Social Stability - 174. page

Two lawyers in China were denied the renewal of their licenses during the 2008 annual registration.  Local lawyers who passed the annual registration described the reasons behind the mandatary annual registration.  "The government is afraid of lawyers.  It is a very unique feature that in China, the authorities must have a mechanism to counter the role that lawyers play. … The more one complies with the law, speaks the truth and upholds justice, the less likely you will have your license renewed."

Source: Epoch Times, June 1, 2008
http://news.epochtimes.com/gb/8/6/1/n2138386.htm

BBC quotes Human Rights Watch’s report that the Chinese authorities refused to renew the licenses for two Chinese prominent human rights lawyers, Teng Biao and Jiang Tianyong. The reason is that they offered help for the Tibetans arrested during the 3.14 Event. Teng Biao was the lawyer for Shandong human rights activist Chen Guangcheng. Jiang Tianyong was involved in famous rights activist Hu Jia’s case. Early in April, the Ministry of Justice already threatened that those who expressed to help to Tibetans would be diciplined and have their licenses withheld.

Source: BBC, May 30, 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_7420000/newsid_7427900/7427943.stm

Wang Lowei, an expert on water at a German Engineering firm, stated that the construction of Zipingpu Reservoir might have caused the May 12 Sichuan earthquake.  Similar views have been posted online inside China.  Zipingpu Reservoir was built right on top of the Longmenshan Fault. Completed in 2006, Zipingpu Reservoir is one of the larger reservoirs, with a storage capacity of 1.112 billion cubic meters.

Source:
Observe China, May 28, 2008
http://observechina.net/info/artShow.asp?id=49497
Internet Posting, People.com, May 28, 2008
http://bbs.people.com.cn/postDetail.do?view=2&pageNo=1&treeView=1&id=86446095&boardId=2

Study Times, the journal of the Party School of the Communist Party reported that from 1990 to 2004, schools in 90 counties were damaged during earthquakes. In 2003 alone, over 420,000 students could not attended classes due to damages to schools. Study Times cited most recent examples including over 700 students in Juyuan middle school in Dujiangyan City who were buried and died during the Sichuan earthquake on May 12, 2008. The article attributed these casualties to dangerous school buildings.

Source: Study Times, May 21, 2008
http://theory.people.com.cn/GB/49154/49156/7272568.html

Eleven days after the earthquake that devastated Shichun Province, parents of children who were killed in the disaster at Fuxin Second Elementary School, Wufu Town, Mianzu City set up a mourning tent at the school on May 23, 2008. The tent was set up at the school’s teaching building, which completely collapsed in the earthquake on May 12, burying 127 students. “The kids died of man-made devastation, not natural disaster,” angry parents told a reporter. The parents noticed that the building’s remains were composed of loose cement with very few steel rods, whereas the teachers’ offices and residential building remained intact. The news article has been widely posted on various Chinese websites.

Source: latelinenews.com, May 26, 2008
http://www.latelinenews.com/news/cc/chinese/45688.shtml

Experts at China’s State Seismological Bureau successfully predicted the Sichuan earthquake but the request to issue a public alert was denied by Communist Party leaders, an unnamed expert from China’s State Seismological Bureau revealed. The forecasting was accurate in indicating the site and time of the earthquake but missed the magnitude. It predicted a 6-point earthquake, instead of the 7.9 one that took place. According to the source, one of the Communist Party’s top leaders denied the request to issue a public alert citing the Olympics and national social stability.

Source: Reminbao, May 20, 2008
http://www.renminbao.com/rmb/articles/2008/5/20/47707.html

On May 14, 2008, on an English Channel of the State’s China Central TV (CCTV9), the host (Yang Ri) interviewed over the telephone Mr. Chen Yiwen from the State’s China Geophysical Society Natural Disaster Forecast Committee. The interview was broadcast live. Mr. Chen said in English that the China Seismological Bureau bears “unshirkable responsibility” for the casualties of the earthquake. He stated that on May 3, 2008 he himself sent a document to the China Seismological Bureau forecasting a major earthquake in the Wenchuan region. He further stated that in the past three years, his Natural Disaster Forecast Committee had issued three mid-term forecasts to the China Seismological Bureau predicting major earthquakes in the Wenchuan region. Predictions of Chinese earthquake experts were accurate on the timing and location but missed the magnitude.

Source: Boxun, May 21, 2008
http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/pubvp/2008/05/200805210159.shtml

Xinhua has banned reports about kids who were buried in classrooms that collapsed during the earthquake. According to a Xinhua correspondent, three internal directives were issued over the past two days. The first asked correspondents to write more articles with details about the emotional moment when a child was found alive among the debris. The second that came on May 19 and ordered that no reports should be published about those children who died in schools during the earthquake or about their heartbroken parents. The latest May 20 directive bans any reports related to schools in the earthquake stricken regions. Apparently a large number of casualties of the earthquake were children who were attending classes.

Source: Boxun, May 20, 2008
http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2008/05/200805190802.shtml