Six Death Crimes Within Seven Days, All in Beijing

China has seen a slew of crimes in a single week, all occurring in Beijing.

Hollywood risks ‘artistic surrender’ in effort to please China Censors

In Hollywood, the screenwriter William Goldman once observed, “nobody knows anything”. Now, however, everybody knows at least one thing: whatever you do, be nice to China.

If your movie features a Chinese villain, change his nationality. If your plot omits a scene in China, insert one – preferably with gleaming skyscrapers. If your production deal lacks a Chinese partner, find one. If Beijing’s censors dislike certain scenes, cut them.

China’s Organ Trade – Heart per Order

By Martina Keller, Die ZEIT –

In China, body organs are taken from executed prisoners, and for a fee, are then implanted in patients from the West.

Why Chinese College Graduates Aren’t Getting Jobs

The term “hardest job-hunting season in history” has become a buzzword in China recently. According to China’s Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, 6.99 million students will be graduating institutions of higher education this year, a record high since the establishment of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Pollution in China Goes ‘Off the Charts’ Beyond the Measurements

The stifling pollution currently plaguing much of northeastern China has reached levels so high it is beyond the measurements used in the U.S. to chart air quality.

“What Beijing is experiencing — and even worse in the provinces — is off the charts from anything we experience in the United States, and likely more than anything we’ve experienced in our country’s history,” said John Walke, the director of the Climate & Clean Air Program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental group.

China Clamps Down on Microblogs, Requires Account Holders to Use Real Names

Netizens see a new rule requiring users to register with their real names as a bid to muzzle criticism.

New microblog rules requiring account holders to use their real names are being rolled out in two other major Chinese cities following the first clampdown on Twitter-like services in Beijing earlier this month.

Seven major websites in Guangzhou and Shenzhen, in the southern province of Guangdong, began on Thursday to ask new users to register with real names, the provincial publicity department said in a statement.

Chinese villagers demand return of illegally seized land

Thousands of villagers angry that officials failed to address their grievances after riots two months ago marched to a government office in southern China to demand the return of land they say was illegally seized, witnesses and media said.

The protest came after a series of strikes in factories in Guangdong province, China’s economic powerhouse.

Rural land disputes are increasing and spreading to the undeveloped west of the country, according to a poll published in October in a magazine run by Xinhua news agency.

One witness identifying himself by his surname Yang said by phone that 4,000 villagers and farmers from Wukan surrounded government offices in Lufeng City on Monday. The protesters denounced local officials as greedy and corrupt. They dispersed after an hour without incident.

Ai Weiwei supporters strip off as artist faces ‘porn’ investigation

When artist Ai Weiwei disappeared, supporters made online appeals for his return. When authorities handed him a £1.5m tax bill, they sent money to help pay it. And now that he faces an investigation for spreading pornography – his admirers have stripped off.

Internet users began tweeting their nude photographs after Ai announced that authorities had questioned his cameraman over pictures which showed the artist and four women naked.

Many Chinese contemporary artists have taken pictures of themselves without clothes, and the pictures of Ai that have emerged so far do not appear sexually charged. Some suspect that it may be an attempt by the authorities to smear the artist, whose 81-day detention this spring caused international outrage.

Beijing Tiananmen Square self-immolation: where truth is swept away into a dustman’s cart

Even after nearly three years reporting in China, there is still something amazing about the fact that a man can set himself on fire in Tiananmen Square, in broad daylight, and then no one hears or says a word about it.

As it happens, the incident we report today that occurred on October 21st was witnessed by a Telegraph reader who photographed the aftermath and – after hearing nothing more about it – decided it was right to alert the wider world.

The picture shows several hundred people who must have also witnessed what happened after Mr Wang, a 42-year-old man from Huanggang in Hubei, set himself on fire in protest at a court judgment that, we must presume, he felt was so unfair his only recourse was to self-immolate.

Such incidents, which are not completely uncommon in China, reflect the frustration faced by ordinary people as they seek justice from a system of courts and government that offers little recourse to the weak.

Wealthy Chinese ‘voting with their feet’ When Facing Increasing Social Problems and Conflicts

BEIJING: A debate is raging in China about a growing tendency among well-to-do citizens to emigrate in search of better education for their children, or more judicial security.

Nearly half of Chinese millionaires are considering moving abroad, according to a poll by Shanghai’s Hurun Institute, which publishes an annual list of the richest people in the country. About 14 percent of very wealthy Chinese have taken or are taking dual citizenship, the survey showed.

Citizens turning their backs on their homeland is a hotly discussed topic.

But those with the means to do so are simply “voting with their feet”, Internet columnist Zhang Yan said.

Writing on the website Zhongguo Wang, she says she can understand emigration as a “rational choice” in the face of increasing problems and social conflicts.

11th Tibetan Buddhist Self-Immolates in Southwestern China

China says a Tibetan nun has died after setting herself on fire in southwestern China. It was the 11th such self-immolation protest this year involving Buddhist monks and nuns in the restive region.

Palden Chetso, 35, died Thursday in Sichuan province. A witness told VOA’s Tibetan service he found the nun drenched in gasoline on a local roadway moments before she set herself ablaze. She said she was prepared to sacrifice for greater freedoms and the return of the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama.

Eight Buddhist monks and two nuns have self-immolated since a young protesting monk died after setting himself on fire in March at the flashpoint Kirti monastery. That death sparked months of protests by monks and nuns and triggered a major Chinese crackdown on area monasteries that included the arrests and disappearances of hundreds of monks.

Chinese Premier Reveals His Family Was Persecuted Under Mao’s Rule

Wen Jiabao, the Chinese premier, has revealed how his family were “constantly persecuted” during the darkest years of Chairman Mao’s rule, in a speech that may be a warning to the hardline faction within the Communist party not to repeat the mistakes of history.

The speech, delivered in front of students at Mr Wen’s alma mater, the Nankai high school in Tianjin, recalled the paranoia and fear of life in China at the end of the 1950s as a deeply divided Communist party hunted down its opponents.

“I was born into an intellectual family in Yixing, north Tianjin in 1942. My grandfather ran a school in the village. It was the first primary school to admit girls, against pressure from the local landlords. Many of the teachers were university graduates and some became professors after 1949,” said Mr Wen, delving into his past for the first time publicly.

China’s Premier Wen Jiabao speaks about his family “constantly attacked” in Mao’s political campaigns, to high school students

By Chris Buckley, Nov. 2, 2011-

BEIJING (Reuters) – Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said his family was “constantly attacked” in Maoist political campaigns that convulsed the country over past decades, giving a rare glimpse into his tumultuous past as he prepares to leave office.

China’s wary leaders rarely talk about their pasts. But the premier opened up in comments to students and teachers that were published in the China Education News on Wednesday, saying his father was dismissed as a teacher and sent to tend pigs.

“After I went to high school and university, my family suffered constant attacks in the successive political campaigns,” Wen told the audience at Nankai High School, his alma mater in the north port city of Tianjin near Beijing.

China orders crackdown on popular TV shows

Sick of tacky reality shows with egotistic wannabes? Tired of formulaic talent contests for shameless show-offs? If you feel the prime time schedules are packed with lowest common denominator viewing, you are not alone.

Chinese officials share your pain and have ordered a curb on popular entertainment shows. Out go sexy dating shows and lurid programmes on crime. In come art appreciation, astronomy and weekly “morality building shows”.

The new edict from the state broadcasting watchdog is expected to come into force on 1 January. Provincial channels will be allowed to show no more than two entertainment shows in the “golden time” between 7.30pm and 10pm, according to a report on the Chinese NetEase website. Particular types of programmes, such as dating shows, will be strictly limited; no more than 10 talent contests will be permitted nationwide per year, and each must be of a different kind.

Chinese Toddler Yueyue’s Death Sparks Outrage

Wang Yue, named “Yueyue” by the media, was pronounced dead on Friday.

As seen in surveillance footage widely viewed online, the child was run over by two separate vehicles, then ignored by many passersby—until a garbage collector tried to come to her rescue. She was soon declared brain-dead, and then put in intensive care in the Guangzhou Military Hospital.

Now she has passed away, but not before provoking a firestorm of anger and criticism among Chinese citizens. Many are outraged over the way she was first brutalized—then apparently deliberately ignored.

Some are calling it a sign of moral failure.

[Yang Yaying, Beijing Resident]:
“Now people have become so selfish. So many people walked by but no one helped her because they didn’t want to get themselves into trouble.”

Yueyue, Chinese toddler struck in hit-and-run, reported brain dead (Video)

A Chinese toddler who was ignored by 18 passersby and left in the street after she was run over twice is now brain dead, doctors said Wednesday.

A state-run paper China Daily, however, is still confidently reporting that Yueyue is alive. Her “blood pressure and heart beat shows signs of stability,” their most recent story reads.

Is it possible that China’s censors are at work? It’s unclear, as state-run news agency Xinhua is reporting her death.

Either way, Yueyue’s story does not look good for the government.

The seven excruciatingly long minutes in which 18 people decide not to help a bleeding two-year-old girl lying in the road make China look like anything but the “harmonious society” President Hu Jintao has envisioned.

Henan Case Underscores Depth of China’s Slavery Problem

(WSJ)- Police in central China’s Henan province said they have rescued 30 mentally handicapped people who had been enslaved at illegal brick kilns, in the latest case of slavery in China, a problem that continues in the country despite government pledges to eradicate it.

Zhang Xiaolei, director of the province’s propaganda office, said three people were in police custody in connection with the operation of the brick kilns, while several others remained at large. He said authorities learned of the brick kilns through recent local media reports.

Mr. Zhang and state-run media said the workers had severe mental illnesses and had been unable to provide police with their identities or where they were from. The state-run China Daily newspaper reported some of the victims had been enslaved for more than seven years.

Greenpeace Finds Toxic Chemicals NPE in Top Clothing Brands in China, including Adidas and Li Ning

(Epochtimes)- Traces of toxic and hormone-disrupting chemicals have been found in clothes bearing 14 top manufacturing brands, Greenpeace said in its report released on Tuesday in the Philippines and China, where many of the clothes are made.

Nonylphenol ethoxylates (NPE) were found pervading clothing and fabric-based shoes sold internationally by brands such as Adidas, H&M, and Abercrombie & Fitch. NPE breaks down to form nonylphenol, which interrupts biological endocrine functions and harms the reproductive system.

“Scientific research has shown that NPE have direct correlation with premature puberty,” Zhang Kai, who was in charge of the investigation, told Chinese business daily Changjiang Daily. “Experiments have confirmed that these environmental hormones could induce male fish to transform into female fish.”

Anger Over Migrant School Closures in Beijing

(RFA)- Authorities in Beijing are questioning a prominent rights lawyer who had been following the plight of thousands of migrant workers and their families after schools providing education for their children were demolished.

“I heard this morning that Xu Zhiyong was taken away for a cup of tea by the national security police at around 10:00 a.m.,” fellow rights lawyer Peng Jian said on Thursday.

The phrase “to drink tea” usually means a questioning or interrogation session with state security police, which can last from a couple of hours to a couple of days.

Train Crash Heightens Safety Concerns over China Exports

(Epochtimes)- Experts agree that the deadly July 23 train crash has put an end to China’s ambitious plans to export high-speed railway (HSR) technology and equipment to other parts of the world. This is just the latest and most sensational of many horror stories in which poor quality has damaged prospects for exporting Chinese goods. At the root of this stubborn quality problem across China’s major exporting industries lies prevalent corruption and the Chinese authorities’ blind pursuit of political achievements.

HSR Export Dream Crashes

Beijing had successfully branded its high-speed railway network as a symbol of the “China Model.” The regime’s propaganda touted the HSR as fast, low cost, and large, both a symbol of national pride and a miracle to the rest of the world.

CHRD Urges the Chinese Government to Respect Human Rights in Handling the Wenzhou Train Crash

(Chinese Human Rights Defenders, August 3, 2011) The Chinese government’s handling of the Wenzhou high-speed railway crash on July 23 has been marked by a profound lack of respect for human life and other human rights abuses, including violations of the rights of freedom of expression and opinion, freedom of association, and the right to know.

According to the official media agency Xinhua, as of August 3, 40 people were killed and 191 injured as a result of one train crashing into the end of another train that had lost power and was stalled on the tracks in Wenzhou City, Zhejiang Province. Many netizens have challenged the official numbers, and for good reason. A two-year-old girl was found alive in the wreckage about 21 hours after the crash—hours after an official had announced there were no more survivors.  Workers quickly tried to clear the scene, burying some of the wrecked train carriages. A mother who lost her young child in the crash asked in anguish on a Chinese microblogging site why her child’s name did not appear on the government’s list of fatalities, and wondered how many other names were missing from the list. The actual number of fatalities and those injured remains unclear.

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.

Anger mounts as China is accused of a cover-up over high-speed train disaster

BEIJING: Chinese authorities face growing public fury over the high-speed train crash that killed at least 38 people and injured 192, with the disposal of wreckage and attempts to control coverage of the incident prompting allegations of a cover-up.

The railway ministry has apologised for the collision in eastern Zhejiang province and announced an inquiry. Spokesman Wang Yongping said: ”China’s high-speed rail technology is up to date and up to standard, and we still have faith in it.”

Web users attacked the government’s response to the disaster after authorities muzzled media coverage and urged reporters to focus on rescue efforts. ”We have the right to know the truth!” wrote one microblogger ”kangfu xiaodingdang”. ”That’s our basic right!”