Government/Politics - 353. page

A new labor law, intended to improve the rights of Chinese workers, took effect on January 1, 2008. The law, which includes measures that set standards for wages, mandatory contracts and severance pay, aims to improve protection for employees’ legal rights, and toughen the punishment for government officials who abuse their office.

The real question is whether the new laws will be enforced, how they will be enforced, and against whom they will be enforced.

Source: People’s Daily, December 29/2007 Wall Street Journal, January 2, 2007
http://www.chinalawblog.com/2007/07/chinas_new_labor_law_enforceme_1.html

Wu Yalin, a PRC citizen who applied for political asylum with Taiwan government, was declined the application. With his Taiwan visa expiring on January 2, Wu is concerned that he will finally be repatriated to China. In 1980’s, Wu was jailed for nine years for disclosing illegal election practices. In 2007, he was sentenced to 3 years in labor camp for encouraging friends to read the Nine Commentaries on Communist Party, according to Wu. He fled to Taiwan via Hong Kong and Thailand. Beijing issued an arrest warrantee with the charge of “attempt to overthrow the government by colluding with anti-China forces.”

Source: Voice of America, January 1, 2008
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/w2008-01-01-voa21.cfm

On New Year’s Day of 2008, China’s state media Xinhua posted a slogan, “2008, the World Belongs to China” as the headline on its website’s World Report section. The slogan was later changed to “2008, the World Expects that China Appear in Perfect Form.” On the same page, the website published two articles that predict that the United States will slide downhill. One, quoted as “by Japanese media,” bears the title, “The American Era Is Ending.” The other one, quoted from Financial Times, is titled “The Era of U.S. Dollar’s Dominance No Longer Exists.”

Source: Xinhuanet, January 1, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-01/01/content_7347547.htm

On December 27, the University of Utah accepted 23 officials from Hainan Province. In a week they will depart for a year and half long program resulting in an Executive Master’s in Public Administration (EMPA). As part of their five year training plan which will consist of 18 programs launched by Hainan Province, these officials were selected to receive advanced study so that they will obtain “leadership and executive ability; strategic and global vision; and financial management skills under the market economic environment,” said Wei Liucheng, the provincial party secretary of Hainan.

Source: Xinhua News Agency, December 30, 2007
http://news.xinhuanet.com/local/2007-12/30/content_7339313.htm

Wang Weigong, former secretary of the deceased Huang Ju, Executive Vice Premier of China was arrested for corruption involving Shanghai’s social security funds and may face a death sentence. The scale of corruption was reported to be as high as 45 million yuan (US$6.1 million), which is the largest known amount of corruption. It was reported that Wang has refused to disclose any other names involved in this case including Jiang Mianheng, the son of Jiang Zemin, former President of China.

Source: Powerapple, December 29, 2007
http://news.powerapple.com/article/2007/1229/article_33729.html

Recently at a seminar at the Peking University Law School, a well-known law professor, Jiang Ping, said that Chinese companies face many obstacles.  The reason is that these businesses came out of an old system, and the standardized legislation that applies to them has only been in existence for about 20 years. He listed 3 major issues.

Axiang (an alias), a Hong Kong Democracy activist revealed to the Epoch Times that he has often been contacted by the Liaison Office of the Chinese Government in the Hong Kong S.A.R. [1] (LOCPG) over the past several years. Recently, the LOCPG contacted him to get information about Hong Kong people participating in the Quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Movement. Axiang told the reporter that three thugs attacked Albert Ho Chun-yan (何俊仁), the chair of the Democratic Party (Hong Kong) and a member of the Legislative Council, because he protested the CCP’s harvesting organs from live Falun Gong practitioners and supported the civil rights movement in Mainland China. The LOCPG told Axiang that it will treat Mr. Sun Bin, the grandnephew of Dr. Sun Yat-Sen , [2] the same way it treated Mr. Ho. [3]

On September 1, the website of Procuratorial Daily (检察日报) published a short list of officials at the provincial level who have been found to be corrupt since the 16th National Congress of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) held in 2002. [1]