Blogs » Politics » Xu Zhiyong: An Account of My Recent Disappearance

Blogs » Politics » Xu Zhiyong: An Account of My Recent Disappearance

Xu Zhiyong: An Account of My Recent Disappearance

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 11:21 PM PDT

Xu Zhiyong, noted Chinese rights lawyer and legal activist, was detained by authority on June 7th for his new blog entries calling for "new civic movement" in China. He was released over night and published a blog post explaining his "account of disappearance". In this article, he mentions that the security officers covered his head with a black cloth and took him to a hotel room in outskirt Beijing. From Seeing Red in China.

Having traveled for about half an hour, first on highway and then over a bumpy road, we arrived and got out of the car. Intuitively I tried to remove the black cover over my head when a man huffed, "Don't!" and two men seized me by the arms.

We got into a room, as I sensed, and I was pressed down into what seemed to me like the corner of a sofa. I was stripped of my belt, my shoe laces and everything I had with me. People were shuffling in and out of the room. One voice said to me, "For now, think what you have done lately. Think hard! We'll ask you questions in the afternoon!" I sat still and said nothing.

Xu recalls that last year he was detained by security police for organizing "a relatively large-scale petition for equal rights for ". He was taken to hot-spring resort but refused to cooperate with security police for the so-called "tourism". This time, Xu protest against illegal detention with hunger strike — he refused to accept the meal provided by security officers.

After an officer threatened to prosecute Xu under the charge of "inciting subversion of state power", Xu argued that "all of our efforts are to protect the liberty and of each and every Chinese… No one will be able to reverse the historical tide, so don't overdo it."

Xu attributed the relatively humane treatment he received to his fame and the "wide attention" from outside world. He expressed gratitude towards the "new citizens" who are concerned with human rights condition in China. He ascribed the detention and harassment to his endless effort to push civil movement and stated that he would be willing to "pay a price for the freedom of the people". From Seeing Red in China.

The new civil movement calls individual citizens to spread the principles of democracy and rule of law, to abide a civil code of actions, to reject privileges and . And we advocate liberty, justice and love, which is the spirit of the new civic movement. Our mission is to end, from the root, the cycle of regime change through violence and give freedom back to each and every Chinese. This is the reason for which I lost my own freedom for the time being.

Xu was released in the afternoon the next day. The security police took him home but still  stayed outside his apartment.

Xu was accused of tax evasion in 2010, but the case was dismissed soon afterwards.

Read more about Xu Zhiyong on China Digital Times.

© Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Ai Weiwei's lawyer was missing as the tax hearing approaches

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 10:40 PM PDT

Upon the hearing of the Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei's tax case hearing on Wednesday, Ai told the Guardian that he was warned by the police to stay away from the court. Ai also said his legal consultant, Liu Xiaoyuan, has been unreachable since he was told to meet state security officers on Tuesday night.

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Businessman Hailed for Buying Imaginary Bank

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 10:36 PM PDT

Lin Chunping, a businessman from ,  became a hot topic in January when state media reported that he had taken over Delaware-based Atlantic Bank without checking its sources. AP reporter Didi Tang reports, in the context of many other fake products in China and the persuasive effect of foreign brands:

The unprecedented acquisition brought him praise: His hometown gave him a prestigious political appointment and state media called his business experience "legendary."

[…] Chinese reporters could not locate an Atlantic Bank or a bank registration by Lin in Delaware. He's under arrest for an unrelated fraud and has been forced to give up his municipal-level appointment to the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, the government's top advisory body.

Lin claimed that the bank had been run by Jews in order to increase its prestige. He also renamed the bank USA New HSBC Federation Consortium Inc., borrowing from the London-based global banking giant HSBC Holdings. The extent of Lin Chunping's fraud amazed spectators:

"People were shocked that an obscure businessman bought a foreign bank and it was a U.S. bank nonetheless. He wasn't even a banker to begin with," said Zhu Xiaochuan, a researcher on China's financial law at CEIBS Lujiazui Institute of International Finance in Shanghai. "The news must be credible because it was in mainstream media. The public were amazed how wealthy Wenzhou businessmen were."

This event damaged the state media's credibility. According to the AP report, Lin once was also profiled by the ruling Communist Party's newspaper People's Daily. The profile depicts Lin as sharp and hardworking, "selling buttons as a teenager, then purchasing a copper and gold mine in Ghana and investing in the rice business in China."

Lin is also accused of faking fapiaos, a special kind of tax receipt that also functions as a bill and state lottery ticket.

See also 'Fake takeover: Chinese businessman made up purchase of U.S. bank', at The Los Angeles Times.

© Wendy Qian for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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[GRAPHIC] Weibo: Homage to Li Wangyang

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 08:19 PM PDT

The death of political activist , found with a noose around his neck on June 6, has caused outrage in China and beyond. Li spent over 20 years in prison for his involvement in the protests. Released for the second time last May, he was blind and nearly deaf from years of torture. Hanging from the bars of his hospital room window, hospital staff and local authorities insisted Li had committed suicide. His family and supporters, however, insists that it was murder: he was too ill, and his two feet were on the floor. Under pressure from Hong Kong , China has since promised to investigate the cause of death.

user ylovey528 posted this message and image on June 14 in homage to Li:

ylovey528: : Sorry, I am too late.
ylovey528：温家宝：对不起，我来晚了。

From Right to Left:

For democracy, an ordinary man will rise and fall with the nation. Even if I am beheaded, I won't retreat.
為民主，國家興亡匹夫有貴，我就是砍頭，我也不回頭。

Health is dear, life is dearer. Both can be given up for freedom.
溫飽誠可貴 生命價更高 若為自由故 兩者皆可失

Premier Wen has notoriously apologized for arriving late to the scene of many natural and man-made disasters, most recently after last July's deadly train crash in Wenzhou. Just days before his death, Li told Hong Kong Cable TV "I won't retreat, even if I am beheaded." The last two lines are adapted from a poem by Sándor Petőfi, a hero of the Hungarian Revolution of 1848; even Chinese schoolchildren know these words:

Life is dear, love is dearer. Both can be given up for freedom.
生命诚可贵,爱情价更高;若为自由故,二者皆可抛

 

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Democratic elections can’t do miracles

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 07:13 PM PDT

Several weeks ago, the Chinese-language Global Times drew widespread opprobrium on Chinese social media for an opinion piece arguing that the Chinese people should accept a "moderate level of corruption," understanding that the country requires an attenuated period of gradual reform in which some corruption will be inevitable. CMP fellow Yang Hengjun (杨恒均), a former foreign ministry official, offered a rebuttal to that Global Times piece here.

Yesterday, the Global Times again stepped directly into online controversy by running a piece by Zheng Ruolin (郑若麟), the European correspondent for Shanghai's Wenhui Bao, arguing that China is already "in the orbit of democratic nations." Zheng argued essentially that while "a number of scholars" have completely overblown the role of elections in democracies, elevating elections to a kind of holy standard, elections are not the be all and the end all.

Fair enough?

What Zheng does not address is who exactly these "scholars" are who have simplistically cast elections as the international democratic gold standard. He sets up a fanatical straw man, which he then proceeds to knock down:

Former French Prime Minister Raffarin once said: "Elections cannot sweep away all of our problems." Elections cannot erase France's 1.71 trillion Euro debt. Elections cannot change France's less than one percent annual GDP growth rate. Elections cannot lower France's unemployment rate of close to 10 percent.

Yes, Zheng is certainly right. Elections can't make my breakfast either. But who in the West, or anywhere I wonder, has ever argued such absurdities?


[ABOVE: Wenhui Bao correspondent Zheng Ruolin, author of yesterday's Global Times piece, appears on a French talk show.]

Global Times editorials are often a treasure trove of grade-school fallacies. But here, at any rate, is another clip for the political reform file ahead of the 18th Party Congress.

Enjoy.

"China Long Ago Entered the Orbit of Democracy" (中国早已进入民主国家的范畴)
Zheng Ruolin (郑若麟)
June 20, 2012

Democracy has been broadly accepted [as an idea]. This is a fact. The core of democracy is "rule of the people, by the people" (以民执政、为民执政). But as there is no way for the people to govern directly, a system of representation become the only option. The way for representative government to emerge is then through elections. But in recent years, a number of scholars have overblown the role of "elections". "Elections" have been dissimilated into a standard against which moral judgements are made about political legitimacy. This is absurd, and it is dangerous.

Consciously or unconsciously, the question of whether there are elections or not, particularly elections that the West has accepted as legitimate, has been applied as the only standard by which as country is judged to be democratic or not — which, moreover, constitutes a "moral" standard. Political power emerging through elections is democratic, and that which is not is autocratic (专制的). Thereupon, elections are the be all and the end all. National development owes to elections. Everything is good about a country with elections. One election erases a hundred blemishes. If social unrest occurs in a country where there are elections, this is because "elections are not sufficiently free." If an economic crisis occurs, that is because "elections were not thorough enough." If crimes occur [within the elected government], if corruption occurs, that is because "elections are not yet sufficiently fair."

It seems that, beneath this absolutely correct thing that is democracy, these scholars also have an omnipotent thing called the election!

But history has already proven that elective systems are little more than a way for national leaders to emerge. As for any other problem that a country faces, elections are powerless to solve them. Presidential and parliamentary elections recently held in France offer us an enlightening example.

After these two important elections were concluded, a new president emerged in France, along with a new government and a new parliament. Everything changed hands, on both the executive and the legislative sides. These two elections were perhaps as thorough as the French Revolution. And still, aside from a number of details and limited changes — for example, a temporary 30 percent drop in remuneration for the president and his cabinet, a minimum wage increase of .46 Euros per hour, allowing 18 year olds to work, and those of age 60 working for 41 consecutive years to retire — on critical problems facing the country, the elections could not possibly give [President] Hollande a magic wand. Former French Prime Minister Raffarin once said: "Elections cannot sweep away all of our problems."

Elections cannot erase France's 1.71 trillion Euro debt. Elections cannot change France's less than one percent annual GDP growth rate. Elections cannot lower France's unemployment rate of close to 10 percent. Even less can elections fix the underlying cause of all of these problems — the fact that the "fictitious economy" that financial capital "created" hollowed out the real economy of industrial capitalism.

Nor can elections ensure that a good leader is selected. They can only ensure that a good candidate is selected. Western democracy has already been twisted into "election dissimilation." Everything revolves around the election. The importance of election capacity far surpasses governing capacity. Hollande is a clear example of this. What makes Western scholars even more anxious is that domestic electorates are the core of elections, but what France and Western countries face are difficulties stemming from globalization. This contradiction has left a gap that is difficult to cross between elections and governing of the country. In this sense, elections have even obstructed the painful reforms that countries need in order to accommodate the global economy. Because voters are opposed [to these reforms]. Therefore, Sarkozy, who carried out some 931 different reforms, was elected out of office.

Some people believe that the most important advantage of elections is that they can keep tyrants from coming to power. Perhaps. But how should we understand the words of University of Paris philosophy professor Rang Salaimu (?), who writes in his book Elections: A Trap for Fools?: "Why would the people of Germany elect Hitler to power? Because what is the majority is not necessarily right!" [NOTE: I could not find the name of the French professor whose name directly rendered in pinyin would be Rang Salaimu (让·撒莱姆), but "Elections: A Trap for Fools" is a political essay written by Jean-Paul Sartre and published in the 1970s. More here.]

Of course, what must be criticized is not the election itself, but the fantasy that "elections are everything" or that "elections can solve everything." Elections cannot solve the problem of corruption. They cannot solve the problem of high housing cost. They cannot solve the problem of traffic accidents on the expressway. . .

Elections can only help the ruling class find a mantle of legitimacy, and give those who are ruled the feeling of "freedom", the idea that "my rulers were chosen by me." This feeling is an extremely important one, and the reason why those who are ruled sometimes accept what can in some cases be extremely unfair rule or rulers. This is one of the important reasons why countries with elections are generally stable.

Therefore, the day will come when we too select our leaders through an elective process. It's just that before that time we first need to resolve other issues that elections cannot address.

Elections are just the final attribute emerging from democracy, but they are not the principle attribute. Nor are they the ultimate goal of democracy. Once a countries leaders do not come to power by hereditary right, and once they must [as in the case of China] leave office after a set term, then this country is not only already a republic, it has entered the orbit of democratic systems. Because only under a democratic system will leaders leave their positions because their terms have expired. The lowest attribute of democracy is the way that leaders leave office. If we see how leaders come to office as the chief sign of whether or not there is democracy, well then how do we understand the fact that Mubarak [of Egypt] and Ben Ali [of Tunisia], who are continually elected and served in office, were overthrown?

And so, if that Western election standard is applied as determine whether or not [a country is democratic], then China is not a democratic country. But in fact, China already long ago entered the orbit of democratic countries.

The Chinese State and Soccer Credibility

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 07:37 PM PDT

With China cleaning its soccer house, The New Yorker's Evan Osnos writes that "deep structural obstacles" remain that will keep any quick fix out of reach:

One problem, for instance, is the controlling instinct of the state: to this day, an old-line Soviet-style system still chooses players to be groomed based on height and measurements when they are barely into their teens (a phenomenon I described in the world of Chinese boxing in 2008). In doing so, the system has largely cost itself the prospect of magical outliers, like the beefy Maradona or the mini Lionel Messi, who persisted even after he was told he was "too small to play" as a kid.

But, as with so many area of Chinese economics and politics, that state system was mated with a fitful free market and supercharged with cash, without an accountable bureaucracy to keep an eye on it. Ever since the early nineties, China has allowed some of its state-run teams to acquire corporate sponsorships and investors, and dole out higher salaries. But it was so swiftly overrun by gamblers with the power to fix games that the carmaker Geely dropped its support of a club in 2001, after less than a year. "I was shocked," Geely's chief, Li Shufu, told reporters. "For a match, bribes of a million, two million yuan"—a hundred fifty to three hundred thousand dollars—"were offered, and not a single football official or referee ever got caught."

Credibility has sunk so far that in the stands these days, fans shout hei shao (black whistle) or da jiaqiu (playing fake ball). Perhaps the greatest indication that the current wave of arrests is likely to yield more headlines than difficult reforms is that some of the people who know the system best are not holding back their views. "Will Chinese soccer be free of after this houseclean? I am not that optimistic," former sports chief Chen Peide, whose public revelations about soccer led to the first wave of arrests more than a decade ago, told Chinese reporters. "It will take long time to solve the problem because the current system is a hotbed for ," he said.

Still, the Chinese Super League plows ahead with the announcement that soccer star has signed a lucrative contract with local club . CNN's Tom McGowan questions why Drogba, who recently scored the game-winning penalty to win the European championship for English club , would make the move to a "football backwater":

"All these players going over there are past their prime and looking for one last big payday which will see them through for the rest of their lives," football agent Rob Shields told CNN. "It's definitely money motivated.

"It's the commercial side of it. That's what Chinese clubs pitch to the players and their agents. It's not the standard of football they are used to, but the money they can make on the commercial side is absolutely immense."

Drogba's former Chelsea teammate made the switch in January, joining Shenhua on a two-year deal.

Italy's 2006 World Cup-winning coach was recently appointed at Guangzhou Evergrande, an ambitious club which has splashed out on South American players Dario Conca of Argentina and Paraguay's Lucas Barrios.

Where Shanghai and Guangzhou are concerned, the recruitment drive is being funded by wealthy individuals who, according to Simon Chadwick, professor of sport business strategy at England's Coventry University, see football as a way to gain political influence.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Dangerous Liaisons: Zhang Ziyi sues Boxun in California

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 06:37 PM PDT

Zhang Ziyi, seen here attending an awards ceremony in China last month, stars in the upcoming Chinese remake of Dangerous Liaisons. (Photo/CFP)

The actress Zhang Ziyi has filed a lawsuit against US-based citizen journalism website Boxun over claims that she earned more than US$100 million by sleeping with high-ranking government officials and wealthy businessmen in China, including disgraced former political heavyweight Bo Xilai.

Zhang's suit, filed on June 14 in the US District Court in California by American legal powerhouse Glaser Weil, alleges libel, false light invasion of privacy, intentional interference with prospective economic advantage, negligent interference with prospective economic advantage and unlawful business practices.

The claim named 27 defendants, being China Free Press, a North Carolina-based non-profit organization doing business as Boxun, Watson Meng, a North Carolina resident and the so-called "alter ego" of China Free Press, and 25 unnamed individuals designated as Does 1 to 25.

Zhang has sought a jury trial and is seeking general and special damages for the injuries Boxun's allegations have caused to her reputation and business interests.

"This action is necessary to restore the reputation and vindicate the rights of Plaintiff Zhang Ziyi, an international motion picture actress," the claim stated, adding that none of the claims Boxun published are true and that the website "never had any legitimate basis to publish them."

The 33-year-old actress, star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Memoirs of a Geisha and a new Chinese remake of Dangerous Liaisons, alleges that the defendants "willfully, knowingly, oppressively, and maliciously conspired and agreed amongst themselves to manufacture and publish false and defamatory statements" about her. She argues that Boxun's defense that it merely published "what it believed to be true as provided by an anonymous source" is insufficient under Californian law.

It is believed that Zhang decided to proceed with the lawsuit after Boxun responded to a cease-and-desist letter from Zhang's lawyers on June 6 by refusing to delete the offending articles, apologize, release its sources or offer compensation. The actress commenced proceedings last week in Hong Kong against two news outlets that reported on Boxun's stories.

"Zhang Ziyi is not a prostitute, never has been a prostitute, never met this person that she's alleged to have this very expensive sexual relationship with," Zhang's attorney John Mason told Hollywood gossip program E! News.

"They don't even have a photograph or a statement from anybody that she ever met him. People put stories out there often enough just to get attention, just to get more readers…This is outrageous in the way it was intended to damage her career. You don't call somebody a prostitute and allege multimillion-dollar sex acts without having some evidence," Mason said.

The attorney added that they intend to get to the bottom of the allegations "no matter what it takes and no matter what it costs."

Boxun began publishing articles about Zhang last month as part of its ongoing coverage on Bo Xilai, the former Communist Party secretary of Chongqing who has been sacked for "serious discipline violations" believed to include covering up his wife's murder of a British businessman. The citizen journalism website claimed that Zhang had raked in some 700 million yuan (US$110 million) for having sex with Bo and other government officials and businessmen over a period of 10 years, and had been forbidden from leaving China during the government's ongoing probe into Bo's corruption.

On Wednesday, Boxun responded to the lawsuit with an article that defended its actions. It claimed that it never printed the word "prostitution" in any of its reports and only set up a "Zhang Ziyi Prostitution-gate" link on the website after the term became widely used by foreign media.

Boxun believes the lawsuit demonstrates a political motive. In response to the allegations against Zhang, the site maintained that it had at least two channels verifying the reports and that the rumors had already been widely spread in "some circles." The website claimed it has no ulterior motive and no interest in Zhang's private life, and only published the reports because it had "a responsibility to society" to uncover the corruption involved in the case.

In an act of defiance, Boxun said its editors have no doubts about the truth of the story and that more sources had come forward to provide details of Zhang's dealings with Chinese politicians and businessmen after she threatened to sue. Boxun said that if the case goes to trial, it will put each of these allegations to Zhang in court.

"Boxun has always believed that creating rumors is most damaging to the media," the article said, adding that it has no motive to manufacture rumors against any person or group.

Boxun, which remains confident that its reports will stand the test of the law and history, will have 21 days to respond to Zhang's claim.

Source: Want China Times

You might also like：

Bo Xilai verdict due before end of June: Boxun
Zhang Ziyi hits back at claims she slept with Bo Xilai for money
Was Zhang Ziyi framed by rival Fang Bingbing?
Actress Zhang Ziyi sues HK newspaper
Bo Xilai inquiry complete: Duowei
无觅

Xu Zhiyong (许志永): An Account of My Recent Disappearance

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 05:54 PM PDT

Dr. Xu Zhiyong is a lecturer of law at Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, and one of the founders of Open Constitution Initiative (公盟) that offers legal assistance to petitioners and rights defenders, and has been repeatedly harassed, shut down and persecuted. In 2010 it changed its name to simply "Citizen". Just weeks ago in May 29, Dr. Xu posted a blog post titled China's New Civil Movement to renew his call for a "new civic movement are a free China with democracy and the rule of law, a civil society of justice and happiness, and a new national spirit of freedom, fairness and love." The post has since been deleted by the authorities, and he himself was taken away by security police to answer questions. With Dr. Xu's permission, Yaxue translated his account of the recent disappearance.

Xu Zhiyong

Going downstairs around ten o'clock in the morning of June 7th, I was met by seven men. Two of them were security officers from Security for Cultural Institutions, Beijing Public Security Bureau, others I had never met before. Lieutenant Cao walked up to me, said he needed to talk to me, and proposed that we find a place to have a question-and-answer session with a written record (笔录).

With me in it, their car drove towards north in the direction of Changping (昌平, an outlaying district of Beijing).  A few minutes later, they took out a black cloth and covered my head with it, telling me that they wanted me to rest. Knowing that many of my friends had gone through this before me, I did nothing to resist. No use to resist anyway.

Having traveled for about half an hour, first on highway and then over a bumpy road, we arrived and got out of the car. Intuitively I tried to remove the black cover over my head when a man huffed, "Don't!" and two men seized me by the arms.

We got into a room, as I sensed, and I was pressed down into what seemed to me like the corner of a sofa. I was stripped of my belt, my shoe laces and everything I had with me. People were shuffling in and out of the room. One voice said to me, "For now, think what you have done lately. Think hard! We'll ask you questions in the afternoon!" I sat still and said nothing.

Many friends of mine, such as Tang Jitian (唐吉田), Teng Biao (滕彪), Li Xiongbing (黎雄兵), Li Fangping (李方平) and Jiang Tianyong (江天勇), had gone through this before [all of them rights lawyers--Yaxue]. I waited for insults, fists and feet that could rain on me at any moment now. I waited.

About one hour passed when a man came in and asked me whether I had done my thinking. I said nothing. Someone came over and removed the cloth over my eyes. Now I saw I had been sitting at the corner of a bed in a hotel room.

Lieutenant Cao came in. He said this wasn't a big matter, and all he wanted was to ask me about the activities of Citizen and keep a written record of the inquiry. I said, "You don't have to employ such method to just have a talk, and, to protest against the use of the black hood and illegal detention, I will not answer any questions." I asked them for their understanding.

For most of the time thereafter, there would be silence except for brief exchanges here and there. Two of them are worth mentioning.

At one point when I was going to the bathroom, a thirty-something man by the last name Wen (温), who had probably also guarded Teng Biao before, insisted on keeping the door open and watching me. I said, when I came out, "You don't have to be so keen on me." He said, "I'm not keen on you; people like you must be guarded with extra care." I said, "'People like me'… Do you know what you are doing?" He said, "I don't care what I am doing."

Then there was another man by the last name Zhao (赵) who was in his 50s and rather straightforward. He was convinced that "people like me" believe China is up to no good at all while foreign countries are flawless. He was sure I don't watch CCTV's Evening News, and I said I often do. Then he said, "Since the West is so great in your eyes, why don't you go there?" Upon this I raised my voice, "This is my country, my own motherland! Of course I will stay here! And I have a responsibility to make her better! At least I would not allow that –ism of the West to destroy my country!" He asked me what "-ism of the West" I was talking about, and I replied, "Didn't your Communism come from the West?"

In the evening they gave me a carry-out meal. I said, "I'm sorry, but I don't eat during illegal detention." This is a decision I made a year ago. If no room is left for me to do things to improve the society, I can at least protest against illegal detention with hunger strike—that's the least I can do.

Last June when I was taken to a hotel in a hot-spring resort because of a relatively large-scale petition for equal rights for education. The security police said to me, "We are taking you here to have a good time and to relax. Now that you refuse to eat, we can't have fun anymore." They repeatedly said to me, "Take it easy. Wouldn't it be wonderful if we could all go out and have fun? To wherever you want to go." But for me, of course, there is no such "tourism." I said to them, "When you are no longer in this profession, we could go and travel together, but illegal detention is what it is, and as a free citizen, I oppose it."

Because of the wide attention I was receiving, I was treated humanely. But that was not the case with many, many anonymous people in China who suffered horrendous brutality. One day in March, 2009, a 16-year-old high school student from Henan province (河南) was beaten so badly that he sustained concussions in a black jail in a youth guesthouse near Tao Ran Pavilion Park in Beijing (陶然亭公园). During Mid-Autumn Festival of the same year, petitioner Li Shulian (李淑莲) from Shandong province died in a basement black jail in Longkou (龙口), and her relatives were tracked down by police for demanding justice. In a black jail in Beijing maintained by the municipal government of Xiangfan, Hubei (湖北襄樊), an old man became ill during the Two Meetings in March, 2012, was not allowed to see doctors, and died ten days later. When his family demanded compensation, they too were detained. These are cases I have witnessed myself. There have been many religious believers who have been detained illegally for years on end, some of them tortured to death. Over the last ten years or so, so many Chinese have died in all sorts of black jails as a result of torture; what I was going through was nothing.

I didn't sleep well that night. Guards who took turns to watch me chatted. Some snorted later on. At 8 o'clock in the morning, Lieutenant Cao woke me up, telling me his boss was coming over to speak to me. Now I understood the black-hood strategy. It was a ritual leading up to this talk with the boss. I was to be intimidated first, a "mild" boss would then come forth. Stockholm syndrome is a common psychological phenomenon in which one captor plays rough while the other plays nice. You would have the induced illusion that the mild man is nice and you would want to pour out to him. It's a common tactic of the police, and of dictators in general.

Minutes later Deputy Captain Hao (郝) came in. We met once two years ago. He said, "This time all we want is to have a good communication." I said, "Sure, but to do that, there is no need to use something as ridiculous as a black hood."

With three of his subordinates present, he started the "talk". He said that it was a very serious matter that Citizen was organizing, and I could be charged according to Article 105. "This time it won't be 'tax evasion,'" he said. So on and so forth. [Article 105 is "Inciting subversion of state power." As director of Citizen, Dr. Xu was arrested with "tax evasion" charges in August, 2009. The case was withdrawn ten days later after much protest from intellectuals and activists.]

I said, "All of our efforts are to protect the liberty and human rights of each and every Chinese, including everyone here, and I hope we understand and respect each other's position and role. No one will be able to reverse the historical tide, so don't over do it." I gave the example of Wang Lijun (王立军), but he cut me short. "Wait here for our deliberation," he said and left the room.

I felt I had made a mistake. During a Haidian District People's Representatives Meeting [Dr. Xu had been a two-term district people's representative until earlier this year when the university he works for warned the students not to vote for him.], an elder once reminded me to pay attention to the way I delivered my criticism and that I should give "face" to others. So I said to Lieutenant Cao that I had been too straightforward and I would like to have a few words with Captain Hao again to explain myself.

Half an hour later, Captain Hao returned. He said he wasn't upset. I said "I am glad you were not." We went off, just the two of us, to the courtyard to chat. We talked about equal rights for education, about corruption, and whatnot. All in all, he continued to warn me that I was courting danger; I must restrain myself and be more cooperative with them. I thanked him for reminding me that, but I said I didn't mean to create trouble for them. The country needed change, I said, and I was willing to pay a price for the freedom of the people. I said, "You may not believe me, but for me, life is very simple, which is to use wisdom bestowed on humans to make the society better."

The new civil movement calls individual citizens to spread the principles of democracy and rule of law, to abide a civil code of actions, to reject privileges and corruption. And we advocate liberty, justice and love, which is the spirit of the new civic movement. Our mission is to end, from the root, the cycle of regime change through violence and give freedom back to each and every Chinese. This is the reason for which I lost my own freedom for the time being.

Lieutenant Cao motioned me to renew the interrogation session. I said, "I am sorry, but you have stepped way over the boundaries. I have a responsibility to reject the black hood treatment and illegal detention. I won't answer any questions, nor will I sign anything. Your transcript will have nothing to do with me." He asked me about the "Citizen" pins. I replied, "Ask no more."

The "Citizen" pin Dr. Xu's NGO Citizen has been distributing.

He wrote a few lines and left.

Another group of men came in. All in all I had seen 12 of them. I knew these newcomers; one of them was in poor health. I said, "What a fuss to have this many people dealing with me. Besides, it's such a waste of taxpayers' money." Then we argued some more about equal rights for education.

3 o'clock passed in the afternoon, they began to gather their stuff and, finally, returned me my belt and shoe laces. Before getting into the car, Lieutenant Cao asked me, "Do you have things to do this afternoon?" "Of course I do," I said. When he asked what things, I said "I'm a free citizen, and I am free to do whatever."

He made a call. Then he said things seemed to have changed and he was taking me home.

So they took me home, but didn't leave [and stayed outside Dr. Xu's apartment building].

I know that, for some years to come, my freedom will be more and more restricted, but the free China I have dreamed of will be closer and closer. More and more people are emerging as new citizens, and with their actions, they are heralding a beautiful future for the Chinese people. I am grateful.

Citizen Xu Zhiyong

June 10, 2012

(The Original is widely circulated online. Here is a link: http://08charterbbs.blogspot.com/2012/06/blog-post_5296.html?spref=tw)

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Filed under: Current Events Tagged: Beijing, China, Henan, Open Constitution Initiative, Shandong, Teng Biao, Xu Zhiyong

A Woman Devoted to Harmony

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 03:15 PM PDT

Via CarrotNet:

On June 16 at 4 p.m., the F exit to the Great Theater subway stop in Shenzhen was graced with a "black humor" performance. Mocking the national response to the Shaanxi woman whose seven-month pregnancy was forcibly ended, a woman dressed as a pregnant village girl, "showing off" her belly and holding up a shocking sign:


"Dearies, I am also a 'woman devoted to harmony.' Beyond the one child I'm allowed under law, I brought the bastards of the village head, the mayor and the dog into this world. No need to make me abort, and no need to fine me… Don't blame me, blame my coochie!"

Hordes of people gathered around her and took pictures. Some even stooped to shine her shoes as a show of "respect."

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A Strange Apology on a Certain Day

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 02:17 PM PDT

A hotel in the southern province of made a vague apology on an ominous date:

The June 12 edition of the Rui'an Daily published an apology letter.  The Rui'an Grand Star Hotel announced that on the evening of June 4 city officials arrived at the hotel to direct business, but the hotel did not actively cooperate. The hotel states, "We hope that you can understand. We again extend our most sincere apologies."

6月12日出版的《瑞安日报》刊登一则致歉信。瑞安市星豪酒店称6月4日晚市府办与相关部门到该酒店指导工作，因该酒店没有积极配合而向瑞安市府办致歉。酒店表示"希望你们能够谅解。再一次向你们表示本酒店最诚挚的歉意。"

Letter of Apology

Dear Rui'an City Government:

On the evening of June 4, the city government and relevant organs arrived at the Grand Star Hotel to direct business, but hotel staff did not actively cooperate. We wish to extend our deepest regret, and hope that you will understand. Once again, we want to express our most sincere apologies.

Rui'an Grand Star Hotel

June 11, 2012

Responding to the online backlash against the local government, a Rui'an mayoral assistant told New Express on June 15, "This isn't what people think. They made this apology without our knowledge. I have no idea if the person responsible is just ignorant or took the opportunity to be provocative." The hotel has already closed for business due to "incomplete licensing and noise."

Via SneezeBloid. Translated by Josh Rudolph.

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Controversy Continues over Confucius Institutes

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 01:19 PM PDT

Beijing's , a program to aid in spreading Chinese soft-power to the world via language and cultural , has generated much controversy since its beginnings in 2004. While government sponsored efforts to bolster national image through the global promotion of language and culture are not unique to China (see France's Alliances Françaises, Spain's Instituto Cervantes, or Germany's Goethe-Institut), their presence within established universities and exercise of control on class curriculum is. The mainstream media has been paying close attention to this controversy over the past month, after the US State Department complicated visa extension for CI teachers. In May, China Realtime Report's Josh Chin briefly summed up the controversy as follows:

Criticized by some as propaganda vehicles, in part because they limit discussion of politically sensitive topics like Tibet and the 1989 crackdown on Square protestors, the institutes are nevertheless popular with cash-strapped U.S. universities eager to take advantage of the subsidized language instruction.

The US isn't the only country where worry over CI's operations can be found. The Guardian's Tania Branigan covered Liu Xiaoming, Chinese ambassador to the UK, responding to academic critiques of the institute in Britain:

"Some people are not comfortable to see the rapid growth of Confucius Institutes. They cling to the outdated 'cold war' mentality," Liu Xiaoming said at a recent Edinburgh gathering for the European branches. "They criticise Confucius Institutes for being a tool of China's 'national propaganda'. They label teaching Mandarin as 'ideological infiltration.' So they have from time to time made irresponsible remarks in western media."

[...]Liu's remarks came after Professor Christopher Hughes, a China expert at the London School of Economics, raised concerns about hosting such centres in the wake of  last year's scandal over the LSE's dealings with the Gaddafi regime.

Hughes said it was "gross interference" for Liu to complain about an internal discussion on ethics at the LSE. "He has insulted me and misrepresented my views by saying that I 'have a cold war mentality' for raising important ethical issues and merely repeating what Chinese leaders have said about the Confucius Institutes," he said.

Today's edition of Canada's Globe and Mail picked up the story of Sonia Zhao, once a teacher at McMaster University's CI. Zhao, a Falun Gong practitioner whose mother suffered in China's crackdown on the organization, quit her post and sought political asylum in Canada, unwilling to adhere to Beijing's restrictions on classroom conduct. Zhao's story, covered last summer in the Falun Gong-connected Epoch Times, has prompted the administration at McMaster to put pressure on Beijing to change its operating procedure:

"If my students asked me about Tibet or about other sensitive topics, I should have the right to talk about them, to express my opinion – but [I wasn't] allowed to say that freely," Ms. Zhao said in an interview. "During the training in Beijing, they do tell us: Don't talk about this. If the student insists, you just try to change the topic, or say something the Chinese Communist Party would prefer."

Andrea Farquhar, McMaster's assistant vice-president of public and government affairs, says the university is "looking for clarity" from its Chinese partners on aspects of their agreement, notably hiring practices, and is "raising the concerns that we had, and that had been brought forward to us, and looking to find some solutions to that."

[...]Having lent its name to the Confucius Institute on its campus, McMaster says it is insisting that Canadian laws and expectations be respected. Partners in China have shown a willingness to consider adjusting the "screening process," Ms. Farquhar said, and the future of the institute may hinge on exactly how it proposes to do so. "The other part of the dialogue we were having was that if we can't get a resolution to this, that being able to continue on with the kind of agreement that we have at the moment would be difficult."

In light of a bounty of critical English-language press, Global Times has been publishing more cheerful pieces, praising CI efforts. See "Confucius Institute in Britain promotes better understanding about China," or this more recent article profiling a CI at the University of Hawaii:
Confucius Institutes (CIs) and Confucius Classrooms (CCs) have mushroomed in the US since the establishment of the first CI at the University of Maryland in 2004. Currently there are 81 CIs and more than 300 CCs in the US. The Confucius Institute at the University of Hawaii at Manoa (CI-UHM) was established in 2006. Since its establishment, the CI-UHM has contributed greatly to the US, both educationally and economically, via academic activities and cultural exchanges.The CI-UHM has fostered mutual understanding and friendship between China and the US. To date, the CI-UHM's partner university, Beijing Foreign Studies University (BFSU) has sent 13 co-directors, teachers and volunteers to take up terms of one to two years at the CI-UHM. All have been warmly welcomed by the university, the local schools, and the community. Through their interactions with the Americans, both sides have learned much more about each other, and have forged friendly relations in the process.

The CI-UHM has helped with the teaching of foreign languages in Hawaii in general and of Chinese in particular, mainly in two ways.[...]

An article in The Chronicle of Higher Education mentions another cause for concern: CIs sometimes target children with cultural activities organized from their offices in institutes of higher education. The CI homepage's "Chinese for Kids" section releases a series of  "中国历史尝试" [Common Knowledge about Chinese History] cartoons, depicting often politically-charged historical events from a CCP perspective (see The War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea [link deleted from the website, but found thanks to a tweet from @prchovanec]).

Since 2004, the Chinese government has spent at least $500 million establishing CIs, a point not lost on Chinese nationals, as illustrated by commentary and cartoons circulating China's blogosphere and translated by CDT. See also "Is China Squandering its Soft Power Investments" via CDT.

Confucius has become the face of China's campaign. Since 2011, a statue of the ancient Chinese sage has ironically faced the portrait of Chairman Mao - a man who declared war on Confucianism - in Tiananmen Square.

"有朋自遠方來，不亦樂乎?"

"Is it not delightful to have friends coming from distant quarters?"

- Confucius, The Analects, Book 1

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South China Morning Post Accused of Self-Censorship

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 01:19 PM PDT

The , Hong Kong's premier English language newspaper, has come under fire for allegedly censoring a story about the death of dissident Li Wangyang, who was found hanged under suspicious circumstances in a hotel in Hunan. Reuters reports:

On June 7, the English-language Post printed a full story on the suspicious death of Chinese dissident in hospital on the mainland, but in an abrupt about-turn, cut the story back to a news brief buried in the back pages.

Li had just been released from more than 22 years in jail for his role in the June 4, 1989, pro-democracy protests in Beijing when he was found dead in hospital in Hunan province, his neck tied with a noose made from bandages. Authorities said it was suicide, but his family suspect foul play.

Prominent coverage by other helped generate a public outcry, protests and a rare request by Hong Kong's leader for an investigation into the tragedy by Beijing.

In a tense email exchange circulated widely in media circles, Alex Price, a sub-editor at the paper, asked his Chinese editor-in-chief, Wang Xiangwei, why the story was cut down in a way that "looks an awful lot like self-censorship".

An editorial in Asia Sentinel gives more details about the exchange between Wang Xiangwei and Alex Price:

Alex Price, a senior sub editor at the paper, sent Wang an email saying "A lot of people are wondering why we nibbed the Li Wangyang story last night. It does seem rather odd. Any chance you can shed some light on the matter?"

Wang answered curtly: "I made that decision." When Price asked in a subsequent email: "Any chance you say why? It's just that to the outside world it looks an awful lot like self-censorship," it generated an explosion from Wang.

"I don't have to explain to you anything. I made the decision and I stand by it. If you don't like it, you know what to do."

"Li Wangyang, a good man died for his cause and we turned it from a story into a brief. The rest of Hong Kong splashed on it," Price responded. "Your staff are understandably concerned by this. News is printing what someone else does not want printed. Everything else is public relations. Please explain the decision to reduce the suspicious death of Li Wangyang to a brief. I need to be able to explain it to my friends who are asking why we did it. I'm sorry but your reply of "it is my decision, if you don't like it you know what to do" is not enough in such a situation. Frankly it seems to be saying "shut up or go."

Earlier this year, Asia Sentinel published another report questioning whether the South China Morning Post is being unduly influenced by Beijing (via Shanghaiist). Read more about Li Wangyang, the South China Morning Post, and about Hong Kong media via CDT.

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Word of the Week: Drink Tea

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 12:00 PM PDT

Editor's Note: The  comes from China Digital Space's Grass-Mud Horse Lexicon, a glossary of terms created by Chinese netizens and frequently encountered in online political discussions. These are the words of China's online "resistance discourse," used to mock and subvert the official language around censorship and political correctness.

If you are interested in participating in this project by submitting and/or translating terms, please contact the CDT editors at CDT [at] chinadigitaltimes [dot] net.

喝茶 (hē chá): drink tea

"" refers to the widespread practice by the Domestic Security Department police and other authorities of inviting citizens who have been engaged in subversive behaviors to "tea," where they are interrogated about their political activities and warned against further involvement. One who has been compelled to attend these tea sessions is said to have "been tea-drinked" (see to be XXed).

Read about the experiences of the tea-drinked who had things to say around the time of the 2010 World Expo, the anniversary of Tiananmen and the Jasmine Revolution.

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For Better Air, Don’t Pin Your Hopes on Embassies

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 11:42 AM PDT

On June 13, Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs made the following statement amidst continued controversy over U.S. embassy and consulate air quality monitoring:

Beijing is over 16,000 square kilometers big. Relying on just one or two points to monitor won't work. Relying on amateur institutions such as foreign embassies is also unacceptable, and moreover exceeds their function. Ultimately, we must depend on the Chinese people's own efforts.

北京面积大到1万6000多平方公里，要做好空气监测仅靠一两个点不行，依靠外国驻华使馆这样一些非专业机构也是不行的，并且这已经完全超出了驻华使馆的职能。归根结底还是要靠我们中国人自己的努力。

Read netizen reactions to the dispute.
Via SneezeBloid. Translated by Josh Rudolph.

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Something in the Chinese Air: Pollution, But Hints of Transparency

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 08:06 AM PDT

Talking endlessly about the weather is supposed to be a British quirk, but a growing obsession with air quality has made the weather an equally popular talking point for Chinese netizens.

We think that gate's beautiful, but we can't tell

Several Chinese provinces were choked in thick smog last week, with the city of Wuhan, the capital of Hubei province, experiencing some of the grimmest conditions. Users of Weibo, a Twitter-like platform in China, were quick to express their concern about the health implications of the unclean air. This week, as the haze finally lifted, they were just as quick to celebrate the return of blue skies.

The Chinese government accepts that pollution is a serious problem. However, online debate about atmospheric pollution raises some important questions about how much haze ordinary people can tolerate, while also providing insights into people's impressions of what is being done–or not being done–to improve the country's environment.

Mistrust, thick as smoke

Clearly, when people casually refer to "PM2.5″–an obscure measurement of particulate pollution– in every day conversation and in their Weibo posts, there is a widespread issue. The fact that the U.S. Embassy in Beijing measures PM2.5 levels and publishes them on Twitter has not gone unnoticed, despite the fact that the Chinese government blocks Twitter (Weibo users simply re-post the latest U.S. readings). 

Beijing's sensitivity in instructing the U.S. Embassy to stop reporting Beijing's PM2.5 levels has drawn a flood of netizen comment. "The Americans help you to measure PM2.5 levels in the capital, and all you do is scold them like animals," observed @北京厨子. Others, such as @绿枯草, encouraged the U.S. to extend, rather than curtail, its air pollution index (API) service. "I strongly urge the U.S. to publish pollution charts for all of China," he said, "to enable Chinese people to know about air quality in all parts of the country."

Kunming on a bad day, still more breathable than many Chinese cities

Many commenters preferred to see the funny side of the Chinese government's complaints. "The weather today in Nanchang is overcast," observed @Slammah. "But ask them to publish the PM value, and… This is classified information!" In fairness, some Chinese officials appear to be responding to public concern. For example, the government of southern city Kunming last week announced that it would start to measure PM2.5 levels, while Weibo users in pollution-hit Wuhan have been busy circulating the local government's latest API readings.

Despite signs of government outreach, online reactions lay bare a persistent lack of trust regarding official information. Rumours that the severe pollution in Wuhan had been caused by an industrial accident–an explosion at a steelworks was one popular theory–led to the arrest of two locals for spreading misinformation. The arrested pair were perhaps unlucky; many Weibo users quickly latched onto the story about explosions and toxic gas leaks, and helped to spread it online. However, none appeared to have any sense of whether the rumours, though plausible, had any basis in truth. In the end, most seemed to accept the official explanation for the severity of last week's smog, namely that farmers had been burning stubble across parts of central and eastern China.

But the explanation was not enough to please even those netizens who believed it. Instead, they asked why these mass slash-and-burns should be allowed when they have such a dire impact on the environment. "The air quality is now extremely bad; please, when are you doing to put a stop to this straw-burning?" appealed @freaking-awesome达 浪. Nonetheless, others accepted that the practice was agriculturally justified, at least until China comes up with more environmentally friendly ways of clearing and fertilizing its farmland.

A possible third way

Friends of Henan's cheery Sina page proclaims, "We want to breathe clean air"

While stopping short of questioning the government's pollution readings, some netizens expressed a preference for independent sources of information on PM2.5 and other environmental issues. For example, Friends of Nature, an environmental NGO, crops up regularly in online discussion. Similarly, the Friends of Nature Henan Group has its own Sina page where it publishes regular updates on the PM2.5 levels in provincial capital Zhengzhou.

This appears to be an innovation for a local civil-society group, with local Weibo users often passing the results along. Netizens recognize that the independents provide an important service. "I support you, Friends of Nature Henan Group," said @王刚刚百炼成钢, with reference to the group's independent PM2.5 measurements. "Keep doing what you're doing!"

With its PM2.5 stats freely available on Weibo, the Henan NGO has perhaps hit on an important new model for the publication of independent pollution data in China. Beijing, aware that its own numbers are often called into question, can perhaps live with these domestically produced API readings. It is the data published by foreign governments which, like the recent bad air, really catches in its throat. 

Global Times: China Has Long Been a Type of Democracy

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 08:05 AM PDT

And the hits keep on comin'. You can always count on Global Times, the tabloid owned by Chinese Communist Party mouthpiece People's Daily, for entertaining editorials over your morning soy milk. After hits like "some degree of corruption should be accepted at this point in China's development" and "the West should learn from China with humility," Global Times explains in its June 20 editorial that China is (surprise) already a democratic country. The editorial reasons:

"Elections are the signs of a fully-formed democracy, but it is not the main sign, and also not the ultimate goal of democracy. When a country's leaders come to power not through hereditary succession, and leave power due to term limits, then this country is not only a republic, but has become a type of democratic system. It is because only under a democratic system would leaders leave power when their terms expire. The lowest common denominator of democracy is the way leaders leave power… As a result, China is not a democratic country yet if measured against the standard of holding elections imposed by the West; but in fact, China long ago became a type of democratic country." [1]

Food for thought, anyone? 

Many netizens reacted with sarcasm and disgust. @核弹之父黄仁勋 offers this summary on Sina Weibo, China's Twitter, "In short, democracies with elections are fake democracies, and the democracies without elections are real democracies." [2] @苏门山人 scoffs, "It's hard not to laugh."

Some also pointed out that Global Times may not be doing the Party any favors. @老马迷途1 observes, "This article makes an interesting point, in that it implicitly admits that the current leaders of China are not elected, saying 'One day we will choose our leaders through elections too.' $%^#, our current chairman has said that the people elected him, [this editorial] denies that? " [3] Should the Global Times expect a call from China's leader, Chairman Hu? 

Footnotes    (? returns to text)
  1. 选举只是民主最终形成的标志，却不是主要标志，更不是民主的最终目标。当一国领导人并非通过世袭上台，而又因任期限制而下台，那么这个国家就已经不仅仅是共和制的，而且进入了民主体制的范畴。因为只有在民主体制下，领导人才会因为任期到期而离任。民主的最低标志，是领导人下台的方式…所以，用西方那种选举标准来衡量，中国还不是民主国家；但事实上，中国早已进入民主国家的范畴。?
  2. 归纳成一句话，有选举的民主是"假民主"，没有选举的民主才是"真民主?
  3. 此文也有一个有趣之处,就是隐含有不承认中国现在领导人是选举产生的,说是"我们有一天也会通过选举来选择我们的领导人"。尼玛,现任主席早说过是人民选他做主席的,这家伙居然不认。?

The Daily Twit (@chinahearsay links) – 6/20/12

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 05:07 AM PDT

The big China story today (in my opinion, anyway) concerns rare earth production and exports. You can see my post on the topic here, read the government's new White Paper, and see all the independent, and not-so-independent, press coverage. China is facing a potential WTO dispute on this subject, but whether today's big pushback will make any difference remains to be seen.

In other news:

Wall Street Journal: : Yes, there's political showmanship in China. But it's the wrong kind. — Fantastic article on politicos in China and image displays. A fascinating subject, particularly if you're familiar with the kind of spin and posturing that goes on in Western countries. The one thing that holds true everywhere, it seems, is that folks today are way too jaded to fall for fake humility.

Diplomat: China's Monroe Doctrine — Discussion of China's territorial disputes, including the current South China Sea kerfuffle. The author answers the question "Why can't China have a Monroe Doctrine?" with a discussion of how China's situation differs with that of the U.S. in the 18th Century. I'm a sucker for these comparative approaches.

Reuters: SEC seeks Big 4 audit papers from China — if you've been following the ongoing fight between U.S. and China regulators over accounting firm oversight, here's the latest. The U.S. SEC is moving forward with its investigation. This is turning into one of my favorite reality shows.

PC World: Chinese Watchdog Group Takes Aim at Apple's Repair Policies — A consumer watchdog group in China has criticized Apple for its repair policies. I doubt this will hurt Apple all that much in China, given their excellent image here. On the other hand, they sometimes use refurbished parts when doing repairs? That ain't cool at all, although as long as the customer is put on notice when they purchase/go for repairs, I doubt there is a legal problem here.

South China Morning Post: Mistrust of Beijing at post-97 high — I was in Hong Kong recently and noticed this myself when talking to locals. The negativity concerning Beijing was appreciably higher than I remembered it being in the past, although when I tried to dig down and discover the reason behind the bad feeling, there was a lot of vagueness and general unease, as opposed to criticism of specific policies.

The Guardian: Hong Kong journalists complain about editor's self-censorship — speaking of the South China Morning Post and Hong Kong's relationship with the Mainland, this sort of thing doesn't help. Folks at the SCMP are apparently not happy with editors who may be "managing" stories about the PRC a bit too much.

TechNode: Lashou Cancels IPO Plan — the IPO market sucks at the moment, particularly for Chinese companies, which no one trusts anymore. So you've got a whole lot of tech ventures over here that have been built on VC/PE money in the hopes of the magical payout (aka IPO) that may not materialize. How are these guys going to get paid?

Wall Street Journal: Africans' Protests Highlight Tensions in Guangzhou — here's an update on that story about an African expat who was beat up by a crowd after getting into a dispute following a traffic accident. He later died in police custody, and the African expat community (part of it, anyway) publicly protested on Tuesday. I've never before seen expats engage in this sort of activity before, but knowing the kind of (very poor) treatment Africans receive here, I can't be too surprised. ChinaSmack also has a good post on this, with pics as usual.

Global Times: Stricter laws proposed against foreigners illegally in country — while one expat was beaten to death down South, the government is still debating the need for toughen up laws on illegal residents/workers. You know, because that's obviously the big problem here. All this anti-foreigner stuff is a useful reminder that although China desperately needed foreign expertise a number of years ago, that is no longer the case.

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China Goes on Offensive on Rare Earths Dispute

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 03:33 AM PDT

China already lost one case at the WTO on raw materials export limitations, which it attempted to defend based on environmental concerns. The big question hanging out there since that decision was made concerned the application of that legal reasoning to similar limitations on rare earths. Huge issue for certain industries, such as the tech sector which relies heavily on certain rare earths for hardware manufacturing.

China is in negotiations with the U.S. et al on this dispute, and normally we would expect either some sort of settlement or a formal case being filed.

But not yet. The news today is that China is getting out in front of this whole thing with the issuance of a White Paper on China's domestic policy, press releases, and a slew of articles and Op/Eds in state media. If you read the paper today, it was easy to tell what Topic A was.

Will this sway opinion? Just who was the intended audience anyway? Does this mean that China expects the U.S. to file a case and is trying to take the sting out of that announcement? Given the raw materials decision, won't China lose this case anyway?

Stay tuned. This should be interesting. In the meantime, here are some links:

AFP: China says rare earths practices meet WTO rules

Full Text: Situation and Policies of China's Rare Earth Industry (text of the White Paper)

Xinhua: Stricter regulation on rare earth exploitation

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Chinese Judges and Contempt Citations

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 03:01 AM PDT

Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People's Court has fined a Chinese textile machinery company 100,000 yuan ($15,700) and detained one of its executives for defying a court order in an intellectual property case, the court announced Tuesday. The ruling demonstrates the Shanghai court system's ongoing efforts to crack down on companies and individuals who ignore court orders.

[ . . . ]

The intermediate court fined the company, which is based in Foshan city, Guangdong Province, on June 16 and ordered that He Baiwei, its sales and marketing director, be detained for 10 days for defying the order. The company, which officials asked not be named, ran afoul with the court when it put one of its products on display at a textile machinery convention in Shanghai last week after the court issued an injunction barring the company from doing so, according to a news release from the court. The court issued the injunction as part of an intellectual property dispute between the company and Picanol NV, a Belgium-based textile machinery manufacturer that accused the Guangdong company of ripping off the design of one of its products, according to the court. (Global Times)

Wow. I'm not used to judges being that aggressive, but it's a good thing. I still remember when judges were so timid about new procedures that they wouldn't issue injunctions and wouldn't grant asset protection orders or document seizure requests. Those days are long gone, at least in many cities, and these days, particularly in IP cases, an injunction is not a rare occurrence. For many commercial disputes, protective orders are absolutely necessary.

What's special about this case in Shanghai? Well, the fact that it's in Shanghai is a big part of it. This is China's second-most important city (Note: I live in Beijing) and, some would say, the commercial capital of the nation. What the courts do there, and what signals they put out, matter a great deal.

Additionally, this is an IP infringement case involving a foreign patent owner. These are the kinds of cases that receive quite a lot of scrutiny because of the parties involved and the underlying cause of action. Without a case precedent system in Chinese law, we're always looking at what the (important) courts are doing and what signals are being sent out to the public.

This is not the first time a judge has issued such a contempt citation, but unfortunately I do not have statistics on how common this is. Just going by personal experience, I'll go out on a limb and say that it's fairly rare. And this begs the question as to whether this will become more common in the future.

Why is this important? Do litigants defy court orders on a regular basis? Perhaps not formal court orders, but there's a bigger picture here. Personally, I'd like to see more of a "tough guy" image put out there by judges. Perhaps if more litigants, like this patent infringer from Guangdong, were afraid of judicial penalties, they would be less likely to do things like hide documents and lie to the court. Wishful thinking perhaps, but it couldn't hurt.

Before you scoff and say that a contempt order is a minor thing, note that in the case cited to above, the defendant's sales and marketing director was actually thrown in jail for 10 days. That's a big deal. I am reminded of something my first year Property Law professor said to us about environmental litigation. He said that fines and damages from administrative or civil litigation are rarely high enough to change the behavior of corporations. On the other hand, you go after a CEO or executive, frog march them out of their office and put them in jail for a while, then you may start to see some action.

Agreed.

© Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Chen Guangcheng’s Next Steps

Posted: 20 Jun 2012 02:20 AM PDT

A month on from Chen Guangcheng's arrival in New York, The Washington Post's William Wan reports on his life and studies in the US.

Five times a week, under the guidance of an English tutor at New York University's law school, Chen has been using the Declaration of Independence as a makeshift textbook. The 236-year-old document can make for difficult reading, but for a man who spent most of the past decade imprisoned in China while fighting for the rights of his fellow villagers, it resonates deeply. And so he persists, breaking down the syllables into manageable parts.

[…] Today, the 40-year-old self-taught lawyer and his family are still adjusting to the change — from being confined to the bare-walled room where they were watched by authorities in rural Shangdong province to a new three-bedroom apartment in bustling Lower Manhattan's Greenwich Village, supported by tutors, law professors, PR managers, interpreters and security personnel.

The international spotlight on them has faded, but its glare is still felt in the form of entreaties from agents, politicians, reporters and activist groups. Chen and his wife have received calls from the well-meaning (disability groups wanted to give him a guide dog, Chinese American Christians offered their vacation homes) and from those with less altruistic aims (Hollywood producers are pushing to buy the movie rights to his story and a raft of TV news producers are vying to book him).

Chen is determined not to be sidetracked, however. His main focus remains on China, and most urgently on his own family and supporters who remain there. From Erik Eckholm at The New York Times:

In an interview Monday, Mr. Chen, 40, a blind, self-taught lawyer, displayed anger at the Beijing government for failing so far to investigate the local officials who persecuted him and beat his relatives. He and his wife, Yuan Weixing, said they remained desperately worried about the harsh treatment of those they left behind in Shandong Province.

In previous statements, Mr. Chen expressed hopes for rapid legal changes in China and said he took Beijing officials at their word when they promised to punish provincial officials who he said had exceeded their powers.

On Monday, he repeated his belief that the rule of law is inevitable. But he has seen no signs, he said, of an honest inquiry into what many experts call his blatantly illegal treatment over the years, retaliation for agitating on behalf of the disabled, farmers and women who were forced to have abortions. Sounding more defiant than he did right after his arrival on May 19, he threatened to embarrass the Chinese government severely if they did not act soon.

"If they don't open an investigation in a timely manner, I will quickly make my next step," he said. "Then the central government will not have an opportunity to be the good guy."

Chen would not give details of this "next step", but told Radio Free Asia in an interview last month that "there are things that I still have not made public—I don't feel it is yet the time. The day I do so, those with any conscience at all will be shocked."

Foreign Policy, meanwhile, has published an interview with Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, conducted immediately after the fraught negotiations which ultimately secured Chen's passage to the US. Details of her account are scattered throughout the article, which concludes with some speculation on China's long-term political motives for the deal.

Until our conversation, Clinton had said virtually nothing publicly about the case of , the blind Chinese dissident whose fate had become the object of a week of frenetic negotiations when his escape from village house arrest to the U.S. Embassy collided with a visit to Beijing by Clinton herself. Amid the unfolding drama, the secretary had smiled and nodded her way through elaborately choreographed high-level annual talks and a variety of photo ops at which she gamely recited paeans to constructive dialogue and plugged cut-rate cookstoves for the developing world.

But Clinton had in fact spent the last few days in hard-nosed deal-making with the Chinese that nearly ended in an embarrassing failure, until she personally intervened, twice, with her counterpart, Chinese State Councilor : the first time to reassure Dai about a deal to allow Chen to stay in China and study law; then, when Chen balked at that, to secure agreement that he and his family could leave for the United States. "We were in a very difficult position because we had pushed their system just about to the breaking point," recalled a senior official who was present. "We knew it, they knew it, and they knew we knew it."

Other US officials have previously disclosed their version of events to The Washington Post (via CDT).

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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