From The Southern Daily (in Chinese), translated By Xiao Fang, Lindsey Finch, Abra Murray, Ramsi Woodcock; via Press Interpreter:
At the end of every year the media comments on the year’s major events, but I like to look back on some of the year’s “details.” In the business world, there is an expression: “success and failure depend on the details.” Don’t the details of the relationship between a country — a society — and the lives of its people reflect their quality of life?
For example, I noticed the following details in December, 2005:
The first is the lesson learned by the Hubei legal and political institutions from the case of She Xianglin who was accused of murdering his wife. His case made it clear that from now on, the judicial system should see to it that suspects are taped and videoed while being questioned. If small video cameras were installed, then the case staff would be less likely to use torture to extort confessions. If interregations were taped, then tragedies like the brutal treatment of She Xianglin would be greatly reduced. These small cameras would do more to ensure the civil rights of those implicated than would any number of Party documents.
