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• Naturalized US citizen accused of being a Triad, tortured by Guangdong police, say lawyers
• Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming On BBC Newsnight: “It Is Up To The Government To Regulate These (Internet) Users”
• China Is Building A Multiplex That’s Three Times Larger Than The Pentagon
• China wants to reduce smoking by 3 percent by 2015. Good luck

Naturalized US citizen accused of being a Triad, tortured by Guangdong police, say lawyers Posted: 22 Dec 2012 09:00 AM PST The Daily Beast has this strange tale of a Chinese American businessman who found himself arrested by police in Guangdong province on (trumped-up? fake?) charges of being a Triad member: But Wu's American dream would soon become a Chinese nightmare. For years, he had been embroiled in a legal fight with a former Chinese police official who tried to steal Wu's lucrative wholesale-produce market business in the southern province of Guangdong. After a decade of litigation, China's supreme court ruled in Wu's favor in February. Little did he know, Chinese law was again going to be used against him. In June, Wu, 54, a naturalized U.S. citizen, was arrested not far from the wholesale market, along with 40 other people who worked there, including janitors and security guards. As they led him away in handcuffs, the police made a shocking accusation: Wu was not just a successful businessman, but a member of a notorious Chinese mafia known as the Triads. Torture follows. And why can't the US Consulate do a single thing to help this American citizen? And yet the terrible irony of this case is that Wu's American citizenship offers him no protection because he entered China using his Hong Kong ID rather than his U.S. passport. That fateful decision has allowed the Chinese government to ban all access from U.S. consular officials, since China does not recognize dual-nationality. Go give the article a read and see if you don't also come away with more questions than answers. U.S. Businessman's Chinese Legal Nightmare Includes Torture, Lawyers Say (The Daily Beast)

Chinese Ambassador Liu Xiaoming On BBC Newsnight: “It Is Up To The Government To Regulate These (Internet) Users” Posted: 22 Dec 2012 02:25 AM PST Liu Xiaoming, China's ambassador to the UK, went on BBC's Newsnight yesterday to speak with presenter Gavin Esler (video in link). They discussed several issues — China will double per capita income of the people in 10 years, Diaoyu islands have belonged to to China "since centuries," "it is up to the Syrian people to decide who will be their leaders," etc. — but going along with recent themes, here's their exchange on corruption and Internet censorship: Liu: I think corruption is not a problem for China alone. Once you are in the period of social transformation, it's unavoidable you'll have all kinds of problems. Just like Deng Xiaoping once said at the beginning of opening up of China, he said, "When we open the window we'll let in the fresh air, it's unavoidable that flies and mosquitoes will be in." But the important thing is how the party face up to it and adopt measures to deal with this problem. I think the leadership is resolute and determined. Esler: Do you see things like the Internet as being like flies and mosquitoes? Do you see it as a bit of an irritation, because again, from our side, we don't understand what you're worried about when you want to control how people exchange information. Liu: I think there's a misperception about Internet development in China. In fact, the Chinese are much open in terms of Internet. In fact we have the most numbers of users in China today. Esler: But our correspondent couldn't even get on Facebook when he was in China. I mean, you can't get on Twitter. It's not quite as you present it. Liu: In China, every day, there are hundreds of thousands of comments made by the bloggers, and 66 percent of Chinese Internet users make comments online. You know, it is up to the government to regulate these users, also in protection of the safety of the Internet to ensure that healthy content available and unhealthy content should be removed. Esler: But isn't that really up to ordinary people to decide? Looking at the history of your country, you've had thousands of years of creativity, and we see creativity as based on the free exchange of information. And part of the reasons why people in the West think you're cracking down and being very hard on bloggers is it's very diffuct to do for some people becasue you don't like certain ideas. Liu: If you are in China and can get connected in Internet, I think you can get all kinds of opinions, it's much open. Lot of things can be debated, including politics, economics, cultural affairs. I think you have to have a big picture of development of the Internet back in China." Chinese Ambassador on China's internet policy (video) (BBC)

China Is Building A Multiplex That’s Three Times Larger Than The Pentagon Posted: 21 Dec 2012 10:16 PM PST There's big, and then there's China big. (Sorry, Texas – you're not in the ballpark.) In Chengdu, construction has begun on a multiplex featuring hotels, apartments, offices, an IMAX cinema, skating rink, pirate ship, "Mediterranean village," artificial beach, undulating roof… Via AFP: The 100-metre-high "New Century Global Centre" is a symbol of the spread of China's boom, 500 metres long and 400 metres wide, with 1.7 million square metres of floor space, big enough to hold 20 Sydney Opera Houses according to local authorities. By comparison the Pentagon in Washington — still one of the world's largest office buildings — is barely a third of the size with a mere 600,000 square metres of floor space. More: About 400,000 square metres will be devoted to shopping, most of the outlets high-end luxury brands. Despite Chengdu being around 1,000 kilometres from the sea the complex has a marine theme, with fountains, a huge water park and an artificial beach, accented by the undulating roof, meant to resemble a wave. "This is an ocean city built by man," said guide Liu Xun. "There will be 1,000 rooms (in the hotel) and all will have seaside views." China is realizing the dream of Martin Dressler, the title character of Steven Millhauser's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel. Notably, the subtitle of that book — set in early 20th century New York — is The Tale of an American Dreamer. Alas, it's from China these days that we're seeing quotes such as, "This is an ocean city built by man." China Is Building A Structure 20 Times Bigger Than The Sydney Opera House (AFP via Business Insider, h/t Alicia)

China wants to reduce smoking by 3 percent by 2015. Good luck Posted: 21 Dec 2012 12:00 PM PST You might have heard that 50,000 cigarettes are consumed in China every second. Choose to believe it or don't, but a ton of people smoke here, to the tune of 28 percent of the population — more than 300 million people. According to World Health Organization, "One of every three cigarettes consumed worldwide is smoked in China," along with other ridiculous facts such as, "About 3,000 people die every day in China due to smoking." (On the bright side, China's not even close to the top in terms of cigarettes per adult.) Naturally, the government is concerned, and it wants to bring the raw numbers down. Reports Bloomberg: China plans to cut the number of smokers to 25 percent of the population by 2015 from 28.1 percent in 2010, according to the plan published by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology yesterday, seven years after the country signed the treaty that recommends the graphic warning labels. Even after signing that treaty, however, cigarette packages here are free from graphic labels. We're guessing because tobacco companies have said "Hell no" to that suggestion. What's a government left to do? The government will "comprehensively" prohibit smoking in public places and ban ads, promotion and sponsorship by tobacco companies, according to the plan. There is no mention of tax rates in the plan. Funny thing about that: smoking is currently not allowed in restaurants. You want to know how effective restaurants are at enforcing this ban? Try not at all. Tobacco companies are powerful, because they make lots and lots of money. Money that lines the pockets of politicians and lawmakers. Money that flows in from addicted users and bureaucrats who have learned since the Mao days that the right cigarette gift package can seal deals. Smoking will continue in this country until the culture changes — and that'll take more than three years.

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