US warned on ties over selling of warplanes

US warned on ties over selling of warplanes
Beijing has reiterated its opposition to provisions in a US defense bill that allow sales of F-16 fighter aircraft to Taiwan and acknowledge Japan's administration of the disputed Diaoyu Islands.
Organs harvested from executed inmate
China Boosts Laos Presence With $1.6 Billion Project
China to open world’s longest high-speed rail line
Have You Heard…
Claims over remote South China Sea rocks certain to be a flashpoint
Early hardships made Xi into a man of the people
Online philanthropy now popular in China
Local market targeted to move Christmas goods
Stove cited in building blaze as death toll hits 3
Repeal of insurance policy to cut the cost of train travel
Rail ministry responds to price critics
Executed prisoner's organs harvested
Companies won't hire 'working class hero'
Early hardships made Xi into a man of the people
China lifts blue alert for cold wave
7 dead, 19 injured in central China's road accident
7 dead, 19 injured in central China's road accident

US warned on ties over selling of warplanes

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 08:39 PM PST

Ad: The $4 Million Monster - $135.00 Avg Commission! Lowest Refunds On CB - Over $4 Million In 2011/12. Shocking 14 Percent Refund Rate, Over $128 To You Per Sale, Massive Daily Contests, And Recurring Commissions For Life... Promote The Hottest Offer On CB Right Now. See Video Proof: Http://gsniper2.com/affiliates

Beijing has reiterated its opposition to provisions in a US defense bill that allow sales of F-16 fighter aircraft to Taiwan and acknowledge Japan's administration of the disputed Diaoyu Islands.

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 08:39 PM PST

Ad: Blogging With John Chow - Another Epic Launch By John Chow And Peng Joon With The Next CB #1. Visit www.bloggingwithjohnchow.com/affiliates

Organs harvested from executed inmate

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 08:39 PM PST

Ad: Commission Killer Is *hot* $3.86 Epc - Promote The Hottest New CB Sensation. Epic $1 - $3.86 Epc And Re-bills. Massive 75% Commissions. Grab Your Bank Crusher Promo Tools Here - Http://www.commissionkiller.com/jv-signup.html

China Boosts Laos Presence With $1.6 Billion Project

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 05:08 PM PST

Source: Bloomberg News

A Shanghai-based firm has started construction on a $1.6 billion property project in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos, boosting Chinese presence in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations' smallest economy.

Shanghai Wanfeng Group, the closely held developer of shopping malls in China, reached agreement with the Lao government in December 2011 to develop 365 hectares (900 acres) around That Luang Lake into a commercial, residential and tourist complex. Construction began yesterday, according to the Chinese official news agency Xinhua and the company's website.

Chinese firms, from dam builders to mall developers are boosting investment in Laos, a new member of the World Trade Organization with an economy that's forecast by the International Monetary Fund to grow 8.0 percent in 2013.

China CAMC Engineering Co. (002051) completed the first phase of a $100 million residential project on a 1.6 kilometer (1 mile) section of the Mekong river waterfront in time to accommodate leaders attending the ninth Asia-Europe Meeting in November. The Yunnan Provincial Overseas Investment Co., a Chinese government investment arm, is developing another property project in the city valued at $40 million.

China's total investment in Laos is $3.3 billion this year, making China the third-largest foreign investor in the landlocked nation of 6 million people, after Thailand and Vietnam, Xinhua news agency reported citing the Ministry of Trade.

China's investments in ASEAN have increased 31 percent in the first 11 months of this year, the ministry had said, without providing a detailed breakdown by countries.

China to open world’s longest high-speed rail line

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 05:02 PM PST

Source: Reuters

(Reuters) – China will open the world's longest high-speed rail line next week when a link between Beijing and the southern metropolis of Guangzhou is inaugurated, officials said on Saturday, underscoring its commitment to a trouble-plagued transport scheme.

The 2,298-km (1,428-mile) line, parts of which are already in operation, will begin full service on Wednesday, halving travel time to less than 10 hours on trains which will run at 300 kph (186 mph).

The new route offers a chance for China's railways ministry, which has been dogged by scandals and missteps, to redeem itself.

A July 2011 crash of a high-speed train killed 40 people and raised concerns about the safety of the fast-growing network and threatened plans to export high-speed technology.

"We have developed a full range of effective measures to manage safety," Zhou Li, head of the ministry's science and technology department, told reporters on a trial run from Beijing to the central city of Zhengzhou.

"We can control safety management," he added.

Last year's accident near the booming eastern coastal city of Wenzhou occurred when a high-speed train rammed into another stranded on the track after being hit by lightning.

Rail investment slowed sharply in the wake of that accident and state media reported earlier this year that the government had cut planned railway investment by 500 billion yuan ($80.27 billion) to 2.3 trillion yuan under a five-year plan to 2015.

But that may reflect cuts that have already taken place as the Ministry of Railways has raised its planned investment budget three times this year as part of government efforts to bolster a slowing economy.

The ministry plans to spend a total of 630 billion yuan in 2012 and has been given clearance to sell more bonds to finance the investments – one of the few outright spending commitments made by the central government in a slew of project approvals worth $157 billion which have not specified how they will be funded.

The approvals include 25 rail investments, state media say.

Despite its expanding network, the Ministry of Railways struggles to make money. It suffered an after-tax loss of 8.8 billion yuan in the first half of 2012 in the face of rising operating costs and mounting debts.

However, the government says it remained committed to building high-speed railways between its major cities, with China eventually planning to run them into Russia and down to Southeast Asia.

"High-speed railways are needed for national development, for the people and for regional communication. Many countries have boosted their economies by developing high-speed rail," Zhou said.

China said in May it would open up the railway industry to private investment on an unprecedented scale, but private investors have been skeptical.

The need for funding is acute. China still needs billions more in rail investment to remove bottlenecks in cargo transport, ease overcrowding in passenger transport and develop commuter lines in its sprawling megacities.

($1 = 6.2286 yuan)

Have You Heard…

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 05:00 PM PST

Have You Heard…

Claims over remote South China Sea rocks certain to be a flashpoint

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 05:12 PM PST

Source: South Sydney Morning Herald by Lindsay Murdoch

A TENSE stand-off over rocks jutting out of the sea 123 kilometres from the nearest land has triggered events that will shape south-east Asia's security arrangements for years.

The only structure on Scarborough Reef is a rusting 8.3-metre iron tower built by the Philippine navy in 1965. But the stand-off between Chinese and Philippine vessels over the area in the South China Sea that began on April 8 shook the unity and cohesion of the 10-member Association of South-East Asian Nations.

Disagreement in ASEAN about how to handle China's claim to almost all the resource-rich region with strategic waterways became public at an ASEAN meeting in Phnom Penh in July.

Cambodia sided with China, which opposes its disputes

Advertisement with rival claimants being "internationalised" or discussed in any regional forums, causing scenes rarely seen in the history of the conservative grouping. China insists that its claim be discussed separately with other ASEAN claimants Malaysia, Brunei, the Philippines and Vietnam.

The disputes have led to rising tensions and an arms build-up across Asia, and will overshadow ASEAN's activities in 2013, when Brunei will chair the organisation.

They coincide with evolving competition in the region between China and the United States, which is rebalancing its forces towards Asia and the Pacific to counter China's rise.

Burma's emergence from 50 years of repressive military rule dominated events in the region in 2012, illustrated by the surprise visit to the country by the US President, Barack Obama, only days after his re-election in November.

Burma experts warn there are likely to be setbacks as well as progress as the government pushes ahead with reforms in 2013. The struggle between reformers such as the President, Thein Sein, a former general, and military hardliners opposed to the reforms is likely to intensify as political parties prepare for general elections in 2015.

Aung San Suu Kyi, the 66-year-old champion of democracy, won a seat in parliament when her National League for Democracy swept byelections in March and has become Burma's opposition leader. But the country has enormous problems, including a war in Kachin state and a form of ethnic cleansing against the Rohingya, a Muslim minority in Rakhine state.

Ms Suu Kyi has shown she has the mettle to stand up to the generals who still dominate the government, but there is still a huge weight of responsibility on her shoulders. Julia Gillard could show Australia's support by dropping by her lakeside house in Rangoon early in the year, en route to China.

The clock is ticking towards Malaysia's general election, a defining point for the Muslim-majority nation. Analysts say that after more than half a century in power, the ruling party faces its toughest challenge from a stronger opposition and an influx of unpredictable young voters.

The Prime Minister, Najib Razak, in power since 2009, has sought to present himself as a reformer, abolishing a number of restrictive laws and implementing programs aimed at bolstering ethnic unity. His critics say they have not gone far enough.

Malaysia is sure to be a different place if the former deputy prime minister Anwar Ibrahim takes power. The charismatic 65-year-old led the opposition to its best performance in years in 2008.

His election would not be good news for Australia's Lynas Corporation. His party has vowed to scrap the company's controversial $US200 million ($192 million) rare earths processing plant, which began operation in late November.

Political tensions will remain high in Thailand in 2013, as the government of the country's first woman Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, explores ways to get her elder brother Thaksin back from exile without having to serve a two-year jail sentence for corruption. The machinations threaten to reignite street protests and instability in the "land of smiles".

Mr Thaksin, a billionaire telecommunications tycoon, is a divisive figure who is believed to be behind many of the decisions made by his sister. Thailand's King Bhumibol celebrated his 85th birthday on December 5 but is ailing and frail.

The economy of the Philippines is expected to continue to gallop along nicely in 2013, despite the country's frequent natural calamities.

Singapore's quandary will be how to get its busy citizens to boost the nation's fertility rate, which has fallen from 3.07 per cent in 1970 to 1.2 per cent in 2010, a new low. The affluent city state's 88-year-old patriarch, Lee Kuan Yew, warned: "If we go on like that, this place will fold up, because there will be no original citizens left to form the majority."

Early hardships made Xi into a man of the people

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 09:59 AM PST

Xi Jinping, the recently elected general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee, was an "educated youth" in rural China, an experience that left a lasting impression.

A son of Xi Zhongxun, a Communist revolutionary hero and former vice premier, Xi did not enjoy a life of comfort as a boy. He was born on June 15, 1953, but from 1962, when his father fell into disgrace, Xi experienced tough times. During the "cultural revolution" (1966-1976), he suffered public humiliation and hunger, experienced homelessness and was even held in custody.

At the age of 16, he volunteered to live in a small village in northwest China's Shaanxi Province as an "educated youth." The area was where the Communist revolutionaries, including his father, rose to found the New China.

Life was hard. In the beginning, fleas troubled him so badly he found it difficult to sleep. In the Shaanxi countryside, he had to do all sorts of labor, such as carrying manure, hauling a coal cart, farming and building water tanks.

But as time passed, tough work became easy. The villagers began to take note of the hardworking and capable young man and, by gaining their trust, he was elected village Party chief.

He led the farmers to reinforce the river bank in a bid to prevent erosion, organized a small cooperative of blacksmiths in the village, and built a methane tank, the first in landlocked Shaanxi.

He was once awarded a motorized tricycle after being named a "model educated youth."

However, he exchanged the tricycle for a tractor, a flour milling machine and farm tools to benefit the villagers.

Although he was not in school, Xi never stopped reading. He brought a case of books to the village and was always "reading books as thick as bricks," the villagers in Liangjiahe recalled.

He formed close ties with the villagers during his seven years in the province.

After he was recommended for enrollment at Tsinghua University in 1975, all the villagers lined up to bid him farewell and a dozen young men walked more than 30 kilometers to take him to the county seat for his trip back to Beijing.

Xi never forgot the villagers. Even after he left, he helped the village get access to power, build a bridge and renovate a primary school. When he was Party chief of Fuzhou, capital of Fujian Province, he returned, going door by door to visit people. He gave senior villagers money, and presented children with new schoolbags, school supplies and alarm clocks.

When a farmer friend got sick, Xi, at his own expense, brought him to Fujian for medical treatment.

Xi's affection for the people influenced a number of critical decisions. In the 1980s when many of his contemporaries were going into business or going abroad to study, he gave up an office job in Beijing to work as deputy Party chief of a small county in north China's Hebei Province. Later he became Party chief of Ningde Prefecture in Fujian, one of the poorest regions at the time.

In Ningde, he sometimes traveled for days on roads so bumpy he had to take breaks to recover from back pain.

He once walked nearly five hours on a mountain road to get to a township called Xiadang which was not otherwise accessible, and received the most passionate welcome from villagers, who said Xi was "the highest-ranking official who has come to the village."

He also helped thousands of farmers in Ningde renovate dilapidated thatched houses and guided fishermen to live better lives on the land.

When Party chief of Fuzhou, he took the lead in the country in establishing a mechanism for officials to meet petitioners face to face. Once, he and other senior officials met more than 700 petitioners in two days.

While working in east China's Zhejiang Province, he went into a coal mine nearly 1,000 meters underground and walked more than 1,500 meters along a narrow shaft to visit miners and see their working conditions in 2005.

Shanghai was Xi's last local post before he was promoted to the central leadership. In 2007, he was appointed secretary of the CPC Shanghai Municipal Committee. He left his mark on the country's financial capital by promoting the economic integration of the Yangtze River Delta and enhancing Shanghai's leading role in the region.

Xi's work style has earned him the nickname "secretary of the people."

"Officials should love the people in the way they love their parents, work for their benefit and lead them to prosperity," Xi has said.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Online philanthropy now popular in China

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 08:58 AM PST

ONLINE philanthropy is gaining popularity among Chinese, as many think it offers more convenience and transparency compared to the traditional methods of donating.

Last month, the headmaster of a primary school in west China's Qinghai province posted an online plea for help, as the school's teachers must copy exams by hand before giving them to students because of a lack of printers, which the school cannot afford.

Gesanghua Education Aid, an online non-profit charitable organization that works to improve schools in China's impoverished west, subsequently initiated a program to help raise funds for the school in cooperation with Taobao, China's biggest online retailer.

The program has raised a total of 264,166 yuan (US$42,396) from 55,907 donors, reaching 88 percent of its fundraising target, according to Yuan Jing, director of the program.

Supplies purchased with the donations will be bought online and the process will be open, Yuan said, adding that donors can get in touch with the program's team members online if they have any questions.

Taobao was involved with similar programs earlier this year, raising donations to improve living conditions for World War II veterans and collecting funds to buy sports supplies for poor students in south China's Sichuan Province.

"Promoting projects online has become trendy among charitable organizations," said Zhan Chengfu, head of the social welfare and charity promotion department under the Ministry of Civil Affairs, at a recent symposium on charity causes.

New media tools, such as microblogging services and instant messaging programs, have brought charity groups lower costs, greater speed and a broader scope, Zhan said, adding that the Internet and online payment technologies have lowered the threshold for participating in charitable efforts.

A survey conducted among nearly 1,000 charity groups found that more than 60 percent are promoting programs on the Internet, while nearly 40 percent have blogs or microblog accounts. The public has largely applauded the trend.

"Every time I buy something online, I donate some money to online charity programs," university student Li Fan said. "Most of the time, my donations are just a very small sum of money. Without online donations, I don't think I would bother going all the way to the charitable organizations to donate such a small amount of money," she said.

Local market targeted to move Christmas goods

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 08:58 AM PST

LU Jianzhi is quickly tapping her counter trying to work out the accounts of a Chinese customer who has purchased Christmas goods from her store.

In the past, such a task would have ended in October but the weak international market has meant Lu has had to target her Christmas goods to domestic customers this year.

"Foreign tradesmen make enquires in March, and place orders in June. We export goods in September and October," said Lu, a wholesaler in Yiwu City in east China's Zhejiang Province, the country's largest distribution center of small commodities.

"The number of orders from foreign customers dropped by nearly one third this year, so we hope to make up the losses from the domestic market," Lu said.

Yiwu has more than 700 enterprises selling Christmas goods. Around 40 percent of Christmas products in the European market are from China, rising to 70 percent when it comes to the American market.

However, almost half of the firms have had to change their marketing strategies due to falling demand.

Wang Liqun, president of the Yiwu Youlide Handicraft Co Ltd, whose annual exports total more than 30 million yuan (US$4.8 million), said contracts with some large supermarkets in cities such as Hangzhou and Nanjing have been a savior. "One of the contracts was worth 5 million yuan," Wang said.

According to Zhang Handong, director of Zhejiang's research center on international trade, China needs to grow domestic demand for Christmas goods.

Another channel for businesses is the Internet. Taobao.com, the largest online retailer in China, has seen an increase in Christmas trade. Christmas trees and decorations have been sent to cities and villages around the country rather than abroad.

Stove cited in building blaze as death toll hits 3

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 08:58 AM PST

AN overheated stove was found to have caused the fire in a commercial building being renovated in northwest China's Shaanxi Province on Saturday, local authorities said yesterday.

The death toll has risen to three in the fire, which took 12 hours to put out and also injured 21, officials said.

Ten employees of the construction company were under police control, waiting for further investigation.

The city government said yesterday that the inferno was triggered about 4:30am Saturday after a smokeless coal stove ignited cloth strips wrapped outside of the 14-story World Trade Building in downtown Yan'an.

Workers on duty at the time were discovered leaving their posts, police said.

The death toll rose after a security guard's body was found, a local fire official said yesterday, according to Xinhua news agency.

The security guard were missing after he helped evacuate people on Saturday. The other two victims were a hotel resident and a restaurant security guard on the fifth floor.

The 21 injured people including a 7-year-old child are all in stable condition, according to the government. Most of the injured suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Repeal of insurance policy to cut the cost of train travel

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 08:57 AM PST

TRAIN fares should be around 1 percent lower from next month following the repeal of China's decades-long compulsory insurance policy. From January 1, an insurance fee will not be added. Compulsory railway insurance has been criticized as unfair and a contradiction to China's insurance law, which says nsurance should be voluntary.

A provision that sets a maximum 150,000 yuan (US$24,060) compensation in accidents and 2,000 yuan for lost luggage has also been deleted.

China ended similar compulsory insurances for ship and plane travelers in 1987 and 1989, Xinhua news agency reported.

Rail ministry responds to price critics

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 08:31 AM PST

Ticket prices on the new high-speed rail line linking Beijing and southern Guangzhou City are set in accordance with the market, the Ministry of Railways has said in response to claims they are too expensive.

Tickets for the 2,298-kilometer line, the world's longest high-speed rail line which goes into full operation on Wednesday, start from 865 yuan (US$139). The most expensive seat, in the luxury business lounge, is 2,727 yuan.

In comparison, China Southern Airlines Co, which flies A380 superjumbos on the three-hour route, offers full-price economy tickets at 1,700 yuan excluding fuel surcharge.

"We have taken into consideration passengers' affordability while setting prices. It's normal for someone to think that prices are too high, and we also have people who think the price level is appropriate," said Ma Mingzheng, deputy general manager of the Henan branch of the Beijing-Guangzhou railway.

Ma, speaking during a test run with journalists, also said that rates were on trial basis, and may be subject to adjustment.

Bullet trains on the line can run at an average speed of 300 kilometers per hour, Xinhua news agency reported, shortening travel time from the capital to the Pearl River Delta to about eight hours from the previous 24.

China is accelerating railway investment again after it introduced new safety measures following a train crash in Wenzhou that killed 40 people in July 2011. Railway investment as of October rose almost 250 percent from a year earlier as the government stepped up fiscal measures to help growth.

"Government-driven investment has quick effects on boosting growth in the short term," Yuan Gangming, a researcher with the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. "But you can't rely on investment to drive growth forever."

Yuan said China had a "great leap forward" in spending on railways since 2008 and this is expected to "normalize" in coming years with the completion of major lines such as the Beijing-Guangzhou high-speed link, Bloomberg News reported.

The line will be extended to Hong Kong in the future, Bloomberg said.

The line winds through major inland Chinese cities, including Wuhan and Zhengzhou and competition from the new line for airlines operating Beijing-Wuhan and Beijing-Zhengzhou flights will be intense, China's state television reported.

China Southern is offering discounts up to 73 percent and Air China is offering a 57 percent discount for flights between Beijing and Wuhan on Wednesday, according to company websites.

The railway ministry didn't publish a total investment amount for the high-speed line because it was developed in parts and then connected. The Wuhan-Guangzhou section, which is 1,069 kilometers long and began operating a year ago, cost 116.6 billion yuan.

The 1,318km Shanghai to Beijing link, which opened in June 2011, cost 220.9 billion yuan.

Zhao Chunlei, deputy head of the ministry's transport bureau, said ticket prices on high-speed lines were at appropriate levels based on a market survey.

Executed prisoner's organs harvested

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 08:30 AM PST

A HOSPITAL in Taiwan harvested organs and other body parts from one of six executed death row inmates, in a controversial procedure that could help improve the lives of five patients, local media reported yesterday.

Taiwan authorities executed six death row prisoners last Friday, the largest number to be put to death in one day in recent years, amid an ongoing debate about the maintenance of capital punishment.

Three inmates had agreed to donate their organs but doctors only harvested material from one of them, the United Daily News said.

Chen Chin-huo, convicted of murdering a woman and cooking her flesh, had his liver, two kidneys, corneas and bone removed, the newspaper reported.

"The donation will benefit at least five patients waiting for transplanting of organs," it said, without identifying the hospital where the procedure took place.

The Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital in the south refused to harvest organs from a second inmate.

Lin Hsin-yi, of the Taiwan Alliance to End the Death Penalty, said death row inmates had to give consent for their organs to be removed but some doctors refused to perform such operations.

"Unlike the people who die of illnesses or killed in accidents, the inmates have their lives taken by force," she said.

"As doctors need to race against time, the inmates are sent to the hospital as soon as possible after execution.

"Against that backdrop, some doctors may feel they are removing organs from people who are still (medically) alive."

Usually death row convicts in Taiwan are put to death with a bullet to the head.

Taiwan executed five prisoners in March 2011 and four in April 2010. The 2010 executions were the first after a hiatus that had lasted since 2005.

The death penalty debate reignited in Taiwan after the playground murder of a 10-year-old boy whose throat was slit.

Following reports suggesting the 29-year-old suspect was allegedly looking forward to free board and lodgings in jail, angry protesters gathered at the justice authority demanding the island's death row inmates be executed.

The debate has also been fuelled by the 1997 execution of a soldier wrongly convicted in a child murder case.

Companies won't hire 'working class hero'

Posted: 23 Dec 2012 08:00 AM PST

JIA Jingchuan, an unemployed father of two, feels humiliated when his children ask why their dad isn't going to work like other dads and why his feet and hands sweat even on the coldest winter days.

He tells them a few white lies because they are too young to understand the miseries of suffering from hexane chemical poisoning.

Jia was among 137 workers who were hospitalized between 2009 and 2011 after exposure to the toxic chemical while making iPhone touch screens for Taiwan-owned Wintek, an Apple supplier in Suzhou. The chemical, used to wipe the screens clean, can cause eye, skin and respiratory tract irritation and lead to persistent nerve damage.

Jia made headlines across China when he and 22 other workers began a campaign demanding compensation for their work-related disabilities. His name appeared in more than 1,400 Chinese media reports.

Wintek said it used hexyl hydride, also called n-hexane, from May 2008 to August 2009 but stopped the practice after discovering that it was making workers ill.

However, Wintek finally agreed to pay the poisoned workers compensation ranging from 50,000 yuan (US$7,724) to 180,000 yuan.

Jia and another worker also launched a petition drive in support of improved working conditions at Chinese factories.

Jia received 130,000 yuan in compensation and thought the ordeal was over. He was wrong.

The man once dubbed a "working class hero" has been out of work since the poisoning, staying home as "house husband." Other electronic suppliers put his name on a blacklist as a troublemaker, he said. No one will hire him.

The effects of the poisoning are permanent, he said, and he has to take medication every day.

Jia said he wants to sue Apple Inc in the United States for an open apology. Lawyers say it is a losing battle.

"According to an old Chinese saying, the gunshot hits the bird that pokes its head out," said Jia in an interview with Shanghai Daily. "I've paid a lot to learn that lesson."

Jia said he started searching for jobs after he left the hospital. He sent his resume to more than five electronic suppliers for work as an electrician, but all refused to consider him once they learned his identity, he said.

"During interviews, company officials would smirk when I mentioned my experience with Wintek," he said. "They said they had heard of me and weren't interested in my application."

The reasons they gave were vague, said Jia, who has more than four years' experience as an electrician.

"In one interview, I heard an assistant telling a senior official that I played a leading role in the Apple poisoning incident," said Jia. "I heard him call me a 'drama queen' and a troublemaker. I saw the change of face in the official who was interviewing me."

Jia was advised by friends to change his name and resume. But he needs to show his electrician's certificate to verify his qualifications, and omitting his years at Wintek from his resume left his work experience blank.

Jia headed back to his hometown in the city of Heze in Shandong Province, seeking a factory job and a new life. Again he met a brick wall.

"If a person leaves town to work elsewhere, then suddenly returns looking for a job, there's the suspicion that something is amiss," Jia said.

His only option was heavy physical labor, but that was impossible because of muscle atrophy associated with the poisoning.

Other victims of the poisoning have gotten new jobs in Suzhou, with some now earning up to 6,000 yuan per month, Jia said somewhat bitterly.

"I remember some of them," he said. "They hid behind those of us willing to speak out. ... In the end, they proved smarter than me."

The burden of supporting the family fell to Jia's 52-year-old father, who repairs roads and cleans community facilities.

Wang Zhan, a local lawyer, said it might be possible to press the case against Apple if Jia went to the US and filed suit there under American laws.

"I have gained some support from seven to eight victims in the accident, and I will seeking some American lawyers who might offer help," Jia said.

"I won't give up because Apple owes me an apology," Jia said.

Q: Have you regretted your struggle against the Apple's supplier?
It would be a lie to tell you that I don't. I recall the warning from a senior official at Wintek, who said, "One day you will regret all of this." It didn't make sense until now. But if I could turn back the clock, I probably would have done what I did. Otherwise, the company would just have kept up its poor practices.

Q: How has this ordeal affected the way you look at life?
I have realized that many companies and people hate a person like me, who dares challenge an employer to safeguard workers' rights. They evoke the Chinese saying that goes, "Domestic shame should not be made public." But I believe that you have to resist and fight for what you deserve.

Q: Are you planning to tell the entire, true story of your struggle to your children in the future?
Yes. When they grow up a little, I will tell them how their father contracted this disease, fought a powerful company and won a battle. Though the story hasn't had a particularly happy ending, I will tell them that they should always fight for what they believe is right.