“It was clear from the discussions that China has made a serious commitment to their reform agenda. The challenge will be to drive forward toward material progress,” Lew told reporters shortly before heading back to Washington.

On economic reforms, Lew said the dominant theme “was what can be done to generate more domestic demand and more growth.”

Keqiang told Lew that Sino-U.S. relations should establish “a new form of thinking” and that both sides should use a “strategic, global and long-term vision to view each other,” according to a Chinese government website.

The Wall Street Journal reported that while the meetings did not produce any breakthroughs on issues such as the exchange rate and cyber security, Mr. Lew’s decision to make China his first international trip as Treasury Secretary underscored the importance the U.S. places on Sino-U.S. relations:

It’s far from clear Mr. Lew made much headway. China’s premier argued that China was also the subject of cyberattacks, a U.S. official said. Mr. Lew countered that the cyberattacks on China and the U.S. weren’t equivalent, because state-sponsored entities were involved in the attacks on U.S. firms and the goal was to gain a commercial edge.

The Treasury secretary, addressing a long-standing controversy between the two countries, urged Chinese officials to allow their currency, the yuan, to rise and fall according to market forces.

“China’s exchange rate should be market-determined,” Mr. Lew said in the briefing. “That’s in our interest and China’s interest.”

Mr. Lew also made clear he thought the yuan should rise further, the U.S. official said—a view with which Chinese officials and some Chinese economists disagree.

If anything, according to The Wall Street Journal’s China Real Time Report, Lew’s Tuesday lunch tab at a Beijing dumpling house may have stolen the show:

Total outlay for Mr. Lew and two of his Treasury colleagues: 109 yuan, or around $17.50.

While the Treasury secretary no doubt has eaten his fair share of richly priced meals, his cheap lunch in Beijing earned no shortage of applause – along with a few raised eyebrows – on China’s top Twitter-like microblogging platform, Sina Weibo.

“One meal, 109 yuan. What emotion are you trying to evoke in our celestial officials?” wrote one sarcastic Sina Weibo user, attaching a photo that purported to show the bill from the meal. “Mr. Treasury secretary, aren’t you afraid of our gutter oil? You’re very brave! Our officials never eat in such places.”

News of Mr. Lew’s modest meal comes amidst a Communist Party crackdown on outward evidence of the opulent lives led by Chinese officials – part of a larger anticorruption drive aimed at bolstering the party’s scandal-scarred reputation. Mr. Xi has led the charge, coining a new catchphrase for bureaucratic austerity when he and his entourage ate a modest meal of four dishes and a soup while visiting a rural county outside Beijing in December.

Lew’s meal choice echoes the famous frugality of U.S. ambassador Gary Locke.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Beijing, cybersecurity, dumplings, exchange rate, Gary Locke, Jacob Lew, Li Keqiang, Xi Jinping
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“There will be continuity in the U.S.-China relationship,” Locke told a standing-room-only crowd at Asia Society in New York on Monday evening. “So much of the world’s economy is in the Asia-Pacific arena. Almost 60 percent of the world’s GDP is in the Asia-Pacific region. And we are so economically intertwined as two countries. … So many of the problems facing the world today will only be solved with the United States and China cooperating and collaborating together.”

Locke was joined on stage by moderator George Stephanopoulos, of ABC News, and Asia Society’s own Orville Schell, who heads up the Center on U.S.-China Relations.

Locke and Schell both had positive things to say about new Chinese leader Xi Jinping, who was named Hu Jintao’s successor at the highly secretive 18th Party Congress of the Communist Party of China in Beijing last month.

“He’s very much more casual, more at ease in public and with people,” Locke said. But he later added, “We don’t really have a great sense of the policies of Xi Jinping, because China is ruled by a committee of seven. … We really won’t know for a while exactly how fast, how far he’s going to move, and what areas he’ll emphasize.”

See a video of the event:

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Gary Locke, U.S. relations, Xi Jinping
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“Sangay Tashi, 18, set himself on fire at around 12 midnight Tuesday, November 27 in Sangkhog town,” an exiled Tibetan monk Sonam told Phayul citing contacts in the region. “He passed away at the site of his protest.”

[…] Sangay Tashi arrived in Sangkhog town earlier that day with his friends. Before setting himself on fire, he reportedly called one of his relatives and told him that he had decided to set himself on fire for the cause of Tibet. Before his relative could carry on the conversation, Sangay Tashi hung up the phone and switched it off.

By the time Sangay Tashi’s family members arrived in Sangkhog, he had already carried out his self-immolation protest.

Sonam, an exile Tibetan living in Switzerland, told Phayul that Tsegyu set himself ablaze at around 7pm (local time) on November 7, in Tingser village of Bekar town in Driru (Ch: Biru) region of Nagchu, in an apparent protest against China’s continued occupation of Tibet.

[…] Confirming the reports, Dharamshala based rights group Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in a release today said Tsegyu received no medical treatment while in detention at a local police station in Nagchu.

“For less than two weeks, from November 7 to 18, Tsegyal received no treatment for his burns while being held at the local police station in Nagchu town,” TCHRD said citing sources. “Tsegyal died in the evening of November 18 in police custody.”

Heavy restrictions on journalists in Tibetan areas make independent verification of these reports difficult or impossible. As Kristin Jones wrote at the Committee to Protect Journalists in February, “by preventing reporters from doing their jobs, Chinese officials all but guarantee that activists are the ones reporting the news.”

The Associated Press’ Christopher Bodeen examined the protests’ tactics and escalation, and Beijing’s uncertain response.

“I think the problem will just escalate over time. The government shows no inclination to respond positively to recommendations for reform from the outside or Tibetans,” said Michael Davis, a law professor and expert on Tibet at the University of Hong Kong.

[…] The surge in self-immolations represents an awareness of the impact they are having among the Tibetan community and internationally, said Robbie Barnett, a Tibet expert at New York’s Columbia University. That would likely inspire further protests, increasing the numbers of Tibetans willing to take their lives for the sake of their community, he said.

[…] While local authorities have cracked down hard following the self-immolations and other protests, authorities in Beijing have said relatively little other than to issue routine denunciations of the Dalai Lama and his followers. That indicates they are uncertain how to respond in a way that would bolster their authority and prevent the acts of defiance snow-balling into a full-blown protest movement, Barnett said.

U.S. ambassador to China Gary Locke discussed the self-immolations with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour on Tuesday:

Christiane Amanpour: We want to know from your perspective whether the new leader Xi Jinping will be any different on Tibet, for instance, because there have been many burnings by ethnic Tibetans, another four reported just today in China; I know you’ve met with some ethnic Tibetans. What do you think is the prospect for any different kind of relationship, Ambassador?

Gary Locke: Well, we’re just going to have to wait and see, but obviously the United States is very concerned about the situation, the heightened tensions in the Tibetan areas, the deplorable self-immolations and of course just the policies of the Chinese government at all levels. And we’re publicly and privately constantly urging the Chinese to re-examine some of their policies that threaten the linguistic identity, cultural identity, and religious identity of the Tibetan people.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Dharamsala, Gary Locke, Robert Barnett, self-immolations, Tibet, Tibetan exiles, Tibetan protests, United States
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America’s ambassador to China has publicly acknowledged a late September visit to China’s western frontier, a region which has seen numerous self-immolations by Tibetans in protest of Chinese rule, according to The New York Times:

The ambassador, Gary F. Locke, visited two Tibetan monasteries on Sept. 26 as part of a trip to western China. The monasteries, which have not been involved in the 55 self-immolations across the Tibetan plateau since 2009, are in Aba Prefecture of Sichuan Province, the area where almost two-thirds of the Tibetans who have set themselves on fire lived.

It was Mr. Locke’s first trip as ambassador to a part of China where most of the people are ethnic Tibetans.

…

“I went to Aba Prefecture to see it for myself,” Mr. Locke said in a brief statement in response to questions from The New York Times. “I was struck by the unique Tibetan culture and met many ethnic Tibetans to learn more about how they live and work, such as an 88-year-old monk at one of the monasteries I visited. Ethnic diversity adds richness to a society.”

He continued, “I hope others will make the same visit.”

A U.S. State Department spokeswoman also confirmed Locke’s trip on Tuesday, according to the report. The New York Times published the above photo, which originally appeared on Twitter and which shows Locke shaking hands with a Tibetan monk. The South China Morning Post published the photo as well, and reported that Locke may have made the trip with Beijing’s approval:

Tibetan settlements in China are often off-limits to foreigners. The then executive vice-minister of the Communist Party Central Committee’s United Front Work Department, Zhu Weiqun , said last year that China would “never allow foreign forces to interfere in China’s internal affairs by any means”, when asked whether China would let the European Union send an independent diplomatic team to Tibet.

“I never believe it can settle any problem or bring good to its people for foreign forces to interfere in the internal affairs of another country,” he said. “On the contrary, it will intensify the contradiction and even lead to wars.”

Analysts said they believed Locke’s trip to Aba was made with Beijing’s tacit approval, or at least the approval of the foreign ministry, and signified that Beijing wanted to adopt a more flexible approach in dealing with Tibetans.

Locke has enjoyed a positive image during his tenure in Beijing, receiving praise in the media and among Chinese netizens for his frugality on more than one occasion. No comment has emerged so far from China’s Foreign Ministry, but Sina.com published its take on the news:

Since taking office as the first Chinese-American envoy to China, Gary Locke has expressed too much of his “great interest” about the so-called human rights situation in China. Analysts say Locke, putting on an act of being low-profile and close to the grassroots, will present a stark contrast with some Chinese officials. Locke has thus devised the image campaign to touch ordinary people’s soft sopts and also show America as a “democracy” model to the Chinese people.

What he has done thus far since he set foot on the Chinese soil is well beyond a professional diplomat’s scope of mission. Rather, as a politician and show person, he seems so accustomed to reaching out to something that could and would not fall within his territory. Much to his dismay, many achievements he has been seeking after are actually beyond attainment.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Gary Locke, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, netizens, ngaba, self-immolations, Sichuan, sina.com, Tibet protests, U.S. relations
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Chinese authorities are investigating a Tuesday incident in which a group of protesters harassed U.S. ambassador Gary Lockein his car outside the U.S. embassy. From Bloomberg Businessweek:

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said the U.S. has registered its concern with China both in Washington and Beijing, and Chinese authorities have expressed regret over the incident. Nuland said the preliminary U.S. assessment was that the car was “a target of opportunity” for protesters who had gathered outside the nearby Japanese Embassy. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told a regular news briefing Wednesday that the incident was “an individual case,” but that China was investigating it. The incident came amid heightened vigilance for American diplomats following violent attacks on U.S. embassies in Libya, Yemen and Egypt. The embassy in Beijing said it has asked China’s government to do everything possible to protect American facilities and personnel.

Dissident artist Ai Weiwei filmed the incident and posted the above video to Youtube, according to The New York Times, which also posted several photos and tweets that Ai had added about the incident.  Professor Joseph Chung of Hong Kong’s City University told Voice of America that the protest likely took Beijing by surprise:

“This is of course embarrassing for the Chinese authorities. I do not think that the Chinese authorities would like these events to occur,” says Cheng, who added that it was likely just a coincidence that it happened during a visit by U.S. defense chief Leon Panetta. “Naturally, any cars belonging to foreign embassies or foreign diplomats might be a target of harassment very near to the Japanese embassy.”

See also CDT coverage of the recent anti-Japan protests.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Ai Weiwei, anti-Japan protests, Beijing, Gary Locke, U.S. embassy, U.S. relations, youtube
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Despite her popularity, we hear that the former TV journalist has gone relatively untapped as a resource. She could (and is willing to), we hear, take on a heftier schedule of public speaking and meetings, effectively doubling the U.S. ambassadorial power in Beijing.

So why hasn’t she been given more leeway to do just that? Maybe the career types think it’s best to leave diplomacy to the professionals. That’s one theory, at least.

A State Department official told us there’s no prohibition against embassy spouses (who are most often wives) playing a “first lady” role in-country. And an embassy spokesman outlined to The Loop some of her recent work: promoting the president’s “100K Strong” initiative aimed at bringing more American students to study in China and supporting a global effort to promote leadership among women and girls.

Ms. Locke was recently featured as “The Toast of Beijing” in Vogue magazine. Read more about her husband Gary Locke via China Digital Times.

© Mengyu Dong for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: diplomacy, Gary Locke, U.S. relations
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Wang Lijun, known as the Eliot Ness of China for his ruthless campaign against organized crime, told a riveting story of how his one-time mentor, a local party secretary by the name of Bo Xilai, was out to kill him because he knew too much about the alleged poisoning and murder of a British businessman, Neil Heywood, who had known Bo and his wife. It was “fascinating, eye-popping revelations,” Locke told Newsweek in an exclusive interview. “My first reaction was ‘oh, my God, I mean OH, MY GOD!’”

The next 120 days in the life of the new ambassador—which included dealing with diplomatic fallout after the daredevil escape of blind activist Chen Guangcheng—would be nothing short of historic.

Given Bo’s stature within the Communist Party, Wang’s presence at the consulate presented a delicate situation. Upping the stakes, Bo—realizing that Wang had gone to the Americans—dispatched armed security forces to surround the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu. But Wang was not about to surrender to Bo and instead summoned people he trusted to escort him out of the embassy and onward to Beijing—away from the clutches of the local party chief and his cronies. (Later, Wang was charged with treason, Bo was purged from the top echelons of the Communist Party, and Bo’s wife was charged in the murder of Heywood.) “It felt,” Locke said, “like something out of a spy thriller.”

The 62-year-old Chinese-American would soon find himself at the center of further extraordinary events that would demand the highest degree of diplomatic dexterity by the ambassador, who, when Wang showed up, was just six months into the job.

Chinese responses to Locke vary between admiration and disgust. CDT’s Anne Henochowicz put together a slideshow for Foreign Policy which looks at various images of Locke in Chinese netizens’ eyes.

© Sophie Beach for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chen Guangcheng, diplomacy, Gary Locke, U.S. relations, Wang Lijun
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Update: “Lei Feng” is unblocked.

As of May 26, the following search terms are blocked on Weibo (not including the “search for user” function):

Photos of young American sharing fries and conversation with a beggar went viral on Weibo.

Foreigners and Exiles:

• Lei Feng (雷锋): Results for search terms related to Ambassador Gary Locke, an American who shared McDonald’s French fries with a beggar, and other non-Chinese do-gooders are all blocked.
• Wu’er (乌尔): Wu’er Kaixi, a student leader during the Tian’anmen protests living in exile. When he went to the Chinese embassy in Washington this month, he found himself “most unwanted.”

In response to the U.S. State Department’s annual human rights report:

• human rights (人权)
• renRights (ren权)
• HumanQuan (人quan)
• renquan (pinyin Romanization)
• human rights (English)

Murders in Yunnan: According to reports, the case of missing 18-year-old Zhang Yongming of Jinning, Yunnan is related to a serial killer.

• Jinning (晋宁)
• cannibal (食人魔)
• homicidal mania (杀人狂)
• eat people (吃人)
• Zhang Yongming (张永明)
• Yunnan + missing (云南+失踪)
• dismember + corpse (肢解+尸体)
• Yunnan + kill, including terms with the character “kill” (杀), such as homicide, murderer, murder, etc. (云南+杀, 如杀人、杀手、凶杀等)

Generally blocked: These terms are not related to particular events.

• unjust case (冤案)
• obscene (猥亵)

Note: All Chinese-language words are tested using simplified characters. The same terms in traditional characters occasionally return different results. 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), 2012. | Permalink | 3 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: filtered keywords, Gary Locke, human rights report, Lei Feng, Sensitive Words Series, sina weibo, State Department, U.S. State Department, U.S. State Department human rights report, weibo, wu'er kaixi
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Ambassador Locke and Qin Feng in friendlier times.

U.S. Ambassador to China Gary Locke has recently taken the spotlight. But official and online attitudes toward him couldn’t be more different: on the one hand, netizens have jokingly referred to him as “Head of the Chinese Petitions and Appeals Department who takes an American imperialist salary.” [Chinese netizens have recently taken to calling the U.S. Embassy the "Office for Petitions and Appeals after both Chen Guangcheng and Wang Lijun sought refuge there.] But in editorials published last Friday in four major Beijing papers, he was denounced for his handling of the Chen Guangcheng incident. At the same time, Weibo’s search engine function blocked results for the combination of “Gary Locke + Petitions Office.”

The niece of former Foreign Minister Li Zhaoxing, Hong Kong Satellite TV Chief Reporting Officer Qin Feng, wrote a scathing post on her registered Weibo account suggesting Locke be expelled from China. By the time Qin Feng deleted her own post, it had been resent more than 7,000 times and commented on nearly 5,000 times:

Gary Locke, that banana man, with his white heart. Is there still any doubt? I remember, last year before he came, the public had had such great hope for him. Look at his performance now! A foreign representative sets off infighting on someone else’s land (of course I know that the embassy is regarded as U.S. territory, but is he always at the embassy?). What kind of behavior is this? Are there any regulations for a situation like this, something like being able to expel foreign dignitaries that openly interfere with internal affairs?

The post was later deleted, probably by Qin herself. She gave an explanation for the vanished rant:

I started to curse without thinking and so learned the paranoia of many netizens. I said Locke treacherously interfered in our internal affairs, not anything else at all about him as an honest official, nor that we shouldn’t reflect on Chen Guangcheng’s journey to the government. In 140 characters I just wanted to have a little chat, and instead I was besieged from all sides.  You all really take Weibo too seriously and expect too much from me.  Summer’s nearly here and our internal heat is building. We must flush it out from the source. We’ll all feel relieved.

搞 不清楚就开骂，也让我认识到部分网友的偏执狂。我说骆家辉阴险干涉内政，并没有说他其他方面比如廉政做得不好，也没有说陈光诚事件一路走来政府不需要反 思。140字只找出一个点谈，就遭到围攻，各位真是太把微博当回事儿了，也大出我的意料。立夏了，火气大，从根源消除，让大家清爽舒心一点吧。

Below is a sample of how Qin was besieged. More comments from CDT Chinese. Translated by Deng Bolun.

Fuhedesai: There’s infighting? What kind of infighting? Who’s the leading character? Who does a blind man fight with? This is a good five times better than America’s clown.
复合德赛：有内斗了吗？内斗的情况如何？主角是谁？一个失明的人，跟谁斗啊？大活宝，比美国的大活宝好五倍。

dlensPhoto_329: I don’t understand how Locke instigated infighting in the Celestial Empire. A few hundred people spending heaps of the taxpayer’s silver to imprison a single blind man. Was this also instigated by Locke? Without a cause, where do the consequences arise?
d镜头摄影_329：我不明白老骆是怎么挑拨天朝内斗的?几百人花着纳税人的大把银子囚禁一位盲人,难道也是老骆给挑起来的?没有前因,哪来的后果?

YoungPrince: If he doesn’t try, then Obama won’t forgive him. If he doesn’t try, the American people won’t forgive Obama. This has nothing to do with ethnicity. This has to do with the values of the American people! Besides, Chen and Bo are different. It’s not infighting, it’s a violation of the law!
普林斯青：他不出手，奥巴马饶不了他，他不出手，美国人民饶不了奥巴马，这与是什么族裔无关，这与美国人的价值观有关！另外，陈与薄不同，不是内斗，是侵害！

RicePlace: reply to  RadishCake: You’re a media person. In a situation in which you have no proof, you open your mouth irresponsibly and say that Locke instigated high-level infighting. Aren’t you just showing everyone your IQ? Even if Minister Li is your relative, don’t be so disgusting, alright?
一地大米：回复@蘿蔔特糕:你身为一个传媒人，在没有证据的情况下就信口开河说骆家辉挑拨高层内斗，这不是在公众面前秀你的IQ吗？就算李部长是你亲戚，你也别这么恶心好不？

WangXiaoyu: Qin Feng as Li Zhaoxing himself describes her: I held her when she was about half a year old, called her “Feng Feng.” In elementary school, when other students were going to the the zoo, she would follow her father to the museum to receive education. Every year during Spring Festival she would go to the Monument to the People’s Heroes with a bouquet of flowers. When she was studying in New Zealand, Vice Premier Qian Qizheng and other leaders praised her and her classmates for attacking “Taiwan separatists” and evil cult members.
王 晓渔：李肇星笔下的侄女秦枫：她大约半岁时我抱过，管她叫“枫枫”。上小学时，当别的孩子星期天去动物园玩的时候，她就常跟着父母到一些博物馆去 接受熏陶，逢年过节还会向人民英雄纪念碑献上一束小花。在新西兰留学时，她曾和同学一道抨击“台独”和邪教分子，受到钱其琛副总理等领导同志称赞。（《枫 声》）

distant201201: Then don’t let your cousin and Li Zhaoxing’s son Hehe Li study in the United States. Take the lead and return to China. Fix a few more roads for the common people. Make transportation a bit more convenient. Realize direct elections sooner rather than later. Thanks.
悠悠201201：让你表兄也就是李肇星的儿子李禾禾别在美国工作了，带头回到中国吧，多给老百姓修点路，让交通更方便点，早日实现直选。谢谢。

CannotResist: Let’s forcefully surround and watch former Minister of Foreign Affairs Li’s niece’s comment on driving out Ambassador Gary Locke…
忍俊不住: 强力围观李前外交部长侄女发帖咨询驱逐骆家辉大使。。。。。。

MsYiTongsYutong: When will people finally understand that not all Chinese are PRC Chinese? They grow up eating American bread and drinking American milk, so what would make them partial toward China?  It’s just us who grow up drinking melamine and and eating Sudan Red G, and still live on, who are real Chinese.
依桐小姐的雨桐：华人不是中国人的道理有些人什么时候才能明白？人家从小吃着美国的面包喝着美国的牛奶长大凭什么要求人家偏向中国？只有我们这些从小喝着三聚氰胺，吃着苏丹红长大而依然能活到现在的孩子才是真正的中国人。

ronseattle: Qin, “instigate infighting in the country you’re stationed in”: who are the two so-called parties in this infighting? Are their strengths comparable? What will be the negative influences of this infighting on the people?
ronseattle：秦，“挑拨驻在国内斗”，这所谓内斗的双方是谁啊？他们实力相当吗？这内斗的结果对人民有何消极影响？

PretendingToBeInNewYork: This really is old Uncle Li Zhaoxing’s style. Brainless and heartless too.
假装在纽约: 很有其舅姥爷李肇星的风采。脑残心也残。

ZhangFachengsWeibo: Who’s anguish has Locke prodded? Ah, I see.
张法成的微博：骆家辉戳到了谁的痛楚，额明白了。

Orange_cn: Heh heh, you said it as if the blind man’s years of imprisonment and beatings in Linyi, Shandong were nothing. When the blind man escapes the fire pit and runs off to the U.S. Embassy, this becomes America’s intentional instigation of Chinese infighting! This kind of irrational argument is born from the same stuff as the Beijing Daily. Are the Chinese mouthpieces all like this?
Orange_cn：呵呵，说得好像山东临沂方面这些年对盲人的囚禁殴打都不算什么，盲人逃出火坑跑到美国大使馆就成了美国人故意挑起中国内斗了！如此强词夺理的逻辑，和北京日报真是一脉
相承啊，中国的喉舌都是如此特点？

SpiritsTrust: What do we call internal affairs? Is it closing the door to beat the wife to your heart’s content? When turning on the national machine that wantonly tramples human rights, never again is it internal affairs.
灵魂的信： 什么叫内政？是关起门来为所欲为的打媳妇？开动国家机器肆意践踏人权之时便不再是内政。

BrightMoonPrinceOfQin: At the bottom of their hearts, the common people are completely clear about what this is. What do you think you’re still hiding from us here? Public trust of the government has already become a burden.
秦时明月君：什么事情，老百姓心底都一清二白，你还在这儿装什么呢？ZF公信力已经为负了

SunChuanHsiang: Does “Banana Man” count as an insult? Miss.
SunChuanHsiang：“香蕉人”算不算侮辱？小姐

Yuanye8848: I’m warning you little girl, quit this nonsense about abuse from violent netizens. If you want to talk about cultural standing, I’m far above you. I’ll be a post-doc when you’re still suckling at the tit!!!
yuanye8848：警告小姑娘：别胡说八道这是网络暴民骂你，要说素质，我比你高得多，我做博士后时，你还在吃奶！！！

DeepMoanInTheNest: Hi, I’m from the countryside, lived in the countryside for more than 20 years. Maybe you don’t understand the seriousness of how local officials violently enforce the law. In other words, if you or someone else have been passing your days in a democratic society, you wouldn’t last half a day in Mr. Chen’s environment. If Ambassador Locke hadn’t show up–think about it–where would Mr. Chen hide? Where else could he be taken care of? Or how would you hope Ambassador Locke handles it, Reporter Qin?
沉 吟小窝： 你好，我是从农村出来的，在农村生活了二十多年，可能您不了解基层机关暴力执法的严重性，换句话说，如果是您或者是其它身在民主社会生活过人，自在陈先生 在环境中可能半天也待不下去，如果没有骆大使出面，您想象一下，陈先生能躲在何处。何处能够收容与他，或者说秦记者能希望骆大使如何处理？

Unicorn_Silver: Internal affairs? What are internal affairs? What do the internal affairs of your second red generation have to do with us?
Unicorn_Silver ：内政？什么是内政？你们红二代的内政关我们屁事？

Belconnen: “Locke treacherously interfered with internal affairs”? Chinese citizen blind Chen was forced nearly to death by the Chinese government and then requests help from America. America then responds with help. Is this what you mean by “interference with internal affairs”? If so, I represent myself in thanking America’s interference with the internal affairs. In China, there are too many people who are harmed by public power. I hope America comes everyday and interferes with our internal affairs!
Belconnen：“骆家辉阴险干涉内政”？ 中国公民盲人陈被中国政府逼得快要死了，然后求助于美国，美国便出手相助。这就是你说的“干涉内政”？ 如果是的话，我代表我个人感谢美国政府干涉中国内政。在中国受公权力迫害的人太多了，我希望美国天天都来干涉中国的内政！

Tonglifu: Why erase that comment? Ms. Qin?
通利福貎亚愤怒乌托邦：为啥删掉那个帖子呢。秦女士？

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Gary Locke, netizens' voices
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In the still of the deep night, removing that mask of insincerity, we say to our true selves, “I am sorry.” Goodnight.
在夜深人寂时，卸下言不由衷的面具，对真实的自己说声“对不起”。晚安。

For thousands of commenters, this cryptic post was a catharsis. On Friday, Beijing News and three other major Beijing newspapers ran four different editorials attacking Gary Locke and the U.S. government for using Chen Guangcheng as a “tool” against China. So many Weibo users lashed out against the Beijing Daily editorial that the paper’s name was scrubbed from Weibo search results later that day. It remains blocked as of posting.

“According to the relevant regulations and policies, search results for ‘Beijing Daily’ cannot be shown.”

After nearly 24 hours online, Beijing News’ apology finally disappeared.

Below are a selection of comments from among 3,407. More comments are available from CDT Chinese.

Translated by Deng Bolun.

HappyLife: Conscience is undying, it still has breath.
噜一世：良知未泯，一息犹存

XiaoYa0906: Seeing this Weibo late at night make my nose sting with tears. Striving for life squeezed in a crevice is very difficult. It’s fortunate that the conscience is undying. There is still hope.
小雅0906：深夜看到此微博，令人鼻酸。夹缝中求生存，殊为不易。好在良知未泯，希望尚在

zmat: In the 1980s, when I started working at a big American company, the company required this: when you are introducing the company and its products, you don’t have to say anything, but never can you speak irresponsibly or lie. When you have no choice but to your compare products with those of competitors, you can only point out the special features of our products, but by no means can you attack the competition. And you certainly can’t fabricate or obscure right and wrong.
zmat：八十年代，当我加入美国的大公司后，公司要求我们: 在与用户介绍公司和产品时，你可以不说，但绝不可以瞎说，不可以说谎。当你不得不与竞争对手的产品比较时，你只可以突出自己产品的特点，决不可以攻击对手，更不能无中生有，混淆是非。 (37分钟前)

freetree2010: In the still of the night, quietly recall your lost purity… Mourn it without sorrow, rage over it without dispute.
freetree2010：夜深人静，默默凭吊自己失去的清白。。。哀其不幸，怒其不争。(38分钟前)

WatermelonHangingInTheSky: This means something! The Beijing Daily would have done this eventually… At that last moment before death, isn’t this almost like consoling yourself…
天空不落的西瓜：意有所指哦！北京日报早晚会发的…..人到临死的一刻，也还不是差不多这自求宽慰的念想… (34分钟前)

AncientBenefactor: Reply to rcf123: I said it this morning. The person who wrote this also feels sick.
悠悠仁者：：回复@rcf123:早上，我说过了，写的人自己也觉得恶心(35分钟前)

BrightMoonDoesNotShineOnMe: It’s hard to take the taste of fooling your conscience as you act like a dog.
明月bu照我：瞒着良心做狗的滋味不好受吧

LightSleepInFragrance: I saw the editorial in the Beijing Daily. Those masses who don’t understand the real face of things hurled insults in their commentary on the editorial, and I knew the author’s evil influence was infinite. Isn’t the journalist’s job and responsibility to make the people understand the truth? How can you deceive the masses? Looking at this Weibo, it seems you still have some conscience.
撷芳浅寐：我看了北京日报的社论，那些不了解真相的民众今早在社论里的留言辱骂，就知道撰笔者流毒无穷。记者的职业职责不是让人们了真相吗?怎能蒙蔽群众？此微薄看出你还有点良知。(33分钟前)

OldSoldierTony: Perhaps only deep into the night can conscience climb from numb flesh. After light breaks, does it continue with that insincere numbness?
Tony老兵：也许只有深夜，良知才会从麻木的肉体中爬出，天亮后，是否还继续着言不由衷的麻木？

CaoguoXing: For those who live by the pen, insincerity means a length of shame and hurt.
曹国星: 言不由衷，对于以笔为业的人来说，是绵长的耻辱和痛苦。

Listen1999: Suppose it was me. I would compromise just the same. I’m not a revolutionary, and have no innate capacity to represent justice. I’m my parents’ son, a wife’s husband, my children’s father, my friends’ friend. Comparing these to justice, these are trivial responsibilities but still require effort. I admit I’m a coward and a weak-willed man. I understand a million times over that people like me allow them to run wild with arrogance. This suffers me through the slow, long night. Perhaps, just perhaps, one day I will for a split second become a warrior .
listen1999： 换成我，我也会同样的妥协。我不是革命家，也不能天生代表正义，我是父母的儿子，妻子的丈夫，儿女的爸爸，朋友的朋友，这些和正义相比微不足道的责任依然 需要承担。我承认自己是孬种和懦夫，明白千千万万这样的我让他们猖獗傲慢，让自己苦捱这慢慢长夜。也许，仅仅是也许，有一天，我会成为瞬间的勇士 (29分钟前)

ApacolypseSmokeRing: The best way to take care of your body is by being broadminded and openhearted. Excessive insincerity can hurt you. Please believe me, you must believe there are repercussions. Those who put their conscience up for sale will dream of ghosts throughout the night. Those who act against their conscience are more likely to get cancer.
末日烟圈：最好的养身方式，坦荡光明最健康。言不由衷扭曲过头后会很伤身。请相信，一定要相信有报应。出卖良心的人会彻夜梦鬼，做了违心事的人容易得癌。

WinterWizard: Thank you for your penitence.
冬天的格格巫: 谢谢忏悔 (38分钟前)

NuofeiAndNuoyu: You’ve sinned. I hope you’re saved soon.
若非and若鱼：作孽呀。愿你早日得救。(37分钟前)

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chen Guangcheng, Gary Locke, sina weibo, weibo
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Other: US + petition office, Gary Locke + petition office (Netizens have taken to calling the US embassy China’s “Supreme Petition Office” and Gary Locke its “director.” More from CDT Chinese.)
“拿美帝工资的中国信访办主任”：美国+信访办，骆家辉+信访办

Related to the Anniversary of Tiananmen: May Fourth + one month (Youth Day is exactly one month before June 4, the day the Tiananmen Massacre began), nine eight, eight nine (the latter two using the characters for writing numbers on checks)
六四纪念日相关：五四+一个月（五四青年节离六四正好一个月，因此有网友用词作为暗语），玖捌，捌玖

For other censored terms related to Chen Guangcheng, see our posts from April 27-28, May 2, and May 3.

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

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.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chen Guangcheng, filtered keywords, Gary Locke, Sensitive Words Series, Tiananmen
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• Chaoyang Hospital (朝阳医院)
• left of his own volition (自行离开)
• Gary Locke + hospital (骆家辉+医院)
• US + embassy (美+大使)
• Guangcheng (光cheng)
• guangcheng (guang诚)

The following terms are still blocked after a re-test:

• political asylum (政治庇护)
• Teng Biao (滕彪): Chen Guangcheng’s lawyer

For other censored terms related to Chen Guangcheng, see our posts from April 27-28 and May 2.

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

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.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chen Guangcheng, filtered keywords, Gary Locke, Sensitive Words Series, sina weibo, Teng Biao, weibo
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Chen’s call came into the iPhone of friend and fellow activist Bob Fu during the middle of the hearing of the Congressional Executive Commission on China (CECC), chaired by Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ). Fu and Smith ran out of the hearing room to take the call and returned minutes later to put Chen on speakerphone so that he could address the audience.

“I want to make the request to have my freedom of travel guaranteed,” Chen said in Chinese, with Fu translating.

Chen said he wants to come to the United States for a period of rest because he has not had any rest in 10 years.

“I want to meet with Secretary Clinton,” Chen said. “I also want to thank her face to face.”

According to the terms of his departure from the US embassy in Beijing on Wednesday, Chen was to be allowed to remain with his family in China, where he would study law at a university of his choice, away from his former captors in Shandong, at the expense of the Chinese government and under the watchful gaze of the US. But once outside the shelter of the embassy, he decided that this would be impossible. From The Washington Post:

Blind lawyer Chen Guangcheng on Thursday began a second night isolated in a central Beijing hospital, as police and security guards barred U.S. diplomats, journalists and Chen supporters from seeing him, and as the activist told various news outlets that he now wants to leave China with his family for asylum in the United States.

In an interview early Friday with The Washington Post, Chen clarified that he wants to go to the United States only temporarily and insists on the freedom to return to China. He said he left the U.S. Embassy on Wednesday of his own free will, but he charged that the Chinese government is reneging on promises to U.S. officials to fully restore his freedom.

“The U.S. Embassy helped me a lot,” Chen said. “But I don’t think the Chinese side is obeying the agreement well.”

U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke said Thursday that “it’s apparent now that he’s had a change of heart” and wants to go to the United States. Chen had previously insisted that he wanted to remain in China, U.S. officials said. In an interview broadcast on CNN, Locke said U.S. diplomats spoke twice with Chen by telephone Thursday and met in person with his wife, Yuan Weijing. He said the United States was now assessing how best to assist Chen.

See also a video interview with Chen from Reuters, via The Guardian, and Louisa Lim’s report for NPR.

Chen’s tone towards the US has softened since a series of telephone interviews on Wednesday, for example with CNN’s Steven Jiang:

Q: U.S. officials said you looked optimistic when you walked out of the embassy, what happened?

A: At the time I didn’t have a lot of information. I wasn’t allowed to call my friends from inside the embassy. I couldn’t keep up with news so I didn’t know a lot of things that were happening.

Q: What prompted your change of heart?

A: The embassy kept lobbying me to leave and promised to have people stay with me in the hospital. But this afternoon as soon as I checked into the hospital room, I noticed they were all gone ….

Q: Do you feel you were lied to by the embassy?

A: I feel a little like that.

Q: What has this ordeal taught you?

A: I feel everyone focuses too much on their self-interest at the expense of their credibility.

The earlier sense of betrayal may have been in part a product of Chen’s exhausted and emotionally strained state, evident in another interview with Newsweek’s Melinda Liu. Liu described his family’s isolation in the heavily guarded hospital, their difficulty in obtaining food, and the psychological toll that recent events had clearly taken:

I’ve known Chen Guangcheng for more than a decade—he’s been through intimidation, beatings, jail, and extralegal house arrest—but through it all I never sensed he was scared. Now he’s scared. Chen, whose case has escalated into a bilateral crisis that threatens to dominate Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s visit to Beijing this week, was weeping as he talked to me over the phone from his hospital bed.

Speaking to Liu, Chen appeared to contradict his earlier statement—stringently denied by US officials—that he had been told his wife would be beaten to death if he did not leave the embassy. But as others including Human Rights Watch executive director Kenneth Roth agreed, there was a clear implicit threat in the fact that she would otherwise be sent back to Shandong. From The Daily Beast, again:

He told me there was no explicit threat that she would be submitted to physical violence, “but nobody had to say it, I know what we’ve experienced all these years back in Shandong. Our home was surrounded by guards, lots of guards. Our friends weren’t allowed to visit. If we tried to go out we’d be beaten, often with clubs.” Security personnel had even escorted his young daughter to and from school; Chen and his wife hadn’t seen their son for two years before their reunion at the hospital.

While Chen had hoped to continue his activism in China, overriding concern for his newly reunited family spurred his decision to try to leave. From Alexa Oleson at The Associated Press:

Chen Guangcheng’s sudden change of heart to leave China after insisting for days he wanted to stay has caught his American supporters off guard. But his reason was simple: His family’s safety came first.

Reliant on relatives to be his eyes on the world, Chen and his family share a bond strengthened by years of enforced isolation and a shared fight against vengeful local officials. His son was taken from him two years ago. His daughter has been harassed, his wife beaten, his mother followed by guards as she tilled their fields ….

Photos of the reunion released Thursday by the U.S. show Chen in a wheelchair in a bright hospital hallway smiling warmly as he greeted his wife and two children. His 6-year-old daughter, Kesi, wore pigtails and his son of about 10, Kerui, was dressed in a T-shirt and sweat pants. In a second shot, Kerui rested a tentative hand on his father’s wheelchair.

The moment marked the first time in two years that the boy had seen his father, diplomats said.

Chen’s immediate family are not the only ones at risk, however, as lawyer Teng Biao rather forcefully pointed out in a recorded phone conversation. From Kenneth Tan’s translated transcript at Shanghaiist:

Teng Biao: I heard one of the guards watching over you was detained, the one that helped you escape. Is this true?

Chen Guangcheng: Nobody helped me escape. I escaped by myself.

TB: Have you heard about Pearl [Nanjing activist who helped Chen escape]?

CGC: No, but I heard she has disappeared.

TB: Yes, she has disappeared. Guo Yushan has also been released but he’s also in danger. Without a doubt, they are going to sort all you guys out later. They also promised in [1989] they would not punish anyone, but look what happened next – how many people did they shoot?

According to unconfirmed reports online, Pearl, or He Peirong, was back home but under house arrest on Wednesday; her car, covered with dust, was apparently found abandoned in her home city of Nanjing. In an ominous sign of further reprisals against Chen’s friends and supporters, Zeng Jinyan was also placed under house arrest on Thursday:

Activist Zeng Jinyan was taking her young daughter to school on Thursday morning when public security agents who had been following her in a black car informed her she wouldn’t be allowed to leave her home, she said in a post on her Twitter account.

“We will do our utmost to see to it that your daughter is picked up and dropped off and do our utmost to see to your daily needs. You can’t go out for these next few days,” she quoted the agents as saying.

Ms. Zeng had been among the first to cast doubt on the deal for Mr. Chen’s release the previous night, saying on Twitter that Mr. Chen and his wife had told her Mr. Chen was willing to leave China with his family but left the embassy out of fear for his family’s safety. Ms. Zeng wasn’t answering her phone Thursday afternoon.

Teng Biao has also cut off contact with the media. But journalists faced other problems as the authorities celebrated World Press Freedom Day in their own distinctive way. The BBC’s global news head Peter Horrocks complained that its own report on the obstruction of reporters was blocked:

Horrocks said the BBC was targeted over its coverage of Guangcheng, the blind Chinese activist who escaped house arrest and fled to the US embassy in Beijing.

“Today is World Press Freedom Day and during recent days we have learnt that BBC World News, our 24/7 international news channel, has been jammed by Chinese authorities during stories they regard as sensitive,” said Horrocks in a blogpost on the BBC’s website.

“This deliberate electronic interference of the channel’s distribution signal is just the latest in a long line of examples to block our impartial news and prevent it reaching audiences.”

The Committee to Protect Journalists provides more information on the obstruction of reporters on the case:

The Foreign Correspondents’ Club of China circulated an email to members Thursday, warning them that “reporters have had their press cards confiscated (hopefully just temporarily) and have been escorted from the premises at Chaoyang Hospital.” Chen was being treated at the hospital on Wednesday for injuries he sustained during his dramatic flight from extrajudicial house arrest to the U.S. embassy last week, according to international news reports. The story is censored in China.

In two separate incidents, men in plainclothes harassed and threatened media crews from two outlets who were attempting to visit Chen’s home on Tuesday and Wednesday, the news outlets reported. Stephen Jiang, an editor for CNN in Beijing, described his encounter on the CNN website, saying that “a half-dozen burly men stood guard,” which led to scuffling and a cameraman’s equipment being seized. The reporting trip was intended to “find Chen’s family—but couldn’t get close,” Jiang reported.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: BBC, Chen Guangcheng, Gary Locke, Hillary Clinton, journalists, Teng Biao, United States
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Blind activist Chen Guangcheng on Wednesday afternoon was in a car with U.S. Ambassador Gary Locke, being taken to a Beijing hospital. It was the first time Chen has emerged since he escaped from house arrest in his village, Dongshigu, in Shandong province, and spent a week hiding in Beijing before making a videotaped appeal to China’s prime minister and then seeking the protection of American diplomats.

Locke called The Washington Post from his car at about 3:30 p.m. to say he was with Chen. A Post correspondent spoke briefly to Chen on the phone, who said he was fine and on the way to the hospital.

“All indications,” wrote Human Rights Watch’s Nicholas Bequelin on Twitter, “are Chen Guangcheng and immediate family are heading into exile in the US.”

Xinhua acknowledged Chen’s escape for the first time, and reported the Foreign Ministry’s indignation at the US for sheltering him.

China demands the U.S to apologize for a Chinese citizen’s entering the U.S. Embassy in Beijing, Chinese Foreign Ministry said here Wednesday.

It is informed that Chen Guangcheng, a native from Yinan County of eastern China’s Shandong Province, entered the U.S. Embassy in Beijing in late April and left of his own volition after a six-day stay in the embassy, said Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin.

According to a longer Xinhua article in Chinese, Liu said that the US had interfered with China’s domestic politics by bringing a Chinese citizen into the embassy in an irregular manner; that the embassy had a duty to abide by the relevant international and Chinese laws, and should not overstep its proper function; and that China demanded an apology, thorough investigation, appropriate treatment of those responsible, and a guarantee that no such incidents should take place in future. The US should rethink its policy and conduct, he said, in the interests of US-China relations. China, he said finally, is “a country under rule of law”.

See Chen Guangcheng a “Free Citizen” With an Uncertain Future for recent developments prior to Chen’s departure from the embassy.

Update, 12:01pm PST: According to reports last night, a deal had been brokered to allow Chen Guangcheng to remain in China as a free man. He would have been able to attend a university of his choice, it was said, with the US diligently monitoring his safety. In a State Department release, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced:

I am pleased that we were able to facilitate Chen Guangcheng’s stay and departure from the U.S. Embassy in a way that reflected his choices and our values. I was glad to have the chance to speak with him today and to congratulate him on being reunited with his wife and children.

Mr. Chen has a number of understandings with the Chinese government about his future, including the opportunity to pursue higher education in a safe environment. Making these commitments a reality is the next crucial task. The United States Government and the American people are committed to remaining engaged with Mr. Chen and his family in the days, weeks, and years ahead.

The State Department also posted photos of Chen embracing and smiling with US officials.

By Wednesday evening, however, hope of the promised outcome appeared to have collapsed. Chen and supporters reported that he had left the embassy only under the threat of violence toward his family, and he appeared to have abandoned his long-standing hope of staying in China. From The Associated Press:

Hours later, however, a shaken Chen told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from his hospital room that U.S. officials told him the Chinese authorities would have sent his family back to his home province if he remained inside the embassy. He added that, at one point, the U.S. officials told him his wife would have been beaten to death.

“I think we’d like to rest in a place outside of China,” Chen said, appealing again for help from U.S. officials. “Help my family and me leave safely.”

State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement that no U.S. official spoke to Chen about physical or legal threats to his wife and children. Nor did the Chinese relay any such threats to American diplomats, she said. She did confirm that the Chinese intended to return his family to their home province of Shandong, where they had been detained illegally and beaten by local officials angry over Chen’s campaigns to expose forced abortions, and that they would lose any chance of being reunited.

The claim that promising to return the family to Shandong did not constitute a threat of violence was met with widespread derision. Human Rights Watch director Kenneth Roth stated that the two amounted to the “same thing“, Brendan O’Kane dismissed Nuland’s statement as “lawyerly parsing“, and Kellie Currie described it as “either clueless or disingenuous“.

The UK’s Channel 4 News also interviewed an emotional Chen by telephone:

“Nobody from the (US) Embassy is here. I don’t understand why. They promised to be here,” he added ….

“He sounded firm in the beginning when I ask him what he wanted to tell the world,” writes Channel 4 News producer Bessie Du. “I asked him if he told the embassy that he wanted to leave China, he said: ‘no, because I didn’t have enough information (to make a decision)’. Later he got more anxious and started crying: ‘I’m very sad..(long pause)..’ “I asked: ‘what are you sad about?’ and he said: ‘everything I’ve been through in the last few days’.

The BBC reported scorn on Sina Weibo for both the “unreliable” Americans and the “shameless” Chinese government, although the latter’s demand for an apology from the US was greeted with vocal approval by some nationalists. Meanwhile, a number of related terms such as “Chaoyang hospital” and “Gary Locke” were blocked on Weibo search.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Chen Guangcheng, Gary Locke, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, United States
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In a statement released Monday, Gary Locke called on authorities to release Ni Yulan and her husband, Dong Jiqin. Ms. Ni, 52 years old, was sentenced to two years and eight months in prison by a Beijing court on April 10 for fraud and “creating a disturbance.” Her husband was sentenced by the same court to two years in prison, also for creating a disturbance ….

Mr. Locke also expressed concern for the pair’s daughter, Dong Xuan, urging Chinese authorities to “cease any restrictions on the freedoms of [Ms. Ni and Mr. Dong's] family members.”

At a daily briefing on Monday, China Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin rejected the call. “We hope relevant countries will respect China’s judicial sovereignty,” he said in response to a question about Mr. Locke’s statement.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: forced demolitions, Gary Locke, housing right, Ni Yulan, prison, prison abuse
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