Social Stability - 156. page

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

According to China News Service, 340 police station chiefs from 13 cities and districts in Heilongjiang Province gathered on November 10, 2009, at the Heilongjiang Province Public Security Police Vocational College to attend a police station chief training class. The training content included the development of public security information technology, the implementation of standardized law enforcement, and the building of a harmonious relationship between the police and the people, as well as improvement of police quality and ability.

The Heilongjiang Provincial Public Security Department will train more than 1600 police station chiefs across the province by holding four closed-door trainings, each of which will take about 10 days. It will also rotationally train county-level public security bureau heads. The number receiving training will exceed 2400 people, accounting for 4% of the police force in the province.

Source: China News Service, November 11, 2009　
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/news/2009/11-11/1958575.shtml

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

After mobilizing 1,200 tax drivers to participate in public security, the authority of Changsha, the capital city of Hunan Province, decided on October 30 to expand the network by “assimilating 5,300 public transportation employees, environment workers, and postmen into the troops of ‘Volunteers for Safety,’ assisting the police to combat criminal activities.”

The decision was reportedly based on the nature of the three professions, which require close and constant contact with the population at the street and neighborhood level. The city government will coordinate with the employers of the participants for their pay and an offer extra bonus for their “outstanding contributions.”

Source: Xinhua, November 1, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2009-11/01/content_12368980.htm