Social Stability - 153. page

Zhou Yongkang, member of the Politburo Standing Committee and Chair of the Chinese Communist Party’s Political and Legal Affairs Committee, was recently in Sichuan Province. While there, he emphasized three key tasks that had been highlighted in the December 18 National Video Teleconference on Political and Legislative Affairs: resolving social conflicts, innovations in social management, and ‘fair and honest law enforcement.’ 

According to Xinhua news, 150,000 comprehensive social management cadres from municipal, county, township, and neighborhood levels participated in a 3-day national teleconference training. At the end of the training, on December 22, 2009, Meng Jianzhu, State Councilor and deputy director of the Party Central Committee for Comprehensive Society Management, gave a speech.

Meng pointed out that China is currently in an important strategic period of opportunity for social and economic development and of social contradictions. It is an arduous task to sustain stable and rapid economic growth and maintain a harmonious society at the same time. Therefore, the Party committees, the local governments, and the comprehensive social management departments at all levels must take more forceful measures to create a stronger cadre team that is firm in its political stance and competent in its work.

Source: Xinhua, December 22, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-12/22/content_12689541.htm 

Xinhua reported that Zhou Yongkang, member of the Politburo Standing Committee and Party Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, offerred his opinion during the video-conference meeting on December 18, discussing national political and legal work. Zhou stressed three priorities concerning political and legal activities. The three priorities are: the resolution of social conflicts, the innovation of social management, and fair and un-corrupted law enforcement.

Zhou pointed out that China is at a period of economic development and high social conflicts. Thus the task to maintain social stability is very challenging.  

Source: Xinhua, December 18, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-12/18/content_12667754.htm

According to the Ministry of Health, as of December 7, 2009, Mainland China had reported 326 deaths and 4,328 severe cases of H1N1 Influenza. Pregnant women accounted for 13.7% of the deaths. Zhong Nanshan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, stated that most of them were over 6 months pregnant. He further stated that 50% of the patients who have colds or fevers and visit the clinics have influenza and 90% of these influenza patients are H1N1. The current inventory of medicine for H1N1 treatment is for 2% of the population, e.g. for 26 million people. The medicine will be distributed from the central government to provinces, then to rural areas and local communities.

Zhong was reported earlier to state that 80% of the H1N1 deaths were pregnant women, which caused alarm among pregnant women. Later he stated that he meant 8% instead of 80%.

Source:
Xinhua, December 9, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-12/09/content_12619064.htm
Xinhua, December 10, 2009
http://www.xinhuanet.com/chinanews/2009-12/10/content_18463536.htm
Guangming Daily, quoting Guangzhou Daily, December 9, 2009
http://www.gmw.cn/content/2009-12/09/content_1018476.htm

According to a December 28, 2009, NTDTV news report, On October 27, 2009, the Shahekou District Court, Dalian City sentenced a human rights lawyer, Wang Yonghang, to seven years in prison, because of allegations that he published articles on foreign websites. His lawyers have not been allowed to meet with him.

In 2008, Wang published an open letter to the Chinese Communist Party President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao on an overseas website, saying that it is illegal to persecute Falun Gong. In July 2009, officers from the Dalian Domestic Security Division kidnapped and tortured him, leaving him with a fractured ankle. Authorities have also harassed his wife, Yu Xiaoyan, and the two lawyers who are trying to represent him.

Source: NTDTV, November 28, 2009
http://www.ntdtv.com/xtr/gb/2009/11/28/a380498.html 

China finally admitted that the H1N1 flu has been spreading throughout China. According to the Beijing Evening, the Director of Beijing City Health Bureau said that in Beijing approximately 400,000 people were infected with the H1N1 flu. Earlier Beijing admitted only to numbers in the lower thousands.

The Guangzhou Daily published an interview with Zhong Nanshan, an Academic at the China Engineering Academy. In 2003, he broke China’s news blockade and told western media that SARS had spread widely in China. Zhong said, “as for the number of H1N1 infected cases reported in China, I don’t believe it at all!”

Experts predicted that the H1N1 flu will infect 130-260 million people in China at its peak and will have an effect on China’s GDP in the range of about 0.5 percent.

Sources:
[1] Beijing Evening, November 25, 2009
http://yljk.beijing.cn/yqtb/crbyf/n214091861.shtml
[2] Guangzhou Daily, November 19, 2009
http://gzdaily.dayoo.com/html/2009-11/19/content_769512.htm

Xinhua reported on November 25, 2009, that Guangdong Province submitted the “Guangdong Province Implementation Plan (Draft) on ‘The P.R. China’s Strategies in Response to Unexpected Crises’” on November 24, 2009, proposing that any governments at the county level or above should employ news journalists as grass-roots information collectors for unexpected crises. The Draft also proposes that all the cities in the Pearl River Delta area must report any unexpected crises to their relevant municipal governments within one hour.

Source: Xinhua, November 25, 2009
http://forum.home.news.cn/detailsearch.jsp?id=71931521&ui=l88x66

Radio Free Asia reported that a Zhengzhou city newspaper in Henan province published an investigative report which has given rise to Chinese Internet user’s newest tongue-in-cheek catchphrase: “Are you a Party member?” According to the article, entitled “Dog Management Office Manages Nothing But Only Collects Money,” a reporter asked Wang Ping, the Director of Zhengzhou City Dog Management Office, the whereabouts of 12 million yuan in management fees and also hoped that he could release the relevant financial accounts to the public. Wang let the journalist directly question the Financial Bureau. However, a person in charge at the Financial Bureau inexplicably responded to the reporter, “Are you a Party member?” The implication — that the reporter has no right to ask the Financial Bureau officer the whereabouts of the 12 million yuan if he is not a Party member – is now the target of biting criticism from Internet users.

Source: Radio Free Asia, November 7, 2009
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/wang-11062009214733.html