News » Society » China media: Gu Kailai verdict
News » Society » China media: Gu Kailai verdict |
- China media: Gu Kailai verdict
- China online firms merger backed
- Na seals Cincinnati Open victory
- Agricultural authorities have culled about 95,000 chickens following an outbreak of the H5N1 bird flu virus in northwest China.
- Ex-US official adds to Chen release calls
- Hundreds of activists and supporters of Taiwan's jailed ex-president Chen Shui-bian gathered outside his prison yesterday to demand his release as a former US government official visited him.
- Japanese plead for safety
- With China Trial Over, Focus Turns to Fate of Official
- China: New visa rules may trip up tourists, business travelers
- China’s Gu May Spend Only 9 Years in Prison
- Have You Heard…
- Chinese Protest Island Landing
- Sentenced to death, but reprieve for Bogu Kailai
- Britain welcomes court verdict
- Teenage drug abuse worsens across nation
- 'Unlucky' numbers won't be skipped for addresses
- Senior official sacked in probe for serious crimes
- Province in ambitious project to end poverty
- Children in unpaid wages fight
- Children in unpaid wages fight
| China media: Gu Kailai verdict Posted: 20 Aug 2012 09:10 PM PDT Morning newspaper round-up: Low-key reporting of the verdict in Gu Kailai's murder trial. |
| China online firms merger backed Posted: 20 Aug 2012 07:48 PM PDT Shareholders of China's online video firms, Youku and Tudou, approve their plan to merge and create the biggest online video firm in China. |
| Na seals Cincinnati Open victory Posted: 19 Aug 2012 03:27 PM PDT China's Li Na comes from behind to beat Angelique Kerber 1-6 6-3 6-1 and win the Cincinnati Open. |
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| With China Trial Over, Focus Turns to Fate of Official Posted: 19 Aug 2012 08:49 PM PDT  Source: Wall Street Journal By Jeremy Page BEIJING—Gu Kailai, the wife of ousted Communist Party official Bo Xilai, was found guilty and given a suspended death sentence on Monday for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood in the southwestern city of Chongqing last year, according to observers in the courtroom. Zhang Xiaojun, a Bo family aide, was also found guilty but given a lighter sentence of nine years in prison for his role in the murder, the observers said. "We respect the court's decision," Reuters quoted He Zhengsheng, a lawyer for the Heywood family, telling a throng of reporters outside the courthouse. The judgment is a key step in the party leadership's efforts to conclude its worst political scandal in more than two decades, and paves the way for an announcement on how it plans to deal with Mr. Bo, the former Chongqing Party chief, according to analysts and Party insiders. But party leaders are facing mounting public skepticism over the trial after friends of Mr. Heywood and prominent public figures in China pointed out omissions, ambiguities and contradictions in the official account of how and why Mr. Heywood was killed. The Wall Street Journal was first to report earlier this year that U.K. officials had asked the Chinese government to launch an inquiry into the death of Mr. Heywood, a business consultant with close ties to the Bo family whose body was found in a hotel room in November in Chongqing, where Mr. Bo was party chief at the time. Ms. Gu had been widely expected to escape the death penalty because of her family's status in the party, her history of mental health problems, and her claim that Mr. Heywood threatened her son, analysts and party insiders said. "If she had been actually executed, the political consequences could have been quite serious because Bo is not just an ordinary person: He has his own group and family connections," said He Weifang, a law professor at Peking University. "I think this outcome was negotiated before the trial even began. But I still think there are still some differences over how to handle Bo Xilai." Mr. Zhang's lighter sentence was also expected because prosecutors said he was an accomplice, and Ms. Gu the main culprit, according observers during the trial. At their trial on Aug. 9, Ms. Gu and Mr. Zhang did not contest charges that they murdered Mr. Heywood by pouring cyanide into his mouth after he became drunk, vomited and sought a drink of water in his hotel room in Chongqing in November. Ms. Gu told the court that she had suffered a "mental breakdown" because she believed that Mr. Heywood had threatened the safety of her son, Bo Guagua, after they became embroiled in a business dispute over a failed property deal. Bo Guagua, the son of Ms. Gu and the elder Mr. Bo, has not commented publicly since the trial and did not immediately respond to a fresh request for comment Monday. The British Embassy, which sent two diplomats to observe the trial and the announcement of the verdict and sentence, said in a statement: "We welcome the fact that the Chinese authorities have investigated the death of Neil Heywood, and tried those they identified as responsible." The statement added: "We consistently made clear to the Chinese authorities that we wanted to see the trials in this case conform to international human rights standards and for the death penalty not to be applied." William Hague, the British Foreign Secretary, called publicly in April for a thorough investigation free from political interference, but an Embassy spokesman said he could not comment on process of the investigation or the trial. Public attention in China will now turn to the even more politically sensitive question of how the party deals with Mr. Bo, who until he was removed as party chief of Chongqing earlier this year was seen as a candidate for promotion in a once-a-decade leadership transition this fall. Party leaders are understood to be keen to announce a decision on that question ahead of the leadership change, but have had difficulty reaching a consensus, in part because of residual party support for Mr. Bo, according to analysts and party insiders. Those people say the decision is also complicated by party leaders' desire to avoid drawing more public attention to some of the issues raised by the Bo scandal, notably the private wealth of many top leaders' families. Chinese authorities announced in April that Mr. Bo had been sacked from his party posts and placed under investigation for unspecified "serious disciplinary violations," but they have yet to declare whether he too will face criminal charges. Nor have they said how they plan to deal with Wang Lijun, the former Chongqing police chief who in February sought refuge in a U.S. consulate in China, where he told diplomats he had evidence that Ms. Gu was involved in the death of Mr. Heywood. The next step toward concluding the scandal is widely expected to be the trial of Mr. Wang, most likely on treason charges related to what authorities have called his "unauthorized" consulate visit. Mr. Wang, who was detained by Chinese security officers and placed under investigation after leaving the consulate, stepped down in June as a member of the national Parliament—a resignation that stripped him of immunity from prosecution. Mr. Bo, however, is still a member both of the national Parliament and of the party—official exclusion from which is usually a necessary precursor to criminal charges, according to experts on Chinese politics and law. Those experts also noted that Mr. Bo's name hadn't been mentioned at his wife's trial or the trial in Hefei the next day of four former Chongqing police officers charged with covering up Mr. Heywood's murder—which they didn't dispute. The Intermediate People's Court in Hefei was due to announce verdicts and sentences in that second trial later Monday, according to local officials. Some observers said the omission of Mr. Bo's name from the two trials suggests he won't be accused of direct involvement either in Mr. Heywood's alleged murder, or the subsequent alleged coverup. But others said it suggests the party leadership has yet to make a decision on Mr. Bo and is simply allowing itself leeway to define his wrongdoing later on. Most analysts, however, agree that the party leadership will make a political decision in time for a full meeting—known as a plenum—of the roughly 300-strong Central Committee, which is expected shortly before the leadership transition. Mr. Bo is thought to be in the hands of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, a party organization that investigates members' conduct and decides whether they should be dealt with internally or also face criminal charges. It typically interrogates those in its grasp at a secret location, and forms a special group comprising police, prosecutors, state security officers and any other relevant officials to gather evidence. It is a highly politicized process, with individual party leaders able to use personal relations or formal powers over the agencies involved to influence decisions on which evidence is selected, and how it is interpreted. The commission itself is headed by He Guoqiang, one of nine members of the Politburo Standing Committee, China's top decision-making body. Himself a former party chief of Chongqing, like Mr. Bo, he is thought by many party insiders, political analysts and diplomats to favor harsher treatment. But the police, prosecutors, courts and intelligence services are overseen by fellow Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang, said by some party insiders to have a more sympathetic view of Mr. Bo. Once the investigation group has completed its work, the commission compiles the evidence and submits a report to the party leadership advising whether to pursue criminal charges. If the leadership decides to refer the case to the courts, the commission also makes recommendations on the verdict and sentence, but may withhold actual evidence and instead summarize its findings. The process can be slow, judging by the two previous Politburo members to be sacked. In the 1990s, it was three years between the ouster of Beijing's mayor, Chen Xitong, and his trial. Shanghai's Chen Liangyu was brought into court 18 months after his downfall as the city's party secretary. If Mr. Bo is dealt with internally by the party, a final decision on his fate could be announced by the autumn, but if he is turned over to the courts, many observers do not expect a trial until next year at the earliest. "In the cases of the two Chens, each man was subsequently turned over for criminal prosecution, resulting in lengthy prison terms," wrote Alice Miller, a research fellow and expert on Chinese politics at the Hoover Institution, in a paper this month on the Bo affair. "A comparable fate likely awaits Bo Xilai." She continued: "Bo's removal in that respect therefore does not indicate a departure from the 'rules of the game' as played in the last two decades. The reform era initiated by Deng Xiaoping has seen the emergence of a more legalistic exit mechanism for removing high party leaders."   |
| China: New visa rules may trip up tourists, business travelers Posted: 20 Aug 2012 11:22 AM PDT  Source: Los Angeles Times By Jeff Yip If you're planning a trip to China and don't have an up-to-date visa in hand, you may encounter some additional red tape. To obtain a business, or F Visa, applicants must now have an invitation letter or "confirmation letter of invitation" issued by an authorized Chinese agency. This is in addition to an invitation letter issued by a Chinese local government, company, corporation or institution. For tourists, the invitation letter can come from a "duly authorized tourism unit" or it can be issued by a company, corporation, institution or individual in China. If the letter comes from an individual, a photocopy of her or his identification must also be provided. The new, more complicated rules, unfortunately, don't completely spell out what is considered a "duly authorized tourism unit" or what constitutes a "letter of invitation." Consulate officials did not respond to our request for additional clarification. The new requirements have thrown many travelers for a loop, especially those who filled out the four-page visa application form in July but whose documents didn't reach the consulate until August. The result has been confusion, communication challenges and, in some cases, a scramble to meet deadlines and travel itineraries. "We've been having this problem every day," said Lillian Li of Ritz Tours USA, an Alhambra travel agency that specializes in tours for English-speaking clientele. "Before, they could easily get their visa to China. Now they have to fax us a lot of things." Ritz Tours learned of the new requirements a week before they took effect. Others weren't as fortunate. Yvonne Zhang, a Texas travel consultant, said her employer, China Travel Service Houston, was tipped off to the changes just one day before by a messenger who was delivering visa applications to the Chinese consulate in Houston. The new requirements were posted on the English language website of the People's Republic of China's Washington, D.C., consulate on July 19. They were posted on Houston's site on July 31. As of late last week, we couldn't find the updates on the L.A. Consulate's English-language website. Letters of invitation may be a photocopy, fax or printout, but consular officers may ask for the original letter or additional documents in some cases, according to the Washington embassy's Web page. Information on the purpose of the visit, the relationships of the inviter and invitee, address, contact information and signature are also required. From a practical standpoint, using a tour company is now even more attractive, because the touring company's staff — whether they're in the States or China — can not only issue the letter of invitation, but can help with various other matters. Tour operators and other travel services routinely submit visa applications, for an extra fee or as part of the package. Travelers arranging their own trips, however, must lock in their travel dates, purchase their airline tickets and make hotel reservations before they know whether their visa applications will be approved. |
| China’s Gu May Spend Only 9 Years in Prison Posted: 20 Aug 2012 11:26 AM PDT  Source: Wall Street Journal By Jeremy Page BEIJING—Gu Kailai, the wife of deposed Communist Party official Bo Xilai, could be released from prison within nine years on medical parole, legal experts say, despite being given a suspended death sentence for the murder of a British businessman. They cited several previous examples of prominent political figures who were given suspended death sentences or long prison terms, and then released on medical parole after serving a few years, mostly in Qincheng prison on the outskirts of Beijing. Even Jiang Qing, the widow of Chairman Mao Zedong, was released on medical parole from Qincheng in 1991—10 years after being given a suspended death sentence with a two-year reprieve for her role in the political chaos of the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution. She committed suicide in hospital the same year of her release. Ms. Gu will join a dozen or so prominent political figures currently serving jail terms, mostly in Qincheng and mostly for corruption. Analysts say China's leadership had hoped that the appearance of a stiff sentence for Ms. Gu would convince a domestic audience that members of the party elite are not above the law, and help to draw a line under the country's worst political scandal in two decades. But the court's decision Monday to spare Ms. Gu the death penalty, and to lay the ground for medical parole by mentioning her mental-health problems, suggests to many observers that a deal was made behind the scenes to avoid further controversy within the party's upper ranks. Although that may help smooth the way for the arty to announce how it plans to handle Mr. Bo, analysts say it risks undermining the credibility of the process in the eyes of a skeptical public that is increasingly reliant on the Internet, rather than state media, for information and opinion. Among the many critical online responses Monday was one from Yao Bo, a popular newspaper columnist and social commentator, who wrote on Sina Corp.'s Weibo microblogging service: "How wonderful life is, how handy the law can be, as long as you have the party to protect you." Media and fashion commentator Hong Huang, who has more than five million followers on her microblog, wrote: "I have a legal question: Can't a suspended sentence be commuted to life in prison with good behavior? And with good behavior, can't life in prison be changed to release on parole?" The court spared Ms. Gu from immediate execution in part because she "suffers from a mental disorder" and "her power of self-control was weakened," according to the state-run Xihua news agency. It also acknowledged that she had provided "clues regarding other people's violations of the law and discipline and played a positive role in the investigation and handling of relevant cases." Many observers took that to mean that she had provided information about her own husband. In addition, Ms. Gu pleaded guilty, showed remorse for her crimes, and does not plan to appeal, according to Xinhua. That, too, was seen as an indication that she had agreed not to publicly challenge the verdict in exchange for leniency from the court, observers said. Television footage showed that Ms. Gu, dressed in a black pantsuit and white shirt as she was during her trial on Aug. 9, remained composed when the verdict and sentence were announced. "I feel this judgment is fair," she was seen telling the court in footage broadcast on state-run China Central Television. "It fully reflects the special respect that the court holds toward the law, toward reality, and especially toward life." One lawyer involved in the case said Ms. Gu would likely be permitted to see her family within 10 days if she didn't appeal. Some friends of the Gu family have said that they feel Ms. Gu—who also goes by the name of Horus L. Kai—has been made a scapegoat for all the allegations of corruption and abuse of power that have been leveled at Mr. Bo by his critics, especially lawyers and academics critical of Mr. Bo's politics, which encouraged nostalgia for the Mao era. "It's painful for me because Horus is probably going to spend the rest of her life in jail," Larry Cheng, an American of Taiwanese origin who used to work with Ms. Gu in the 1990s, told The Wall Street Journal. According to China's criminal law, Ms. Gu's suspended death sentence could be commuted to a life sentence, if she doesn't commit another crime in the next two years, or to 25 years if she displays good conduct. But some legal experts say Ms. Gu could serve even less time. San Francisco-based rights group Dui Hua Foundation said in a statement on it website that most suspended sentences were commuted to life in prison, and people serving life sentences were usually eligible for medical parole after seven years of their sentences being commuted. "Nine years from now, if she can convince the prison that she is suffering from a serious illness, there would be a legal basis to release her," said Joshua Rosenzweig, an expert on China's criminal-justice system at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Donald Clarke, an expert on Chinese law at George Washington University Law School, wrote on his blog that according to a ruling from China's Supreme Court, a commuted sentence could be reduced to 15 years in prison, even without medical parole. The ruling couldn't be independently verified. Other legal experts pointed out that however much time Ms. Gu spent in custody, it was all likely to be in a special facility such as Qincheng prison, where many other high-profile political figures have been jailed. Among them is Chen Xitong, the former Politburo member and mayor of Beijing who was jailed for corruption in 1998 but released on medical parole in 2006 after serving half of a 16-year prison term. Mr. Bo's father, Bo Yibo, was also held at Qincheng after he was purged by Chairman Mao in the 1960s. Little is known about conditions at Qincheng and how many prisoners it currently holds. One Chinese newspaper, the Shenzhen Economic Daily, published a rare feature story on Qincheng in May this year. It said standard cells were about 20 square meters, each with a toilet and a bed. Walls of cells for major criminals were padded with rubber to prevent them from harming themselves, it said. But prominent political figures had larger cells, some furnished with desks, bathrooms, sit-down toilets and washing machines, and were permitted to watch television for two hours every evening, it said. Senior figures with health problems can also receive private care from family members, who can provide basic necessities such as clothing, the newspaper added.   |
| Posted: 20 Aug 2012 11:19 AM PDT Have You Heard…   |
| Chinese Protest Island Landing Posted: 20 Aug 2012 11:30 AM PDT  Source: Wall Street Journal By Toko Sekiguchi, Eleanor Warnock anad Brian Spegele TOKYO—A landing by Japanese activists Sunday on an island claimed by Japan, China and Taiwan sparked anti-Japanese protests across China, as tensions continued in a pair of territorial spats roiling relations in East Asia. The disputes—involving two sets of islands whose sovereignty is contested—are stirring nationalist sentiments throughout the region in a way that hasn't been seen since 2010, when Japan's detention of a Chinese fishing-boat captain who had collided with a Japanese patrol vessel in disputed waters sparked demonstrations throughout China. On Sunday, 10 Japanese activists defied Japanese coast-guard warnings, the coast guard said, and swam to one of the group of East China Sea islands called the Senkakus by Japan and Diaoyu by China. The islands are controlled by Japan but claimed by China and Taiwan as well. The Sunday landing followed one last week by a group of activists from Hong Kong; the Japanese government deported those activists on Friday. Although the coast guard said it didn't know the identities of Sunday's swimmers, Japanese media reports said they likely came from among a group of around 150 people, including national and local politicians, who had taken boats to nearby waters to honor the dead from a ship that sank there during World War II. The landing sparked anti-Japanese protests in several Chinese cities Sunday. About 1,000 demonstrators in the southern city of Shenzhen, across the border from Hong Kong, paraded through the city's streets, waving Chinese flags and calling for the government to defend the country's territorial claims against Japan. A number of Japanese-brand cars were overturned or smashed. Protesters staged a sit-in in front of the Japanese consulate in nearby Guangzhou, the state-run Xinhua news agency reported, and a similar protest in China's northeast city Shenyang also targeted the Japanese consulate. The Chinese Foreign Ministry on Sunday released a statement saying it had lodged protests with Japan's ambassador in Beijing. Meanwhile, Mr. Noda's government is continuing to apply pressure in a separate territorial dispute triggered by South Korean President Lee Myung-bak's recent visit to the Liancourt Rocks, controlled by South Korea but claimed by Japan as well. The islands are referred to as Dokdo by Seoul and as Takeshima by Tokyo. Mr. Lee followed the visit by criticizing Japan over its treatment of Korea when it held the peninsula as a colony last century, saying Tokyo hadn't properly atoned. He further raised the tension with remarks in a talk to students last week that if Japan's emperor visited Korea, he should "make a genuine apology" over the Koreans who died fighting the Japanese. The remarks were widely reported in Japan, where they were taken to mean that the emperor should offer up an apology if he wanted an invitation from South Korea. Japan has responded with unusual vehemence, canceling a meeting this week of the two countries' finance ministers and saying it could cancel part of a currency-swap agreement. The Japanese government also said Friday that it wanted to take the territorial dispute to the International Court of Justice. Seoul quickly dismissed the idea, as it had when Japan proposed it in 1954 and 1962. The court requires that both parties agree to its hearing any dispute. "It will be difficult to improve relations with South Korea while Mr. Lee is in office," Seiji Maehara, policy chief of the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, said on a Sunday talk show. Foreign-affairs experts say the escalating tit-for-tat is at least partly driven by domestic politics. Analysts in Seoul said that Mr. Lee's more-assertive approach reflects his frustration with a lack of progress in resolving historical disputes with Tokyo, as well as a desire to raise his low public-approval ratings before his term ends in February. Japan's Mr. Noda is also under pressure to show a strong hand. Opposition lawmakers—who are pushing for elections soon, to take advantage of the ruling party's sinking popularity— are criticizing his handling of the territorial disputes. On Sunday, some opposition lawmakers blasted the government's decision to deport rather than prosecute the Hong Kong activists who had landed on the disputed island. Sadakazu Tanigaki, president of the opposition Liberal Democratic Party, said in a speech in central Japan on Saturday that the current government has proved itself incapable of diplomacy, and that his party will consider submitting no-confidence and censure motions against Mr. Noda, according to business daily Nihon Keizai Shimbun.   |
| Sentenced to death, but reprieve for Bogu Kailai Posted: 20 Aug 2012 10:49 AM PDT Bogu Kailai, wife of Chongqing's former Party chief Bo Xilai, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve yesterday for the murder of British businessman Neil Heywood. She was also deprived of political rights for life. Zhang Xiaojun, a family aide, was sentenced to nine years in prison for his involvement in the case. Four policemen accused of covering up the crime were given sentences ranging from five to 11 years. Gu's suspended sentence will almost certainly be commuted to life in prison after two years, a relatively lenient punishment resulting from her cooperation with investigators and what the court deemed her mental instability at the time of Heywood's death by cyanide poisoning last November. China Central TV showed Gu dressed in a white blouse and black pants suit briefly addressing the court from inside the dock surrounded by waist-high wooden columns. "This verdict is just. It shows special respect for the law, reality and life," Gu said in calm, measured phrases. More than 100 people were in Hefei City Intermediate People's Court in east China's Anhui Province to hear the verdict, including relatives and friends of the two defendants and British diplomats. Legal representatives of the Heywood family were also present. Hu Quanming, chief judge of the court, announced the verdict. The court found that, in the latter half of 2011, Bogu and her son, Bo Guagua, were in dispute with Heywood over economic matters. The businessman had threatened Bo Guagua in e-mails, which made Bogu fear for her son's personal safety. She asked Zhang Xiaojun to invite and accompany Heywood to Chongqing. On November 13, 2011, Heywood checked into the Lucky Holiday Hotel in Chongqing. That evening, Bogu and Zhang visited the hotel, bringing along poison Bogu had prepared beforehand. In Heywood's hotel room, Bogu drank wine and tea with him while Zhang waited outside. Later, Heywood became drunk and fell in the bathroom. Bogu called Zhang into the room and took the poison from him. Zhang helped Heywood to the bed. After Heywood vomited and asked for water, Bogu poured the poison into his mouth. Forensic tests showed the cause of death accorded with cyanide poisoning. The court said Bogu played the main role in the murder and the circumstances of her crime warranted the death penalty. However, it said Heywood's use of threatening language toward Bogu's son had aggravated the dispute. Expert testimony showed Bogu had the capacity to assume full criminal responsibility but suffered from a mental disorder. She realized the nature and consequences of her crime, but her power of self-control was weakened. After her arrest, Bogu provided clues regarding other people's violations of the law and played a positive role in the investigation and handling of relevant cases. She had also pled guilty and shown remorse. All these earned her a reprieve, the court said. Zhang had acted on Bogu's instructions. After his arrest, he accurately recounted the main facts, pled guilty and showed repentance at his trial, which led to mitigation of his punishment. Both Bogu and Zhang said they would not be lodging appeals. Meanwhile, Guo Weiguo, former deputy chief of Chongqing's Public Security Bureau, Li Yang, former chief of the bureau's criminal section, Wang Pengfei, former chief of the bureau's technical detection team and also former chief of the Public Security Sub-bureau of Chongqing's Yubei District, and Wang Zhi, former executive deputy chief of the Public Security Sub-bureau of Shapingba District, were found guilty of trying to help Bogu escape prosecution. The court said that, knowing there were strong suspicions Bogu had committed the crime, the four defendants had fabricated, hidden and destroyed evidence, in addition to persuading Heywood's relatives not to have an autopsy carried out. Their conduct constituted the crime of bending the law for personal gain. The verdict said Guo acted as the principal, with Li, Wang Pengfei and Wang Zhi as accessories. Guo and Li had pled guilty and showed remorse, and Li did not carry out Guo's request to destroy key evidence. This made an important contribution to investigating and solving the case. Nor did Wang Pengfei and Wang Zhi carry out Guo's request to destroy key evidence. The court sentenced Guo and Li to 11 years and seven years in prison, respectively, while Wang Pengfei and Wang Zhi were each sentenced to five years behind bars. The four said in court that they would not appeal the sentences. This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Britain welcomes court verdict Posted: 20 Aug 2012 10:47 AM PDT BRITAIN'S embassy in China yesterday welcomed the verdict on Bogu Kailai after news that she had been convicted but spared execution for murdering a British businessman. The sentencing decision means that Gu will likely serve life in prison. The embassy said it welcomed the "fact that the Chinese authorities have investigated the death of Neil Heywood, and tried those they identified as responsible." In an emailed statement, an embassy spokesman also said that Britain had "consistently made clear to the Chinese authorities that we wanted to see the trials in this case conform to international human rights standards and for the death penalty not to be applied." |
| Teenage drug abuse worsens across nation Posted: 20 Aug 2012 10:23 AM PDT TEENAGE drug abuse is growing more serious nationally, as some regional studies have found up to 11 percent of middle school students abuse prescription cough medicine and painkillers obtained at drugstores that don't exercise proper controls. The age of people going to adolescent drug rehabilitation centers has fallen. At a youth drug rehab center in Guangdong Province, the age at which teens try drugs for the first time dropped from 16 years old two years ago to the current 14.5 years old, according to an investigative report on China Central Television. Experts are calling for stricter supervision of prescription medicines and broader societal involvement to prevent teenage drug abuse and help those who already have fallen prey. Officials from Shanghai Food and Drug Administration said they find drugstores illegally sell prescription cough medicine and painkillers every year. But they indicated no serious teen abuse of such drugs has been found in the city, where overall drug administration is strict. "Small drugstores and those in suburban areas may have such violations, and we want local residents to tell us about such cases," said Du Wenmin, executive director of Shanghai Center for Adverse Drug Reactions Monitoring. In the television report, karaoke bars, dance halls, Internet cafes and places around schools are where Guangdong teenagers usually abuse drugs. Empty packages of cough syrup and a painkiller called tramadol, a narcotic-like pain reliever for moderate to severe pain, are commonly found in those places. Cough syrup and tramadol both contain very low levels of codeine, an analgesic narcotic derived from opium. "To get 'high,' people would need to take a very large amount of the medicines," said Du. "The harm is comprehensive and teenagers can affect their growth and intelligence," he added. In a dance hall in Guangzhou, Guangdong's capital, five teenagers were found drinking cough syrup as if it were beer, according to the report. They had with them more than 200 pills of tramadol, which has a maximum recommended dosage of only two pills at one time. The adolescent drug rehab center at Guangdong Armed Police Hospital investigated some 2,000 teenage drug abusers and found the drugs were purchased by themselves or had been kept at home. Among teenaged drug abusers, about 80 percent started because of the influence of classmates or friends, 10 percent because of curiosity and the remainder to eliminate fatigue. |
| 'Unlucky' numbers won't be skipped for addresses Posted: 20 Aug 2012 10:20 AM PDT BEIJING has vowed to prohibit the selective avoidance of "unlucky" numbers, normally deemed to include four, 13 and 14, in the registration of addresses, an official with the city's quality watchdog said yesterday. "The numbers of storied buildings, units and door plates should be coded and registered in numerical order and no skipping or selective use of numbers should be allowed," said Zhou Qiaolin, an official at the Beijing Municipal Administration of Quality and Technology Supervision. She said the prohibition, which is to take effect next month, will be included in criteria for setting building name plates and door number plates. The new coding criteria mainly target new buildings rather than existing buildings, said Li Xiaobo, an officer with the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau which is supervising its implementation. "Requests to skip the 'unlucky numbers,' though not that frequent, do occur," he added. "The new criterion is expected to root out the selective coding and registration of the door plates." The latest move targeting entrenched Chinese numerology reflects the superstitious beliefs still held by some, who continue to prefer to avoid the number "four" because it sounds almost exactly like the word for "death" in Mandarin. For the same reason, some Chinese are willing to pay extra to register car plates or phone numbers containing the number "eight" because it sounds similar to the words for "making a fortune" or "prosperity" in Mandarin and Cantonese. The opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympic Games, for example, officially began at 8pm on the eighth day of the eighth month in 2008. |
| Senior official sacked in probe for serious crimes Posted: 20 Aug 2012 10:18 AM PDT A HIGH-RANKING official with south China's Guangdong Province was yesterday declared to be dismissed from the Communist Party of China and sacked from all his government positions and held as part of a criminal investigation, according to Southern Metropolis Daily. Xie Pengfei, 62, was deputy secretary of the Guangdong provincial government and director of the provincial government's major think tank. Discipline inspection authority with CPC Guangdong committee announced yesterday that Xie severely violated Party rules and was also suspected of breaking laws. He had all his ill-gotten property confiscated by the government, officials announced. Xie had held positions in Development Research Center for the provincial government since 1992 until last April. The disciplinary authority so far has not provided details, but reports in Chinese media indicated he had gained illegal benefits through close ties with a local private financing firm, Huding Co Ltd. The company was part of a serious credit crisis involving many banks and businesses in February. China Business News reported in June that Xie's downfall was linked to his relationship with Huding's boss, Chen Yibiao. A Guangdong researcher who had work contacts with Xie told CBN that the center Xie supervised had contracted some government advisory projects to several unqualified candidates, saying bribes may have been involved. |
| Province in ambitious project to end poverty Posted: 20 Aug 2012 09:00 AM PDT ONE of the country's poorest provinces plans to solve its poverty problem by moving 2 million people out of the mountains and barren terrain by 2020. The project will be one of the largest government-initiated migrations in China, even surpassing the Three Gorges Dam relocation project that involved 1.27 million people along the Yangtze River. Guizhou, in southwest China, plans to move the first 100,000 people this year, at a cost of 1.8 billion yuan (US$283 million), said Chen Yiqin, the province's deputy governor. He said the relocation scheme was key to Guizhou's "final offensive against poverty." About 11.5 million people, or a third of Guizhou's rural population, live under the state poverty line. The province has very few areas suitable for growing food, with mountains and hills taking up 92.5 percent of the land area. The region is also prone to geological and natural disasters such as landslides and floods. Ye Tao, head of the provincial poverty alleviation office, said the "hardest nut to crack" was to lift people living deep in the mountains and barren regions out of poverty. Living conditions are harsh and the environment cannot sustain so many lives in many areas, said Xiao Hong, deputy mayor of Tongren City, adding that "relocation is the only option at hand." Retail stalls offered Ye said the people will be relocated to towns and industrial districts where there will be housing and job opportunities. Construction of 181 resettlement communities for this year has already begun. He said the government had drawn up policies to help the relocated settle down. For this year, each relocated family will be allocated a house no smaller than 80 square meters. The government has also pledged to offer retail stalls to families, officials said. The funding for the new houses will be shared by the families and the government. Wu Yutao, a villager in Songtao Miao Autonomous County, said she was excited to leave the family's 50-year-old rural home and move into a town. China has migrated many people, such as in the Three Gorges project. The largest relocation was begun in Shaanxi Province last year with plans to move nearly 2.8 million people out of either poverty-stricken or disaster-prone areas over the next 10 years. |
| Children in unpaid wages fight Posted: 20 Aug 2012 09:00 AM PDT A GROUP of children were the center of attention in a tourist hotspot in southwest China when they took to the streets to demand their parents be paid overdue wages. The 13 children, the youngest just five, stood in a line in downtown Dali in Yunnan Province, holding posters demanding immediate payment. Their parents are migrant workers at a development project in Dali whose wages have been in arrears for six years. "I'm Yu Xian. I want milk and cakes. Please pay my parents their wages," read a poster held by five-year-old Yu from Qujing City in Yunnan. He said his father had worked for many years in Dali. "He hasn't been home for a long time. I want him to get paid so that I can go to school," Yu said. Five of the young petitioners had just been admitted to college. "I've come to help my father claim his wages because my college tuition is a headache for the whole family," said Liu Qiang, a teenage girl from Chongqing City. Liu has been accepted as a student at Kunming University of Science and Technology in Yunnan's provincial capital of Kunming and needs money to pay her tuition. Delayed payment of wages has led to at least one family break-up. Wu Fan, 8, said his parents divorced after his father failed to mail money home. "My mom was sure he had squandered the money gambling or on drugs." The plight of the children and their families drew widespread attention in the ancient city of Dali, which is always packed with tourists from around the world. Photos of the scene taken by tourists were posted online. The children's action seems to have worked, with a promise the wages will be paid in full. While Internet users blamed a "profit-driven employer," Xinhua news agency reporters uncovered project management loopholes and found that the victims were part of a larger economic dispute. The developer, Yunnan Guangsha Real Estate Co Ltd, reached a deal with the local government in 2006 to build a complex comprising a holiday resort, department stores and exhibition hall at the cost of 97 million yuan (US$15.26 million). The project, contracted to a major construction group in Kunming but later subcontracted to Golden Carpenter, a smaller firm, ran into problems when the boss of Guangsha was arrested in 2009 on suspicion of fraud. Last year, Guangsha was taken over by a local tourism company in Dali, but more than 21 million yuan of construction costs due to be remitted through the main contractor to Golden Carpenter were unpaid, including 17 million yuan for workers' wages, said Gao Zhonghan, a Golden Carpenter executive. However, after the children joined their parents' petition for pay, the Dali city government demanded the tourism company settle the issue. The company has remitted 3 million yuan to the main contractor, whose management promised that the workers would be paid in full. Under a new rule in force since last year in Yunnan, all construction companies should deposit at least 10 percent of their construction costs in the bank as a reserve fund for workers' wages. "But it takes time for all construction companies to follow the rule and for the migrants to get paid," said a project contractor in Kunming, surnamed Zhang. Zhang said several provinces, including Shanxi and Henan, had moved to blacklist contractors notorious for delaying payments. "But when a project is subcontracted again and again, it is hard to track the root of the dispute," Zhang said. |
| Children in unpaid wages fight Posted: 20 Aug 2012 09:00 AM PDT A GROUP of children were the center of attention in a tourist hotspot in southwest China when they took to the streets to demand their parents be paid overdue wages. |
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