Maotai liquor flows freely at official banquets, and is often traded for social currency. Caixin reported early last year that “the brand value of Maotai is not supported by real market demand but speculation and government spending.” Before leaving office, former prime minister Wen Jiabao announced a ban on using public funding for Maotai, which sent the prize plummeting last summer. Now, to skirt Xi Jinping’s anti-corruption efforts, officials are decanting Maotai into water bottles.

Chinese officials often claim whistleblowers have “ulterior motives.”

Despite what should be meager salaries, public servants have been spotted driving Audis and sporting Rolex watches. A Shaanxi official lost his job last summer after he was photographed grinning at the scene of a traffic accident. Netizens found images of Yang Dacai wearing at least 11 different luxury watches, earning him the nickname “Watch Brother.” After last month’s earthquake, a Sichuanese Party secretary tried perhaps too hard to avoid Yang’s fate–his watch tan gave him away.

Officials have been caught red-handed with multiples of all these items; the hukou, or household registration, is perhaps the most egregious. The hukou system marks people as rural or urban residents. Rural migrants live illegally in China’s cities, surviving without any social services. So netizens were livid this January when the “house sisters” were found owning multiple properties–under multiple hukou.

Last November, a 12-second sex tape of Chongqing official Lei Zhengfu surfaced online, leading to jokes about the man’s stamina, as well as his removal from office. Zhao Hongxia secretly taped herself having sex with Lei and other officials as blackmail. She could now face up to 15 years in prison.

Upon learning of industrial pollution of a river in his hometown of Rui’an, businessman Jin Zengmin challenged local Environmental Protection Bureau Chief Bao Zhenming to swim in the river for 20 minutes. Jin offered 200,000 yuan (about US$32,414) if Bao took on the dare [zh]. But Bao insisted that the garbage in the river came from residents, not factories.

This February, investigative journalist and social activist Deng Fei asked his Weibo followers to take pictures of the waterways in their hometowns as they returned for the Chinese New Year (Spring Festival). This lead him to the case of Weifang, Shandong Province, where industry has allegedly polluted the groundwater as far as a meter down. Just days later, the Weifang government stated that it had investigated 715 local businesses and found no water contamination at all [zh].

Although Xi Jinping has vowed to fight corruption among both “tigers and flies,” private citizens calling for government officials to make their assets public knowledge have met with arbitrary arrest.

In February, some locales announced new restrictions on information about properties sold [zh], ostensibly to protect the customer’s privacy and trade secrets.

“Naked officials” move their families–and their funds–out of the country, not just for better quality of life, but also as a backup should their political fortunes change.

 
Via CDT Chinese. Translation by Mengyu Dong.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Drawing the News, financial disclosure, household registration, hukou, official corruption, political cartoons, political humor
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We Live in a Country of Strict Hierarchy

This morning, I was utterly irate over a notice my kid brought home from school. Yesterday, my child came home from school with a notice from the Shanghai Education Bureau about registering for Shanghai Residents Health Insurance at our own expense. It dictated that only three categories of people could register their kids. The first category was for kids with Shanghai hukou [residence permits]. The second was for children whose parents hold a Residential Permit A for nonnative talented individuals. The third was for kids whose parents hold a Residential Permit B for nonnative talented individuals–in other words, those with foreign citizenship. I threw the notice away immediately because we didn’t belong to any of those three categories.

As a consequence, my kid was held by his teacher after school, and we had to go pick him up. The reason was because my child did not return the health care program notice back to the teacher. This morning, I wrote several sentences on the notice and gave it to my child to turn in to the teacher.

(image text, printed:)

I) For those who will take part in the residential health insurance program, please check the box that corresponds to your circumstances:

1. Student is registered with a local residential permit.

2. Child’s parents are “Nonnative Talents” (beginning with CW9)

3. Child’s parents are “Nonnative Talents Type B” (beginning with CR, FR, etc)

II) If not participating in the 2013 residential health insurance program, please specify the reasons below:

 

(handwritten text from image:)

Ridiculous policy! This purposefully categorizes people into different classes. We are low-class people, none of the above.

We are Chinese, but we aren’t even qualified to have our kids registered for residential health insurance–not even at our own expense! How can this school still go about educating our kids to love the party and love our mother country?

Via CDT Chinese. Translation by Mengyu Dong.

© Little Bluegill for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: health insurance, household registration, hukou, urban life
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Wang Dexue in tears.

The following censorship instructions, issued to the media by central government authorities, have been leaked and distributed online.

Central Propaganda Department: With regards to State Administration of Work Safety Vice Director Wang Dexue crying during his inspection of the collapse of the Lianluo Highway Yichang Bridge, do not sensationalize the story. (February 4, 2013)
中宣部：对国家安监局副局长王德学视察连霍高速义昌大桥垮塌事故现场时流泪一事，不炒作。

The February 4 crash in Henan Province left ten dead and 11 injured. The local government states that it will compensate victims and their families according to “Henan standard,” which differs according to household registration (hukou): over RMB400,000 for urban hukou holders, but only up to RMB180,000 for rural hukou [zh].

Wang Dexue’s tears at the scene of the crash are assumed by many to be insincere. He has earned the nickname “New Watch Brother” (新表哥), after the Shaanxi official photographed grinning at the scene of a road accident last summer. “New Watch Brother” is already blocked from Sina Weibo search results.

“According to the relevant laws and regulations, search results for ‘New Watch Brother’ cannot be displayed.”

Chinese journalists and bloggers often refer to these instructions as “Directives from the Ministry of Truth.” CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: censorship, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, Henan, household registration, hukou, media censorship, Ministry of Truth, propaganda, sina weibo, traffic accidents, Wang Dexue, weibo
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Central Propaganda Department: Follow Xinhua wire copy in covering the “Older House Sister case.” Do not sensationalize the story. Cease production of independent reports and commentary. (January 29, 2013)

中宣部：对“房姐事件”按新华社通稿刊播，不炒作，不再自行作其它报道评论。

Gong Aiai, former vice president of Shenmu Rural Commercial Bank in Shaanxi Province, has used at least four household registration (hukou) identifications to purchase multiple properties in Beijing, Xi’an, and Shaanxi worth over one billion yuan (US$160 million). She is not to be confused with “Younger House Sister,” the daughter of former Zhengzhou Housing Administration Director Zhai Zhenfeng, who used two hukou to purchase 11 homes.

Central Propaganda Department: No media or websites are to recommend, discuss, or republish coverage of Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China. (January 29, 2013)

中宣部：各媒体和网站对《邓小平时代》一书不推荐，不评论、不转载。

Ezra Vogel, professor emeritus of Harvard University, published a sweeping biography of Deng Xiaoping in 2011. Feng Keli’s translation has just been published.

Central Propaganda Department: Strictly adhere to Xinhua wire copy in covering the Bo Xilai and Wang Lijun incidents and related issues. No media or website is to independently produce any other form of report or comment, or to link to other material. (January 29, 2013)

中宣部：关于薄熙来，王立军事件及相关问题的报道严格按新华社通稿刊播，各媒体及网站不自行作其他任何形式的报道、打分，也不作链接回放。

Central Propaganda Department: The trial for the July 28 Qidong case will begin soon. If covering the story, all media are without exception to use wire copy provided by Xinhua or the Jiangsu provincial government. Do not send reporters to the scene of the incident or to the court. (January 29, 2013)

中宣部：江苏南通启东728案件近日将开庭审理，各媒体如作报道一律采取新华社通稿或江苏省提供的通稿，不派记者到事发地或庭审地采访。

CDT has collected the selections we translate here from a variety of sources and has checked them against official Chinese media reports to confirm their implementation.

Since directives are sometimes communicated orally to journalists and editors, who then leak them online, the wording published here may not be exact. The original publication date on CDT Chinese is noted after the directives; the date given may indicate when the directive was leaked, rather than when it was issued. CDT does its utmost to verify dates and wording, but also takes precautions to protect the source.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2013. | Permalink | 2 comments | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Bo Xilai, censorship, Deng Xiaoping, Directives from the Ministry of Truth, Ezra Vogel, Gong Aiai, household registration, hukou, Internet censorship, media censorship, Ministry of Truth, official corruption, Older House Sister, propaganda, Qidong, Wang Lijun, Younger House Sister, Zhai Zhenfeng
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The NDRC said the government would focus on improving the quality of urbanization by investing in urban infrastructure such as sewage and heating systems.

It also said that authorities will “perfect the land-management system” as part of the urbanization drive, without elaborating. China’s legislature is considering a proposal to amend the land-management law to reduce the unfair requisition of farmers’ land and give them better compensation for their land rights.

However, even after this reform, rural residents would still have no formal ownership rights to land, and would still have to lease it from local governments. This means they would face difficulty selling their land when they moved to cities, keeping them tied to their home villages and presenting another barrier to urbanization.

China’s massive wealth gap has been driven largely by the hukou system, which classifies citizens as urban and rural and limits where they can live, work, attend school and tap into the country’s social welfare system. As David Pierson of the Los Angeles Times reported last week, the hukou system “has created a modern economic chasm between city dwellers and peasants that threatens China’s economic future as a powerhouse world economy.”

The South China Morning Post’s Tom Holland wrote on Monday that revamping the hukou system is critical to lifting the fortunes of peasants, and would prove Beijing is serious about reform:

They have little job security. They are refused access to public housing. And they are denied pension and health-care benefits. Their children are often turned down by local schools, which means they score poorly in standard educational tests, reducing their later earning power.

As a result, migrants from the countryside not only earn less than their neighbours with urban registrations, they also tend to save a higher proportion of their income as a precaution against future hardships.

Because of the hukou system, about 30 per cent of the mainland’s urban population are underpaid, deprived of social benefits and constrained in their ability to consume.

The economic damage this system inflicts is severe. According to one estimate, if migrants had earned as much and spent as much of their income as regular city-dwellers, consumer spending would have been higher last year by more than 500 billion yuan (HK$629.6 billion). That would have been enough to boost China’s rate of gross domestic product by a whole percentage point.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: household registration, hukou, National Development and Reform Commission, reform
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Tang Hui, whose daughter was raped and beaten for three months in 2006, is in a re-education through labor camp.

The mother of a rape victim in Hunan Province has been sent to a re-education through labor camp for “disruption of social order.” Tang Hui’s 11-year-old daughter went missing for three months in 2006. Tang eventually found her daughter being prostituted in a local spa, the victim of repeated beatings and rape. In 2008, two suspects in the abduction were sentenced to death, two others to life in prison. Another two defendants were charged with rape and given jail terms. Unhappy with the verdict and fighting the defendants’ appeals, Tang wrangled with the courts until this June, when the sentences were strengthened to two death penalties, four life imprisonments and one 15-year term for another defendent. But Tang, who had blocked traffic in front of the court and slept in its hallways, was given 18 months of hard labor for being a nuisance.

Netizens have been up in arms about Tang’s fate. Under the re-education through labor system, established in the 1950s, suspects can be detained and sent to the camps without a trial or conviction. On Weibo, over 11,600 survey participants have voted for the system to be abolished. The survey compares labor re-education to the defunct custody and repatriation system, a policy upheld from 1982 to 2003 under which Chinese citizens found without a hukou (household registration) or permit for their place of residence could be detained and sent back home.

Weibo survey on re-education through labor. It reads, “Labor re-education is a form of punishment administered according to the relevant laws and regulations of the State Council. Under the system, public security organs do not need a trial to convict someone of a crime and may immediately put the criminal suspect into a re-education labor camp for up to four years, where (s)he is subjected to restrictions on his/her personal liberties, forced labor and ideological education. Many scholars believe the system had a positive effect during a specific moment in Chinese history, but that it is no longer suitable. The system has therefore come under increased scrutiny. The situation became even more prominent after the abolition of the custody and repatriation system.” Over 97% of respondents believe “re-education through labor must be abolished immediately,” while almost 3% think “the system is good and practical” and “should not be abolished.”

Prominent voices have come out against labor re-education in the past few days, most notably the author Murong Xuecun. “Tang’s case shows barbarism and inaction of the law enforcement agencies, but also the darkness and cruelty of the labor re-education system,” he writes. “If labor re-education is not abolished, citizens will never be secure” (Tea Leaf Nation). Sadly, the anger made so visible on Weibo has been simmering for years. In late 2009, legal scholars circulated a “Citizens’ Petition to Abolish Labor Re-education” (关于废除劳动教养制度的公民建议). Economist Mao Yushi, lawyer Jiang Ping and 67 other public intellectuals signed the document, which recommended the National People’s Congress investigate the constitutionality of the practice. A separate petition written in the summer of 2010 garnered over 1000 signatures May 2011 [zh]. Clearly, these efforts bore no fruit.

Weibo changes the equation. The outrage on display there has fed into the decision to investigate Tang’s case, a development reported in the People’s Daily. The government mouthpiece also written a shockingly progressive Weibo post of its own, saying “a country’s greatness cannot be solely supported by GDP and Olympic gold medals, but should encompass people’s rights and dignity, social fairness and justice” (WSJ). Netizens have applauded the People’s Daily for “serving the people” at last. But even if public pressure wins Tang her freedom, it remains to be seen if the re-education through labor system itself will remain intact. Weibo has brought justice to individual cases like Tang’s, but has failed to affect systemic change.

Read more netizen reactions from CDT Chinese.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: household registration, hukou, Hunan, Jiang Ping, Mao Yushi, Murong Xuecun, National People's Congress, Netizen Voices, netizens, people's daily, re-education through labor, sina weibo, Tang Hui, weibo
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Translated by Harriet Xu.

How Many Fetuses Have Been Killed in the Past 40 Years?

According to statistics from the Ministry of Health’s 2010 Yearbook, the record for number of abortions in one year was set in 1983, with 14.37 million procedures. Since 2000, the number of surgical abortions has stabilized around 7 million annually. This number peaked in 2008, with 9.17 million abortions.

The data includes procedures performed at standard hospitals as well as voluntary, mandated and forced procedures at family planning centers. This does not include procedures at private clinics (often in conservative areas where abortions are sex-selective or performed on unmarried women) or the 1.5 million medical [i.e. pharmaceutically induced] abortions.

Mandated abortion began as a pilot in 1971 and was promoted nationally in 1973. The number of voluntary surgical abortions in the early 1970s was far below the number performed today.

Just like rape, mandated abortions employ violence and coercion. There are “population schools” that illegally detain the parents, grandparents and husband of the pregnant woman, or even the woman herself, in order to force them into “willingness.” Neighbors, too, will scare the pregnant woman into “willingness,” and there are even damages incurred to residences in order to scare one into “willingness” (a residence is not only property, it is a person’s “skin” of physical, health and personal rights). These tactics undoubtedly fall within the scope of mandated abortion. However, because people fear the cost of penalty fines, and because family planning inevitably leads to sex-selective abortions performed by family planning staff, these should not really be called mandated abortions, but forced abortions. Many people may agree with this definition, but have no way of altering it. We will never fully know how many abortions are mandated, how many forced and how many voluntary.

© Anne.Henochowicz for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: abortion, forced abortions, Harriet Xu, household registration, hukou, one-child policy, sex-selective abortion
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