The Press Office of China’s State Council will issue a "2007 US Human Rights Report" on March 13, according to Xinhua News Agency. The release of this report, its 9th year in a row, is a direct rebuttal to "Country Reports on Human Rights Practices" released by the U.S. State Department on March 11 which, according to Xinhua, slanders China’s human rights record with groundless accusations.
Source: Xinhua, March 12, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-03/12/content_7771221.htm
Chinese nationals attending the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games must submit their photo IDs and other required personal information in order to qualify for tickets, according to an announcement made by the official Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games on March 7. The announcement stated that this procedure was put in place in order to boost security, eliminate ticket scalping, and protect the rights of legitimate ticket buyers. The announcement applies to Chinese nationals only and the required materials must be submitted in person with true and accurate information or the tickets will be revoked.
Source: Xinhua, March 7, 2008 h
http://news.xinhuanet.com/sports/2008-03/07/content_7739560.htm
Radio Free Asia reports that Chinese veteran journalist, writer, and scholar Lin Changzhou published an open letter to top Chinese leaders through Radio Free Asia during the “Two Conferences (National People’s Congress and Political Consultative Conferences),” calling for direct elections and freedom of assembly, as well as pursuing a renaissance of national fundamental values. The 41-year-old Lin was the former deputy editor of the newspaper BEIJING DAILY MESSENGER.
Source: Radio Free Asia, March 10, 2008
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/shenrubaodao/2008/03/10/ling/
Xinhua reports that China’s mega plane project has finished its preparation and will soon enter its working phase. Zhang Qingwei, director of the Commission of Science, Technology, and Industry for National Defense, revealed the news to China News Agency on March 8, 2008. Zhang emphasized that there are two main principles in the administration of the project. First, is to combine military purpose with civilian usage and have a military perspective within the civilian designs. Second, is to replace traditional industry methods with information technology.
Source: Xinhua，March 10, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-03/10/content_7754449.htm
Global Times, a subsidiary of People’s Daily, published an interview with Xiao Chen, a young Chinese internet hacker who was featured in CNN’s March 7 exclusive "China Hacker" story. "CNN’s story is completely fabricated", said Xiao Chen who also denied that his team had successfully attacked Pentagon’s website nor that his website have received any funding from the Chinese authorities. The article criticized the US media’s fanfare of the so-called "China’s Internet Threat". It quoted a statement from the Minister of the Foreign Affairs that neither the Chinese government nor the military would hire civilian hackers to attack the government networks of other countries.
Source: Xinhua, March 10, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-03/10/content_7754330.htm
Related CCN article: http://www.cnn.com/2008/TECH/03/07/china.hackers/index.html
According the official website for the 2008 Olympics, two state-run Christian organizations issued a joint resolution in support of the Olympics. The resolution states that the event will show the steady increase in China’s national power and that the Christians share the joy. The two organizations are the National Committee of Three Self Patriotic Movement of the Protestant Churches in China and the Chinese Christian Council. Their mission is to ensure that all Christians in China comply with the law and support the government and Chinese Communist Party.
Sources: Official website of the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, March 6, 2008 http://www.beijing2008.cn/news/dynamics/headlines/n214262486.shtml Chinese Protestant Church, http://www.chineseprotestantchurch.org.cn/other/about.htm
On March 6, PetroChina announced the opening of a commercial oil reserve project in Shanshan county of Xinjiang province. Total oil reserves there are expected to reach 1 million cubic meters. The project marks the beginning of China’s second phase of tapping oil reserves in response to the worldwide oil shortage.
The first phase centers on the coastline and consists of four strategic oil reserve bases: Zhanhai, Zhejiang province; Huangdao, Shandong province; Zhoushan, Zhejiang province and Dalian, Liaoning province. The Dalian base was the last one opened and it was close to being 2/3 completed as of March 6.
Source: China Stock, March 7, 2008 http://cnstock.xinhuanet.com/newcjzh/06cjdt/2008-03/07/content_3075200.htm
On March 5, 2008, Falun Gong’s official website Minghui published a list of over 50 Falun Gong practitioners in Beijing who were arrested since December 2007. According to the report, the police began monitoring and following them as early as August 2007 in an attempt to limit efforts to expose the persecution of Falun Gong in the run-up to the Olympics.
Source: Minghui, March 5, 2008
http://minghui.ca/mh/articles/2008/3/5/173643.html