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|  | Re: The PRC - Almost in the 21st Century III
« Reply #120 on Nov 6, 2009, 4:43pm » | |
People power loses to China's harsh justice
JOHN GARNAUT HERALD CORRESPONDENT
November 7, 2009
BEIJING: Four years ago a Hong Kong magazine displayed the photos of 14 Chinese human rights defenders on its cover. ''They fully deserve to be Asia Week's 'People of the Year' because in 2005 they have brought dazzling light to institutional reform,'' the article read inside.
It all now reads like a tombstone inscription for China's 30-year struggle towards the rule of law.
One of the 14 photos was of Gao Zhisheng, who disappeared after releasing a harrowing account of the torture he endured during a previous detention. His wife, Geng Ge, fears he may no longer be alive. Another got run down while riding his bicycle.
In fact, most of the human rights stars of 2005 have since been detained, beaten, debarred or sacked.
''Now it is only me, Pu Zicheng and Fan Yafeng,'' said Mo Shaoping, who many regard as the doyen of China's human rights lawyers. ''The others are either in jail or have had their licences removed.''
That was last week. This week Fan Yafeng was sacked from China's most important government thinktank, the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. He isn't taking it personally. There are bigger things at stake.
''I lost my job. That's not my failure; it's a crisis for the Communist Party of China,'' says Professor Fan, a legal scholar, human rights defender and leader of China's informal church networks.
''It means the CCP cannot endure the mainstream views of Chinese society and the international community.''
Until last year there was a sense that China was moving towards greater political transparency and accountability. There was an assumption that Chinese governance would have to evolve as society grew ever more complex and demanding.
But the weight of evidence suggests the Party is tightening its control everywhere. This trend is most apparent in the institution many believe to be most important to China's future.
''Development of the legal system is reversing, it is definitely not progressing,'' says Mo. ''The paramount national interest is that China is run by the rule of law. You can't enforce rules of the game by arresting people.''
Mo's motto is to be meticulously professional and keep his head down. While he represents Falun Gong and other dissidents he has always worked within the system, but the system is making that harder all the time.
''In the past I, like many others, have been contacted on the implementation of judicial independence and transparency and asked about the path forward,'' he says. ''But this has stopped in the past two years.''
The tide of China's legal development turned in 2006 when the Politics and Law Committee decreed that ''professionalism'' was no longer a worthy ambition within the judicial system.
In 2007 President Hu Jintao replaced ''professionalism'' with the ''three supremes'', which dictates that all judicial work should uphold the interests of the Party, then society and lastly the law.
Last year a security apparatchik from the Politics and Law Committee, Wang Shengjun, was promoted to president of China's Supreme Court even though he had never studied law.
This year most of the Beijing lawyers who regularly take on politically challenging ''rights protection'' cases failed to get their practising certificates renewed. And the security apparatus has been detaining, kidnapping and beating up people closer to the legal profession's mainstream.
''It didn't use to be the case that people would 'disappear'. They would be arrested,'' said Nicholas Bequelin, an expert on China's legal system at Human Rights Watch. ''That reflects the growing import of the security apparatus and the fact they can brush off demands from other agencies.''
Legal professionals who pride themselves on working with the system are being treated as dissidents. It's a process that can be self-fulfilling.
Professor Fan believes China is closer to its ''crisis point'' than many believe. ''The Government has given up all political reforms. Their only aim is to protect their own interests.''
But the harder the Communist Party drives democracy away, the faster it will come, he says.
''If the Government always wants to put down China's civil society movement, then maybe China's democracy will come very quickly. Only if they withdraw can they gain more political support from the people and international society.''
Xu Zhiyong, a rising star who also featured on the Asia Week cover and heads a public advocacy centre called Gongmeng, was beaten and arrested on tax charges in July before being released on a form of bail.
''I am an optimist in the long run,'' he says. ''More and more lawyers are prepared to defend dissidents and stand up for independence of the courts and help people fight for their rights.''
But what if the Government increases its repression even faster? ''If China reaches crisis point it won't be because of the economy,'' says Xu. ''It will be because of the accumulated rage from social injustices.''
http://www.smh.com.au/world/people-power....91106-i25l.html
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: The PRC - Almost in the 21st Century III
« Reply #121 on Nov 6, 2009, 11:03pm » | |
China to ban beating web addicts
China's ministry of health has moved to ban the use of physical punishment to treat teenagers addicted to the web, according to draft guidelines.
There are dozens of treatment centres offering to wean youths, mostly boys, from spending hours on the web.
Many of them are military-style boot camps that rely on tough programmes of physical exercise and counselling.
Two boys were beaten at separate camps earlier this year, one died and the other was severely injured.
"When intervening to prevent improper use of the internet we should... strictly prohibit restriction of personal freedom and physical punishments," the ministry said in a draft guideline quoted by Reuters news agency.
In July, the ministry of health formally banned the use of electroshock therapy as a treatment option.
There was a public outcry after 15-year-old Deng Senshan died in August less than 24 hours after arrival at the Qihang Salvation Training Camp in Guangxi province.
Days later, 14-year-old Pu Liang was put in a Sichuan hospital in a series condition after allegedly being beaten by his boot camp's principal and other students.
Some estimates suggest up to 10% of the country's 100 million web users under the age of 20 could be addicted, and a growing number of rehabilitation services have sprung up to deal with the problem.
Some define an internet addict as anyone who is online for at least six hours a day and has little interest in school.
"The goal of intervention is... to urge the target people to use the internet in a healthy way," the ministry of health statement said.
"It's not to stop them from using the internet."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/8344002.stm
Published: 2009/11/05 10:49:44 GMT
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
|
Big Bunny
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| | Re: The PRC - Almost in the 21st Century III
« Reply #122 on Nov 6, 2009, 11:04pm » | |
US hits China pipes with tariffs
The US Commerce Department has imposed anti-dumping tariffs of up to 99% on imports of Chinese tubular goods.
The department alleged China had been selling its oil well pipes at prices that were much lower than normal.
The announcement is the latest in a series of trade disputes between the US and China, which called the move an "abuse of protectionist measures".
The move comes 10 days before President Barack Obama is due to make his first visit to China since taking office.
He will be in China from 15-18 November.
In September, the United States announced it would impose duties on Chinese-made tyres to protect local US industry, sparking the first major trade dispute of Obama's presidency.
Simmering tensions
The US commerce department said it has "determined that Chinese producers/exporters have sold OCTG (oil country tubular goods) in the United States at prices ranging from zero to 99.14% less than normal value".
The department said that imports of OCTG from China were valued at an estimated $2.6bn (£1.6bn) in 2008.
Several US companies and a major labour union had petitioned the Commerce Department to examine Chinese under-pricing of the tubes, which include a variety of steel and iron products.
China vowed to protect its industrial interests and called for the US to give "equal and fair treatment to Chinese firms".
"China resolutely opposes the abuse of protectionist measures, and will take measures to protect the interests of our domestic industry," said a statement issued by the the Ministry of Commerce.
Beijing has filed a World Trade Organisation challenge to US anti-dumping duties on certain types of steel pipes, pneumatic off-road tyres and woven sacks.
It has also requested consultations on the duties imposed on Chinese-made tyres, a preliminary step towards a WTO complaint.
China launched anti-dumping and anti-subsidy investigations into imports of US chicken parts and automotive parts, in response to the US tyre duties.
In August, a WTO panel found in favour of the United States, which claimed that Chinese curbs on importing and distributing foreign publications and audiovisual products violated its WTO commitments.
US and Chinese officials held talks in China in October on trade, clean energy and climate change amid the simmering trade disputes in several areas, claims of protectionism and a wide US trade deficit with China.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/8345881.stm
Published: 2009/11/06 05:11:39 GMT
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
|
Big Bunny
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| | Re: The PRC - Almost in the 21st Century III
« Reply #123 on Nov 6, 2009, 11:05pm » | |
China hosts anti-piracy meeting
By Shirong Chen
BBC News
China is hosting a two-day international conference to co-ordinate anti-piracy escorts for cargo vessels in the Gulf of Aden off Somalia.
Representatives from Russia, Japan, India, the EU and Nato are focusing on how best to co-ordinate their navies in the escort missions.
It is an indication of how deeply China is getting involved in the operation.
Last year it sent warships to help patrol the area. Last month a Chinese cargo ship was hijacked with 25 crew.
The Chinese were cautious when they first joined the escort mission in the Gulf of Aden. But their co-operation, according to EU officials, has far exceeded expectations.
Their warships have escorted more than 1,000 merchant ships through the shipping lanes.
Formula
When the EU and Nato proposed a more joined-up naval operation there, the Chinese were not keen to take orders from a central command operating in the patrol zones.
That stance now appears to have changed, after the Chinese cargo ship De Xin Hai with 25 crew onboard was seized by Somali pirates last month north of the Seychelles.
In this hastily convened meeting, the Chinese hope the navies operating in the Gulf of Aden can come up with a formula to ensure safe shipping.
Chinese officials say they have a positive and open attitude towards international co-operation on shipping escorts and will co-operate with all countries and organisations to achieve peace and stability in the waters off Somalia.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/8346699.stm
Published: 2009/11/06 13:04:02 GMT
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
|
Big Bunny
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| | Re: The PRC - Almost in the 21st Century III
« Reply #124 on Nov 7, 2009, 12:54am » | |
China to auction Olympics condoms
When the Olympics hosted by Beijing ended, a collector snapped up the 5,000 condoms left over from the 100,000 distributed free to athletes.
The collection has now been put up for a one-off auction, with a starting price of one yuan ($0.15; £0.08) each.
Each condom wrapper carries the motto of the Beijing Games - faster, higher, stronger - in English and Chinese.
The sale will also feature other Olympics memorabilia, the China Daily newspaper reported.
Shy bidders
The entire lot of 5,000 must be purchased by one buyer at the Exceptional Auction of China Sport Collection on 29 November.
"The move is to grab more attention from the public to promote the awareness of safe sex and the prevention of HIV/Aids," said Guo Lei of the Sport Collection of China Collector Association, the auction's host.
Condoms have been handed out to Olympic athletes since Barcelona hosted the Games in 1992.
Some potential buyers might be reluctant to bid for the condoms but being married might help, said Mr Guo.
"Although anyone married should be interested for their practical use, some people will be too shy to bid for the condoms," the paper quoted him as saying.
The owner of the condoms, sport memorabilia collector Zhao Xiaokai, is also selling a torch autographed by Brazilian football legend Pele and a Chinese medicine case from the 1936 Games.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/8345961.stm
Published: 2009/11/06 10:01:05 GMT
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
|
Big Bunny
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| | Re: The PRC - Almost in the 21st Century III
« Reply #125 on Nov 7, 2009, 1:58am » | |
Exposed: the man controlling Stern Hu's fate
JOHN GARNAUT HERALD CORRESPONDENT
November 7, 2009
BEIJING: Stern Hu was accustomed to dealing with Chinese officials whose power far exceeded the titles on their business cards, as he worked his way through the fat bureaucracies competing for control of the nation's $350 billion steel industry.
But Hu probably never came across anyone quite like Wu Zhiming, who is due to decide his fate within 10 days.
Wu derives much of his power from the little-known fact that he is a relative of and local enforcer for the former president Jiang Zemin, who still holds enormous political sway. Wu had little education and began as a Shanghai train attendant. His fortunes improved dramatically as Jiang consolidated his power in the 1990s.
The powerful agencies he controls are due to commit Hu and his Rio Tinto iron ore sales team to trial, renew the investigation or perhaps set them free as a demonstration of the defrosting Australia-China relationship.
Hu, an Australian citizen, and three Chinese iron ore salesmen, Liu Caikui, Wang Yong and Ge Minqiang, have not seen any family, friends or colleagues since they were led away by Shanghai's secret intelligence agency on Sunday, July 5.
Hu's family has had only occasional updates from a consular official or his lawyer. He is ''very healthy'' and ''coping as well as could be hoped, a source close to the case said.
Chinese authorities have followed legal procedures to the letter but neither the Australian Government nor the lawyers have been given any detail about what the Rio employees are alleged to have done.
Wu's power comes from his deceptively modest title as secretary of Shanghai's Politics and Law Committee, which controls the city's State Security Bureau. It tapped Stern Hu's phones and arrested him and the prosecutor who downgraded Hu's charges from giving bribes and stealing state secrets to stealing trade secrets and receiving bribes.
It also controls the police, which have Hu's file, and the court that may soon hear his case.
Wu's committee controls the bureau that administers the detention centre where Hu is held, and licenses lawyers representing him and his colleagues.
"The party controls everything, and they are frank about saying that," said Jerome Cohen, an expert on China's criminal justice system at New York University.
But some Chinese lawyers say the justice system is more tightly controlled in Shanghai because it has been the stable, long-time power base of Jiang Zemin.
Some say Wu has a tighter grip on Shanghai than even the mayor or Communist Party secretary. ''The politics and law committee in Shanghai is special in China," said a lawyer who has acted in criminal and human rights cases throughout China.
"In Shanghai the lawyer will report first to the court on his strategy," he says. "There is no way other than to co-operate.''
But Wu's power over Stern Hu's case is not absolute. Lower-level players can influence the details, and the outcome is likely to be negotiated largely with the central government's politics and law committee, run by a standing committee member, Zhou Yongkang. He is also a key ally of Jiang Zemin. This means the key political fault line in the Stern Hu case may not be between Shanghai and Beijing, but within Beijing.
The President, Hu Jintao, and a host of lesser players might also vie for influence.
Professor Cohen said he had been involved in a criminal case whose outcome had been negotiated directly between China's Minister for Foreign Affairs and his overseas counterpart.
Australia's Foreign Affairs Minister, Stephen Smith, is maximising the chances of a similar, negotiated outcome by saying little publicly, except that he respects China's legal processes.
Whatever the evidence against Stern Hu and his colleagues - and many say security forces would not have moved if they did not have evidence - political analysts say there is a risk that Rio Tinto's iron ore team will - or might already have - become stuck in the middle of a bitter struggle between President Hu and Jiang.
Security sources say the standing committee chaired by President Hu agreed to the decision to arrest Hu. But some tea leaf watchers say a Xinhua news agency story on August 31 contained a subtle message that "the Jiang camp" had borne internal responsibility for early mishandling of the case.
The report was on a commemoration of the death of a revolutionary, Jiang Shangqing.
''Representatives of the martyr's family, Jiang Zehui and Wu Zhiming, made a special trip to Anhui to attend," it said.
While it did not mention Jiang Zemin directly, the martyr was his uncle and adopted father.
That was enough for Wu Zhiming to be publicly "outed" for the first time as a relative of the former president, weeks after the Stern Hu charges had been embarrassingly downgraded.
http://www.smh.com.au/business/exposed-t....91106-i23w.html
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
|
Big Bunny
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| | Re: The PRC - Almost in the 21st Century III
« Reply #126 on Nov 8, 2009, 12:05pm » | |
Hu says China seeks peaceful use of airspace
Posted 2009/11/06 at 8:57 am EST
BEIJING, Nov. 6, 2009 (Reuters) — China supports the peaceful exploration and use of space, President Hu Jintao said on Friday, days after its top air force officials sparked concerns with talk of a "Great Wall of steel in the blue sky."
Chinese air force commander Xu Qiliang had told the official Xinhua news agency that competition between military forces was naturally "shifting to space," and the strong trend could not be reversed.
But on Friday, Hu reassured foreign air force delegations that China was committed to peaceful development and cooperation with all countries, Xinhua said.
"China will unswervingly uphold a national defense policy that is defensive in nature, and will never seek military expansion and an arms race, and will never constitute military threat to any other country," Hu was quoted as saying.
The delegations are in Beijing for a military forum to mark the 60th founding anniversary of China's air force.
A space race between Asia's major and emerging powers has been building in recent years, with China, Japan and India all launching unmanned Moon missions since 2007 and harboring plans for manned lunar expeditions.
http://www.newsdaily.com/stories/tre5a41gb-us-china-airforce/
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
|
Big Bunny
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| | Re: The PRC - Almost in the 21st Century III
« Reply #127 on Nov 10, 2009, 2:23am » | |
US urges China fair trials after executions
November 10, 2009 - 6:04PM
The United States has urged China to ensure fair trials after nine people were executed over ethnic unrest, throwing the spotlight on human rights ahead of President Barack Obama's Beijing visit.
The US government reacted swiftly after Chinese authorities announced the first executions relating to violence in China's far western city of Urumqi in July that left at least 197 people dead.
"The US government continues to urge China to handle all detentions and judicial processes relating to the Urumqi violence in a transparent manner," State Department spokesman Ian Kelly told AFP Monday.
"We also urge China to ensure that the legal rights of all Chinese citizens are respected in accordance with international standards of due process."
Kelly said US embassy officials in Beijing had already discussed those issues with the Chinese government.
The violence in Urumqi, capital of the vast Xinjiang region that borders Central Asia, saw fierce clashes between members of the local Muslim Uighur community, who claim they are oppressed, and China's majority Han ethnic group.
The ethnic unrest, China's worst in decades, left 197 people dead and more than 1,600 injured, according to an official toll.
The announcement of the executions came just days before Obama's first trip to China as US president, where he is expected to push for a broader long-term relationship but also raise sensitive human rights issues with his Chinese counterpart, Hu Jintao.
Obama will talk about religious freedom, the plight of Tibet, and other human rights issues with Hu, according to Jeffrey Bader, the US president's senior director for Asian affairs on the National Security Council.
"The president will raise human rights concerns directly with President Hu in his meetings," Bader said.
"The kind of issues that are on our minds are issues of freedom of expression, access to information, freedom of religion, rule of law." Related article: China police head urges tighter web controls
Obama was under pressure to discuss human rights after being criticized for not meeting Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama in Washington last month.
Human rights advocates said that, by not welcoming the Dalai Lama personally to the White House, Obama was downplaying Tibet and human rights issues to avoid antagonizing China.
"I have every reason to expect that the issue of Tibet will come up on the trip," Bader said, adding that Obama was ready to meet the Dalai Lama "at the appropriate time."
The White House earlier said Obama would meet the Dalai Lama later this year, but only after he paid his first presidential visit to China.
Obama is due to have dinner with Hu on Monday, November 16, before formal talks the next day and a state banquet with the Chinese leader, officials said.
He will have previously visited Shanghai, on a trip that also includes stops in Japan, Singapore and South Korea in his debut Asian tour as president.
Meanwhile, exiled Uighur groups expressed outrage over the Urumqi executions.
"The fact that Chinese authorities had the audacity to carry out these executions on the eve of President Barack Obama's visit to China displays their utter disregard for international human rights standards," exiled Uighur leader Rebiya Kadeer said.
"Chinese authorities must be held to account for their actions, or tensions in East Turkestan will worsen even further," she said in a statement, using a Uighur name for Xinjiang.
Kadeer, who heads the World Uighur Congress, spent six years in a Chinese prison until 2005 when she was freed under US pressure and moved to the United States.
China accuses Kadeer of fomenting the July violence. Kadeer denies the charges and accuses China of trying to destroy Xinjiang's Uighur culture through restrictions on political and religious freedom.
Chinese authorities did not give the identities of the nine people who were executed. But eight Uighurs and one Han were sentenced to death in October, according to previous statements by the Xinjiang government.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-wor....91110-i7b2.html
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
|
Big Bunny
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| | Re: The PRC - Almost in the 21st Century III
« Reply #128 on Nov 11, 2009, 12:05pm » | |
Artificial snowstorm brings chaos to Beijing
Posted 10 hours 18 minutes ago
Updated 9 hours 38 minutes ago
![[image]](http://img20.imageshack.us/img20/2001/r46811223307238900871.jpg)
An artificially induced snow storm blanketed Beijing, shrouding China's capital in white. (AFP: Frederic J Brown)
Chinese scientists have artificially induced the second major snowstorm to wreak havoc in Beijing this season, state media said, reigniting debate over the practice of tinkering with Mother Nature.
After the earliest snow to hit the capital in 22 years fell on November 1, the capital has again been shrouded in white, with more snow expected in the coming three days, the National Meteorological Centre said.
The China Daily, citing an unnamed official, said the Beijing Weather Modification Office had artificially induced both storms by seeding clouds with chemicals, a practice that can increase precipitation by up to 20 per cent.
The office refused to comment on the report when contacted. On Tuesday, an official had said the storm was "natural".
City weather officials have previously said that such methods are aimed at alleviating a drought over much of north China, including Beijing, that has lingered for more than a decade.
But residents have griped about the flight delays, traffic snarls, cancelled classes and other inconveniences of a surprise snow storm, saying officials could warn them if they are planning to toy with the clouds.
Beyond the day-to-day hassles, experts were reported as saying the weather manipulation had other undesirable side effects in the longer term.
"No one can tell how much weather manipulation will change the sky," said Xiao Gang, a professor in the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
"We should not depend too much on artificial measures to get rain or snow, because there are too many uncertainties up in the sky."
Zhao Nan, a Beijing engineer, was quoted as saying more than 5,500 tonnes of erosive snow-melting chloride used on city roads - nearly half the annual allotment - could "erode steel structures of buildings".
In 2005, the snow-melting agent was reportedly responsible for killing 10,000 trees in Beijing and ruining 200,000 square metres of grassland.
Despite a massive effort to clear the capital of snow that involved over 15,000 workers, many roads remained blocked, while highways into Beijing and in neighbouring Hebei and Shanxi provinces were closed, state press reports said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/11/11/2740082.htm
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
|
Big Bunny
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| | Re: The PRC - Almost in the 21st Century III
« Reply #129 on Nov 11, 2009, 12:36pm » | |
Mining firm 'damages' Great Wall
A gold mining firm is being investigated after part of one of the oldest sections of the Great Wall of China was damaged during prospecting.
About 100 metres of the wall was badly damaged, and investigators from the Chinese government and regional police now plan to bring charges.
The damage was originally discovered in September and work halted, but officials later found it had restarted.
The damaged section, in Inner Mongolia, dates from the Qin Dynasty (BC221).
Hohhot Kekao Mining Company is alleged to have knocked two holes, covering a total area of 300 sq m, through the Wall.
The head of the regional cultural relics bureau, Wang Dafang, told the Associated Press news agency that the damage was "irreparable".
"Some people think the only part of the Great Wall that needs to be protected is in Beijing," said Mr Wang.
"But although the Inner Mongolia wall is more modest, it carries the same significance."
Police in Hohhot City, the capital of Inner Mongolia, are now collecting evidence. Company officials could face up to 10 years in prison if found guilty.
China has special laws to prevent damage to the wall, which is a Unesco World Heritage Site.
Five miners were jailed last year for damaging part of the Inner Mongolia wall, the only people jailed to date under the preservation laws.
The wall, built by a number of emperors over many centuries, extends in different sections more than 8,850km (5,487 miles) across northern China.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/asia-pacific/8354987.stm
Published: 2009/11/11 14:34:51 GMT
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
|
Big Bunny
Admin
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| | Re: The PRC - Almost in the 21st Century III
« Reply #130 on Nov 12, 2009, 8:52am » | |
Chinese petitioners end up in 'black jails'
JOHN GARNAUT HERALD CORRESPONDENT
November 13, 2009
BEIJING: Thousands of Chinese are abducted and detained in illegal ''black jails'' each year for trying to lodge complaints against officials, a human rights report says.
The complainants, known as petitioners, are typically detained while trying to submit their grievances to government offices that are legally established to hear their complaints, says the Human Rights Watch report An Alleyway In Hell.
Conditions in the jails are ''invariably harsh'', with detainees subjected to food and sleep deprivation, appalling sanitary conditions, beatings and worse.
''They threatened that if I escaped, they'd take me to the male prison and let [the inmates] take turns raping [me],'' said a woman, 42, in Sichuan province, who was one of 38 illegally detained petitioners interviewed by Human Rights Watch.
Officials at various tiers of government have created this network of extra-judicial abductions and detentions as a way to improve their work performance appraisals, as merit points are deducted when complaints are made against them.
Huge numbers of uniformed and plain-clothed police, and their hired thugs, are sent out to intercept petitioners before they reach the Government's petitions office.
The grim abduction and detention system was outsourced to private operators and driven underground in 2003, when Beijing ruled that local governments could no longer maintain such facilities. Security forces at all tiers of government are complicit in the system, refusing to help victims and frequently assisting their captors, says the report, published today.
It says a series of recent central government regulations and edicts that require local officials to resolve problems locally are likely to make the problems worse. ''Chinese legal scholars and academics who have researched black jails say their emergence since 2003 constitutes one of the most serious and widespread uses of extra-legal detention in China's recent history,'' the report says.
''A Chinese legal expert who has extensively researched the issue … estimates that the number of incidents in which citizens are illegally detained each year in black jails in Beijing alone is as high as 10,000, though that number includes individuals who are detained on multiple occasions.''
Despite dozens of cases closely documented by reporters and lawyers, in June the Government told the United Nations Human Rights Council ''there are no black jails in the country''.
Local judicial systems are usually impotent to deal with complaints made against local officials, as they are run by those same officials. Complainants typically try to petition higher tiers of government so they can deal with officials who are not involved with their immediate problems.
Professor Yu Jianrong, at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, said that only one out of 632 petitioners he surveyed in Beijing had their complaints successfully resolved.
http://www.smh.com.au/world/chinese-peti....91112-icgp.html
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: The PRC - Almost in the 21st Century III
« Reply #131 on Nov 14, 2009, 5:07pm » | |
China detaining dissidents: relatives
November 14, 2009 - 8:49PM
AFP
China has detained several dissidents and campaigners ahead of US President Barack Obama's much-anticipated first visit to the country, their relatives and close contacts told AFP on Saturday.
Obama arrives in Shanghai on Sunday and moves on to Beijing the next day for a four-day maiden presidential trip during which he has been urged to raise human rights with the Asian giant's top leadership.
But as the visit drew close, the head of an activist group for parents whose children were sickened by tainted milk in China had been detained, his wife told AFP.
"Zhao Lianhai was criminally detained for 'provoking an incident'," Li Xuemei said in a text, without giving further details.
According to activist group Human Rights in China, Zhao was handcuffed and taken away late Friday night by police officers who searched his house and took away computers, a video recorder, a camera and an address book.
When Zhao refused to go with them, as the summons did not state a cause, the police officers filled in "provoking an incident" in the summons, the group said. Police in Beijing would not comment on the case.
Zhao has campaigned relentlessly for parents whose children suffered from drinking milk tainted with the melamine chemical, which killed six and sickened nearly 300,000 others in a scandal that erupted in September 2008.
Qi Zhiyong, a dissident who lost a leg during the crackdown on the 1989 Tiananmen democracy protests, said he had also been detained for trying to organise a human rights seminar on November 9 in a Beijing park.
In a text sent to AFP, Qi said he and fellow organisers had planned for the seminar to last until the end of Obama's visit.
He had also applied to police to protest the US President's visit, "to press him to pay attention to human rights in China, people's livelihoods and the relatives of jailed people, as he comes only to talk about climate change."
Qi said he was being held in the Beijing suburbs and had been charged with unlawful assembly and disturbing the social order.
He added that Li Jinping, who tries to organise annual commemorations of former leader Zhoa Ziyang, an anti-force advocate during the 1989 protests, had also been detained. Yang Qiuyu, a housing rights activist, and more than 30 other petitioners had also been taken away, Qi said.
http://news.smh.com.au/breaking-news-wor....91114-ifmx.html
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"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
|
Big Bunny
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| | Re: The PRC - Almost in the 21st Century III
« Reply #132 on Nov 14, 2009, 5:10pm » | |
How a complaint led to an ordeal in a secret prison
November 14, 2009
![[image]](http://img97.imageshack.us/img97/6370/liuhuyong420x06466326.jpg)
In the black jail ... Liu sleeping in her cell during her imprisonment. Photo: Supplied
Liu Yuhong's family had a quarrel with their landlord. Now her parents are in a re-education camp and she miscarried after being beaten in a ''black jail'', writes John Garnaut in Beijing.
Liu Yuhong's problem began as a private land dispute with the family's landlord. But small troubles have a habit of escalating in China, a country that lacks institutions for effectively resolving disputes.
Last year Liu's parents lodged a complaint at the local government's petitions office. Since that brave and perhaps foolhardy move, the family has been drawn into a vortex of state-sanctioned kidnapping, violence and possibly worse.
''My father is 69 years old and he is in a re-education-through-labour camp,'' she told the Herald on Wednesday.
''A baby has died … and I don't know whether my mother is dead. For a rural woman, that is too much.''
In the absence of an effective legal system, citizens are officially encouraged to take their grievances - everything from high-level corruption to land disputes - to a unique Chinese institution: the petitions office.
These were established in imperial times and have since been replicated at almost every tier of government.
The design flaw of the petitions system is a fundamental one: the offices are typically run by the same officials that the petitioners are complaining about. When ''petitioners'', as they are called, don't get results at the local level they tend to aim higher, in Beijing.
Yu Jianrong, a scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, surveyed 632 Beijing petitioners and found only one case that had been satisfactorily resolved.
Professor Yu has warned that officials had incentives to subvert the petitions system because complaints relating to their jurisdictions count directly against their performance appraisals. He says the petitions system is strained to breaking point because the party refuses to loosen its grip on the political and legal systems, thus choking off alternative ways for disputes to be debated or independently adjudicated.
The Communist Party ignored his advice, choosing instead to reassert its primacy over the country's media and courts.
And so China's enormous security and legal apparatus devotes ever-increasing resources to preventing complaints from being officially registered or publicly aired, rather than resolving them.
Six years ago a high-profile death in custody led the central government to abolish the lawful detention centres that were used to contain vagrants and petitioners. This didn't end the persecution of petitioners; instead it drove it underground, into so-called ''black jails''.
Human Rights Watch this week released the results of its survey of 38 people - all petitioners - who had been illegally detained in these jails.
''Faced with financial incentives to keep petitioners out of sight in Beijing, but no longer armed with a legal means for doing so, provincial and municipal-level officials have developed an extrajudicial system to intercept, abduct, and detain petitioners in black jails,'' says the report, Alleyways in Hell.
''Their emergence since 2003 constitutes one of the most serious and widespread uses of extralegal detention in China's recent history.''
The predictable result is an endless tide of personal catastrophes, such as the case of Liu Yuhong. Liu's parents grow poplar trees for timber on a small tract of land they rent from a farmer in Liyuan county in Tangshan, China's steel-producing heartland. Their dispute arose when the landlord permitted a builder to cut down several trees and they received no compensation.
The county petitions office agreed with their claim but did not enforce its verdict. Liu's parents wanted to lodge their complaint next with the State Council's petitions office in Beijing, but were prevented from doing so. So they took their documents directly to Tiananmen Square, where they, like so many others, could display them to the passers-by - a symbolic act of exasperation.
Liu's mother, Liu Fengqin, has attempted to take her satchel of documents to Tiananmen Square on 35 occasions since September last year. She was detained each time.
Liu has also been detained several times and has become an expert on the system. She describes a network of unofficial ''interceptors'' who are paid by various local governments to intercept petitioners before they make it to the Beijing petitions offices or Tiananmen Square.
''Some petitioners get caught as soon as they get off the bus on Chang'An Avenue, before they even know what's happening,'' Liu says.
More frequently, petitioners are intercepted by Beijing municipal police on or around Tiananmen Square. Police have become experts in spotting petitioners among the throngs of sightseers by listening for distinctive rural accents and watching the way they move, the clothes they wear and the bags of petition documents they invariably carry.
Petitioners are escorted to Tiananmen East police station, where an electronic welcome sign says ''Law Enforcement for the People''. Every couple of hours a busload of petitioners is taken to Majialou, in Beijing's south. Liu has been on that bus five times. She took us there.
Majialou is a former police station that was shut down, reopened and now rebadged as a city government ''Welfare Relief Centre''. In the basement, she says, there are about 30 large rooms, each with the name of a province above the door. Liu was taken to the Hebei province room and then ''retrieved'' by Hebei officials and their casually hired assistants.
The young guard at the Majialou front gate asked if we were ''retrievers''. The going rate for retrievers is about 150 yuan, they said, although it varies between regions.
Tangshan city retrievers take their local petitioners to the Kailuan Hotel.
''It's just an ordinary hotel, except taken up entirely by Tangshan petition officials,'' says Liu.
Tangshan petitioners are grouped in the hotel lobby and taken ''home'' to their local county detention centres.
At this point, there has been no paperwork and no legal justification for the petitioners' abduction, detention and expulsion from Beijing. ''Recidivists'' are then sometimes sent to re-education labour camps. Liu and her parents have worked in brick kilns and outsourced factory units, helping local companies manufacture light bulbs, cotton buds and cardboard boxes - sometimes to meet urgent customer orders. Often there are valid arrest papers, but sometimes there are not. In July, Liu's parents were both sentenced to a year's re-education through labour.
On September 26 Liu was again in Beijing, this time seeking advice from a lawyer about her parents. She usually stays in one of Beijing's many ''underground'' hotels, which are invariably filthy but relatively safe.
''They don't report you to police and they are literally underground, so police have trouble tracking the signals from our SIM cards,'' Liu says.
But late September was an especially sensitive time for Beijing's petitioner-busting police. The central government had given edicts to prevent petitioners from arriving in the city and disturbing the ambience of the October 1 National Day military parade - this year coinciding with the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. Patrols were taking place across Beijing and all of Liu's usual underground hotels had been shut down.
She took the risk of registering at a regular hotel, far from the city's petitioning precinct. Police knocked on her door at midnight. They searched her phone and found a text message from a local journalist, received on September 1. It said: ''Why did your mother kneel down [petition] so many times in Tiananmen Square? I need detailed information.'' That was evidence enough for the police to justify detaining Liu again.
This time, Liu was given special treatment to match the importance of the national celebration. At 2am on September 27 she was driven to Xinggezhuang guesthouse and handed over to four young lads without uniforms, who drove her away to a new destination.
She was then driven in a county government car to a lone row of dirty, bare-concrete cells near Tuhe reservoir.
''I couldn't fall sleep at night because of several days without food and the cold,'' she says.
Liu was still in her black jail cell on the morning of October 1, when President Hu Jintao stood in front of an immaculately presented Tiananmen Square to applaud China's glorious 60 years. ''The Chinese people have stood up,'' he told the world.
About that time, Liu says, her plain-clothes guards bound her to a stretcher bed and a county family-planning doctor forcibly tried to insert an intravenous drip. By now she had gone five days with little food or water and the doctor left when he couldn't find a vein. She says her guards then tried to pour the liquid down her nose and mouth. She says she was made to vomit and the walls were splattered with her blood, as they beat her face.
She was released and later detained again. On October 19, in another detention cell, she miscarried what would have been her third child.
Liu has photos that appear to corroborate her black jail ordeal. She obtained them by bribing the young guards who had been keeping her.
On October 5 she received a phone call from a senior county police officer. ''He told my mother had died of a heart attack,'' she says.
On Thursday Chang Zhiqing, the Liyuan county police chief, told the Herald: ''For true information, you should listen to us first, not to Liu Yuhong.''
Asked about the black jail, he said: ''I'm not sure what happened after she was taken back to Liyuan County.'' But he added: ''There is special treatment during special times.''
The police chief acknowledged that people aged over 60 are not supposed to be held in labour camps but said the Liu family case was special.
''Her mother kept going to Beijing to petition,'' he explained. ''Both her mother and she are habitual petitioners.''
And he also delivered the first good news that Liu can remember: ''Liu Yuhong's mother is not dead.
''She is now in Hebei Woman's Re-education Through Labour Centre.'' By this time, the Herald photographer, who was returning from meeting Liu at her now-abandoned black jail in Tangshan, was being tailed. We called Liu at her home.
''My house is surrounded by two dozen officials,'' she said. But she had already got her story out and did not seem the slightest bit concerned.
''I have no idea how to finish this,'' she said. ''But yes, for my parents, I will keep petitioning.''
http://www.smh.com.au/world/how-a-compla....91113-ieql.html
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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Big Bunny
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| | Re: The PRC - Almost in the 21st Century III
« Reply #133 on Nov 14, 2009, 5:16pm » | |
China evokes Abraham Lincoln to get Barack support on Tibet
MALCOLM MOORE
November 14, 2009
SHANGHAI: As Barack Obama starts his week-long tour of Asia, a Chinese official has said he should understand China's opposition to Tibetan independence - because he is a black President who appreciated Abraham Lincoln's role in emancipating African Americans.
China insists the Communist Party liberated Tibetans from feudal serfdom under the Dalai Lama in 1959. The Foreign Ministry spokesman, Qin Gang, said the issue of slavery should resonate with Mr Obama as a ''black president''.
''He understands the slavery abolition movement and Lincoln's major significance for that movement,'' Mr Qin said. His government hoped Mr Obama would ''grasp China's stance on protecting national sovereignty''.
Mr Obama began his Asian tour in Japan yesterday. He is due to visit Shanghai and Beijing next week, and the Chinese Government is angling for him to endorse China's rule in Tibet publicly. The topic will be on the agenda for his talks with the Chinese President, Hu Jintao.
Mr Obama avoided meeting the Dalai Lama in Washington last month, amid suggestions that he was keen to avoid upsetting China. However, the Dalai Lama has said that they may meet after Mr Obama's trip to China.
Pro-Tibetan independence groups condemned the Foreign Ministry for ''failing a history test''. Stephanie Brigden, the director of Free Tibet, said: ''It is an insult for the unelected and authoritarian Chinese Government to suggest that an instinctive democrat such as Abraham Lincoln would have sided with China in seeking to deny the Tibetan people their fundamental right to determine their own future.
''By … attempting to liken its occupation of Tibet with Lincoln's fight to abolish slavery while preserving the Union, China has merely underlined its inability to recognise what true freedom looks like.''
http://www.smh.com.au/world/china-evokes....91113-ieqi.html
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
|
Big Bunny
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| | Re: The PRC - Almost in the 21st Century III
« Reply #134 on Nov 14, 2009, 7:31pm » | |
![[image]](http://img407.imageshack.us/img407/7725/amanwalkstotheupper0134.jpg)
Yunnan, China: A man walks to the upper part of the west garbage dumping site, which will be fully saturated this year
Photograph: Nir Elias/Reuters
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/gallery/2009/nov/14/24-hours?picture=355596337
|
"All truth passes through three stages. First, it is ridiculed, second it is violently opposed, and third, it is accepted as self-evident."
Arthur Schopenhauer, Philosopher, 1788-1860
"In the final analysis, our most basic common link is that we all inhabit this small planet, breathe the same air, and we all cherish our children’s future."
John F. Kennedy |
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