Mr. Guo, who told the authorities he comes from the far west region of Xinjiang, set off from coastal Fujian Province on a flotation device made from bamboo and Styrofoam. Mr. Pu said officials had been tracking his progress by radar.

After his arrest, he told Taiwanese reporters that he was inspired to make the perilous journey by Taiwan’s presidential race, which pits the incumbent Ma Ying-jeou against two opponents. “I want to see your elections, with campaign flags flying all over the place,” he said.

The elections, which take place Jan. 14, have piqued considerable interest in China, which is led by a Communist government keen to dampen the democratic yearnings of its people. After decades of authoritarian rule, Taiwan — considered by Beijing to be a breakaway province — held its first direct presidential elections in 1996.

Taiwan held its first of three presidential debates last week as it prepares to go to the polls in January 2012, with candidates playing it safe with regards to the question of reunification or independence and focusing mostly on economic issues instead. See also additional CDT coverage of cross-Strait relations.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Cross-Strait relations, democracy, elections, Fujian, Taiwan independence, unification, Xinjiang
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Representatives from several embassies and the EU were allowed into the building, but were not permitted to observe the case. Supporters – outnumbered by the many uniformed and plainclothes police officers – chanted “Wang Lihong, come home” and “Wang Lihong, not guilty” ….

Outside the court, security officials tried to drag away Zhao Lianhai, who was jailed for campaigning over a tainted milk scandal after his baby became ill, but stopped when others intervened.

“After I was put in jail, sister Wang cared about me and went to visit my wife and children … without her, I wouldn’t have freedom today,” Zhao said. “Maybe we can’t change anything by coming here, but we want to express our beliefs.”

He added: “She didn’t break the law – she was helping citizens according to the law … [China's] laws only help privileged people to pursue their power.”

Others said they did not know Wang personally but felt they had a duty to attend because she had helped so many people.

The incident in Fuzhou is described in an account of Wang’s life and activism posted by a campaign group, Free Wang Lihong:

In June 2009, a Fujian civil reporter Fan Yanqiong wrote a post and put it online for a woman petitioner Lin Xiuying who believed her daughter Yan Xiaoling had been murdered after being raped by eight men at a police-backed brothel in Minqing, Fujian Province. Fan’s post drew huge attention among Chinese netizens and she was arrested by police immediately. Upon reading Fan’s post, You Jingyou initiated a videotaping on Lin Xiuying’s narration and what Wu Huaying witnessed during the process. The end result was that all three of them were put in jail for libel. There was widespread discussion and reporting of their controversial detention in Chinese media. Wang Lihong wrote 23 letters to Party Secretary Sun Chunlan in Fujian, all in her capacity as a concerned citizen. She urged Sun to listen to public opinion and protect citizens’ rights. On March 19 and April 16, 2010, the three netizens’ case went to court in Fujian. Wang Lihong, along with other netizens from around China, held a demonstration outside the courthouse in support of the three defendants. On April 16, when the traffic was sealed off in front of the courthouse, Wang Lihong and others staged a protest in the non-restricted area. They sang the Internationale song. You Jingyou and Wu Huaying were sentenced to one year in jail, while Fan Yanqiong received a two-year sentence.

Wang’s lawyers have claimed that the trial was beset by procedural irregularities including repeated interruptions of the defence and other obstructions. From Human Rights in China:

Wang’s defense lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan (刘晓原) told Human Rights in China (HRIC) that he and co-counsel Han Yicun (韩一村) presented a not-guilty defense. Liu said that, from a legal point of view, the evidence presented by the government has failed to establish the crime with which Wang is charged. Han argued that organizing a protest is a fundamental right of a citizen which is protected under the Chinese constitution. According to Liu, the judge did not allow Han to finish his defense statement and also interrupted Wang’s final statement.

Han told HRIC that there were many procedural flaws in the case. During the police investigation period, Wang was only allowed two meetings with her lawyers; and when the prosecution was preparing the case, the lawyers were not allowed to photocopy case documents or present their arguments before the indictment, contrary to provisions in the law.

Han said that Wang did not have a fair trial. During the hearing, Han said, the prosecution did not present evidence piece by piece, but in a lump sum, making it impossible for the defense lawyers to examine each item. According to Han, he and Liu had requested a large courtroom in anticipation of a large group of supporters—and several hundred supporters did gather outside the court on the morning of the trial. However, the lawyers found out that the courtroom could only accommodate five observers. At the end, Wang’s son Qi Jianxian (齐健翔) was the only one allowed to observe the trial.

Han was quoted by the BBC as saying that a verdict is expected in a matter of weeks, but that he is not optimistic about the outcome.

Sources:

Chinese internet activist Wang Lihong goes on trial | World news – guardian.co.uk
释放王荔蕻， 让她自由: Biography of Wang Lihong – Free Wang Lihong
Lawyers Report Procedural Irregularities at Trial of Rights Activist Wang Lihong – Human Rights in China 中国人权

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Post tags: activists, Fujian, human rights in china, Liu Xiaoyuan, rape, trials, Wang Lihong, Zhao Lianhai
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Although the high profile Chinese artist Ai Weiwei finally resurfaced after more than 11 weeks in detention on 21 June, many lesser known figures are still languishing in Chinese jails following a round up of activists earlier this year. Wang Lihong is a case in point — and an example of how injustice begets injustice in China’s dysfunctional legal system.

Wang Lihong has a long history of activism, including work on behalf of petitioners who have suffered violence at the hands of the authorities and campaigns for Chinese lawyers targeted because of their advocacy work. Like Ai Weiwei, Wang was rounded up in the weeks following anonymous online posts calling for a “Jasmine Revolution” in China earlier this year. She has now been in detention for 17 weeks. On 21 March she was charged with “inciting social unrest,” but on 22 April this charge was reduced to “disturbing public transportation in a crowd.”

Oiwan Lam recently posted details of Wang’s career and the campaign to release her at Global Voices Online, including a partial list of the causes with which she has been involved since 2008:

1. The police murder case of Yang Jia on July 1 2008. She visited Yang Jia’s mother and interviewed her and blogged about Yang Jia’s case.

2. Together with another blogger, Temple Tiger, she helped the homeless people around Tienanmen square.

3. The Deng Yujiao self defense murder case in May 2009. Wang Lihong travelled to Hubei to join the “surrounding gaze” flash mob in order to pressure the court for an open and fair ruling on Deng’s case.

4. On May 2009, Wang campaigned for a visit to petitioner, Yao Jing, who was seriously injured by local government officials from Linyi who tried to intercept her petition in Beijing. Together with a group of bloggers, Wang raised donation for Yao Jing’s hospital and lawyer expenses.

5. Campaigned for human rights lawyer Ni Yulan, who was prosecuted by Beijing authority soon after she was released from jail.

6. Participated in the “surrounding gaze” flash mob action in support of the three Fujian netizens who was accused by local authorities for defamation in their citizen reports about a suspected rape case in March and April 2010.

7. Celebrated the Nobel Prize award to Liu Xiaobo in October 2010. She was detained for two weeks and was under house arrest for several months.

8. In March 2011, she visited two activists in a Henan detention center, Wang Yi who was sentenced to one year labour education for writing a tweet and Tian Xi, an AIDS activist.

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Post tags: Ai Weiwei, AIDS, Beijing, Deng Yujiao, detention, Fujian, Henan, Hubei, jasmine revolution, Liu Xiaobo, Ni Yulan, Nobel Prize, Yang Jia
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…The thousands of “earthen buildings” here, built by the ethnic Hakka and Minnan people of rural Fujian Province, are the ultimate architectural expression of clan existence in China.

For centuries, each building, called a tulou in Mandarin Chinese, would house an entire clan, virtually a village. Everyone living inside would have the same surname, except for those who had married into the clan. The tulou usually tower four floors and have up to hundreds of rooms that open out onto a vast central courtyard, like the Colosseum.

The outer walls, made of rammed earth, protected against bandits. The forms vary. Many are square, resembling medieval keeps. With stockpiles of food, people could live for months without setting foot outside the tulou.

But as the clan traditions of China dwindle today, more and more people are moving out of the tulou to live in modern apartments with conveniences absent from the earthen buildings — indoor toilets, for example.

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Post tags: architecture, Fujian, traditional culture, tulou
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Officials in southeastern China acknowledged on Saturday that 121 children living near a battery plant had excessive lead in their bloodstreams, according to the state news media.

Xinhua, the official news agency, said that nearly half the children who were tested last week in Longyan City in Fujian Province showed abnormally high levels of lead, which can cause developmental problems in children as well as a host of other ailments, including anemia, stomach pain and brain damage.

Last month, health officials in Hunan Province revealed that more than 1,300 children living near a manganese processing plant had lead poisoning. The disclosure came a few days after 850 children in rural Shaanxi Province were found to have been contaminated by lead levels so high that 174 of them had to be hospitalized.

The authorities in Shaanxi, in north-central China, blamed a zinc and lead smelting facility, which has since been closed, for the poisonings. Last week officials announced a $29 million relocation project to move 1,400 families who lived near the smelter to an entirely new community farther away.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: children health, Fujian, industrial pollution, lead poisoning
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A typhoon pummeled China’s eastern coast Sunday, toppling houses, flooding villages and forcing nearly a million people to flee to safety. Officials rode bicycles to distribute food to residents trapped by rising waters.

Typhoon Morakot struck after triggering the worst flooding in Taiwan 50 years, leaving dozens missing and feared dead and toppling a six-story hotel. It earlier lashed the Philippines, killing at least 21 people.

Morakot, which means “emerald” in Thai, made landfall in China’s eastern Fujian province, carrying heavy rain and winds of 74 miles (119 kilometers) per hour, according the China Meteorological Administration. At least one child died after a house collapsed on him in Zhejiang province.

Watch CBS News raw footage of the storm:

Update (August 10): See the Wall Street Journal, “Typhoon-Driven Landslide Topples Apartment Buildings In China.”

From Al Jazeera:

In China, the storm triggered a massive landslide in eastern Zhejiang province that toppled six apartment buildings and buried an unknown number of residents late on Monday.

The official Xinhua news agency said on Tuesday that the landslide in Pengxi town destroyed the six four-storey buildings at the foot of a mountain.

Six survivors were pulled out – one in critical condition – but rescuers did not yet know how many people were buried under the rubble and search operations were hampered by the amount of mud and rock.

The storm also sparked the evacuation of about 1.4 million people from Zhejiang and neighbouring coastal province Fujian, Chinese authorities said.

And from AP:

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Post tags: Fujian, natural disasters, typhoons
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Authorities in the southeastern Chinese city of Fuzhou have warned local officials to take measures to prevent “mass incidents” over a land dispute, as the global economic crisis sparks government fears over growing social unrest.

In a document issued by the Chinese Communist Party propaganda department of Fuzhou city and obtained by RFA, the government warned officials in Fuqing city, lower down the chain of command, to beware of fallout.

“We recommend that the relevant departments take this very seriously and take immediate steps to ensure that no mass incidents take place,” the document, titled “Special Report on Web Opinion” and signed by the “Web news management division,” said.

Dated Jan. 21 and seen Thursday, the communique was sparked by a Jan. 20 report by RFA’s Mandarin service, which covered a dispute between villagers around Haikou township, near Fuqing, and local officials, over compensation for farmland lost to development.

The communique said China’s state security police were unable to block the RFA Web site “for technical reasons.”

© Xiao Qiang for China Digital Times (CDT), 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Fujian, Fuzhou, social unrest
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Fifteen people suffocated when a fire sparked by birthday fireworks swept through a bar and restaurant in eastern China, state media said on Sunday, in an accident similar to one last September which killed 44.

Seventeen people were injured in the blaze in Fujian province on Saturday night, Xinhua news agency said.

The Latin-style bar and restaurant in Changle was set ablaze just before midnight, when about 10 young men and women celebrating a birthday set off fireworks at their table, Xinhua said.

“The festive explosive set the ceiling on fire and the entire place was soon engulfed in flames,” it quoted a local government spokesman as saying.

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Post tags: accidents, Fujian
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Chinese health authoritiesare investigating four anaesthesia-related deaths at a Sanming City hospital in the eastern Fujian Province.

The patients had operations for different diseases and died at the No. 2 Hospital of Sanming between Sept. 3 and Oct. 11. Media reports said the victims, three males and a female, had all undergone surgical anaesthesia.

The three males were identified as 26-year-old Feng Guangle, three-year-old Zou Zhengtao and 29-year-old Jiang Chenfeng. The woman was Zhang Chunmei, 44, a hospital spokesman told Xinhua on Tuesday.

South China Morning Post also reports:

The Ministry of Health is conducting wide-ranging investigations into the deaths of at least seven patients from contaminated drugs and possible medical blunders.The news has prompted fresh concerns about the standard of medical services on the mainland.

Four patients have died at the Sanming No2 Hospital in Fujian province since September 3, Xinhua reported yesterday.

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Post tags: anaesthetics, contaminated drugs, Fujian, health care, hospitals
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The Hakka communal homes-cum-fortresses have lured foreign architects and anthropologists for the last 20 years and, more recently, a trickle of tourists seeking obscure corners of China and overseas Hakka seeking their roots. Noting this interest, China, more often known for demolishing historic structures than protecting them, has begun restoring the earthen houses and last year nominated them for World Heritage Site status. Unesco will consider the nomination this summer.

In the meantime, many Hakka residents are upgrading to modern housing and to jobs in the cities. They are less interested in the cultural value of their dwellings, which adds to the sense of urgency among those wishing to preserve, or see, remnants of China’s past.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2008. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: architecture, cultural preservation, Fujian, Hakka, traditional culture, Yongding
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