Following widespread protests in 2011 in Wukan, Guangdong over a government land-grab, the provincial government agreed to elections to nominate new village leaders. Despite initial enthusiasm over what was perceived as a "wholly transparent, completely open, democratic election," and a watershed moment for grassroots democracy in China, reality has been a bit messier. Villagers have been discouraged by the new leaders' failure to resolve their problems, while new village leaders are themselves now acknowledging that the experiment in Wukan has failed. From Off Beat China:
…Last week, an interview by iFeng with a few villagers and their newly elected leaders showed that local people may see the "Wukan model" as a completed failed attempt of democracy.
Many of the new leaders of Wukan's village committee are leaders of the anti-government protests two years ago. For example, the 70-something Lin Zhulian is the new director of village committee elected by his fellow villagers. Two year ago, it was him who often held public speeches and called for villagers to stand up against local government and get their illegally seized lands back.
One year after being elected, Lin told journalists that he regretted leading the protests.
"I'm afraid of receiving phone calls, afraid of seeing people, afraid of hearing my own door bell ring. Why? Because whatever I do or say now, people are able to find a way to blame me. I can neither speak the truth nor tell lies. Things are complicated. I need to pay attention to every single bit of detail to guard against potential harms."
Some of Wukan's problems are not news. In September, 2012, several Western media outlets revisited Wukan and reported on the slow progress of its democratic experiment. Then, areas of dissatisfaction included villagers' "expectations gap" between the promise of democracy and its messy reality, meddling by county-level governments, and suspicions that the whole enterprise was simply a political move by Wang Yang, the former Guangdong province Communist Party chief who was known to eye a seat on China's elite Politburo Standing Committee.
Additional obstacles have now begun to emerge. Wukan is dealing with a dearth of outside investment due to concerns over its political stability, a village leadership that lacks governing experience, and in-fighting within the village administration itself. As one villager told a reporter, "All of Wukan is dissatisfied. First, we villagers overthrew the corrupt officials, but the new administration has done nothing [to get land back]; they got nothing back and have not given us an answer…We'll take anything [at this point]."
Surveying unbought luxury residences whose bare porches had begun to sprout grass, reporter Jin Song concluded that "currently many investors do not dare to invest in Wukan…because there is still no consensus about whether to lease the recovered land or to transfer it, the village committee is unable to monetize it."
[...] Meanwhile, infighting is worsening between elected village leaders and those activists left on the outside. According to Yang Semao, deputy director of the governing village committee, "The village committee only has seven people…, [but] there are dozens of influential activists and it's impossible for everyone to join the committee. Now they're going all out to attack, defame, and stymie us."
Some observers on weibo have blamed China's political system for the failures of democracy in Wukan to thrive. From Tea Leaf Nation:
User @玻璃罐子里的苍蝇 echoed this view, writing, "What Wukan villagers really want is money. Using democracy to solve the Wukan problem sounds great, but actually it is not the right prescription … Wukan's follow-ups are reflections of the embarrassing situation of democracy in China. Democracy is still a luxury for us, just someone's talking point. "
In response to widespread outrage on Weibo over allegations that companies were pumping industrial waste deep underground to avoid pollution regulations, environmental protection officials in Weifang City, Shandong Province announced a whopping 100,000 yuan (approximately US$16,000) reward to the first citizen to produce verifiable evidence of the "unscrupulous" practice. Not long after the prize was made public, media personality and environmental activist Deng Fei posted a weibo claiming that a moratorium on coverage of the pollution scandal had already been imposed by local newspaper Qilu Evening News. Deng also expressed concern that local authorities would lobby Beijing to prohibit reporting on the topic nationally.
@DengFei: #ALetterFromTheFrontLines# 'Brother Fei, we of the Qilu Evening News have already been banned. Tomorrow, five field reporters will be withdrawn. I'm afraid the two reports written today will not make it into the paper.' Brothers, keep up the fight! Commentary: Isn't the Weifang Environmental Protection Bureau offering a 100,000 yuan reward, encouraging netizens to report underground pollution? Now, Shandong has moved to seal off local media. Will they next travel to Beijing to lobby for a national ban, withdraw all reporters from around the whole country, and seal off national media?
The allegations of government hypocrisy struck a chord with legions of Weibo users, who swooped into action, furiously reposting and commenting on Deng's post:
@HuangbuYitou: Fight on, Weifang! They certainly have the ability to shut the mouths of all the reporters in the country.
黄埔一投：潍坊加油！封全国记者的嘴一定能做到
@RecorderChenBaocheng: Expose every current Shandong official, sub-provincial-level and above!
记录者陈宝成:暴光山东籍宣传口副省级以上现任官员！
@JunoChen-SZ: Investigating pollution isn't what they're good at. Sealing things off, on the other hand, is.
JunoChen-SZ：查排污不是他们的特长，封口才是
@PrettyAngel003: They're willing to spend hush money, but they're not willing to spend money on fixing the problem. Isn't this their home, their country, too?!
@VisualPawnshop: I won't say a word. Just silently reposting. I hope popular attention can turn into power.
视觉当铺：什么都不想说了，默转，希望围观能成为力量。
@ChinaJarBrother: The National People's Congress and CPPCC are about to open their annual meetings–what a wonderful excuse to control public opinion in the name of maintaining stability.
中国坛子哥：全国2会即将召开，这是个极好的维稳控舆借口。
@ChenWeina: Rivers across the whole country are all polluted. How could it even be possible cover all of that up?
陈微娜：全国河流都污染，怎么能全捂住呢？
@TaoHaijunReporter: They've obstructed the voice of reporters, but can they obstruct the voice of the entire people?
For the latest installment in his CDT series, cartoonist Crazy Crab of Hexie Farm gives his perspective on prospects for political reform in China. A boat representing reform is prevented from moving forward by the hammer-and-sickle shaped anchor of "one-party dictatorship."
Industry insiders say international influence is only set to grow, as Chinese censors loosen restrictions on foreign films and more fans make a habit of seeking out the latest blockbusters. Last year, the country's box office receipts increased 30% to over RMB 17 billion ($2.7 billion), making China the world's second-largest box office
On the fifth episode of CNN's monthly show "On China," host Kristie Lu Stout traveled to Hengdian Film Studios to discover what strikes a chord with Chinese viewers. There, she asked Dan Mintz, CEO of DMG Entertainment Group, and acclaimed film directors Jin Yimeng (Eva) and Lu Chuan what Chinese filmgoers want to see.
On the surface, the script for success is not dissimilar to what works in the United States, they said. U.S. films, including "Titanic 3D" and "Mission: Impossible– Ghost Protocol" comprised seven of the top 10 highest-grossing films in 2012, according to the State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television. While foreign films accounted for only a quarter of the 303 movies screened in Chinese theatres last year, they took in over half of overall ticket sales (52.4%).
Easy access to theaters is also driving mainland viewers to the silver screen. China has over 12,000 movie screens and it is adding more at a rate of eight to 10 each day, Mintz said. Cinemas in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai are comparable to those in the U.S., Lu added.
According to Blue Star Line, the cruise line company Palmer founded to build and manage the vessel, the Titanic II was designed by Finnish naval architecture firm Deltamarin but is being built in China's Jiangsu province by state-owned Chinese shipyard CSC Jinling.
Palmer introduced the dinner via a video-conference call from Australia, saying, according to the Wall Street Journal: "Why build the Titanic? Why go to the moon?"
"They've really got guts. You see how many collapsing bridges there are in China and how much 'tofu-style' construction there is, and they still dare to do it," the Journal quoted one micro-blogger as writing.
"Titanic II is being built by a Chinese shipyard!! How stupid. Do you want to re-enact the original ending?" wrote another.
The takings for Chow's blockbuster, featuring Wen Zhang, Shu Qi and Huang Bo, accounted for 66.7 percent of all ticket sales during the period, according to a posting by China Film News on micro-blogging service Sina Weibo.
The film took 76.7 million yuan on its first day of release on Feb 10 on the Chinese mainland. It also smashed the opening-day record for domestic films by beating last year's 70 million yuan made by Chinese film Painted Skin: Resurrection.
The fast-expanding Chinese film market – measured by audience figures and number of screens – has nurtured record-breaking box-office revenue this year, said Huang Qunfei,general manager of Beijing New Film Association Co Ltd, one of China's largest theater chains.
Huang said domestic box-office revenue has grown 30 percent on average each year, with more than 9,600 screens across the nation. he said he expects even higher growth this year.
The five children, all male and with ages ranging from four to six, were discovered by local villagers in Majiang county at 5:40 pm.
Four of the boys were dead upon being discovered, while the fifth died in the hospital, the county publicity department said.
The children come from five different families. Their parents were helping out at a wedding dinner held for one of their fellow villagers and had apparently left them unattended.
An initial investigation showed that the children died due to suffocation after straw in the abandoned house was ignited.
The deaths Monday in the southwestern province of Guizhou focused attention on the welfare of children in one of China's poorest regions.
Three months ago, five runaway boys in the same province died inside a garbage bin, where they lit a fire to stay warm on a cold, damp night in the city of Bijie. Media reports said those boys were largely unsupervised because their parents had sought work in more prosperous parts of the country, and the incident prompted nationwide soul-searching on China's wealth gap and the effects of its economic boom on families in rural areas.
State-run China Central Television said the government gave each of the five families 22,000 yuan ($3,500) and 100 kilograms (220 pounds) of rice as consolation.
In the recent string of hacking attacks against American newspapers, government departments and other organizations, the difficulty of definitively attributing such actions has been a recurring theme. Chinese authorities have repeatedly denounced accusations of state-sponsored hacking on this basis. A new report (PDF) from information security firm Mandiant claims, however, that it has identified a well-known group of hackers as a unit of China's People's Liberation Army. The group, known as Comment Crew or APT1 (Advanced Persistent Threat 1), is said to be Unit 61398, the 2nd Bureau of the 3rd Department of the P.L.A.'s General Staff Department. Its members have reportedly stolen huge quantities of sensitive data in at least 140 separate attacks since 2006. From David E. Sanger, David Barboza and Nicole Perlroth at The New York Times:
[…] Mandiant has watched the group as it has stolen technology blueprints, manufacturing processes, clinical trial results, pricing documents, negotiation strategies and other proprietary information from more than 100 of its clients, mostly in the United States. Mandiant identified attacks on 20 industries, from military contractors to chemical plants, mining companies and satellite and telecommunications corporations.
[…] What most worries American investigators is that the latest set of attacks believed coming from Unit 61398 focus not just on stealing information, but obtaining the ability to manipulate American critical infrastructure: the power grids and other utilities.
[…] A few years ago, [U.S.] administration officials say, the theft of intellectual property was an annoyance, resulting in the loss of billions of dollars of revenue. But clearly something has changed. The mounting evidence of state sponsorship, the increasing boldness of Unit 61398, and the growing threat to American infrastructure are leading officials to conclude that a far stronger response is necessary.
"Right now there is no incentive for the Chinese to stop doing this," said Mr. Rogers, the House intelligence chairman. "If we don't create a high price, it's only going to keep accelerating."
The Mandiant report provides details of three "personas" believed to be part of APT1, "in an effort to underscore there are actual individuals behind the keyboard." (See also Bloomberg Businessweek's recent 'A Chinese Hacker's Identity Unmasked', via CDT, on an alleged hacker identified as a teacher at a P.L.A. university.) The most dramatic of the released materials is a narrated video purportedly showing one of these hackers at work:
Large propaganda posters are pinned to walls around the base between Shanghai's Datong and Tonggang roads. "Everyone has the duty to defend our country and our home!" reads one poster, featuring a group of young soldiers crawling through mud.
Another poster shows a line of PLA tanks and four fighter jets and is emblazoned with the slogan: "Security and peace protects hundreds of thousands of households!"
Opposite the building identified by Mandiant is a street of hardware shops and a salon carrying a bright pink sign with the name: "Slender Beauty."
[…] On Tuesday afternoon, a woman who identified herself as a member of 'Unit 61398' but refused to produce any identification reprimanded the Daily Telegraph for taking notes on a nearby street corner.
Reuters was also there, and escaped with its video intact:
The decision to publish a significant part of our intelligence about Unit 61398 was a painstaking one. What started as a "what if" discussion about our traditional non-disclosure policy quickly turned into the realization that the positive impact resulting from our decision to expose APT1 outweighed the risk to our ability to collect intelligence on this particular APT group. It is time to acknowledge the threat is originating in China, and we wanted to do our part to arm and prepare security professionals to combat that threat effectively. The issue of attribution has always been a missing link in publicly understanding the landscape of APT cyber espionage. Without establishing a solid connection to China, there will always be room for observers to dismiss APT actions as uncoordinated, solely criminal in nature, or peripheral to larger national security and global economic concerns. We hope that this report will lead to increased understanding and coordinated action in countering APT network breaches.
At the same time, there are downsides to publishing all of this information publicly. Many of the techniques and technologies described in this report are vastly more effective when attackers are not aware of them. Additionally, publishing certain kinds of indicators dramatically shortens their lifespan. When Unit 61398 changes their techniques after reading this report, they will undoubtedly force us to work harder to continue tracking them with such accuracy. It is our sincere hope, however, that this report can temporarily increase the costs of Unit 61398's operations and impede their progress in a meaningful way.
We are acutely aware of the risk this report poses for us. We expect reprisals from China as well as an onslaught of criticism.
In summary, my problem with this report is not that I don't believe that China engages in massive amounts of cyber espionage. I know that they do – especially when an executive that we worked with traveled to Beijing to meet with government officials with a clean laptop and came back with one that had been breached while he was asleep in his hotel room.
My problem is that Mandiant refuses to consider what everyone that I know in the Intelligence Community acknowledges – that there are multiple states engaging in this activity; not just China. And that if you're going to make a claim for attribution, then you must be both fair and thorough in your analysis and, through the application of a scientific method like ACH, rule out competing hypotheses and then use estimative language in your finding. Mandiant simply did not succeed in proving that Unit 61398 is their designated APT1 aka Comment Crew.
"Hacking attacks are transnational and anonymous. Determining their origins are extremely difficult. We don't know how the evidence in this so-called report can be tenable," spokesman Hong Lei told a daily news briefing.
"Arbitrary criticism based on rudimentary data is irresponsible, unprofessional and not helpful in resolving the issue."
Hong cited a Chinese study which pointed to the United States as being behind hacking in China.
"Of the above mentioned Internet hacking attacks, attacks originating from the United States rank first."
Some who are involved in Hollywood's entry into China are privately expressing hope that the Justice Department inquiry will be resolved before they run out of time on what one of them last week called a "ticking clock," as Chinese consumers outgrow their receptivity to Hollywood fare.
The squeeze started last year when they began to spend more money on some homegrown films than on the American blockbusters.
But Michael W. Emmick, who was formerly a prosecutor with the Justice Department, and now focuses on the corrupt practices cases, among other things, in his private law practice, said a resolution could be a long time coming.
"This is still early in the game," he said.
While Mr. Emmick is not representing clients in the investigation, and said he had no direct knowledge of it, he said that regulators sometimes use such industrywide inquiries as a "cost effective" way of putting an entire business sector — like the pharmaceuticals industry or the portion of the financial industry dealing in sovereign debt — on notice.
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