中国Power !!!

[NoLimit]

PUBLISHED : Monday, 18 May, 2015, 10:24am
UPDATED : Monday, 18 May, 2015, 12:27pm

May 18: Premier Li Keqiang on maiden Latin America trip; 128 illegal matchmaking sites shut in crackdown

SCMP online

A couple waits to participate in a staged mass wedding organised as part of a matchmaking event in Shanghai. Photo: Reuters

Diplomacy & defence

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi concluded his China trip with the signing of 21 business deals valued at over US$22 billion. Read full SCMP report here

China is re-engineering its long-range ballistic missiles to carry multiple warheads, in what analysts say a response to the US’ deployment of missile defense systems in the Pacific (New York Times); A Chinese state-run thinktank's analyst says report exaggerating and China is restrained on nuclear warhead development. (Global Times)

Chinese premier Li Keqiang will visit Brazil, Colombia, Peru, and Chile on his first Latin America trip. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang and his wife Cheng Hong stopped at Shannon, Ireland during their first Latin America trip. Photo: Xinhua

Economy

As China’s economy slows and Beijing becomes more relaxed about letting its companies fail, a rising number of foreign bondholders risk being caught up in the country’s unpredictable court system. (Reuters)

Falling tax revenue and the plodding pace of local governments’ refinancing through municipal bonds means that China could face a serious fiscal squeeze on the local level, forcing Beijing to intervene more aggressively to avert a Chinese "fiscal cliff". (Reuters)

Technology

Alibaba Group, Asia's largest e-commerce company, will invest heavily in existing and new ventures abroad, making its push beyond the China market a top priority, said the Chinese e-commerce leader's new CEO, Daniel Zhang. (Reuters)

Society

China's internet regulator shuts down 128 matchmaking websites over allegations including organised prostitution and fraud. (Office of Cyberspace Affairs)

China workers spend an average of 46% of their personal income on social security. (Beijing Times)

Construction workers take a nap in front of a wall of a construction site during their lunch break in Beijing, China. Photo: Reuters

A five-year-old girl from Hebei province survived from accidental plunge from 16th floor. (People.cn)

 

[NoLimit]

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 20 May, 2015, 10:07am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 20 May, 2015, 12:27pm

May 20: Government cracks down on fake universities; Italian castle on sale on shopping site Taobao

SCMP online

A castle in Italy's Valpolicella wine-making region will be auctioned on Taobao.com.

Politics and Policies

China's state council reshuffled four new deputy secretaries in one month. (Xinhua)

The ex-wife of Qiao Jianjun, No 3 on China's 100 wanted list, stands trial in Los Angles on charges of immigration fraud and money laundering. (The Beijing News)

Former Democratic Progressive Party leader Shih Ming-teh to announce the 2016 Taiwan presidency bid as an independent candidate. (udn.com)

Authority has dismissed rumours that said the 70-year land-use rights stipulated by property law for commercial residential buildings will be scrapped. (Beijing Times)

Diplomacy and Defence

During his visit to Brazil, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang announced that Beijing is to establish a US$30 billion special fund for promoting China-Latin America cooperation in manufacturing. (Xinhua)

Chinese Premier Li Keqiang shakes hands with Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff during their talks in Brasilia, Brazil. Photo: Xinhua

Foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei dismissed media reports that China would team up with Thailand to build a canal through the Kra Isthmus. (Foreign Ministry)

Economy

The amount of China's fund assets under management surged 18 per cent to 6.2 trillion yuan (US$1 trillion) by the end of April, posting the largest monthly growth in its history. (Economic Information)

Money and Wealthy

A castle in Italy's Valpolicella wine-making region will be auctioned on Taobao.com, an e-commerce platform run by Alibaba Group, on Thursday with a starting price of 100 million yuan. (Xinhua)

Society

A private education website revealed 210 phony universities that profit from selling fake diplomas, prompting a crackdown from the Ministry of Education. (The Beijing News)

Ninety-one children were hospitalised following a lunch at a private kindergarten in southwest China's Yunnan province. (Xinhua)

Hubei police busted a major illegal PR ring that profited by removing negative news on the internet for officials, listed enterprises and celebrities. The case involves nearly 2,000 people and over 50 million yuan. (Xinhua)

 

[DSTrooper]

Chinese police uncover massive underground business specialising in deleting unfavourable online posts

Businesses and corruption suspects pay millions to erase their tracks from cyberspace

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 20 May, 2015, 3:32pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 20 May, 2015, 3:57pm

Mandy Zuo
[email protected]

Middlemen and go-betweens bribe internet editors and technicians to remove embarrassing online comments about their clients. Photo: Reuters

Police in Hubei have uncovered the biggest case in China so far involving paid services for the removal of unfavourable online posts.

The operation was worth an estimated 50 million yuan (HK$63 million) and involved about 2,000 people in 22 provinces and municipalities, state media reported.

Such operations are not uncommon in the mainland. In December, 2013, police shut down six “public relations” firms who charged their clients to have posts removed. The companies had bribed website editors technicians, through agents, to delete the posts. The companies charged clients hundreds of thousands of yuan to delete the posts, and paid agents between 200-1,000 per deleted post.

In the latest case in Hubei, police found that negative information about officials, large corporations and listed companies, and celebrities are the major clients of the business in Quichun county, part of an industry that one suspect claimed made an annual profit of 100 million yuan nationwide and had created tens of thousands of jobs.

In a detailed report issued on Wednesday, Xinhua revealed that college students, teachers, online editors, civil servants and police officers were paid to delete posts.

Police detained 10 main suspects and were pursuing five others after receiving a tip-off from a member of the public in November.

A 26-year-old man, identified by his surname Yu, allegedly headed the group. It is believed he made more than 7.8 million yuan since 2011.

Another unnamed suspect told Xinhua that the price for a post on a small website usually cost from 100 to 1,000 yuan, while one on a famous website would usually cost 2,000 to 4,000 yuan.

Deleting posts on large national websites could cost up to 10,000 yuan, he was quoted as saying.

“Sometimes we need to go through several, or even a dozen, middlemen to find the administrator who could delete the post,” he said. “Every time the request changed hands, the price went up by 200 to 300 yuan as a commission.”

The most frequently removed posts were those that exposed corrupt officials. Police found in one suspect’s computer that a party chief of an unnamed county in Shanxi province had 52 posts related to him removed in 2013, for a cost of more than 38,000 yuan.

Many industry insiders helped delete online criticism of Yang Dacai, the former work safety chief of Shaanxi province who outraged internet users after online posts revealed his expensive watches in 2013, a suspect surnamed Li said. Yang, widely known as “watch brother”, was later sentenced to 14 years in jail for corruption.

“Particularly after the 18th Party Congress, when there was a surge of online tip-offs [about corrupted officials], we had such good business that we usually had to work till midnight,” Li said.

Publicly-listed companies became the biggest source of income ahead of the annual Consumer Rights Day in March, when authorities launched crackdowns on problematic goods and services.

The posts most often requested to be deleted related to pollution, food safety, housing and health care, police said.

China’s Supreme Court 2013 deemed that paid post removal services were illegal. But legal experts said there have yet to be explicit rules covering liabilities of the client, the implementer, and the agent. As a result, some along the chain of command have escaped punishment.

 

[NoLimit]

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 21 May, 2015, 10:19am
UPDATED : Thursday, 21 May, 2015, 10:39am

May 21: Government approves big spending on railways; TV drama with grenade in crotch scene suspended

SCMP online

China's railway system is one of the busiest transport industries in the country. Photo: EPA

Politics and Policies

13 provinces have appointed new chiefs of discipline commissions since Xi Jinping took over as the Party secretary. 11 of the appointees are not local to the provinces. (thepaper.cn)

Chinese wikipedia, which was only selectively censored in China before, has been fully blocked since May 19th, according to GreatFire.org.

Diplomacy and Defence

China is strongly concerned over the case of six Chinese nationals charged with economic espionage in the United States, foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said. (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

China has urged Myanmar to fully investigate a bombing in Yunnan province that injured five Chinese, after Myanmese military officials said rebels had engineered the incident to damage ties between the two countries (Ministry of Foreign Affairs)

Economy

The top economy planning body this week approved railway projects worth 450 billion yuan (US$73 billion) in total. (Beijing Business Today)

Society

Parents in Beijing's Fengtai district put up tents and placed cushions as they started queueing outside a well-regarded school five day before it opened for limited applications. (Beijing Youth Daily)

The film and television regulator suspended the broadcast of a TV drama depicting China’s war against Japan after a scene of a female character hiding a grenade in her crotch drew widespread ridicule on the internet. (Xinhua)

Sixteen people in the southwestern city of Guiyang are missing after the collapse of a nine-story residential building following a landslide. (The Beijing Times)

The drivers of a Ferrari and Lamborghini that crashed in Beijing, in what was dubbed the ‘Fast and Furious’ incident, are found guilty of dangerous driving and sentenced to four and five months in prison today. (The Beijing News)

Tech

Are China’s investors fuelling their own version of a dotcom bubble? The tech-heavy start-up board ChiNext index has more than doubled this year making it the hottest share market in the world. (Reuters)

Huawei Technologies, the world’s biggest telecommunications equipment maker, is the latest tech giant to present its own take on the ’Internet of Things’, centred on an operating system designed to allow household and business appliances to communicate with each other online. (Reuters)

 

[NoLimit]

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 26 May, 2015, 12:39pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 26 May, 2015, 2:03pm

May 26: Military strategy white paper stresses information and maritime warfare readiness; 38 dead from nursing home fire

SCMP online

Yang Yujun, spokesman at China's Ministry of National Defense, answers questions about the new white paper on military strategy in Beijing. Photo: Kyodo

Diplomacy and Defence

The Ministry of National Defence issued a white paper on military strategy today which highlighted the importance of preparing PLA to winning information warefare and maritime warfare. (State Council Information Office) Read full SCMP report

Premier Li Keqiang signed a currency swap deal that eases the exchange of up to 2.2 trillion pesos (about US$3.6 billion) for the next three years with Chilean President Michelle Bachelet seeking to deepen economic ties by boosting trade and investment. (Associated Press)

The first annual meeting of the non-governmental Forum of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, better known as CICA, opened in Beijing as China calls on meeting delegates to promote security cooperation and mutual respect and trust. (CCTV)

Economy

China's state-owned enterprises‘ total revenues and profits dropped 6 per cent and 5.7 per cent respectively in the first four months of this year from the same period a year before. (Ministry of Finance)

China’s top banking regulator warns of increased risk from real estate finance, local government fundraising vehicles and unconventional forms of debt. Photo: AP

China’s top banking regulator fears the amount of non-performing loans at commercial banks will continue to rise, and warned of increased risk from real estate finance, local government fundraising vehicles and unconventional forms of debt. (Reuters)

Tech

The contest for Nokia's maps business has become a three-way race between German carmakers, a consortium including Uber and Baidu, and a third group including China's Tencent and Navinfo, people familiar with the process said. (Reuters)

Criticized and even sued by luxury brand Gucci and others for facilitating the counterfeit goods trade, Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has been working with manufacturers to cultivate home-grown brands online to try to curb fakes at source. (Reuters)

German carmaker Daimler is to make software from web services company Baidu available in its Chinese Mercedes-Benz cars as part of a trend of deepening ties between carmakers and consumer technology companies. (Reuters)

Society

A burnt-out wheelchair is seen among the debris after a fire at a rehabilitation centre for elderly in Sanlihe village, Henan province. Photo: Reuters

At least 38 people were killed in a deadly fire last night at a private elderly care centre in a village in central province of Henan. (Xinhua) Read full report

Study shows 60 per cent of children in urban China ride in private cars every week but only less than 20 per cent of families use child safety seats. (General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine)

The most challenging leg of Solar Impulse 2 between the eastern China city of Nanjing and US island of Hawaii as part of the landmark flight around the world powered only by the sun was delayed today due to concerns about the weather. (AFP)

 

[NoLimit]

Chinese police detain another online Casanova for defrauding 13 girlfriends

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 26 May, 2015, 3:46pm
UPDATED : Tuesday, 26 May, 2015, 11:33pm

Laura Zhou
[email protected]

Text messages said to be from Wu Ming sweet-talking his love interests before asking them for money for his 'cancer treatment' . Photo: SCMP Pictures

Police in Chongqing are seeking the public’s help in a suspected fraud case in which a man allegedly dated 13 women, including four simultaneously, and cheated them of 200,000 yuan .

Police detained the suspect, identified as Wu Ming, earlier this year at a hotel after a woman reported that her boyfriend had disappeared with 38,000 yuan of her savings in March.

The woman, named Li, told police she met the man on the internet last June and soon fell in love. When the man told her that he had been diagnosed with liver cancer, Li quit her job to take care of him, the Chongqing Morning Post reports.

Police discovered another victim with a similar story, named Zhao, after Wu took her to the same hotel room.

“He told me he had liver cancer, and that I was the power that kept him alive,” Zhao said. “I thought I had found true love, but he is just a liar,” she said, adding that she had given him 7,000 yuan as well as access to her bank account.

Police later found that Wu had dated 13 women since 2013, including one who worked at the hotel where he was caught. Another woman spent nearly 5,000 yuan to buy him a new mobile phone.

Wu allegedly told police that he started meeting his girlfriends online in 2013. After meeting someone, he would tell them he was suffering cancer or some other disease, All these women were all willing to support him financially, shelling out more than 200,000 yuan in total.

However, only five came forward who were willing to testify, and police are seeking other witnesses.

Only last week, a man named Yuan who dated 17 women at the same time was placed under criminal detention for fraud in Changsha, Hunan.

 

[NoLimit]

'Hotel king' among 47 tried over Chinese town's sex trade

Boss of city's five-star Crown Prince Hotel, once one of China's richest men, denies masterminding prostitution network, but 43 plead guilty

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 27 May, 2015, 11:17pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 28 May, 2015, 6:22am

Mimi Lau in Guangzhou [email protected]

Liang Yaohui (first in yellow on the left) and other suspects are led to trial at Dongguan. The trial is the culmination of a crackdown on vice in the city.Photo: ImagineChina

Dongguan's 'hotel king' Liang Yaohui pleaded not guilty to a charge of organising prostitution in a high-profile trial involving 46 others accused of turning the Guangdong city into the nation's top destination for sex.

Liang - who was once listed among China's 500 richest people - faces a possible death sentence due to the scale of his alleged crimes. All of the accused were either stakeholders or employees at the city's five-star Dongguan Crown Prince Hotel, established in 1995, and the most recognisable name of the thousands of venues shut down in a months-long campaign that kicked off in February last year.

Twenty-eight defendants besides Liang have been charged with organising prostitution, 16 others are accused of facilitating the crime, while two more allegedly helped to destroy evidence, as much as two truck-loads.

The trial is being conducted by the Intermediate People's Court in Dongguan and is expected to be a lengthy, complicated procedure. Liang is among four defendants who have denied the charges - the rest pleaded guilty.

China News Services reported the hotel generated nearly 49 million yuan (HK$62 million) in illegal income in 2013 alone, and that Liang and others were responsible for 100,000 incidents of prostitution, which also involved minors. Those accused of large-scale organisation of sex workers face life imprisonment or the death penalty, and confiscation of all their assets.

The Crown Prince Hotel offered 99 sauna massage rooms and retained more than 100 sex workers at any one time, mainland media have reported. It was targeted by prosecutors partly because it's one of the oldest luxury hotels in Dongguan but also due to its reputation for offering naked dance shows during which customers could select a woman.

Apart from running the Crown Prince, Liang is also director of Energy China Group, a mainland company focused on developing overseas oil.

Liang, 48, began his career as a hairdresser while in his 20s, opening a salon which employed more than 50 women who allegedly offered sex services.

The Dongguang vice trade began to pick up in 1995 when the manufacturing sector of the Pearl River Delta boomed, drawing Taiwanese and Hong Kong businessmen to the city.

Liang's fortunes allegedly rose along with it, and by 2008, he was listed among China's richest, with assets estimated at 2 billion yuan. As of 2010, he had given 56 million yuan to community projects, mainland media has reported.

The crackdown saw at least 36 city police officials, including Yan Xiaokang, former deputy mayor and head of the local public security bureau, suspended or removed from office on suspicion of having protected businesses involved in prostitution.

Some 1,200 websites and more than one million public instant-messaging accounts were closed for promoting sex services online. The campaign targeted the businesses of many taxi drivers and the bosses of saunas and restaurants.

Prostitution became a significant part of the economy in the city after manufacturing industries closed or shifted elsewhere when export demand slumped in 2009 following the global economic crisis.

No one knows exactly how many people worked in the sex industry in Dongguan. Local analysts estimated there were more than 250,000 prostitutes working in the city at one point, and the business generated about 50 billion yuan (HK$63 billion) a year.

The sex trade continues to exist in the city, some of it openly, but the security sweep has driven significant portions of it deeper underground.

 

[Adobe]

HIV+ official dodges drug charges

Source: Global Times Published: 2015-5-30 1:28:02

A central government official has been caught by the police with drugs in Beijing, but was not charged nor punished because he is HIV positive and only a small amount of narcotics were seized.

The mid-level official, whose real name was not revealed, was found with less than 10 grams of the drug methamphetamine. Police acted on a tip-off from residents in the Chaoyang district and found the drugs during a raid on an apartment on May 17.

He was liable for five days administrative detention, but will not be punished as the law stipulates that people with serious contagious diseases will not be detained.

 

[NoLimit]

Chinese court declares 'killer-kidnappers' innocent - 17 years too late

Court overturns sentences of three men convicted of kidnapping and murdering boy almost 20 years ago, but decision is too late for one man

PUBLISHED : Saturday, 30 May, 2015, 1:23am
UPDATED : Saturday, 30 May, 2015, 1:23am

Li Jing [email protected]

The top mainland prosecutor has urged judicial bodies to prevent wrongful convictions. Photo: SCMP Pictures

A court in Fujian province on Friday overturned the suspended death penalties and a life sentence handed to three people almost 20 years after they were wrongly convicted of kidnapping and killing a teenage boy.

Chen Xiaying, 36, who was serving life in jail, and Huang Xing, 40, who was under a suspended death sentence, were allowed to return to their hometown in Fuqing, news portal The Paper reported.

A third man, Lin Lifeng, who was also given a suspended death penalty, died of cancer in prison in 2008.

The trio were convicted of kidnapping 13-year-old Tang Ming in 1996.

The boy's parents had found a note at home demanding a 70,000 yuan (HK$89,000) ransom after their child went missing in April that year.

But the kidnappers never showed up, and the boy's body was found near a primary school the following month.

Police arrested Chen, Huang and Lin, all impoverished drug addicts, in June, and the local media hyped up their detention, proclaiming the trio as the murderers even before trial began.

But records showed the three were not in contact when Tang was missing.

Chen and Huang said they were in Shenzhen at the time, while Lin said he was at home with his cousins that night.

According to The Paper, police did not include the alibis in the trio's case records, and their relatives were harassed into testifying against them.

They were sentenced in a Fuzhou intermediate court in 1998, and the Fujian Higher People's Court upheld the sentences in 2006 despite a lack of substantial evidence. The higher court reopened the case in February after repeated petitions from the families of the men.

Chen and Huang told a court this month that police tortured them for five days into making their confessions, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.

News outlet Caixin quoted their lawyer, Wang Xing, as saying there was no proof the three men committed the crimes.

"The procuratorate realised there were problems. The court knew there were problems, but they were not able to exercise judicial power independently," Wang said.

Top mainland prosecutor Cao Jianming has urged judicial bodies to prevent wrongful convictions, calling it the legal supervisory body's biggest task.

 

[NoLimit]

Chinese man admits poisoning drinks cartons at convenience stores, killing a beggar

Suspect in Dongguan told police he carried out attacks because he was angry at society

PUBLISHED : Friday, 29 May, 2015, 2:51pm
UPDATED : Friday, 29 May, 2015, 2:51pm

Alice Yan
[email protected]

Police and food inspectors check the stock at a store in Dongguan. Photo: SCMP Pictures

A man has been arrested in southern China for allegedly injecting rat poison into cartons of drinks sold at convenience stores, killing a beggar, a newspaper reported.

The man was detained on Friday morning in Dongguan and admitted he had poisoned drinks at four shops in the city, the Southern Metropolis News said.

Four people were also made ill after drinking the contaminated products and are receiving hospital treatment.

The poisoned drinks included packs of herbal tea.

The suspect, whose full name was not given, told police he was angry with society, the newspaper reported.

He is 44 and comes from Liaoning province in the northeast of China. No further details were given about his motives for carrying out the attack.

Police and food inspectors have checked the convenience stores in two streets in the city in Guangdong province where the four injured victims bought their drinks before they fell ill.

The beggar was found lying in the street with a pack of poisoned herbal tea next to him.

He died later after he was taken to hospital.

 

[NoLimit]

Dongguan hotel tycoon faces life for his role in local sex trade

Staff Reporter
2015-05-31

TV coverage of Liang Yaohui's trial, May 27. (Photo/CNS)

A hotel tycoon in Dongguan in southern China's Guangdong province may be sentenced to life in prison if he is convicted on charges of operating a prostitution ring, according to Chinese media reports.

The trial of Liang Yaohui, owner of the Crown Prince Hotel in Dongguan, and 46 other defendants began May 27 in the case of a sex trade ring that allegedly was being operated at the hotel, the state news agency Xinhua said.

Liang, who is accused of managing organized prostitution operations and other crimes, pleaded not guilty in court, while 43 other defendants pleaded guilty, Xinhua said.

The operations were based in the hotel's sauna facility, which opened in 1998, and were exposed in February 2014 by state broadcaster China Central Television. The ring was later busted in a police raid.

According to prosecutors, over 100 people, including minors, working in the sauna were involved in the prostitution ring, which brought in an estimated 48.7 million yuan (US$7.85 million) in illegal gains in 2013.

Prosecutors said the illegal sex trade began in the hotel sauna area in 2004 and that some 101,900 illegal transactions were conducted in 2013.

In a report in Hong Kong's Ta Kung Pao, a criminal lawyer said Liang most likely will be sentenced to life imprisonment if he is convicted of running the ring, a crime that carries a maximum penalty of death.

Chinese media said, however, that capital punishment has been imposed in sex trade cases only when there was proven evidence of kidnapping, death or maiming.

Dongguan had long had a reputation as "China's sex capital" for its flourishing underground sex trade. Officials had largely turned a blind eye to the industry or even profited from being complicit in its operations, as the trade was a major contributor to the local economy. The CCTV expose last year was a calculated move by the government but the ultimate political motivation for the crackdown remains obscure.

 

[NoLimit]

Yunnan Baiyao admits to buying substandard gingko extract

Staff Reporter
2015-05-31

Yunnan Baiyao powder. (File photo/CFP)

The manufacturer of the hemostatic powdered medicine Yunnan Baiyao, a well known traditional treatment for stopping bleeding, has released a statement admitting that it had purchased 6.9 tonnes of ginkgo extract from two suppliers that are now under investigation, reports Guangzhou's Southern Daily.

Guilin-based pharmaceutical company Xingda and a Hunan-based natural medicine manufacturer reportedly sold substandard ginkgo extract to 24 downstream pharmaceutical companies, including the state-owned Yunnan Baiyao Group, the manufacturer of Yunnan Baiyao — which enjoys the status of a "miracle drug" in China.

According to reports from China's Food and Drug Administration, one of the two suppliers illegally used hydrochloric acid instead of the legally approved homeopathic alcohol to extract ginkgo and sell the product to pharmaceutical companies. The other used ginkgo extracted through the same method to produce medicine. Both have altered company logs documenting the purchase of materials and production tests.

The authority has ordered a recall of all medicine tainted by the products.

On May 21, Yunnan Baiyao Group publicly stated that one of its subsidiaries in charge of traditional Chinese medicine trading has purchased 6.9 tonnes of the substandard herbal extract but claimed that the product has not been used in the making of any of the company's products, according to the report.

 

[NoLimit]

Indecent Exposure: Forbidden City naked photo shoot causes stir

Staff Reporter
2015-06-02

One of the photos by Wanimal making the rounds on social media platforms in China. Impressively, photographer Wang Dong managed to take the shot during regular opening hours. (Internet photo)

A naked photo shoot at Beijing's Palace Museum, the world-famous Forbidden City, has caused controversy online, according to the Chinese-language Beijing Times.

On June 1, the Palace Museum stated that it was completely unaware of the shoot in advance and that staff put a stop to it as soon as they became aware what was happening. Staff at the Ming Tombs outside Beijing, another backdrop for the apparent project to take naked photos at historic monuments, said they too were completely unaware of a shoot that took place there.

Staff Halted the Shoot

On June 1, after the internet went into an uproar over the Forbidden City shoot, a representative from the Palace Museum said staff had discovered the Weibo account some time earlier but had not issued a response for fear of drawing more attention to the account, which at the time did not have a significant number of followers.

After the incident received significant media coverage, the Palace Museum went back through their security footage and discovered that the shoot took place during normal opening hours. The security footage showed that at 8:30 am on May 17 four individuals raced into the western arch of the Meridian Gate ahead of other tourists, with the young woman featured in the photos on the Weibo account wearing a grey shirt. At 8:50 am, staff members on patrol discovered the four people taking the photographs on the western side of the Hall of Supreme Harmony, and immediately put a stop to their activity.

No Foreknowledge

The Palace Museum spokesperson said the shooting of naked photos at the museum did not only constitute a disturbance of public order and violate social norms but it also had a negatively influence on the cultural atmosphere of the historic buildings.

The photographer, Wang Dong, posted on his Weibo account the message, "Giving up on this place, goodbye everyone, have a good June 1."

So far, police have taken no action against the photographer, whose feat of taking the picture with no other visitors in the background was impressive given that some 14 million people visit the museum every year, according to state newswire Xinhua.

Legal Standpoint

Liu Changsong, director of the Beijing Mugong Law firm, cited Article 44 of China's Public Security Administration Punishments Law, which states, "Anyone who acts indecently towards any person or deliberately exposes his or her body in a public place shall be detained for no less than five days but no more than 10 days if the circumstances are absolutely vile."

Liu stated that this article is aimed at people who expose themselves for sexual gratification. As Wang Dong arranged the shoot for artistic reasons, this should be taken into mitigation.

Art?

In the photos, the young female model posed on the steps of the hall completely naked and rode on the head of a dragon statue.

The photos were first uploaded to a Weibo account with the handle "Wanimal" on May 17. Opinion was divided, with some suggesting that the photos were indecent, while others suggested they had some artistic value.

The photographer stated that his work had not raised any eyebrows among professional artistic circles overseas and expressed his dissatisfaction with Chinese media outlets. Despite refusing all interviews with the media, Wang published a series of web interactions in his album.

In the course of the discussions he said that his name is Wang Dong and that he uses an anthropological approach to photograph women, hence the name of his account is combines "W" for women and "animal" to form "Wanimal." He has shot three photographic collections entitled Naked Apes, The Human Zoo and Intimate Behavior, which aim to capture the animal nature of human social behavior. "Coverings came later, the most natural state is without covering. They function to keep out the cold, to emphasize, to decorate and to explain. If you take them all off, that's when you return to your natural state," he said.

Wang also stated that he did not enter any restricted areas for the shoot and denied allegations that his actions had negatively affected senior citizens or children. He added that he had chosen the Forbidden City as a backdrop not to profane it but rather because of the cultural power it holds.

 

[Spetsnaz]

Animal abuse reported at tourist parks across China

Staff Reporter
2015-05-27

In this photo taken in October 2007, a black bear rides a motorbike on a wire supporting a human on a swing below at a bear and tiger reservation in Guangxi. (File photo/CFP)

An employee goads a pig to jump through a hurdle as visitors watch at a park in Guangdong province. (Internet photo)

Cases of animal abuse which took place during the May 1 long weekend have been reported at several tourist sites in China, bringing widespread public criticism, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

A family recreational park in Shiyanhu near Changsha in Hunan province held a swimming competition for piglets for the entertainment of the holiday crowds. The baby pigs were thrown into a pool from a high platform and were left to sink or swim. The park has since come under attack from internet users for animal abuse and cruelty.

Huang Shi, the organizer of the event, claimed the piglets had undergone training beforehand and that the animals enjoyed "playing in the water."

According to reports on the internet, the park has previously organized an event where visitors were encouraged to catch live ducks in a pond and could take them home as a prize.

A similar case was reported at a park in Guangdong, which held a piglet triathlon in which baby pigs were goaded into diving, swimming and jumping hurdles. At a petting zoo in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, piglets were pushed into a diving pool from a 12-meter-high platform, higher than the platforms used in the Olympics.

Haicang Zoo in Fujian province allowed visitors to ride on the back of a giant tortoise. Employees would tap the animal's shell with a screwdriver to get it to move. In Yongjia, Zhejiang province, tourists could pay to use toy guns to shoot at live chickens.

 

[Spetsnaz]

PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 02 June, 2015, 10:23am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 02 June, 2015, 10:26am

June 2: Internet police take to social media; woman jailed for killing ‘noisy’ toddler son

SCMP online

A man visits Sina's Weibo microblogging site in Shanghai. Photo: Reuters

Politics and policy

Western governments and foreign non-profit groups are pressuring China to revise a proposed law that requires foreign non-profit organisations to find an official sponsor, typically a government-backed agency, and gives broad latitude to the police to regulate activities and funding. (Reuters)

Internet police no longer behind-the-scenes: Internet police in 50 provinces in China made their public debut by opening social media accounts on Monday. Instead of directly deleting posts that they deem to have violated laws, as in the past, they will now send warnings to internet users to ask them delete the information. (Xinhua)

Diplomacy

The People's Liberation Army on Monday began its annual trans-regional exercise at Zhurihe training base in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region in north China. (Xinhua)

Economy

China and South Korea have officially signed a bilateral free trade agreement. (Global Times)

Chinese train makers CSR Corp Ltd and China CNR completed a merger to form the world's biggest rail conglomerate. The new name will be CRRC. (Reuters)

Yum Brands Inc’s KFC unit in China said on Monday it has sued three companies it claims are using a popular messaging service to spread false rumours about the fried-chicken chain, including allegations that its chickens have six wings and eight legs. (Reuters)

Society

A passenger ferry carrying 458 people capsized on the Yangtze River in central China's Hubei province during a storm on Monday evening. So far eight people including the ship's captain have been rescued. (Xinhua)

On the first day of Beijing’s public smoking ban, 146 places were ordered to rectify practices and one smoker was fined 50 yuan as authorities dispatched over a thousand officials on the street to supervise the ban. (Beijing Times)

A 26-year-old Beijing woman was sentenced to 11 years in prison after she was found guilty of deliberately strangling her own toddler son to death because "he was making too much noise". (Xinhua)

Sixteen people have died and three are missing in heavy rainfall in southern China last week. (Xinhua)

 

[NoLimit]

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 03 June, 2015, 10:38am
UPDATED : Wednesday, 03 June, 2015, 11:52am

June 3: China services industry growth picks up; policeman critical after shootout with kidnapping suspects

SCMP online

HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) of China’s services sector accelerated to 53.5 in May from 52.9 in April.

Politics and policies

China's Panchen Lama pledges patriotism ahead of the 80th birthday of Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader in exile. (Reuters)

The presidential candidate from Taiwan's pro-independence opposition party, Tsai Ing-wen, has called for a more sustainable and consistent relationship with China as she seeks U.S. government and business leaders’ support. (Reuters)

The 11th Panchen Lama Bainqen Erdini Qoigyijabu conducts a ritual to bless Tibetan Buddhism scholars in Beijing. Photo: Xinhua

Diplomacy and defence

Foreign minister Wang Yi will attend a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Russia and will pay official visits to Hungary and the UK from June 3 to 10. (Foreign Ministry)

Senior military officials from China and Pakistan met on Tuesday in Beijing, pledging to strengthen cooperation in areas such as training, military equipment and anti-terrorism. (Xinhua)

Economy

The HSBC Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI) of China’s services sector accelerated to 53.5 in May from 52.9 in April, with new business rising at the fastest pace in three years. (Reuters)

The central bank has allowed financial institutions to issue certificates of deposit entitling the holder to receive interest at a higher rate than ordinary deposits, giving banks more freedom over pricing interest rates. Individual investors will need at least 300,000 yuan (about 48,860 U.S. dollars) to participate, and institutional investors at least 10 million yuan. (Xinhua)

A bilateral free trade agreement between China and South Korea covering 17 sectors, including e-commerce and government procurement, will remove tariffs on 90 per cent of all products traded between the two countries. (CCTV)

China’s economic growth, already at its slowest in decades, will get worse before it gets better, with economists saying it will take time before liberalising reforms turn net positive. (Reuters)

Promotional poster adorns the wall of a Hoyts cinema complex located in the suburb of Chatswood, north of Sydney. Photo: Reuters

Wanda Cinema Line, a unit of China’s leading property developer Dalian Wanda Group, said it would buy Australian cinema chain Hoyts Group in a move that underscores its parent’s ambitions to become a global entertainment company. (Reuters)

China’s Jiangsu Hongda New Material Co Ltd will acquire Chinese display advertising company Focus Media for 45.7 billion yuan ($7.37 billion) via an asset swap, cash and share issue deal, paving the way for Focus Media’s backdoor listing in China. (Reuters)

Abu Dhabi Investment Authority said it has been given approval to invest US$1.5 billion in China's A-share market. (thepaper.cn)

Society

The condition of China's first patient with Middle East respiratory syndrome has stabilised, according to health authorities. Sixty-nine people who have had close contact with the patient have been quarantined but none has shown Mers symptoms. (Yicai.com)

A police officer is in a critical condition after being shot in the head during a gunfight with two kidnapping suspects in Qiqihar, in northeastern Heilongjiang province. Police killed one suspect and have arrested the other. (Beijing Times)

 

[Spetsnaz]

Surveillance drone to fight Gaokao cheating

China Daily, June 3, 2015

Drones are taking off in a big way, and now they have one more role to play – as surveillance to prevent cheating in the national entrance exams, or Gaokao in Luoyang city, Henan province, Xinmin.cn reported on Wednesday.

A drone is utilized to prevent cheating in an exam in Luoyang city, Central China's Henan province on May 29, 2015. [Photo/Sina Weibo]

Equipped with six propellers, the machine, known as a UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle), has a flight radius of nearly one kilometer. It can also hover at 500 meters above the ground, the ideal height from which to perform a 360-degree scan.

As soon as suspicious signals from unauthorized electronics are detected, the drone will reveal irregularities on its control panel. It can also immediately and accurately determine the location of the electronic signals.

The drone was tested on May 29 in the city.

 

[Spetsnaz]

600 arrested in Beijing's vice crackdown

Xinhua, June 3, 2015

Beijing police have busted 68 organized prostitution gangs and arrested over 600 suspects in a month-long campaign against prostitution, gambling and drugs.

The arrests were made in raids at entertainment venues including private clubs, discotheques and bath houses across the city since April, according to the Beijing public security bureau.

Three clubs and three karaoke parlors have been closed for engaging in prostitution and gambling.

Beijing has been the subject of much discussion since last year after a number of celebrities were arrested on narcotics or prostitution charges, including Jackie Chan's son Jaycee Chan who was caught taking drugs with Taiwanese actor Ko Chen-tung last year.

 

[NoLimit]

Flaming message

Source: CFP Published: 2015-6-4 0:13:01

Police officers in Fuyang, Anhui Province on Wednesday burn 105.9 kilograms of illegal drugs, including heroin and meth, in five pots to deter drug-related crimes. June 3 marks the 176th anniversary of Chinese hero Lin Zexu burning opium at Humen Beach in 1839, the event which led to the first Opium War.Photo: CFP
​

 

[NoLimit]

PUBLISHED : Thursday, 04 June, 2015, 10:49am
UPDATED : Thursday, 04 June, 2015, 11:00am

June 4: Three graft fugitives said to be hiding in Vancouver; robot gives university lecture

SCMP online

Headshots and background information on 100 wanted fugitives in Operation Sky Net. Photo: SCMP Pictures

Politics and Policies

Aside from graft fugitive Cheng Muyang, three more suspects on China's 100 most wanted list of corrupt officials are also hiding inVancouver, China's consul general in the city said. (Xinhua)

Diplomacy and defense

Chinese Ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai speaks to Chinese reporters in Washington. Photo: Xinhua

The South China Sea should not have become an issue between Beijing and Washington in the first place, as Washington is not one of the claimants to islands there, Chinese ambassador to the United States Cui Tiankai said on Tuesday. (Xinhua)

China's Foreign Ministry expressed shock at "outrageous and unreasonable" remarks by Philippine’s President Aquino, who made a veiled comparison on Wednesday between China's activities in the South China Sea and Nazi Germany's expansionism before world war two. (Reuters)

Economy

China on Wednesday unveiled a blueprint for an industrial park in the eastern city of Yantai on Wednesday to facilitate investment by enterprises from South Korea, following the signing of a free trade agreement between the two countries. (Xinhua)

Consumption contributed 50.2 percent to China's gross domestic product growth in 2014, while investment growth declined to 48.5 per cent, data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed on Wednesday. (Xinhua)

Society

A robot instructor made its debut in a university in China’s Jiangxi province. The robot can give a lecture following Powerpoint slides and is able to perform simple interaction with students, according to its developer. (Sina)

Money and wealth

Demand for luxury housing is still increasing in China. Photo: Reuters

The value of luxury property deals in China in the first five months of this year is close to the figure for the whole of 2014, data from property agency Yahao shows. (The Beijing News)