Government/Politics - 224. page

BBC Chinese carried an analysis of the recent media reports about the disclosure of the incidents of torture at Masajia Labor Camp. The article suggested that there was an internal split among the party leadership about the labor camp system and about Falun Gong issues and that the differences among the leadership will cause this forbidden topic to become known to the outside world.

According to the analysis, after Len’s Magazine‘s breakthrough in reporting on this sensitive subject, a few media and reporters openly challenged the notice banning the topic. The analysis stated, “All of those facts suggest that the views among the party’s senior leadership are split about both the labor camp system and about Falun Gong issues.” “Even though the article did not mention Falun Gong, a sensitive topic in China, many media, including Associated Press and the South China Morning Post, have noticed that the details about the torture revealed in the article were identical to the claims that Falun Gong adherents made 10 years ago.” The article concluded that torture cases have existed in China for at least a dozen years, but China’s media system has covered them up.

Len’s Magazine published the article “Stepping Out of Masanjia” on April 6. On April 9, the Central Propaganda Department issued a notice to quash the article. However China Woman Daily and Legal Daily continued to cover the topic including interviews of the main characters. On April 19, Liaoning Province made an official statement claiming that “distorted facts were found in ‘Stepping Out of Masanjia.’" Xinhua and Legal Daily followed up with the same type of articles. Yuan Ling, the author of “Stepping Out of Masanjia” issued a statement on his micro blog in Sina stating the article was written on a factual basis and requested an apology. Guangming Daily published a commentary calling for the application of legal measures to dig out the truth. It also noted that the article by Xinhua did not have an author. In Hong Kong on April 27, Du Bing, an independent filmmaker released a documentary movie called, Above the Ghosts’ Heads: The Women of Masanjia Labor Camp. Du told Apple Daily that the truth of the torture should be made known to people around the world.

Source: BBC Chinese, May 2, 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2013/05/130502_ana_liaoning_masanjia.shtml

According to Xinhua, the top two State-owned petroleum companies, China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) and China Petroleum & Chemical Corporation (Sinopec), received a total of 12.2 billion yuan (US$1.98 billion) in government subsidies in 2012. Sinopec alone received 9.4 billion yuan (US$1.53 billion). The Chinese government subsidized CNPC and Sinopec 1 billion and 462 million respectively in 2009, 1.599 billion and 1.0 billion in 2010, and 6.734 billion and close to 1.5 billion in 2011.

In 2008, due to the high cost of crude oil and the low prices paid for finished oil products, both companies incurred astronomical losses. For that year, CNPC and Sinopec received 15.7 billion yuan (US$2.57 billion) and 50.3 billion yuan (US$8.7 billion) in government subsidies, respectively.

Source: Xinhua, May 2, 2013
http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/www.cs.com.cn/xwzx/cj/201305/t20130502_3966487.html

On April 28, 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping attended a reception forum and met the representatives of the national model workers. In his speech, Xi re-emphasized the role that the working class played as the main force [of society] and called for creating a prosperous future through hard work, an old Chinese Communist tradition that the first generation of Communist leaders in Mao Zedong’s era had started. It is worth noting that Hu Zhiqiang, the Captain of the Daqing Oilfield 1205 Drilling Team, and Guo Fenglian, former Party Branch Secretary of Dazhai Village in Xiyang County of Shanxi Province were among the model workers invited to the reception forum. In Mao’s era, the Daqing Oilfield 1205 Drilling Team and Dazhai Village were the two most famous models representing the working class and the peasant class, respectively. In Mao’s era, Guo Fenglian herself [the most famous "iron maiden" in post-revolutionary Chinese history], was the model promoted to the whole country. The old adage was “Learn from Daqing in industry; learn from Dazhi in agriculture.” 

The China Dairy Industry Association (CDIA) recently commissioned a third-party testing organization to conduct a test of random samples of 25 brands of infant formula milk powder in the capital city of Beijing and the surrounding area. Of those tested, 13 were domestic brands; three were foreign brands produced domestically and manufactured in China, and 9 were imported products. 

On April 23, Jia Jiuxiang, a senior Court Official from the city of San Men Xia in Henan Province died just 10 days after he was placed in Shuanqui (a disciplinary measure outside the regular legal system in which Party members are detained and interrogated). This is the second similar case following another official from Wen Zhou City in Zhe Jiang Province, who also died during Shuanqui. According to Jia’s wife and sister who managed to see Jia’s body, his body showed obvious signs that he had been beaten.

Si Weijing, the defense attorney working on the case, told BBC Chinese that he has asked for an investigation of the case. Si also mentioned that, this time, it appeared that the Chinese media did not seem to block the news report on Jia’s death. Some commentators suggested that, if the official media covered this case, it may indicate that the central administration has started to pay attention to the rights of those people who are under Shuanqui.

According to Si Weijiang, China has adopted some changes to the legal system which restrict the illegal measures used during interrogation of suspects. However since Shuanqui is an internal disciplinary measure used within the Party system, it is not subject to the requirements of the legal system. Therefore a person under Shuanqui can be denied the right to sleep and is also subject to all kinds of torture. Si told the BBC, “The central administration has tried to curb corruption for so many years, but corruption does not appear to be contained. Therefore Shuanqui, a disciplinary measure that is outside of the legal system, is not an ideal way to fix the problem.”

Source: BBC Chinese, April 24, 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2013/04/130424_henan_death_official.shtml

On April 11, the Communication University of China and the China Public Relations Association established the first “Media Training Center for Leaders and Managers.” The training center will teach officials how to interact with the media and the public. The  first group of 50 officials will attend in mid-May. They will take a five day training course which includes the study of cases and theory; it will also include live demos and exercises.

According to Dong Guanpeng, the Principal of the Communication University of China, many leaders currently lack the skills needed to work with the media. They simply rely on the spokesperson in their work unit to deal with the media. However. that person is not the decision maker and does not have access to the overall information. There are many other media training classes in the public relations market but many of them teach skills related to how to delete social media postings rather than the skills of working with the media and public. Therefore, the first training center was meant to correct the chaotic situation in the market and attract officials from around the country. They have invited Wang Guoqing, vice-minister of the State Council Information Office to be the board director of the training center.

Source: Xinhua, April 28, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013-04/28/c_124643018.htm

On April 23, 2013, an article titled, “China Red Cross Withheld Rescue Aid from Distribution While Waiting for TV Reporters” was circulated on several Chinese websites. On April 20, 2013, a 7.0-magnitude earthquake hit Ya’an City in southwest China’s Sichuan Province. There were more than 2,000 aftershocks. According to the information released by the Chinese authorities on April 20, 2013, 192 had died, 23 were missing and 11,470 were injured.  Nearly 2.2 million people were affected.

According to the China Forbidden News Blog, one microblogger who used the name “Mr. Long – Crowded Crazy Nest” angrily complained that the Sichuan Red Cross Department Head named Wang asked his staff members not to distribute any aid to the victims because TV reporters had not arrived there yet. 

Source: China Forbidden News and China News, April 22, 2013
http://zhongguojinwen.blogspot.com/2013/04/blog-post_125.html
http://bbs.chinanews.com/web/65/2013/0422/64012.shtml

According to an article in China Review News on April 23, 2013, resentment in China is increasing, which reflects people’s lack of confidence in the future. Below are the five reasons listed in the article:

1. The government is moving forward (getting richer) while the Chinese people are moving backward (getting poorer);
2. Home prices are rising too fast;
3. The income gap is huge;
4. Corruption is rampant;
5. Environmental Pollution, such as smog, is no longer bearable.

Source: China Review News, April 23, 2013
http://www.zhgpl.com/doc/1025/1/2/2/102512201.html?coluid=53&kindid=0&docid=102512201&mdate=0423075236