[Lu Yeqin, Villager]:
“Officials from the village sold land. This land originally belonged to the villagers. After it was sold, the [villagers] were not given any money for it. The villagers are upset, and after all, this land was passed down through their family business. They rely on the land for their livelihood, but now it has been sold.”

Police did not stop more than 3000 villagers from marching to the village committee, but neither have the villagers received a response from local officials.

Local resident Mrs. Ma says the turnout has been huge.

[Mrs. Ma, Villager]:
“Everyone from the village came out. Today we will march again, and the whole village should come. I have even seen kids coming out, passing by my building.”

The Chinese blogosphere is buzzing with chatter about the demonstrations in Panhe East and West, where tensions between local residents and officials have followed a Wukan-like trajectory. From Tea Leaf Nation, which also posted images that had surfaced on Sina Weibo yesterday:

As reported on the Internet portal China.com, the Panhe Village Committee spent the last several years selling off piece after piece of Panhe’s land, all without the villagers’ knowledge. On June 11, 2011, a Wenzhou copper company brought thugs and local police as it began to mine pieces of ancestral land, leading to a confrontation that saw villagers injured, including women and the elderly. The report further states that after villagers’ attempts to report the matter were ignored, they retaliated on October 16, 2011 by attacking the property of another local company. In response, the report continues, the local government arrested nine villagers, two of whom are still in custody.

World Journal, a popular Chinese-language newspaper in North America, reports that government officials and police fled the small village of approximately 5,000 in October of last year following a violent confrontation with villagers in which more than ten were arrested. The reports agree that villagers’ demands for compensation were substantially ignored by authorities.

According to World Journal, the Wukan uprising’s ultimate success inspired Panhe villagers to decide to hold widespread demonstrations starting February 1.  Since that time, the report continues, demonstrators have circled the village unmolested. The street demonstrations shown in photographic accounts include demonstrators waving banners with slogans such as, “Denounce the Local Panhe Government’s Deceit Of The Masses,” “Down With Corrupt Officials,” and “Reselling Land And Destroying Fertile Farmland Is A Heinous Crime.”

See also CDT coverage of a new survey in which 43% of farmers reported being victims of land grabs. The Council on Foreign Relations’ Elizabeth Economy wrote Tuesday that “more Wukans are on China’s horizon” unless China creates a real system of official accountability or enforces the rule of law.

© Scott Greene for China Digital Times (CDT), 2012. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: chinese communist party, corruption, Guangdong, land grab protests, Panhe, sina weibo, social media, Wukan, Zhejiang
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Hu Xijin, Chief Editor of the party newspaper Global Times, posted on his Sina Weibo account about an editorial on Oct. 28 titled “Whatever the reason, perpetrators of violence must be harshly punished.” Readers left angry comments about Hu’s “double standard” for protesters and government officials. Many compare the Huzhou riots to the assault on ordinary citizens attempting to visit Chen Guangcheng, an activist who has remained under house arrest since he finished serving a four-year prison sentence in September 2010.

Below are the comments on Sina Weibo responding to Hu.

XuwuSky99: I didn’t dare to comment before learning the truth of the incident, so I tried to search “Huzhou Tax Riot” on Sina Weibo, and… [“Huzhou Tax Riot” (湖州抗税) became a banned Sina Weibo search term soon after the riot.]
虚无天空99：在未了解事实真相之前我不敢妄加评论，于是我在微博上搜索“湖州抗税”，结果…… [“湖州抗税” is a banned Sina Weibo search keyword!]

Langligelang: I can’t even find the right word to describe you.
啷晲咯啷：找不到合适的形容来形容你

WallYiyuan: No taxation without representation? Not to mention that we have no rights and are still forced to pay more taxes? If we don’t cooperate, we’re just compelled [to pay]?
烦墙一员：无权利不纳税？何况没权利，还被逼涨税？不配合，就强制？

DandingdeBiange: There’ll only be fewer and fewer people who believe in “Fifty Cents“. What a pity, just like the man in a case…
淡定的变革：相信五毛的人只会越来越少，真可怜，活在套子里的人

Papillonn: Are you afraid?
Papillonn：怕了？

Kaqiushadehongqiuku: I support the protests against heavy taxation.
喀秋莎的红秋裤：支持反抗重赋税

M—–O: It’s the right thing to say, but the order is reversed!!! Government officials should take responsibility first. You can’t chop off the heads of ordinary citizens at the first sign of a mistake… Is “serving the people” just a load of crap?
M—–O：话是对的，顺序错了！！！先对官员追责才是正理，不能一出错就拿老百姓开刀…………为人民服务是用来当屁放的吗？

Amen’s Disciple: “The law is not a shield.”
阿门的信徒：“法律不是挡箭牌”

Fan-tian: It seems that you’re punishing the guilty and the innocent indiscriminately while putting on an objective face. You know exactly where your butt is parked: who’s winning with whom?
范-昀：貌似各打五十大板，装出客观的面目。你的屁股坐在哪里其实你很淸楚：谁赢跟谁.

ShuishouxingbadaRhp: rpReply to @CaoJiansheng: It’s as if a man was bitten by a tiger and a group of people then attack the tiger, only for those people to be punished instead of the tiger! What’s going on? And why?
水手辛巴达Rhp：回复@曹健生:犹如老虎咬伤了人，人们把它给打了，最后竟然抓打虎的人，而不对老虎进行严惩！那是什么？又是为什么？

Ziyou-SH: By the looks of these comments, the public’s praise for Editor Hu is not so good.
子由-SH：看了下评论，胡主编的口碑可不太好

PunishGuangcheng: The major and minor issues here are getting confused. The government hasn’t been held accountable and officials haven’t been punished. Even killing all the troublemakers wouldn’t solve anything. Before talking to the people about the law, shouldn’t the government abide by the law first?
刑光誠：主次不分，政府不被問責，官員不遭懲處，把鬧事者殺光也無濟於事。在跟人民談法律之前，政府是否應該自己守法先？

YeXiaoting: How have the two officials mentioned in the last two sentences been penalized?
叶潇亭：对后两句提到的官员做何惩罚？

ZhongweiLuowen: On July 23 I didn’t hear you call for accountability, I only heard you call for everyone to continue supporting the high-speed rail.
中尉罗文：7.23也没见你这么强烈的呼吁追责，当时我可是只看到你呼吁大家要继续支持高铁

CoffeeAddictLife: Editor Hu, let’s see if you can gather a crowd of hundreds.
咖啡上瘾的日子：胡编，看看你有本事聚集几百人吗

BlackClothesClerk (黑大衣总书记)：go fuck yourself, asshole

HumbleThoughts: Editor Hu has turned a blind eye to the violent crackdown of Chen Guangcheng’s visitors!!!! Do you mean to say the violence here shouldn’t be investigated? Go back to your shitty Global Times.
淡泊相思：胡编对于探望陈光诚者受的暴力却视而不见！！！！难道在这里暴力不应该受到追究吗？去你的环球屎报

ShaLao’er: You’ve blocked every route. There’s nowhere left to go! And under these circumstances you add such heavy taxes. I support the protesters.
沙老贰：你们把路都占了，让别人无路可走！！这种环境下还加这么重的税，支持这些抗税者

MaiErsi: Are you scared? Though you may jump for joy today, tomorrow you’ll have bills to pay. Isn’t violent revolution the most effective tool of the proletariat? [Do you remember] who said that? You’re from the propertied class, aren’t you?
卖饵丝：你怕了吧？别看今天跳得欢，小心日后拉清单。无产阶级解放自己的最有效手段不是暴力革命么？这是谁说的？难道你是有产阶级？

vBabylonv: People curse Chief Hu’s words most of the time. For the minority, does Chief Hu command the truth? Over more than half a year of examination, Chief Hu’s thinking still seems to be nothing special…
v巴比伦v：胡总的话，绝大多数时候大家都骂，是不是真理掌握在少数人你胡总手里？半年多的观察，胡总心智确实一般……

Wu Youmiao Ponders Chinese Higher Education: Fifty-Cent Hu, when injustice becomes the law, resistance becomes an obligation. Get it?
吴有淼思考中国高等教育：胡五毛 当不义成为法律时 抵抗就成为义务 你懂不 ？

QinweiViviXie (沁薇ViviXie)：sure… but the problem is that the Global Times is just full of bullshit, nobody even cares what you guys say seriously dude… full of propaganda bs…

ChenfengShuming: A Global Times editorial published on the 28th said: “Whatever the reason, perpetrators of violence must be harshly punished.” This means that no matter how I bribe, break the law, do violence, or steal… You want a protest dealt with according to the law.
尘封宿命：环球时报28日发社评：无论何因，施暴者都应依法受惩。—–意思就是无论我如何贪赃、枉法、施暴、掠夺。。。你要反抗就都应依法受惩。

Wen-Ruhua: You’re always talking about the present conditions! The people are just a bunch of bums, even individual rights aren’t protected. What present conditions are you talking about?
温-儒华：总是谈大局!老百姓一介P民，连个人利益都没有保障，谈何大局？

Baozoulaohu: Bullshit.
暴走老胡：放屁

MayIBeAngry: I’ll never read your retarded, brain-washed Global Times [again]
可以不可以愤怒: 永远不会看你的弱智洗脑环球时报

ZhangZhihan5028: When the people violate the law you lecture them on the law, but when the country disregards the law and uses violence on the people, you just talk about the state of the nation. (Propaganda bullshit should not be exploited by Western influence.)
张智涵5028：当老百姓违法的时候你给他讲法律，可是当国家带头无法无天的对民众施暴的时候，你却对他讲国情（宣传狗屁的不要被西方势力利用之类）

madewildatheart: Forward this weibo: If you talk to him about the law, he’ll violate you; if you violate him, he’ll talk to you about the law.
madewildatheart：转发此微博:你和他讲法律，他跟你耍流氓；你和他耍流氓，他跟你讲法律

EastSpringWaterggp: The state has not yet established transparency, nor does it allow citizens to restrict the government’s abuse of power or to ensure the impartiality of the courts. What right do you have to invoke the law so sanctimoniously? How can matters proceed according to the law?
东流之春水ggp：国家未建立让政府权力公开透明,没有让公民们用自己的权利制约政府滥用公权力,保证司法公正,有什么资格在这里道貌岸然的口口声的喊法律,依法如何

ResoluteRocknRoll: Whenever anything happens the first thing the authorities do is cut off the information flow. Then they send the Fifty Centers to sway public opinion! It goes like this again and again.
毅起摇滚：每次出事都是官方先封锁消息.再派一些五毛党媒企图扭转舆论！反反复复都是这样的

XiangwangShaolin: Always invoke the rights of the state to violate the rights of the individual, did I get that right?
香王少林：总是以国家权利为借侵犯个人权利，是这意思吗？

Shrew’s Dad Chen Chao: Oh yes, right, “Whatever the reason, perpetrators of violence must be harshly punished.” May I ask when those brutes in “East Skeleton” (Dongshigu) will be punished?
悍妞她爸陈超：嗯，对的，无论何因，施暴者都应依法受惩。请问何时惩罚东尸骨的施暴者？

Zhang Family Circle: You let the officials set a fire, but forbid the people to light a lamp! Everyone’s just venting their dissatisfaction with the government. They haven’t torn down any houses, occupied any land, and they certainly haven’t shut anyone in the insane asylum~The party’s paper really is just the party’s paper. It makes a farce of life, just like CCTV news!
張家大圓子：只准州官放火，不许百姓点灯！大家只是发泄对政府的不满，可没有强拆人家房，强占人家地，更没有把人关进精神病院哦～党报到底是党报，和新闻联播一样全当生活笑料！

IdealWings: You little shit, you say nothing about the government collecting the machinery head tax, nothing about the machinery head tax doubling. That’s what lead to the tax protest. You’ve twisted the story，you dog-banger!
理想之翅：你这个狗屎，不说政府收机头税，不说机头税增加了一倍，才导致了抗税事件，歪曲报道，你个狗日的！

XiaojieziJ: Please find the real thugs.
小杰子J：请找出真正的施暴者

duan003: Forward this weibo: Look at how you treat the cases of Linyi and Huzhou. Is the law a waistband you can relax and tighten?
duan003：转发此微博:看看你就临沂和湖州的两套标准，法律是裤腰带么，可松可紧？

boao_zhong: If you you could look at the violence government-hired gangsters have visited on Chen Guangcheng and say, “Whatever the reason, perpetrators of violence must be harshly punished,” and don’t just say it’s the village environment and the state of the country [that's to blame], then I would believe you.
boao_zhong：你要是能在陈光诚或去看他的人被政府雇佣的匪徒施暴时，也能说句“无论何因，施暴者都应受严惩”，而不是什么农村环境，国情论，我就信你。

Matt’s Bacon: Why haven’t they punished the people who beat up Chen Guangcheng? Where did you come up with your double standard?
马修腊肉：对陈光诚施暴的为什么可以不受严惩？？？你的双重标准是如何制定的？

IsAnyoneStillNamedLiYaning: Why violence? Because are other routes have dead-ended.
还有人叫李亚宁吗：为什么会发生暴力?因为正常途径堵死了。

PoetKnight: It’s all over. There’s no one left to trust…
诗剑侠：完了, 又没人信了…

© fionasmith for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Global Times, Hu xijin, protest, taxes, violence, Zhejiang
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The report did not explain why the business owner did not want to pay his taxes. But a local doctor surnamed Zhao contacted by The Associated Press said he had heard that town authorities were imposing a higher tax rate for migrant businesses than for local ones, causing unhappiness among the group who were from neighboring Anhui province.

The Huzhou Online said police had detained five suspects and that another 23 suspects were being held as part of the investigation.

Around 100 protesters swarmed toward the township government offices, hurled rocks and destroyed street lamps, smashing the windows of more than 30 private cars, said the Zhejiang Online, a provincial news website. It added that several police and urban management officers were injured.

Protesters also smashed an Audi car, whose driver ran the vehicle into the group, knocking down 10 people, the Zhejiang Online said. All 10 were hospitalized and the driver was being held by police, it said.

Reuters published a set of photos from the scene, and reported that searches for Zhili on Sina Weibo had been blocked, though photos posted of the riots could be found through other search terms. The riots indicate growing agitation among migrants, middle- and lower-class households and private businesses in a Chinese economy marked by stagnant incomes and high inflation. From The Wall Street Journal:

The protests come as smaller private-sector firms, many of which are concentrated in the area near Shanghai, have been squeezed by government efforts to tap the brakes on economic growth in order to tame inflation. Those efforts have limited credit for some small firms, which in turn prompted new government measures this month to help small- and medium-size businesses.

See also previous CDT coverage of the credit squeeze underway in the mid-section of China’s economy and the surge in “mass incidents” as a means to address grievances.

Update: The Zhili government announced Friday it will rescind the tax in question as more details surrounding the cause of the riots emerged. From The Wall Street Journal:

According to people interviewed by telephone in Zhili, the disturbance followed aggressive collection of new charges for the use of machines used to make children’s wear, the town’s mainstay product. The tax was targeted at small, independent workshops that often aren’t licensed and are manned mostly by migrant laborers who earn money per piece produced.

They said workshop managers were being charged between 300 yuan (about $48) and 600 yuan for each machine used, in what Chinese discussing the matter online called the “sewing-machine tax.” It amounts to about twice as much as was collected in the past. An unidentified man who apparently objected to the payment rallied others to join this week’s protest, locals said.

…

China’s economy is slowing and the Zhili government’s pullback on tax levies reflects a strategy Beijing is increasingly likely to take to soften pain of the deceleration, according to analysts. This week, the central government said it would reduce double-taxation of certain transportation in China, a move expected to encourage some business activity and amounts to a philosophical change, according to analysts.

This tax reform is part of the structural tax reduction, and thus can be viewed as a signal of expansionary fiscal policy,” Minggao Shen, a Citigroup economist said in a research note Friday.The influence on China of a weak global economy is clearly being seen in Zhejiang province, home to nearly 50 million people and by some measures the country’s wealthiest region. Nearly 12% of China’s total exports came from the province in August. But Zhejiang factory owners say their already-thin margins are disappearing.

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Post tags: Chinese migrants, inflation, riots, sina weibo, taxes, Zhejiang
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Muifa was downgraded from a typhoon to a severe tropical storm on Monday but was still causing huge disruption.

It is now expected to make landfall somewhere between Zhuanghe in Liaoning province and western North Korea on Monday evening.

Qingdao city in Shandong province shut its beaches as the storm swept by ….

China’s official Xinhua news agency said the storm had destroyed nearly 170 homes and caused damage estimated at 1.9bn yuan ($290m; £176m) in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

Xinhua reports on storm defence efforts at a vulnerable chemical plant in Dalian:

Workers driving forklifts on Monday rushed to repair a dike guarding a chemical plant breached by powerful waves triggered by an approaching tropical storm in Northeast China over fears of a toxic chemical spill.

Waves as high as 20 meters, fueled by strong winds, broke the dike in Jinshan Industrial Zone of Dalian city, at about 10:30 am, threatening to hit the compound of Fujiahua chemical plant where toxic chemicals were held, said soldiers who participated in the rescue.

Residents in nearby areas are being evacuated.

Update: The Associated Press reports that the situation at the Fujiahua plant appears to be under control:

A tropical storm lashed northeastern China and the Korean peninsula on Monday, but fears of a toxic chemical spill appeared to have eased after a breached dike guarding a chemical plant was reinforced ….

An official from Dalian’s Propaganda Department referred to two reports on a Dalian news website that said the danger had been controlled and the dike was being reinforced with large stones and concrete. The official gave only his surname, Zhang, as is common with Chinese officials.

The U.S. Embassy, however, urged Americans in the area to “take all necessary precautions.”

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Post tags: chemical spill, dalian, Liaoning, Shandong, storms, typhoon, Zhejiang
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“From the point of view of the common people, this policy is unfair,” said Wang Bo, the owner of L’Infusion, a cafe that features crepes, waffles and the companionship of several dozing cats. “It’s just an effort to control the flow of information ….”

The new measures, it would appear, are designed to eliminate a loophole in “Internet management” as it is called, one that has allowed laptop- and iPad-owning college students and expatriates, as well as the hip and the underemployed, to while away their days at cafes and lounges surfing the Web in relative anonymity. It is this demographic that has been at the forefront of the microblogging juggernaut, one that has revolutionized how Chinese exchange information in ways that occasionally frighten officials ….

One bookstore owner said she had already disconnected the shop’s free Wi-Fi, and not for monetary reasons. “I refuse to be part of an Orwellian surveillance system that forces my customers to disclose their identity to a government that wants to monitor how they use the Internet,” said the woman, who feared that disclosing her name or that of her shop would bring unwanted attention from the authorities.

China Daily noted that the new requirement, which is similar to existing rules for Internet cafés, is to spread nationwide:

A report in Beijing News said the public security department revealed that the regulation has been introduced in the capital and will be applied across the country.

Cafe owners contacted by China Daily reporters in Shanghai, and in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, said they had been notified of the new measure.

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Post tags: Beijing, Hangzhou, Internet cafes, Internet surveillance, microblogging, Shanghai, Zhejiang
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Hangzhou Boulevard, the main axis through the park, is a road to nowhere. While local officials say all the plots have been sold, not a single person or vehicle can be seen on the streets. The park is instead home to just a handful of factories and the land is mainly occupied by jade speculators ….

Every year when the snow melts on the Kunlun mountains, which separate Xinjiang from Tibet, the Yurungkash River carries the precious stones downstream, leaving them right at the feet of Hotan residents.

The ground in the industrial park, which is situated on a former riverbed, is covered with stones and most of the still empty plots have been dug up in search of jade ….

“This ‘help for Xinjiang’ does not help us at all, they are giving away what belongs to us,” says one Uighur jade trader who asked not to be named because of fears for his safety.

See also: China Says 18 Killed in Xinjiang Attack, on the recent violence in Hotan.

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Post tags: Hotan, Tibet, Xinjiang, Xinjiang development, Zhejiang
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The accident occurred after high-speed train D3115 was allegedly hit by lightning and lost drive, and then rear-ended by another bullet train D301.

The former train was running from the provincial capital Hangzhou to the southeastern city of Fuzhou, and the latter one traveled from Beijing to Fuzhou.

The trains were administrated by two different regional railway bureaus — train D3115 by the Shanghai Railway Bureau while train D301 by the Nanchang Railway Bureau.

In the opposite direction, high-speed train D3212 from southeastern city of Xiamen to Hangzhou was also stopped by lightning at about 8 p.m. Saturday. No passenger was injured, said Liu Jiwei who was on board.

See also a report from the Los Angeles Times.

Footage from Chinese television:

Update: China Geeks has put together a lengthy post including translation of the government response and netizens’ comments:

The government has also apparently begun to move to distance itself from the accident. This report, for example, states that the accident was not a result of the train’s high speed (China’s claims to have built a faster high speed train than Japan have attracted critics who have suggested that safety was sacrificed to attain this speed advantage). It also says that the cars involved were a “relatively mature design, and were not of Chinese original design.” Further reports have officials pointing out that this train was actually a joint venture with Japan.

Of course, suggestions that China’s high speed trains had been copied from other countries were ludicrous, offensive, and slanderous a few days ago. Now, however, it seems that same criticism may be being accepted in order to absolve China from as much of the blame as possible.

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Post tags: high-speed rail, high-speed trains, railway, train accidents, wenzhou, Zhejiang
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Xu Maiyong, a former vice mayor of the city of Hangzhou in Zhejiang Province, was convicted of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power and sentenced to death by the Intermediate People’s Court of the city of Ningbo on May 12.

Jiang Renjie, a former vice mayor of the city of Suzhou in Jiangsu Province, was convicted of bribery and sentenced to death by the Intermediate People’s Court of the city of Nanjing in April 2008.

Both Xu and Jiang appealed the courts’ decisions after their trials. Their appeals were rejected by higher courts.

The two cases were highlighted in an April opinion piece in the Shanghai Daily, which lamented the wealth gap between China’s ordinary citizens and its supposed 115 billionaires; a figure “vastly understated, for a huge number of our citizens prefer to be extremely modest about their economic circumstances.”

Some of our civil servants are much richer than they appear to be. Since they are not legally required to state their income, we can only get a glimpse of the picture from the occasional exposure of disgraced officials.

Last month, the Higher People’s Court of Jiangsu Province upheld a death sentence for former deputy mayor of Suzhou, Jiang Renjie. He is guilty of, among other charges, taking bribes exceeding 100 million yuan, from property developers.

And former deputy mayor of Hangzhou Xu Maiyong is still waiting for a verdict for allegedly taking 160 million yuan in bribes, nearly all from property developers.

Any rich survey that fails to take into account of officials, incorruptible or otherwise, would necessarily misrepresent China’s wealth picture. That misrepresentation leads to misconceptions about the origins of the wealth.

China Daily cited Jiang as an example of official corruption in May, again as part of a broader trend:

Officials from key departments, such as land and resources, housing and rural-urban development as well as law enforcement, tend to be the most vulnerable as the bribes they are offered reflect the significance of their departments, Song Hansong, head of the department targeting crimes committed by officials, under the Supreme People’s Procuratorate (SPP), told China Daily.

“Corruption and bribery account for the majority of crimes committed by officials,” he said ….

In March 2011, Jiangsu provincial higher people’s court upheld the death sentence meted out by a lower court to Jiang Renjie, former vice-mayor of Suzhou city in Jiangsu, for accepting bribes of up to 100 million yuan.

From 2001 to 2004, Jiang, who was in charge of urban construction, planning and real estate development, abused his position to help secure “illegal interests” in land development, land ownership swaps, and project bids.

Some further details of Xu Maiyong’s case can be found in a Caijing report published immediately after he was placed under investigation in April 2009:

People close to the case said Xu’s investigation is related to the Xixi wetland park project in Hangzhou. Development of the park, strongly opposed by local residents, began in 2004.

In 2008, three people connected to the project were convicted of taking 9.9 million yuan in bribes, including the deputy chief of a district construction bureau, who received a suspended death sentence.

Xu has been involved in the project since its inception, rising through the ranks to become chief of its management committee in April 2006.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: billionaires, civil servants, corrupt officials, corruption, death penalty, execution, Hangzhou, Jiangsu, Suzhou, Zhejiang
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Some expensive furniture that a retailer claimed was imported was made in China and never left the country, the Shanghai entry-exit inspection authority revealed yesterday.

It was further blow for Shanghai-based DaVinci Furniture Ltd following accusations that it had falsely claimed its goods were made in Italy ….

Officials with the Shanghai Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau said they had found that some of the furniture DaVinci stocked was made in China and transported to the Waigaoqiao Bonded Zone before being stored in its Shanghai warehouse.

The bureau found that the company had gone through customs procedures for 15 cattlehide sofas produced by a Haining company in Zhejiang Province on June 23 at Waigaoqiao, and “imported” the sofas on the same day.

© Samuel Wade for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: customs, furniture industry, imports, italy, Shanghai, Zhejiang
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About 74 people have been detained this year after reports that more than 100 people were affected by lead and cadmium poisoning.

Reports from China suggests hundreds of factories have been closed as a result of efforts to tackle poisoning.

The rechargeable lead batteries are used in scooters, cars and some mobile phones.

The detentions and closures are part of moves by regional governments in China to decrease environmental damage and improve working conditions.

Increased demand for electric scooters alongside higher car production has driven up the demand for lead batteries.

Some are reporting that almost all lead-acid battery producing regions in China have been affected. From San Francisco Chronicle:

Plants in Zhejiang, Guangdong, Sichuan and Henan provinces have all suspended production, said Xu Hong, head of the lead- acid battery branch at the China Electrical Equipment Industry Association.

“Regardless of the plants’ conditions, they’ve all been shut down, and there is no timetable now to resume operations,” Xu said by phone.

China is the world’s largest exporter of the batteries, which account for 80 percent of the country’s total lead consumption, according to the China Nonferrous Metals Industry Association.

So far, 74 people in China’s Zhejiang province have been arrested in connection with lead poisoning cases which have affected 172 people, including 53 children. From Associated Press:

China has detained 74 people and suspended production at hundreds of battery factories in a widening crackdown on heavy metals pollution after dozens of people were sickened by lead and cadmium poisoning.The government in eastern China’s Zhejiang province said Monday that some of the people were detained in connection with pollution that sickened 172 people, including 53 children, near a battery factory in the city of Taizhou. Water and power to 652 factories was cut, it said in a statement on its website.

Local authorities are belatedly moving to curb pollution after Beijing announced plans for tighter oversight of the industry in response to reports of widespread contamination from heavy metals.

The manager of Taizhou Suqi Storage Battery Co. was arrested in late March and three government officials were suspended for neglecting to properly supervise the factory after tests found many living near the facility had high levels of lead in their blood.

The statement Monday said that investigation resulted in 74 people being detained in 56 cases that were handed to police for possible prosecution.

© victoriawu for China Digital Times (CDT), 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: cadmium batteries, lead poisioning, Zhejiang
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