Social Stability – Page 88

Beijing Tightens Control over Teachers Traveling Overseas

The Chinese government issued a notice before the October 1 National Day holiday requiring local schools to strengthen their control over elementary and middle school teachers’ travel abroad. The regulation also applied to kindergarten and retired teachers. Some provinces and municipalities have already collected the passports from the teachers and some places require teachers to go through a review and approval process by education authorities before leaving the country.

At present, at least the teachers from Fujian, Shandong, and Inner Mongolia have received notices that they require the approval from the authorities when leaving the country. Places such as Xiamen in Fujian and Tai’an in Shandong have requested teachers to submit their passports and travel permits to Hong Kong, Macao, and Taiwan. Whoever violates the regulations will be severely punished.

Teachers in Xinjiang and Tibet were already placed under intensive control years ago.

Radio Free Asia interviewed some teachers in Xiamen City, who are very unhappy about the new measure, as many Fujian residents have a number of overseas relatives.

One local education bureau official said, “We don’t understand it. I also handed in my passport. We were told to turn in our passports and we have to hand them in. We don’t dare to do anything. Sometimes we just go out to visit some relatives, and we feel very confused. This is the way the current situation is and we do not dare to disobey the leaders and the policy.”

Ever since 2012, China has gradually tightened its control over the people’s travel abroad. The scope of the civil servants and workers in public institutions who are required to submit passports has increased from the division level and above to everyone. Approval is required before leaving the country. However, the new regulation to control elementary and middle school teachers, including retired teachers, is the very first time over the past 40 years.

Source: Radio Free Asia, October 1, 2018
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/teacher-10012018100715.html

Briefings | | October 4, 2018 | Social Stability

Professor in Exile: Chinese Universities Are under Strict Surveillance

A professor from China now living in the United States paints a very disturbing picture of the information control in Chinese universities.

Tan Song, an associate professor at Chongqing Normal University investigated the truth about the “land reform movement,” the Anti-Rightist Campaign, the Second Sino-Japanese War, and the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake. Because he did so, the school expelled him and the police arrested him. Another charge was that he taught about the 1989 Student Movement and the June 4th Tiananmen Massacre. In 2017, he was forced to leave China and is currently living in exile in Los Angeles.

Tan said that in Chinese colleges and universities, the “Tiananmen Square protest of 1989” is an absolutely untouchable topic. He once tried to understand how much his students knew about what happened in 1989. Not a single student knew about it. He said, “I later found out that these students, from kindergarten to elementary school, junior high school, high school, and through the university, not a single teacher ever told them about the 1989 protests. One cannot blame the teachers. Nowadays the university is very sensitive to this topic. If any teacher dares to speak the truth about the incident in the classroom, the lightest punishment is that the teacher will leave his teaching position. He will either be expelled or be sent to the police station. I know a teacher at the Sichuan Foreign Languages College. Because he taught about the June 4th incident, the police immediately took him away.”

Tan said that, in today’s Internet age, some students do not know it from the classroom but learned about the June 4th 1989 incident and the persecution that followed from the Internet. “A student received a short video from his friend about the Tiananmen Square protests of 1989. He uploaded the video to the campus network and was quickly discovered. At the time of discovery, thirty-six students had already downloaded the video. Each of the thirty-six students was taken away and the police came to talk to them one by one, with a warning as the punishment. The original student who uploaded the video was taken away and no one knows his whereabouts.”

Tan added that in today’s Chinese universities, surveillance cameras are widely installed in the classrooms, and the authorities hire informants among the students. “The teacher’s every move in the classroom is monitored. Nowadays one does not need to come to the classroom to monitor the teachers. It’s just like the police monitoring traffic. When you want classroom 305, the computer will get it for you. How could the university teacher give a lecture in class? The informant’s job is to report on the teachers and students. What the teacher said in the class, the informant will report. The informant officers contact each other on a one-to-one basis and the students will not know they do so. Of course, those who work as informants will benefit in the future such as in placement and becoming a Party member. Under current circumstances, in Chinese colleges and universities, no one dares to say anything.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, September 28, 2018
https://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/renquanfazhi/ck-09282018095416.html

Briefings | | October 1, 2018 | Social Stability

Hong Kong Billionaire Businessman Tortured to Death in China While in Custody

Hong Kong Central News Agency quoted Sing Tao Daily and reported that, on March 19, 2017, Hong Kong billionaire businessman Liu Xiyong allegedly died during an interrogation while he was in custody. Liu was arrested in March of 2017 for bribery. A copy of the court indictment paper circulating on the internet cited seven prosecutors who were involved in Liu’s case. They were accused of “extorting a confession by torture, negligence of duty, and intentional assault.” The case is currently being tried in the Tianjing Intermediate Court. The court paper stated that, during the four days while Liu was in custody, he was only allowed to rest for two hours. He spent the rest of the time tied up in the interrogation chair. The autopsy report indicated that a number of torture methods were used on Liu. He suffered a broken sternum and fractured ribs and he died of suffocation.

Liu Xiyong, 60 years old, was from Fuzhou, Fujian Province. He was among the first group of students in the mainland to have studied abroad where he attended Harvard University. He obtained a permanent resident status in Hong Kong and became the agent representing three major US chain stores on the mainland: Walmart, JC Penney, and Sears. He was also the clothing supplier for JC Penny. Liu owned the Hong Kong Junyi hotel and the Hong Kong Xin Liji International Group and was a “financial crocodile” with billions of dollars in assets. In November 2016, Liu Xiyong was wanted for making fraudulent loans from the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China for more than 200 million Hong Kong dollars (US$25 million). He was detained in Beijing initially and was secretly transferred to the Yanbian Prefecture Detention Center in Jilin Province in March 2017. On March 19, Liu died during the investigation of the Jilin Yanbian State Procuratorate. Liu’s death is speculated to have had deep political connections. Liu’s wife, Li Fangfei, is a famous TV host for CCTV. An online posting also disclosed that the media has been instructed not to report, forward, or comment on the trial.

Source:
1. Central News Agency, September 8, 2018
http://www.cna.com.tw/news/acn/201809080059-1.aspx
2. Have8.TV, September 9, 2018
http://news.have8.tv/18/0909/2065175.html

Briefings | | September 10, 2018 | Social Stability

BBC: Tencent Launched System to Limit Children’s Online Game Playing

BBC reported that Tencent, the Chinese technology giant, responded to the national trend of combating online game addiction and will implement a strict new regulation to identify young game players. Starting in mid-September, Tencent will require players of “King of Glory” to register in their system with their real names, which will tie them to the database that the Public Security Bureau maintains. The system has the ability to identify the young players and limit their play time. Tencent published a notice which stated that it will limit the play time for children less than 12 to one hour and children 13 to 18 will be limited to two hours. Their system will make it easier to identify younger players more accurately so they can “better guide younger players to play games sensibly.” This move sets a precedent in the world’s largest gaming market.

“King of Glory” is a popular competitive game based on Chinese historical figures. The game is tailored to the mobile platform, which greatly increases its popularity as many young players don’t have a game controller or a personal computer at home. The game program is free for players to download, but the player needs to pay to upgrade the characters or to upgrade the level of difficulty of the game. China’s official media People’s Daily criticized the game last year, saying the game is addictive like poison. Xi Jinping also mentioned that these type of games cause damage to children’s vision. Recently, after it was sold on the market, another online game that Tencent launched, “Monster Hunter World,” was banned for unknown reasons. Chinese officials have previously banned a number of online games for their violent, drug, or sexual contents.

Source: BBC, September 7, 2018
https://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/chinese-news-45443871

Briefings | | September 10, 2018 | Social Stability

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