中国Power !!!

[ChinaSucks]

Sex website owners lose court appeal

Shanghai Daily, August 27, 2014

Three people who were earlier this year sentenced to 10 years in prison for operating a website that catered to prostitutes and their clients yesterday lost their appeal.

The Shanghai No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court upheld an earlier ruling against Li Haoran, Yang Mingtong and Zhu Guozheng that found them guilty of setting up a website in August 2010 that served as a platform for selling sex, prosecutors said.

Two others, surnamed Lin and Chen, who were recruited to help maintain the site, were earlier sentenced to four years in prison, though neither appealed.

At the original trial, prosecutors said that between 2010 and 2013, Li, Yang and Zhu made almost 4.4 million yuan (US$715,000) from the website, which had more than 485,000 registered users.

At appeal, all three defendants claimed they operated the site purely as a dating service, and were unaware it was being used by prostitutes and their clients.

The court, however, rejected the appeal, saying the men were fully aware of the deals being struck via their platform.

 

[ChinaSucks]

Girls selling 'girlfriend' talking service

China Daily, August 25, 2014

Some girls are offering a paid service on China's popular online marketplace Taobao.com to male clients to talk like their girlfriends on the phone, Shanghai Morning Post reported Saturday.

A seller with the online alias Wang Caomei said she charges 30 yuan for half an hour of phone calls, and 30 yuan ($4.8) for 10 minutes of facetime on Wechat, an instant messaging tool. She forbids pornographic content in the service.

This service sparked controversy on its morality and concerns that the sellers may encounter potential harassment.

 

[ChinaSucks]

Nurse accused of child trafficking

China Daily, August 26, 2014

Police in Maoming, South China's Guangdong province broke up a child trafficking ring and detained nine suspects, including a nurse, New Express reported on Monday.

The nurse, who worked in a township hospital, is accused of getting five newborns from last year until April by telling parents she would help find a rich family for them, and then selling them to other suspects.

Police have found the five children and returned them to their parents.

 

[ChinaSucks]

China issues new rule to stop wealthy from buying their way out of jail

Prosecutors told to keep a closer watch on bids by wealthy and powerful inmates to buy their way to shorter sentences or early release

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 27 August, 2014, 4:07am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 27 August, 2014, 11:43am

Andrea Chen [email protected]

The Supreme People's Procuratorate announced that local prosecution staff must review all applications for sentence reductions. Photo: Xinhua

Top prosecutors have ordered greater scrutiny to ensure corrupt officials and law-breaking business executives do not use money or exert power to avoid serving their full sentences.

The instructions came in a new directive on sentence reductions and parole.

The Supreme People's Procuratorate announced yesterday that local prosecution staff must review all applications for sentence reductions and parole if a case involves former officials, people convicted of financial fraud, gang members, terrorists, or other prisoners involved in high-profile cases.

The directive requires at least two staff members from local procuratorates, including at least one prosecutor, to attend court reviews of parole applications.

A spokesman of The Supreme People's Procuratorate addresses the press about the new regulations. Photo: Screenshot via CCTV"

The new regulation basically targets the powerful and the rich in prison. These people are more likely to offer bribes for a sentence reduction," Yuan Qiguo, a department director from the Supreme People's Procuratorate, said.

Yuan said the top procuratorate would also give a new directive on inmates serving sentences outside prison.

The move followed a nine-month investigation that uncovered 711 cases where prisoners were given inappropriate sentence reductions or parole. Of those, 76 cases involved officials at ranks higher than bureau chief.

Under the mainland's criminal law, a local court should hold a hearing after a jail files an application for sentence reduction or parole on behalf of a prisoner.

But legal experts said the court ruling often ended up as an exercise on paper due to a lack of specific guidance on holding hearings and reviewing applications.

"Connections and money have a greater say in the ruling, not the law," Chongqing-based lawyer You Feizhou said.

Hong Daode, a criminal law expert from China University of Political Science and Law in Beijing, said the directive made the process a bit more transparent but hearings for sentence reductions and parole should be open to the public.

"Sometimes local courts simply issue a written review of the case instead of holding a hearing," Hong said.

"Except for cases that involve minors, I cannot think of any hearing [on sentence reduction or parole] that cannot be open to the public, since the hearing will only review behaviour in prison, not the activities that put an inmate behind bars."

The Supreme People's Procuratorate also said yesterday it had launched separate investigations into four former law enforcers suspected of corruption, Xinhua reported.

The four suspects are Sun Hai, former deputy chief of the provincial prison administration in Hebei; Liu Xianming, former police chief of Ceheng county, Guizhou; Wu Jianming, a former judge in Nancheng county, Jiangxi; and Lin An, a former prosecutor stationed at a local prison in Inner Mongolia.

Sun, Wu and Lin are suspected of taking bribes, and Liu of releasing people from detention without authorisation.

The top procuratorate also said it had prosecuted Yang Moulin, former president of Xuancheng's intermediate court, in Anhui province, for corruption and embezzling public funds.

 

[ChinaSucks]

New China food scandal as 30,000 tonnes of chicken feet found soaking in hydrogen peroxide

35 suspects in custody, but more at large as some officials have allegedly tipped off manufacturers to flee

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 27 August, 2014, 1:47pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 27 August, 2014, 4:11pm

Laura Zhou [email protected]

Police found chicken feet soaking in hydrogen peroxide to keep the chicken feet white and fresh-looking in some Chinese provinces. Photo: EPA

More than 30,000 tonnes of chicken feet laced with hydrogen peroxide were seized by authorities in Zhejiang province – in the latest wide-reaching food scandal to emerge in mainland China.

Police said 35 business operators had been selling the goods – found soaking in hydrogen peroxide to keep the chicken feet white and fresh-looking – to more than 10 provinces including Shandong, Hunan, Zhejiang, Hubei and Liaoning, news portal thepaper.cn reported.

Chicken feet are a delicacy in China and some parts of Asia.

Hydrogen peroxide, a colourless liquid often used for disinfection and processing food, causes vomiting, mouth irritations as well as throat and stomach problems if consumed in unsafe amounts.

Police in Yongjia county in Zhejiang said 38 people were arrested in connection with the case and 11 more remain at large, Xinhua reported.

In a new twist to the investigation, the Yongjia police accused government officials from a county in neighbouring Anhui province of tipping off manufacturers involved in the peroxide-laced chicken feet operation, thepaper.cn said.

The police said one of the raids on suspected operations in Hexian county, Anhui, ended in failure in late March because local government officials leaked the raid’s details.

Meanwhile, workers and executives at the Hexian factory of chicken feet brand Yuweiyuan have fled and all the products were removed before police arrived, the news portal reported.

Police have alerted discipline inspectors in Hexian about officials allegedly leaking information about police raids, it said. The report did not reveal the names of the officials or their titles.

Evidence of poison-laced chicken feet was first discovered last September during a routine food safety check at a shop in Yongjia, Zhejiang.

A month later, two people were detained for producing the tainted goods in Jiangsu province.

In subsequent raids, police busted another nine companies for producing tainted chicken feet in Jiangsu, Anhui, Henan and Shandong, including some big brands, thepaper.cn reports.

Police said they were investigating some cases of brands using other disinfectants to process chicken feet, but did not give more details, the website said.

China has been stepping up efforts to improve public confidence in the country’s food industry, which have been rocked by scandals – sometimes resulting in deaths – involving shoddy production standards or hazardous ingredients, from tainted formula milk powder to rat meat being sold as lamb.

This year alone, police had cracked down on more than 11,000 cases of food and drug scandals, Hua Jingfeng, a deputy director of the Ministry of Public Security, told a forum on Monday, the China Youth Daily reports

But horrifying discoveries involving food manufacturers continue cropping up.

Just recently, prosecutors in Hainan province announced a series of unsafe food finds including chicken feet soaking in what authorities said was lye (or sodium hydroxide) to keep the goods’ white colour.

 

[ChinaSucks]

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[Pfizer]

Woman jailed in East China for spreading cult beliefs

Source:Xinhua Published: 2014-8-28 9:04:28

A woman has been jailed in East China for spreading cultist beliefs.

Shou Guoying, a local resident of Zhuji City, Zhejiang Province, was sentenced to three and half years in prison by local courts on Wednesday for spreading ideas of the cult Quannengshen, which means "almighty god."

Shou was a leading figure in charge of spreading the cult's beliefs in the area. She was appointed as a figurehead roughly 6 months after she got in contact with Quannengshen.

She was found to have frequently distributed materials in the form of books, memory cards, CDs, etc, at social gatherings,

according to court's statement.

Shou has "seriously violated national law" and should be punished accordingly, it said.

First discovered in the 1990s in central China's Henan Province, Quannengshen claimed that Jesus has been resurrected as Yang Xiangbin, wife of the sect's founder Zhao Weishan, also known as Xu Wenshan. The couple fled to the US in September 2000.

The sect has been widely criticized for using rumors to confuse people and coercing others to join the cult. In late October and early November 1998, robberies and assaults connected with the cult were reported over 12 days in Henan's Tanghe County, with victims' limbs broken and ears cut off.

Last week, five Quannengshen members stood trial on murder charges in Yantai Intermediate People's Court in east China's Shandong Province.

According to Chinese law, a cult is an illegal organization that tries to control people by deifying the sect leader, delude members under the guise of religion or other means and engage in activities that harm society.

China currently lists 14 such illegal cults, including Quannengshen and Falungong.

 

[Pfizer]

Three killed as drug user ignites gas in fight with police

Source:Xinhua Published: 2014-8-28 21:26:57

An explosion killed three people in south China's Guangdong Province after a suspected drug user ignited a gas cylinder during a standoff with police on Wednesday.

Police in the city of Dongguan said they raided a village hut at 6 p.m. on Wednesday after receiving reports of drug use from the locals. One of the five people inside the house ignited the cylinder to fend off police during attempted escape.

Two people who escaped the blast were detained and confessed to taking crystal meth. One man killed in the blast was a drug dealer and had been allowing drug users to stay in his house, according to police.

China has launched an intensive crackdown after President Xi Jinping vowed in June to severely punish drug-related offenders and contain the spread of drugs. In Beijing, 11 celebrities have been caught on drug-related charges this year, including Jaycee Chan, son of Hong Kong Kungfu star Jackie Chan, and Golden Horse winner, Taiwanese actor Kai Ko.

 

[Yazoo]

Death sentence for C China mass murderer

Xinhua, August 31, 2014

A man who killed eight of his neighbors following a dispute over the positioning of a mirror in Pingdingshan City of central China's Henan Province has been sentenced to death.

A local court convicted Li Lingtao, 41, of murdering eight people on May 20 using an iron bar, an axe and a cleaver. The dead included three children.

Li surrendered to police after the crime, saying that he was angry that his neighbors living opposite the street had put up a mirror on their gate. He suspected they were trying to damage his feng shui, the ancient Chinese philosophical system under which geomantic omens are held to affect the fortunes of an abode.

During an open trial attended by nearly 100 people on Thursday, Li admitted to the court that he killed the people seeking revenge.

The Intermediate People's Court of Pingdingshan also deprived him of his political rights for life.

 

[Yazoo]

Six executives arrested over food scandal in Shanghai

China.org August 30, 2014

Six senior executives of scandal-saddled Shanghai Husi Food Co., Ltd. were formally arrested on Friday over charges of producing and selling counterfeit products, said the municipal procuratorate.

The photo of a workshop of the Shanghai Husi Food Co., Ltd., taken on July 20, 2014.

The official arrests were approved by the Second Branch of the Shanghai Municipal People's Procuratorate. The procuratorate said a man named Hu Jun was among those arrested, but refused to provide more details.

OSI China, the parent company of Shanghai Husi, confirmed on its website six employees have been arrested and said it will continue to cooperate fully with authorities.

The food scandal was first exposed after a local TV station reported on July 20 that Shanghai Husi had supplied products tainted with reprocessed, expired meat to a string of fast food chains and restaurants across China.

Chinese food and industry watchdogs immediately launched a probe into the scandal.

 

[Yazoo]

WeChat closes, suspends hundreds of accounts

Xinhua, August 29, 2014

Hundreds of accounts on leading instant messaging platform WeChat have been shut down or disabled by its parent company, Tencent, in the wake of increased government regulation of such services.

The clean-up, targeting mass-publication accounts as opposed to those used for personal communications, cracked down on accounts masquerading as those of public organizations and media groups, as well as accounts spreading rumors and content that is lewd, pornographic or violent

Other reasons for the accounts being punished included publication of illegal advertisements, disturbing ethnic unity, committing libel and violating privacy, according to a statement released on Friday by the State Internet Information Office, citing Tencent.

As of Aug. 25, 46 mass-publication accounts had been permanently shut down, and another 311 disabled, with suspension durations ranging from seven to 90 days.

The statement cited "Zhejiang Xinwen (Zhejiang News)," an account closed for routinely releasing false news stories in the name of the sole provincial-level news account in east China's Zhejiang Province authorized by the State Council.

Tencent's swoop followed a regulation issued earlier this month stipulating that non-media instant messaging accounts must be certified by service providers and put on record by administrative authorities in order to release or re-post news stories.

The rules urged users to vouch for the authenticity of the information provided, abide by the law and uphold national interests, public order, the rights of other citizens, social morality and the socialist system.

Friday's notice described the accounts in question as "the first batch," hinting that more will be identified and punished.

More than 800 million people use instant messengers in China, sending more than 20 billion pieces of information every day.

 

[Yazoo]

Woman fired for having same online identity with TV mistress

Chinadaily August 29, 2014

A woman was fired by her employer for having the same QQ and Sina Weibo accounts with a fictional mistress in a TV series, as the boss believed it damaged the company's image, Chongqing Evening News reported Friday.

The woman received more than 6,000 comments in one day on her QQ Zone, most of them mistaking her as a real mistress and said she was "immoral".

The film crew of the soap opera Divorce Lawyer said they randomly found her personal information online and used it without informing her, and now can offer 2,000 yuan in compensation.

The woman, surnamed Tan from Chongqing, said she is considering ending the trouble through legal means.

 

[Yazoo]

Victim’s face mauled in gruesome ‘zombie attack’

Source: Jinan Times Published: 2014-8-31 19:58:01

A nearly-naked and drunk man chewed off a woman's face after choking her in a frenzied street attack early on August 23 in Jinan, Shandong Province, in an incident strikingly similar to the 'zombie attacks' reported in the US.

The unnamed suspect is in police custody, media reported on Sunday.

The victim, who is in her 40s, was riding a bike with a friend to sell figs before dawn when the attack occurred.

Wearing only red underpants, the suspect chased down the unnamed victim and strangled her with a scarf.

Zhang Minxian, a security guard on his way to work, saw the attack while driving his motorcycle and intervened.

"It was so horrible to hear him chomping on her face with a mouthful of blood," said Zhang. "Her eyes were popping out and her lips were turning blue. She was no longer able to defend herself."

Zhang managed to subdue the attacker by choking him to the ground.

"I smelled alcohol on his breath. He was so strong that I, even though I received professional training, need help from another two pedestrians," Zhang added.

Police said the attacker comes from Dezhou, Shandong Province and suffers from mental illness.

The attack recalls a series of reports on similar 'zombie attacks' in 2012, sparked after a man mauled the face of a homeless man in Miami, US.

 

[Yazoo]

Porn-showing cyber cafes shut down

Shanghai Daily, September 2, 2014

Minhang District police have shut down unlicensed net cafes which screened pornography videos and allowed minors.

Under Chinese law, minors are banned from Internet bars.

Police seized all the equipment in the cafes, most of which were in rural Minhang District.

One illegal cyber cafe in a village in Huacao Town was known to allow as young as 6-year-old. The cafe’s customers watched porn.

When an STV reporter visited one of the cyber cafes, he paid 2 yuan (32 US cents) to access a computer without being asked to show his ID card. The reporter found several minors between the ages of 6 to 13 inside. A customer was watching porn as children sat opposite him.

 

[Blaszczykowski]

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[BeamMeUpScotty]

Purported photos of 'Chinese Islamic State fighter' emerge online

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 03 September, 2014, 1:29pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 03 September, 2014, 5:34pm

Chris Luo [email protected]

The captured militant is seen guarded by an Iraqi soldier. Photos: Iraqi Ministry of Defence

Photos of a purported Chinese man fighting for the powerful Islamic militant group, the Islamic State, have raised eyebrows in both Iraq and China since surfacing online Tuesday. If proven authentic, they could make the man the first confirmed Chinese national to be found fighting for the extremist Sunni militant group, also known as ISIS.

A Facebook page identified as operated by the Iraqi Ministry of Defence published two photos of an apparently captured fighter yesterday.

In a short message along with the posting it described the man as “Chinese daash” - daash being an acronym for “The Islamic State in Iraq and Syria”, or ISIS.

In one photo the captured militant is seen being guarded by an Iraqi soldier. Another photo shows him lying unconscious on the ground.

In both photos the militant seemed to have endured severe beatings to his face, and it is hard to identify his ethnicity based on facial features.

The militant is seen laying unconscious on the ground in this photo released by the Iraqi Ministry of Defence.

The Chinese embassy in Iraq declined to comment on the photos when contacted on Wednesday. The Iraqi government and Chinese foreign ministry have not responded to interview requests from the South China Morning Post.

If proven authentic, the photos would be the first evidence that Chinese nationals have joined the extremist Sunni militants, along with scores of foreigners, including at least several hundred from Britain, Australia and the United States.

Last year a video emerged on YouTube that showed a Chinese man, calling himself “Bo Wang”, who said he had joined Islamist militants to fight in Syria.

Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al-Baghdadi in a July speech stated that “Muslim rights are forcibly seized in China, India, Palestine”, and urged all Muslims around the world to join his cause.

Wu Sike, China’s special envoy to the Middle East, has previously stated than an estimated 100 Chinese citizens may be fighting for the Islamic State. They are mostly Muslim Uyghurs from China’s remote western region of Xinjiang, according to Wu.

Yin Gang, a West Asian and African Studies scholar at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, estimated that hundreds of Chinese nationals have been fighting for the Islamic State.

“‘All Muslims under heaven are one family’. These Chinese nationals are responding to the extreme Muslims’ call to join the jihad of ISIS and are seeking to gather combat experience,” Yin said.

He said these fighters previously sought to join al-Qaeda in Afghanistan but as the nation became politically more stable, they are now entering Iraq and Syria to join the Islamic State, because the region is “the paradise of jihadists”.

 

[ChinaSucks]

Can u beam me up?

 

[flickr]

90 million pill capsules laced with toxic metal are sold in China; 11 arrested

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 03 September, 2014, 1:07pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 03 September, 2014, 5:26pm

Kathy Gao [email protected]

Capsules are made of edible gelatin, but an illegal workshop in Zhejiang has laced its pill casings with chromium, which can damage organs. Photo: Bloomberg

Police in China are trying to trace 90 million drug capsules laced with the toxic metal chromium that have been sold on the open market, in the latest product safety scandal to hit the country.

Eleven people in Zhejiang province were arrested following the discovery that the capsules - which pharmaceutical companies use for their drugs - were tainted with the poison.

Police, along with food and drug authorities in Ninghai county, seized more than 440,000 chromium-laced capsules from an illegal workshop on July 22.

They also confiscated more than 100kg of semi-finished capsules and more than 700kg of capsule material made from industrial gelatin containing the toxin, according to a Zhejiang newspaper hosted by official news agency Xinhua.

An investigation by police found that from February to July the workshop produced about 90 million capsules which contained chromium far exceeding safety levels for edible gelatin.

The entire stock was sold.

The illegal workshop’s owner, identified by his surname Pan had hired 10 people from the county who were involved in a tainted capsule scandal in 2012, the report said.

Pan and the 10 employees were detained on August 29 for producing and selling a poisonous product.

Ninghai police are still tracking down where the tainted capsules have ended up.

There have been no reports of death or illness caused by taking the tainted capsules, but chromium can cause serious damage to organs.

Police said the capsules were sold to four people, possibly distributors, who are now at the centre of a manhunt.

In 2012, authorities detained 45 people, arrested nine and seized more than 77 million capsules contaminated with chromium.

The factories involved in the drug capsules scandal in 2012 were in Hebei province and Pan’s home county, Xinchang.

China has been beset by food and drug safety scandals in recent years.

Last Friday, authorities arrested six employees of a Shanghai food supplier to McDonald’s and other major restaurant chains in China for selling expired meat.

Last week, Zhejiang authorities confiscated 30,000 tonnes of chicken feet found soaking in hydrogen peroxide, which can cause irritation when consumed in unsafe levels.

In 2008, at least six children died and nearly 300,000 became ill after taking baby formula tainted by melamine, a chemical added by milk companies to boost protein levels.

 

[ChinaSucks]

2 stand trials for selling toxic bean sprouts

Xinhua, September 4, 2014

Twelve suspects involved in growing and selling 14,000 kilos of toxic bean sprouts stood trial on Wednesday in courts in south China's Guangdong province.

Suspects involved in growing and selling 14,000 kilos of toxic bean sprouts stand trial in Haizhu Court in Guangzhou, south China's Guangdong province on Wednesday, September 3, 2014. The gang leader Pan Mian is sentenced to four-years of imprisonment with a fine of 50,000 yuan (about $8,142 USD). [Photo: CRIENGLISH.com]

Guangzhou Haizhu Court sentenced the gang leader, Pan Mian, to four-years in jail with a fine of 50,000 yuan (about $8,142 USD). The other members face two to four years of imprisonment.

Pan Mian and his confederates used illegal additives such as growth hormone in their production and sold the bean sprouts without any certification, beginning in Sept. of 2011.

Nearly three tons of toxic products were sold to the wholesale market every day.

Guangzhou police authorities launched a campaign to crack down on producing and selling toxic bean sprouts in the first half of this year city wide. 22 cases were cleared up.

 

[ChinaSucks]

Man arrested for murder of Taiwan gambling boss

Shanghai Daily, September 5, 2014

The chauffeur of an illegal gambling kingpin from Taiwan has been arrested in Thailand for his kidnap and murder, Taiwan police said yesterday.

Hsieh Yuan-hsin

In a case that has gripped Taiwan, wealthy businessman Shih Chia-chin — who is believed to have accumulated a fortune worth tens of millions of US dollars through illegal gambling — was kidnapped and stabbed to death last month after his driver picked him up from an airport in the north of Taiwan.

The chauffeur, Hsieh Yuan-hsin, was arrested in Chiang Rai, northern Thailand, on Wednesday afternoon, officers at Taiwan Criminal Investigation Bureau said.

“The suspect is currently held in Bangkok and could be dispatched back to Taiwan soon after the Thai authorities complete their due legal procedure,” an officer at the bureau said.

Hsieh, 39, had picked up Shih from the Taoyuan airport on August 18.

Three hours later, the accountant for Shih's company received a phone call from kidnappers demanding a ransom of NT$50 million (US$1.7 million).

Shih’s family wired NT$30 million to three designated bank accounts and alerted the authorities, police in the central city of Taichung said.

Hsieh had tried to withdraw the ransom but fled after he was asked by a bank clerk to show his ID, police said.

Prosecutors issued a warrant barring Hsieh from leaving Taiwan but he managed to board a flight for Thailand with a fake passport on the day of the kidnapping.

Almost a week later, Shih’s body was found in a ditch in a remote area of the southern city of Tainan. He had been stabbed more than 20 times.

Taiwan authorities yesterday released photos of Hsieh handcuffed and surrounded by Thai police officers.

Two other suspects have already been arrested in Taiwan for the kidnap and murder.

Taiwan police said Hsieh, who is reported to have worked for Shih for five years and was formerly a fruit wholesaler, had no previous criminal record.

Local media said Shih had kept a low profile since he survived a kidnap attempt four years ago.

He was sentenced to an 18-month suspended prison term after his Internet gambling ring was cracked nine years ago, reports said, adding that he had built up a fortune worth billions of Taiwan dollars.