China hospital’s cover up of 8 new baby death triggers widespread anger

Reuters, Tue Oct 7, 2008-

BEIJING (Reuters) – Nine Chinese hospital officials have been fired, including the president and a vice president, after eight newborn babies died from infection, state media said on Tuesday in the latest health scandal to hit the country.

The No. 1 Hospital, affiliated with the medical school of Xi’an Jiaotong University in northwest Shaanxi province, had compensated parents of the babies who died last month, but the infants’ deaths were kept quiet for days.

Doctors who treated the newborns were suspended from work, pending investigation, Xinhua news agency said.

“The eight babies died between September 5 and 15 of a hospital-acquired infection. Their deaths were not reported to health authorities until too late,” Xinhua said.

“The deaths triggered widespread anger after being revealed to the public September 25.”

The hospital refused to comment, saying it would give a formal reply to the media at “some other time,” Xinhua said.

Health authorities blamed the accident on the hospital’s lax management, inefficient execution of regulations and irresponsible medical staff.

The hospital, one of the biggest in northwest China, said on its website it launched a safety overhaul on September 27.

China is battling a scandal over tainted infant milk formula that has crowded hospitals with close to 13,000 children suffering kidney problems and other complications.

Four have died from the milk poisoning, which a dairy company and local officials did not report to senior officials and to the public for months.

- Reuters

Lawyer Gao Zhisheng’s First Contact with Outside World Since His Unlawful Arrest

By Gu Qinger, Epoch Times Staff, Nov 02, 2007-

Hu Jia, Beijing-based AIDS activist, received a phone call from Gao Zhisheng, China’s most prominent human rights lawyer, at approximately 9:30 p.m. on October 28.

It was the first time Gao has contacted the outside world since being secretly arrested by the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) regime’s authorities on September 22.

Not long before that, Gao wrote an open letter to members of the U.S. Congress condemning the CCP for having increased the persecution of religious and human rights defenders before the 2008 Olympic Games scheduled to be held in Beijing.

Hu Jia told our reporter, “I got a phone call from an unknown number on the night of October 28. The area code belongs to Xian City, Shaanxi Province. I recognized lawyer Gao’s voice right away. I’m very familiar with his northern Shaanxi accent. I was very excited and called out: ‘Lawyer Gao!’”

Mr. Hu reported their conversation, which lasted only one and a half minutes.

Gao warned Hu Jia not to take risks to visit his family, otherwise, the authorities would seek revenge against him. Hu reported, “Lawyer Gao asked me not to go. He also asked me to think more about my family and take good care of Zeng Jinyan and our unborn baby right now.”

Hu told Gao that “Although I’m in unlawful detention, the first thing I’ll do after I get freedom is to visit your wife and Gege (Gao’s daughter).”

Gao repeated, “I know you won’t listen to me on this, but you’d better not go.” Hu Jia responded,”Your wife and kids are all in fear.” Gao replied, “They should be better now.” Gao also told Hu that he would be staying in Shaanxi Province and Shanxi Province for a while to take care of something.

Hu passed on the news to Gao that Huang Yan, a Hubei Province-based human rights defender and Gao’s close family friend, was violently kidnapped by the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau’s “National Security” Squad on September 22. She was released on October 23, after a one-month detention at Jin Zhou City, Hubei Province. Gao replied, “Please relay my thanks to her for what she has done. I have to go.” The phone call was then cut off.

Hu Jia pointed out, “Under these circumstances, the main purpose of the authorities allowing Gao to call me was to relieve the pressure from the outside to save lawyer Gao. The authorities also did this to cut off my connection with him. As Gao mentioned clearly for me to cut off the contact with his family, this is the most important thing to the authorities.”

Hu Jia said he was relieved to hear Gao Zhisheng’s voice again. He is optimistic about Gao’s situation. He predicts that Gao will go back to Beijing and be together with his family soon.

Gao Zhisheng wrote one open letter to the National Peoples’ Congress in 2004 and two open letters to Hu Jintao and Wen Jibao in 2005, before his open letter to the members of the U.S. Congress, requesting that they stop the persecution toward Falun Gong practitioners. In December 2006, he was sentenced to three years in prison for “subversion of the state,” with a five-year “suspended sentence,” and denial of all of his constitutional rights, such as freedom of speech and free association, for one year. Gao and his family have been under strict surveillance by the authorities ever since, and they have been repeatedly harassed. Thugs have beaten his daughter, apparently under the direction of someone—or some faction of—the CCP.

- Original report from the Epochtimes: Gao Zhisheng’s First Contact with Outside World Since His Unlawful Secret Arrest

China’s terracotta warriors masked by Eco protestor in London

AFP, Oct.16, 2007-
LONDON (AFP) — An environmental protestor put anti-pollution face masks on at least two of China’s terracotta warriors at an exhibition in London, to highlight China’s pollution record, a report said Monday.

Martin Wyness jumped over barriers to place the masks bearing the slogan “CO2 emission polluter” on the warriors, some 20 of whom have been on display at the British Museum since last month, the Evening Standard reported.

“I did it because I have got two children and I am very very concerned about the global inaction over climate change, particularly what is happening in China,” he told the paper, which printed pictures of the be-masked warriors.

The 49-year-old, who staged the protest during a visit to the museum with his daughters Ruby and Sophie, was dragged away by security guards.

“I saw the man climb over the barriers. He was totally calm and silent. None of the security staff had any idea what was going on,” witness Amelia Hanratty told the paper.

“They only found out when a member of the public alerted them. Two dashed over and frogmarched him away. He could have damaged the soldiers but he didn’t do anything to them except put on the masks.”

A Chinese official accompanying the warriors during the show is checking the statues, while Wyness has been banned from the British Museum for life.

- Original report from AFP: Eco protestor puts masks on China’s terracotta warriors

China Closed 2 Tibetan Literary Websites

Radio free Asia, 2007.07.10-

HONG KONG—Authorities in the northern Chinese city of Xian have closed a literary Web site run by a Tibetan, apparently for posting “political” content, the editor said.

The site, known as “The Lamp,” claimed some 800 registered forum users. It was closed July 4 by Internet police in the city, the editor told RFA’s Tibetan service.

“When we called the [service provider], they thought perhaps it was due to the detection of political content by the Chinese Internet police,” the editor said, adding that the Chinese service provider was unsure of the reasons for closure.

An official who answered the phone at the state-owned Xian Technology Ltd, a company that sells and distributes Web sites, declined to comment on the case.

The site, which comprised a main Web site, weblog, and discussion forum, employed the editor, a technician, and an administrative assistant, the editor said.

One contributor to the site said its closure had distressed the Tibetan community it served.

“The sudden closure of this Web site has disappointed many young Tibetan readers. Many have already expressed their disappointment on another Web site called ‘Tibetan Language.’ Several college students called and informed me how they miss our Web site,” he said.

Another site closed

“Usually the Chinese authorities are very suspicious of Tibetan Web sites. They suspect political activities when we run Web sites in Tibetan. They think that Tibetans inside and outside China use these forums for separatist actions.”

The editor said another Tibetan-language site he edited, “China’s Tibetan Residential Education Network,” was closed at the same time.

“The Chinese government issued rules on July 1 requiring …the name of an author [to appear] at the end of each article posted on a Web site. If the Web site contains articles on sensitive topics, the Web site or the author could be fined 4,000-60,000 yuan (U.S. $526-U.S. $7,893),” he said.

“The topics specified were writings on security, unity of the nation, ethnic unrest, writings against the Constitution and … unity of nationalities,” the editor said.

Political debate in China over the registration and disclosure of authors’ real names on content posted in Chinese cyberspace has continued for more than two years.

The country’s Web watchdog, the Internet Society of China, has published a suggested “self-discipline” code encouraging bloggers and online authors to reveal their true names.

But the move has drawn criticism from some of the biggest Internet service providers, who say anonymity is one of the attractions of blogging and forum participation, and who fear losing large numbers of Chinese customers to overseas service providers.

Detentions reported

According to the Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Sans Frontieres (RSF), at least 30 journalists and 50 Internet users are currently detained in China, some of them since the 1980s.

“The government blocks access to thousands of news Web sites. It jams the Chinese-, Tibetan-, and Uyghur-language programs of 10 international radio stations. After focusing on Web sites and chat forums, the authorities are now concentrating on blogs and video-sharing sites,” RSF said in a statement on its Web site.

Chinese Internet users who do not use proxy servers are blocked from searching with keywords considered subversive by the country’s Internet police.

Critics are frequently sentenced to jail terms for “divulging state secrets,” “subversion,” and “defamation.”

- Original report from Radio free Asia: Chinese Authorities Close Tibetan Literary Web Site

Pollution Leaving China Mountains High and Dry, Study Finds

Anne Minard, for National Geographic News, DC, USA, March 8, 2007-

Air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels in China is depriving nearby hills and mountains of rain and snow.

That’s the finding of a new study led by Daniel Rosenfeld, a professor of atmospheric sciences at Jerusalem’s Institute of Earth Sciences, in this week’s issue of the journal Science.

To research the effects of pollution on high-altitude areas, Rosenfeld and his colleagues combined records of visibility, precipitation, and tiny pollution particles in the air—known as aerosols—on Mount Hua, near Xi’an in central China.

The results showed that the aerosols are causing clouds to withhold their moisture in hilly regions.

The findings explain the 10 to 25 percent drop in rainfall that has occurred at higher altitudes downwind of cities compared to lowland areas, the team said.

Aerosols are competing to attract the limited moisture in clouds, which reduces the size of water droplets, Rosenfeld explained. Smaller droplets in turn take more time to combine to form raindrops.

“It creates short-lived clouds,” he said. “You don’t have enough time for rain to fall before they get to the downwind side of the hills.”

Worldwide Phenomenon

Scientists have long suspected a connection between pollution and decreased rainfall in many parts of the world.

But there no solid proof until Rosenfeld hit upon a scientific gold mine in China: records of visibility going back 50 years.

Using that data, his team has made a direct connection between aerosols and rainfall on a local scale that’s been missing from observations in other parts of the world.

“It’s an important story,” said William Woodley, who has been documenting the same effect in the Sierra Nevada mountain range downwind of San Francisco, California, for the California Energy Commission.

“[The new study is] corroborating and buttressing what we’ve been doing in California.”

While some governments have taken steps to limit so-called large-particle emissions, research by Rosenfeld, Woodley, and others is showing that even small particles like aerosols can affect weather both on local and global scales.

Earlier this week, a separate study linked Asian pollution with an increase in storm severity in the Pacific and—perhaps more importantly—changes in global air and heat circulation that may be linked to warming in the polar regions.

(Read the story: “Asia Pollution Changing World’s Weather, Scientists Say” [March 6, 2007].)

Rosenfeld says all of the new studies represent a growing awareness of the effects of human activity on the global climate.

“Here we see there is much more than temperature change and rising sea levels,” he said.

“By polluting the air and clouds we are likely changing our weather patterns and water resources.”

Related:
- North America Weather Affected by China and India Air Pollution, Los Angeles Times, March 6, 2007

Vatican Appointed Bishop Arrested in China

By Xin Fei, the Epoch Times, Sep 18, 2006-

On September 11, Bishop Wu Qinjing of Zhouzhi Parish, ShannXi Province was taken away by the public security. Local Catholics said that although Wu is a bishop appointed by the Vatican, the appointment was not approved by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) authorities. CCP officials had persuaded and ordered him to join the “Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association,” but Wu refused. Mr. Zhang, a member of Xingping City Catholic Church of Zhouzhi Parish and Ms. Meng, chairman of the Beitai Catholic Church of Zhouzhi Parish said in an interview with The Epoch Times : “The CCP controls the religious affairs and that China does not have any freedom of belief. The real religious believers all have to hold underground activities secretly. The bishops appointed by the CCP serve politics, and their goals go against the Vatican’s.”

A reporter of The Epoch Times phoned the Zhouzhi County Public Security Bureau. The person who answered the call denied any arrest had been made. The Zhouzhi County Religious Bureau stated: “We picked up Wu Qianjing here to let him study for a few days, as soon as he meets our expectation, we will let him go.”

Public Security Staffs Jumps Over Wall To Arrest Bishop

Mr. Zhang revealed that around 10pm on September 11, more than ten Zhouzhi Public Security Bureau personnel suddenly jumped over the wall of the church where Bishop Wu serves and abducted him. When Wu asked the police why he was being arrested, police slapped him in the face.

Dozens of priests and nuns at the scene were forcibly driven away by the police. Zhang said that it is illegal for government officials to raid a church to catch people

Ms. Meng expressed her worries of Wu’s plight. She said that ten years ago, Bishop Fan from the Zhouzhi Parish was caught and injected with poison. He died at a young age as a result. She hopes this kind of thing won’t happen to Bishop Wu.

The Communist Party Intervenes With Religious Affairs

Zhang said Wu Qinjing was appointed bishop by the Vatican last October. However his identity was not publicized until May of 2006. Since May, he has held mass as bishop many times.

Zhang said, “Former Bishop of Xi’an Parish Li Duan was afraid of the authority’s harassment, so he kept Bishop Wu’s identity secret. Only a couple of days before Li died at the end of May did the church (secretly) announce it, and there was no public induction ceremony.”

After the authorities learned Wu became bishop, they said it was illegal since Wu was not appointed by the government. They used various tactics to persuade and even threaten Wu to join the official “Chinese Patriotic Catholic Association,” but Wu refused, said Zhang.

Zhang also said that the State Bureau of Religious Affairs is an organization that monitors and tyrannizes churches and does not serve churches at all. Therefore real bishops suffer the greatest pressure. If they draw too closely to authorities, they will compromise the fundamentals of the church and a huge number of religious believers will revolt as a result. If they don’t do so, they will be pressured and even lose personal freedom.

The CCP’s Purpose In Appointing Bishops

Mr. Zhang said, the purpose of the CCP in appointing its own bishops is to compete politically with the Vatican, as the Vatican is the spiritual leader among Catholics.

Catholics generally believe that the bishop being appointed by the authorities is a means to use the high leadership position of the church as a political tool. During peacetime, it is hard to see their nature. But at crucial times, they would expose themselves by casting away the principles of the church to benefit the authorities.

No Freedom of Belief in China

Mr. Zhang said that Chinese authorities have made their own religious terms that require religious activities to be held only with governmental recognition and permission. However, according to the understanding of Catholics, it intervenes with the internal freedom of the church.

He said that domestic churches have to secretly contact the Vatican because of worry of intervention from the authorities. He pointed out that the CCP claims to the outside world that it respects freedom of belief and human rights. These are all lies. Chinese people don’t have freedom of belief at all.

Zhang said that the domestic Catholics are in a tough situation. However, true Catholics won’t give up, because they have faith.