According to the Ministry of Health of China, as of November 27, about 294,000 babies and young children had suffered "urinary system abnormalities" after taking formula milk from Sanlu and other brand names. Of 51,900 requiring hospital in-patient treatment, 861 remain in hospital and 154 are severe cases.
Source: Ministry of Health of China, December 1, 2008 http://www.moh.gov.cn/publicfiles/business/htmlfiles/mohbgt/s3582/200812/38386.htm
Belgian reporter Tom Van de Weghe of the Flemish public TV station VRT, his Australian cameraman and his Belgian assistant were in Henan province doing a report on AIDS in China when they were attacked and robbed by eight men recruited by the Henan provincial authorities, VRT said.
The eight men intercepted them while they were on their way to a village and demanded that they surrender the videotape of interviews they had already done. The crew handed over the videocassettes after being hit. Their assailants also took money, microphones and batteries.
VRT has demanded an apology and compensation. The Belgian government has asked the Chinese authorities for an explanation.
Source: BBC Chinese, December 2, 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_7760000/newsid_7761000/7761098.stm
A collection of a few Chinese rights lawyers comments on the execution of Yang Jia, a young man who stabbed six Shanghai policemen as revenge for police mistreatment:
Li Jinglin: The socially disadvantaged groups including the petitioners are also learning lessons. In real life, it is impossible for their legal rights to be effectively protected.
Li Xiongbing: The social conflicts such as the Yang Jia incident were solved in an extreme way because there are no other channels [for redress]. The unrest taking place in either Longnan of Gansu province or Weng’an of Guizhou province are inevitable due to the lack of a functioning judicial system. If there exists a fair and independent third party that can act as a mediator, then such violent confrontation will not happen.
Zheng Enchong: The government’s handling of Yang Jia’s case is self-contradictory. As a consequence, people will not trust the law.
Tang Jingling: Without a fair judicial system, it’s impossible for a rights [defense] movement to proceed peacefully. However, the government’s violence always prevails.
Source: Sound of Hope Radio, December 1, 2008
http://soundofhope.org/programs/162/111882-1.asp
The following is the translation of a series of interviews Radio Free Asia (RFA) conducted on the general election of village heads in China. [1]
BEIJING — On November 4, 2008, the U. S. elected an African-American, Barack Obama, as the next President of the United State of America. Yet, in China, some of the websites were still discussing the issues related to the election of village heads, and the people sighed over the struggling village elections in China.
Guang Ming Daily, an official Chinese News website published an article Xu Xun-Lei titled, "The U.S. Presidential Election Versus the Election of Village heads in China." The author disclosed that in recent years, there have been a lot of issues with the election of village heads in China, including bribery, the Village Committee and the Village Party Branch of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) fighting for interests and power, and the lack of the judiciary playing its role that has caused corruption among village officials. The author quoted some of well-known experts within the Party, "Despite of existing issues, the direct election of the villages needs to be extended to the township level. In recent years, there are many people requesting that the general election of officials [be expanded] from the village to the township level, but the Central Government and many local government officials have opposed such requests." The author believes that this has been an obvious obstacle for moving one-step, or even half-a-step towards democracy. The general election of village heads in China was piloted in the mid-1990s [but] until now, it is still very hard to move forward. Cheng Xiao-Nong, the Editor-in-Chief of "Contemporary China Studies," a magazine in the U.S., has been working for the Chinese Reformation Committee. He is very familiar with the problems of Chinese farmers. He expressed that, in fact, the general election of village heads in China is deviated; it cannot be regarded, in a sense, as a genuine form of democratic election.
The CCP has used some clever ways to maintain its power; as a result, the Village Committee Organization Laws have been short-changed. In the end, they have gradually become the CCP’s former local appointed organizations who appoint officials for the villages; then, a fake voting system is used to pass the nomination. First, competition is not allowed; second, all candidates must be approved by the CCP beforehand. Therefore, the general election of village heads is much less meaningful; it has returned into the CCP’s local organization for appointing the village officials.
Mr. Cheng believes that the reason for the general elections of village officials running into difficulties is that the CCP does not want to give up its power in a "One-Party-Totalitarian System."
"The earlier elections of the villagers, generally, were relatively clean and normal. To the CCP, on the one hand, it was desirable to have the villagers’ general election form; however, it cannot allow the officials who are elected to be out of the control of the CCP. Therefore, along the way, the basic direction of the local governments has been to reinforce the leadership of the CCP, and there has been a gradual manipulation of the elections mainly through intervention from local CCP organizations.
Li Hong Kuan, the past Editor-in-Chief of a U.S.-based online magazine, "Big Reference," regards the general elections in Chinese villages as not comparable to general elections in democratic countries.
"They are incomparable because they are from systems of a different nature. In the United State, at the general elections, the Executive Head of a government is elected, but not the village heads. Frankly, in a village, the Village Secretary of the CCP, picks a running dog, or a gopher as the Village Head to carry out the CCP’s Central Birth Policy. It was like in World War II, the Japanese selecting a Committee Head to govern the villages by the same token. The Head of the Committee had no authority; the main power was in the hands of the Japanese. The real power over the land and the allocation of benefits belongs to the Village Branch Secretary of the CCP."
According to "the Village Committee Organization Law," the Village Heads are directly elected by the villagers expressed Cheng Xiao-Nong. Any organizations or individuals cannot appoint or replace [the village head]; however, local organizations of the CCP often intervene in the elections in the villages. In some areas, it happens all the time that the local governments appoint or replace the village heads. Cheng believes that the root of the culprit is "the One-Party-Totalitarian System," of the CCP that has caused difficulties for the general elections in the villages.
Endnote:
[1] Radio Free Asia, November 6, 2008,
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/xuanju-11062008110216.html
On November 27, Japan’s Strategic Headquarters for Space Development issued an outline for the future direction of Japan’s space strategy (equivalent to China’s space strategy). “Space Diplomacy” is a new concept proposed by Japan. Specifically, it is to utilize the Japanese government’s economic development aid (ODA) to enhance cooperation with developing countries from the Asian, African, and Latin American regions, strategically provide satellite information and space development technology to these countries in order to gain their understanding and trust.
Currently, under the direction of the Strategic Headquarters for Space Development, Japan has already initiated cooperation in satellite technology with Indonesia, Brazil, and Ethiopia. But from the Japanese government’s perspective, Space Diplomacy can not stop at a few individual countries. It has to expand in scope and form a whole Space Diplomacy System.
The article says that behind the system is a plan to compete with China.
Source: Xinhua, December 2, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-12/02/content_10443755.htm
Russian magazine Arms Market published an article analyzing the situation of global market of multipurpose fighter plane during 2004-2013. The article says that global sale of multipurpose fighter planes will steadily increase in the next five years. The United States, Russia, and China will be the leading countries selling new fighter planes.
China’s rise to the third place is mainly due to its contract with Pakistan to provide 183 JF-17 “Thunder (Fierce Dragon)” fighter planes. In addition, other Asian and African countries who are China’s customers of traditional fighters are also potential new users of JF-17 “Thunder.” China’s new generation J-10 multipurpose fighter also has a high ratio of function/price. It is highly possible that J-10 will become a fierce competitor of U.S. and Russia’s third generation fighters in the global market.
Source: Xinhua, December 1, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-12/01/content_10437382.htm
French President Sarkozy’s meeting with the Dalai Lama has drawn attacks by media in China. One example is an article by China Review News which described Sarkozy as a person who has "changed his face too many times and is ungrateful for the favor that China gave to him in 2004".
In the article, Cai Fangbo, China’s former ambassador to France disclosed that in 2004 when he was ready to run for president, Sarkozy, then the France’s interior minister, requested to have a meeting with Hu Jintao during his trip to visit China. Hu granted the request despite the difference in the political ranking. After Sarkozy was elected, he was said to "have repeatedly expressed his gratitude towards the favor he received". "But in 2008, Sarkozy has held up the anti-China flag and led the France-China relationship downhill. China has shown great tolerance to him but he hasn’t returned the favor. Sarkozy uses tactics to gain political advantage and will eventually loss his credibility” the article wrote.
Source: China Review News, November 30, 2008
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1008/1/4/9/100814946.html?coluid=45&kindid=0&docid=100814946&mdate=1130093321
An article on the Deutsche Welle China section listed the number of protests held by various groups and warns of the consequences if no serious action is taken by the government.
As those whose houses were relocated, farmers who lost land, workers fighting for unfair wages, taxi drivers, property owners as well as the depressed stockholders join protests, the dissatisfaction towards the government has spread to the middle class now.
The article quoted an investigative report by Yu Jiarong, a sociologist, disclosing that the ever worsening anxiety over the economy has intensified the conflicts between the police and the protesters. Photos and videos spread through the internet are causing the incident to expand. “The expert has warned that if the government does no take any serious action, China will suffer bigger losses as anger continues to accumulate among the protesters.”
Source: Deutsche Welle, November, 26, 2008
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,3822835,00.html