Lu Guoping, Chief of Staff of China Ministry of Land and Resources has been under disciplinary investigation for corruption, Xinhua reported. Apparently he was removed from his position because Xinhua used “former Chief of Staff” to identify his position. Lu made his last appearance on October 12 as Chief of Staff at an official function.
Source: Xinhua, October 31, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2008-10/31/content_10283412_1.htm
As of October 30, 8,311.7 metric ton of milk products were taken off the shelves since the Sanlu milk contamination breakout, said an official from national Administration of Industry and Commerce. Manufacturers and distributors were inspected 1.713 million times. 626,000 complaints were filed with the authorities. Consumers returned 917.4 metric tons of milk products.
Source: Xinhua, October 30, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-10-30/content_10282020.htm
On October 30, 2008, Nan Fang Daily published an article by Du Guang, a retied party official. The title is “Why do they slander democracy and freedom?” The author criticized an article “Democracy in the Fists” in “Beijing Evening” on October 22, 2008. The latter article cited recent incidents in Taiwan and Thailand to ridicule democracy and freedom in other countries. This is an old tactic used by the Communist party since Mao’s era to belittle western values. What’s usually about Du Guang’s article is his strong defense of universal values such as democracy, freedom, equality and human rights. When talking about the role of Chinese media, he wrote: “What common understanding (among medias) should be achieved? Is it maintaining a complete agreement with the Party and be the Party’s tamed tool, or forming a common understanding on universal values?”
Source: Nan Fang Daily, October 30, 2008
http://www.nfdaily.cn/opinion/opinionlist/content/2008-10/30/content_4678061.htm
Hong Kong found more Chinese eggs containing an excessive amount of the industrial chemical melamine, the Hong Kong government said, as a new food safety problem on the mainland expanded. Hong Kong will inspect all eggs from China in the coming week and will expand the scope of inspection to meat and Animal offal. 60% of eggs in Hong Kong are imported from Mainland China.
Source: Xinhua, October 26, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/video/2008-10/28/content_10264684.htm
Sinopec booked third-quarter net profit of 8.3 billion yuan, down by 38.7% from 13.41 billion yuan a year earlier, Xinhua reported. Sinopec posted 17.64 billion yuan of net profits for the first three quarters, a 63.7% fall comparing to the same period last year. Sinopec attributes the fall to higher crude prices that have pushed its refining business deep into the red. In the first 6 months of 2008, it has received government subsidies of 45.1 billion yuan in total including fiscal subsidies, import subsidies and import tariff rebates for crude oil. Cash flow for the first three quarters was 3.427 billion, down 103.4% from the same period last year.
Source: Xinhua, October 29, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune//2008-10/29/content_10276297.htm
Huang Songyou, a judge of the China’s highest court, was removed from position and now under investigation for connection with corruption, reported Dong Fang Morning News. On October 28, 2008 the 5th session of the 11th Standing Committee announced the removal of Huang Songyou from the position of Vice President of Supreme People’s Court. It was reported that he was led away by Communist Party disciplinary staff in earlier in October and has not been home since. His family indicated that Huang has been assisting in the investigation of a top level official at the High Court of Guangdong Province for suspected illegal activities in connection with the auction of a piece of real property. Huang is considered the highest-ranking official in China’s judiciary system that has been disciplined since 1949.
Source: The Supreme People’s Court of China, October 29, 2008 http://www.court.gov.cn/news/bulletin/release/200810290004.htm Dong Fang Morning News, October 29, 2008 http://epaper.dfdaily.com/dfzb/html/2008-10/29/content_91392.htm
The following is a translation of news report regarding Hu Jintao’s speech at the Central Party School in September, criticizing cadres for lack of “objective consciousness, a general situation consciousness, a sense of hardship, and a consciousness of responsibility”, as reflected in the recent series of food quality scandals. [1]
On September 19, 2008, China News Net broadcast that, according to a CCTV News Broadcast report, the opening ceremony for a special topic seminar for state level main cadres was held that morning at the Central Party School. This seminar was to mobilize the party to further study scientific development activities. Hu Jintao, the general secretary of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), State President, and Central Military Committee President, pointed out during the meeting that some significant production safety and food accidents had happened during the year, which had caused significant losses to people’s lives and property. He emphasized that the severity of these accidents and their consequences must be fully evaluated, and some sad lessons must be firmly remembered.
Hu Jintao stressed that since the reform and open policy began, the CCP has emphasized restructuring, and has insisted that the party must manage the party, govern the party strictly, advance the party’s structuring of its magnificent projects, and drive the party’s structure to grow stronger through constant reforms. At the same time, we must see soberly, along with the continuous development of the reform and open policy and socialist market economy, and along with the increase in time, that the party has been in power and the change in the party’s team, and that the party’s self structuring faces many new topics and new tests. The tests of the party’s power, the reforms and open policy, and the development of a socialist market economy are all long-term and complex, and the task of managing and ruling the party is more arduous than at any time in the past.
Hu said that this year, some places had significant production safety incidents and food safety incidents, which caused a significant loss of people’s lives and property. From these incidents, it shows that some cadres lack objective consciousness, a general situation consciousness, a sense of hardship, and a consciousness of responsibility, and that they show an attitude drift, loose management, and that they have slacked off in their work. Some don’t even listen to the people’s voices, and don’t care about those significant problems that relate to the safety of people’s lives. We must fully evaluate these incidents and their severity, and firmly remember the sad lessons.
Hu Jintao pointed out that those incidents told us again that only if we resolved the existing significant problems in the team of the party members, let the party comrades build the party to better serve the people, build the government for the people, always think of the people first, and always care for the people, can the CCP lead the people to strive for the victory of completely building an affluent society.
Endnote:
[1] www.china.com, September 19, 2008
http://news.china.com/zh_cn/domestic/945/20080919/15097074.html
4,525 county-and-above-level government officials were convicted from 2003 to 2008, said by Wang Shengjun, the Supreme Court’s chief justice, in a report to the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress on October 26. The figure is 77.52% higher than five years before. The courts trialed 1.2 million criminal cases that seriously harm the social security, including crimes endangering national security, terrorist, gang crimes, murder, kidnap, robbery, and drug abuse. 1.6 million people were put in jail.
Source: Xinhua, October 26, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-10/26/content_10254667.htm