Radio Free Asia reports on February 4 that a female handicapped petitioner from Northeast China was beaten to death in front of the reception office of the Supreme Court in Beijing on Monday afternoon.
Source: Radio Free Asia, February 4, 2008
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/shenrubaodao/2008/02/04/fangmin/
In today’s world news section, Xinhua runs a headline of "Will ‘American Democracy’ Be Able to Spread to the Whole World?" followed by a group of articles. The articles emphasize that the world is against hegemony, China has its own version of democracy, and that developing countries cannot simply import democracy.
Source: Xinhua, February 5, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-02/05/content_7570006.htm
Vice Chairman of National Development and Reform Commission, Zhang Guobao, stated during an interview on January 30, 2008 that he does not rule out the January CPI reaching new highs. He stated that short-term adverse weather accelerates food price increase and inflation is expected to remain at a high level this year.
Source: Xinhua, February 3, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2008-02/03/content_7556791.htm
Fiscal revenue of the government and per capita net income of farmers are part of criteria in the performance appraisal of officials, according to Xinhua’s publication, Banyuetan.
The publication continues that some local officials are eager to launch projects that tend to generate high fiscal income at the cost of high pollution, low employment rate and low-income growth of local residents.
Banyuetan (Bi-Weekly Discussion) is a magazine published by Xinhua on behalf of the Publicity Department, Central Committee of The Communist Party of China.
Source: Xinhua, February 3, 2008.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2008-02/03/content_7559847.htm
In anticipation of more international conflicts, Xinhua publishes the focus of macro government policies for 2008 that include the following among others:
· Prevent overheating of economy through a variety of monetary and fiscal policies.
· Adjust structure of import and export to reduce trade surplus and avoid becoming the focal point of conflicts.
· Tighten cross-border capital flows and management.
· Promote real estate property tax reform.
Source: Xinhua, February 3, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2008-02/03/content_7559492.htm
Wu Heping, the spokesman from the Ministry of Public Security, told reporters that there were 84,000 economic crimes out of 4.75 million criminal cases in 2007, an increase of 4.2% from last year. This is the fourth year in a row during which China had seen a marked increase in economic crimes.
Among the economic offenses, violations of company regulations and financial misconduct led the increase, rising 15% and 14% respectively.
Source: Chinanews.com, January 30, 2008
http://news.sohu.com/20080130/n254969860.shtml
Legal Daily reported that new measures on security for large social activities in Beijing will take effect on March 1, 2008. An official from the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau stated that professional firms will be set up to monitor and grant permission for large scale social activities in Beijing.
More than 10,000 policemen, security guards and volunteers will take part in security checking on more than 200 hotels and other public places during the 2008 Olympics.
Source: Legal Daily, January 31, 2008
http://www.legaldaily.com.cn/0705/2008-01/31/content792072.htm
On October 22, 2007, Wang Zhaojun, a delegate member of the Political-Consultative Committee of Anhui Province wrote an open letter and published it on overseas Chinese websites. In it he asked China’s top leaders, Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao, to stop the political persecution of the Chinese people and start political reform. Today, he wrote a second open letter to Hu-Wen calling again for political reform after his press conference about opening an environment protection website was blocked.
Source: Boxun, January 31, 2008
http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/pubvp/2008/01/200801310202.shtml