5 Chinese Judges from Shanghai Soliciting Prostitutes Together — Jiang Zemin is the Creator of the Bad Precedents

A video exposed five Shanghai Superior Court officers who solicited prostitutes, causing a public sensation. Ironically, the places that court officers go to solicit prostitutes are labeled as “major reception sites of People’s Government of Shanghai City.” Some commentators stated that Shanghai judicial system is corrupt to such a degree that Jiang Zemin, former Municipal Secretary of Shanghai, cannot absolve himself from blame.

Security Report: Chinese Military Unit 61398 in Shanghai is Behind US Cyber Attacks

A Virginia-based cyber security firm has released a new report alleging a specific Chinese military unit is likely behind one of the largest cyber espionage and attack campaigns aimed at American infrastructure and corporations.

In the report, released today by Mandiant, China’s Unit 61398 is blamed for stealing “hundreds of terabytes of data from at least 141 organizations” since 2006, including 115 targets in the U.S. Twenty different industrial sectors were targeted in the attacks, Mandiant said, from energy and aerospace to transportation and financial institutions.

Thousands of Taxi drivers protests hit two Chinese cities

SHANGHAI(AFP) — Thousands of taxi drivers in China’s eastern city of Hangzhou went on strike Monday over high petrol prices and traffic congestion, while drivers in Shanghai also protested over benefits.

In Hangzhou, drivers parked their cars at several locations in the city, a major tourist centre, while others simply stayed on the road and refused to take passengers, state media and taxi company officials said.

Some media estimates put the number of strikers as high as 4,000 drivers. Police declined to comment.

Third day of Shanghai strike threatens China exports- Two arrested, foreign reporters briefly detained

* Two arrested; foreign reporters briefly detained
* Strike sparked by rising costs, fees
* Some exports delayed at world’s busiest container port
* Minimal disruptions to refined copper flows (Adds comment, detail)

By Melanie Lee and Royston Chan

SHANGHAI, April 22 (Reuters) – Striking truck drivers protested for a third day on Friday in Shanghai’s main harbour district amid heavy police presence and signs the action has already started to curb exports from the world’s busiest container port.

The strike is a very public demonstration of anger over rising consumer prices and fuel price increases in China.

Hundreds of Truck drivers go on strike at China’s Shanghai ports protesting rising costs

SHANGHAI — A strike by truck drivers at Shanghai container ports continued for a second day Thursday, as they called for higher freight rates to offset rising fuel costs, firms and Chinese media said.

Hundreds of drivers, who gathered at several ports in the city on Wednesday morning, were mostly dispersed by police later that day, the Century Weekly magazine said on its website.

However, the story — which made no mention of any violence — was quickly removed and state media did not report further on the incident.

Spy and Sex Scandal Implicates Chinese Woman and S. Korean Diplomats

By Sophia Fang & Gisela Sommer, Epoch Times Staff-

Three South Korean diplomats at the consulate in Shanghai are allegedly involved in a sex-for-favors scandal with a 33-year-old married Chinese woman, said by some news sources to be the granddaughter of the late Deng Xiaoping, China’s former paramount leader. Korean reports indicate the woman has obtained classified information including the phone numbers of high-ranking Korean officials.

Mrs. Deng Xinmin is married to a Korean national, referred to as Mr. J., who works in Shanghai. Mr. J. contacted authorities after he discovered sensitive information on his wife’s USB stick.

China’s “hostile” audit raised Citi hackles: WikiLeaks

By Susan Cornwell, WASHINGTON-

(Reuters) – China used its regulatory powers to scour the books of Citibank Shanghai in a “hostile” and “extraordinarily intrusive” 2007 audit that appeared primarily aimed at controlling Citi’s growth and uncovering its secrets to success, the bank’s top China executive at the time told U.S. officials.

The charges were contained in the cache of 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks that Reuters has reviewed.

Chinese family of patient who died wound six people in Shanghai hospital rampage

A family armed with knives rampaged through a Shanghai hospital , wounding six people and trying to throw a doctor out of a window after a relative died there.

Twenty relatives of the patient, identified as Liu Yonghua, stormed through the Xinhua hospital’s thoracic surgery department after Liu died yesterday, the Eastnet website and Dragon TV reported.

Family members tried to throw the department’s deputy director from an eighth floor window but other employees stopped them, Eastnet reported.

Amnisty International- URGENT ACTION: Falun Gong practitioner at risk of torture in China: Guo Xiaojun

Falun Gong practitioner, Guo Xiaojun, a former lecturer at Jiaotong University in Shanghai, is at risk of torture and other ill-treatment in prison. He was convicted solely on charges which relate to his practice of Falun Gong and based on a confession he says was extracted through torture.

Guo Xiaojun was taken from his home in Shanghai by eight plainclothes police and security officers on 7 January, 2010. They forced their way into his home, without a warrant, and pushed him to the ground in front of his wife and four year old child, cutting his head. The police then ransacked his home, finding only a few books relating to Falun Gong. Police then took him to the Baoshan District detention centre. He was later charged with ‘using a heretical organization to subvert the law’ based on allegations that he had distributed Falun Gong materials. This charge was made following a confession which Guo Xiaojun told lawyers’ was extracted through torture. Since his detention Guo’s family have not been able to visit him.

Shanghai Fire Victim: ‘It is hard to believe the government now … it’s just useless. We feel helpless’

msnbc.msn.com , Nov. 16, 2010 –

SHANGHAI, China — The government’s swift steps to assign blame after a Shanghai apartment fire killed at least 53 people showed how worried officials were to ease alarm among residents about the more than four hours it took to put it out.

On Tuesday, Chinese police held four suspects blamed for unlicensed welding, official media said.

Supporters Gather For Party at Shanghai Studio while Ai Weiwei House Arrestted In Beijing

Tania Branigan and agencies, guardian.co.uk, Nov. 7, 2010 –

Hundreds of supporters of Chinese artist Ai Weiwei gathered for a party at his condemned studio in Shanghai today, as he remained under house arrest 650 miles away in Beijing.

Police told him on Friday that he would not be able to leave his home until midnight tonight, after he refused to cancel the event.

Ai, who created Tate Modern’s “sunflower seeds” installation and whose activism has frequently angered Chinese authorities, told the Guardian: “Many had been warned by local police not to come, but they still made the effort and enjoyed music and wine and crabs. It is really amazing. Hopefully [the police] will learn from this that they cannot just use this old way to deal with new conditions. I think with the internet you don’t need to be there to communicate so well. I have spent all day talking to people there.”

Chinese Artist Ai Weiwei Blasts ‘inhuman’ Communist Regime and Says Internet Would Bring it Down

By Marianne Barriaux (AFP), Nov. 7, 2010 –

BEIJING — Chinese artist Ai Weiwei branded the nation’s government “inhuman” on Sunday and said the Internet would bring the current Communist regime to an end, as he remained under house arrest in Beijing.

Ai, one of China’s most famous artists who currently has an exhibition at London’s Tate Modern, says he has been confined to his home to stop him from attending a gathering at his new Shanghai studio which is due to be demolished.

UN Protestors Highlight China’s Forced House Eviction Problem

NTDTV, Via Dailymotion.com, Aug. 9, 2010 –

[Chen Xuxing, Forced Eviction Victim]:
“This is a photo of my house. It had 4 floors and was close to 500 square meters.”

Chen Xuxing’s house is gone. A local real estate developer in Wuhan wanted to use his land to build a park, but Mr. Chen didn’t agree. So the company forced him out of him home—and then demolished it.

It’s known as forced eviction, and in China, it’s one of the most serious problems facing the country today. Developers, often working with local officials, have rushed to cash in on a real estate boom. Often, it involves driving residents off desirable land.

Residents have little legal protection—even when companies do illegal things to force them out.

[Chen Xuxing, Forced Eviction Victim]:
“Because we didn’t reach an agreement, three days later they employed thugs to break into my house.”

This is video footage from the surveillance camera on Mr. Chen’s house.

[Chen Xuxing, Forced Eviction Victim]:
“Several dozen people came, thugs came to break down my door…After beating me in the house until my head was bleeding, they pulled me outside to beat me. They said they had taken me outside to beat me so the neighbors could see, and that whoever doesn’t move will end up like this.”

Mr. Chen was hospitalized for two months.

He shot this footage after leaving the hospital. His street is filled with the debris of demolished houses. This couple stands in the ruins of their home—torn down with all their belongings still inside. Other houses are marked with the word “demolish.”

Mr. Chen says the development company was colluding with local officials. When Mr. Chen was attacked, neighbors called the police, but they didn’t show up until the following afternoon. Local authorities also refused to listen to the residents’ protests.

According to the Asia Advocacy Director at Human Rights Watch, this type of corruption is common in China.

– NTDTV

Husband Reports Abuse of Shanghai petitioner in Labor Camp

Human Rights in China, July 22, 2010 –

Wu Xuewei (吴雪伟), husband of Shanghai petitioner Mao Hengfeng (毛恒凤), told Human Rights in China (HRIC)  that Mao has been suffering serious physical abuse in the Anhui Provincial Women’s Reeducation-Through-Labor (RTL) Camp, where Mao is serving an 18-month sentence. Wu stated that Mao told him during a brief meeting at the camp on July 21 that the abuses include: frequent beatings carried out by inmates who were encouraged and directed by camp police officers; being hit on the head by a chair twice; being lifted and pulled by her arms and legs and thrown repeatedly against the floor; not being allowed to go to the bathroom or bathe.

In March 2010, Mao was ordered by Shanghai authorities to serve one-and-a-half years of RTL for “disturbing social order” by shouting slogans outside a Beijing Court. She began serving in the Shanghai Women’s RTL Camp, but was transferred to Anhui on April 27, 2010, more than 600 kilometers from Shanghai.

Mao began petitioning in 1988 after being fired from her job for refusing to abort a second pregnancy. For her petition activies, she has been forced into psychiatric hospitals by the authorities many times, and suffered many types of abuse and torture while imprisoned in the Shanghai Women’s Prison.

The Chinese original of Wu Xuewei’s description of the mistreatment of Mao is available at: http://gb.hrichina.org/public/contents/19995.

– Human Rights in China

An empty seat, a broken heart: A Chinese woman musician’s story

By Mei Xuan, Via The Washington Times, July 21, 2010 –

Have you ever waited at an airport for a loved one you have not seen in a long time? Surely you remember the giddy expectation, scanning arriving passengers for that familiar face. But what if your loved one never arrived?

My husband never turned up. On Feb. 18, I waited for him at Newark International Airport with flowers. It had been over three years since I last saw him before fleeing China. Jiang Feng was to arrive on a Continental Airlines flight from Shanghai, but after the last passengers left he was still nowhere to be seen. My calls to China confirmed my greatest fears: He checked in, but never boarded the flight. Chinese secret police abducted him.

We married 12 years ago in Anhui province. I was a musician and he worked as a piano tuner. But before our first anniversary we were kidnapped from our workplaces and jailed. That was July 20, 1999, the first round of arrests of Falun Gong practitioners like us.

Our worlds collapsed as the campaign rolled in with a force equal to that of Mao Zedong’s Cultural Revolution. Suddenly, we were enemies of the state, cut off from our family and friends. We were arrested for practicing meditation and following our discipline – principles of truthfulness, compassion and tolerance. Falun Gong was becoming too popular for the Communist Party’s liking and our crime was having an independent belief system.

As I was a prominent musician, my director pulled strings to get me out, but my husband was jailed for three years. In 2002, literally days before his release, I was standing on a sidewalk when plainclothes police suddenly shoved me into a taxi and drove me to a detention center. They imprisoned me for four years. I was tied to a chair for 75 days without being allowed to sleep or use the restroom. My fingers and feet swelled three times their size. I was electrocuted, beaten and repeatedly knocked unconscious. I watched my friends, one after another, take their last breaths. Somehow, I survived and, after being released in 2006, fled to the United States.

My husband and I planned to reunite here. After I was generously granted political asylum, he also received the status of “derivative asylee,” obtained a U.S. visa, packed his bags and checked in at the Shanghai Pudong International Airport.

He would have been with me in Washington this week, as thousands of Falun Gong practitioners from around the world mark yet another anniversary of persecution in China. Instead, he is in an Anhui province labor camp in which prisoners toil in a coal mine. In addition to torture, my husband now faces the dangers of being trapped, suffocated or crushed underground in China’s most fatality-prone work.

Many people think the persecution of Falun Gong is mostly a thing of the past, a blotch on China’s slow but steady progress. Quite the contrary. In the months before the Olympics, over 8,000 practitioners were arrested, often from their homes for no apparent reason other than their faith. Many were sent to labor camps for periods far exceeding the length of the Olympic Games. Last year saw an upsurge in sham trials with hundreds of Falun Gong practitioners sentenced to prison for up to 18 years, often simply for downloading an article or distributing leaflets exposing persecution.

My husband and I were wed 12 years ago but, separated by persecution, we have shared married life for only a few months. I am extremely worried about his safety as I know what he faces every minute.

As you notice the Falun Gong activities this week, please remember that these victims of oppression are real people. They are our husbands and parents and children. They need your international voices of support. We have seen how, when the world looks away, we face the darkest pitilessness of the Chinese Communist Party. Your direct, public statements of support have a great restraining effect.

Mei Xuan is a former prisoner of conscience who spent four years in a Chinese jail. She is now a musician with New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts.

– The Washington Times

China’s Shanghai Expo Pays $3.2 Million for Plagiarized Japanese Song

NTD TV –

Japanese singer Maya Okamoto (photo from Internet)

The Shanghai World Expo will pay 300 million Japanese yen (approximately US$3.2 million) to Japanese singer Maya Okamoto for plagiarizing her song, according to a report published on Japanese news websites last week.

The song Right Here Waiting for You 2010 was used for the month of promotion leading up to the opening of the Shanghai World Expo and organizers had reportedly spent 10 million yuan (US$1.46 million) producing the song.

Soon after its premiere on Chinese television on April 1, Internet users pointed out that 95 percent of the melody was identical to Japanese pop singer Maya Okamoto’s Stay the Way You Are from 1997.

Japan’s major media outlets widely reported on the case. One TV commentator complained of the response to the plagiarism revelations: “This whole situation should be the other way around. First they should have gotten permission before using the song. Yet, they have neither apologized nor given a public statement. Generally, these cases should also involve reimbursement, shouldn’t they?”

From office stationery to international brand name cars, Hello Kitty plush toys to amusement parks, the impression of China being a “nation of plagiarists” and a “paradise of piracy” has become deeply rooted in the Japanese mind. The popular outcry in Japan was stronger this time, since the apparent pirate was a government agency rather than a private company.

36-year-old Maya Okamoto rose to fame in the 90s from a performance of her original song, Tomorrow.

Though Stay the Way You Are was not her most famous song, the scandal with the Shanghai Expo has turned things around for her career, which went downhill some years ago. She will soon be releasing a new album expected to top the charts.

A comparison of the original ballad with the Shanghai Expo version is available here

– Read the original Chinese report by NTD TV

Home Demolished for World Expo, Shanghai Petitioners Seek Just Compensation

Human Rights in China, Apr. 1, 2010-

As Shanghai authorities prepare for the World Expo, scheduled to begin on May 1 this year, the five-year ordeal of Hu Yan (胡燕)  and her family – whose ancestral home was demolished without the family’s consent – illustrates the strong-arm tactics of the authorities when it comes to official requisition of residential land for the World Expo. During the past five years, Hu and her husband Jiang Bin (姜斌) were the objects of official coercion, threats, and detention as they tried to petition their case to the authorities.

Hu Yan traveled to New York from Shanghai in February this year, leaving behind her family, including her infant daughter, so that she can bring her story to the attention of the international media.

Hu Yan told Human Rights in China (HRIC) that in 2004, she received notification that the small ancestral family home where she, her husband Jiang Bin, and her mother Chen Jufang (陈菊芳) were residing fell within the area selected for the site of the Shanghai 2010 World Expo and would be requisitioned. They were among the some 28,000 people who would eventually be relocated to make way for the World Expo. Situated at 13 West Chenjiazhai, Yaohua Road, Pudong New District, Shanghai, the house measured at 14 square meters – about 10 feet by 15 feet.

The World Expo Relocation Policy for the Pudong New District provides for compensation to those who have ownership of or the “right to use” the property, or have their hukou registered at the location.

Hu and her mother had their hukou registration at the location, but Hu’s husband and father did not. According to Hu, her father has been living and working in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region since he responded to the government’s call to help develop the region decades earlier, but plans to retire soon and come to live with his family in Shanghai. Hu and her mother feel that the family is entitled to compensation for four people, not two.

The two sides were unable to reach an agreement. On December 29, 2005, the Pudong New District authorities forcibly demolished the home of Hu Yan’s family when no one was present.

During the negotiation that lasted from mid to late 2005, the authorities put great pressure on Hu Yan and her mother to sign an agreement for demolition and relocation as soon as possible. Officials at the Pudong New District Gongli Hospital – Hu Yan’s work unit – including the director and the party committee secretary, threatened her with dismissal if she didn’t sign the agreement. The head of the workers’ union told her, “There is no rule of law to speak of in our country; the organization decides everything.” The hospital kept up the pressure in the two years that followed the demolition: Hu was denied bonuses and promotion. Under strain, Hu Yan even attempted suicide…….(More details from Human Rights in China)

18 more Australians facing charges of ‘economic crimes’ in China

Malcolm Farr, The Daily Telegraph, Australia, March 31, 2010 –

THE Government is tracking the trials of 18 Australians facing charges of “economic crimes” as it deals with the 10-year sentence imposed on former mining executive Stern Hu.

The clear majority of Australians before the courts in China — 18 of a total of 23 — have been arrested in relation to “fraud and other economic crimes”, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said yesterday.

There are 17 Australians serving sentences in Chinese prisons, according to DFAT. Most were convicted of fraud or corruption.

A further two were on assault charges, one is on a charge for a car accident, one for a visa violation and one is on a drugs charge.

Hu, an Australian citizen, was sentenced to ten years in jail plus two hefty fines for bribery and industrial espionage after a three-day trial, in which the part covering claims of spying was closed to Australian observers.

In related developments, corporate watchdog the Australian Securities and Investments Commission said yesterday it was monitoring developments after the jailing of Hu.

And in London, the Serious Fraud Office said it was reviewing whether to launch an inquiry following comments by the Chinese judge who sentenced Hu and his three Chinese colleagues in Shanghai on Monday……. (more details from The Daily Telegraph)

Rudd criticises China over Hu case

AAP via Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, Mar. 30, 2010-

By holding part of an Australian businessman’s criminal trial in secret, China has missed an opportunity to prove itself on the world stage, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd says.

A Shanghai court yesterday sentenced Rio Tinto mining executive Stern Hu to 10 years behind bars for taking bribes and stealing trade secrets.

Hu admitted to the bribery charges but the commercial secrets elements of the trial were heard in secret.

Mr Rudd said that left “serious unanswered questions” about his conviction.

“In holding this part of the trial in secret, China I believe has missed an opportunity to demonstrate to the world at large transparency that would be consistent with its emerging global role,” he told reporters in Melbourne today.

“Australia … has reservations about the manner in which the second charge contained within this particular court case has been handled.”

Mr Rudd said the federal government made strong, frequent and high-level representations to Chinese officials on behalf of Hu and would continue to do so.

He expects the bilateral relationship between China and Australia to sustain the pressure of Hu’s trial and sentencing.

“We’ve had disagreements with our friends in Beijing before, I’m sure we’ll have disagreements again,” Mr Rudd said.

Opposition foreign affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop questioned the strength of a consular agreement between the two nations, which should have allowed local officials to attend Hu’s trial in its entirety.

“If China is able to ignore the agreement in these circumstances, are there other circumstances where the consular agreement will not be adhered to?” she asked on ABC Radio.

“This would be an issue of great concern to many companies from Australia and also around the world.”

Ms Bishop accused Mr Rudd of engaging in “megaphone” diplomacy, instead of telephoning Chinese officials to discuss the issue.

Australian Greens leader Bob Brown said the government was scared to push China on the matter because it did not want to damage trade relations between Australia and China.

“Beijing sends a certain fear into the hearts of politicians in Canberra,” he said.

“There’s no doubt the pressure for trade overcomes the pressure for democracy, human rights and the proper processes under the law.”

Three of Hu’s Chinese colleagues were also jailed for terms ranging from seven to 14 years. (via Sydney Morning Herald)

Australian company head Sentenced to 10 years, China business and political environment unpredictable

JOHN GARNAUT AND SANGHEE LIU, Sydney Morning Herald, Australia, March 29, 2010 –

Australian Stern Hu has been sentenced to 10 years’ jail by a Chinese court for stealing commercial secrets and receiving bribes.

His three Rio Tinto colleagues will face between seven and 14 years for the same charges.

The sentences were at the higher end of expectations and will add to fears that China’s business and political environment is becoming increasingly unpredictable.

The case against Hu has strained relations between Australia and China, with the three-day hearing taking place last week in a closed court and Australian consular officials barred from hearing some evidence.

Australian officials were allowed into the court for today’s verdict, while journalists were able to watch on a video screen in an adjoining room.

Hu, the head of the Anglo-Australian miner’s Shanghai office, and the three Chinese men – Wang Yong, Liu Caikui and Ge Minqiang – had pleaded guilty to taking $US13 million ($A14.33 million), and one admitted to commercial espionage.

The men have been in custody for more than eight months.

The four Rio employees were arrested last July during contentious iron-ore contract talks between top mining companies and the steel industry in China, the world’s largest consumer of the raw material. The talks collapsed.

Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said the world would be watching the trial, which has been widely seen as a test of the rule of law in China and has sparked concerns about doing business in the world’s third-largest economy.

Three decades after China opened up to the world, US and European businesses are now complaining of increasingly onerous rules, preferential treatment for local firms and growing nationalism.

A prosecutor had recommended that Hu be given a lenient sentence after he apologised to the court and to Rio, saying he took more than $US900,000 ($A994,475) to help childhood friends in need, his lawyer Jin Chunqing said.

At the three-day trial of the Rio employees, the court heard evidence that millions of yuan in bribes had been stuffed into bags and boxes for the accused, according to state media.

Hu took money from small private steel companies, which before the global financial crisis were locked out of buying iron ore from Rio because the mining giant prioritised large state-run steel companies, Jin said.

When the global economic crisis hit in September 2008, demand for iron ore plummeted and the smaller players paid bribes “to squeeze into the club and join the buyers,” he said.

Wang strongly objected to the bribery allegations, saying he simply borrowed the money from one of China’s richest men, Du Shuanghua, the National Business Daily said.

Du, the former head of Shandong-based Rizhao Iron & Steel group, has contradicted Wang’s account, saying he paid the Rio employee $US9 million ($A9.94 million) for preferential treatment, the newspaper said.

Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith chastised China last week for locking the country’s diplomats out of the courtroom during the hearings on the commercial espionage allegations.

China appeared to have broken its own laws by excluding Australia’s consular staff from the hearings, according to New York University professor Jerome Cohen, a leading US expert on Chinese legal issues.

The decision “to exclude the Australian consuls violated existing Chinese law, which since 1995 has explicitly instructed China’s courts to permit foreign consular representation even at non-public trials,” Cohen wrote in an article co-authored with Yu-Jie Chen, a fellow at the US Asia Law Institute.

Hu’s lawyer Jin Chunqing told The Associated Press by telephone that an appeal had not yet been decided.

“We haven’t decided yet if we would appeal to the higher court or what we should do for the next step, as we need to meet and discuss with Stern face to face, and as soon as possible,” Jin said.

– Sydney Morning Herald

Truth, justice and the Chinese government’s way of business

Rowan Callick, Asia-Pacific editor, The Australian, March 27, 2010 –

SINCE Australian Rio Tinto executive Stern Hu and his three Chinese colleagues were arrested last July, a weight of expectation has hung on their having their day in court to explain what on earth this is all about.

Courts are usually the places to clear up mysteries and bring murky deeds into the light, but the three-day trial this week in the Shanghai No 1 Intermediate People’s Court only added to the speculation that has engulfed Hu, Ge Minqiang, Liu Caikui and Wang Yong.

There is now almost no way in which the accused can convincingly be viewed as either wholly innocent or wholly guilty. They will be sentenced on Monday, perhaps to serve five or so years each, and so will be in no position to give their side of the story until most of the world has lost interest.

Since the four were arrested, the more fervent backers of Beijing, especially in the business community, have been nudging and winking hard: “no smoke without fire”, and so on. These people will have felt vindicated by the guilty pleas.

Those pleas could be part of a deal to cut sentences, since 98 per cent of people charged in China are convicted. But they add to the questions to which we still have no convincing answers.

First, why, in a country where bribery and the stealing of commercial secrets are ubiquitous, were these four singled out? The tensions over Rio’s eventual rejection of the move for 19 per cent of the company by Chinese state-owned giant Chinalco framed the context, but that is all we know for sure.

Second, how is it that the four were the recipients rather than the givers of the bribes? What services did they provide? Who was the victim? If it was Rio Tinto, should the company not have been asked whether it wished them to be prosecuted?

And what about those who dispensed the bribes? The implication is that the four were offered money to give precedence to iron ore shipments in a tight supply situation. But we do not really know.

And what about the commercial secrets they were charged with stealing? One pleaded guilty, apparently, and three denied the charge. But since this part of the trial was in camera, again, no one really knows.

There is a supposition that it is about the tactics involved in the annual benchmark negotiations for the ore price, but outside China a company that learns about such negotiations by talking to people who work for its competitors or clients is perceived as smart rather than criminal. And that structure is giving way to more flexible price arrangements now anyway.

Though it appears that prominent Shanghai lawyer Duan “Charles” Qihua was appointed to defend Hu, despite not taking on many criminal cases, he did not appear in court.

Andrew Forrest, the billionaire chief executive of Fortescue, Australia’s third biggest ore producer, says he does not think Australia-China relations will be damaged by the trial. He is doubtless thinking of the damage in China. But in Australia the trial has educated people about how China’s highly political legal system works, shocking some. It also has served as a warning to Chinese-born managers – whatever their nationality – of foreign enterprises in China, that their ultimate loyalty is to the People’s Republic. The ruling Communist Party certainly needs the economic growth that Australian resources help to ensure. But the reality behind this is that key decisions are ultimately made for political reasons and that sometimes this requires that commercial commonsense is overridden.

It’s also unclear why the Rudd government has responded the way it has. We may know more about this after Monday’s verdicts when the government promises a “considered statement”.

Canberra’s position so far has been to respect China’s legal process, but what does this mean?

Trade Minister Simon Crean has said that key questions about the trial cannot be answered until we know “what the full evidence presented is and the basis of the findings”. The chances of this happening are slim indeed.

Update: Chinese Artist’s Abducted Husband Being Held at Brainwash Class, at Risk of Torture

The Falun Dafa Information Center, Mar. 9, 2010-

NEW YORK— According to reliable sources inside China, a Falun Gong practitioner who was abducted at Shanghai Pudong International Airport on February 18 en route to the United States is currently in the custody of the Public Security Bureau in Anhui province. The Falun Dafa Information Center is urging the international community to take immediate action to ensure his immediate release and safe passage to the United States.

The Center reported Mr. Jiang Feng’s (江峰) apparent abduction on March 1. (news) Since then, the Center has learned from the World Organization to Investigate the Persecution of Falun Gong (WOIPFG) that after Mr. Jiang passed through the security checkpoint at the airport, he was illegally abducted at the border inspection station. (news)

Jiang was then taken back to his hometown of Hefei in Anhui province, where he was transferred into the custody of the Public Security Bureau’s Domestic Security Department in Luyang district. He is currently being held in a facility run by the department where officers are reportedly using coercive means to force Mr. Jiang to renounce his faith in Falun Gong. The details of the location are: #478 Huaihe Rd, Hefei City, Anhui Province, tel: 0551-2831900.

According to China Digital Times, the Domestic Security Department is a branch of the Ministry of Public Security and Public Security Bureau specializing in monitoring and dealing with political dissidents, petitioners, and religious groups (link).

“According to the reports we’re seeing, at this very moment, Jiang is being subjected to highly coercive measures, which most certainly involves torture,” says Falun Dafa Information Center Executive Director Levi Browde. “‘Brainwashing’ facilities like the one where Jiang is being held are essentially torture facilities aimed at forcing victims to renounce their faith…he must be rescued immediately.”

Among the individuals known to be involved in the handling of Jiang’s case are:
•    Ding Zhongbing, the Head of the Domestic Security Department, Luyang District Public Security Bureau;
•    Wei Min, the policeman of the Domestic Security Department, Luyang District Public Security Bureau;

The Falun Dafa Information Center urges:

• Human rights groups and elected representatives to write to the Chinese authorities to demand the immediate release and safe travel of Mr. Jiang to the United States. Suggested targets for letters include the Chinese embassy, the Ministry of Public Security, and the local authorities in Hefei. Sample wording for such letters is available upon request.
• Concerned citizens around the world to write to their elected officials and/or the local Chinese embassy to encourage action on Mr. Jiang’s case.

In past cases, such as that of Qin Shizhen in 2008, international pressure has succeeded in gaining the release of Falun Gong practitioners held at similar forced conversion facilities (link).

Note to editors: Mei Xuan is available for interviews upon request.

Background

Related:
– Shen Yun Artist’s Husband Abducted in Shanghai Airport, Likely by ‘China Gestapo’

Chinese Law Professor Condemns Communist Regime for the Disappearance of Shen Yun Artist’s Husband

By Jing Ru, Sound of Hope Radio Network, Via The Epochtimes, Feb. 28, 2010-

Jiang Feng checked his luggage at the Shanghai Pudong International airport on the afternoon of Feb. 18, just like every other time. He was on the way to the U.S. to meet his wife, an erhu virtuoso for the New York-based Shen Yun Performing Arts. After passing through security and before boarding his flight, he disappeared.

Had he made it to the plane Mr. Jiang would have arrived at the Newark airport before heading to Radio City Music Hall, where his wife, Mei Xuan, was to perform that night.

Phone calls to the airport and interviews with passengers of the flight indicate irregularities around the disappearance, leading many to conclude that Ms. Mei Xuan’s husband was kidnapped by Chinese authorities.

Professor of law Yuan Hongbing, who now lives in exile in Australia, provided his outspoken views to a reporter from SOH radio on the apparent disappearance of Mr. Jiang, and the CCP’s attitude to Shen Yun generally.

Mr. Yuan says this incident indicates that the Chinese communist regime “hates and fears” Shen Yun Performing Arts for spreading the traditional Chinese culture across the world.

The incident reflects two issues, he says. The first is that the CCP has deep animosity against traditional Chinese culture. “Shen Yun Performing Arts is, after all, a performance to promote traditional Chinese culture. The CCP have exercised state terrorism at a critical time to make a performer’s husband disappear. It is very obvious that they are against Chinese culture.”

Secondly, “Shen Yun Performing Arts exactly exposes the ugly fact that the CCP have been trampling the traditional culture of its own country,” he said.

An Epoch Times reporter called the police substation at the Shanghai Pudong Airport to enquire about Mr. Jiang. The individuals who answered said they weren’t sure what had happened to him, but suggested he was taken into custody by either the National Security police or the 610 Office.

The 610 Office is an extralegal body established in July 1999 for the purpose of coordinating and carrying out the persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual practice, of which both Jiang Feng and Mei Xuan are adherents.

At no time prior to the flight’s departure from Shanghai was Mr. Jiang paged on the public address system for failing to board his flight, according to passengers interviewed by The Epoch Times.

“What the CCP has done simply shows the world that the Chinese communist regime is the most evil tyranny in human history,” Yuan said…….. (more details from The Epochtimes)