Marching and missiles
A superb gallery of photos showing rehearsals and preparations for the PRC's 60th anniversary parade, including missiles, marchers, female jet pilots and floats.
« September 6, 2009 - September 12, 2009 | Main | September 20, 2009 - September 26, 2009 »
September 19, 2009
September 18, 2009
Worker's comp and formal procedures for evidence
China Law Prof Blog discusses the case of Zhang Haichao, who was awarded 615,000 RMB in worker's compensation only after he had his chest cut open to prove he had contracted black lung disease:
the broader issue for the legal system is why it relies so much on these formal procedures for evidence. This doesn't occur just in worker's compensation cases, although here the rules of evidence go beyond mere formalism and seem almost deliberately designed to discourage claims. It occurs in other areas of law as well, where documents must be properly notarized even though there is not any real doubt as to their authenticity. Some of this obsession for formal authentication can perhaps be traced to civil law influences on China's legal system, but since China has in other parts of its legal system felt free to ignore what's done in continental Europe, I think the real answer to this still lies in Chinese legal culture. And it's a bit puzzling, since most of the time when state officials make decisions, they are not artificially constrained in the types of information they can take into account. Strict rules of evidence make more sense in jury systems, when there is a concern that lay people might misinterpret certain kinds of information.
Obama will greet Dalai Lama after China visit
Reports Bloomberg:
Jarrett said in a statement she emphasized Obama’s commitment to supporting the Tibetan people and securing their human and civil rights. She also said Obama commended the Dalai Lama for looking for a solution based on autonomy within China.
The Dalai Lama expressed the hope the Tibetans may see progress in the resolution of their differences with China during Obama’s presidency, according to the statement.
Four sentenced for Xinjiang syringe attacks
The China Daily reports:
Abdulrusul Abdukhadi and Ablimit Memet were sentenced to 15 years in prison, Rehman Raziq 12 years and Abdulkeyum Ayup eight years. Abdukhadi and Memet were also deprived of political rights for five years and Raziq for three years.
Abdukhadi, Raziq and Ayup traveled from Kashgar to Urumqi on Aug 31 and started to plot needle attacks the next day with Memet, a business man who is also from Kashgar, the police said.
Knife-wielding man kills 2 in downtown Beijing
From Xinhua:
A man armed with a knife had stabbed two people to death in Dashilan, a major commercial center in downtown Beijing, the Publicity Department with the Communist Party of China Beijing Municipal Committee confirmed Thursday night.
The tragedy occurred at around 6:54 p.m. on Thursday. The injured were rushed to a nearby hospital and two security guards died later despite medical treatment, police sources said.
Note that is was the Publicity Department, not the police who confirmed the killings. Also noted by Michael Anti:
Xinhua ... drop[ped] its previous more detailed news: numbers and place all deleted.
Punishment for good deeds, redux
If someone in distress begs you for a ride, it might be a sting operation against illegal taxis. ESWN translates reports and parodies of the latest administrative enforcement scandal: entrapment of unlicensed taxi operators.
September 17, 2009
On the two 60th anniversary films
The Founding of a Republic and Tian'anmen are two films made to celebrate the "birthday," but one is made by the CEO of China Film Group, Han Sanping (韩三平). Y Weekend interviews the other director, Ye Daying (叶大鹰).
What Americans might learn from Chinese health care
With Shanghai Scrap back from hiatus, Adam Minter contemplates health care:
I’ve never really been able to put my finger on what – precisely – it is that makes Chinese hospitals such culturally foreign experiences for expats (two of my favorite China bloggers might have had more success, here and here). And, conversely, what makes American hospitals so foreign to Chinese.
Part of the problem, I think, is that I’ve always thought about this in terms of health care systems. But what I’ve realized over the last few weeks (due to events I’ll describe) I really should have been thinking about health care cultures.
The retrial of Wu Baoquan
ESWN translates a Southern Metropolis Daily report on Wu Baoquan's latest conviction in Ordos for libel, this time with the added crime of impersonating a journalist:
Yesterday Wu Baoquan's elder brother attended the court hearing. He said that compared to the previous trials, this trial introduced the new element of "pretending to be a reporter" because Wu Baoquan wrote as if he were a reporter in the Internet post. As for the libel aspect, the evidence now included the statement from current Inner Mognolia Autonomous Region Political Consultative Conference vice-chairman Yun Feng who said that the posts caused his family to be suspicious of him and netizens to curse him so that he could not concentrate on his work, etc.
September 16, 2009
Heroic policeman rams a burning bus
As a flaming bus started to pick up speed on the down-slope of a bridge, a police officer drove at it head-on. Includes an interview with the officer and a video of the rolling inferno.
Don't mispronounce fashion brand names
You're reading it wrong: Fashion magazine 1626 instructs its audience in the proper pronunciation of LV, Marc Jacobs, and other well-known labels through surreal illustrations.
No-fly zone over Beijing: Kites grounded
Chinese media is reporting today that the ban on flying over the capital, which will be in effect from September 15 through October 8 as part of security preparations for the National Day celebration on October 1, lists kites for the first time. From Xinhua:
Li Runhua, head of the public security squadron of the Beijing municipal public security bureau, said residents were banned from releasing pigeons, and flying kites and balloons even at celebrations and shopping promotions.
Xinhua also has a lengthier report on other security preparations.
September 15, 2009
"I Was Fact-Checked by The New Yorker"
Evan Osnos of the New Yorker posts a translation of Qian Gang's article in Southern Weekend about being called up to verify his answers to an interview. Link via ESWN:
Professor Zhan Jiang, who has studied U.S. media, told me that there are fewer and fewer media organizations in the U.S. that conduct such procedures. No wonder I felt like I was in the the middle of an ancient ritual while hearing the fact checking call from The New Yorker. Mr. Pulitzer’s motto “Accuracy! Accuracy! Accuracy!” seems to be a vanishing mist at a time when media face fierce competition. Yes, the press that is willing to spend a lot of human capital and money on investigative reporting and fact-checking is dwindling.
Another Coke employee detained
The New York Times reports on the Coca-Cola embezzlement scandals, including the detainment of a second employee in Shanghai:
“We can confirm that two former employees at Shanghai Shenmei Coca-Cola bottling plant have been detained by the police,” Kenth Kaerhoeg, a Coke spokesman said in a statement Tuesday. “This matter does not involve bribery of government officials but instead allegations that the former employees extracted kickbacks from suppliers and embezzled from the bottler.”
Bomb drill terrifies students, parents
GoChengdoo summarizes and translates a report about a National Day security drill:
Police in Jintang County (northwest of Chengdu proper) staged a practice drill in preparation for National Day security last Friday. The drill involved a fake explosive that was planted at the local middle school. And to be sure the drill was as authentic as possible, neither the students of the school nor their families were notified that it was just a drill.
Gangland in the countryside
At Open Democracy, Kerry Brown writes up the results of a month-long tour of rural China:
In China's northeast, quasi-mafia groups have made entire rural areas their fiefdoms, which they run according to their extensive business interests. In the southeast province of Fujian, similar elite economic groups have established control of villages via local representatives who ruthlessly pursue the groups' private interests with no regard for broader social goals. In the central provinces of Hunan, Henan and Hebei, most evidence I saw showed a clear battle between party operatives and other increasingly powerful groups (from specific clans in one area, to economic or ethnic or social groups in another). Such tense and uneven situations help put in perspective Hu Jintao's emphasis, in the aftermath of the Xinjiang disturbances, on the need to have "one law for everyone".
Hu Jintao to spend a week in U.S.A.
From The China Daily:
President Hu Jintao will spend next week in the United States to explain his nation's role in tackling the financial crisis, climate change and nuclear disarmament to global leaders.
President Hu will be in New York from Sept 21-24 before heading to Pittsburgh, Pa., for the G20 meeting of world leaders from 19 countries as well as the European Union on Sept 25.
September 14, 2009
Cultural demolition in Kashgar
Adam Cathcart translates part of an article from the French journal Liberation on demolitions in old Kashgar.
“What would you say if I blew up the Eiffel Tower on the pretext that it might be struck by lightning?” In one gesture, Mahmut (pseudonym), the young Uighur guide, embraces the ocher roofs and the labyrinthine alleyways of Kashgar: “All of this will disappear within three years. They will destroy everything, and they say it is for your security.”
They? The government, the colonizing Han Chinese, and the people who “collaborate” with them.
“It is a cultural war in this neighborhood,” says Mahmut, “and the Uighurs have already lost.”
Earlier on Danwei: Building a new Old City in Kashgar, from Phoenix Weekly.
How many people have been pricked?
Black and White Cat translates a Southern Weekly story on rumors about an AIDS needle scare in Tianjin in 2002, which has echoes in the recent panic in Xinjiang:
However, the “needle-pricking” incidents have probably had an even deeper influence on the city’s residents. A reporter was walking down the street with a friend from Tianjin and discovered this friend had formed a habit of looking all around him. As soon as anyone came close, he would immediately stare at the person vigilantly.
Reporters noticed that many people in Tianjin had developed this conditioned response. Everyone consciously maintained a distance from other people on the street. Violating this distance would often be met with heightened vigilance or even an antagonistic expression. A Ph.D. graduate at Nankai University says, “This is because the rumors have formed a response of tension and anxiety in people’s minds. It has made them feel as if they are surrounded by chaos and danger.”
Hong Kong journalists protest against Urumqi beatings
AP via the LA Times:
Demonstrators wearing black rallied outside a police station before marching to local offices of China's central government. Organizers and police estimated the crowd at 650 to 700 people.
"This time the authorities are over the line," Mak Yin-ting, chairwoman of the Hong Kong Journalists Association, told the gathering. "They did not only beat reporters, but blamed them for inciting the public disorder."
Douban CEO talks about the "creative stage"
Ah Bei, CEO of Douban, a community website that has expanded its focus from books and music to all sorts of creative endeavors, speaks to Danwei about online groups, edginess, and the indie music scene.
Trade row as Beijing accuses U.S. of "rampant protectionism"
From the Financial Times:
A full-blown trade row erupted on Sunday night between the US and China after Beijing accused Washington of “rampant protectionism” for imposing heavy duties on imported Chinese tyres and threatened action against imports of US poultry and vehicles.
Trade relations between two of the world’s biggest economies deteriorated after Barack Obama, US president, signed an order late on Friday to impose a new duty of 35 per cent on Chinese tyre imports on top of an existing 4 per cent tariff.
The vendors of Beijing's alleys
At the New York Times, Andrew Jacobs writes about the hawkers and salvagers who haunt Beijing's neighborhoods:
“If you can’t yell loudly, you’ll starve,” said Chen Lin, 37, a bony, animated man who earns about $5 a day salvaging dead appliances and anything else containing metal. “No one really knows what I’m yelling,” he said, “but they remember my song and this brings them out of their house.”
Two versions of the Yan Xiaoling case
ESWN translates a look back at the Yan Xiaoling case from the Strait Metropolis Daily. Rumors about rape and murder got several bloggers detained by police.