China Digital Times

CHINA NEWS SECTION: Society

• Paul Midler: Why China Keeps Poisoning the Milk

  

  An opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal looks at quality control in China and the lessons regulators there could learn from Japan’s experience:

  China’s quality challenge has at times been compared to Japan’s efforts in the 1950s and 1960s to transcend a bad reputation for manufacturing low-quality goods. At that time Japan also suffered tragic industrial disasters, like the mercury poisoning in Minamata that left 1,000 people dead. But Japan’s leading companies have since been able to establish strong reputations for quality. Although the automotive recalls currently underway are extensive, design errors and electronic malfunctions are in a different league from China’s instances of willful product manipulation, especially when that manipulation has involved artful efforts at circumventing third-party controls.

  In China, operators display an incredible willingness to place public safety at risk in exchange for only the smallest gains in profit. The dairy industry’s 2008 scandal is instructive. The trouble started when dairy farmers began adulterating milk with water, prompting dairy companies to test protein levels. Milk suppliers next discovered they could trick laboratory equipment into believing protein concentrations were higher by adding a toxic, chemical compound—melamine. Over time, more of the chemical was added, along with more water, and no one knows how little real milk was in the final product by the time scandal broke. We only know the end result: six babies died, 300,000 were sickened and over 50,000 were hospitalized, causing untold grief to Chinese families.

  » Read more
  • February 9, 2010 11:28 AM

• Han Han: Fifty Cent Party Must Work Overtime

  

  Popular blogger Han Han comments on the Fifty Cent Party; chinaSMACK translates:

  I have a different reading of the Fifty Cent Party. First, I feel we should permit the Fifty Cent Party to exist; everyone has the right to hire someone else to speak for them and those hired have the right to speak anywhere they please. If you can beat Xiao Ming* once, and then with the money stolen off of him hire someone to curse him once, that counts as a talent. Every government has a mechanism for propagating their perspective, [so] that is excusable. But the Fifty Cent Party is the government’s mistake, before I thought they existed to guide public opinion, but it seems I was wrong, because you wouldn’t, upon seeing a crowd of people eating shit, squeeze your way in to have a bite yourself. The Fifty Cent Party is a result of the higher levels toadying to the highest level, but in the wake of the Fifty Cent Party’s rampage, many glorious and correct personages need only to open their mouths, which clearly costs nothing, and they become [referred to as] Fifty Cent Party members, which greatly hurts their enthusiasm. Originally, if you went into a hotel and booked a room for a one night stand, when you came out the next morning the whole world would call you a chicken [i.e. dick], this goes without saying. If you suddenly found the Fifty Cent Party, [... suddenly] all of your former supporters are suspicious of the Fifty Cent Party. Why do I rarely praise the government? First, I fear being called a Fifty Cent Party member; second, if you criticize the lack of freedom then praise is meaningless; third, I have already paid my taxes, and the people’s taxes pay the fees of the Fifty Cent Party, which is equivalent to me indirectly supporting the government.
  

  » Read more
  • February 9, 2010 11:12 AM

• China May Ban Dog Meat from Menus

  

  Al Jazeera reports on the proposed ban on eating dog meat:

  The Chinese government is considering taking meat from pet animals off menus across the country, raising concerns among dog farmers who have relied on the industry for generations.

  The draft proposal to ban dog and cat meat has drawn an angry outcry from regions where the dish is popular.

  Opponents say the ban would destroy local culinary traditions.

  » Read more
  • February 8, 2010 10:30 PM

• China Sentences Quake Activist to 5 Years’ Jail

  

  Activist Tan Zuoren, who had been investigating the deaths of schoolchildren in the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, has been sentenced to five years in prison after being tried in August. From AP:

  Attorney Pu Zhiqiang said activist Tan Zuoren was convicted of the charge Tuesday by the Chengdu Intermediate Court. Tan’s trial in August had concluded with no ruling, while police detained and threatened the man’s supporters.

  Tan’s supporters say they believe the authorities were trying to silence him for his investigation into the collapse of schools in the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that struck in Sichuan province in May 2008, leaving almost 90,000 dead or missing. Tan estimated at least 5,600 students were among the dead.

  The charge of inciting subversion of state power is believed linked to his quake investigation as well as essays he wrote about the 1989 student-led demonstrations in Tiananmen Square that ended in a deadly military crackdown. Beijing routinely uses such broad and vaguely defined accusations to imprison dissidents, sometimes for years.

  Pu said Tan would appeal the court’s decision.

  See also a Reuters report. ChinaGeeks has translated selected tweets about the verdict.

  Update: The BBC has posted a profile of Tan.

  » Read more
  • February 8, 2010 9:30 PM

• Liu Xiaobo: I Have No Enemies: My Final Statement

  

  Writer Liu Xiaobo, one of the drafters of Charter 08, was sentenced to 11 years in prison on December 25, Christmas Day. On December 23, the day he was tried, Liu Xiaobo wrote a “final statement” which is being widely passed around online. CDT thanks David Kelly, Professor of China Studies, China Research Centre, University of Technology Sydney, for the translation (the original Chinese version can be found here):

  Liu Xiaobo, I have no enemies: my final statement*

  June 1989 was the major turning point in my 50 years on life’s road. Before that, I was a member of the first group of students after restoration of the college entrance examination after the Cultural Revolution (1977); my career was s smooth ride from undergraduate to grad student through to PhD. After graduation I stayed on as a lecturer at Beijing Normal University. On the podium, I was a popular teacher, well received by students. I was at the same time a public intellectual. In the 1980s I published articles and books that created an impact, was frequently invited to speak in various places, and was invited to go abroad to Europe and the US as a visiting scholar. What I required of myself was: both as a person and in my writing, I had to live with honesty, responsibility and dignity. Subsequently, because I had returned from the US to take part in the 1989 movement, I was imprisoned for “counter-revolutionary propaganda and incitement to crime”, loding the platform which was my passion; I was never again allowed publish or speak in public in China. Simply for expressing divergent political views and taking part in a peaceful and democratic movement, a teacher loses his podium, a writer loses the right to publish, and a public intellectual loses the chance to speak publicly, which is a sad thing, both for myself as an individual, and for China after three decades of reform and opening up.

  Thinking about it, my most dramatic experiences after June Fourth have all linked with courts; the two opportunities I had to speak in public have been provided by trials held in the People’s Intermediate Court in Beijing, one in January 1991 and one now. Although the charges on each occasion were different, they were in essence the same, both being crimes of expression.

  Twenty years on, the innocent souls of June Fourth do not yet rest in peace, and I, who had been drawn into the path of dissidence by the passions of June Fourth, after leaving the Qincheng Prison in 1991, lost in the right to speak openly in my own country, and could only do so through overseas media, and hence was monitored for many years; placed under surveillance (May 1995- January 1996); educated through labour (October 1996 – October 1999s), and now once again am thrust into the dock by enemies in the regime. But I still want to tell the regime that deprives me of my freedom, I stand by the belief I expressed twenty years ago in my “June Second hunger strike declaration”— I have no enemies, and no hatred. None of the police who have monitored, arrested and interrogated me, the prosecutors who prosecuted me, or the judges who sentence me, are my enemies. While I’m unable to accept your surveillance, arrest, prosecution or sentencing, I respect your professions and personalities, including Zhang Rongge and Pan Xueqing who act for the prosecution at present. I was aware of your respect and sincerity in your interrogation of me on 3 December.

  For hatred is corrosive of a person’s wisdom and conscience; the mentality of enmity can poison a nation’s spirit, instigate brutal life and death struggles, destroy a society’s tolerance and humanity, and block a nation’s progress to freedom and democracy. I hope therefore to be able to transcend my personal vicissitudes in understanding the development of the state and changes in society, to counter the hostility of the regime with the best of intentions, and defuse hate with love.

  As we all know, reform and opening up brought about development of the state and change in society. In my view, it began with abandoning “taking class struggle as the key link,” which had been the ruling principle of the Mao era. We committed ourselves instead to economic development and social harmony. The process of abandoning the “philosophy of struggle” was one of gradually diluting the mentality of enmity, eliminating the psychology of hatred, and pressing out the “wolf’s milk” in which our humanity had been steeped. It was this process that provided a relaxed environment for the reform and opening up at home and abroad, for the restoration of mutual love between people, and soft humane soil for the peaceful coexistence of different values and different interests, and thus provided the explosion of popular creativity and the rehabilitation of warmheartedness with incentives consistent with human nature. Externally abandoning “anti-imperialism and anti-revisionism”, and internally, abandoning “class struggle” may be called the basic premise of the continuance of China’s reform and opening up to this day. The market orientation of the economy; the cultural trend toward diversity; and the gradual change of order to the rule of law, all benefited from the dilution of this mentality of enmity. Even in the political field, where progress is slowest, dilution of the mentality of enmity also made political power ever more tolerant of diversity in society, the intensity persecution of dissidents has declined substantially, and characterization of the 1989 movement has changed from an “instigated rebellion” to a “political upheaval.”

  The dilution of the mentality of enmity made the political power gradually accept the universality of human rights. In 1998, the Chinese government promised the world it would sign the the two international human rights conventions of the UN, marking China’s recognition of universal human rights standards; in 2004, the National People’s Congress for the first time inscribed into the constitution that “the state respects and safeguards human rights”, signaling that human rights had become one of the fundamental principles of the rule of law. In the meantime, the present regime also proposed “putting people first” and “creating a harmonious society”, which signalled progress in the Party’s concept of rule.

  This macro-level progress was discernible as well in my own experiences since being arrested.

  While I insist on my innocence, and that the accusations against me are unconstitutional, in the year and more since I lost my freedom, I’ve experienced two places of detention, four pre-trial police officers, three prosecutors and two judges. In their handling of the case, there has been no lack of respect, no time overruns and no forced confessions. Their calm and rational attitude has over and again demonstrated goodwill. I was transferred on 23 June from the residential surveillance to Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau Detention Center No. 1, known as “Beikan.” I saw progress in surveillance in the six months I spent there.

  I spent time in the old Beikan (Banbuqiao) in 1996, and compared with the Beikan of a decade ago, there has been great improvement in the hardware of facilities and software of management.

  In particular, Beikan’s innovative humane management based on respecting the rights and dignity of detainees, implementing more flexible management of the will be flexible to the detainees words and deeds, embodied in the Warm broadcast and Repentance, the music played before meals, and when waking up and going to sleep, gave detainees feelings of dignity and warmth, stimulating their consciousness of keeping order in their cells and opposing the warders sense of themselves as lords of the jail, detainees, providing not only a humanized living environment, but greatly improved the detainees’ environment and mindset for litigation, I had close contact with Liu Zhen, in charge of my cell. People feel warmed by his respect and care for detainees, reflected in the management of every detail, and permeating his every word and deed. Getting to know the sincere, honest, responsible, good-hearted Liu Zhen really was a piece of good luck for me in Beikan.

  Political beliefs are based on such convictions and personal experiences; I firmly believe that China’s political progress will never stop, and I’m full of optimistic expectations of freedom coming to China in the future, because no force can block the human desire for freedom. China will eventually become a country of the rule of law in which human rights are supreme. I’m also looking forward to such progress being reflected in the trial of this case, and look forward to the full court’s just verdict ——one that can stand the test of history.

  Ask me what has been my most fortunate experience of the past two decades, and I’d say it was gaining the selfless love of my wife, Liu Xia. She cannot be present in the courtroom today, but I still want to tell you, sweetheart, that I’m confident that your love for me will be as always. Over the years, in my non-free life, our love has contained bitterness imposed by the external environment, but is boundless in afterthought. I am sentenced to a visible prison while you are waiting in an invisible one. Your love is sunlight that transcends prison walls and bars, stroking every inch of my skin, warming my every cell, letting me maintain my inner calm, magnanimous and bright, so that every minute in prison is full of meaning. But my love for you is full of guilt and regret, sometimes heavy enough hobble my steps. I am a hard stone in the wilderness, putting up with the pummeling of raging storms, and too cold for anyone to dare touch. But my love is hard, sharp, and can penetrate any obstacles. Even if I am crushed into powder, I will embrace you with the ashes.

  Given your love, sweetheart, I would face my forthcoming trial calmly, with no regrets about my choice and looking forward to tomorrow optimistically. I look forward to my country being a land of free expression, where all citizens’ speeches are treated the same; here, different values, ideas, beliefs, political views… both compete with each other and coexist peacefully; here, majority and minority opinions will be given equal guarantees, in particular, political views different from those in power will be fully respected and protected; here, all political views will be spread in the sunlight for the people to choose; all citizens will be able to express their political views without fear, and will never be politically persecuted for voicing dissent; I hope to be the last victim of China’s endless literary inquisition, and that after this no one else will ever be jailed for their speech.

  Freedom of expression is the basis of human rights, the source of humanity and the mother of truth. To block freedom of speech is to trample on human rights, to strangle humanity and to suppress the truth.

  I do not feel guilty for following my constitutional right to freedom of expression, for fulfilling my social responsibility as a Chinese citizen. Even if accused of it, I would have no complaints. Thank you!

  Liu Xiaobo (December 23, 2009)

  Read more about Liu Xiaobo and Charter 08 via CDT.

  Image source: Amnesty International – Hong Kong.

  » Read more
  • February 8, 2010 7:26 PM

• China Searches for 100 Tonnes of Melamine-tainted Milk

  

  Investigators are searching for 100 tons of milk that’s been tainted with melamine and remains on grocery shelves. From BBC:

  Two dairies were shut down at the weekend after they were found to be selling products using the powder, which should have been destroyed.

  The melamine had been added to milk to artificially boost protein levels.

  China Daily said the Ningxia Tiantian dairy was shut down on Saturday after it was found to have processed and repackaged 170 tonnes of milk powder in its products.

  The powder should have been destroyed following the 2008 scandal but had been given to the dairy by another company as debt payment.

  » Read more
  • February 8, 2010 2:15 PM

• Still Counting? 27 More Websites Opened in Xinjiang

  

  According to the Far West China blog, 27 more websites have been made accessible to netizens in Xinjiang, bringing the total number to 31:

  You might be getting tired of counting new sites being opened in Xinjiang as “news”. I know I am. If, however, you’re waiting for a single day when Xinjiang will suddenly “turn on the internet”, I have some bad news for you.

  I believe China is strategically opening small parts of the internet and making headline news out of each event knowing full-well that the international media’s attention span won’t keep up. We’re already getting bored. 27 more sites are opened in Xinjiang today, 50 more next week…who cares?

  Meanwhile the flow of information is being strictly controlled and authorities still take the opportunity to declare a state of freedom on the internet.

  » Read more
  • February 7, 2010 10:29 PM

• Chongqing Example for Real Harmony

  

  An opinion piece in China Daily praises Bo Xilai’s anti-corruption campaign in Chongqing as an example of how to bring real harmony to Chinese society:

  A third-year student from the Southwestern University of Political Science and Law appealed to Chongqing leaders to intensify their efforts to eliminate the “dark and evil forces” and help society regain its sense of security. Many others echoed his demand. Bo was quick to reply that no development could be possible in a place where the basic moral boundary had become blurred.

  The anti-gangster campaign is essentially an effort to restore decency and the good life of the people, he said. In a place run by triads, which used to monopolize many sectors – from mining, roads and transportation to grocery supplies – the already difficult life of wage earners would become unbearable. “And to help them out is what a government is there for,” Bo said.

  But he also had his own complaints. The applause he earned from the college students did not prevent him from saying that at times he has heard “sour remarks”, criticizing him for not being nice and perhaps not handling things properly. Incidentally, some overseas reports have suggested that the Chongqing campaign is politically motivated. But Bo said: “We won’t listen to this kind of twisted reasoning.” That the local government has been able to assure people of their safety and security can be gauged from the number of support messages it got on the Internet on Monday morning. There were hundreds, with the most frequent remark being “When will Chongqing’s campaign spread nationwide?”

  » Read more
  • February 7, 2010 9:59 PM

• China’s Fast Trains May Offer Tips for U.S.

  

  A new high speed train from Wuhan to Guangzhou goes at speeds up to 217 miles an hour. From USA Today:

  The Dec. 26 opening of the high-speed link between south Chinese cities Guangzhou and Wuhan is the latest example of massive state spending to keep China’s economy roaring. The fast-expanding network of high-speed trains is stoking patriotism, too.

  “This train is the pride of the Chinese people,” says Hu, 42, the boss of a paper factory, who chose the train over a direct flight home to northeast China.

  U.S. companies await the first round of government grants announced by President Obama in his State of the Union address totaling $8 billion to jump-start long-delayed high-speed rail in the USA.

  Meanwhile, China enjoys a considerable head-start.

  » Read more
  • February 7, 2010 9:41 PM

• Slideshow: I Speak China

  

  Photographer Adrian Fisk traveled across China and documented the thoughts and dreams of young Chinese he met. The results are posted as a slideshow on here. From the introduction:

  Inspired by the ebb and flow of cultures between East and West, Fisk travelled 12,500km across China, trying to answer questions of identity and belief in an evolving society. His approach to the task was simple: he left it up to the people. He gave each of his subjects, aged between 16 and 30, a blank piece of paper and a pen and asked each of them to write whatever they wanted. In doing so, he gave the young people of China a chance to speak their minds.

  » Read more
  • February 7, 2010 12:10 AM

• China Jails Man 13 Years for Running Porn Web Site

  

  From AP:

  The court in the Guangdong province city of Jiangmen handed down the sentence to Huang Yizhong and fined him 100,000 yuan ($14,600), the official Xinhua News Agency said.

  Huang pleaded guilty to charges of copying and spreading pornographic material on the Web site, which he ran since 2005 using a rented U.S. server, Xinhua said. Police caught him last July and his trial started Jan. 6.

  It said Huang downloaded more than 1,000 pornographic movies and edited them into video clips for his site. With more than 4,000 paying members, he received profits of nearly $500,000, Xinhua said.

  » Read more
  • February 7, 2010 12:03 AM

• China Warns Locals to Settle Migrant Pay Disputes

  

  The central government has warned local officials that they need to settle disputes with migrant workers over unpaid wages before the Lunar New Year holiday, which starts on February 14. From AP:

  The rare urgent warning from the State Council comes as tens of millions of migrant workers return to their home villages from China’s booming cities to celebrate the Lunar New Year, which starts next weekend. The workers expect to collect pay, especially back pay, before returning home to families often expecting their financial support.

  “Recently in a few places there have been mass incidents over migrant worker pay, especially in the area of construction,” said the warning, posted on the State Council’s Web site. It said officials found responsible for mass protests would be punished.

  China’s Communist Party leaders fear mass protests as a major source of social instability, and government payments to prevent unrest are not uncommon.
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  The order tells officials to step in and pay migrant workers for government projects, and even for private construction projects, where most disputes over back pay occur.

  » Read more
  • February 5, 2010 9:56 PM

• Giant Panda Tai Shan Lands Corporate Sponsorship from Chinese Automaker

  

  To follow-up on yesterday’s farewell to the beloved panda Taishan from the National Zoo in Washington, today he landed in China, and landed a corporate sponsorship. From the Washington Post:

  In a deal negotiated over the past few weeks, Sichuan Auto Industry Group agreed to pay a million yuan, or about $150,000, to “adopt” Tai Shan for life.

  The beloved giant panda who left the National Zoo on Thursday will still join China’s breeding program and stay under scientists’ care at the government-run Bifengxia Panda Base. But the company will pay for food, medical care and other daily expenses.

  It’s unclear what Sichuan Auto gets out of it.

  Cao Guodong, the automaker’s deputy general manager, said interest in the panda is related to efforts to develop an electric car to sell in the United States.

  » Read more
  • February 5, 2010 9:28 PM

• Hush Money Journalism

  

  Caixin, edited by Hu Shuli, reports on media corruption and the recent mining disaster cover-up in Weixian, Hebei:

  Later last year, a dozen journalists were discovered to have taken hush money totaling 2.6 million yuan, according to a Hebei Provincial government report released January 9. Local authorities in Weixian, Hebei Province bribed journalists, including four from national media, to silence a mining accident that occurred July 14, 2008. Crowds of journalists lined up for hush money to be handed out after a local coal mine accident in Shanxi Province Nov. 3, 2008.

  As these cases show, the lure of money continues to dull the consciences of a few journalists. But as for whether only the journalists should be responsible, Professor Zhan Jiang from the Beijing Foreign Studies University said that the brunt of criticism ought to be directed at local government officials.

  Officials in areas with intense mining, such as Hebei and Shanxi, are frequently found attempting to conceal accidents from the public. Professor Zhan said local authorities in mining areas have come to rely on concealing work safety accidents through cutting information off from the public and using public funds for bribes. Zhan says this systemic corruption creates “professional blackmail journalists.”

  » Read more
  • February 4, 2010 4:28 PM

• A Farewell to Charms: Panda Taishan Returns to China

  

  The hottest news in Washington is not rising tensions between China and the U.S., or even the economy, but the return of the beloved panda Taishan from the National Zoo to China. The Washington Post has special coverage including a visualization of his journey which includes a ride in a FedEx plane painted with his image and a custom-made crate:

  The black-and-white bear who was born at the National Zoo at 3:41 a.m. on a Saturday morning in July 2005, departed the zoo just after 9 a.m. in a special crate, aboard a special truck via an undisclosed route for a special flight to the Orient out of Dulles International Airport. Shortly after noon, a plane took off from Dulles Airport with Tai Shan ensconced aboard, ending an unlikely 4 1/2 -year love fest between the hard-boiled nation’s capital and an oddball bear with black ears, a mesmerizing gaze and an appetite for pears.

  Born so small and nearly hairless he was nicknamed “Butterstick,” Tai Shan came to fascinate millions of people who saw him in person or via the zoo’s pandacams. He spawned a fan club, panda merchandise, bumper stickers, postage stamps, videos, documentaries, license plates. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty once called him Washington’s most important citizen.

  But as the cub grew older and more mature, his days here grew numbered. Although he was born at the National Zoo, he remained the property of China by the terms of the agreement that brought his parents, Mei Xiang and Tian Tian, here 10 years ago.

  Giant pandas are native to China and are endangered. Tai Shan is being sent to join a breeding program there to help increase the giant panda population.

  Read what Twitterers are saying about the departure of #Taishan.

  Taishan has developed his fanatic following. The Washington Post profiles one of them:

  And as the sun set in a murky sky, they gathered one last time by the now-vacant outdoor enclosure.

  Often, they said, people ask them why they’ve spent so much time there.

  “You don’t know why,” Nguyen said. “It’s like a magic.”

  “You don’t connect the dots until later on, when you stand back and you look and you say, ‘There I was,’ ” she added. “Going there, to the zoo. By myself. I felt like no one understood me. . . . It’s just been a blessing in my life.”

  » Read more
  • February 4, 2010 2:06 PM

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