China to Beef Up Hospital Security

The medical industry in China just can't get an even break.  With doctors being bribed by drugmakers fighting to get their meds on the shelves in pharmacies, the story of man forced to amputate his own leg (and later regretted it) illustrates the pisspoor state that Chinese hospitals are in.  Prized appointment slots with top flight specialists are openly sold to the highest bidder outside of the clinics they operate in.

Violent attacks on doctors are causing concerns to the Politburo, not least because they scare away much needed medical graduates already put off by the low wages and God-awful working conditions that they'll have to endure for most of their career.  As far back as 2011, Chinese patients seeking recompense for botched operations have been thwarted by the dodgy legal system that blocks, stalls, and smears the victim.  The end result, predictably, is a violent one.

Plans were announced this week that hospital security is to beefed up in a national shake up aimed at preventing the nasty occupational hazard of departmental heads being hacked to death on their own wards.

Chinese medical writers have been quick to heave a sigh of "meh".  Zhu Youdi rightly blamed the violence on "a crisis of mutual trust and mutual communication between hospital and patients."

If a doctor succeeds in curing them, "patients are happy and willing to give bribes. But if a doctor receives bribes but fails to cure the patient, they lost both life and money, and the relatives will be extremely angry, it's impossible to ask them to behave in a rational manner," he said.

The new measures fail to tackle the problem, Zhu said. Only a thorough overhaul of China's medical system will reduce hospital violence, he said.

As the increasingly draconian laws that have neutered China's social networking sites have demonstrated, the trust of the people is getting harder and harder to come by these days.

Related articles

• Man Amputates Own Leg With Saw...


• China trying to stop angry patients from killing doctors


• Chinese Doctor Stabbed To Death By Unhappy Patient; Hospital Violence On The Rise In China


• Thoughts on a Chinese Hospital...


• Ousted Chinese politician denies taking bribes

China Defends Human Rights Record: Eight Key Points

Points that the Chinese Special Envoy to the United Nations would like to make in relation to the human rights situation in the People's Republic of China.

1.  Anyone we've thrown in jailed on trumped up charges has never complained about their human rights being violated.  Even when we've threatened to break their legs.

2. We honestly didn't think you'd find out.

3.  Weren't the Olympics great?  The one that was in Beijing we mean.  We got sooooo many gold medals, do you remember?

4.  I mean seriously, Chinese human rights is still a thing?  You sandal-wearing UN hippies need to change the bloody record.

5.  It's all just a problem of you whities not understanding our culture.  In China, aborting babies at 8 months is an ancient practice that goes back tens of years (sometimes less than that), and is often performed out of sincere respect for the family by the local family planning officer/veterinarian.

6.  To prevent more Tibetan protestors setting themselves on fire, we've introduced several new revisions to the national "no smoking" initiative.

7.  No-one has been brutally shot down in their tracks or crushed under an M1 Tank since at least 1989.  If that's not progress, we don't know what is.

8.  Two monks were crossing a bridge one day.  The first monk said "The cherry blossoms have arrived early this year.".  The second monk said "yes, but I'm quite tall.".

Related articles

• China to Appear Before UN Human Rights Council


• China to defend human rights record before a United Nations panel in Geneva - @BBCNews


• China faces human rights scrutiny with UN review


• China to Defend Human Rights Record to U.N.

The Caffeine Hit

CCTV revealed the non-news that Starbucks coffee is expensive, especially when compared to Starbucks coffee that didn't have 17% sales tax slapped on it in other countries.

Drafting in an expert in coffee matters, one Wang Zhendong appeared in an interview for the piece, explaining that because people loved the brand, Starbucks were able to charge more for something that was in high demand.  Wang, the director of the shadowy Coffee Association of Shanghai was more than willing to tell it like it is, saying that "Starbucks has been able to enjoy high prices in China, mainly because of the blind faith of local consumers in Starbucks and other Western brands."

At first glance, the seven minute hatchet job screened by CCTV News appears to be just another in a series of attacks by the Chinese media on western brands being way too expensive for ordinary Chinese to buy.  Odd, then, that one of the more prominent logos on the Coffee Association of Shanghai's website is Lavazza, hardly known for their cheap as chips coffee.

The unexpected attack, and appearance of Mr. Wang simply could not be at all related to the fact that the Coffee Expo 2013 is about to kick off at the end of the month, hosted in the city of, er, Shanghai.  The website for the expo helpfully details two different price plans - 1350rmb registration fee for Chinese exhibitors, and 3200rmb for foreign companies.

Related articles

• Starbucks prices criticised in China


• Starbucks under media fire in China for high prices


• Starbucks under media fire in China for high prices


• Starbucks Is Charging Higher Prices In China, Chinese Media Claims

Administration of Foreign Experts Asks: Why Aren't You A Chinese Citizen?

Foreigners around the country were asked by the State-Administration of Foreign Experts Affairs to give their answers to a few questions as to why they would or wouldn't apply for permanent residence in China.

Despite the fact that Chinese passports rank fourth from bottom in a survey of 30 countries (just above Iran), the delightful folks at the administration failed to include questions related to "perceived crappiness of holding a Chinese passport", or indeed questions about Internet censorship, media censorship, the poor quality of the air, the dubious quality of almost everything you eat, etc, ad naseum.

Questions that were deemed important enough to warrant a mention included:

1、您是否愿意申请在中国永久居留(Would you like to apply for permanent residence in China)？

• A、是(Yes)


• B、否(No)


• C、没有考虑过(Have not considered)

2、您是否了解申请在中国永久居留的条件要求(Do you understand the conditions of foreigners to apply for permanent residence in China)？

• A、是(Yes)


• B、否(No)

3、哪些因素会对你申请在中国永久居留产生影响（可多选）(What factors will affect your application for permanent residence in China（could select multiply）)？

• A、出入境免签证更为便利(being more convenient for visa-free entry and exit)


• B、社会稳定、人民友善(social stability and friendly people)


• C、可以享受国民待遇(national treatment)


• D、工作、生活有归属感(a sense of identity in working and living in China)


• E、更好的事业发展机会(better career development opportunities)


• F、清晰明确的申请条件和流程(clear and specific application condition and procedures)


• 其他，请补充(others, please specify)

Counting the Cost of Starbucks in China

China Crackdown Comes Under UN Review

For the time being, outcry over the jail terms and fines imposed by Chinese officials of those who are found guilty of spreading rumors online has largely been confined to tree-hugging hippy types like those found in organizations like, er, Amnesty International.

Reuters is reporting that for the first time, the tighter measures that obviously limit freedom of speech (unless you're from North Korea, in which case, it's the opposite) will be reviewed by the UN Human Rights Council.  In case you're wondering how China even got through the door without diplomats falling about laughing in the aisles, China isn't actually a member of the UN, but is planning to launch a PR offensive for membership.  Presumably the presentation defending the actions of it's Big V Crackdown that it plans to give in Geneva is a pre-game warm-up.

The Foreign Ministry has said that it will listen to constructive criticisms, saying that it will give them "serious consideration".  Much in the same way that it thoughtfully mulled over what punishment people who call Xi Jin Ping a stinky stoopid boogerhead on Weibo should receive (a 107 year suspended death sentence, in case you're wondering.  Be careful who you call a boogerhead on Weibo).

Adding wiggle room to it's statement, the ministry added ""As for malicious, deliberate criticisms, of course we will uphold our own path and our own correct judgments.".  So as long as the criticisms are accidental, it's all right then.

Xiamen Chengguan Acid Attack

Not really good news, but we all probably saw it coming - 18 officials have been hospitalized after being doused in sulphuric acid as they were trying to demolish an illegally built warehouse in Tong'an, Xiamen.

The public security goons, who have taken to parading around the cities they patrol in combat gear, were taking part in a "a joint law enforcement action lead by the district land and resources department" when they were attacked by a man wielding a bottle of car battery replenisher.  Images were posted on Weibo of the chengguan involved licking their wounds in hospital three days ago, but news of the incident only surfaced this weekend.

Related articles

• China's Brutal Chengguan Police Are Told to Get Polite


• Record of Brutality in China's Cities: Chengguan in Photos


• Chengguan Brawl with 'PLA Soldiers' Over Forced Demolition


• 19 Chinese officials suffer acid attack


• Outcry over China vendor execution

Huang Nubo: Saving Sharks Good, Fighting Global Warming Bad

With adverts  featuring the rich and slightly richer running across subway billboards and TV promoting worthy messages such as "the killing ends when the trade ends" and the hugely successful "I'm FINished with shark fins", you might think that the tide is turning when it comes to conservation in China.

The problem is that Chinese celebs wanting to jump on the oh-so-fashionable saving the Earth's wildlife have other agendas, especially if they happen to be property developers.

In 2012, WildAid gushed about the anti-shark fin soup PR offensive on it's website, promoting it's PSA (that's public service announcement, for you non-PR luvvies) that  tycoon Huang Nubo filmed for them, along with a number of other real estate magnates.  Peter Knights, Executive Director of WildAid, enthusiastically wrote of the campaign, “We hope this is the first step in comprehensive legal protection for sharks in China. We are thrilled to have the support of Mr. Huang, Ms. Wei, and other CEOs representing the Chinese business community.”

While Huang's intentions of saving rare shark species is indeed a noble one, he's not too concerned when it comes to the equally important issue of reducing greenhouse gases and slowing global warming.

Earlier this year, Huang defended his repeated attempts to buy massive tracts of Iceland, saying that his interests were purely financial.  His logic ran that (and we're not making this up) that if the ice caps melt because of continued global warming in the near future, then property prices in Iceland will go through the roof:

Many people think Iceland is very remote but if you think about it in the long run, in 10 years... If the ice caps melt in the North Pole, then Iceland property will become very expensive because it's the only way that a lot of ships need to pass to go to Europe," Huang said on the sidelines of the China Entrepreneur Club's Annual Summit of Green Companies in Kunming, located in the country's southwestern Yunnan province.

The deal was ultimately blocked by the Icelandic government who were suspicious of the former government official and his plans to help Chinese world domination.

 

Related articles

• Chinese Land Purchases: Not Just in Africa Anymore


• China-Iceland Free Trade Agreement

Getting Paranoid in China

For some reason, a writer at the Telegraph has discovered that you need to be slightly paranoid in the world's second most monitored country.  As George Osbourne and Boris Johnson dance around with nublie Chinese women at the taxpayers expense, offer various visa concessions to make up for last years Dalai Lama gaffe, questions, shockingly, are being raised as to how safe sensitive British information will be in the new land of plenty.

Thankfully, as the blog post points out, there's little to worry about, because the Chinese don't read English real good.  Or as Benedict Brogan puts it, they aren't very adept at analysing the data once they get it.   

Related articles

• Boris Johnson upstages George Osborne on China visit


• Boris Johnson: Don't be afraid of Chinese firms buying into London


• Boris And Osborne Make Chinese Trade Visits


• Cameron has no plans to meet Dalai Lama, says Osborne

Kempinski, Intercontinental, Ramada Implicated in Sex Worker Scandal

A BBC report has uncovered shocking evidence that despite prostitution being illegal, hookers are "hiding in plain sight".

Ok, so it's not really that shocking, but the naming of The Kempinski hotel in the investigation is sure to pique more interest in what exactly goes on at the 500rmb per person Christmas Brunch that is held there every year.  While little effort was made to hide the operation, situated in the basement of the hotel, the pimp journalist John Sudworth talked to said that he was unable to offer an official receipt for the sex services that women (presumably) in his employ were offering.  On hotel even suggested that it would be possible to settle the bill for the hired women at the reception desk.  Why exactly you'd want a receipt proving that you hired a hooker for the night is beyond us.

A BBC colleague, posing as a personal assistant, told the spa receptionists that she was setting up a business meeting for potential clients who expected sex to be available in the chosen venue.

In around 7% of those she spoke to, in cities as far afield as Nanjing and Qingdao on China's east coast and the inland cities of Xian and Zhengzhou, we discovered that prostitution is very easy to arrange.

Other high end hotels are implicated, with a photo from the Ramada, which claims to be a "family oriented hotel" in Zhengzhou showing that sex workers are available for hire at the very reasonable rate (so we're told...) of 800rmb.  Unsurprisingly, both hotels have strenuously denied the allegations.

Zhao Huimin Shock Announcement

Full of Hot PM2.5

Worried that attending the APEC Summit in Beijing next year would warrant the use of face masks and Hazmat suits, Zhao Huimin was grilled over the plans to curb air pollution in the city at the end of this year's meet up.  Under pressure to clean up the air ahead of the 2014 summit, Zhao put his foot right in it when he suggested in a TV interview that Chinese cooking might be responsible for pushing levels of PM2.5 up to levels far too dangerous to even look at, let alone breathe.

Not wanting to give away how much money is being apportioned to the project to reduce air pollution, Zhao simply said that more money was being spent than during the Olympics (a mere five years ago).  Confident that Beijing's more "mature" guidelines concerning air pollution would be in place by 2014, a brief glance over Zhao's career suggests that he might not be the best person for the job.

Last summer, Zhao was the guest of honor at the much ballyhooed Foreign Language Festival, were plans were announced to remove signs and menus written in Chinglish in a an effort to make Beijing at least look like "a more international city".  A year later, not much has changed, despite Zhao's office publishing "local standards for English translation of public signs, menus, organization names and official positions".

Related articles

• Beijing's Advice to Residents for Fighting Toxic Air? Cook Less.


• Beijing to hold next year's APEC summit


• Beijing shrouded in heavy smog


• Is China's Pollution Testing the People's Patience?

Press Authority to "train" Journalists

Sounding the death knell on investigative journalism in the country as it intends to provide "training" on journalistic best practices.

Lasting for three months until the end of 2013, the program will be provided for free (yay!) and beleaguered hacks at state owned news outlets will be expected to take an exam to get a press pass valid for 2014.  As you would expect from such a program, topics included are "Socialism with Chinese characteristics" and "The Marxist View on Journalism", with things like journalism ethics and accuracy and all that other less important stuff at the bottom of the list.

At the end of August, the Poltiburo ordered all journalists to attend classes on Marxism in an effort to remind journos that they're employed to provide positive advertising for the CCP, and not allowed to go around investigating stuff and then reporting it without permission.

The program echoes the Seven Baselines for a Clean Internet, which also placed political interests above any of that bothersome fact-checking.  Conversely enough, the idea of improving journalistic standards so that we don't get anymore stories about fake vaginas, or porn being passed off as news, or pictures of spaceships from Battlestar Galactica fansites, or articles from The Onion being reprinted verbatim as news, or satirical pieces from The New Yorker being plagarised as news (that's enough. Ed.) hasn't crossed anyone's mind

Liu Hu: Investigative Journalist Arrested

An investigative journalist who accused senior party members of corruption has been formally charged on suspicion of "fabricating and spreading rumors".

Accusing deputy director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce Ma Shengqi of negligence on his Weibo account, Liu shared a mass of information that accused higher level party cadres of corruption.  The posts were subsequently deleted following Liu's arrest.  Earlier this year, the journalist's lawyer had said that because the usual catch-all accusations ("subverting state power", et al) don't apply to messages posted online, it was unlikely that his client would be charged with "disrupting the social order".  Thanks to the tireless work of Xi Jin PIng and his anti-rumor mongering lawmakers, that's pretty much what happened, and Liu was promptly charged with spreading unverified rumors online.

Once again undermining the anti-graft campaign that Xi has made his mission this year, no-one's really sure what's going on when it comes to, well, the fight against corruption.  Self regulation within the Party certainly hasn't worked very so far, and Chinese whistle blowers are having the frighteners put on them for taking the initiative and posting messages of suspected graft online.  The fact that now journalists are considered fair game will pretty much hobble the Chinese press even further, leaving the CCP with little in the way of oversight other than it's own Disciplinary Committee - an organization that has already caused at least two deaths investigating officials.

Related articles

• Chinese reporter detained after accusing official


• Chinese-American billionaire blogger held on 'sex charges'


• Chinese reporter detained for 'rumours'


• Chinese reporter detained after accusing official