Blogs » Politics » New tainted milk scandal: Cancer-causing toxin found in infant formula in Guangzhou
Blogs » Politics » New tainted milk scandal: Cancer-causing toxin found in infant formula in Guangzhou |
- New tainted milk scandal: Cancer-causing toxin found in infant formula in Guangzhou
- Who Lost Canada? America’s Neighbors turn to China for Energy Deal
- Auto shops, insurers benefit from torrential rain in Beijing
- China Faces Shifting Dynamic in Middle East
- Bo, Murder and the Future of the CCP
- Proview Counsel Apparently Forgot the First Rule of Lawyering
- China: Chinese Alcohol
- Beijing storm highlights risks for China’s cities
- Second child is a growing option
- Cartoon: “Sailing the Seas Depends on…”, by Hexie Farm (蟹农场)
- Destiny in the Flood Waters
- Looking for Song Ze, by Liang Xiaojun
- Flood Brings Out Beijing’s Digital Samaritans
- Pictures: Stalls set up outside park to sell miniskirts, when outraging discount offered to miniskirt wearers
- Hexie Farm (蟹农场): “Sailing the Seas Depends on…”
- Pictures: Three bodies drown at one highway section in Beijing founded
- Op-Ed: What America’s Troubled Schools Can Learn From the Shanghai Model
- Directives from the Ministry of Truth: Beijing Floods
- The Daily Twit – 7/23/12: Beijing Dries Out, and a Pile of Wet Rocks Elects a Mayor
- Beijing Falls Back on Industrial Policy During Downturn
| New tainted milk scandal: Cancer-causing toxin found in infant formula in Guangzhou Posted: 23 Jul 2012 02:34 PM PDT A cancer-causing toxin has been found in five batches of Nanshan Bywise infant formula milk powder, a brand under Hunan AVA Dairy Co., by authorities in Guangzhou, capital of south China's Guangdong province, according to state-run Xinhua news agency. It is another contaminated milk scandal just weeks after China's top diary producer Yili was detected with mercury-tainted baby formula in this June. But the good thing is, Chinese government seems to have started increasing their safety scrutiny in the country's scandal-ridden milk industry. In a statement published by the Guangzhou Industrial and Commercial Administration Bureau, the five problem batches of formula products, which were produced between July and December last year in central China's Hunan province, failed sample tests for aflatoxin. Alfatoxin is a substance deriving from a type of fungus that can grow on hay or grains. It can cause severe liver damage or cancer, and is considered as one of the most carcinogenic substances. The authority has ordered retailers to suspend sales of the products. On Monday, the AVA Diary company issued an apology over the incident to the public too and explained that the source of the aflatoxin contamination was due to cows eating moldy feed. But, aflatoxin contamination is technically easy to test. Doesn't the milk producer have the duty to test for it before the finished products enter the market? | |||||||||||||||
| Who Lost Canada? America’s Neighbors turn to China for Energy Deal Posted: 23 Jul 2012 09:37 PM PDT
In today's highly-charged political climate, it will come as no surprise when some U.S. politicians come down hard on the Obama Administration for what will no doubt be described as driving Canada's energy sector into the arms of China:
The Nexen deal is important for two reasons. First, it potentially represents some absolution for CNOOC, which is best known in foreign investment circles as the company which botched the 2005 U.S. UNOCAL takeover, not taking into account American politics and the need for a public relations strategy. As the Nexen deal will require regulatory approval in several jurisdictions, we will see what lessons CNOOC has learned from the failed UNOCAL bid. Second, as Bloomberg points out, the deal represents a further shift by Canada away from the U.S. towards China. Another deal involving Sinopec and Talisman Energy was announced yesterday as well, and there have been other recent transactions, including CNOOC's takeover of Nexen partner Opti Canada. Why is this happening? The simple answer is that Canada is one of the world's largest energy suppliers, and rapidly-growing China is willing to pay a premium in the sector to diversify its holdings into a country that is politically stable. China realized years ago the political risks it was facing in the Middle East and set out to remedy the situation. It has succeeded. How important is this strategy to China? CNOOC's bid for Nexen's shares apparently represented a 61% premium. Nexen had to be pleased with that. And China isn't just getting oil for its money. If the deal goes through, CNOOC would also get some very attractive technical expertise, including know-how related to shale-gas extraction. Canada's traditional partner in this area has been the U.S., whose interest in Canadian development has been on the wane. Factor in the decision to reject the Keystone Pipeline project because of American environmental concerns, and China is starting to look better and better to the Canadians. If this investment trend continues, assuming that Ottawa approves the Nexen deal, perhaps in a few years we will all be talking about the new U.S. "Canada Pivot" policy. In the meantime, you can be sure that critics of the controversial Keystone Pipeline decision, particularly Republicans with ties to the oil and gas industry, will use this deal to beat up on President Obama. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us | |||||||||||||||
| Auto shops, insurers benefit from torrential rain in Beijing Posted: 23 Jul 2012 07:47 PM PDT Cars after the rainstorm in Beijing. (Photo/Xinhua) While car owners in Beijing remain wary after the worst torrential rains in 61 years hit the Chinese capital, auto shops and insurers are likely be benefit from the adverse weather, the First Financial Daily reported. The downpour that lasted around 20 hours on July 21-22 was the worst since local weather records began in 1951. It led to over 30 deaths and affected up to 1.9 million residents, the newspaper said. Several auto shops and car dealers in Beijing, which also provide maintenance and repair services, were swamped with cars damaged by the flood, the newspaper found. "Business is double that on an average day. Most cars were under water," said the owner of an auto shop of a chain. For dealers, especially newer stores whose profits from new car sales declined in the weak market environment this year, repair works are an alternative income stream, according to the newspaper. "The car market performed poorly this year, with profits from new car sales on the decline," a dealer said. "New stores like ours have been unable to avoid losses, since we don't have many existing clients. Luckily, many cars needing repair were brought in today; this will help bring down the losses a bit." Meanwhile, insurers reported a growth in the claims made by car owners, with the official microblog of Beijing's insurance regulators revealing that local insurance companies received 11,827 car insurance claims between 12am and 9am on July 22. The number of claims submitted under mandatory car-accident insurance policies grew to 1,968 during the same period, according to the regulators. As of 4pm, July 22, Ping An Insurance alone received 4,682 car insurance claims, the company said. "Our claim officers experienced a massive workload and worked extra hours in the past two days," a service representative of the People's Insurance Company of China told the newspaper. Insurance claim disputes may also rise in number in the coming days, the newspaper said, since many car insurance policies — even those that specifically address damage from water — do not cover damage to the engine if drivers try to restart the car while it is submerged, a term many car owners are not aware of. In addition, a service representative from Ping An told the newspaper that unlike in China's coastal regions, which receive more precipitation, not many car owners in Beijing have insurance for damage from water to their cars. Industry insiders said the recent downpour would certainly boost that part of the business of insurers as a result. Source: Want China Times
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| China Faces Shifting Dynamic in Middle East Posted: 23 Jul 2012 09:40 PM PDT The Diplomat's Minxin Pei writes that China faces an uncertain future with a "newly empowered" Middle East, not only diplomatically but also in terms of its domestic policies toward an increasingly dissatisfied Muslim minority:
In Xinjiang, where tensions have run high in the three years since deadly riots between Uyghurs and Han Chinese in 2009, Radio Free Asia reports that authorities have restricted the public observance of Ramadan:
© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  | |||||||||||||||
| Bo, Murder and the Future of the CCP Posted: 23 Jul 2012 09:17 PM PDT For the Financial Times Magazine, Jamil Anderlini traces the rise and fall of former Chongqing party boss and Politburo Standing Committee hopeful Bo Xilai, and the tightrope the party must walk now as they decide how to deal with the fallout:
In Beijing, meanwhile, the French Foreign Ministry denied that alleged Bo family acquaintance Patrick Henri Devillers had been detained upon his arrival over the weekend. From The New York Times:
© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  | |||||||||||||||
| Proview Counsel Apparently Forgot the First Rule of Lawyering Posted: 23 Jul 2012 07:59 PM PDT
Litigators in civil cases don't have that kind of leverage over their clients, but that kind of attitude is often quite useful. Consider our old friends from the iPad trademark dispute:
I can't say I know all the details here, but this doesn't look so good. Proview's financial position was common knowledge, so Grandall knew that these guys were functionally (if not legally) bankrupt. Ordinarily for a client like that, you'd expect a decent upfront retainer payment. I assume Grandall got something at the outset, but maybe not nearly enough. So the court brokered a settlement, and Apple paid the $60 million. The money is apparently sitting there waiting to be parceled out, but Proview owes anywhere from 220 to 400+ million U.S. dollars. That means a "fight" between the creditors, and between those that have some sort of secured interest (i.e. the banks) and Grandall, which just has a service contract, the lawyers may be shit out of luck. Now it's possible that Grandall knew this was going to happen all along, got just enough upfront, and figured that with the publicity and all, the risk was ultimately worth it. Let's hope they didn't seriously believe that Proview might actually get enough to pay off its debts from this dispute — that was never really a possibility, even with a favorable court judgment. I don't recall ever having worked for an insolvent client who wasn't already in bankruptcy proceedings (attorney fees are paid off the top when that happens), and I'm not a litigator, so I can't say what the best method is of avoiding this sort of trouble. That being said, this seems like a crappy result. A friend told me (I can't confirm this) that the same partner/team is now defending Qiaodan in the Michael Jordan trademark squatting case. Knowing what we do about that company's prospects post-judgment, let's hope these guys got a lot up front this time. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us | |||||||||||||||
| Posted: 23 Jul 2012 06:42 PM PDT Derek from 300 shots at Greatness explains to his readers the ingredients behind different types of Chinese Baiju (Chinese Vodka). Written by Oiwan Lam · comments (0) | |||||||||||||||
| Beijing storm highlights risks for China’s cities Posted: 23 Jul 2012 06:50 PM PDT THE fierce rainstorm that claimed 37 lives over the weekend in Beijing has raised questions about the capital's ability to cope with flooding. Many roads in the city were submerged under waist-deep water for hours on Saturday during the downpour, the heaviest the city has seen in 60 years. The municipal government said as of Sunday night, 25 people had drowned, six killed in house cave-ins, five were electrocuted and one was killed by lightning. The rain and flooding also caused blackouts and traffic paralysis. As of yesterday, the Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau expressway had still not reopened as part of it remained submerged. The disaster affected 1.9 million people and caused nearly 10 billion yuan (US$1.6 billion) of damage, while the exact economic loss is still being verified by local governmental departments, according to Beijing flood control and drought relief headquarters. Urban flooding has been a chronic problem in China. This summer, rainstorms and flooding have wreaked havoc in many cities, including Guangzhou, Chongqing and Shenzhen. Experts believe the floods are largely the result of urbanization, with vast networks of roads and the elimination of greenbelts decreasing some cities' ability to cope with heavy rain. Wang Hao, of the China Institute of Water Resources and Hydropower Research, said that more than 80 percent of Beijing's roads were covered in impermeable materials such as concrete and asphalt, which obstructed the infiltration of rainwater. However, an investigation led by Li Haiyan, a professor at Beijing University of Civil Engineering and Architecture, said that about half of the drainage networks in Beijing were filled with sediment as thick as 10 to 50 percent of the pipes' diameter. Sheng Minzhi, an engineer at the Hangzhou Planning Bureau, said the mass construction of tall buildings and underground parking lots in some cities had also slowed the rate at which the ground can absorb rainwater. Wang Yi, an official with Beijing flood control and drought relief headquarters, said that the drainage systems of Beijing's downtown area were largely built to withstand rainfall of 36 to 45 millimeters per hour. Only a few places, such as the Tian'anmen Square, had a drainage system that could withstand 56mm per hour of rainfall. Xu Chenghua, an engineer at the Hangzhou Urban Planning Academy, said storm drainage systems in Chinese cities are supposed to be designed in accordance with the Urban Drainage Engineering Planning Regulations approved in 2000. Wang Zhansheng, an environmental and engineering professor at Tsinghua University, said the flooding would not be so severe if the drainage systems were designed to handle more severe rainfalls, adding that flooding could be avoided if the regulations took population growth, water usage and sewage treatment into consideration. A central government group responsible for drafting regulations related to urban drainage met on May 18 to discuss urban flooding. A source said new regulations are expected to be launched next year. However, Wang Hao said that since the lay-out and functional structure of cities were already in place, to renew drainage systems to the level of developed countries would be hugely expensive. Source: Shanghai Daily
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| Second child is a growing option Posted: 23 Jul 2012 06:24 PM PDT Increasing number of eligible parents want another baby Beijing mother Han Xue had a second child last year, 10 years after her first. But despite eligibility the process was far from easy and entailed a bureaucratic paper chase. Han, 31, felt that two children would keep each other company and provide better support to her and her husband in old age. "As soon as my first child turned 4, we filed an application for a permit to have a second child to the government office that oversees the street where I was born," Han said. Han and her husband were both single children and allowed, under the family planning policies introduced in the 1970s, to have a second child. An increasing number of parents in this category are opting to do so. Nanjing offers a prime example. Applications filed in the capital of Jiangsu province surged to 600 last year from 85 in 2007, family planning authorities said. Meanwhile, the number of urban couples eligible to have two children has also increased as the single-child generation comes of marriageable age. About 10,000 couples are eligible in Nanjing annually, and authorities estimate that by 2015 up to 17 percent of couples in the city will be entitled to have two children. Already, about 15 percent of women in Nanjing who booked maternity beds for the second half of 2012 were expecting their second baby. Since 1985, couples in the province are allowed a second child if both parents were single children. In the province of Jiangxi, the story is much the same In Jiujiang, one of the province's major cities, the family planning department in Xunyang district received 15 second-baby applications from March to June. All were from couples who were themselves single children and they accounted for 31 percent of applications during this period. "More and more couples in the category wanted a second child over the past 3 years in the district," Yu Liye, an official with the department, said. However, couples, including Han, complained that the application process was complicated and bureaucratic. "I don't understand why they required our parents' marriage certificate," she said. Han's husband is from Guangdong province and does not have a Beijing hukou— residence permit — so their application took two months before approval was granted. Documents required included residential permits, marriage certificate, ID cards, their daughter's birth certificate and a certificate to prove that the birth was permitted and the marriage certificates of both her parents and her parents-in-law. However, compared with Wang Mei's experience, Han said she felt fortunate. When Wang, 32, discovered that she was unexpectedly pregnant last fall, both she and her husband were excited and believed that the baby was a gift from God. Both were single children. But getting approval tuned out to be far from simple. "I don't have a Beijing hukou, so I had to travel for hundreds of kilometers to my hometown to get dozens of stamps on the required forms. These forms proved that I had only been married once and had only one child," Wang told Beijing Evening News. "My parents were even asked to apply for a new version of their marriage certificate as my father's name on the original certificate is different from the name on his hukou," she recalled. Getting all the papers in order, though, was not enough. "The family planning department asked 10 neighbors to discuss whether I could have another baby. And their opinions were posted up in my community," she said. When she finally got the birth permit, it was seven months after she conceived. "Our joy was dampened by the bureaucratic procedures," she said. Yu Liye in Jiujiang confirmed the procedures and agreed that "tolerance is needed". "It takes time to go through the procedures required to get a permit so those who want a second child should initiate the process early, say, after giving birth to the first child," he noted. So far, all 31 Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities on the mainland have fine-tuned their policies, allowing couples who were single children to have another child. The last province to do so, last year, was the most populous, Henan. It is important to submit applications first otherwise the couple will pay social maintenance fees despite their eligibility. Fees vary from region to region. In Jiangsu province, they are 40 percent of the annual per capita disposable income of urban residents, which stood at 10,536 yuan ($1,653) last year. Yuan Xin, a professor at Nankai University's population and development institute in Tianjin said that family planning policy should be adjusted according to changing practical situations. "Finally, Chinese couples should decide on their own how many children they want," he said. He also ruled out any possibility that the population would explode as it was proven trend that people, particularly in cities, tended to have smaller families even without imposed limits. A survey in August last year by the Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and the Women's Federation of Shanghai found that 45 percent of Shanghai families have decided not to have a second child due to high costs. Wang Qingyun contributed to this story. Source: China Daily
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| Cartoon: “Sailing the Seas Depends on…”, by Hexie Farm (蟹农场) Posted: 23 Jul 2012 06:10 PM PDT  "Sailing the Seas Depends on…" © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  | |||||||||||||||
| Posted: 23 Jul 2012 05:49 PM PDT  "Be moved! But more than that, move the sewers!" Beijing's floods are emblematic of government mismanagement. Chinese netizens are quick to make social critiques of disasters both great and small, and this most recent one has drawn out some dark, incisive jokes:
Via CDT Chinese. © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  | |||||||||||||||
| Looking for Song Ze, by Liang Xiaojun Posted: 23 Jul 2012 05:06 PM PDT This is the second article about Song Ze's case following Dr. Xu's, and it is by Song Ze's lawyer Xiao Xiaojun (梁小军). –Yaxue I first met Song Ze (宋泽) in late April. The weather was still cool, and he showed up following a call from Xu Zhiying, a bashful, quiet boy in a black leather jacket. Xu introduced him as a citizen volunteer, and I failed to remember his name. Later that day we went together to a dinner party of the Citizen team (e.g. OCI, the NGO Xu Zhiyong and others founded), and several well-known people at the table seemed very familiar with him. I became curious about him, wondering what he had done to endear himself to these online celebrities. All through the evening, he sat on the side and said little. Then in early May I learned on Twitter that he had been criminally detained. Such event had become so common an occurrence among friends of mine that I didn't think too much of it. After all, I hardly knew him. However, I became his attorney soon afterward. It was decided, over a similar dinner gathering that I should represent Song Ze because I lived close to Fengtai District detention center where Song Ze had been held. Xu Zhiyong believed that Song Ze was apprehended simply because he had visited black jails and helped petitioners. "They have no bottom line whatsoever!" Xu was indignant about authorities detaining Song Ze over these actions. On May 14, the day I received the Power of Attorney Form signed by Song Ze's parents in Hunan and his identification document, I went to Fengtai detention center to request for a meeting with Song Ze. I was referred to the officer in charge of Song Ze's case, but he wasn't there. An expressionless young female clerk told me to "come back tomorrow morning." Helpless, I left after depositing 1,000 yuan for Song Ze. I arrived next morning as soon as the Public Security Bureau opened. I found the officer behind a computer screen. When I said I was here to meet Song Guangqiang (宋光强, Song Ze's original name), he found my request form with signed approval on his desk and motioned me to go to the meeting room without evening raising his head. All the windows were occupied in the meeting room. So I waited. Song Ze had been taken out of his cell to meet me, now standing against a wall waiting too. He wore an orange prison garment. For some reason he didn't have his glasses on. He looked sad. Around 10 o'clock, we had our turn. Close, he recognized me and smiled a faint smile. I too took a good look of him. Though tired and listless, he was a good-looking young man. I asked how he had been taken to custody and what the interrogation had been like. He spoke fast and clear: He was seized by policemen in the morning of May 4th while waiting in Beijing South Railway Station for a petitioner who had called and asked for his help in what now looked like a premeditated trap. He was then interrogated by policemen from Fengtai District Public Security Bureau and Beijing Headquarters respectively from the afternoon to early next morning. And as Xu Zhiyong predicted, it was about his visit to the black jail in Beijing set up by Chenzhou municipality, Hunan (湖南郴州) and his rescue of petitioners there, but also his online posts to help the petitioners. He was also asked his relationship with Xu Zhiyong—how he met him and how he became a volunteer for Citizen. On May 5, he was charged with "provoking disturbances" (寻衅滋事罪) and transferred to the Fengtai detention center. When I told him about visiting his parents and getting them to sign the Power of Attorney Form, he smiled to my surprise. He said what he was afraid most was his parents' knowledge of the event. He didn't want his mother to worry about him. I tried my best to alleviate his anxiety. Our meeting ended before 11am when policemen announced the morning hours were over. After that I was taken up by other obligations. I felt that Song Ze would be released soon, because, legally I couldn't think of anything that he could possibly be convicted with. His detention was based on charges of "provoking disturbances" (寻衅滋事) as defined by Article 293 of China's Criminal Law. They refer to the followings: beating another person at will; chasing, intercepting or hurling insults to another person; forcibly taking or demanding, willfully damaging, destroying or occupying public or private property; creating disturbances in a public place. As far as I could see, Song Ze had simply done what a citizen should have done, and he displayed no behaviors punishable by law. Looking back now, I was too optimistic. Later on, Xu Zhiyong published an open letter to Fu Zhenghua (傅政华), director of Beijing Public Security Bureau, making Song Ze's case known to the public. More people online have paid attention to the case. Late May, Xu Zhiyong asked me to visit Song Ze again. He was afraid that Song Ze could be secretly sentenced to reform-through-labor. On May 28, I went to Fengtai District detention center again, and was received by the same expressionless female clerk. Once again, she told me that the officer in charge of the case was unavailable, asking me to leave my forms. But she didn't say when I should return for the meeting. She requested my phone number and said she would call if a meeting was approved. I waited for a whole day on the 29th, and nobody called. In the early morning on the 30th, I went to the detention center again. The officer in charge of the case was there. Upon hearing my request to meet Song Ze, he asked who had sent me and how, while recording information about me on a notepad. Then he left the room with the approval form. When he returned shortly, he told me the lieutenant, whose signature was required, was unavailable, and I couldn't meet Song Ze on that day. He told me to come back tomorrow. I argued that, according to China's Lawyers Law, meeting with client required no approval. He said, the new criminal procedure law wouldn't take effect until next year, and it was good for a lawyer to obtain approval. It's impossible to conduct a conversation like that. So I said I would wait for your lieutenant. He said, well, do as you please. He then left the room, and I stayed in the hallway to wait while reading. The lieutenant's office was wide open with people coming in and out of it except for the lieutenant himself. At 10:30, as the hope for a morning meeting faded, I called the officer in charge of the case again, reiterating my right to see my client. He said he would arrange it as soon as he could. The next day I went again. This time the lieutenant was there. He smiled broadly, saying he was busy yesterday but he had approved my request. With the approval form, he took me downstairs to the meeting room. Song Ze was quickly brought out, and, without waiting for long, we had a window. Song Ze's beard had grown, but otherwise he looked better than last time I had seen him. He was very happy to see me too. When we starting talking, the lieutenant pulled a stool and sat next to Song Ze to listen to us. Song Ze told me that, over the last two weeks or so since our last meeting, he was interrogated four more times, the longest one lasting five hours. They asked the same questions they had asked before. They were rude and barbaric some times, but other times they played nice. After talking about himself, he began asking me legal questions concerning his fellow inmates. The lieutenant interrupted him, "Just talk about your own case; don't worry about others' business." To this, Song Ze said, "I have no more questions about my own case, nor do I worry about mine," and went on asking me more questions. Song Ze and I had a decent exchange even with the lieutenant present. Song Ze felt that it was a pity that he got himself arrested without even doing anything worthwhile; he worried about his parents, asking me to tell them that he committed no crime, and they shouldn't feel bad for him. We bid each other goodbye without a heavy heart. I would see him again whether he would be charged, given reform-through-labor, or released on probation. That was how I believed anyway. Another week or so passed. The end of 30-day detention period, plus a 7-day review period, was approaching, but I had heard no words about Song Ze. On June 12 I went to Fengtai District detention center again. The officer in charge of the case told me that Song Ze had been switched to residing under surveillance and taken away by people from Beijing PSB a few days ago. He said he didn't know which department of the PSB they were from, nor did he know where they had taken Song Ze. All he could tell me was that Fengtai District was no long on the case anymore. The officers said repeatedly that they were just implementers, and there was no use for me to argue with them. At that point I knew that Song Ze had been disappeared! As a coercive measure, residing under surveillance is laxer than detention, mostly carried out in the residence of the suspect. If it is carried out in a location designated by the law enforcement, family or attorney should be promptly notified of the location. But since last year, residing under surveillance in designated location has become the authorities' weapon of choice against rights defenders and dissidents. This year's revision of the Criminal Procedure Law provides for more extensive stipulation on residing under surveillance. Article 73 in particular legalizes residing under surveillance without notification of family. So I twittered that day that Song Ze had been Article 73ed in advance. (The revised Criminal Procedure Law takes effect January 1, 2013.) We could not accept, nor tolerate, Song Ze's forced disappearance. Xu Zhiyong and I planned to go to Beijing PSB to inquire about it, but on that day he was blocked at home by security police and couldn't leave. So I went myself. Beijing PSB is located in Qianmen East Avenue (前门东大街), enclosed by high walls and guarded by armed police. The reception window told me that this was the headquarters of the Bureau; to make inquiry about individual case, I must go to the specific unit in charge of the case. The ball was kicked out, but nobody would receive it. After that I went to Fengtai District PSB again, and they told me they no longer had any knowledge about the case. Police break the law at will. Nothing safeguards citizens' rights. Citizens themselves can be disappeared any time. Such is the state Chinese citizen rights defenders have to face. All these days as I have looked for Song Ze, I feel helpless as a legal professional and as a citizen. I am deeply worried about Song Se's status. My only hope is that he will stay strong in face of all these, and I pray for his early release. Filed under: Rule of Law Tagged: Article 293, Article 73, Beijing Public Security Bureau, Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure Law, Fengtai District detention center, forced disappearance, Liang Xiaojun, residential surveillance, Song Ze, Xu Zhiyong   | |||||||||||||||
| Flood Brings Out Beijing’s Digital Samaritans Posted: 23 Jul 2012 02:02 PM PDT Netizens have reached out a digital hand to those left stranded by Beijing's torrential rains. There are over 7.4 million posts on Weibo on the subject (北京 + 暴雨), many of them calls for help—and answers. From a CDT Chinese screenshot:
While some embrace those in need, others have taken advantage of the chaos. Weibo user @SuYe reports hotel rip-offs, while @YanYaobin implores the government to follow the lead of ordinary citizens:
At least 37 have died in the floods, including a number of police officers. This post about one of these officers on the official Weibo of the city Public Security Bureau (PSB) has been reposted and commented on over 593,000 times:
Individual heroism mingles with stories of systemic neglect. The state-run newspaper Global Times has acknowledged that Beijing's under-built sewers are in part to blame for the mayhem, though it goes on to suggest "overhauling the entire network may be unfeasible, as it will take time and an enormous injection of cash." On Twitter, Beijinger @MissXQ shares dire stories and photos, including reports that more than 200 senior citizens died in an assisted living facility in Fangshan, a poor district hit hard by the floods:
Tea Leaf Nation has translated more Weibo comments on the flood, while Foreign Policy has created a slide show of the devastation. Read more on the floods and the aftermath from CDT. © Wendy Qian for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  | |||||||||||||||
| Posted: 23 Jul 2012 01:29 AM PDT More and more women wearing miniskirts flocked to the Guilin Merryland Theme Park in the popular tourist city of Guilin to take advantage of half-price deal, when its "Love Miniskirt" promotional campaign is moving ahead along with the criticism against it among the public, especially on July 21 and 22 that the park offered a further discount of mere 10 RMB in a bid to break a record of attracting more than 10,000 short-skirted women to the park. At the entrance, the park's staff members used rulers to measure the skirts of female visitors who had lined up in a long queue, while at a little distance away, severe stalls were seen set up by peddlers to sell cheap miniskirts for convenience of those women who did not come with miniskirts, during the last two days. As reported here a week ago, the city's main tourist attraction is holding the "Love Miniskirts" campaign to offer half-price tickets to women wearing skirts shorter than 38 centimeters in July and August. It originally charges 110 yuan for a day ticket, but by wearing such a short skirt, women save 55 yuan. According to the park's manager, the promotion had been held annually since 2007 and been a great success. | |||||||||||||||
| Hexie Farm (蟹农场): “Sailing the Seas Depends on…” Posted: 23 Jul 2012 08:25 AM PDT For his latest contribution to his CDT series, cartoonist Crazy Crab of Hexie Farm re-imagines that Gate of Heavenly Peace, or Tiananmen Gate, which holds a portrait of Mao flanked by the quotes: "Long Live the People's Republic of China" and "Long Live the Great Unity of the World's Peoples." In Crazy Crab's rendering, the ground is flooded, a reference to the recent devastating floods that hit Beijing, and Mao's portrait is replaced with that of a pancake turtle. The Chinese name of this turtle, "wangba 王八" is also a curse word meaning "bastard." The slogan has been replaced with "Sailing the Seas Depends on…" in reference to a famous revolutionary song, "Sailing the Seas Depends on the Helmsman [Mao Zedong]." The government has claimed victory in dealing with the massive floods, which killed at least 37 people, but posts expressing citizens' anger at the failure of the city's drainage system have been deleted. Reports about the floods have been censored and authorities have ordered news organizations to "emphasize the power of human compassion over the elements." Read more about Hexie Farm's CDT series, including a Q&A with the anonymous cartoonist, and see all cartoons so far in the series. [CDT owns the copyright for all cartoons in the Hexie Farm CDT series. Please do not reproduce without receiving prior permission from CDT.] © Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  | |||||||||||||||
| Pictures: Three bodies drown at one highway section in Beijing founded Posted: 22 Jul 2012 11:22 PM PDT On Sunday morning, three other dead bodies were found by rescuers at the Nangangwa section of Beijing-Hong Kong-Macau Expressway, flooded by the worst Beijing rainstorm in six decades which have left 37 people dead according to the official report. Since too much water had been collected at the section, reportedly 6 meters deep at its deepest spot, the authority said they would need 4 days to pump water. Rescuers have arrived earlier at the waterlogged area that saw dozens of vehicles submerged and piled up, to put on their flippers and oxygen tanks to search underwater for the dead bodies. | |||||||||||||||
| Op-Ed: What America’s Troubled Schools Can Learn From the Shanghai Model Posted: 23 Jul 2012 06:59 AM PDT  A more cooperative educational system may make this scenario more likely. From youjiao.com [Note: The following is a Tea Leaf Nation op-ed, and does not necessarily represent the opinions of the editors.] The American education system has become a battlefield between different teaching philosophies contesting to get to the root of America's ever-present achievement gap, characterized by a disparity in performance and available resources along racial and socioeconomic lines. Combating this gap has become the primary focus of reform movements such as Teach for America (TFA) and the Boston Teacher Residency, which place skilled teachers in America's classrooms. American schools are desperately trying to find innovative strategies to enhance learning and improve teacher performance. For its part, China is plagued with its own achievement gap: A stark divide between rural and urban students. High populations of migrant children in large cities place a heavy strain on China's education system, while its competitive national college entrance exam has recently fallen under heavy criticism. Yet the Chinese city of Shanghai boasts one of the highest-scoring educational systems in the world, outperforming both the United States and the rest of China. With a population of over twenty million, Shanghai pairs high-performing schools with underperforming schools to give a broader student population access to quality education. How does Shanghai's model stack up against American education? And what, if anything, can the U.S. take away from Shanghai? Cooperation makes it happen Shanghai's improvement plan for its schools aims to slash the disparity between school districts that arises from a lack of experienced teachers and traditions. The key to this model is teacher cooperation. Experienced teachers form management teams of teacher-coaches that share their best practices in classroom management, lesson planning, and engagement with less experienced teachers. In certain cases, a strong school will take over the leadership of a weaker school, sending in a team of experienced administrators and teachers. In this way, the Shanghai system leads to a virtuous cycle. By requiring all teachers to be degree holders and to engage in continuous professional development, Shanghai creates strong teachers. As they gain experience, they then communicate their best practices to others, fostering student growth and performance. Shanghai and the U.S.: A study in contrasts Teacher coaching exists in many parts of the U.S., yet Shanghai's model starkly contrasts with American school reform. In the U.S., the first instinct of the underfunded is to cut recess, gym, and other physical activities, but in China warm-up calisthenics are a crucial element. Districts there reward star teachers but penalize the underperforming, ultimately placing the burden on the teacher. While Shanghai makes liberal use of teacher partnerships, American schools lack the funding to do so.  A teacher from Fujian visits a Shanghai classroom. From fjedu.gov.cn It's not just about the money; Shanghai's model is far more collaborative. In Shanghai, help for inexperienced teachers come from their more-experienced peers within the district. However, in the U.S., many districts fail to foster a sense of teacher community, instead replacing community with competition, as underperforming schools within the same district compete for survival. Shanghai's model fosters community and allows teachers young and old to learn from one another. In the U.S., many teachers argue that senior faculty members are less responsive to classroom reforms and calls for change, especially when that change comes from outside organizations, such as TFA. In Boston, seasoned teachers have even resisted the TFA's presence. One reason is structural. The U.S. places much of the hope for its education reform on outside organizations which only provide short-term fixes. Programs such as TFA, which places recent college graduates into two-year teaching commitments in low-performing districts, fail to retain teachers after their commitment ends. More than half of TFA teachers leave teaching after their two-year commitment, with only 14.8% continuing to teach in low income schools, proving that outside programs are unsustainable in creating innovative career teachers. Having been a teacher in the Teach for America program myself, I've seen firsthand how ineffective the program can be. Aiming to eliminate the achievement gap, TFA uses assessment-driven teaching to meet this end goal. TFA teachers are encouraged to plan backwards, or "teach to the test." But in Shanghai, it is becoming apparent that this model is less effective than creating engaged students, which is why Shanghai recently stopped testing its elementary students. We also can't ignore the role that parents play—or in the case of the U.S., often fail to play. Many think the key to reforming American education is increasing parental involvement in the classroom. Many teachers find that when parental involvement is high, student success isn't far behind. Yet many parents fail to jump on board, and teachers and parents often fail to communicate, making it hard for parents to see the role they need to play in their child's academic success. This greatly contrasts with Shanghai's model, which includes parents in every step of the curricular process, with parents devoting a student's after-school hours into intensive study sessions. Chinese parents have a heavy hand in their child's study methods, often paying for their child to attend tutorial schools which prepare students for passing public examinations. And finally, there's race. The nature of Shanghai's population is something observers often miss when evaluating the Shanghai model. Shanghai's population, like most of China, is made up primarily of Han Chinese. This homogenous population lacks many of the issues that draw funds and attention away from their American counterparts. By contrast, America's diverse population, with its racial issues, strict special education requirements, and language differences creates barriers that impede teacher performance for freshman teachers. What can we learn from Shanghai? The cornerstone of the American education system is its ability to create a corps of students who are critical thinkers and problem-solvers. The U.S. is keen to point out other nations' failure to emphasize critical thinking skills, a criticism often leveled at China. Shanghai is in fact working to remove itself from this category and make creativity and problem-solving skills a focal point. Indeed, it is clear that the U.S. could learn much from Shanghai's improvement plan, not the other way around.  Bright futures mean big smiles. From youjiao.com Sadly, I do not believe that the Shanghai model will catch on in the U.S.'s most troubled schools. Urban school districts face numerous obstacles on their road to achieving a passing grade–racial divides, under-achieving students, and low-parental involvement—that are not as widespread in the American suburbs, or in Shanghai. As a result, in the U.S. there is very little that a veteran suburban teacher can contribute to the best practices of a struggling urban teacher. Instead, urban educators are left to produce their own strong examples to mentor the under-performing teachers in their district. However, with strict competition between schools, all vying to achieve passing state test scores to avoid being shut down the following year, it's unlikely that teachers from one school will have the time to catch their breath and turn their attention to failing counterparts across the city.
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| Directives from the Ministry of Truth: Beijing Floods Posted: 23 Jul 2012 07:14 AM PDT The following examples of censorship instructions, issued to the media and/or Internet companies by various central (and sometimes local) government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. 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. The following directives were first posted on CDT Chinese on July 21, 2012:
© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us  | |||||||||||||||
| The Daily Twit – 7/23/12: Beijing Dries Out, and a Pile of Wet Rocks Elects a Mayor Posted: 23 Jul 2012 05:37 AM PDT Most of the news I was wading through today (oops, that was actually unintentional) concerned the Beijing rainstorm/flood. We're still cleaning up parts of the city and outskirts, figuring out what went wrong and, as per standard operating procedure, already laying blame. Tiny echoes of Katrinaesque discussions flying around out there. I wonder if there's a "Heckuva job, Brownie" scapegoat waiting in the wings for the human flesh search engine to expose? Here are a few links to get you up to date, plus all the major papers have coverage: Danwei: The Beijing deluge of 2012 — the blame game begins. Wall Street Journal: Worst Rains in 60 Yrs Produce Fatal Floods in Beijing — More photos. Tea Leaf Nation: Torrential Rain in Beijing Brings Out Best and Worst in China's Capital — Personal anecdotes as told online by weibots. The Next Web: Sina Weibo, China's Twitter, comes to rescue amid flooding in Beijing — How social media was used for information sharing, rescues, etc. Bloomberg: China Plans to Put Garrison on Disputed South China Sea Island — Nice way to reduce tensions! Yay, diplomacy! Global Times: Mayor elected in China's newly established Sansha city — Not to waste any time, the city government of the disputed pile of rocks was formed. I assume they were given a deal similar to that of Hong Kong and Macau, in this case a guarantee that Atlantean law would apply for the next 50 years. By the way, the first mayor is apparently a chap named Arthur Curry. Financial Times: Chinese nationalists eye Okinawa — Uh, I think someone needs to call a time out. Reuters: China eyes new strategic industries to spur economy — In addition to other economic stimulus policies, apparently Beijing will be further strengthening its key sector champions. I guess this is what industrial policy looks like during a recession. Also Sprach Analyst: Wave of business owners running away re-emerges in Yangtze river delta — Your daily dose of scary economic news. Ken Rapoza: In China, Why Piracy Is Here To Stay — Ken talks to Tom Doctoroff about China piracy and he/they fall into a familiar trap, generalizing from digital media infringement. Tsk tsk tsk. Why is all the news today bad? I am now officially bummed out. Nothing left to do but try and cheer myself up with an episode of Red Dwarf. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us | |||||||||||||||
| Beijing Falls Back on Industrial Policy During Downturn Posted: 23 Jul 2012 04:45 AM PDT I assume heads exploded in D.C., New York and London when this was reported:
Not exactly a new policy, but perhaps a renewed emphasis. When in doubt, let's prop up those key national champions and make sure that at least those guys are doing OK. This is known variously as "industrial policy," "picking winners and losers," "protectionism," or "strategic planning," depending on your particular biases. For companies in these sectors, which include energy, environmental technology, and information technology, competition may have just become that much more difficult, if that is even possible. Good luck, private enterprise. © Stan for China Hearsay, 2012 | |||||||||||||||
Hotels at Sanyuan Bridge jacked up their prices to over 2000 yuan a night, and some even dragged people to the Asian Games Village. There was a taxi driver who cursed at us from Sanyuan Bridge, "Messing with other people's business!" Good luck to you all.
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