Hong Kong’s Skyscraper-Sized ‘Memory Hole’

Hong Kong’s Skyscraper-Sized ‘Memory Hole’
Jiangxi kidney traffickers sentenced
Local thinktank raises Taiwan's GDP forecast to 3.49%
China media threatens North Korea aid cut over atomic test
Japan envoy says territory dispute with China can be resolved
Grand old queen rules hearts
Jiang Zemin at the End of the Line
Chinese Graduates Say No Thanks to Factory Jobs
Earthquake in China Linked to Notions of Divine Retribution
Dream of Constitutionalism Requires Ending Forced Labor in China
Beijing tells Manila not to complicate South China Sea disputes
New interpretation aims to ensure pay for China's migrant workers
China's PMI reaches its highest point in 2 years: HSBC
Beijing to modify plan to open up mobile telecom sector
Sri Lanka sees 58% increase in Chinese tourists in 2012
Jiang Zemin's 'self-demotion' met with praise, derision
Higher rate on Taiwan public servants' savings to be cut
Ticketing software debate highlights China's innovation paradox
Taiwan hopes Diaoyutai protest voyage will not hurt fishing talks
Government may step in to help China's ailing shipping industry

Hong Kong’s Skyscraper-Sized ‘Memory Hole’

Posted: 24 Jan 2013 09:27 PM PST

At 118 stories, Hong Kong's International Commerce Centre is a mammoth building. But it would be dwarfed by the height of the document pile the city's government destroyed in the past six months. Unlike most developed jurisdictions, Hong Kong doesn't have a law requiring government offices to keep their records—leading critics to charge that civil servants are allowed, in effect, to casually destroy documents at will.

Jiangxi kidney traffickers sentenced

Posted: 25 Jan 2013 05:07 AM PST

Jiangxi police arrested six people suspected of involvement in a human organ trafficking ring and rescued 10 organ donors who were living with them. Shortly after the raid on Jul. 25 last year, the po...

Local thinktank raises Taiwan's GDP forecast to 3.49%

Posted: 25 Jan 2013 04:55 AM PST

An economic thinktank has adjusted its forecast for Taiwan's 2013 economic growth upwards based on heightened expectations of a global economic recovery. The Taiwan Institute of Economic Research on ...

China media threatens North Korea aid cut over atomic test

Posted: 24 Jan 2013 08:35 PM PST

North Korea's sole major ally China will decrease aid to Pyongyang if it goes ahead with a planned nuclear test, state-run media said in an unusually frank warning on Friday.

Japan envoy says territory dispute with China can be resolved

Posted: 24 Jan 2013 08:01 PM PST

A Japanese envoy to Beijing said on Friday that he believed tensions with China over a group of uninhabited islands could be resolved, after meeting China's president-in-waiting Xi Jinping.

Grand old queen rules hearts

Posted: 24 Jan 2013 05:38 PM PST

The grand old queen of the hills is back. The northern railways has restored the heritage train to Shimla, dating back to 1927. The train, which had to be discontinued in the wake of wear and tear of the wheels, is back on track. It resumed daily runs from Shimla on Tuesday and the seats are full.

Jiang Zemin at the End of the Line

Posted: 24 Jan 2013 08:53 PM PST

Just when it looked like Communist Party chief Xi Jinping's efforts at renovating the political system might be walking into a wall, former leader Jiang Zemin's abrupt exit shows that Xi and his allies are kicking open doors for reformers to dance through, writes CRT politics columnist Russell Leigh Moses.

Chinese Graduates Say No Thanks to Factory Jobs

Posted: 24 Jan 2013 09:00 PM PST

Millions of Chinese graduate from college every year, but they struggle to find jobs in an economy that is still dominated by blue-collar industries.

Earthquake in China Linked to Notions of Divine Retribution

Posted: 24 Jan 2013 07:58 PM PST

A frightened young man in Shenyang ran from the 21st floor of his residential building to the ground in a single minute, with a blanket wrapped around him, during the earthquake. (Weibo.com)

An earthquake that struck close to the site of a known concentration camp in China was seen by netizens as having possible divine portent—given the ancient Chinese notion that misdeeds by rulers are punished by heaven.

The 5.1- magnitude quake hit the border region of Liaoyang City and Shenyang City in northeast China's Liaoning Province at 12:18 p.m. on Jan. 23, according to the China Earthquake Networks Center.

The epicenter had a focal depth of seven kilometers and was located near the Sujiatun District of Shenyang, capital of the province, and county-level city Dengta of Liaoyang. The quake lasted about 30 seconds, and was felt not only in the areas of Liaoning, but also its neighboring Jilin Province's Siping, Liaoyuan, and Changchun.

No casualties or severe damage was immediately reported, though the external walls on some old houses were cracked or split, and at least eight chimneys collapsed, according to Beijing Times.

One frightened young man in Shenyang, with a blanked wrapped around his shoulders, was reported to have run from the 21st floor of his residential building to the ground in a single minute.

Shenyang residents said that buildings continued to tremble after the earthquake, making them especially anxious about aftershocks. Many companies evacuated their workers because of safety concerns.

Communications were disrupted in Dengta, where houses in the hardest-hit areas were visibly cracked. This is the second earthquake in that city in the past year.

Some commentators online linked this earthquake, and other earthquakes and natural disasters in China, with the Chinese notion of "heaven's will." One Hunan netizen remarked: "There have been so many earthquakes these days … Jiangsu, Liaoning, and Shangdong … ."

In Chinese history the end of a corrupt dynasty has often been marked by unusual or catastrophic weather or natural disasters. Xinhua, the Communist Party's mouthpiece, in 2008 devoted a long article to attacking and dismissing the idea.

The Chinese scholar Zhu Xueqin wrote in the liberal Southern Metropolis Daily that the disastrous earthquake in Sichuan in May 2008, in which tens of thousands died, must have been "divine punishment."

He wrote: "Isn't this punishment by heaven? But that doesn't mean that those who died committed sin. If it weren't divine punishment, why did the earthquake happen on the birthday of the Buddha?"

A crack in the ceiling of the house was spotted after the quake. (Weibo.com)

Xinhua, in attempting to dismiss the concept, described the view of ancient Chinese people: "Every time there was a natural disaster in society, people took it as a matter of course that it was due to shortcomings in government policy. It was even to the extent that every time there was an earthquake or natural disaster, the emperor would write a 'declaration of fault.'"

Some Chinese continue to make the same associations between a corrupt polity and natural disasters. A netizen from Jiangsu wrote: "Everyone says: 'Google Sujiatun and you will know why they were hit by this earthquake!' What goes around comes around.'"

The reference was almost certainly to the reports of a concentration camp that held Falun Gong practitioners, and used them as a live organ bank.

Reports emerged in 2006 that thousands of Falun Gong practitioners were housed in a Sujiatun hospital and labor camp—the allegations said that they were being harvested for their organs while still alive, with their bodies then being cremated after the organs were removed and sold.

The U.S. State Department sent staff to the site, but could not corroborate that specific claim. However, further investigation by independent researchers found that tens of thousands of Falun Gong practitioners have been killed for their organs—an activity that may still be continuing in China.

Later, experts concluded that the time lag—about three weeks—from when the reports about the Sujiatun death camp emerged, and when State Department personnel arrived, was enough for Chinese officials to have thoroughly cleaned up.

Read the original Chinese article.

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Dream of Constitutionalism Requires Ending Forced Labor in China

Posted: 24 Jan 2013 07:41 PM PST

Masanjia Labor Camp. (Screenshot)

Dreams of constitutionalism have rekindled a power struggle in the Chinese Communist Party. Party head Xi Jinping has begun his term in office by fighting against those most opposed to having laws rule China. In the back and forth, Xi's administration has gone beyond rhetoric to a specific promise: it will stop the noxious labor camp system in China.

The action began on Dec. 4 when Xi gave a speech on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the adoption of China's constitution in which he pledged to implement the rule of law in China. The speech was one of Xi's first actions following his installation as Party chief on Nov. 14.

"No organization or individual has the privilege to overstep the Constitution and the law, and any violation of the Constitution and the law must be investigated," Xi said.

Would be reformers sought to answer Xi's call for government by law.

The editors of the liberal Southern Weekly intended to publish a New Year's message titled "China's Dream and the Dream of Constitutionalism." The head of the Guangdong Province Propaganda Department stepped in and rewrote the editorial, turning it into a praise of the Party.

The pro-reform Yanhuang Chunqiu magazine published a New Year's issue on constitutionalism and on Jan. 4 its website was shut down without comment by the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.

Bloggers, law professors, and activists seized on the phrase "dream of constitutionalism," but as soon as the term became hot, it was blocked on the popular Twitter-like service Weibo.

It appeared that reactionary cadres wanted to nip any talk of constitutionalism in the bud.

Xi Jinping then pushed back.

At noon on Jan 7, the head reporter in Zhejiang Province for the state-owned newspaper Legal Daily posted on his Weibo account that the new head of the Political and Legal Affairs Committee (PLAC), Meng Jianzhu, had announced in a national teleconference with regime officials that the reform through labor system would be stopped. Then a reporter for the mainland-based business magazine Caixin got confirmation of Meng's announcement from an official who had attended the meeting.

On the same day, Xi Jinping made a speech to a PLAC conference that included the theme of constitutionalism. As Chinese regime mouthpiece Xinhua reported, Xi said, "Push forward with full force to realize a peaceful China and a China under the rule of law."

Camps and the PLAC

Any hope for the rule of law in China must address the reform through labor system and its corrupt connections with the PLAC, the Party organ that runs China's vast domestic security apparatus, including the police, armed police, procuratorate, and all courts.

The labor camp system violates the People Republic of China's Constitution, laws, and administrative statutes, as well as the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights, which was signed by the Chinese regime.

Shi Zangshan, a Washington, D.C.-based China expert, has said the labor camp system is the core of the PLAC and also an apparatus for enriching PLAC officials.

Many Chinese would rather be sentenced by a court than be sent to a labor camp, as there is no mechanism of appeal in the labor camp system except by going through the labor camp committee. There is also no legal oversight or regulatory body.

To get a labor camp sentence repealed, one can only settle things by paying bribes, and according to news reports, the heads of the PLAC have profited hugely from the labor camp system in the past ten years.

The labor camps are also a human rights nightmare.

Labor camp inmates' wages, according to internal sources, are 150 times lower than those of the average workers in China, while the amount of work required is 2-3 times greater.

Just after Christmas U.S. media reported on a note from a labor camp inmate, hidden in a Halloween set made in China and discovered by an Oregon woman.

The note was from the Masanjia Labor Camp in Liaoning Province. It said that inmates have to work 15 hours a day, seven days a week, without any kind of break. People who refuse to work are subjected to torture, beatings, and verbal abuse. There is almost no pay, just 10 yuan a month (US$1.6).

The profits from operations like this are carved up by police and PLAC officials.

The people who are unlawfully sent to forced labor camps include farmers who object to their land being taken by their local governments, all kinds of petitioners, college students who post articles online about democracy and freedom of speech, and, most prominently, large numbers of Falun Gong practitioners who speak out about how they have been persecuted.

Since Jiang Zemin launched the persecution of Falun Gong in July 1999, millions of Falun Gong practitioners have been held in labor camps.

According to the official numbers, 160,000 people are currently held in 350 labor camps. However, some NGOs estimate that as many as 1,000,000 people are detained in the camps today. According to some observers, one-half of those in the camps are Falun Gong.

Due to policies Jiang laid down, police in the labor camps torture practitioners with impunity—practitioners have described over 100 torture methods used on them in the camps.

Not fearing being held accountable for their actions, the police make money by helping supply organs to China's transplantation industry, mainly by taking them from Falun Gong practitioners, killing the practitioners in the process.

Admitting Wrongdoing

By announcing the end of the reform through labor system, Xi aims to neutralize the PLAC, the residual influence of former PLAC head and Jiang loyalist Zhou Yongkang, and even the continued pretensions of Jiang Zemin himself to power.

Ending the labor camp system is akin to admitting that it was wrong, and that the crimes committed in the camps were wrong. It is not a big step from stopping the system to punishing those responsible. This terrifies Jiang Zemin, Zhou Yongkang, longtime Jiang fixer Zeng Qinghong, and PLAC officials at all levels who are involved in the persecution.

Xi Jingping's sudden announcement about putting a stop to the labor camp system will intensify the power struggle between Xi's supporters and the Jiang faction.

However, once Xi has made such a high-profile statement, he cannot retreat without losing power. Moving forward is now his only choice.

Read the original Chinese article.

Click www.ept.ms/ccp-crisis to read about the most recent developments in the ongoing crisis within the Chinese communist regime. In this special topic, we provide readers with the necessary context to understand the situation. Get the RSS feed. Timeline of Events. Who are the Major Players?

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Beijing tells Manila not to complicate South China Sea disputes

Posted: 25 Jan 2013 04:51 AM PST

China urges the Philippines to avoid taking any action that could complicate the South China Sea issue, a spokesman for the country's foreign ministry said on Wednesday. The comments come after the P...

New interpretation aims to ensure pay for China's migrant workers

Posted: 25 Jan 2013 04:39 AM PST

A judicial interpretation that went into effect on Wednesday aims to defend migrant workers in China by preventing their employers from defaulting on their wages. A judicial interpretation issued by ...

China's PMI reaches its highest point in 2 years: HSBC