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- Labor Camps Under Scrutiny as NPC Opens
- 45 Arrested in HK For Smuggling Baby Powder
- NPC May Establish Unified Food and Drug Agency
- Photo: 龙口桥 Dragon’s Mouth Bridge, China, 2013, by Chris Aston
- Defining Reform Under Xi Jinping (Updated)
- Ministry of Truth: Ten Points on Two Sessions
- China’s Real Estate Bubble, and Hopes for Democracy
- Shine Has Worn Off Wukan’s Early Triumphs
- Villagers Protest Land Grab, Demand Democracy
Labor Camps Under Scrutiny as NPC Opens Posted: 05 Mar 2013 12:38 AM PST While state media reports in January indicated that China's re-education through labor (laojiao) system would be reformed or even abolished, The Washington Post's William Wan observes that government officials have backtracked in recent weeks as the obstacles to reform have grown more evident:
Even if reality has caught up with reform rhetoric, Didi Kirsten Tatlow of The New York Times reported Monday that delegates to this month's National People's Congress were issuing strong calls to end the laojiao system:
Xinhua News also claimed that lawmakers still recognize the need for reform:
See also previous CDT coverage of China's re-education through labor system. © Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
45 Arrested in HK For Smuggling Baby Powder Posted: 04 Mar 2013 07:10 PM PST Hong Kong customs officials arrested 45 people late last week on charges of smuggling baby milk formula into mainland China, after a new emergency law took effect on March 1st which limits passengers to no more than two cans (1.8 kilograms) of the product. From the Los Angeles Times:
The accused included 26 Hong Kong residents, 18 mainlanders and one person with a foreign passport, according to the South China Morning Post. A number of tainted baby formula scandals have hit China in recent years – thousands of children fell ill with kidney problems in 2008 from milk powder tainted with the industrial chemical melamine – and mainland mothers have since turned to places such as Hong Kong and even Australia for their baby food. More recently, a cancer-causing element was found in samples of a mainland dairy company last year. China's health minister called the smuggling of infant formula a "temporary problem" in Beijing on Monday, according to the Financial Times. Checking in from the sidelines of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) on Sunday, the South China Morning Post noted a mixed bag of opinions on the issue among the members of China's top political consultative body:
© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
NPC May Establish Unified Food and Drug Agency Posted: 04 Mar 2013 05:43 PM PST Among the most anticipated policy unveilings at the ongoing Two Sessions is the likely consolidation of some of China's 27 ministries and countless lower-level government bodies. The State Administration for Radio, Film and Television and General Administration of Press and Publication, for example, may be absorbed by the Ministry of Culture, while the Ministry of Transport is widely expected to swallow the colossal and scandal-wracked Ministry of Railways. Responsibility for food and possibly drug safety, currently scattered across 13 separate agencies, may also be unified in a single body in order to better combat the country's steady stream of public health scares. From Zhuang Pinghui at the South China Morning Post:
Super-sized ministries may not fulfill their promised efficiency gains, however, as The Economist (via CDT) recently explained. The structure of Chinese food production is also highly fragmented. Here, too, consolidation seems likely, as huge numbers of small-scale suppliers give way to a much smaller number of industrial-scale farms. While big agribusiness can bring its own problems, this trend is expected to greatly simplify food production chains and ease monitoring and enforcement of food safety. © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
Photo: 龙口桥 Dragon’s Mouth Bridge, China, 2013, by Chris Aston Posted: 04 Mar 2013 03:20 PM PST © Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
Defining Reform Under Xi Jinping (Updated) Posted: 04 Mar 2013 03:01 PM PST With the annual session of the National People's Congress now underway, observers are waiting to see how Xi Jinping, who will be sworn in as president at the end of the session, will deal with a number of issues confronting the country. Global Times gives an overview of the meetings, which include gatherings of both the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference and the National People's Congress:
Yet the congress itself is widely viewed as a rubber stamp, with any debate or negotiations taking place behind the scenes. For the many journalists who attend the proceedings, it can be difficult to gain access to key players or to inside information about how proposals are introduced and debated. The Wall Street Journal's China Real Time reports:
For domestic media, reporting on the congress is tightly proscribed. CDT recently translated a list of ten topics that are off-limits for reporting during the session. One piece of data – the annual military budget – was not revealed at the press conference on the eve of the session's opening as expected [See update below]. As AP reports:
Other changes that are expected to be announced during the congress include an administrative reorganization of government ministries. Notably, the scandal-plagued Ministry of Railways is expected to be demoted and broken into commercial and operational arms. From Reuters:
Individual delegates to the CPPCC and other activists have issued public calls for specific reforms at the NPC. As the New York Times reports, some delegates are calling for an end to re-education through labor, or laojiao, camps, following vague promises from the government on the issue:
Human Rights Watch issued a letter to Xi Jinping calling for the abolition of laojiao and a number of other reforms. But as the New York Times article quoted above points out, deeper political reforms are unlikely to come to fruition at the current congress:
UPDATE: Early Tuesday morning Beijing time, Xinhua released the military budget:
© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
Ministry of Truth: Ten Points on Two Sessions Posted: 04 Mar 2013 10:30 AM PST The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online.
Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to these 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. Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source. © Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
China’s Real Estate Bubble, and Hopes for Democracy Posted: 04 Mar 2013 10:24 AM PST For CBS' 60 Minutes, Lesley Stahl visits China to investigate the "largest housing bubble in human history" and explore ghost cities, such as Ordos, Inner Mongolia, and housing and shopping developments that have been built and left empty around the country:
Stahl interviews developer Wang Shi who acknowledges that the bubble is "dangerous" and on the verge of bursting. In an accompanying Internet feature, Stahl also interviews real estate mogul Zhang Xin — the "richest self-made billionaire woman in the world" — who made waves not for her comments on the real estate market in China, but on democracy, made in the last minute of this clip:
60 Minutes Overtime gives more background on Zhang's comments and discusses her activity on weibo:
© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
Shine Has Worn Off Wukan’s Early Triumphs Posted: 04 Mar 2013 07:39 AM PST While a disputed land sale has sparked protests and demands for democracy in the Guangdong village of Shangpu, Reuters reports that "spring is over" in the nearby village of Wukan, which made headlines last year for holding elections after ousting its own village leadership in late-2011 land grab protests:
Resentment has simmered among Wukan villagers at their leaders' inability to secure the return of their land, but the Financial Times reports that deputy village chief Yang Semao believes critical villagers "are not reasonable:"
© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
Villagers Protest Land Grab, Demand Democracy Posted: 04 Mar 2013 06:56 AM PST Police have set up a blockade around the Guangdong village of Shangpu, just 100 kilometers away from Wukan, after residents clashed with thugs they claim were sent by the local communist party chief in connection with a disputed land deal. The villagers have demanded democratic elections, according to AFP, which has gained entry into Shangpu:
Residents told AFP that the village chief and party head fraudulently collected signatures to facilitate the transfer of farmland to a local businessman for industrial use, and they fear they will not be properly compensated. China's state-run Global Times reported on Monday that the county-level public security bureau arrested the village leader and eight others it claims were hired by the village leader to attack the Shangpu residents:
© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us |
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