| Pictures: Underwear-clad model frozen to cry in snow Posted: 24 Dec 2012 12:45 PM PST 
Recently, a group of photos capturing a barefoot and underwear-clad model posed in the snow have caused quite a buzz online. She is seen smiling in the beginning, but crying later when she could not resist any more the freezing weather. The model also showed to the camera her red feet that had been frozen hard for standing in the frosty snow for long. Cute? 
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| 11 killed in school bus accident in Jiangxi Posted: 24 Dec 2012 11:23 AM PST 
Eleven children were killed, after a seven-seat van carrying 17 people – the driver, 15 children and a teacher – drove into a pond in Binjiang township of Yingtan city in Jiangxi province on Monday morning (December 24). Three children died right at the spot, while the other 12 were rushed to a hospital. But as of 17:30 p.m. Monday afternoon, the death toll rose to 11 as eight others died too despite efforts. The van's driver and the teacher survived. It was reported the van was speeding when the accident occurred. The van drove into a sand pile and then fell into the pond, after it attempted to avoid colliding with a tractor that was parked on the roadside. The driver was said to be the head of a kindergarten in the town that is unlicensed and has been shut down many times by the local government. The children, aged between 4 and 6, were from the kindergarten. The driver now has been detained by the local police. |
| China’s Health Aid in Africa: Good Intentions Mixed With Bad Drugs Posted: 24 Dec 2012 04:35 PM PST China Daily's Africa edition, launched last week, is just the latest component of a long-running soft power campaign. China has been sending medical teams to Africa for almost 50 years, and has 42 currently at work around the continent. From Kathleen McLaughlin at the Pulitzer Center: The eight-member Chinese medical team sent to Kampala, Uganda's capital, a year ago by the Chinese government is booked solid, each routinely seeing 20 patients or more every day. They are specialists, led by urologist Cao Guihua, and their mission is more than medical. They are here to build goodwill among Ugandans for China. "We are sent by the government," says Cao. "It's a kind of political mission by the Chinese government to African countries to build political friendship between the countries. Of course it's working." […] Cao and the other doctors are the foot soldiers in China's soft power efforts in Africa. Their medical expertise, often more advanced than what can be found locally, is well-known and sought-after. For the doctors, working in Africa is a chance to see diseases they don't normally deal with, but have only read about. Malaria, for example, has been all but eradicated in China but remains one of the top killers in Uganda. So the doctors make adjustments, hone their treatment skills, and as employees of the Chinese government offer treatment services for free. McLaughlin notes that grey-market pharmaceutical sales from Chinese clinics "add an element to the endeavor that goes beyond goodwill". The report is part of a series on China's health aid in Africa, and this grey-market trade hints at the focus of other current instalments: fake malaria medication, which may account for up to a third of the total in Uganda and Tanzania, and is believed to originate primarily from China and India. Malaria medications are not the only target: one instalment covers the production of fake anti-retrovirals ostensibly intended to combat HIV. Nor is China the only culprit: Tanzanian authorities blamed a local producer for one recent haul of fake HIV drugs, and McLaughlin also points out the role of Western organisations which push drugs at the cost of preventative measures. But with its efforts to counter the counterfeiters currently lagging behind India's, China is the apparent epicentre of much of the fake drug trade. From The Guardian: "Let's not exonerate other countries […," David Nahamya of Uganda's National Drug Authority] added, noting that African factories had also been busted for making fakes. "But of course China is entering into the African market with everything … I think you have seen their strategy in so many of our sectors. To bring in as many of their own products as possible, in every possible level of quality, and take over." Beijing's multibillion-dollar economic foray into Africa has rapidly turned into a double-edged sword, the boon in terms of growth offset by negative perceptions of its motives and actions. "If reports from African regulators are accurate, Chinese companies are responsible for the most egregious medicines frauds and misformulations seen on the continent," said Laurie Garett, senior fellow for global health at the US Council on Foreign Relations. "Nobody has a head count, or a body count, on numbers of Africans that have died as a result. But China's role certainly has been dreadful … Even within China's own official media, you can find reports of dumping, drugs/medicines found substandard or fraudulent, causing harm to Chinese, are relabeled and dumped on Africa," she added.
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Africa, Africa aid, counterfeit medicine, counterfeiting, health care, healthcare, medicine
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| Photo: Houhai in the snow, by cesar casellas Posted: 24 Dec 2012 03:28 PM PST |
| China Takes Chilling Look at Security in Its Schools Posted: 24 Dec 2012 02:34 PM PST Initial comparisons between the Newtown and Chenpeng school attacks this month tended to focus on the attackers' weapons. Many noted that the 23 slashed in China all survived, in contrast with the 26 killed in Connecticut. But while the American National Rifle Association's response, including the suggestion that armed guards be stationed in schools, has been assailed as "mendacious, delusional, [and] almost deranged", the subject of school security has also come to the fore in China. From Edward Wong at The New York Times: Perhaps most shocking is what the video of the attack 10 days ago shows about the school's first line of defense: several children waving broomsticks try to block the man's progress. Minutes later, local adults who had rushed into the building, also wielding brooms, chase the man from the school. Such details were not in the immediate coverage of the attack, at the Chenpeng Village Primary School in Guangshan County, Henan Province, and the video was not released until days later. […] But now the Chinese video, circulating here on television and the Internet, has refocused attention on the Chenpeng attack, especially on security measures at the school and on local officials' efforts to squelch coverage. Fury has been building because such rampages have recurred over the last three years, with intruders slashing at schoolchildren with knives and axes, including one who attacked with a hammer and then set himself on fire. Each case set off fear among parents across the country as well as criticism of government officials for not doing enough to protect children; each time, officials guaranteed schools would be secure. The video made blatant the gap between the official promises and reality. "Did the government not say that no strangers can get into schools?" wrote one Internet user, Xia Ling, on a microblog. "Did the government not say that every school has security guards? Liars! You will eventually all face karma someday." While Chinese calls for stricter gun control in the U.S. have received considerable attention, Adam Minter looked last week at others advocating expanded gun rights in China. From Bloomberg View: "Dictatorship has brought disasters much greater than the losses from the shooting," wrote one anonymous Sina Weibo microblogger in the lengthy comment thread. Another, in Guangzhou, wrote of the land seizures that have caused so much despair — and unrest — across China: "If people have guns in their hands, can the government come to your house and demolish it?" These sorts of sentiments weren't confined to the comment thread below Zhang's antigun tweet. They began to appear shortly after news of the shootings broke and have steadily become more prominent on China's microblogs. Mao Anlin, a columnist and reporter with the 21st Century Business Herald, offered a cagey tweet the morning of Dec. 15: "A man with multiple guns is sufficiently armed to protect himself, and thus Americans should adjust their policies on guns. In places where people don't worry about suffering from governmental violence, the need for weapons which represent civil deterrence fades…. While in those places where the government commits violence against the people, the people don't have the ability to protect themselves." Mao doesn't specify the people to whom he refers at the end of his tweet, but it certainly wouldn't go unnoticed by his Chinese followers that they don't have the right to protect themselves with firearms. The availability of guns in China is already more complicated than some commentary has suggested: Minter's column begins in a Shanghai gun range where "drinking and shooting machine guns is not only allowed, it's encouraged". On Twitter, he pointed out a 2008 article by The Wall Street Journal's James T. Areddy on various aspects guns and gun control in China.
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: gun control, gun culture, gun violence, Henan, knife attacks, land seizures, school shootings, schools, security
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| Bikes for Bonuses as China’s Wealthy Reminisce Posted: 24 Dec 2012 02:32 PM PST Once one of four symbols of modern living in China, alongside wristwatches, sewing machines and radios, the bicycle's position as a status symbol took a battering with the advent of widespread car ownership. Its fall from grace was illustrated in 2010 by dating show contestant Ma Nuo's infamous words to an unemployed suitor: "I'd rather cry in a BMW than laugh on the back of [your] bicycle." But, as Reuters reports, high-end bikes have become prestigious once again as nostalgia-infused symbols of health and wealth. Yu Yiqun, the creative director at an advertising company in the Chinese capital, cycles to work on his favorite bike – a 100,000 yuan ($16,000) hand-made Alex Moulton. "It might be the only one in Beijing. It's like the Rolls-Royce of bicycles. Very classical, purely hand-made," said the 40-year-old Yu, who has about 35 high-end bikes. "I remember my father used to ride me to the city in the winter – about 40 km and minus 30 degrees centigrade. Back then, it was a means of transport that fulfilled your dream of travelling afar, which was relatively cheap but required brawn." […] "Demand for mainstream luxury items such as premium cars, watches has come to a point of saturation. High-income groups now turn to high-end bikes to show off the uniqueness in taste and healthy lifestyle," said Zhou Jiannong, general manager of Rbike Networks Ltd in China. The phenomenon is not entirely new: Malcolm Moore reported on cycling's fashion resurrection at The Telegraph in 2011.
© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: bicycles, cars, fashion, luxury, watches, wealth
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| Something About Internet Posted: 24 Dec 2012 08:18 AM PST Business Staples.com is showing different prices of the same item depending on users geographic location. For example, if the user is within 20 miles of a competing B&M store, then he will be shown a discounted price. Wall Street Journal found other vendors, such as Discover Financial Services, Rosetta Stone Inc and Hope Depot were playing the same game. The price you see is determined by a range of factors including your location and browsing history. Orbitz was found to charge a higher rate to Mac users earlier this year. East The Communist government in China is pushing for a Real Name Act on Internet. Last time, about one year ago, a similar effort aimed to deter criticizing to the government failed due to resistance from both users and the business sector. This time, it was packaged into a consumer protection measure. The purpose, according to the official People's Daily, was to prevent leaking user information. West Israel is placing another Internet legislative in the pipe. Once approved, police will be able to secretly shutdown certain websites. The owner and operator of the site would not be notified. The new law is said to be targeting all good causes: gambling, child pornography and copyright infringement.  |
| Ministry of Truth: Official Take on Mistresses Posted: 24 Dec 2012 09:12 AM PST  Plasticizers in soy sauce? Central Propaganda Department: Do not republish, report, or comment on those specific netizens who sharply criticize what they perceive as the condemnation of Weibo and online speech by CCTV, the People's Daily, and other central media. No media outlet or website may carry any report or opinion which challenges Internet management. (December 22, 2012) 中宣部：对个别网民所谓警惕CCTV和人民日报等中央媒体抹黑微博和网络言论的责难观点，不转载不报道，各媒体及网站不得刊发任何质疑网络管理的报道和言论。
Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to those instructions as "Directives from the Ministry of Truth." CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation. Guangdong Propaganda Department: With regards to online rumors that plasticizers in soy sauce, vinegar, and other seasonings are 400% more poisonous than those found in baijiu, strictly follow Xinhua wire copy and statements issued by authoritative bodies. Do not directly quote from online sources of other media. (December 22, 2012) 广东省委宣传部：对网传酱油、醋等调味品塑化剂毒过白酒四百倍，一律按新华社通稿或权威部门发布的内容刊播，不直接转引网上和其他媒体的信息。
Guangdong Propaganda Department: Someone has reported to the authorities that the vice secretary-general of Zhanjiang City has a mistress. Strictly follow Xinhua wire copy and statements issued by authoritative bodies in your coverage. Do not directly quote from online sources of other media. (December 22, 2012) 广东省委宣传部：有人举报湛江市副秘书长包二奶 ，一律按新华社通稿或权威部门发布的内容刊播，不直接转引网上和其他媒体信息。
Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.
© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, food saftey, Internet management, Ministry of Truth, propaganda, sex scandals
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| Chinese-American Faces Trial in China Posted: 24 Dec 2012 12:14 AM PST A Chinese-American businessman, Vincent Wu, is facing criminal charges in China after a business dispute with Lin Qiang, a former provincial security official. Andrew Jacobs at New York Times reports: That confrontation is likely to center on allegations that Mr. Wu was tortured into signing a confession, which is the crux of the case against him. In a deposition released by his lawyers, Mr. Wu says he was beaten while being hung upside down, deprived of food and water for several days and then given stimulants so he could not sleep. In the end, Mr. Wu says, he signed the declaration of guilt that was placed before him. "They pre-wrote everything," he told his lawyers, according to the deposition. "If I didn't sign it, they beat me." Mr. Wu's case, human rights groups say, highlights the problems that even American citizens face in China's flawed and deeply politicized criminal justice system. Although confessions extracted through torture are technically inadmissible in court, legal experts say the police frequently rely on heavy-handed tactics to win the confessions that often form the basis of convictions. "We'd be pleasantly surprised if the judge even allows the allegations of torture to be discussed in the courtroom," said Roseann Rife, East Asia director for Amnesty International, which has been publicizing his case. [...] During an earlier entanglement with Mr. Lin in 2002, Mr. Wu says, he was detained by the police for 11 months, but later released after prosecutors decided that there was insufficient evidence to try him. His family said a ruling in February by the Supreme People's Court vindicated Mr. Wu's claims and cemented his ownership of the disputed property, a successful fruit market in the city of Foshan. Mr. Lin could not be reached for comment, and police officials in Huizhou declined to comment. Kenny Wu, one of Mr. Wu's sons, said in a phone interview that Mr. Lin warned his father that he would prevail in the end. " 'I control the laws in mainland China,' " Kenny Wu said Mr. Lin told his father. " 'Watch me put you back in prison like I did 10 years ago. Even President Obama and God cannot save you.' "
See more on police brutality in China via CDT.
© Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Americans in China, business disputes, Chinese-Americans, forced confessions, lawyers, police brutality, torture
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