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Xinhua reports: Foxconn reduces claim against journalists to one yuan

Danwei Noon Report is a daily roundup of new and old media coverage about China from Chinese and English sources.

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Wang You and Weng Bao

Xinhua's: Foxconn reduces claim against journalists to one yuan
Xinhua's Chinese website's headline story today recounts how Foxconn has decided against suing China Business News journalist Wang You and editor Weng Bao for 30 million yuan, reducing the amount to only one yuan.

The state owned news agency reporting about press freedom issues: This is remarkable.

The Xinhua story is here. See ESWN for more details and commentary.


Luxury living comes to PKU
At Peking University, as in many schools across China, students must trek from their dormitories to distant bathhouses when they wish to shower. This year, however, PKU has made renovations to some of its dorms, allowing more than 5200 students to shower in the comfort of their own building. The 144 showerheads are just the first step; in the coming years, more dorms will be given the treatment so that eventually, 450 nozzles will offer hot showers to 15,000 students (Mirror, link - in Chinese).

Sex in Shanghai hits the print media
Following a cryptic message on news editor Zhang Rui's blog last night that "immoral foreign teachers will be the next big thing," Beijing Times has a large front-page headline for a full-page inside feature on the controversy over ChinaBounder. Essentially a summary of how things have transpired to date, it also includes a few exclusive quotes from professor Zhang Jiehai:

"I am opposed to online mobs. My goal is to find out this individual's true identity through our cooperative effort and expel him from China. This kind of person is unfit to be a teacher in China, but I do not advise netizens to use extreme methods to resolve this problem."

Zhang Jiehai said that at 3pm two days ago, he discovered that a password had been set up on the blog. This demonstrates that Chinabounder is scared. He will continue to investigate until he can get Chinabounder kicked out of China (link - in Chinese)

See also yesterday's Guardian story by Jonathan Watts.

There are currently 6 Comments for Xinhua reports: Foxconn reduces claim against journalists to one yuan.

Comments on Xinhua reports: Foxconn reduces claim against journalists to one yuan

I'm glad to see that Beida's doing something about the showers. Now if they could only see to getting rid of that persistent piss smell that haunts the dorms...

Peking University isn't averse to a little luxury these days - it is also building a driving range on campus.

http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/china/2006-08/30/content_677265.htm

Sample quote: "It's necessary to have a range on campus where students can learn some basic golf skills, as golf is an increasingly popular sport in China," the sports director said.

What next? Helicopters to take them between lectures?

With the claim having been reduced to just one yuan, do you think that increases the likelihood that the suit against them will be successful? And if it is, will that establish a precedent for similar charges in the future?

Regarding Zhang Jiehai in the BT, how balanced was the feature? If they gave prominence to a quote in which he says that he's opposed to online mobs, I'm skeptical. Not only does this man protest too loudly, but he's made a total fool of himself.

The Beijing Times article was roughly chronological, so the backpedaling quotes appear near the end in the midst of his theories on the cultural and economics-influenced sense of inferiority that makes some Chinese women so susceptible to this kind of manipulation by foreign teachers. So it did very little to balance the call for his capture that is in the headline. One of the photos in the article (it's not too clear on the linked page) is from Mop, and is apparently #3 on their list of The Net's Most Wanted. If the good prof was at all aware of how these situations have played out in the past (cat crusher etc), he'd have anticipated the mob reaction to his blog post, so yes, his protestations seem just a wee bit disingenuous.

Chinabounder's blog is now invite only--kinda makes it pointless, I think.

This whole thing never would have happened if China didn't stop blocking blogspot blogs. Conspirator in me says Netnanny had this planned all along...

This whole thing never would have happened if China didn't stop blocking blogspot blogs. Conspirator in me says Netnanny had this planned all along...

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