Central Gannan [Tibetan Autonomous] Prefectural Committee Propaganda Department: County and municipal committee propaganda departments: At 9:30 tonight, the international Chinese channel CCTV4 program Focus Today will air the segment “Outside Tibetan Separatist Cliques and the Southern Gansu Self-Immolations.” County television stations, please announce this program continuously on your news ticker; diligently organize cadres and the masses to watch the show. (February 4, 2013)

中共甘南州委宣传部：各县市委宣传部：今晚9:30分，在中央4台中文国际频道《今日关注》栏目播出《甘南系列自焚案真相调查专题片》，请州县电视台以字幕形式连续滚动发出通知，认真组织干部群众收看。

These instructions, issued to the media and/or Internet companies by various central (and sometimes local) government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online. 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 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 | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, Censorship Vault, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, Gansu, media censorship, Ministry of Truth, propaganda, self-immolations, television, Tibet
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At The Wall Street Journal, Josh Chin reported on the wave of protests and the two sentences handed down in Sichuan:

A total of 86 Tibetans, mostly monks and nuns, have set themselves on fire in protest against Beijing’s policies since the start of 2012, according to a Jan. 25 statement issued by the Tibetan government in exile. Of the 99 self-immolations since 2009, 83 have been confirmed to be fatal, Tenzin Lekshay, a press officer for the Tibetan exile administration said last week, saying the rest were untraceable.

Mr. Sangay, who was in New Delhi to attend a four-day gathering over the Tibetan self-immolations, said Chinese authorities had failed to realize that their “repression of the aspirations of Tibetans” was what led to protests. “The solution really lies in a peaceful and transparent dialogue process,” he said.

[…] The sentences handed down Thursday are the “most severe imposed on people accused of inciting self-immolation,” said Nicholas Bequelin, senior researcher in the Asia division of Human Rights Watch.

[…] “This is all part of a pattern of escalation against the communities where the people who have committed self-immolations come from,” he said. “At the same time, the government hasn’t even started to address the grievances that underlie the self-immolations.”

Beside criminal prosecutions, authorities have tried threatening to cancel government benefits for self-immolators’ families, confiscating TVs, dismantling satellite dishes and tightening travel restrictions. These include restrictions on the issuing of passports, as Columbia University’s Robert Barnett discussed with Matt Schiavenza at The Atlantic:

Why has the Chinese government stopped issuing passports to Tibetan people? Why now?

The Chinese have given no public explanation so far, but we know from leaked internal documents that it started as a response to a relatively small event last year, one that they have treated as if they were a major threat: a few thousand Tibetans were given permission to travel legally on passports in December 2011 to Nepal, and they then went on to India to attend religious teachings by the Dalai Lama. When they returned, although they hadn’t broken any Chinese laws, they were put in detention for some two months and given political re-education and their passports were all withdrawn. Officially the authorities claimed that these passport cancellations would be done only to government employees and Chinese Communist Party members — but in fact they did it to all the Tibetans whom they suspected of having gone to these Buddhist teachings.

The current passport restriction, then, was initially designed to weed out people who might do this sort of thing again. But now they seem to have extended it to all Tibetans in Tibet, using the excuse that their passports — even if they are valid and even if they’re about to travel somewhere — have to be replaced by new-issue electronic passports. And the new rules say that any Tibetan, before getting a new passport, if indeed they ever get one, must make a written declaration not to do anything while abroad that might threaten China’s national security, and must be visited by the police and interviewed once he or she returns to see if they kept this undertaking. Though there have been many kinds of unprecedented restrictions applied in many spheres of Tibetan life since the protests of 2008, this is one of the more surprising ones.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Gansu, homicide, human rights watch, Lobsang Sangay, self-immolations, sentencing, Sichuan, Tibet, trials
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It was reported by Free Tibet, a London-based organization that campaigns for self-determination for Tibetans, and by the U.S.-based Radio Free Asia.

Free Tibet said the man was 22, while Radio Free Asia put his age at 19.

Details of the death — as has been the case with other such incidents — are sketchy and difficult to verify. Internet content controlled by local authorities makes reliable information almost impossible to come by.

The South China Morning Post relayed more from the reports from Free Tibet and Radio Free Asia:

The body of the man, who was identified with the single name Tsebe, or Tseba, was carried back to his home village about four kilometres away following a protest, Free Tibet said.

…

The man called out for the Dalai Lama to be allowed to return to Tibet, RFA said.

…

Free Tibet director Stephanie Brigden said the latest immolation demonstrates “Tibetan rejection of the Chinese occupation is as strong as ever”.

“The new Chinese leadership and the international community cannot allow demands for freedom to continue to go unheeded. This year must be the year where positive change comes to Tibet,” she added.

Meanwhile, Beijing-based artist Liu Yi is working on a series of black-and-white portraits to honor the Tibetans who have set themselves on fire in protest of Beijing’s repressive policies. From The Associated Press, via the South China Morning Post:

Liu wants to paint a portrait of each of the hundred-or-so Tibetans who have self-immolated over the past three years, as a way of bearing witness to one of the biggest waves of fiery protest in recent history.

With each brushstroke, Liu is making a heartfelt plea: the burning must end.

“When I’m painting, I’m thinking: ‘Enough, enough, don’t do this any more. Stop,”‘ said the soft-spoken artist, who has completed 40 portraits so far. “That’s enough.”

Liu is rare among his contemporaries for addressing the largely taboo topic.

Chengdu-born poet and filmmaker Tang Danhong wrote an essay about the self-immolations called “Fire Between Dark and Cold,” which CDT translated. Read more about the self-immolations via CDT.

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Post tags: artists, Gansu, Liu Yi, self-immolations, Tibet
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The translations are by Rogier Creemers of China Copyright and Media.

17 March 2007, 23:26

All websites: Concerning the mass-type incident in Lusong District, Zhuzhou City, Hunan, only use Xinhua and Hunan provincial news website copy, do not open trackers, it is not permitted to publish information from other sources. Website forums and blogs may also not discuss this.

17 March 2007, 23:23:02

Concerning the mass-type incident in Lusong District, Zhuzhou City, Hunan, only use Xinhua and Hunan provincial news website copy, do not open trackers, it is not permitted to publish information from other sources. Website forums and blogs may also not discuss this.

16 March 2007, 18:39:31

Do not report the situation of the China Huawen Investment Co. Ltd.

Do not report the situation of the China Huawen Investment Co. Ltd., forums, blogs and other interactive segments are not to discuss this.

16 March 2007, 18:35:01

Important correction notice: Data concerning network questions at Premier Wen’s press conference this morning.

The data concerning netizens’ questions to premier Wen provided at Premier Wen’s press conference of this morning is corrected as follows: “Only on the Internet, more than 100,000 questions were asked to premier Wen, the number of individual clicks exceeded 26 million.” All websites are requested to rapidly correct this.

16 March 2007, 18:27:27

The article “Beijing Researches Salary Incentive Mechanisms–Plans to Compensate Meritorious Retiring SOE Bosses” is inaccurate, where it has been reprinted, please delete it, forums and blogs are not to discuss this.

19 March 2007, 18:16:28

The post “The True Story of Foxconn Coming to Shenzhen” and corresponding information is not to be disseminated, news, forums and blogs may not disseminate or discuss it, existing posts are to be deleted without exception.

19 March 2007, 17:25:58

Concerning the selection of the Hong Kong Chief Executive, transmit Xinhua or People’s Daily Net copy without exception, other reports may not be reprinted; at the same time, manage forums, blogs and other interactive segments well, strictly block discussions seizing the opportunity to attack our political system or “one country, two systems.”

19 March 2007, 17:23:05

On the incident that happened in two mosques in Pinglang City, Gansu, do not reprint corresponding reports without exceptions, this may not be disseminated on interactive segments.

19 March 2007, 16:11

All websites: Please put the People’s Daily comment “Strengthen a Concerned Mentality–Eagerly Pioneer and Forge Ahead” on the main page of websites and in the header of the news center and maintain it there until 9:00 AM tomorrow.

20 March 2007, 9:43

(1) Urgent! All websites are to speedily delete the text “Mainland Tourists Hope to Travel to Taiwan on May Day.”

(2) All websites: Premier Wen will visit Japan at the end of the month, for reports involving the Sino-Japanese relationship in the near future, strictly manage trackers well, delete those irrational and jeering discussions. Now, please earnestly delete trackers for “Professor Suggests Chinese and Japanese Academics to Go to Nanjing to Discuss the Issue of the Massacre,” “Joint Sino-Japanese History Research to Include the Topic of the Responsibility for the Japanese War,” and other reports.

20 March 2007, 10:01

All websites are requested to conduct a complete clean-up of their website’s audiovisual and podcast content from 20 March to 25 March, delete information involving reactionary and obscene content and uncivilized content, we will inspect this especially next week.

2007年3月北京网管办发出的禁令（二）

2007年3月17日23:26

各网：关于湖南省株洲市芦淞区群体性事件，只采用新华社和湖南省新闻网站稿件，不开跟贴，不得刊登其他来源的消息。网站论坛、博客也不得讨论。
2007-03-17 23:23:02

关于湖南省株洲市芦淞区群体性事件，只采用新华社和湖南省新闻网站稿件，不开跟贴，不得刊登其他来源的消息。网站论坛、博客也不得讨论。
2007-03-16 18:39:41

有关中国华闻投资有限公司的情况不报道

有关中国华闻投资有限公司的情况不报道，论坛、博客等互动环节不讨论。

2007-03-16 18:35:01

重要更正通知:今天上午温总理记都会关于网络问题的数据

今天上午温总理记者招待会上有关网民向总理提问题的数据更正如下：“单就互联网上向总理提问题的已经超过10万多条，点击的人数超过2600万人次。”请各网站速更正。
2007-03-16 18:27:27

北京研究薪酬激励机制 拟补偿有功退休国企老总一稿失实，已转的请删除，论坛，博客不讨论。

2007-03-19 18:16:28

《富士康引出深圳真相》的贴文及相关信息不传播，新闻、论坛、博客不传播、不讨论，已有的贴文一律删除。
2007-03-19 17:25:58

有关香港特首的选举，一律转载新华社、人民网的稿件，不得转载之外的报道；同时要管理好论坛、博客等互动环节，严格封堵借机攻击我政治制度、一国两制的言论。

2007-03-19 17:23:05

发生在甘肃省平良市两座清真寺的事件,一律不转载相关报道,互动环节不传播。
2007年3月19日16时11分

各网:请将人民日报社论《增强忧患意识 锐意开拓进取》在网站首页、新闻中心大头条位置保持至明天早晨9时。
07年3月20日09时43分

1. 加急！各网迅速删除“大陆游客有望五一赴台旅游”一文

2.各网：温总理将于本月底访日，近期涉及中日关系的报道请严格管理跟帖，删除那些非理智、谩骂的言论。现在，请认真清理《教授建议中日学者去南京讨论大屠杀问题》、《中日历史共同研究将列入日本战争责任议题》等报道的跟帖。
07年3月20日10时01分

请各网站于3月20日至25日，对本网站视频、播客内容进行全面清查，删除涉及反动、淫秽内容及不文明内容的信息，我们将于下周专项检查。

These translated directives were first posted by Rogier Creemers on China Copyright and Media on December 19, 2012 (here). This post is the 42nd in the series.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beijing Internet Instructions, censorship, Censorship Vault, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, Foxconn, Gansu, Internet censorship, Japan, Ministry of Truth, propaganda, Shenzhen
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China has already entered the middle-income stage of development, but the development is “unbalanced”, especially when it comes to the widening gap between town and country, Mr. Li said.

Disparity means potential, in other words, China’s biggest potential for development in the coming decades lies in the process of urbanization, he added.

[…] A UN report, titled Urban and Rural Areas 2011, predicted that nearly 70 percent of the population will live in urban areas by 2035. Over the next two decades China will build 20,000 to 50,000 new skyscrapers and more than 170 cities will require mass transit systems by 2025.

At The New York Times on Tuesday, however, Henry M. Paulson Jr. argued that China must rethink its approach to urbanisation.

A flawed system of municipal finance is driving debt, corruption and dissent, while unsustainable urban planning has yielded polluted cities that are destroying China’s ecosystem. Yet China’s future requires continued urbanization, which, absent a new approach, will only make the problem worse.

Cities can, however, be part of the solution: better urban policies can put China on a healthier path forward, economically and environmentally.

[…] Getting China’s urbanization right will matter to us all. Fortunately, many in China understand this, and cooperation with the United States government, corporate world and nonprofit sector, including my own research and advocacy institute, is bringing them the tools they need to prioritize design issues in their cities and adapt infrastructure plans now. These tools include instruction in sustainable practices for government leaders, public education in environmental issues and specialized training for the country’s urban planners.

China must adopt this new approach quickly, before vast infrastructure investment makes the current model irreversible. By 2025, China is projected to have a staggering 200 cities with populations over one million. America has just nine.

Widespread adoption of Paulson’s new approach may be some way off. The Financial Times’ Simon Rabinovitch noted this week that a 50-storey steel ring set to dominate Liaoning’s Shenfu New Town has attracted international derision for wasting resources and adding “little to no real social value”. The Guardian’s Jonathan Kaiman reported a twenty billion yuan scheme to level 700 mountains on the outskirts of Gansu’s provincial capital, Lanzhou, despite grave doubts about the financial viability and environmental sustainability of plans for the site. Lanzhou was rated China’s most polluted city in a 2011 air quality survey by the World Health Organisation.

Liu Fuyuan, a former high-level official at the country’s National Development and Reform Commission, told China Economic Weekly that the project was unsuitable because Lanzhou is frequently listed as among China’s most chronically water-scarce municipalities. “The most important thing is to gather people in places where there is water,” he said.

Others also pointed to the financial risk of building a new city in the middle of the desert. “All this investment needs to be paid back with residential land revenue, and I don’t see much on returns in these kinds of cities,” said Tao Ran, an economics professor at Renmin University in Beijing. “If you have a booming real estate market it might work, but it seems to me that real estate in China is very, very risky.”

In an email interview, a China Pacific Construction Group spokeswoman dismissed criticisms of the project as unjustified. “Lanzhou’s environment is already really poor, it’s all desolate mountains which are extremely short of water,” said Angie Wong. “Our protective style of development will divert water to the area, achieve reforestation and make things better than before.”

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Post tags: cities, deserts, Gansu, Lanzhou, Li Keqiang, Liaoning, real estate, urban development, urbanization, water supply
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Former monk Tamdin Kyap, 23, burned himself to death in Luchu (in Chinese, Luqu) county in the Kanlho (Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture late Thursday, the sources said.

“He set himself on fire at a site close to the Luchu river in Luchu county in protest against Chinese rule and succumed to his injuries,” a source in Tibet told RFA’s Tibetan service.

[…] A source from the region said that whenever someone self-immolated, Tamdin Kyab used to say “if he can do the same thing” and that “there is no worth living if His Holiness the Dalai Lama is not allowed to return to his homeland,” according to the Central Tibetan Administration (CTA), the official name of the Tibetan government-in-exile based in Dharamsala, India.

His death brings the self-immolation tally to 80 so far, with 16 reported this month. Five burnings were reported in one day alone — Nov 7.

See more on Tibet and the self-immolations there, including discussion of the 79th case, the challenges of verifying the reports, and the last words of several of the self-immolators.

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Post tags: Dalai Lama, Dharamsala, Gansu, monks, protests, self-immolations, Tibet
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Sources in the region say that Norbu set himself ablaze near Kangtsa Gaden Choephelling Monastery and shouted slogans calling for the return of the Dalai Lama to Tibet, release of the Panchen Lama and freedom for Tibet.

Around 10:30 pm local time, the crowds are reported to have shouted slogans calling for the return of the exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to Tibet. As of receiving the report, the gathering of monks and local people are reported to be reciting long life prayers for the Dalai Lama.

The situation in the area is tense with paramilitary forces surrounding the area.

Then today, another man was reported to have self-immolated in Xiahe, Gansu, though few details are available. From AFP:

The Xinhua News Agency says herder Tsering Dongdri set himself on fire Tuesday in a remote area of Xiahe county in a Tibetan part of the western province of Gansu.

The Hindu also reports on two cases over the past weekend in Rebkong (Tongren), Qinghai, which has become a locus for self-immolation protests in recent weeks. The Hindu describes the town center:

The Dolma Square, named after a golden statue of Jetsun Dolma, a Bodhisattva and female deity known for her compassion, has been a site of several protests by Rongwo monks and local Tibetans since March, when two Tibetans set themselves on fire in the town. The square sits at the entrance of the Rongwo monastery, which is a site of significance for Tibetans and particularly for the Yellow Hat sect, for whom the Dalai Lama is the most important figure.

During a visit to Rebkong in April, The Hindu found tight security outside Dolma Square, where a black SWAT van was permanently stationed. Monks at Rongwo Monastery told The Hindu in interviews that tensions had been high in the monastery after two self-immolation protests at Dolma Square in March, where a monk and a farmer, in separate incidents, set themselves on fire.

Rebkong is a quiet town, where small Tibetan shops displaying artwork and handicrafts line narrow, muddy streets that run outside the monastery’s walls. Further down the road from the monastery, monks and school-students walk amidst groups of paramilitary security forces.

In recent weeks, the town has emerged at the centre of spreading self-immolation protests, with Tibetan monks in India, citing their sources in Rongwo, recording at least eight protests since November 7, the day before the Communist Party of China began its leadership congress.

LinkTV interviewed Columbia University Tibet scholar Robert Barnett about the self-immolations and the Chinese government’s response:

Advocacy groups, including International Campaign for Tibet, have reported stringent restrictions on the families of those who have died from self-immolation. According to ICT:

Officials in the Rebkong area have warned people that they cannot go to the homes of those who self-immolated and express their condolences. They also said that if monks go to pray for self-immolators, monasteries will be closed down, and that the families of self-immolators will be punished.

For its part, Xinhua News reported that monks in Tibetan regions are being trained as fire fighters, without mentioning the self-immolations:

As a part of the Aba prefectural government’s efforts to better protect more than 250 monasteries in the areas against fire risks, four monasteries: Dagcha, Tisannyi, Mewa, and Changlie, were chosen to participate in a trial program to create their own firefighting teams.

Young and strong candidates are chosen to take part in regular training sessions that teach them how to detect fire risks, fight fires and protect themselves. Courses held by the Aba prefectural fire brigade also cover laws and regulations pertaining to firecontrol.

In addition to their usual routine of studying scriptures and meditating, the monks engage in firefighting training sessions once a week. Large rooms outside temple prayer halls are used as fire control offices.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dalai Lama, Gansu, pancheon lama, qinghai, self-immolations, Tibet, tibet politics
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Free Tibet said Lhamo Kyeb, 27, died Saturday near a monastery in northwestern China’s Gansu province. Citing a witness, it said he set himself on fire and ran toward Bhora monastery in Xiahe county and that state security forces standing nearby ran after him and tried to put out the flames.

The witness said Lhamo Kyeb attempted to stop them from extinguishing the fire, forcing them to back away, and then he walked toward the monastery and fell to the ground.

The group said nearly 60 Tibetans have set themselves on fire since March 2011 to protest Chinese rule over the Himalayan region.

Calls to the county government and police rang unanswered Sunday. A man on duty at the prefectural government said he had no information.

While the exact number varies by source, close to 60 people have self-immolated since 2009 in protest against Beijing’s policies in Tibet, including another fatality on October 10. Read more about these incidents via CDT. See also a recent installment of Hexie Farm’s cartoon series for CDT in which he honors Tibetan self-immolators.

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Post tags: Gansu, self-immolations, Tibet, Tibet status
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Sangay Gyatso, 27, self-immolated in a monastery compound near Tsoe (in Chinese, Hezuo) county, the administrative center of the Kanlho (Gannan) Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture in southern Gansu.

“He set himself on fire a little after noon near a stupa in the premises of the Dokar monastery,” a source inside Tibet told RFA’s Tibetan service.

The monastery is situated about 10 km (6.2 miles) from the Tsoe town center.

The sources provided grisly photographs of Sangay Gyatso’s charred body but little information of his personal background, only saying his father was identified as Gonpo Dhondup and his mother as Gonpo Tso.

With Gyatso’s death, Radio Free Asia tallied 54 total self-immolations since early 2009, though the count varies by source. Last week, a writer who had spoken out against Chinese repression burned himself to death within the Tibetan Autonomous Region, and Chinese courts have recently handed down harsh sentences to several Tibetan men accused of supporting self-immolations and leaking news of Tibetan protests. And two weeks ago, more than 400 Tibetan delegates (a group that did not include the Dalai Lama) attended a gathering in Dharamsala, India, to urge their fellow Tibetans to stop self-immolating and instead focus on gaining global support for their struggle against China.

See also the latest installment of CDT’s Hexie Farm series, in which cartoonist Crazy Crab of Hexie Farm honors the Tibetans who have self-immolated in protest against Beijing’s policies in the region.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dalai Lama, Dharamsala, Gansu, hexie farm, religious persecution, self-immolations, Tibet, Tibet protests
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A steel cable broke as it was pulling two carriages at a coal mine in northwest China on Tuesday, killing 20 workers in the country’s latest mining accident.

The state-run China News Service said 34 miners were riding in the carriages when the cable broke, overturning the carriages in the mine in Baiyin city in Gansu province. It said 14 miners were rescued.

Safety improvements have reduced deaths in recent years, but safety rules are often ignored and accidents are still common.

According to AFP, officials who oversee the mine refused to comment. China’s mines remain the deadliest in the world:

Officials at the Baiyin city work safety administration, which oversees the Qusheng mine, refused to comment when contacted by AFP.

But its mines are among the deadliest in the world because of lax regulation, corruption and inefficiency. Accidents are common because safety is often neglected by bosses seeking quick profits.

According to the latest official figures, 1,973 people died in coal mining accidents in China in 2011, a 19 percent fall on the previous year.

But labour rights groups say the actual death toll is likely to be much higher, partly due to under-reporting of accidents as mine bosses seek to limit their economic losses and avoid punishment.

Aside from the accident in Gansu, China Daily reports a total of 22 miners trapped after three separate accidents:

Eleven people were trapped after a fire at Longshan Coal Mine in Shuangyashan, Heilongjiang province, on Saturday morning. Residents reported the accident to authorities on Sunday.

Another five miners were trapped when a ceiling collapsed at a mine in Zibo, Shandong province, on Sunday.

Meanwhile, a gas explosion injured 13 miners at a coal mine in Anshun, Guizhou province, on Sunday night.

Compared with the same period last year, 36 fewer accidents occurred and 142 fewer miners were killed.

Read more about mine safety in China, via CDT.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: coal industry, Gansu, mine safety, mining accidents
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The official Xinhua news agency also said another 18 people were still missing following the storms on Thursday in Gansu province.

The agency said more than 350,000 people had been affected by the storms – with 30,000 of them forced to evacuate homes.

Relief teams are said to have reached the affected area in Minxian county.

County officials said many roads had been blocked, homes destroyed and farmland ruined by the rainstorms.

The downpours were said to have lasted only about an hour but brought up to 70mm of rain in some parts.

According to Xinhua, the rains and cold have made it difficult for rescue teams to reach the victims:

Roads were blocked, houses collapsed, farmland destroyed and power supplies and telecommunications services disrupted by the extreme weather, Xu Guangyao, director of the county’s civil affairs bureau, said after the disaster.

Some roads were still blocked Sunday, making it difficult for relief vehicles to pass through.

Workers in bulldozers and excavators were trying to clean up the road, but rains hindered their efforts.

Although nearly 1,000 tents, 1,270 beds and other relief supplies had been sent to the disaster-hit area, local residents were still in need of more relief supplies, such as heavy coats and stoves, because of the freezing weather.

This is not the first incident of weather related accidents in the region. AFP added that different counties have been struck by mudslides and hailstorms:

Min county is 150 kilometres (90 miles) from Zhouqu county, where a rain-triggered mudslide killed about 1,500 people in August 2010.

Hailstorms in the central province of Hunan have also killed six people and left one missing, according to statistics released by the Ministry of Civil Affairs on Sunday, Xinhua reported.

Since May 8 hailstorms have struck across the province, affecting 3.42 million people, the ministry said. About 64,000 people have been relocated to safer areas and 7,600 houses have collapsed.

© Melissa M. Chan for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: extreme weather, Gansu, landslides
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The cautionary note comes at the start of a year when Beijing, Shanghai and several other Chinese metropolises will begin publicly releasing data on tiny particulates known as PM2.5, which account for more than half of the country’s air-borne contaminants and have the most damaging impact on human health.

The promise of more transparency has been welcomed as an important step towards a clear-up of the foul smogs that plague urban China, but environment officials stress that more time is needed to turn grey skies to blue.

“It took the US and Europe 50 years to deal with their problem. Even if we cut that [PM2.5] in half, it will still take 20 to 30 years,” said Wu Dui, a haze expert at the Guangdong Meteorological Agency.

China Daily, meanwhile, reports promises of improvement from the government of Lanzhou, whose air was rated China’s worst by the World Health Organisation last year.

In winter, the most polluted season, Lanzhou is typically shrouded in a haze that can block sunlight to the extent that the day is sometimes as dark as the night. Residents generally avoid opening windows, otherwise their furniture will soon be coated in thick dust.

Wang Sanyun, the newly-appointed top official of Gansu province, said that his government “is resolved to win the tough and arduous battle against air pollution.”

Wang, secretary of the Gansu provincial committee of the Communist Party of China, told provincial officials Thursday that the government will go after factories releasing pollutants, promote clean energy in public transport, build subways and light rails to reduce car exhaust emissions, and replace coal with natural gas to sustain the city’s winter heating system.

Due to an urbanization rush, most cities in China face tremendous challenges in keeping air pollution in check. Only one in the 31 Chinese cities included in the WHO survey had PM10 levels under 50 micrograms per cubic meter, while the vast majority of European and North American cities reported PM10 levels under 50 micrograms per cubic meter.

The WHO’s recommended maximum is 20 micrograms per cubic meter, according to the article. Lanzhou’s air was found to contain an average of 150 micrograms per cubic meter, though this did not deter the more than 10,000 people who burrowed through it during a “fun run” this week.

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Post tags: air pollution, air quality, Gansu, jonathan watts, Lanzhou, smog
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The tragedy prompted a swell of comments on the Internet and in the press calling for an overhaul of China’s badly managed and underserviced school transportation system. Rural areas in particular are known for unsafe transportation for children in aging, badly maintained vans and trucks.

The central and regional governments would provide funds for closer monitoring of manufacturing, renovation and allocation of school buses, Wen said at a conference on women’s and children’s affairs in Beijing, the Chinese government said on its official website.

Authorities would also work to improve management of bus systems and boost safety, Wen said.

Wen’s commented about the recent crash at National Working Conference on Women and Children where he addressed issues regarding the development of rights involving women and children. Xinhua adds:

The party and the government have always attached great importance to women’s and children’s issues, the premier said, noting that China has issued specific laws to protect women’s and children’s rights, while specific organizations have been set up to carry out government plans regarding the development of women’s and children’s rights.

He pledged to oppose gender discrimination of any kind and to work hard to ensure that women will have equal footing when participating in economic, political, cultural and social development.

Wen added that the government will continue to crack down on human trafficking and other crimes that target women and children.

See also: Death Toll Hits 20 in Gansu Bus Crash and Chinese Women and Work: The Sky’s the Limit  via CDT.

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Post tags: child safety, children, Gansu, gender equality, road accidents, road safety, Wen Jiabao
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The accident happened around 9:40 a.m. in Yulinzi township of Zhengning county, according to a statement from the bureau. The statement said five people died at the scene, including four children and their bus driver, while 15 others, their teacher included, were confirmed dead by the afternoon.

The statement said another 44 children were injured in the accident and have been hospitalized. Twelve of the injured are in a serious condition.

The truck had a license plate from the neighboring province of Shaanxi and was carrying coal, the statement said.

The bureau has blamed overloading for the accident, stating that the bus — a van with nine seats — was carrying 64 people, most of whom were children from Yulinzi’s Little Doctor Kindergarten, a privately-run kindergarten located in the rural area

The incident comes just three weeks after a school bus in Xinjiang province collided with a van, injuring 19. Netizens responded to the news from Gansu with outrage as officials scrambled to the scene to offer support, according to Reuters:

“The nursery school can’t shirk responsibility for such serious overcrowding,” said one comment on Sina’s “Weibo” microblogging site.

Another said: “Why don’t we protect children in the same way we protect our leaders?”

Chinese authorities have tried to crack down on dangerous driving but breakneck economic growth, and rapid expansion in the number of roads and drivers, creates many menaces, especially on poorly policed rural roads.

In 2010, Chinese police officially recorded 219,521 traffic accidents that led to deaths or injuries, including 65,225 fatalities, a fall of 3.7 percent on the previous year.

While some comments were aimed at the school for putting the children in danger, an AP report in USA Today highlights online criticism of the government for not giving adequate funds to rural schools:

Chinese Twitter-like microblogs exploded in rage after Wednesday’s accident, registering more than 800,000 posts within hours of the news.

Particular ire was directed at government spending. Many made comparisons to the quality of U.S. school buses, some by attaching a photo purporting to show a Hummer smashed under the rear fender of a hardly dented school bus in Indianapolis. “Look at American school buses. … Our school buses are irresponsible when it comes to children’s lives,” ran the heading attached to many posts.

“Won’t this make the government wake up?” Zhang Zhen, an editor with the popular Dahe Bao newspaper, said on Sina Corp.’s Weibo microblog service. He said the government should divert funds from public money spent on overseas travel, cars and receptions “to give middle, primary and nursery schools in poor areas more strong, decent and spacious school vehicles.”

See also previous CDT coverage of road safety in China and recent road accidents involving children, including a driver in Sichuan who ran over and killed a boy to avoid financial penalties, a child struck and killed in Shenzhen, and the tragic death of 2-year-old Yue Yue in an October hit-and-run incident in Guangdong.

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Post tags: child safety, Gansu, microblogs, road accidents, road safety, sina weibo, students safety
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Many measures have been applied to industries in Zhejiang Province as well. Some have been ordered to suspend productions one day after running consecutively for three days early since the start of this year, while others were required to halt operations every Tuesday.

The heat from power shortages all spread to normal usages in some Chinese provinces and cities. In Changsha, the capital city of Hunan Province, air conditioning has to be set no lower than 26 degree Celsius, and half of the street lamps will be turned down, just to list a few of them.

It is reported that the province now lacks of one third of power to ensure normal supplies ….

According to publicly available data, power consumption in East China in the first quarter grew 14. 9 percent, more than five times of the average in the past five years. Of all the provinces in the region, Zhejiang Province saw an year-on-year increase of 15 percent in consumption, while consumption in Jiangsu Province rose 14.8 percent from a year ago.

In contrary to shortages in eastern China, provinces in the west part of the country, including Inner Mongolia, Gansu and Xinjiang are facing problems to export the power generated locally.

And more, from the Financial Times:

Chinese electricity companies are facing financial pressure from the increase in global energy costs as Beijing hesitates to increase state-controlled electricity prices because of concerns over inflation.

While the price of thermal coal – which fuels 70 per cent of China’s power plants – has risen by nearly one fifth since last year, Beijing has raised electricity tariffs by just 2 per cent during the same period, and the price gap has prompted some stations to close or reduce generation.

“Power plants promise industry regulators that they will generate power at full steam, but privately they don’t because of their financial losses,” explains Lin Boqiang, an energy economics expert at Xiamen university ….

“China is using planned-economy methods to regulate a market economy,” said Li Chaolin of the China Coal Transportation and Distribution Association, citing the state controls on coal contract prices and electricity tariffs. “Authorities are getting too heavily involved in the [coal and power] market,” he added.

For more information, and exploration of the different factors behind the power shortages, see China Rations Power Use Amid Drought, China’s Power Outages Come Early and Often and China’s Looming Power Shortages: Blackouts, or Blackmail? on CDT.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Changsha, electricity, Gansu, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangsu, market-economy, planned economy, power grid, power shortages, Xinjiang, Zhejiang
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