|
Front Page of the Day
Official fired over pricey cigarettesPosted by Eric Mu, December 29, 2008 10:18 AM
 Chongqing Times December 29, 2008 Zhou Jiugeng, the government official who recently became notorious on the Internet for his expensive cigarettes, has been fired. Zhou was the director of the real estate bureau of Nanjing's Jiangning District. He was dismissed for "expressing inappropriate opinions to the media without authorization, which caused negative social effects" and for "purchasing high priced cigarettes using public funds." Zhou's "inappropriate opinion" refers to his saying in an interview that developers would be inspected and banned from selling properties below cost. This opinion was interpreted as attempt to justify current property prices which many people feel are still too high. An ensuing "human flesh search" found a photo showing Zhou at his desk with a pack of cigarettes which cost 1,500 yuan per carton. In the photo, he was wearing a watch believed to be an expensive Vacheron Constantin. Netizens also found that Zhou's brother himself is a real estate developer.  The Beijing News December 29, 2008 In other job-related news, Fan Meizhong, a former teacher who became a celebrity for running for his own life instead of helping his students when the Sichuan earthquake struck on May 12, was recently reported to have been offered a job by Beijing Kaihua Training School. Fan's actions brought a flood of criticism and resulted in a public debate over the role of teachers as role models and protectors of the students in their charge. Many people saw his new job as a crass attempt by the Kaihua Training School to use Fan's notoriety to gain publicity for themselves. Today's Beijing News reports that the school has announced that his hiring would be postponed indefinitely. Ran Dongzheng, president of Kaihua, explained that the school had underestimated the consequences of the controversy over Fan. Links and Sources
|
Partner Links
Jobs in China
Recent Comments
HaiTek on
Chinese in Argentina
Sam Voutas on
Taxi vs Taxi
animal rig on
Cats and dogs in the animal cruelty law
Paul Jones on
Bankrupt schools and their fleeing foreign bosses
Chris/Kati on
Reserve a ticket on the 2012 ark through Taobao!
Media Partners
Visit these sites for the latest China news
China Media Timeline
Major media events over the last three decades
Danwei Model Workers
 Recommended blogs and new media
Books on China
 Tales of Old Hong Kong: The new Tales of Old Hong Kong compiled by Derek Sandhaus is available at Earnshaw Books.
Diamond Hill by Feng Chi-shun: Feng's memoir Diamond Hill describes an era of gambling and gangsters, Suzie Wong and squatter villages, fires and food stalls, and the Kowloon Walled City and its white powder. "A time when people were poor, but life was rich," he says. The world that he grew up in no longer exists, but his book - the first ever on the Diamond Hill refugee settlement, in either Chinese or English - offers a candid picture of what life was like for most Hong Kong residents in the 1950s.
William A. Callahan's China: The Pessoptimist Nation: China: The Pessoptimist Nation shows how the heart of Chinese foreign policy is not a security dilemma, but an identity dilemma. Through a careful analysis of how Chinese people understand their new place in the world, the book charts how Chinese identity emerges through the interplay of positive and negative feelings in a dynamic that intertwines China's domestic and international politics.
Front Page of the Day
A different newspaper every weekday
From the Vault
Classic Danwei posts
+ People: Chen Daming, director (2004.06): Chen's own life story could be rich material for a feature film. After being rusticated from the Henan Opera School, he was forced to move away from Kaifeng to look for work. The Film Academy is the most prestigious film school in China, counting the directors Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige among its alumni, and competition for place to study there is fierce. Chen Daming came to Beijing for an audition, and was accepted after three auditions. + Mo Luo: Turning enemies into people (2009.06): Mo Luo, an essayist and poet, writes about dehumanizing the enemy. + Skirting the law in China's private enterprise reform (2006.05): An essay by Wu Xiaobo (吴晓波), 'Reform Begins with Transgression' (改革从违法开始), about how early Chinese private enterprise dealt with a vague legal framework.
Danwei Archives
Danwei Feeds
Via Feedsky
 (on the mainland)or Feedburner  (blocked in China) Main feed: Main posts (FB has top links) Top Links: Links from the top bar Danwei Jobs: Want ads Danwei Digest: Updated daily, 19:30 |
 |
Chinese media, advertising, and urban life. |
|
tweet
facebook
bookmark
HaoHao
digg
Comments on Official fired over pricey cigarettes
re:
one wonders which facets of the above accusation comprise the core of the offense and which, if any, are mere aggravating factors.
would Zhou have been fine, for example, had he expressed inappropriate opinions to the media with authorization?
or would Zhou have been wrong even had he expressed appropriate opinions to the media provided that he'd done so without authorization?
and how crucial is the causing of negative social effects?
could someone be punished for expressing inappropriate opinions to the media without authorization if doing so causes positive or neutral social effects?
this is tricky stuff, people.
chinese officials are grossly under-paid.