中国Power !!!

[Kiessling]

Evidence from 1996 murder trial goes missing

China Daily, November 5, 2014

Vital evidence relating to a rape and murder case, for which a man was convicted and executed nearly 20 years ago, was reported to have disappeared on Tuesday after judicial authorities said recently that they planned to rehear the case.

Hugjiltu, a member of the Mongolian ethnic group, was convicted as an 18-year-old of raping and choking a woman to death in a toilet at a textile factory in Hohhot, capital of the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, in April 1996. He was executed 61 days after the woman was killed, despite the lack of evidence against him. At the time, the local authorities had launched a crackdown against violent crimes, and serious cases were fast-tracked through the courts.

The Mirror News reported that Hugjiltu rushed to the toilet to help when he heard the woman cry out. He found her dead and called police. But after being questioned for 48 hours, he confessed to raping and killing the woman.

However, in 2005, a man named Zhao Zhihong said he was the murderer. He also confessed to 10 cases of raping and killing women.

Zhao was given the death penalty, but the crime for which Hugjiltu was convicted was not listed on Zhao's indictment. Zhao's execution was postponed after he showed details of Hugjiltu's case to police and left a letter to prosecutors in 2006 saying that Hugjiltu had been innocent.

The regional high people's court said procedures are underway to rehear the case to determine the truth from the facts and correct any mistakes that are found, Xinhua News Agency reported on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, Beijing News quoted a retired police officer as saying that a semen sample taken from the victim's body has disappeared.

The retired officer said that this evidence was ignored at the time, and no tests were carried out on Hugjiltu to compare the semen stain found on the victim.

Zhu Aimin, a criminal lawyer who has been following the case, confirmed the importance of the evidence and said police had a duty to preserve it.

"I'd like to see the case reheard and I hope every judicial officer will strictly abide by our laws and find the truth this time," Zhu said.

He suggested that for such a serious case, police, prosecutors and judges should be more circumspect and not make any excuses for difficulties in further investigations.

Hua Lijia, a prosecutor in Hohhot, said it is necessary to rehear the case and suggested that it be investigated and dealt with by judicial bodies in other regions.

Shang Aiyun, Hugjiltu's mother, told China Daily she can never forget her son waving to her before his execution.

"Before the execution, I only saw my son once in the courtroom," said the 62-year-old, who has been trying to prove her son's innocence since 2005.

But Shang, mother of another two sons, said she has not received any further information from legal authorities after they said the case will be reheard.

 

[flickr]

Police bust fraudsters posing as Hong Kongers

Source: Xinhua Published: 2014-11-5 23:21:09

Police from the southwestern municipality of Chongqing busted a fraud ring of people who swindled money or mobile phones from young women by pretending to be Hong Kong students.

The police caught nine suspects, all from east China's Anhui Province, in a fast food restaurant on Wednesday. They committed more than 20 separate acts of fraud involving hundreds of thousands of yuan in the city before being caught.

According to the police, the suspects practiced Hong Kong accents by watching TVB (Hong Kong broadcaster) dramas, which are very popular on the mainland, and local news, while using fake identity cards to make themselves more believable.

They "struck up conversation with targets, showed off their wealth and borrowed money or phones from them," said the police.

Twenty-two-year-old Zhang Ruyu, a university student, was among the victims. Two men sought help from her one night in late October. They claimed they were Hong Kong students who were unable to use their own bank cards in Chongqing, and hoped Zhang could lend them 5,000 yuan (about 806 US dollars).

The two men invited Zhang to a cafe, and phoned up a "Hong Kong" friend who promised to make a remittance of 20,000 yuan to Zhang's bank card, offering to let her keep the remaining 15,000 yuan for her help.

"I believed them because they had Hong Kong accents and ID cards. And they were holding iPhone 6 sets and luxury car key. They don't look like cheaters," Zhang recalled.

The suspects also committed fraud in other provinces using the same approach. Further investigation is under way.

 

[Vermin]

670,000 smog-related deaths a year: the cost of China's reliance on coal

Smog killed 670,000 people in 2012, says mainland study on pollution

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 05 November, 2014, 3:32am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 05 November, 2014, 10:18am

Li Jing [email protected]

A power plant pollutes the air over Changchun, in northeastern Jilin province. The health and environmental costs of coal use add up to HK$330 per tonne. Photo: AFP

Smog caused by coal consumption killed an estimated 670,000 people in China in 2012, according to a study by researchers that tries to put a price tag on the environmental and social costs of the heavy reliance on the fuel.

Damage to the environment and health added up to 260 yuan (HK$330) for each tonne produced and used in 2012, said Teng Fei , an associate professor at Tsinghua University.

The 260 yuan is made up of two parts: the health cost and the environmental damage caused by mining and transporting coal.

"With existing environmental fees and taxes of between 30 to 50 yuan for each tonne of coal, the country's current pricing system has largely failed to reflect the true costs," Teng said.

Tiny particulate pollutants, especially those smaller than 2.5 micrograms (known as PM2.5), were linked to 670,000 premature deaths from four diseases - strokes, lung cancer, coronary heart disease and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease - in China in 2012, Teng said.

That translated to an external cost of 166 yuan for each tonne of coal consumed. Authorities levied only about 5 yuan as a pollution fee per tonne of coal used by consumers including power companies and iron, steel and cement producers.

Mining and transport add 94 yuan per tonne, including through damage to groundwater resources, subsidence, deaths and occupational diseases.

Beijing is considering replacing pollution charges with more stringent environmental protection taxes, but progress on legislation has been slow.

Li Guoxing , from Peking University's School of Public Health, said the full impact of coal use was still underestimated as the study did not take into account medical costs associated with other pollution-induced diseases such as asthma.

Respiratory patients wait at a Hangzhou hospital. Photo: Reuters

"The health cost [of the study] is only based on the premature death figures due to the limitations of our research data," said Li. "It could be way higher if we also include medical costs for other chronic illnesses."

The study found that in 2012, more than 70 per cent of the population was exposed to annual PM2.5 pollution levels higher than 35 micrograms per cubic metre, the country's benchmark for healthy air quality.

The World Health Organisation sets its PM2.5 safety limit at an annual concentration of 10mcg/cubic metre. That class of particulate was officially recognised as a human carcinogen last year by the International Agency for Research on Cancer, especially its link to lung cancer and a heightened risk of bladder cancer.

In 2012, some 157 million people in China lived in areas where the annual PM2.5 concentration was higher than 100mcg/cubic metre - 10 times the WHO's recommendation.

A previous study published in British medical journal The Lancet said outdoor air pollution contributed to 1.2 million premature deaths in China in 2010, or 40 per cent of the global total. Former health minister Chen Zhu said this year that pollution caused 350,000 to 500,000 premature deaths a year in China.

The new study - based on research from Tsinghua and Peking universities, the China Academy of Environmental Planning and other government-backed institutes - represents the latest lobbying efforts by some Chinese experts to cap coal consumption.

But this is a difficult task, as the country relies on the fuel for nearly 70 per cent of its energy.

Teng estimates there would be a further cost of 160 yuan per tonne, on top of the 260 yuan calculated in the study, if the long-term social impact of climate change from coal burning were considered.

Zhou Fengqi , a former energy official, said it was impossible for the country to radically slash coal consumption in the coming decades.

 

[Fellaini]

Communist Beijing brings 'freedom' to classes in song

AFP
November 6, 2014, 3:52 am

Beijing (AFP) - China's Communist Party will introduce socialist values including "freedom" and "democracy" into the classroom via songs and poetry, state media said Wednesday, as the party strives to maintain its legitimacy.

China has "lost its moral compass" during three decades of economic rise, sparking the national campaign to rebuild faith, the Global Times newspaper said, citing the official Xinhua news agency.

Core socialist values and goals including "democracy", "equality", "justice" and "freedom" will be introduced into education, the newspaper added, citing experts.

"These values can be promoted by encouraging composing songs and writing poems about core socialist values," it said.

The new campaign will also encourage students to memorise the values and will amend textbooks on Chinese history and morality to include them, the report said.

The Communist Party has long maintained tight control in China, nipping in the bud any public challenge to its authority and muzzling the media.

It also attempts to boost support through the education system with a curriculum that focuses heavily on China's achievements since it took power in 1949, and the failures of previous leaders.

The Global Times -- which has close ties to the party -- said earlier this year that Beijing had demanded government officials be prevented from "being disoriented and losing themselves" to the influence of Western ideals.

The party circular insisted that officials reconfirm their faith in "socialism with Chinese characteristics" through an emphasis on "deepened education" in Marxist principles, the reports said.

Western ideals included constitutional democracy, universal values and civil society, it added.

The huge party, which was founded 93 years ago, periodically undergoes ideological spasms, often when in the midst of intense internal political disputes or when leaders feel China is under threat.

President Xi Jinping, party general secretary since November 2012, has vowed to restore China to greatness. He is simultaneously pushing a much-publicised campaign to cleanse the party of corruption.

 

[Yazoo]

Abortion lesson horrifies kids

Chinadaily, November 5, 2014

A primary school teacher in Beijing tried to educate students about abortion but chose the wrong teaching materials, the Beijing News reported.

A child looked upset after school and told his parents that some unpleasant abortion-themed photos were to blame. The child said he had received a newspaper introducing abortion from the teacher that showed a photo of a dead fetus which had frightened the kids. The teacher has been criticized for using improper teaching materials.

 

[Mandzukic]

Why the Zhou Yongkang graft probe is taking longer than expected

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 05 November, 2014, 10:27pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 05 November, 2014, 10:36pm

Cary Huang [email protected]

Vice-minister of justice Zhang Sujun (centre) speaks in Beijing yesterday. He said the public would be kept informed. Photo: Xinhua

The graft investigation into former security tsar Zhou Yongkang will take longer than expected because authorities are taking a painstaking approach to gathering evidence, a senior judicial official said yesterday.

Zhang Sujun , vice-minister of justice, said the government would make an announcement once the Communist Party's anti-graft agency had completed its investigation.

"[We] will make an announcement to the public when the investigation has come to a specified stage," Zhang said in Beijing.

"I believe that once the relevant authorities have done their probe, they will definitely make the announcement to the public in an appropriate way via an appropriate channel."

Zhang said Zhou had been investigated for misconduct by the party's Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Its findings could be used in court.

The CCDI had been conducting its investigation "in accordance with the law and also paying attention to evidence, so this process may be a long one, but also more serious and responsible", he said.

Zhang said the government was taking a "serious, responsible, comprehensive and systematic approach" to the investigation. Attaching such importance to gathering evidence reflected the spirit of "equality before the law", he said.

He said the investigation had bolstered the public's confidence in government efforts to promote the rule of law, which was the focus of the fourth plenum last month.

His statement is in line with a remark by a senior judge on Saturday. Jiang Bixin , deputy head of the Supreme People's Court, said the judicial department had yet to start legal proceedings against Zhou. The party wanted the case against him to be solid, Jiang said.

A senior party official said Zhou was not publicly mentioned at the plenum as he was no longer a member of the central leadership. He retired at the 18th party congress in November 2012, when the party installed the fifth generation of leadership.

He is the most senior party leader held in the government crackdown on corruption. Zhou was placed under investigation on July 29 for "serious violations of discipline" - a phrase that typically refers to corruption.

It was widely expected that Zhou would be expelled from the party at the plenum. The session ended without any announcement, but the party did expel six senior officials, including several of Zhou's former subordinates.

Some commentators have said the silence on Zhou's case could suggest the party's top ranks had yet to reach a consensus on the issue.

 

[Hypocrisy]

Chinese hit-and-run driver caught after 30km chase as radio listeners join police manhunt

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 06 November, 2014, 1:41pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 06 November, 2014, 3:39pm

Chris Luo [email protected]

The hit-and-run driver was arrested after a 30km chase. Photo: SCMP Pictures

A hit-and-run driver who led police on a 30km chase across a central Chinese city was finally caught when members of the public helped to track him down.

Nearly 100 people joined the city-wide manhunt in Zhengzhou, Henan province, after the driver of a brown BMW SUV knocked over a woman sanitation worker on a downtown expressway on Wednesday before speeding away from the scene, local media reported.

A witness called police, who passed on the details of the incident to local traffic radio channel, 912. The radio host then aired a description of the vehicle and appealed for help from the public to catch the driver.

Listeners began to call the radio station with reports of the BMW’s location, with the 912 host broadcasting live updates.

“Nearly 100 members of the public reported [the driver’s position] to us via hotline, Weibo and Wechat,” the channel’s deputy director said.

However, the driver of the vehicle, surnamed Li, was also tuned into the radio and changed direction several times in an attempt to shake off his pursuers.

But with the help from the tip-offs, police eventually intercepted Li’s BMW near a toll station. The entire pursuit covered 30km, half the city, and lasted more than 40 minutes.

Police confirmed that Li was involved in the incident after matching scratches on his vehicle with fragments left at the scene.

The witness said that after the collision Li drove forward to check the sanitation worker, who was lying on the ground, but then sped away.

Li reportedly told police that he drove away because he did not want to pay the injured woman’s medical bills.

He was punished with 15 days under administrative detention, Zhengzhou police said.

The sanitation worker suffered injuries to her arm and ankle, reports said. She was taken to a local hospital shortly after the accident and underwent surgery.

 

[Rossi]

14 buried in China scaffold collapse

Source: Xinhua Published: 2014-11-7 21:20:44

Fourteen workers were buried after a scaffold at a construction site collapsed in east China's Anhui Province, local authorities said Friday.

The accident happened at 11 a.m. Friday at a construction site of a power plant in Huainan City, said the municipal publicity authorities.

As of Friday evening, eight workers were pulled out and sent to hospitals. One of them died despite doctors' efforts.

Rescue is under way for the remaining six.

The cause of the accident is being investigated.

 

[Rossi]

77 mafia-style members arrested in Shanxi

Source: Xinhua Published: 2014-11-7 22:21:48

North China's Taiyuan city has arrested 77 members of mafia-style gangs since a special crackdown was launched on Oct. 19.

Fifty-four of them have been put under detention, said Lei Yuzhi, deputy head of the Public Security Bureau of Taiyuan, capital of coal-rich Shanxi Province.

The campaign targets mafia-style and evil forces which have disturbed rural grass-roots elections, land requisitions and existed for long in mining, construction, logistics and tourism sectors.

"Mafia-style criminal gangs caused an extremely vile impact in society," said Lei at a news briefing on Friday. He vowed to continue to clamp down on these evil forces.

Wang Rulin, secretary of the Shanxi Provincial Committee of the Communist Party of China, urged an intense crackdown on corrupt officials and mafia-style gangs in October.

 

[Pfizer]

Zhuhai official probed after extramarital affair exposed

Staff Reporter
2014-11-06

The banners state the official's name, and title and the accusation of using taxpayer dollars to sleep with these two men's wives. (Internet photo)

Chen Guangming, an official in the city of Zhuhai in southern China's Guangdong province, has been suspended and investigated after the husband of his mistress discovered their affair and held banners in front of the municipal government office to disclose it, reports Guangzhou's Southern Metropolis Daily.

Photos of the banners were uploaded on the internet on Oct. 22 by a man surnamed Wen, who claimed to be the husband. A picture of the wife's apology letter, which detailed the affair and begged the husband to forgive her for the sake of the family and children, was also uploaded.

In the letter, the wife said she met Chen, a 51-year-old married official heading the training division of Zhuhai's transportation agency, at a bar in September 2010. The affair started shortly afterwards in a car, and had continued until September, when the husband used his wife's smartphone to uncover evidence of her infidelity.

The wife admitted to the four-year affair and confessed that they had sex at a hotel in the city of Tanzhou in Guangzhou in May and again in Changsha in Hunan province during a business trip in August. Otherwise, they used cars in Zhuhai, usually in a stadium parking lot, since Chen is an official and should not be seen entering hotels with women.

 

[TellMeWhy]

Parents sought for 11 trafficked infants

China Daily, November 6, 2014

The police has published photos of 11 trafficked infants in a bid to look for their biological parents after busting a child-trafficking gang.

Kunming railway police busted a gang of child-traffickers, catching 32 criminal suspects and rescuing 11 infants. It has been confirmed that a total of 21 children were abducted and trafficked by the gang, China Central Television reported on Wednesday.

The members of the gang are mainly from a family and others are fellow townsmen and close friends. They purchased infants at prices ranging from 8,000 to 10,000 yuan ($1,309-1,636) per person in Wenshan Prefecture, Southwest China's Yunnan Province and sold them for 100,000 to 140,000 yuan ($16,357-22,900) each to far away places like East China's Fujian Shandong provinces.

 

[AdmiralMotti]

Weibo users seek 11 kidnapped kids’ parents

By Zhang Hui Source: Global Times Published: 2014-11-7 0:43:01

Photos of 11 infants who were rescued from a baby-trafficking gang by police in Yunnan Province were spreading on Sina Weibo on Thursday, after the People's Daily official account posted them to find the children's parents.

"One retweet may help those kids find their way home," the People's Daily posted on its official Weibo account Thursday morning, along with photos of the trafficked babies and the telephone number of the local railway police in Kaiyuan, a city in Yunnan Province, which cracked the case. The post had been forwarded over 59,600 times as of press time.

The phone number, first publicized on the China Central Television (CCTV) on Wednesday night, was busy throughout the day on Thursday.

The Weibo accounts of CCTV and several other media Weibo accounts quickly re-posted the information to ask Weibo users to help find the babies' parents.

The photos are currently one of the top topics on Weibo, attracting the attention of more than 110,000 Weibo users.

Kaiyuan railway police busted a multi-provincial baby trafficking gang in August, arresting a total of 34 suspects and rescuing 11 babies, including seven boys and four girls.

The leader of the gang told police that most of the gang members were either his friends or relatives from his hometown. The gang bought babies for between 8,000 and 10,000 yuan ($1,308-1,636) each from villages in Yunnan Province, then sold them in provinces like Fujian and Shandong for 100,000 to 140,000 yuan each.

As the posts circulated online, many people criticized traffickers and called for harsh punishments of those who abduct children and women. The vice director of publicity for Kaiyuan's railway police department told the Global Times that the department has arranged a police officer to be on duty at all times to answer the phone.

"It's now a 24-hour phone line, and many people have called asking about the case," he said.

A publicity department officer with Kunming railway police, who oversees Kaiyuan's railway police, said they are looking for the babies' parents, and that so far no baby has been claimed.

"All the babies are healthy and are currently being cared for," the officer, who requested anonymity, told the Global Times. The officer said that any parents wanting to claim their children would need to provide the child's birth certificate and a missing person's claim filed with the police, and would also need to undergo a DNA test.

 

[Midway]

Chinese movie star sues Next Magazine reporters for defamation

Staff Reporter
2014-11-08

Zhang Ziyi poses for photo at a Bazaar charity event in Beijing, Sept. 19, 2014. (File photo/ CNS)

Taipei's Shilin District Prosecutors Office brought three Next Magazine reporters up on libel charges after they allegedly released a controversial news report of Chinese Hollywood movie star Zhang Ziyi before confirming with Zhang.

In May 2012, Next Magazine published an article saying Zhang had earned 3.2 billion yuan (US$523 million) as a sex partner of former Chinese political heavyweight Bo Xilai, who was sentenced to life imprisonment on corruption charges in 2013.

The article mainly cited from Boxun.com, a US-based Chinese community news outlet.

Zhang told the prosecutors when she was in Taipei for the Golden Horse Awards last November that she publicly refuted the report, doing so immediately after it was published.

Zhang has also taken legal actions against both Boxun.com in the US and Next Magazine in Hong Kong in June of 2012. Hong Kong's Apple Daily, also owned by Next Media, was sued for putting out the report as well.

Zhang won both the cases in the US and Hong Kong and Boxun.com issued a formal apology to Zhang last December, in which the news portal admitted that the credibility of its source could not be verified.

Taiwan's Next Magazine, however, has refused to comply with her lawyer's request to remove the report from its website, said the star. "I have faith in Taiwan's judicial system regarding my case," said Zhang.

The three Taiwanese reporters argued that they tried contacting Zhang's agent before publishing the article but could not reach her.

Zhang and her agent have rebutted the reporters' claim and said they never received calls from representatives of the magazine, according to the prosecutor, who added that the news outlet should have double-checked with their sources before putting out the stories.

The reporters have been charged of libel. In response, Next Magazine said, "Zhang is a celebrity and it is impossible for us not to cover her case. Publishing articles on the (Bo Xilai-Zhang Ziyi) incident does not mean we had intentions of libelous reporting."

Next Magazine is a Chinese weekly magazine published in Hong Kong and Taiwan. The magazine is known for its aggressive and flamboyant reporting style.

 

[Mandzukic]

Pedophile schoolmaster arrested in N China

Xinhua, November 10, 2014

A deputy schoolmaster of a primary school in north China's Shanxi Province has been arrested on suspicion of molesting his 9-year-old student, local police said on Monday.

The victim's father claimed his daughter was molested in her dorm at Miaoshang School in Miaoshang Town of Linyi County.

The police focused their investigation on the 32-year-old schoolmaster, surnamed Yang, after extensive witness interviews and review of CCTV footage.

Yang confessed to molestation, according to Linyi police.

The suspect has been detained for criminal prosecution and the police continue to search for evidence against Yang.

 

[flickr]

Rice-smuggling gang busted in south China

Xinhua, November 9, 2014

A gang suspected of smuggling more than 3,000 tons of rice has been busted in south China's Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, customs authorities said on Sunday.

The gang is suspected of smuggling rice worth about 10 million yuan (1.6 million U.S. dollars) and evading 7 million yuan in taxes.

Ten members of the gang were captured last week near the China-Vietnam border when they tried to smuggle rice into Guangxi, according to Nanning Customs.

The rice was bought in Vietnam, the customs said.

Five core members have been detained for criminal prosecution as Nanning Customs continue digging for evidence against the gang.

The anti-smuggling division of Nanning Customs was tipped off about the gang in August and started to investigate its activities with the help of local police.

This year, Nanning Customs have cracked five organized rice smuggling cases. About 50,000 tons of rice worth more than 300 million yuan were involved in those cases.

 

[Midway]

Couple stand trial for selling imported cancer medication

By Cao Siqi Source: Global Times Published: 2014-11-11 1:03:01

A couple in Nanjing, Jiangsu Province recently stood trial for selling fake cancer medication bought in India, according to a court in Nanjing on Monday.

Zhou Rongqiang, the court's judge, told the Global Times on Monday that the couple, Zhao Hongjiang and his wife, Ma Yalin, were accused of purchasing medicines from India, transporting them to China, and selling them online.

Indian-made generic cancer drugs, often containing the same active ingredients as the patented medicines they are based on, sell at enormous discount compared with their patented counterparts.

However, the vast majority of these drugs are not approved for sale in China. "Selling medicines produced overseas requires a certification by China's drug watchdog. If not, the drugs are seen as fake," said Zhou.

In the court, Zhao said that he was trying to save people's lives, and that most of the drugs were brought for his friends instead of for sale, reported Nanjing-based Modern Express Monday.

Zhou said that Zhao was sent to work in India in 2010, where he would often buy cancer medication for friends. Smelling a business opportunity, Zhao found local pharmaceutical agents willing to sell him drugs at marked-down prices, and asked the agents to mail them to China.

"They sold the medicines for over 320,000 yuan ($52,000) and made 100,000 yuan in profit," said Zhou.

Local police arrested the couple in their house on July 4 after receiving a tip-off, discovering 31 boxes of generic drugs imported from India.

The local procuratorate said that the medicine was not registered, and that in selling them Zhao and Ma broke the law, an offense punishable by a fine and up to three years in jail. Prosecutors on the case have requested sentences of a year and a half for both Zhao and Ma, with the possibility of reprieve. The court has yet to rule on the case.

 

[Rossi]

Residents rally round noodle shop owner after son severely scalded

PUBLISHED : Monday, 10 November, 2014, 6:31pm
UPDATED : Monday, 10 November, 2014, 6:54pm

Chen Yifei [email protected]

A child is making donation to the injured son of the noodle restaurant's owner. Photo: Screenshot

Residents of Jingzhou city in China’s central Hubei province flocked to dine at a local noodle restaurant in an effort to raise funds for its owner’s two-year-old son, who was severely scalded after falling into a steaming stockpot on October 24.

Scores of people queued patiently outside Chen Junyang’s restaurant to buy noodles at five yuan a portion, after word spread via the media that he and his wife could not afford nearly 300,000 yuan in medical fees for their son’s treatment. Some diners gave a hundred yuan or more without asking for change.

“We opened at 4.30am in the morning, and people started to come around 6am. Our neighbour donated 200 yuan. Thanks to everyone who came here for breakfast and donated money to my son,” Chen Junyang said.

As of November 7, the couple had received 320,000 yuan in donations – enough to cover fees for the initial stage of their son’s treatment, state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) reported.

The family migrated two months ago from neighbouring Sichuan province and settled down in Jingzhou to open up a noodle restaurant.

Chen said the incident took place when he and his wife were busy preparing dinner that evening. They cooled the burn with cold water and took off their son’s clothes, only to realise that his skin had started to peel.

The boy was then rushed to the Jingzhou No 3 People’s Hospital for treatment. Doctors said he was in a critical condition, with 64 per cent burns to his body.

The boy has recovered from shock and is now in a stable condition. Doctors said reconstructive surgery would be possible if his injuries did not become inflamed over the two to three weeks.

 

[Pfizer]

Prosecutors accuse assaulted Henan man of extorting officials

Staff Reporter
2014-11-10

The photo Zhao Zhifei on the ground. The Zhao family admits the photo was taken later in an attempt to recreate the scene of the assault in September 2011. (Internet photo)

A man reportedly mistaken as an illegal petitioner and assaulted by authorities in 2011 is now accused of extorting government officials, reports Guangzhou's Southern Metropolis Daily.

In September 2011, Zhou Zhifei, a then 30-year-old native of Yichuan in central China's Henan province, visited Beijing alone and shared a room at a budget lodge with five strangers, also from Henan.

Zhao's five roommates turned out to be petitioners. When they were suddenly arrested in the middle of the night by authorities, Zhao was mistaken for one of them and sent back to Henan.

Petitioning is the administrative system for hearing complaints and grievances from individuals in China. Though this is supposedly the right of every Chinese citizen, petitioning the central government over a local grievance can commonly bring brutal reprisal to the plaintiff and petitioners are frequently treated as troublemakers to be dumped into extralegal "black jails."

The story is that on their way to Luoyang in Henan, officials reportedly beat up Zhao. After they found that Zhao was not one of the petitioners but merely a lone tourist, they left him wounded and helpless by the road in the rain. A hospital report on the same day showed multiple wounds to the skull, abdomen, and other parts of his body.

There was public outcry against the violence to which Zhao was subjected, followed by the dismissal of six officials related to the case. Though the Zhao family kept their silence with regard to the media, his father and brother were prosecuted in 2014 on charges of extorting the authorities, by which they were alleged to have gained 150,000 yuan (US$24,500).

The prosecutors stated that in late September 2011, Zhao Jingchao and Zhao Zhihui, Zhao Zhifei's father and brother, published a photo on some web forums accusing officials of severely injuring Zhao, which damaged the image of the local authorities immensely. In the photo, Zhao lies on the roadside, wounded.

The local government decided to pay the Zhao family an equivalent of US$24,500. In return, the Zhaos would not make public any further information regarding the incident, stated the prosecutor, who added that Zhao was assaulted only after he had an argument with one of the officials and that he only sustained mild injuries.

The Zhao family denied that they had received any money from the government, though they admitted the photo was a fabricated recreation, having been taken some time after the incident. Zhao returned to the scene of the incident accompanied by his family where he lay in the position he had been in after the assault to be photographed as "proof" of the event, Zhao's family said.

A couple of the petitioners arrested along with Zhao testified in their depositions that Zhao was violently assaulted by the officers who took them. Zhao himself has remained silent about the case. His brother has been detained since September 2013 for charges on unrelated cases, mainly fraud, defamation and extortion.

In the court hearing on Oct. 30, the prosecutors presented a receipt with Zhao Jingchao's signature that showed the US$24,500 had been received. Zhao Jingchao, who had been an attorney and ran many cases in the local government, said he used to sign many legal documents and suggested that his signature on the note may have been counterfeited.

After the incident in 2011, many officials came to their house asking them not to make things look bad for both sides, said Zhao Jingchao. "The officials asked me to keep the image of the government and I agreed...We have never been promised 150,000 yuan (US$24,500) and have never received any of it. Even if we did, we deserve it as we should have been compensated for our loss."

On Nov. 3, Yang Chi, an official who was removed from his post over the incident three years ago, confirmed to the press that 150,000 yuan had been given to the Zhao family in exchange for their silence. The testimonies of other officials associated to the case, however, have shown inconsistencies regarding the locations and time in which the note was signed, according to the report.

 

[Pfizer]

Report breaks down internet use in China by age group

Staff Reporter
2014-11-10

People use computers at the National Library in Beijing. (Photo/CFP)

A recent study conducted by the Communication and National Governance Research Center of Shanghai's Fudan University said the generation of Chinese people born in the 1990s are more interested in online entertainment while those born in the 1980s are more concerned about their financial interests, and those born in the 1960s are most active on online social and political forums, the China Youth Daily reports.

The China Social Psychology Network Report released recently by the center sought to find distinctive characteristics of Chinese people of various generations through qualitative analysis of 1,800 internet users' Sina microblog activities over the course of eight months.

People born during the 1990s, frequently referred to as the "post-90s," are bigger fans of games and other leisure activities than other age groups. About 95.2% of this group's internet users update their online status frequently, and 92% of them often stay on Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter, for entertainment purposes. This age group is also the most optimistic about China's future, with 76.7% expressing optimism about the future in political terms, and 85.7% in economic terms. They are also the demographic who exhibit less negativity toward the rich, academics, elites and authorities.

The "post-80s," or people born during the 1980s, appear more concerned about their personal financial interests as they were found to be more involved in discussions of related topics, the report said.

The "post-70s," or people born in the 1970s, were said to be relatively neutral in terms of general optimism, but exhibited the greatest interest on social topics related to property prices (29.9%), food (22%), salaries (21%) and occupations (14%).

The "post-60s," or people born in the 1960s, were said to be the most active in serious social and political interaction. Some 10.1% of them have been engaged in online disputes on such matters, while the figures in other age groups were 1.9%, 3.4%, 6.6%, and 0.0% for the post-90, post-80, post-70, and post-50 groups respectively.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the "post-50s," or people born during the 1950s, were found to be the least adept at using online social networking and business marketing. They do, however, spend quite some time on online entertainment, behind only the post-80s and post-90s generations.

 

[Yazoo]

Internet gambling gang busted in central China

Source: Xinhua Published: 2014-11-10 23:50:32

Chinese police have busted a gang suspected of organizing gambling on the Internet in central China's Hunan Province, local government said on Monday.

According to the police, seven suspects have been arrested while more than 20 others are still at large.

More than 20 million yuan (3.2 million US dollars) was involved in the gambling organized by the gang.

The police in the city of Yueyang deployed more than 200 officers to investigate and bust the gang.

Six of the seven suspects were detained for criminal prosecution while another is under house arrest due to illness.

According to the confessions of the detained, more than 20 accomplices are still at large.

The investigation is still ongoing.