Lawyer Pu Zhiqiang Says He Is a “Key Person,” Refused Admittance to Hotel

Pu Zhiqiang’s identification information as it appeared on a terminal at the Rui’an Hotel in Beijing. (Pu Zhiqiang/Weibo)

Last night, prominent lawyer Pu Zhiqiang posted on Weibo about a “rather shocking” event–he has been classified as a “key person” and barred entrance to a hotel in Beijing. The hotel states that it is simply following procedures for verifying the information on guests’ identification cards.

“I have just learned that, as a key person, I can’t enter this hotel. It feels very strange to know I’ve been labelled like this.” At 9 p.m. last night, Mr. Pu wrote a weibo saying that he had been going to the Rui’an Hotel on Zhengyi Road, Beijing to see a friend visiting from out of town. His friend had also brought tea for Mr. Pu. What is unusual is that Mr. Pu was stopped by public security at the door, where they checked his identification card.

Mr. Pu revealed that he gave his card to the security guards, who swiped it at a terminal to check his information. They told him that he is a “key person” and that he would be refused entrance to the hotel.

Outside the Rui’an Hotel. (Pu Zhiqiang/Weibo)

Mr. Pu took a photo of the information about him  displayed on the terminal screen, explaining that he is not a petitioner. The security guards were courteous, saying they understood he had not come to petition, but Mr. Pu was still unable to go inside. There was no dispute between the two sides. Mr. Pu called his friend, who came outside to give him the tea.

Mr. Pu says that he has checked into hotels across the country and has never encountered this situation before. The reception manager at Rui’an stated last night that their “hotel is rather special,” as they do not receive foreigners or anyone with a criminal record. If someone’s identification card indicates that he is a key person, the staff can only decide whether or not to admit him based on the information available.

Radio France Internationale also reports on Pu’s encounter at the hotel [zh].

Via CDT Chinese.

Note: Ironically, zhengyi 正义 means “justice.” Back.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beijing, pu zhiqiang, rights defense
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PLAYBOY:As China has opened to the West, what’s the impact of a nondemocratic system in which the Communist Party selects its leaders from within?

AI: The way to survive in this party is to hide yourself or to become a person who obeys orders from above. These are not people with new ideas who are bold. One generation chooses the next, and one is worse than the former. It’s like inbreeding. After so many generations, it becomes weaker and weaker. You can see in the first generation— Chairman Mao’s generation, Castro’s generation—the first revolutionaries are strong characters, maybe crazy but a bit romantic. Idealistic. Now you see nothing. They cannot even remember what
64 their ancestors said.

PLAYBOY:Along with your Twitter messages, is your art largely a result of frustration with the current political system?

AI: I’m a person who likes to make an argument rather than just give emotion or expression a form and shape in art. I became an artist only because I was oppressed by society. I was born into a very political society. When I was a child, my father told me, as a joke, “You can be a politician.” I was 10 years old. I didn’t understand it, because I already knew that politicians were the enemy, the ones who crushed him. I didn’t understand what he was talking about. But now I understand. I can be political. I can say something even though we grew up without true education, memorizing Chairman Mao’s slogans. I memorized hundreds of them. I can still sing his songs, recite his poetry. Every morning at school we stood in front of his image, memorizing one of his sentences telling what we should do today to make ourselves a better person.

[Source]

Ai also discusses his venture into the medium of rock and roll, calling heavy metal music “poetry within a storm.” This morning, he posted a new heavy metal music video to his website in which he recreates scenes of his 2011 detention:

Click here to view the embedded video.

[Source]

Ai told The New York Times that he made the video and related music album because he “wanted to do something impossible:”

“It’s about the whole condition,” he said in an interview at his studio last week after showing final cuts of the video to a reporter and a photographer. “It’s not really about me. I think it’s about how the power of the state tries to manage and maintain this kind of control.”

Mr. Ai wrote the lyrics in one morning. He asked a friend, the rocker and contemporary artist Zuoxiao Zuzhou, to handle the music. Six songs are expected to be released together in an album called “The Divine Comedy” on June 22, the second anniversary of Mr. Ai’s exit from detention. The video was shot by the cinematographer Christopher Doyle, an Australian resident of Hong Kong who is best known for his work with Wong Kar-wai, a director of highly stylized films, and Zhang Yimou, who has in recent years been a favorite of the Communist Party.

Near his studio Mr. Ai has created a full-scale model of the austere room in which he was kept for much of his time in detention. He said the actual prison was in western Beijing and was used to house prominent detainees.

[Source]

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Post tags: Ai Weiwei, Ai Weiwei detention, Beijing, detention, dissidents, music
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“County government offices are built like the American White House, city squares are larger than Tiananmen Square, the interiors of government guesthouses are sumptuously decorated,” an article said in People’s Daily.

“Luxury buildings are built to satisfy the pompous selfish desires of certain people, but they have hurt the feelings of the common people,” it said.

…

The People’s Daily article failed to mention that the newspaper is also building ostentatious new headquarters in Beijing, which - having already attracted widespread ridicule - will feature a helipad.

[Source]

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Post tags: austerity, Beijing, construction, government spending, local government, people's daily, Xi Jinping
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Migrant Worker’s Death: 22-year-old Yuan Liya, who came to Beijing from Anhui Province, fell to her death on May 3 from the Jingwen Apparel shopping mall. While the Beijing police concluded that she committed suicide, hundreds protested on May 8 calling for a full account of her death. Many suspect she was sexually assaulted and thrown from the building where she worked. See also Sensitive Words updates from May 8 and May 9.

• Zhong Tao (钟涛): Head of Jingwen Apparel.
• Jing+wen (京+wen): Alternate writing of Jingwen (京温).
• Yuan Liya (袁莉亚): Alternate writing of Yuan Liya (袁利亚).

Two Weibo Accounts Suspended for “Intentionally Spreading Rumors”: Prominent law professor and activist He Bing (@何兵) can no longer post on Weibo after he reposted a weibo from “Xiaoshanjunzi” (@萧山君子) about the alleged 2009 murder of a Guizhou Province cadre by a young university graduate whose website was shut down [zh]. Xiaoshanjunzi’s account is currently inaccessible.
• He Bing (何兵)
• six-point statement (六点声明): He Bing responded to the suspension of his right to post on Weibo with a six-point statement [zh].

• seven don’t mentions* (七不讲): According to a directive leaked on Weibo, universities are being instructed not to allow lecturers to discuss “universal value, freedom of the press, a civil society, civic rights, historical mistakes committed by the Communist Party, elite cronyism, and an independent judiciary.”

* This post was edited to change the translation of 七不讲 to “seven don’t mentions.”

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Anhui, Beijing, censorship, Guizhou, Internet censorship, Ministry of Truth, Sensitive Words Series, weibo, Yuan Liya
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The decision to donate to an institution outside mainland China was not taken lightly. “My first impulse was to give these artworks to a museum in Beijing or Shanghai,” Mr. Sigg, a former Swiss ambassador to China, said in an interview. But he said he was concerned that works by artists who are blacklisted in China’s state-run museums might never be exhibited in public. Before making a gift to one of these state citadels of culture, he said, he “wanted China to reveal its standards of censorship — what could be shown and couldn’t be shown in the collection.”

[...]Mr. Sigg, who is a friend of the artist’s, said that if he had donated to a government museum in mainland China, it was “highly likely that Ai Weiwei’s works would not be exhibited.” Deeming this unacceptable, he took his collection beyond the reach of China’s cultural commissars.

The executive director of M+, Lars Nittve, predicted that other art patrons and philanthropists would, like Mr. Sigg, bypass museums in mainland China in favor of M+ because of Hong Kong’s “long tradition of freedom of expression.” He added, however, that M+ would seek to foster exchanges with museums on the mainland.

The importance of reaching out to mainland China was echoed by Mr. Sigg, who said he hoped Hong Kong’s free and independent art world would increasingly interact with and influence the mainland’s government-dominated system. “M+ could become an avant-garde model for all mainland Chinese museums,” he said.

[Source]

While Mr. Sigg and Mr. Nittve hope that interaction with the mainland will influence Beijing’s stance on free expression in art, players in the mainland art world are hoping that China can soon establish a position in the global scene. Citing an article from The Art Newspaper, The New York Times’ View From Asia blog reports:

“How do artists see the issue of Chinese art getting on to the horizon of world art?” the article asked. The solutions seem to lie in growing the infrastructure at home and focusing on quality, it suggested.

“In the beginning when art went overseas, Chinese artists had political and ideological labels stuck on them by curators but the individual’s learning and technique was not heavily considered,” said Zeng Fanzhi, an artist, in the article.

“As the years passed, these artists sorted out their individual careers, but there was no corresponding industry here in China. What China most needs today is still museum-level, high quality, serious, good exhibitions, to sort out and explore the atmosphere surrounding artistic worth and learning,” he said.

The artist Wang Jianwei told the newspaper that art was a mirror of social capability. What is most lacking today is knowledge about art and respect for creativity, he said.

[Source]

Dissident artist/activist Ai Weiwei is of the opinion that, due to Beijing’s restriction of individual freedoms, China’s contemporary “art world does not exist.”

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Post tags: art censorship, art collectors, art market, Beijing, censorship, free expression, Hong Kong
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Protesters in Beijing yesterday want justice for Yuan Liya, who died on the morning of May 3. (via FreeWeibo)

Beijing Internet Supervision Office: Urgent Notice: Websites which have already posted news about the incident of the young Anhui woman who jumped from the Jingwen shopping center to her death must turn down the heat on coverage. You are not permitted to put the story on the homepage or make it the lead story. Websites which have not yet posted the story may only repost Peaceful Beijing [Beijing Public Security Bureau] weibo. Other information or images related to the incident must be completely erased. Please rigorously implement these work requests. (May 8, 2013)

北京市网监：紧急通知：关于安徽籍女青年京温商城坠楼一事，已发布新闻的网站，必须降低热度，不允许出现在首页及新闻头条。未发新闻的网站，只能转发平安北京的微博。其它关于此事的信息和图片全部清理，请各网站严格落实工作要求。

Hundreds protested in Beijing yesterday to call for a thorough investigation into the May 3 death of 22-year-old Anhui migrant Yuan Liya. The authorities have said Yuan committed suicide by jumping from the fourth floor of Jingwen shopping center, where she worked a late night shift, but rumors spread online that she was raped by mall security guards and thrown from the building. Yuan’s family is pushing to have closed circuit video of the incident released.

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
Post tags: Anhui, Beijing, censorship, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, Ministry of Truth, propaganda, protests, Yuan Liya
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Artillery in Beijing, May 9. (Weibo)

• Anhui girl (安徽女子): Yuan Liya, a poor young woman from central Anhui Province, died on May 3 after falling from the fourth floor of the wholesale apparel mall in Beijing where she worked. While the police have called it a suicide, Yuan’s family and fellow Anhui migrants suspect mall security guards raped her, and that she either jumped to escape them or was thrown off the building by her assailants. Hundreds protested in Beijing yesterday to demand a thorough investigation of Yuan’s case, drawing riot police onto the streets and rarely-seen helicopters into the air.

Deng Xiaoping’s Only Grandson Becomes County Head: Deng Zhuodi has become head of Pingguo County in the southwestern province of Guangxi. Some netizens suspect the younger Deng is a U.S. citizen. A graduate of the Duke University School of Law, Deng was accused of sexually harassing a female colleague in 2011. South China Morning Post, however, says Deng resurfaced in Chinese public life in 2010. Challenges to his citizenship are equally unsubstantiated.

• Deng Zhuodi+U.S. (邓卓棣+美国)
• Deng Zhuodi+sexual harassment (邓卓棣+性骚扰)
• Deng Zhuodi+red third generation (邓卓棣+红三代)

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Anhui, Beijing, censorship, Deng Xiaoping, Deng Zhuodi, Guangxi, Internet censorship, Ministry of Truth, Sensitive Words Series, weibo, Yuan Liya
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Word of the death spread on the Internet in the days after the woman, whose surname was Yuan, was initially said to have committed suicide by jumping from a top floor or roof of the mall, called Jingwen, last Friday. Rumors on the Internet said Ms. Yuan, a migrant worker from Anhui Province, had been raped by private security guards in the mall, where she worked, and might have been thrown to her death.

A witness told The Wall Street Journal that the protest had swelled by 10 a.m. and had ended by 5 p.m., though a heavy police presence lingered on the scene. CDT’s “Sensitive Words” project also noted that photos of riot police and police helicopters had spread on Weibo, while footage of the demonstration had emerged on Tencent.

The Guardian’s Jonathan Kaiman had more on the protests:

A shopkeeper who gave his name only as Mr Li said that some police had arrived at around 10am, followed by around 200 people who paraded down the street shouting “Protest! Protest!”

The rapidly growing number of officers then closed the road for the rest of the day, he said. Photographs of the scene posted online showed hundreds of people on the street, although it was not clear how many were protesters and how many were onlookers.

One bystander said that officers had clashed with protesters, beating them and dragging them into vans.

While police said a preliminary investigation and autopsy did not indicate foul play, and that the woman did not have any interaction with other people during the hours before she fell to her death, the state-run Global Times reported that the demonstrators demanded a more open investigation:

Rumors have been circulated online that Yuan was gang raped in a enclosed room inside the building by seven security guards, which led to her suicide, or that they even pushed her out. Yuan’s mother visited the Dahongmen Police Station supervising the market but was not allowed to see the surveillance footage, some Web users said.

Leslie Hook of the Financial Times wrote that the protest, which halted traffic in southern Beijing for hours, “highlights mounting social pressures facing China’s leaders:”

The area where Ms Yuan worked is poor and is mostly populated by “outsiders” such as herself who work in the garment trading industry, according to residents. Scepticism of the police is widespread in China and many smaller protests across the country have been sparked by allegations of malpractice.

By Wednesday evening, the protest had dissipated amid heavy rain, but a large military presence was still visible, with dozens of parked buses carrying special forces, soldiers and police.

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Post tags: Anhui, Beijing, mass incidents, migrant workers, murder, protest, rape, suicide, women's rights, Yuan Liya
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Yuan Liya (center) “jumped” to her death on May 3. (Weibo)

Around 4 a.m. on May 3, young Anhui migrant Yuan Liya fell to her death from the fourth floor of the Jingwen Wholesale Market in Beijing, where she worked. The Beijing authorities insist that she committed suicide and have refused requests by Yuan’s boyfriend and family to make public the Jingwen closed-circuit video of her fall.

This morning, migrants from Yuan’s home town protested in central Beijing, triggering a massive police presence. Photos of riot police on the streets and police helicopters circling the protesters have circulated on Weibo. Footage of the demonstration is available, for now, on Tencent [zh]. Read more about Yuan’s case and the protest from CDT Chinese [zh].

• Jing+Wen (京+温): For Jingwen Wholesale Market.
• Yuan Liya (袁利亚)
• Dahongmen (大红门): Yuan’s family have brought their case to the Dahongmen Market police station.
• South Third Ring [Road] (南三环): Location of Jingwen.
• Muxiyuan (木樨园): Street blocked by police.
• helicopter (直升机)

Update: More images from the protest and screenshots of propaganda directives have been added to the photo gallery below.

All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results.

Browse all of CDT’s collected sensitive words in this bilingual Google spreadsheet.

CDT Chinese runs a project that crowd-sources filtered keywords on Sina Weibo search. CDT independently tests the keywords before posting them, but some searches later become accessible again. We welcome readers to contribute to this project so that we can include the most up-to-date information. To add words, check out the form at the bottom of CDT Chinese’s latest sensitive words post.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Anhui, Beijing, censorship, Internet censorship, migrant workers, Ministry of Truth, protests, Sensitive Words Series, weibo, Yuan Liya
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One friend, who works for an environmental nonprofit in Beijing, advised: “I have a Sportsta mask made by Respro, a U.K. company, which has a replaceable filter, which you can replace every 2 to 3 months with regular use. However, size-wise, it’s not great for women, especially women who have smaller faces.” To function optimally, he added, “It should be a snug fit.” Ideally, I should locate a store in the U.S. that sells them, but as fallback, such high-end foreign-made gas masks are now selling briskly on Taobao.com, China’s leading e-retailer.

In addition to buying face masks, people in China who can afford them are also picking up indoor air filters. Most office workers spend 80 percent of their time indoors, but Beijing’s poorly insulated buildings can’t fully keep the smog outside. Meanwhile, in the wake of a recent scandal over China’s failure to properly regulate bottled water, I’ve also been advised to purchase equipment for filtering water at home or in hotel rooms. For all China’s success in building some kinds of modern infrastructure—airports and highways, for instance—a string of recent public-health lapses has given rise to a grim, do-it-yourself approach to pollution control and personal safety. (To be sure, there’s a limit to which anyone can truly insulate herself from the city she breathes in.)

Air pollution in Beijing reached record levels in January as the capital city battled a winter “airpocalypse” that one Chinese public health expert called worse than SARS. The levels of two key air pollutants in Beijing rose by nearly 30% in the first three months of the year, and Larson also points out that China just suffered its smoggiest March in 52 years. Several recent studies have linked pollution to birth defects and premature deaths in China, and the country’s new leaders have declared “ecological progress” a priority even though bureaucratic infighting has threatened to complicate any potential solutions.

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Post tags: air pollution, airpocalypse, Beijing, pollution, public health
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“Chinese dream” lead story in the Beijing Daily.

Xi Jinping introduced the “Chinese Dream” last December, after he became chairman of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and before he took on the Chinese presidency. He often dovetails speeches about the “Chinese Dream” with the invocation of the “great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation,” which seems to signal a nationalistic turn. Aside from that, there is little sign that Xi’s rhetoric significantly differs from Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao’s concept of the “harmonious society”–which makes a cameo appearance here. These are new words to bolster the status quo.

Beijing Daily, the capital’s Party newspaper, published the following piece on the front page of its April 5th edition. Beijing Daily issued several scathing opinion pieces last May criticizing U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke’s handling of blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng’s case, as well as the Chinese press for valuing “Western ideas like ‘freedom of speech’ and the ‘fourth estate.’” This latest article has a gentler tone, instructing the municipal government to carry out “Chinese Dream” propaganda campaigns that reach everyone from senior cadres to elementary school children.

An April 16 editorial in the People’s Daily rings with the same call to fight a “propaganda battle” for the Chinese Dream.

CCP Beijing Municipal Committee Recommendations for Developing “Chinese Dream” Education and Propaganda Work

April 5, 2013

General Secretary Xi Jinping has poured much spiritual energy into the important discourse on the “Chinese Dream” of realizing the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, in order to lead the entire Party and people citizens of all ethnicities to join their minds and gather their strength to jointly push forward the cause of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Deep comprehension and extensive dissemination of the basic tenets of the “Chinese Dream,” its essential requirements, and its path of practice, are of the utmost significance to deeply studying and implementing the spirit of the 18th Party Congress, and to actively encouraging the people of Beijing to accelerate the capital’s reform and development. The following recommendations are put forward for developing the city’s “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work.

A. Guiding Ideology

Lift high the mighty flag of Socialism With Chinese Characteristics. Integrate Deng Xiaoping Theory, the theory of the “Three Represents,” and the concept of Scientific Development to guide reform and development in the capital. Extensively promulgate the importance of realizing the “Chinese Dream” of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation, its essential requirements, and its path of practice. Integrate “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work with the study, propagation, and implementation of the spirit of the 18th Party Congress; with the study and propaganda work of socialism with Chinese characteristics; and with the promotion of the scientific development of the capital. Use the “Chinese Dream” to gather consensus and unify strength. Ceaselessly reinforce the faith of all municipal cadres in the mass path, the theory, and the system. Fully enable the complete establishment of a moderately well-off [xiaokang] society and the realization of the leading of the historical course of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation by setting an example. Provide powerful spiritual impetus to the development of strategies to effect a “cultured Beijing, scientific Beijing, and green Beijing,” and the creation of a world-class city with Chinese characteristics.

B. Primary Content

The development of “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work must closely revolve around studying and promulgating the spirit of the important speech that Secretary Xi Jinping delivered while visiting the “Road to Revival” exhibit, as well as the spirit of Secretary Xi’s comments at the [sixth plenary session of the] first session of the 12th National People’s Congress. It must also closely revolve around the policy decisions of the Municipal Committee. Fully reflect the enthusiastic responses of the capital’s cadres and masses; stand firm in your posts and fully command the active practice of solid work. Ceaselessly deepen the “Chinese Dream” of the great revival of the Chinese nation.

(1) Extensively promulgate and realize the meaning, basic tenets, and essential requirements of the “Chinese Dream.” Extensively promulgate the Party’s strategic goal of “Two 100 Years” as put forward at the 18th Party Congress. Extensively promulgate and realize that the “Chinese Dream” of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation is precisely what will strengthen the nation, revive its ethnic groups, and bless its people.  Extensively promulgate that the direction determines the path and the path determines destiny, and that persistence and development of socialism with Chinese characteristics is the basic guarantee of realizing the “Chinese Dream.” Extensively promulgate that the future and destiny of every person is inseparably linked to the future and destiny of the country and the [Chinese] nation, and requires that we have our feet firmly on the ground, striving unremittingly towards the great “Chinese Dream.”

(2) Extensively promulgate and realize that the “Chinese Dream” must be China’s path. Extensively promulgate that the road to socialism with Chinese characteristics has come from over 30 years of the great practice of Reform and Opening, from the continued explorations of over 60 years since the founding of the People’s Republic of China, from profound conclusions drawn from over 170 years of development the Chinese nation, and from the heritage of over 5,000 years of Chinese civilization. It has deep historical roots and an extensive foundation in reality, guiding the city’s cadres and masses to unwaveringly forge ahead by following the correct Chinese path.

(3) Extensively promulgate that realizing the “Chinese Dream” must enhance the Chinese spirit. Extensively promulgate that patriotism is the nucleus of the national spirit, and reform and innovation the nucleus of the modern spirit. Promote patriotism as the soul of a powerful and invigorated country which joins minds and gathers strength, and as the spiritual force which strengthens and unites the Chinese people; reform and innovation were the spiritual forces which encouraged us to change with the times during Reform and Opening. Guide the entire city to push forward the enhancement of the national and modern spirit. Constantly strengthen the spiritual bond of unity and the spiritual force of unresting self-improvement, and forever march towards the future with vigor.

(4) Extensively promulgate that realizing the “Chinese Dream” requires the consolidation of Chinese power. Extensively promulgate that the Chinese Dream is the dream of the [Chinese] nation, and is also the dream of every Chinese person. As long as we are all inseparably linked, as long as we are a people united, as long as we struggle for the realization of our common dream, we will be matchlessly powerful in the force of our realization of this goal. Each one of us has vast space to assiduously realize his or her dream. Extensively promulgate that the Chinese people all share the opportunity to accomplish the outstanding, to make our dreams come true, and to grow and progress along with the motherland and the times. Encourage the people of the city to keep this mission in mind, and to keep all of their thoughts and energy directed towards the goal of promoting the capital’s scientific development of a strong spiritual force.

(5) Extensively promulgate the Municipal Committee’s decision-making spirit in using the “Chinese Dream” to push forward innovation and development in the capital. Extensively promulgate the essence of leading municipal cadres’ speeches on teaching and promulgating the “Chinese Dream,” and the essence of of the 11th municipal Party representative meeting and the first and second plenary sessions of the 11th municipal Party committee meeting. Thoroughly recognize the stepwise development of the capital and precisely grasp the points of integration of the “Chinese Dream” and the work of the capital. Use the “Chinese Dream” to guide and promote the “two-wheel drive” strategy of cultural and technological innovation. Use the “Chinese Dream” to condense power in the capital and to initiate a new phase in social and economic development.

(6) Extensively promulgate all lively efforts and successful experiences from the capital’s battle lines in realizing the “Chinese Dream.” Extensively promulgate the capital’s historical achievements in economic and social development–especially those that have occurred since the 16th Party Congress–in [improving] living standards, and in [altering] the appearance of urban and rural areas. Push every department and work unit in all districts and counties to tightly embrace the themes of scientific development and accelerated transformation of economic progress. Fully deepen the grand acts and fresh experiences of Reform and Opening. Publicize new progress and new results in the capital’s construction of socialist democracy, advanced socialist culture, preeminence as a location for harmonious society, and conservation culture. Publicize the good experiences and methods taken by all levels of city government to strengthen the able construction, progressive construction, and pure construction of the Party’s governance.

C. Priorities

Developing the “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work is a city-oriented systemic project, and a major, long-term political task. We must insist on commanding truth and detail. For best results, we must ceaselessly deepen and expand [our work]. Henceforth, we must focus our efforts on the following tasks:

(1) Improve the battle-ready force of theory. Focusing on leading cadres, we must channel the study of the “Chinese Dream” into the curricula of all levels of the Party committee (leading Party groups), as well as into the main curriculum of cadre training, making it the important contents of the municipal study model for Party organization construction. These programs will include courses and seminars organizing the majority of Party members into serious study and discussion. Primary-level Party groups must adopt a variety of forms to provide education to all veteran cadres, retired personnel, non-public economic organizations, and Party members in social organizations. This study and education must reach all social groups. All of the capital’s intellectual resources must be used to carry out an extensive propaganda campaign to bring “Chinese Dream” propaganda activities to the grassroots. A collection of related reading material is to be compiled into the “Chinese Dream” Cadre Theory Reader, a large-scale television series entitled The Correct Path to Great Change–500 Years of Socialism is to be filmed, and the song “Dream” is to be written. “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work is to become an important part of students’ ideological and political education, and should be promoted in schools, textbooks, and classrooms.

(2) Widely develop self-directed educational activities by the masses. Integrate “Chinese Dream” study and propaganda and theorists [of the “Chinese Dream”] with the grassroots and the common people’s self-directed educational activities. With “My Dream, the Chinese Dream” as the theme, continue to deeply expand “The Party in the People’s Hearts” propaganda work. Cater to the grassroots, deeply excavate, and widely promulgate the true stories of people from all walks of life and from grassroots Party organizations who, under the Party’s leadership, stand on firm ground, take real action to reinvigorate the nation, contribute novel ideas, and tirelessly struggle in order to realize complete individual development, to push social progress, and to enact the “Chinese Dream” of the great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation. Create and present to the public a series of short films [based on] these stories in order to build a positive, healthy, progressive, and harmonious social atmosphere. Inspire people to pioneering action.

(3) Strengthen the study and interpretation of the theory of the “Chinese Dream.” Give full reign to [the preponderance of] the capital’s social science resources. Rely on a program of research into the theoretical system of socialism with Chinese characteristics. Focus on the major theoretical and practical issues of realizing the “Chinese Dream.” Set up a group of major philosophy and social science projects to interpret the “Chinese Dream.” Give full reign to all municipal social science theory work units. Utilize the Forum on the Sinicization of Marxism, the Academic Frontiers Forum, the Natural and Social Sciences Joint Summit, the Forum on the Study Model for Party Organization Construction, and other such academic institutions to increase exploration of the “Chinese Dream.” Rely on “Weekend Community Lecture Halls,” “Beijing Social Science Week”, and similar activities, and vehicles such as “SpeakersNet” and the “Capital City Microbloggers Community of Social Science Experts” to strengthen the “Chinese Dream” propaganda and dissemination.

(4) Carefully manage news media and Internet propaganda. Municipal news media should dedicate a number of features, columns, special reports, and special issues to introducing theoretical articles, commentary, and interviews in order to create an atmosphere of favorable public opinion. We must successfully fight a major propaganda campaign to publicize the measures our city has taken and the experiences gained in implementing important central government policy decisions; to take on the hot topics of economic trends, price regulation, transformation development, housing, traffic, social security, income distribution, and air quality; to respond to society’s concerns; and to cultivate a favorable social mentality. Municipal websites must launch special web pages on the “Chinese Dream” and assemble a series of “Chinese Dream” talks, essay competitions, and other activities that will form a positive public opinion.

(5) Encourage [the creation of] a group of literary and artistic masterworks. Use entertainment to educate. Adopt colorful forms of cultural entertainment to carry out “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work. Adhering to the creative theme of realizing the “Chinese Dream,” carefully organize key artistic creations and cultural activities, and plan and launch TV dramas, stage plays, songs, and other works of art. Adhere to the principle that “literature and art should be used to serve both the people and socialism,” the “Double Hundred” policy, and the principle of the “Three Closenesses” to fully grasp the creation of products on the themes of reality, youth, rural issues, and the elderly. Assemble and promulgate original, modern, and local masterpieces to create a good cultural atmosphere for the public to learn about the “Chinese Dream.”

(6) Strengthen propaganda education directed towards youth and similar groups. Persist in targeting propaganda education at youth. Unite with the “Chinese Dream” the dreams of youth and students to grow up and become useful members of society. Launch an education program on the theme of “using the positive energy of youth to build the Chinese Dream.” Guide young people to use their position to put the “Chinese Dream” into practice. Organize extensive “My Chinese Dream” activities in the capital’s colleges and universities and sponsor a cross-institution “My Chinese Dream” contest, a Student Creative Culture Day, and similar activities in order to guide college students towards taking [these] ideals to heart and to make steadfast their conviction [in the Chinese Dream]. Implement a plan of action for ideology and morality construction for minors. Continuously fine-tune the four-in-one educational system of school, family, society, and the Internet. In primary and secondary schools, create “My Dream, the Chinese Dream” online summer camp activities to deepen the understanding of the “Chinese Dream” among younger students.

D. Work Requirements

(1) Integrate practice, promote work. Vigorously encourage “Chinese Dream” work. Use the “Chinese Dream” to arouse the spirit and strength of all of Beijing’s cadres and citizens. Comprehensively implement central Party work requirements throughout the capital. Firmly grasp the characteristics of the capital’s step-by-step development. Deepen Reform and Opening. Strengthen the drive to innovate. Guarantee improvements to the people’s quality of life. Coordinate a holistic plan for advancing the city’s economic, political, cultural, social, and ecological development. Achieve various tasks for the scientific development of the capital.

(2) Coordinate and concentrate. “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work will be organized and implemented under the leadership of the municipal propaganda bureau. All ministries and commissions of the municipal Party committee and city government and all related work units will participate together. Actively promote the utility of labor units, the Communist Youth League, the Women’s Federation, etc. to increase the masses’ strength in self-education. All regions and counties, all ministries and departments, and every work unit shall attach great importance to making “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work a critical task for the deployment of work and education going forward. Tightly integrate the education and propaganda work of socialism with Chinese characteristics, the Party’s education and implementation of the mass line, and organizational construction of “study-type Party organizations.” Consider every angle. Plan scientifically.

(3) Focal points, categorical guidance. “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work must successfully target Party members and cadres, intellectual communities, youth and students, and the grassroots masses. While the “Chinese Dream” is an essential part of the education of Party members and cadres at all levels, leading cadres should be the first to learn and lead in propaganda efforts. Realistically capitalize on intellectuals’ collective knowledge of science and technology, education, culture, and the social sciences for education and propaganda work. Develop curricula and publicity programs specifically targeted at different regions and industries.

(4) Unremittingly persevere. Persist in uniting long-term programs and stepwise planning; make “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work into everyday work that is distinguished by its unity and is consistently successful. Every district, county, and government department must unify practice, formulate specific schemes for implementation, and organize specialized strength and responsibility to enact “Chinese Dream” education and propaganda work. Purposefully strengthen guidance of subordinate and low-level work units. Promptly carry out supervision, encouragement, and inspection. Make assessments of the results. Promptly summarize propaganda advancement models and successful experiences; set examples through models; let one point guide the whole. Construct a good environment for education and propaganda work.

Via CDT Chinese. Translation by Josh Rudolph.

“Double Hundred” refers to Mao’s famous proclamation: “Let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend.” Back.

“Study-type Party organizations” arose from the 17th Party Congress in 2010. They are groups organized at all levels of government to study Marxism, “scientific development,” and other tenets of the CCP. Back.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beijing, Beijing Daily, CCP, Chinese Dream, harmonious society, Hu Jintao, propaganda, reform and opening, Wen Jiabao, Xi Jinping
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The men arrested last week include Zhao Changqing, a democracy advocate who has been jailed several times in the past; Ding Jiaxi, a human rights lawyer; and two activists, Sun Hanhui and Wang Yonghong. All four are being held at Beijing No. 3 Detention Center, lawyers for the men said.

According to Chinese Human Rights Defenders, a nongovernmental organization based in Washington, the whereabouts of two other activists, Qi Yueying and Li Wei, were unknown on Friday.

Liang Xiaojun, a lawyer who represents several of those detained, said prison officials would allow him to see only one of the detainees, claiming that the others were still being interrogated by the police. “I doubt this case will go through normal procedures,” he said. “Can you imagine a trial for a group of activists who demanded that government officials disclose their assets? I don’t see that trial happening.”

Analysts say the crackdown on dissent, coupled with newly announced media restrictions and the absence of any new anticorruption initiatives, are gnawing away at any hopes that Mr. Xi will embrace the rule of law and clean government.

The issue of financial disclosure has simmered since last year, when some officials at the 18th Party Congress told foreign reporters that they would be open to the idea as a way to curb corruption. It also became a popular Weibo topic after Global Times Chief Editor Hu Xijin addressed financial disclosure on his own microblog.

One rights lawyer told Voice of America that the family of one of the activists, prominent human rights lawyer Ding Jiaxi, received official notice last Thursday that he had been detained the previous evening:

Li says the activists have been charged because of their participation in a street campaign calling on officials to disclose their assets.

“It’s hard to say what is going to happen. Administrative detention can be expanded up to 37 days,” he said. “Then there will be an investigation and then a trial. How long this all will take depends on how important they consider the case to be.”

Xu Zhiyong, another prominent rights lawyer in China, is founder of the New Citizens Movement – a group that seeks to promote social justice, political and legal reforms. He is being held under what he called “illegal house arrest” and spoke to VOA by phone Friday.

“Up until yesterday, eight people who advocate asset disclosure by officials have been detained,” he said. “They have been accused of illegal gathering, but we believe this is illegal, because citizens have the right to assemble and demonstrate freely.”

The latest round of detentions came just before Xi Jinping addressed a group of Politburo members last Friday about the country’s anti-corruption efforts, according to Xinhua News. In a South China Morning Post opinion piece published Monday, Chinese writer and journalist Xiao Shu claimed that Xi’s administration “is sending very contradictory signals about its commitment to the rule of law and the fight against corruption.”

What is the long-term interest of the Communist Party? I would argue that it is in leading China, by means of peaceful transformation, into democracy and national reconciliation. Look no further than Chiang Ching-kuo and Lee Teng-hui, the last two non-democratically elected presidents of Taiwan, who did exactly that for the island. Any other path would be not only self-destructive for the party, but also catastrophic for the whole nation. To transform themselves and transform China, the Communist rulers must open the door to civil movements that will usher in a civil society.

In this sense, activists like Xu Zhiyong, Wang Gongquan and Ding Jiaxi are not only heroes of civil movements, but also champions of public interest and allies of the Communist Party. In his push for the rule of law and war on corruption, Xi is coming up against the powerful special interest groups within his party, and has no chance of winning without soliciting the help of a strong civil society.

The persecution against these activists thus can be seen as an effort by the special-interest groups to sabotage Xi’s reforms. They were successful in the past 10 years, during the rule of Hu and Wen – the security apparatus launched a series of stifling blows against the burgeoning civil movements. In doing so, they also tamed and manipulated then top leaders including Hu and Wen, turning their “golden decade” into one of the biggest political jokes in modern Chinese history. Whether they will succeed again in Xi‘s time remains to be seen.

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Post tags: Beijing, detention, financial disclosure, official corruption, sina weibo, Xi Jinping
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帝都 (dì dū): imperial capital

Nickname for Beijing. Formerly, “imperial capital” was used in reference to the capitals of imperialist countries (zh), but as countries have ceased to proclaim themselves empires, the phrase “imperial capital” has become synonymous with a nation’s capital. Beijing’s nickname of “imperial capital” is often contrasted with an Internet nickname for Shanghai, 魔都 (mó dū), which means “devil/monster capital.”

The use of “imperial capital” to mean Beijing has increased as Internet users have come to rely more and more on code words, homonyms, and creatively indirect references to avoid and circumvent censorship. Words like grass-mud horse, river crab, and national treasure all originated in this way.

While such semantic wordplay originally served a purely pragmatic purpose, it has become an ingrained part of some forms of the written Chinese language, with even very common words sometimes replaced by close homonyms; for example, “what” 什么 (shénme) is sometimes replaced by “mystical horse” 神马 (shén mǎ). Instances of such wordplay seem innocuous, but are part of a larger practice that is semantically subversive.

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Post tags: Beijing, word of the week
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BMW isn’t alone. The European Union Chamber of Commerce in China says air pollution is a key challenge facing companies here, and is an underlying reason why many expatriate workers choose to leave. Soaring levels of pollution are driving expatriates out of Chinese cities, and dissuading others from coming. That is a problem for many multinationals who need to attract some of their brightest and most experienced executives to China at a time when the Chinese market is becoming central to their global success. Volkswagen AG, for instance, is managed in China by Jochem Heizmann, a member of VW’s global management board.

Over the years, Chinese cities like Beijing and Shanghai have become magnets for global entrepreneurs and adventurous young M.B.A. graduates seeking opportunities in China’s booming economy. Among them was Marc van der Chijs, who arrived 13 years ago and co-founded leading Chinese online video site Tudou. In March, he packed up and left Shanghai, and headed for Vancouver.

“I was looking for a place where my kids can grow up in a healthy environment,” he said.

Earlier this month, Jamil Anderlini of The Financial Times reported that foreign companies are bracing for an exodus of foreign employees this summer, when the school term ends, and one executive at a search firm told the China Daily that “air quality is absolutely the main reason” that the number of foreigners applying for teaching positions in Beijing has dwindled by more than half. The state-run Global Times conceded last week that Beijing had lost some of its appeal due to the smog-induced health issues:

Some netizens were eager to use the report to criticize. They said China was still at the stage of the industrial revolution that the West once experienced. It seems that Beijing is unable to provide both business opportunities and high living standards.

The government has promised to make greater efforts to tackle the pollution crisis. For instance, 100 billion yuan ($16 billion) is to be spent over the next three years to turn Beijing green. But still, there is no fundamental solution in the short term.

Expats aren’t the only people fleeing China’s smog-cloaked major cities, as middle-class Chinese have also started to head west in search of cleaner air. Last week, Tea Leaf Nation’s Shi Yunhan also reported that migrant workers have cited pollution levels in Beijing as a reason for moving home. Tea Leaf Nation’s Rachel Wang also noted that many Chinese – especially the wealthy and well-educated – are also leaving the country altogether:

It is not hard to understand what may have pushed this group of Chinese away from their hometowns, given recent news about pollution, food safety, quality of life, education and infrastructure in China. Even the inconvenience of carrying a Chinese passport, which makes international travel a nuisance, can drive some people to seek passports of a more convenient color.

This wave of emigration has left a bitter taste in the mouths of some who cannot leave, while others expressed understanding. Wrote one user on microblogging platform Sina Weibo, “Capital is continuously being transferred abroad, leaving a mess at home.” Another commented, “With high housing prices, skewed education and healthcare systems, and a worsening environment…even basic reproductive rights have also been taken away. With all of this, you can’t blame those who are able to do so for emigrating, they just want to find an environment that is just and suitable for living.”

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: air pollution, Beijing, expatriates, foreign companies, pollution
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The child is being treated at the Beijing Ditan Hospital, and is in stable condition, Zhong Dongbo, deputy director of the Beijing Municipal Health Bureau, said in a press briefing.

The girl developed flu symptoms, including fever, cough, sore throat and headache, Thursday morning. She was brought to the Beijing Ditan Hospital to seek medical treatment around noon and was then hospitalized for lung infection.

[…] Two people who have had close contact with the child have not shown any flu symptoms, a spokesman said. He added that the girl’s parents were engaged in live poultry trading in a township of Shunyi District in Beijing’s northeastern suburbs.

11 have now died from the disease, which causes “severe pneumonia, septic shock and other complications that damaged the brain, kidney and other organs”, but a four year old boy in Shanghai made the first recognized recovery on Wednesday. Tests suggest possible resistance to drugs such as Tamiflu and Relenza, at least in some cases, but much remains unclear. “Few in the flu world would place strong bets on what the history books will say about this outbreak,” according to Helen Branswell at The Canadian Press:

To date it doesn’t appear as if the virus is spreading person to person, which is perhaps the best feature of this virus. But two weeks after China announced it had found people infected with a new flu, concern among those in the influenza research world remains high.

“I think we are genuinely in new territory here in which the situation of having something that is low path in birds (yet) appears to be so pathogenic in people,” Dr. Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s assistant director-general for health security and environment, said in an interview.

“And then to have those genetic changes … I simply don’t know what that combination is going to lead to.”

[…] “Almost everything you can imagine is possible. And then what’s likely to happen are the things which you can’t imagine,” Fukuda, who spent years as an influenza epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control before joining the WHO, said of the virus he has studied for so long.

Chinese authorities’ openness compared with the SARS outbreak ten years ago has continued to attract praise, as Gillian Wong reported at The Associated Press:

The new openness is thanks in part to people like Li Tiantian, founder of Dingxiangyuan, an online medical network popular with Chinese health care workers. His microblog is among a number of sites that have been tracking the government’s response to the new bird flu. “It’s evident that the strength of social media can pressure the government to be more open, more transparent,” he said from his base in the eastern city of Hangzhou.

[…] Health experts have given kudos to Beijing for being forthcoming with information, sharing the H7N9 virus’ gene sequencing and samples with the World Health Organization’s global research centers and providing timely updates of new infections and deaths. During the SARS outbreak in 2003, some patients were taken out of hospitals in Beijing and driven around the city to keep them out of sight as a visiting team of WHO investigators toured health facilities.

“I think all of us have been very impressed with the Chinese response,” said Michael Osterholm, a University of Minnesota infectious-disease expert. “You gotta give credit where credit’s due.”

While the flow of official news has greatly improved, however, authorities have taken steps to control competing information. A Central Propaganda Department directive dated April 10th instructed domestic media:

Regarding the epidemic situation in Shanghai, give first place to Xinhua wire copy and information issued by authoritative departments. Avoid confusion of information. Report discreetly on related issues, and do not sensationalize them.

Xinhua reported on Thursday that 11 people had been detained in Guizhou, Zhejiang, Shaanxi, Gansu and Liaoning provinces “for fabricating online posts about H7N9 infections that caused panic among some netizens and local residents.” According to Caijing, the detainees numbered at least 13 but possibly “dozens”. One is said to have “confessed that the posts were all made up in order to boost his popularity on the Internet.” Southern Metropolis Daily reported that a tight lid had been kept on early cases in Shanghai until the presence of the new strain was eventually acknowledged some three weeks later. Relatives of the second victim have previously complained about being kept in the dark, saying that they did not learn his true cause of death until seeing it on TV news. From The Economist:

So far the government’s response has appeared far swifter and more open than it was in 2003. Mr O’Leary said the WHO was “very satisfied and pleased with the level of information shared” by China. After the first two deaths were reported on March 31st (both of them in Shanghai), the authorities looked for the virus among live poultry sold in the city’s markets. When they found it, they were quick to close the markets and cull thousands of birds. […]

The public’s response, however, suggests the government still has some way to go before ordinary people trust it to respond effectively. Even though no cases of the virus’s transmission between humans have been reported, many people in Shanghai and the affected regions nearby are jittery. Pharmacies have been emptied of their stocks of a traditional flu medicine called ban lan gen, despite its dubious worth in dealing with H7N9. Sales of chicken in all forms have plummeted. McDonald’s in Shanghai has responded by cutting the price of its Chicken McNuggets.

[…] Even in the official media, questions have been asked about why 27 days elapsed between the first death from H7N9 and its public announcement. The authorities say it took that long to confirm the cause, because the virus had never before been identified in humans. They have not explained, however, why on March 7th, three days after the first death, health officials in Shanghai denied rumours in social media that people had died of bird flu in a local hospital. One man was later proved to have died there of bird flu, along with one of his sons who was not found to have the virus. Despite official denials, suspicions remain that this could have been human-to-human transmission.

Global Times quoted a Shanghai health official’s own account of the delay, while at The New York Times, Keith Bradsher explained possible technical reasons for it. Meanwhile the World Health Organization has also come under fire over the timeliness of its Chinese-language reports. From Xie Wenting at Global Times:

Beijing resident Wang Weikang said that it is irresponsible that the WHO does not publish its flu report in Chinese in a more timely way.

“It [H7N9] is related to people’s lives. For instance, the flu influences our decisions about whether we can travel to Shanghai. How come they don’t update on time?” said Wang.

Beijing resident Su Ya said that WHO’s slow update is because they do not pay enough attention to Chinese readers.

“Chinese is one of the official languages of the UN. It should be given equal importance as English,” Su said.

[…] “We, the WHO, can only post cases and deaths based on the official notification from the Chinese International Health Regulations Focal Point. Therefore, inevitably, the counts in the media will be ahead of the official counts we post,” the WHO said via e-mail.

With many already put off their pork by the 12,000-plus dead pigs in the Huangpu river last month, Nicola Davison reported at The Guardian that poultry is now also regarded with unsurprising suspicion:

The price of vegetables at Yanqing market have spiked accordingly. Chen says she will pay these premium prices rather than buy meat. “We’re also avoiding pork,” she said, adding: “Actually my family and I don’t dare to eat anything these days.”

In a teahouse in Ninghai, a county in Zhejiang province 180 miles from Shanghai, Tu Youjin counts himself as a victim of H7N9. Tu’s company, Ningbo Zhenning Poultry Breeding Limited, is a co-operative working with 150 farms in the region. It supplies Shanghai and other cities with 4m chickens a year. (Shanghai consumes 130m birds annually, mostly imported from Jiangsu, Anhui and Zhejiang, provinces where H7N9 has been found in people.)

Local officials have found no trace of flu among his fowl, but sales have dropped off a cliff. Normally, the farm sells 10,000 chickens a day, but now they are selling fewer than a dozen, he said.

“We can’t even sell our eggs,” said Tu. “I’m under great pressure as my company makes up the farmers’ losses, most of them are elderly peasants. The government has shown concern but we haven’t had any compensation so far.”

Some airlines, international schools and hotels have taken poultry off menus, and KFC’s parent company Yum has been hit hard, just months after CCTV exposed it for selling tainted chicken. Authorities in Shanghai are reportedly considering a permanent ban on the sale of live poultry, while Nanjing has ordered a cull of domestically kept poultry, bans on live poultry trading and feeding birds in public, and a suspension of “all kinds of bird performances”. Hong Kong has begun testing of live poultry imports from the mainland, which have dropped by almost half in the past week, promising to stop the trade and possibly cull if the virus is identified. The effectiveness of such measures has been called into question, however. From Hu Qingyun at Global Times:

Zeng Guang, chief epidemiologist at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, told the Global Times that it was still not certain that shutting down poultry businesses would be effective.

“There is still no solid research data showing that the ban of the live poultry trade has slowed the spread of the virus, though it might to some extent help contain cross-infection between poultry in some infected areas,” Zeng said.

[…] “Banning the trade and culling birds is only an expedient. Research into vaccines and effective medication are critical,” Zeng said.

But the likely effectiveness of vaccines—which in any case are months away—is also in doubt. From Helen Branswell at The Canadian Press:

There hasn’t been enough time to produce even the seed strain to make H7N9 vaccine, let alone small batches of a prototype vaccine for testing. So researchers haven’t had a chance to see how a vaccine against this new flu strain might work in people.

But clinical trials of vaccines made to protect against other viruses in the H7 family have shown the vaccines don’t induce much of an immune response, even when people are given what would be considered very large doses.

“In all cases where these vaccines were trialed, it was found that the vaccines were poorly immunogenic,” said Nancy Cox, the virologist who heads the influenza branch at the U.S. Centers for Diseases Control in Atlanta.

[…] “If you add all those [questions] together, it doesn’t paint a really very optimistic picture about influenza vaccine being a really significant weapon against this, should a pandemic emerge quickly,” [Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Diseases Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota] said.

Beyond food and farming, businesses have met varying fortunes. Indonesian importers of badminton equipment may suffer, but speculation that the outbreak has depressed house sales in Shanghai is said to be ill-founded. Face masks and hand sanitizer are naturally selling well, and there have been promising signs for Malaysian rubber glove manufacturers, while shares in car manufacturers climbed based on an anticipated exodus from public transport. Despite skepticism about proclaimed benefits, vendors of traditional Chinese remedies have also enjoyed a windfall.

As with other public health hazards, many have greeted the outbreak with dark humor. Dexter Roberts compiled a handful of jokes at Businessweek, including one referring to Shanghai’s recently pork-infused water and Beijing’s famously bad air:

The two best ways to safeguard against bird flu: 1) drink a lot of water; 2) keep the air flowing. People living in Shanghai, please ignore No. 1. People living in Beijing, please ignore No. 2.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beijing, bird flu, food safety, H7N9, Huangpu pigs 2013, meat, Ministry of Agriculture, Nanjing, public health, rumors, SARS, Shanghai, transparency, vaccines, world health organization
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