Zhou Yongkang Blocked Dissident's Release

Political dissident Wang Bingzhang was due to be released last year, until Zhou Yongkang vetoed the decision, according to a recorded conversation obtained by the citizen news site Boxun.

Wang founded two political parties in the eighties and nineties, his pro-democracy stance quickly attracting the attention of the authorities.  He was thrown in jail in 2003 after being found guilty on charges of terrorism, but after the death of his mother in 2011, plans were being made for his release - plans that were promptly blocked by the head of the Central Politics and Law Commission at the time, Zhou Yongkang.

An anonymous source in possession of a series of recordings made between December 2011 and October 2012, details four conversations, one of which discusses Wang's deteriorating mental and physical condition, and plans to have him released for medical treatment.  The plan was for a member of Wang's family to take care of him, ensuring that he didn't resuming his political activities.

The judicial official explained that following the Wang Lijun incident last February — in which the former Chongqing police chief fled to the US consulate in Chengdu and sparked China's biggest political scandal in decades — and the high profile escape from illegal house arrest of blind activist lawyer Chen Guangchen, party leaders felt there was too much political pressure to release Wang at this time.

Towards the end of the transcript, Wang's relative asked the official whether the decision to veto the release was made by the Central Politics and Law Commission, China's highest body in charge of political and legal affairs, though the official refused to confirm and simply asked for understanding.

The source who gave the tapes to the website says that he has even more incriminating recordings that will be released at a more opportune time.  Boxun has been ramping up negative coverage of Zhou ever since the Wang Lijun debacle in 2011

Jiang Jiemin Removed From Post; Key Removals and Appointments

The State Council has announced that Jiang Jiemin will be removed from his post as the head of the State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission.

Jiang has been under investigation for serious "suspected serious disciplinary violation" the investigation was seen as the first move against old timer Zhou "The Bulldog" Yangkong,

"Jiang is considered the head of the 'oil faction' and a lead protege of former Communist Party Politburo Standing Committee member Zhou Yongkang in the oil system. His downfall adds further suspicion to rumours in the outside world about Zhou Yongkang being in trouble."

The investigation into Zhou that had been agreed by the Politburo earlier in the month, fell apart when it came out that ol' Zhou was merely helping the police with their enquiries, rather then target of an investigation.

In addition to axe falling on Jiang, a number of new token appointments have been made:

Wang Wenbin was appointed SASAC deputy director, replacing Shao Ning; Shi Yaobin was appointed vice minister of finance, replacing Li Yong; Chen Shixin was appointed World Bank executive director for China, replacing Yang Shaolin.

Ning Jizhe was appointed the head of the Research Office of the State Council; Wang Shouwen, Wang Bingnan and Zhang Xiangchen were appointed assistant commerce ministers; Fu Zhenghua, incumbent head of Beijing's Public Security Bureau, was appointed vice minister of public security.

 

 

 

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Danone Milk Powder Named in Hospital Bribery Expose

CCTV has hit paydirt!  What could better than a milk formula scandal involving foreign companies than a milk formula scandal involving a foreign company that was also involved in bribing nurses at a Chinese hospital.

Getting something of a twofer, a TV expose revealed that an unidentified sales manager had bribed nurses in a hospital in northern China to recommend it's milk powder to new mothers.

"Every year we would co-operate with the hospital, and give them gifts of money, each year amounting to several hundred thousand yuan," the former sales manager was quoted as saying in the report.

"We would come to tacit agreements, because in Tianjin competition is now so fierce. Every (hospital) floor would be divided up between milk powder brands, and if you didn't give a suitable amount of money, then perhaps the next month they would switch brands to someone else," she said.

The total amount that was "donated" was about 300,000rmb, ranging from small payments of several hundred yuan, to 10,000rmb.  Danone HQ in Paris, and Chinese reps for the company were unavailable for comment.  The company said in July that it was co-operating with National Development and Reform Commission, cutting the price of it's baby forumla by between 5 and 20 percent.

 

Qiushi Lambasts Critical Posts Online

Hammering the message home that online message criticizing the government is A Bad Thing, the Communist Party's own journal has come out with some gems.  "Seeking Truth", a magazine, and highly effective cure for insomnia has said that online rumours are no better than the "big character posters" that were put up during The Cultural Revolution, often attacking an establishment or individual as being "bourgeois" or "counter-revolutionary".

“There are some who make use of the open freedom of cyberspace to engage in wanton defamation, attacking the party and the government.  The Internet is full of all kinds of negative news and critical voices saying the government only does bad things and everything it says is wrong.”

Yes, the Chinese government is coming up against that most insidious of terrorist insurgent - a person who goes online and whines about the government fouling things up.  Descending into rhetoric usually reserved from the North Korean News Agency, the communist rag went on to say

“In truth, the work of the Chinese government has received wide praise all over the world, even public opinion in Western countries can't deny that,” Qiushi said. “This is a great truth, and overly criticising the government violates that truth.”

So the yardstick of achievement is measured by how much Western countries acknowledge that you've done good things.  What's missing is any kind of understanding that it's not what you do, but how you do it.

By the standard of simply "achieving great things", then Hitler's Nazi government achieved wonderful, amazing things by having 100% employment in the country.  Everyone was hard at work making guns so that Germany could invade and slaughter people in other countries, and there's the whole Holocaust PR fail, but apart from the that, the economic was powering ahead and plenty of people had enough to eat.

Charles Xue, a microblogger on Weibo with over 12 million followers appeared on TV in handcuffs, telling the good masses how "freedom of speech cannot override the law".  Going after criticism online is going hinder the government rather than help it.  Driving liberal voices online deeper underground, widening the gulf between the people at the government can only foment more violent outbursts of rebellion, not whip the people into line as it's supposed to.

Beijing Airport Bomber to Stand Trial

Ji Zhongxing, the wheelchair bound bomber who detonated a homemade bomb at Beijing Airport is due to stand trial tomorrow.  Ji, who has been petitioning the government seeking compensation for the alleged beating that he received at the hands of the chengguan (who else?) in his home province of Shandong that left him crippled.

When he was arrested, human rights lawyer Liu Xiaoyuan who represented Ai Wei Wei said that he would be willing to provide legal assistance.  The minor explosion at the airport damaged Ji arm, who was immediately rushed to hospital, caused little damage and the blast wasn't powerful enough to cause any other damage.  The Global Time reports:

Ji Zhongxing, a 33-year-old wheelchair-bound man from Juancheng, Shandong Province, confessed that he prepared and carried the homemade explosive device and leaflets to Terminal 3 of the airport and triggered the explosive device on July 20.

Ji has been blogging (translation via The Shanghaiist) about his failed attempts to get compensation off the government - he's been demanding 334,782 yuan, including the medical fees of 14,300rmb, plus the 20 years salary that his disability has prevented him from earning.

Charles Xue: Arrested for Prostitution, Confesses to Spreading Rumors Online

Charles Xue, the venture capitalist arrested earlier this month for prostitution, has appeared on Chinese TV confessing to the heinous crime of spreading rumors online.  While it hasn't been made especially clear why he's confessed to something that he never was arrested for, the state broadcaster is typically making an example of the unfortunate Xue, who is also known as Xue Manzi.

Commanding an online following of nearly 12 million on Weibo, Xue said that "My irresponsibility in spreading information online was a vent of negative mood, and was a neglect of the social mainstream," adding that "freedom of speech cannot override the law.".  Of course, when freedom of speech is technically written into the law, as it is in the Chinese constitution, it's become increasingly clear as the Big V crackdown continues unabated that there's no such thing in practice.

Under new legislation, if a rumor, say something like "Xi Jin Ping smokes the big one" gets viewed 5000 times, or reposted 500 times a potential maximum sentence of three years in jail can be bestowed upon the guilty party.  There's no word yet on what the punishment would be for anything, with, say 499 retweets, or 4999 visits.

Confessions made by arrested perps are a useful tool in reinforcing the idea that the Chinese police know what the hell they're doing.  The recent parading on TV of detained foreign businessmen confessing to what Chinese businessmen get away with before they've had their coffee in the morning is a relatively new development.  Along with the new laws regarding online behavior, legal experts have said that the confessions broadcast live to the nation make a mockery of the already pisspoor Chinese legal system.

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China National Games, Battered and Bruised, Come to an End

The China National Games, apparently in it's 12th incarnation, limped to a close on Thursday, amid match fixing, biting, cheating fighting and racial abuse.

The games, a shanzhai version of the Olympics, but without the gamesmanship are held every four years, have provinces pitting their best athletes against each other for, er, cash prizes.

"The stench of money has haunted the National Games and become the driving force in encouraging athletes and coaches to participate," Xi Jiandong, vice-president of Jiangxi University of Finance and Economics told Sohu.  Indeed, there was a hell of a lot of money at stake, with officials desperate to show the Politburo that they're the bees knees when it comes to producing athletic talent.

Shandong province offered its athletes a 350,000 (US$57,000) yuan bonus, throwing in a mansion worth over one million yuan (US$163,000). Guangdong and Zhejiang provinces offered 300,000 yuan (US$49,000) with multiple extra gifts and rewards while Shanghai promised a 500,000 yuan (US$81,000) bonus per person to its football team if they won a gold medal during the game.

Fencing player Xiao Aihua from Jiangsu province was awarded a four-million yuan (US$653,000) bonus during the previous national games. He has never won an Olympic medal.

Needless to say, the cash that was up for grabs caused a bit of trouble, anyone who's seen the insane crush at a Chinese supermarket that is offering 5RMB off peanut oil will get the general idea.  A few of the highlights include:

• During the women's 10km marathon swim, two of the contestants became embroiled in a fight, with neither of them managing to finish the race.


• In the wrestling -- newly reinstated as an Olympic sport -- a heavyweight fighter from Henan was bitten by an opponent from Inner Mongolia.  Online images showed him clutching his arm, heavily marked with red teeth-marks, and grimacing in agony at the referee.


• The Beijing women's rugby sevens team refusing to play the last minutes of their final against Shandong, accusing the referee of prejudice.  Clad in their yellow kit, they stood in a huddle and simply let their opponents run past them and repeatedly score, eventually losing 71-0.  The Beijing delegation later apologized.

Two of the sports, wrestling and rugby are due to recieve massive investment ahead of the 2016 Olympic Games, although it doesn't seem that the practice of offering cash bonuses for medal winners will end.  In 2012, the State General Administration of Sports was offering 500,000rmb for gold medal winners, the sports industry has obviously upped it game.