Social Stability - 167. page

Due to a flurry of factory bankruptcies across the nation, the number of migrant workers going to Beijing to appeal is increasing markedly. Beijing requires all local governments in the political-legal committee to emphatically work on preventing and controlling “petition riots.” An article from the website of the People’s Daily on December 23, 2008, recommends that the whole country follow the regulation issued by (the government of) Sanxi Province to give harsh punishments to petitioners. The article reveals that the office of the Taiyuan Municipal Party Committee and the Political-Legal Committee issued a notice to punish those who go to Beijing’s Tiananmen Square, Zhongnanhai, foreign embassies in China, central government leaders’ places, and provincial and municipal Party and government offices to appeal, as well as those who organize and instigate group appeals.

Source: Boxun, December 23, 2008
http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2008/12/200812231119.shtml

120 veterans went to protest in front of the Guangdong provincial office and requested a settlement for medical benefits. The veterans have been working in a factory that produces nuclear material and claimed to have been exposed to various levels of nuclear radiation over the years. According to Civil Rights and Livelihood Watch, many of them have been diagnosed with various chronicle diseases but are unable to afford medical care. One veteran told the reporter that he suffers from extreme fatigue. Some of his colleagues have died at an average age of less than 40 years old.

Source: Radio Free Asia, December 19, 2009
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/junren-12192008092201.html

The first commencement of China Democracy Movement School was held at Harvard University in Boston on December 16, 2008. About 300 graduates attended the ceremony. Initatives for China, the China Democracy Party, the Freedom and Democracy Party of China established the school to teach the principles of democracy and train democracy activists.

Source: Participation, December 18, 2008
http://canyu.org/n4635c6.aspx

About 70% of students that study abroad do not return to China, reported Study Times, the journal of the Party School of the Chinese Communist Party. As of 2007, the cumulative number of students studying abroad reached 1.21 million. Only 320,000 of them have returned to China while the rest have chosen to stay in the West. Among those who returned, 50% are those who did not obtain an academic degree in the West and 15% are retirees or close to retirement. Most of those who returned prefer to work in China for subsidiaries of Western companies.

Source: Study Times, December 15, 2008
http://www.studytimes.com.cn/WebPage/ny1.aspx?act=0&id=2336&bid=7

China’s Supreme People’s Court said Wednesday that two people have been sentenced to death by the Intermediate People’s Court of Kashgar, Xinjiang for their role in the August 4 attack of police in northwestern Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region. The court stated that the two conducted the attack to sabotage the Beijing Olympic Games that began August 8, 2008. The two people, both locals of Kashgar, were charged and convicted of intentional homicide and illegally producing guns, ammunition and explosives.

Source: Xinhua, December 17, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-12/17/content_10519381_1.htm

Following a strike by school teachers in Yongchuan District and Jijiang County in the Chongqing Municipality in October, similar strikes are spreading to many other districts and counties including Jiangjin, Qianjiang, Hechuan, Jijiang, Zijiang, Youyang, and so on, involving tens of thousands of school teachers. The teachers are asking for payments that they were promised. In Qianjiang, 2,000 teachers gathered in front of a government building to protest. In addition, retired teachers have also joined the protest to support the strike.

Source: The Epoch Times, December 16, 2008
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/8/12/16/n2364617.htm

Xinhua published an article on December 12 to state that the Chinese Communist Party is trying hard to resist the law of the rise and fall of political power by persisting in reform and opening-up. It is observed that the article was meant as rebuttal to the Charter 08 that pushes for more freedom. As of December 14, 2008, Chinese citizens left 5,054 comments on the Xinhua article at Soho viewers bulletin. Only 227 of them, which are in support of the Xinhua article, are available for viewing. According to analysts, the remaining 95% comments have been “harmonized” by China’s Internet authorities because the comments did not follow the Party line.

Source: Chinascope original
Participation (Canyu), December 13, 2008
http://www.canyu.org/n4529c6.aspx
Xinhua, December 12, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-12/12/content_10495824_1.htm

Lawyer Li Heping argued in court that practicing Falun Gong is lawful under Chinese law and that the persecution of Falun Gong is the result of the abuse of power, Falun Gong’s Minghui website reported. In an interview with Minghui, Li stated that Falun Gong is a belief system and is allowed by the Chinese law. “China’s Constitution allows freedom of religion and belief. That means that activities related to religion and belief such as spreading the beliefs and engaging in other beliefs-related activities are lawful.” Li, a business lawyer, has been active in rights movement in China in recent years.

Source: Minghui.org, December 11, 2008
http://minghui.org/mh/articles/2008/12/11/191419.html