Social Stability - 122. page

Nanfang Dushi Bao (Southern Metropolis Daily) issued a commentary on the Zhu Ling case. In 1995 in Beijing, Zhu Ling was the victim of thallium poisoning and suffered serious neurological damage and permanent physical impairment. It is believed that the suspect’s family had a special relationship with Jiang Zeming and, as a result, the case remains unsolved.

The Nanfang commentary said that, as the Zhu Ling case has gone viral. Many people have sympathized with the victim, feeling both anger and sympathy: Zhu Ling’s case has now become the case of the century. “One cannot forgive the prolonged silence of the Beijing police. Obviously, silence is not golden, especially in the administration of justice.” By now, the Zhu Ling case is no longer is a simple poisoning case, forgotten in a drawer; it has become the case of the century. All people question what happened and even other countries support its resolution. The impact that it has generated is enough to swallow the suspect’s daily life, but China’s scarred judiciary has also been hit hard.”

[Editor’s note: A White House Petition on the whitehouse.gov website was created on May 3, 2013, demanding an investigation into the suspect, who is believed to be living in the U.S. under a different name. The number of signatures on the petition reached the 100,000 goal three days after it was created.]

Source: Nanfang Dushi Bao (Southern Metropolis Daily), May 7, 2013
http://epaper.oeeee.com/A/html/2013-05/07/content_1852417.htm

The officials from Xinjiang Province sent a group of “stability work teams” to the villages in Xinjiang Province to collect information on the religious beliefs of minority families. According to an online Uighur website, the data collected in the town of Ke Shi Shu Fu suggested that people who hold religious beliefs were divided into various categories. Information was even collected about those who do not have religious beliefs but are knowledgeable about religion. The teams collected comprehensive documentation on the resident’s families and social circles.

The official statistics suggested that, by the end of 2009, there were 9.87 million people of the Uighur minority living in Xinjiang Province; a majority of them are of the Islam religion. There are many people from other minority groups, including Kazakstan, Hui People, Uzbek, Kirghiz, Tajikistan, and Tatar, who also follow the Islam religion.

Source: Radio Free Asia, May 2, 2013
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/shaoshuminzu/ql1-05022013100025.html

On May1, 2013, the China National Health and Family Planning Commission released information indicating that between 1600 hours on April 24 and 1600 hours on May 1, 2013, another 19 new H7N9 cases were reported for a total of 127 cases. Twenty-six have died and 26 have recovered. Of the 19 newly reported cases, three are in Jiangsu Province, four in Zhejiang Province, three in Fujian Province, five in Jiangxi Province, one in Shandong Province, one in Henan Province, and two in Hunan Province. The official release maintained that there is no epidemic connection between the cases and no evidence indicating human to human transmission.

The cases of those infected have spread over ten provinces and provincial level municipalities.

Source: Xinhua, May 1, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/local/2013-05/01/c_115604120.htm

According to a CCTV report, most of the milk powder that is sold in China and labeled as “imported” is fake. Reporters found that, in the infant milk powder area of several large supermarkets in Beijing, the vast majority of the shelves were filled with imported milk powder; very few were domestic products. However, they had never heard of many of the brands and those brands could not be found in the country from which they allegedly came. They were only sold in China. The reporter found that the labels on many of these milk powders were falsified. They were packaged as foreign OEM-milk. [Editor’s note: Due to numerous scandals involving Chinese domestic milk products, people don’t trust local brands.] 

Hexun.com published an opinion piece by Deng Yuwen, a senior deputy editor of Study Times, a journal of the Party School of The Chinese Communist Party (CCP). In his article, Deng discussed those vested interests in China that are a serious obstacle to further reform in China.
 
“It has become common knowledge that vested interests are a serious obstacle to deepening reform in China, but to break up their resistance to reform is very difficult at this time. Even Premier Li Keqiang sighed, ‘touching these interests is often harder than touching one’s soul.’”

According to Deng, unlike vested interests in the West, China’s vested interests have their own unique features: “1.) development is unbalanced; 2.) forms are ambiguous and transitional; 3.) abnormal profiteering behavior has the appearance of legality; 4.) interests are exclusive of others; 5.) the supremacy of power is problematic; and (6) there is a lack of legal legitimacy.” Deng defines vested interests as “individuals or those with social status who have control over the use of power and resources and have formed interested groups or alliances with the goal of protecting their special interests.”

Deng categorizes Chinese vested interests as follows: 1.) powerful government departments and their officials; 2.) local governments and their officials; 3.) national monopolistic enterprises (particularly those centrally owned by the State and important enterprises owned by the local governments) and their senior management; 4.) foreign transnational capital and their Chinese agents, commonly known as “foreign compradors”; 5.) real estate developers; 6.) large, privately owned domestic companies, including real estate brokers and coal mine owners and financiers; and 7.) scholars, experts and professionals who are attached to the above categories of vested interests.

Source: Hexun.com, April 24, 2013
http://opinion.hexun.com/2013-04-24/153506662.html

On April 15, 2013, the People’s Forum under the State media People’s Daily conducted an online survey on the Communist Party’s credibility. The survey, titled “Confidence, Belief and Faith” had four questions and was shut down within 24 hours after over 80 percent of those surveyed indicated that they disapproved of the Communist Party.

In response to Question 1, “Do you agree that the Chinese Communist Party has sufficient courage and wisdom to push forward reform?” 72.1 percent selected “No.”

To Question 2, “Do you agree with the statement that upholding and developing socialism with Chinese characteristics benefits the fundamental interests of the overwhelming majority of the people?” 82.1 percent answered “No.”

As for Question 3, “Do you completely agree that only the Communist Party of China can lead the people to successfully take the road of socialism with Chinese characteristics?” 83.53 percent said “No”

In answering the last question “What do you think positively about China’s system of one party rule with multiple parties participating?” 80.90 percent expressed “No.” About 10 percent answered “not clear about it” or “do not know.”

The survey and its results were taken down from Internet within 24 hours of its being posted, but not before approximately 3,000 people submitted answers to the survey.

Source: Epoch Times, April 24, 2013
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/13/4/24/n3854521.htm