-day Mass at the cathedral.

Underground Catholics reject affiliation with government-approved administrative structures for the Church.

- Source: CHINA  ‘Underground’ Hebei Bishop Detained By Security Officers On Last Day Of Olympics, UCA News

Two underground Catholic priests arrested in north China

Cardinal Kung Foundation, July 13, 2008-

Stamford, Connecticut, U.S.A. — In his pastoral letter to China last year, Pope Benedict XVI established the date May 24 as the day “for the Catholics of the whole world to be united in prayer with the Church which is in China…..in liturgical memorial of Our Lady, Help of Christians, who is venerated with great devotion at the Marian Shrine of Sheshan in Shanghai…..I would like that date to be kept by you as a day of prayer for the Church in China…”

Upon the encouragement of Pope Benedict, and as a tradition in honoring Our Lady of Sheshan 佘山聖母, thousands of Chinese made a pilgrimage to Sheshan 佘山in Shanghai in May. Most of them had tacit approval from the Chinese government. Those who had no such approval risked arrest and detention. The entire underground clergy of the Shanghai Diocese was placed under house arrest during the month of May in order to prevent them from making pilgrimage to Sheshan. Other underground Catholics were warned by the government official not to participate in visiting Sheshan on May 24.

Among the pilgrims were two underground priests from Xuanhua 宣化 Hebei 河北. Father Zhang Jianlin 章建林, age 42, was intercepted by Chinese authorities in Nanking 南京on his way to Sheshan to participate in the prayers for China on May 24. Father Zhang was sent back by the security police to Xuanhua where he was promptly arrested and detained. Father Zhangli 張利, age 45, announcing his intention to go to Sheshan on May 24, was arrested and detained few days before May 24 in order to prevent him from going to Sheshan. Both priests disappeared while they were in the hands of Chinese authorities. There has been no news on these two priests since their arrests. We do not know what is happening to them and where they are.

The underground diocese of Xuanhua has many houses dedicated to prayers. They have now all been forbidden by the Chinese authorities to be used as prayer-houses. Those larger houses have now been fitted with video cameras by the authorities in order to have continuous monitoring of these houses of worship to make sure that no prayers are to be recited there……. (more details from Cardinal Kung Foundation)

South Korean Minister and 40 House Church Christians Detained In China for Bible Study

China Aid Inc, USA, Feb 21 2008-

Xilinhaote City, Inner Mongolia- China Aid has learned that the President of the Inner Mongolia Branch of the Chinese House church Alliance, Wang Dawei, was detained along with more than 40 co-workers on Wednesday, February 20, 2008. The leaders were in the 3rd day of Bible study when more than 100 Police officers from the State Security Bureau and members of the Religious Affairs bureua disrupted the meeting and detained the ministers. Police officials also confiscated the offering collection and more than 30 boxes of Bibles and other Christian literature.

Security Bureua members then searched the personal residence of Wang Dawei later on in the afternoon.

The leader of the meeting, a South Korean minister, was also detained during the incident, his whereabouts remain unknown.

The intensity of persecution amongst members of the Chinese House Church Alliance continues to increase as the Beijing Olympics draw near. This latest incident highlights the hypocrisy of Chinese officials who promote a “Harmonious Society” while simultaneously persecuting innocent and patriotic citizens such as Wang Dawei and others. We urge the Chinese Government to release these Christians and remain consistant with its own rhetoric on Religious freedom and rule of law.

For more information contact:

Wang Dawei: 13754197497
Wang Dawei’s Daughter:  13947941911

- More details from China Aid: MORE THAN 40 MEMBERS OF CHINESE HOUSE CHURCH ALLIANCE DETAINED IN INNER MONGOLIA; SOUTH KOREAN MINISTER ALSO MISSING

8,000 Chinese Farmers in North China Demand Reclamation of Stolen Land

By Gu Qinger, Epoch Times Staff, Dec 25, 2007-

Over 8,000 farmers in suburban Tianjin City—a municipality 85 miles east of Beijing— held large scale protests in an effort to prevent the construction of a tourist area near the Shangmatai Reservoir. In addition the farmers demanded that they be granted the rights to their farmland that they say local authorities seized in the name of building the reservoir.

Claiming to build a reservoir for irrigation purposes in 1992, local authorities of Tianjin confiscated over 1,615 acres of rich farmland belonging to six villages. Although farmers were promised a total of over 8 million yuan (US$1.09 million) in compensation for the loss of their property, they have never received a penny.The reservoir has been utilized as an aquaculture unit since 1993, but about a year ago authorities decided to end their fishery business and build a resort near the reservoir. Angry villagers demanded that local officials return their farmland, and took action to prevent the construction of the park. Villagers say that although local authorities did not issue a legal contract for the land grab, they have evidence of the confiscation. Village representatives are using this evidence to sue the local officials responsible for the take-over. With legal assistance, the farmers attempted to sue the officials in both a local court and the Beijing Supreme Court, but they refused to accept the case.

For local farmers, the reservoir has been a disaster from the very beginning. Not only did it cost them precious property, but the reservoir was also never used as promised for protection against drought and floods, including the drainage of flooded fields. What’s worse, as the aquaculture base consumed large amounts of irrigation water, subsequent harvests have been extremely poor. In addition, farmers were forced to pay taxes on the lands they had lost, because local authorities reported the confiscated property as wasteland.

Now the villages are in desperate need of land. On average each villager owns less than a third of an acre of farmland. In one village the average land per farmer is less than 0.16 acre.

Since plans for the resort were unveiled, villagers have repeatedly appealed to higher authorities who refuse to meet with them. Villagers have also sought help from the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Land and Resources, the Ministry of Water Resources and other governmental organizations, but none were willing to get involved.

In an effort to protect their land, villagers planted corn at the proposed construction site. Local police bulldozed the corn field right before harvest, and beat the villagers who tried to stop them. Police are also monitoring villagers’ phones, and preparing to arrest village representatives.

But the villagers remain determined to protect their property despite this suppression. Farmers are appealing to the media to publicly state their intentions. “Our land should be ours forever,” they said in one report, “We demand that authorities return the 1,615 acres of farmland to its rightful owners.”

- Original report from The Epochtimes

Slave Wives A Growing ‘Industry’ In China

The Age, Australia, Nov.3, 2007-

AT THE age of 20, Zhang Chunli had never set foot outside Zhongjiang, the nearest town to her small village in China’s western Sichuan province. So when the man she had just started dating offered to take her for a weekend trip to his home town, she jumped at the chance.

Chen Changhua was good-looking and making a good living removing warts from farmers’ feet.

Her “boyfriend” and his friends tricked Ms Zhang all the way to Hohhot, in Inner Mongolia, thousands of kilometres to the north. Sensing something was not right, Ms Zhang demanded to be taken back, but the men claimed to have run out of money.

Mr Chen took her to a farmer’s family in a desert village, supposedly to borrow money. “When Chen readied himself to go, I got up, too. But the family pushed me down. I didn’t understand what they were saying. Then the hard truth hit me: I was sold for 3600 yuan,” she said.

Every year, thousands of Chinese women are kidnapped and sold to farmers as their wives. The Chinese Government has launched numerous campaigns against human trafficking, featuring highly publicised arrests and heavy sentences against the kidnappers. But despite wave after wave of these campaigns, the problem still thrives in rural China, causing untold misery and pain for the victims and their families.

“The 32 months was hell,” Ms Zhang said, wiping tears from her face as she sat in her bare, small flat in Zhongjian. On the first night, Bai Jinquan, her buyer, climbed into her bed. “He was so dirty, smelly and old — I never knew how old he was, too old for me anyway. I was scared to death.”

She fought him off. The next day, Ms Zhang realised that she had become a prisoner. She was followed everywhere. She begged to be freed. That night, she attempted to escape but was soon caught. Mr Bai dragged her back by her feet, beat her unconscious, then raped her.

“I dreaded night-time when Bai came up to me, his dirty hands pulling off my trousers,” she said, eyes looking down at her tea. She gave up resisting his daily demands only after he threatened to sell her off: she had heard stories of bought wives being shared by several brothers.

Desperately missing home, Ms Zhang wrote many letters. Mr Bai kept them all save the one asking her mother to come and help after she became pregnant.

The official Xinhua news agency reported that between 2001 to 2003, police rescued 42,215 kidnapped women and children.

Security guard turned private detective Zhu Wenguang said: “Fellow villagers laugh at a man without a wife. But he if buys one, they don’t see anything wrong.”

Mr Zhu, 44, is known as Zorro. He is short, with a pot belly, and is an unlikely hero who has rescued more than 160 women, including Ms Zhang.

At her mother’s request, he came to set the young woman free with a van and three local policemen. Angry villagers mobbed the van, shouting: “Don’t let the woman go!”

Mr Bai hit Mr Zhu with an iron rod. Staying calm, Mr Zhu persuaded Mr Bai to get into the vehicle, on the pretence of solving the dispute at the local government. Mr Bai and his brother were lured to the police station where they were arrested for hitting a policeman, but were later discharged. Ms Zhang got away.

Mr Zhu said more than 90 per cent of the women he rescued were happy to return with him. Those who chose to stay with their captor said it was because they couldn’t tear themselves away from their children.

- Original report from The Age

China: Unprecedented Motion by 6 Lawyers Defends Falun Gong in Court for First Time

By Samantha Lev, The Human Rights Law Foundation, via the Epochtimes, Oct 25, 2007-

In a daring and unprecedented motion ( .PDF, in English, download)  recently smuggled out of China, six Chinese lawyers have for the first time formally defended Falun Gong adherents’ right to freedom of belief in court.

“Falun Gong … which advocates ‘truthfulness, benevolence and forbearance,’ has been banned and persecuted for no justifiable reason at all,” says the document. “The current various punitive actions against Falun Gong believers do not have any legal basis, and must therefore be stopped.”

The defendants in the case are a family of three—Wang Bo, 27, and her two parents, Wang Xinzhong and Liu Shuqin. All three practice Falun Gong, a Chinese meditation and spiritual discipline. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) banned the practice in 1999, when several leaders perceived Falun Gong as a threat to their power after its adherents reportedly outnumbered Party members.

To strengthen the campaign against Falun Gong, the CCP issued directives barring attorneys from defending practitioners. Since then, the authorities have disbarred or arrested most attorneys who have tried.

“In China, defense lawyers have themselves been arrested, arbitrarily detained, subject to criminal prosecution or imprisonment simply because they provide legal representation to Falun Gong adherents and other Chinese citizens targeted for persecution by the authorities,” says Terri Marsh, executive director of the Human Rights Law Foundation, based in Washington, D.C.

Despite such circumstances, as the family’s trial approached, six lawyers from Beijing—Li Heping, Li Xiongbing, Zhang Lihui, Li Shunzhang, Teng Biao, and Wu Hongwei— decided to disregard the prohibition and represent Wang and her parents.

“I think Falun Gong practitioners have fundamental rights,” said Teng Biao, one of the six attorneys, on a New Tang Dynasty Television program in April. “In the face of this persecution, intellectuals and attorneys in mainland China remain silent. This kind of silence is unconscionable, and that is why we’re here to defend Wang Bo.”

Defense on Multiple Fronts

The lawyers’ 14-page motion ( .PDF, in English, download) , which was submitted to a court in Hebei Province in April 2007, combines legal theory on freedom of belief with an analysis of Chinese law. Drawing on sources ranging from Thomas Jefferson to Japanese legislation on religious organizations, it reflects extensive research on the part of its authors. Enumerating multiple ways in which the campaign against Falun Gong violates China’s constitution, the lawyers argue that the criminal charges against their clients lack any legal basis.

The lawyers’ defense of Wang and her parents consists of six parts, beginning with a section reaffirming what they see as universal principles related to the case, as well as dismantling the CCP’s claim that Falun Gong had to be collectively banned because it was supposedly a “cult.”

The section addresses three issues: the right to freedom of belief, the legal principle that a criminal offense can only be based on one’s conduct and not one’s thoughts, and the separation of religion and the state, which the lawyers term “The Great Divide.” Among the sources sited in this latter subsection is American founding father Thomas Jefferson.

“Jefferson criticized the history of the integration of religion with political regimes … refined the principle of The Great Divide, and realized this principle in a political system,” write the lawyers. “The current laws, regulations, and judicial practices which sanction the suppression of Falun Gong deviate from the principle of The Great Divide.”

But for Guo Guoting, a Shanghai lawyer who was disbarred and exiled to Canada in 2005 for defending Falun Gong, the most impressive aspect of the motion is the second part. It covers the unconstitutionality of the campaign against Falun Gong and argues that the persecution itself is illegal and invalid.

“In the case of Falun Gong, this is a fundamental principle,” says Guo, who has authored several articles analyzing the campaign against Falun Gong. “A lot of Chinese lawyers who defend Falun Gong do not dare to mention this point. They just defend the individual practitioner, but don’t argue against the whole persecution. [These lawyers] mention all the key points.”

Having established the illegality of the ban on Falun Gong, the lawyers focus the next three sections on denouncing the measures taken to wipe out the practice and calling on the government to review its policy.

“We believe that adopting high-handed policies against Falun Gong believers not only opposes the Chinese constitution and basic international human rights standards,” they write. “Even from a practical perspective, the persecution has had a limited or even counterproductive effect.”

Taking the argument a step further, they call for those who’ve committed abuses against Falun Gong to be held accountable.

“We also consider the implementation of torture on Falun Gong practitioners to be a violation of our country’s Criminal Law provisions, thus constituting a crime,” they write. “The perpetrators should bear responsibility for their criminal actions.”

The document’s final section then addresses the specific situation of their clients. Wang and her parents were facing imprisonment for posting online information exposing abuses, downloading materials related to Falun Gong, and taking photos of a banner calling on people to quit the CCP.

“The identification of the above behavior as criminal … is absurd,” they write. “Using a camera to take photographs is a part of normal life for citizens, and does not threaten or harm society. It is ludicrous to judge citizens’ normal practice of their faith or day-to-day activities as criminal.”

“We ask that you respect citizens’ constitutional rights, righteously face your historic responsibility, have the courage to face the truth and your conscience, and acquit the innocent defendants,” concludes the motion.

Aftermath

But in a move typical of Chinese courts’ treatment of Falun Gong, the judges did not acquit the three practitioners. Without responding to any of the arguments raised in the defense motion, on May 9, they upheld the previous court’s decision and sentenced Wang Bo and her parents each to three years in prison where they remain today.

“They just ignored the submission,” says Guo Guoting. “This is how Chinese courts are. They don’t dare to even mention the defense lawyers’ points. Because all the judges who handle such cases are CCP members and are so-called ‘politically reliable’… they don’t dare speak what they are truly thinking. So, in China, the courts give no justice at all.”

Equally disconcerting for those who hope to see rule of law emerge in China, the lawyers themselves have become victims of abuse since taking the case. On the day of the hearing, Teng Biao was reportedly beaten by police. Last month, Li Heping was kidnapped and shocked with electric batons.

“I was so badly beaten that I rolled on the ground everywhere,” said Li in a statement later posted online. “Yet, they continued to chase and beat me with smiles on their faces. The beating went on and off for four to five hours.”

Such treatment by the authorities against those who defend Falun Gong has been a consistent pattern. To Guo Guoting, himself a victim of such retaliation, the fact that the lawyers wrote such a motion despite the risks, is a testament of their dedication to the rule of law.

“Why did they speak out? Because they did their job. I respect them,” he says. “They are true human rights lawyers.”

“Li Heping and his colleagues have brought the related cases of Falun Gong practitioners Wang Bo and her parents to trial,” said Marsh. “This is unprecedented in China and the partial transcript of these proceedings will have far reaching consequences for China and the outside world in the years to come.”

In 2002, Wang Bo was sentenced to a labor camp for raising a Falun Gong banner on Tiananmen Square. By manipulating statements Wang made under torture, China’s state-run television station produced an influential anti-Falun Gong program claiming Wang had been convinced to give up the practice.

Upon her release, Wang posted an online video recounting the abuse she suffered and denouncing the television program. Soon after, Wang and her parents were arrested and sentenced to four and five years in prison, respectively, on vague charges of “using a heretical organization to undermine the law.” At the time of the first trial, the three were unable to find a lawyer to represent them.

Download .pdf English translation of lawyers’ motion here.

 

- Report from  the Epochtimes : Chinese Lawyers’ Motion Defends Falun Gong in Court for First Time

Underground Water Table Sinks 4 Feet a Year in North China City

By JIM YARDLEY, New York Times, September 28, 2007-

SHIJIAZHUANG, China — Hundreds of feet below ground, the primary water source for this provincial capital of more than two million people is steadily running dry. The underground water table is sinking about four feet a year. Municipal wells have already drained two-thirds of the local groundwater.

Above ground, this city in the North China Plain is having a party. Economic growth topped 11 percent last year. Population is rising. A new upscale housing development is advertising waterfront property on lakes filled with pumped groundwater. Another half-built complex, the Arc de Royal, is rising above one of the lowest points in the city’s water table.

“People who are buying apartments aren’t thinking about whether there will be water in the future,” said Zhang Zhongmin, who has tried for 20 years to raise public awareness about the city’s dire water situation.

For three decades, water has been indispensable in sustaining the rollicking economic expansion that has made China a world power. Now, China’s galloping, often wasteful style of economic growth is pushing the country toward a water crisis. Water pollution is rampant nationwide, while water scarcity has worsened severely in north China — even as demand keeps rising everywhere.

China is scouring the world for oil, natural gas and minerals to keep its economic machine humming. But trade deals cannot solve water problems. Water usage in China has quintupled since 1949, and leaders will increasingly face tough political choices as cities, industry and farming compete for a finite and unbalanced water supply……. (more details from New York Times: Beneath Booming Cities, China’s Future Is Drying Up)