Government/Politics - 343. page

On March 16, 2008 the State TV, China Central TV, held an online poll on direct election of city mayor.

“Do you agree that mayors should be elected directly by votes of local residents, instead of by representatives of the People’s Congress? Do you agree a mayor may be removed by votes of local residents if the mayor acts against the will of the people?”

The poll closed on April 5, 2008, with a total of 180,771 votes. No results were available. According to a voter’s blog, as of 11pm April 4, 2008, 2,029 (1.49%) voted “Disagree” and 133, 417 (98.20%) voted “Agree,” with 419 (0.31%) voting “Do not care.”

Source:
CCTV, March 16, 2008
http://fuxing.bbs.cctv.com/viewthread.php?tid=11507030;
Lao Mo, April 4, 2008
http://blog.cat898.com/boke.asp?Userid_301341.showtopic.152005.html

On Shaolin Temple’s web page, there were two pictures posted and subtitled: “Shaolin Monks Study and Exercise the Key Messages from the Party Conference” [1]. In an interview with Xiang Li, television hostess from Hunan Television, Shi Yongxing, headmaster of Shaolin Temple told Li: “After I returned from the National People’s Congress held in Beijing, I have the responsibility to share the updates with the monks so that they are aware of the achievements made by the party in the past 5 years”. Shi denied to be called as a “Political Monk” and claimed that his action is to safeguard the rights of Buddhism and make contribution to the country. “Monks also need to pay attention to politics,” he said, “Shaolin Temple is well known around the world and the credit should go to the government’s open reform policy.

Source:
Jin Bao Net, April 4, 2008
http://www.jinbw.com.cn/jinbw/xwzx/zzsx/20080404294.htm
[1] Pictures of Shaolin Monks studying key messages from the Party Conference
http://2008.chinashaolin.org/show.asp?id=844

Qiushi, the Communist Party journal, issued an article as part of a series of commentaries regarding Hu Jintao’s speech on Party propaganda. The article states that media must primarily provide positive publicity, shall never publish any opinion contrary to the spirit of the Party’s viewpoints, and shall never provide channels for spreading “noises.”

Source: Qiushi, April 1, 2008
http://www.qsjournal.com.cn/qs/20080401/GB/qs%5E476%5E0%5E10.htm

According to the statement released by the Public Security Bureau, police have “discovered” large quantity of weapons in some Tibet monasteries. Among the discovered were 178 rifles, 13,013 ammunition rounds, 259 knives, 3,504 kg dynamite, 19,360 detonators, and 2 grenades. These are “sufficient proofs” that the “riot of 3/14” in Lasha was organized by Dalai Clique, according to the statement. In addition, a few “key suspects” with close ties to the oversea Dalai Clique have also been arrested.

Source: Xinhua April 2, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-04/02/content_7900936.htm

This front page article, titled “The Young Men Who Protest ‘Tibetan Separatist’ and the Western Media Deformation” and published by International Herald Leader, a subsidiary of the official Xihua News, spoke of the stories of three young oversea Chinese for their “heroic actions” to defend the image of the “country” (China). The three Chinese, aged from 20 to 24, are all recent immigrants to the west. One of them lives in Canada and had produced a Youtube video for the purpose to “educate the west with true facts that Tibet is an inseparable part of China”. The second young man featured in the story, a residence of England, had vowed to place the Chinese national flag inside the “head-quarter of the Tibetan Separatist” in London. The third one had created an ANTI-CNN.COM website aimed at exposing the western media for smearing China with fabricated stories. In the end, the article praises the “grass-root power” and the “patriotism” demonstrated by the generation of 1980’s and their ability to expose the “arrogant and prejudice” of the western media "so more people in the west can learn the truth about Tibet”.

Source: Xinhua April 1, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2008-04/01/content_7896037.htm

An article from Nanfang Daily (a Guangzhou newspaper) stated that it is time to return power back to the people. The article reported a “Biweekly Forum on Humanities” held by two prominent columnists and attended by over 30 on media commentaries in Mainland China.

The most important progress in the past ten years is Internet and media working together reporting social problems, thus pressuring the government to compromise, the columnists stated. Media commentaries are a matter of freedom of speech of the entire nation. They furthered that every citizen should be critical of the government and question what it says.

Source: Nanfang Daily, March 31, 2008
http://www.nanfangdaily.com.cn/southnews/jwxy/200803310070.asp

On April 1, 2008, China’s state media Xinhua republished a commentary articles from People’s Daily (oversea’s edition) that continued the recent campaign of attacking Dalai Lama. The article, titled “Dalai Lama Lied Again” and authored by deputy director of China’s Tibetan Cultural protection and development, attacked Dala Lama’s recent public statement of “not seeking Tibet independence” and “not involved in the recent Tibet protest” as lies. Under the title, a series of recent related articles were listed and linked to the full text, including:
Revealing Truth: Before and after the Fourteenth Dalai’s Fleeing (video clips of CCTV’s Documentary “Dalai Lama”)
The True Intention of Dalai Clique’s “Middle Path” Is to “Tibet Independence”
Lhasa Incident Exposed the Lies of Dala’s “Human Rights”
The Living Buddha of Tibet Asks Dalai not to Damage National Unity and Ethnic Harmony

Source: Xinhua, April 1, 2008

http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-04/01/content_7895862.htm

On March 28, Xinhua posted an article titled: “Legal Measures Taken by The Administration of Tibet Autonomous Region in Handling Serious Criminal Act in Lhasa Gained Wide Range of Understanding and Support from the International Community.” It claimed that so far there have been 120 countries and international organizations showed support to the righteous actions China has taken. It listed Thailand, Burma, Timor-Leste, Qatar, Central African Republic, Algeria, Columbia, Chile, Peru, and Bosnia-Herzegovina as the ones that recently showed their support.

Source: Xinhua, March 28, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-03/28/content_7877593.htm