Social Stability - 131. page

The Central Political and Legislative Affairs Committee (PLAC) is the organization under the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Committee that oversees all judicial affairs in the country. It stands above the prosecution, the courts, and the secret police, controlling the People’s Armed Police and the regular police force. Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CCP and a close confidant of former president Jiang Zemin, heads the PLAC. Members of the Central PLAC include the Minister of Public Security, the president of the Supreme Court, the Attorney General, the Minister for State Security, the Justice Minister, and the commander of the Armed Police.

From March to mid-June this year, the Central PLAC organized six training sessions for 3,300 chiefs of its different branches at the provincial, city, and county level. The training emphasized “unswervingly adhering to the Party’s leadership.” The lecturers at the trainings were reportedly minister-level Party or government officials from the Central PLAC, the Supreme Court, the Supreme Procuratorate, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of State Security, and the Ministry of Justice. Courses focused on exercising societal control and handling social conflicts.

Source: Xinhua, June 13, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2012-06/13/c_123275309.htm

In April 2012, the Chinese armed police crushed a sudden protest in Wansheng District of Chongqing City that occurred in response to a merger of their district with a nearby poor county (Qijiang). Residents of the Wansheng District continued to have daily peaceful walking protests. Around June 4, 2012, thousands of residents in the former Shuangqiao District in Chongqing started blocking streets to protest the government’s delayed and sharply decreased compensation and the lack of welfare benefits that the authorities had promised before the government confiscated their farmland.

The police have violently beaten the protesters. Seven or eight hundred people have been injured and at least five people (including a pregnant woman) have died. As the repression against the demonstrators continues, the nature of the demonstrations may change from general economic aspirations into dissatisfaction with the Chinese Communist regime and system, similar to the outbreak of the "Jasmine Revolution" in Tunisia, North Africa.

Source: BBC Chinese Edition, June 12, 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/comments_on_china/2012/06/120612_coc_china_chongqing_demo.shtml

While officials and the media in mainland China made no mention of the death of pro-democracy activist Li Wangyang, all walks of life in Hong Kong placed a continued focus on the truth of Li Wangyang’s “suicide,” urging the Chinese authorities to investigate the (real) cause of his death. Chow York, Hong Kong’s Food and Health Secretary, was the first official who questioned the death of Li Wangyang.

Over the past weekend, thousands of people participated in a demonstration, demanding a thorough investigation into Li Wangyang’s death. More than a dozen political parties and civil societies initiated a signature campaign on the streets and online.

(Ed: Li Wangyang allegedly hung himself. Li was an activist who spent 22 years in jail for taking part in the 1989 Tiananmen protest. As he was deaf, bind, and disabled, many doubted it was even possible for Li to hang himself.)
 
Source: BBC Chinese Edition, June 12, 2012
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/chinese_news/2012/06/120612_liwangyang_investigate.shtml

The Ministry of Agriculture (MOA) announced on June 6, 2012, that Gansu Province in northwestern China had reported an outbreak of H5N1 bird flu in poultry. It occurred at a chicken farm in Jingtai County, Baiyin City, Gansu Province. On June 1, about 6,200 chickens showed symptoms of H5N1 at a farm in a village in Luyang, a town in Jingtai County. So far 260 of them have died. On June 5, the MOA reported that the China National Avian Influenza Reference Laboratory confirmed that the epidemic was H5N1 bird flu. A total of 18,460 chickens have since been culled.

Source: The Central People’s Government of China, June 6, 2012
http://www.gov.cn/jrzg/2012-06/06/content_2154921.htm

China Review News (CRN) recently reported that China’s national flood season officially started  on June 1, 2012. All flood control headquarters for China’s river systems switched to full gear operations. According to the Bureau of National Weather Services, this year’s outlook is not optimistic. This year’s primary rainy season is expected to have a worse impact than last year’s. Based on national records, across the nation more than 40,000 small-scale reservoirs still experience different levels of safety risks. Chen Lei, the Minister of Water Resources and Deputy Chief of the National Flood Control Headquarter, recently required those who do flood control work to place a significant emphasis on preventing these reservoirs from collapsing. In Hubei Province alone, along the Yangtze River, the banks have already collapsed in 142 different places. The Yangtze River is the largest river in China.

Source: China Review News, June 1, 2012
http://www.zhgpl.com/doc/1021/2/8/2/102128278.html?coluid=45&kindid=0&docid=102128278&mdate=0601230650

Since the Hong Kong Government made the decision to stop giving permanent residency status to babies born to parents who are not local, more and more pregnant women from mainland China have been coming to the United States and Canada to give birth. Many of them are the mistresses of rich people.They pay as much as 200,000 RMB ($31,507 U.S. dollars) in fees to the maternity center. They can thus obtain citizenship in Canada or the U.S. for their children and eventually for themselves and avoid the heavy fines incurred in China for having more than one child or for having a baby out of wedlock.

According to Yang Haifeng, an immigration consultant in Toronto, because of the precarious political situation in China, many wealthy Chinese want to transfer their assets abroad through their wives, mistresses and children who have foreign residency status. One Chinese maternity center in Toronto is already fully booked for this year.

Source: Mingpao, May 24, 2012
http://www.mingpaotor.com/htm/News/20120522/taa1.htm

On the afternoon of May 28, 2012, dozens of people gathered in People’s Square in Guiyang City, Guizhou Province, to openly commemorate the June 4, 1989, Tiananmen Square Massacre. Participants shouted slogans: "Long live the people!" and "Down with Dictatorship!" This time, the Chinese authorities did not stop participants’ activities, like they usually do.  

Source: Epoch Times, May 30, 2012
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/12/5/30/n3600316.htm敏感时期-贵州公开纪念六四–高呼“打倒独裁！

According to reports, on May 9, 2012, 16 senior Communist Party members from Shaotong City, Yunnan Province, published an open letter to Hu Jintao on the website canyu.org. In their letter, they denounced Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Bo Xilai, Wang Lijun, and Liu Yunshan. The letter demanded the removal of Zhou Yongkang and Liu Yunshan and appealed on behalf of the victims of past political movements, the students of the June 1989 Tiananmen Massacre, and Falun Gong. It was reported that the authorities immediately threatened them. “Zhou Yongkang was said to have ordered that these unstable elements must be brought under complete control and surveillance. If any similar incidents occur again, whoever is involved will be arrested immediately and may be executed.” The two drafters of the letter were placed under 24 hour surveillance and deprived of access to cell phones. The average age of the 16 senior Party members is over 80 years old. They were part of the underground Communist Party in Yunan prior to the Communist takeover of China.

Sources:
canyu.org, May 9, 2012
http://www.canyu.org/n48532c6.aspx
Boxun, May 23, 2012
http://boxun.com/news/gb/china/2012/05/201205232352.shtml