(Apple Daily; Apple Daily)


Korean idol group Super Junior holds show
10,000 fight for tickets
Stampede at the World Expo
Young woman fell to death

 

According to information, the Korean Pavilion was supposed to distribute free tickets in the morning, midday and early evening.  Almost 500 female fans were already waiting in the Shangnan Road entrance, many of them traveling from outside Shanghai.  At 9:30am, the World Park opened and they sped through the process as quickly as they can.  "Everybody sprinted towards the South Gate!"  Although a large number of armed policemen were ready in the form of a  human chain, the fans surged forward like a tidal wave, screaming and shrieking along the way.  The armed police line could not hold them back, and reinforcements had to be called in repeatedly.  Spectators exclaimed, "Heavens!  This is horrifying!"

By 9:30am, there were almost 10,000 persons in front to the Cultural Center.  After distributing out a number of tickets, the organizers stopped.  This made those without tickets unhappy because they thought that the workers were keeping the tickets for themselves.  They cursed the workers, chanted the names the Korean stars ("SJ", "Hankyung") and "Give the tickets out!"

According to information, the workers explained that all tickets come from the Korean Pavilion which made the decision to stop distributing tickets.  The people refused to leave the workers and cursed them out.  Some people even scratched at the armed policemen at the scene, causing scratch marks on their arms and faces.  They yelled that they would complain to the World Expo Organizing Committee.

According to an Internet user who was taking his younger sister, "I was scared to death" at the sight of the female fans charging in.  After failing to get tickets, the female fans chanted slogans, took their anger out on the armed police and even charged into the offices of the World Expo.  They insisted that the World Expo officials must have taken the tickets for themselves and they insisted on getting tickets too.

This Internet user together with spectators and volunteers scolded these fans: "You are a disgrace to the Chinese people!" "You fans have lousy upbringing!"  When the fans heard them, they scolded back: "You don't understand us!  You shut up!"  After more than one hundred people were injured, this Internet user had no wish to stay any longer and left with her young sister.  As he left, he could not help but shed a tear -- not for the armed policemen who were assaulted, not for these young female fans, but because he no longer understands what young people are thinking.

According to information, as the passion soared, the crowd surged forward.  A second-floor railing broke and a young woman fell down and died.  The crowd panicked and a stampede resulted.  According to information, more than 100 persons were injured.  According to Internet users who witnessed the scene, "the scene was chaotic, people were crying loudly and shoes were scattered all over the ground."  The ambulance sirens were heard continuously in Area A.

From the video posted by an Internet user, there was a big crowd queuing at the World Cultural Center yesterday.  The armed policemen formed a human chain.  Even so, this could not prevent the loss of life.  According to information, the authorities sent out 1,000 armed policeman and dozens of ambulances.  The scene was sealed off in order to provide relief.  At one point, people were not allowed to go in or out of the World Cultural Center.

According to information, the loss of a life caused the World Expo Cultural Center to be closed yesterday afternoon.  The Korean concert scheduled for last evening was also canceled.  Our newspaper called the published hotline number for the World Expo Organizing Committee many times but no one picked up.

(The Standard)  Dozens injured in Expo crush   Betty Ye

As many as a hundred visitors to the Shanghai Expo were yesterday injured - several of them badly crushed - in a frantic scramble for tickets to a free concert. There are fears there may also have been a fatality after hundreds of mostly teenagers tried to storm the South Korean Pavilion in the morning.

Angry fans also attacked police who were trying to keep order as huge crowds gathered near the pavilion. A crowd of youngsters broke through the police lines, which were a short distance from the pavilion, and rushed for the building. This, in turn, caused more people to break through.

An eyewitness told The Standard that the youngsters were crushed after officials locked people out of the pavilion. As fans tried to push their way inside, visitors already inside the pavilion were also prevented from leaving, said the eye witness who was a volunteer helping at the South Korean Pavilion yesterday.

A girl caught in the mayhem wrote on her blog: "The ones at the front were crushed in the stampede and people behind fell on them. People were stuck face down on the ground." The blogger - who injured her legs - only managed to escape after some in the crowd starting yelling for people to move back.

A man in the crowd, blaming the organizers, said that more security guards should have been on duty to handle the numbers. Initial reports said that one young girl was badly hurt after jumping from a stage or the second floor in the afternoon. However, this could not be confirmed at press time. Word had spread that 5,000 tickets were available and a huge crowd gathered outside. However, an official at the pavilion said there were only 500 available.

Tickets were due to be handed in three stages starting at 9.30am. Among the artists who were to appear at the classical and pop music concert were Korean stars Super Junior, Ahn Chil Hyun and BoA.

The event was a forerunner to one by top Japanese boy band SMAP, who are due to perform in a free concert next month. According to the expo website, the concert started "smoothly and orderly" at 8pm. It also said more tickets were distributed to satisfy huge demand. The six-month expo, which opened on May 1, has been plagued by crowd problems, with chaotic scenes in the first few days and in a weeklong trial run.

(Wenwei Po)

According to eyewitnesses, when the World Expo Park opened yesterday morning, a number of young Super Junior fans were gathered in front of the World Cultural Performance Center.  Many of them are avid fans who had waited overnight in order to get tickets.  The Park originally promised to give out 2,000 tickets but then they said that the tickets had run out.  This caused people to get upset.  Some fans said that the Park people were keeping the tickets for their "connections" and someone pointed out that scalpers were selling tickets outside the park for 1,500 yuan each.

This information caused things to go out of control as several hundred fans rushed the ticket distribution location at the World Cultural Performance Center.  According to information, many teenage fans fell down and were stepped upon.  The most serious injury was a person with a broken bone which required hospital treatment.

Due to the serious nature of the incident, the World Expo Park authorities sent armed policemen to the scene.  The police arrived in four waves.  By the time that the fourth wave arrived, there were more police than fans at the scene.  The police quickly formed several human walls and made the fans calm down.

But some of the fans without tickets did not give up and sat down to demand answers from the organizers.  The fans and the police stood off to a stalemate at the various entrances.  Finally, the World Cultural Performance Center authorities relented and announced that all fans would be admitted.  However, they also said that fans cannot "re-enter if they exit."  So for the several hours between their entry and 9:45pm when the concert began, the fans had to sit and wait without food, drink or restroom.

A fan who went through the experience told us: "The arrangements were really chaotic.  There are many things that remain incomprehensible.  How come there were only 2,000 tickets given out for a venue that can accommodate 10,000 persons.  Why did they only issue 2,000 tickets?  Did the other tickets go to 'connections' as alleged?"  The World Expo authorities have so far made no statement about this farce.

(Dongfang Net)

On May 30, 2010, the South Korean Pavilion at the Shanghai World Expo held a Korean classical/popular music concert, which was warmly received by tourists.  Some tourists even camped out overnight in order to get tickets.

This concert was one of the major activities scheduled by the South Korean Pavilion, which distributed a number of free tickets to tourists.  In order to guarantee personal safety and smooth ticket distribution, the Shanghai World Expo organizers installed steel barriers to direct queuing and brought in additional security guards.  At 9:40am on May 30, ten tickets windows were opened.  Each tourist was allowed one ticket only.  During the process, individual tourist fell to heatstroke or body scrapes and were sent to the medical centers for treatment.  On the evening, the authorities assigned additional seats to meet the demand.  The performance began at 8:00pm.  Things went smoothly and the audience was orderly.

 
Shanghai Oriental Satellite TV news report

(China News via Wenxue City)

[ESWN comment:  You don't know who to believe?  Hint:  One report says that a young woman died and the evening concert was cancelled.  Another report says that no serious injuries occurred (apart from broken bones) and provided a video of the evening concert which was attended by several tens of thousands of people.  What do you think?  And this is not even getting into the past records of these respective media outlets.]

In July 2007, Beijing News found that the website Zhejiang Online has been publishing its news reports without authorization.  Accordingly, the legal worker Wang Lili began to work on the case and collect evidence.

"It was a massive project."  Wang Lili said.  There was so much work that they could not find a notary office to do the work.  There has rarely been a case of this magnitude in which the amount of resources and manpower was beyond imagination..

During the collection of evidence, Wang Lili used the advanced Baidu search engine to identify 8,039 web pages at Zhejiang Online.  Since the Baidu search engine can only show 1,000 pages at a time, Wang Lili had to run the searches repeatedly based upon editorial information in order to find all the instances.

Thereafter, the work got even more tedious.  From August 2008, four Beijing News workers spent four months to compare the suspected articles on Zhejiang Online against the original Beijing News reports.

"How many words were used?  Were photos also published?  Were the publication times the same?"  Wang Lili said that they had to address these questions page by page.

Finally, it was determined that from December 2003 to July 2007, Zhejiang Online had illegally used 7,706 articles from Beijing News totaling 9,084,772 words and 2,489 photos.  For each article, there was an associated contract with the reporter, a notarized statement and a copy of the original news articles. 

In late 2007, Beijing News sued Zhejiang Online in the Number One Middle Court in Beijing.  When the evidence was delivered to the Number One Middle Court in Beijing, it was 5 meters high.  The newspaper used two vehicles and five workers to carry the evidence to court.  Due to an argument over jurisdiction, the case was transferred to the Middle Court in Hangzhou.  Then came a period of 20 months 28 days of court examination.  By law, the examination period is not supposed to be longer than 6 months.

On January 18, 2010, the Hangzhou Middle Court notified Beijing News to file the 7,706 cases as separate cases.  That is, each case will be its own lawsuit.

According to Beijing News' lawyer, this does not mean just 7,706 complaints and 7,706 evidentiary pieces.  The fact is that each complaint shall have 5 copies of the complaint, one copy of notarised statement, one compact disc plus the evidence provided by the newspaper.  Typically each case will have at least several dozen pages of evidence.  "This is going to take a lot of time."

Furthermore, the fee for filing a case is 50 yuan.  7,706 cases will lead to filing fees of 385,300 yuan.  As well, it is estimated that the court will take eight to ten years to process all these cases.  In all of Zhejiang province, there had only been 2,838 civil cases concerning intellectual property right violations last year.

On February 4, Bejing News responded to the Hangzhou Middle Court that it dissented with the decision to hold separate trials.  Beijing News also wrote to the Zhejiang Provincial Supreme Court and the National Supreme Court.

In May 2010, Beijing News received the decision from the Hangzhou Middle Court: since the complainant refused to hold separate trials, the complaint has been dismissed.  "This case involves more than 7,000 articles and more than 500 writers.  They have made different complaints against the defendant based upon different sets of facts.  This is unsuitable to treat as a single case."

According to Li Dongtao, the responsibility for proof falls solely upon the complainant (that is, the newspaper).  The defendant (that is, the website) can arbitrarily raise dissent and suggestions at any time, creating more work for the complainant.  Compared to the vast amount of effort required in filing the case, the possible monetary compensation appears to be very low.

In such cases, the court frequently uses the standard of 100 yuan per thousand words.  Alternately the law may allow the court to impose a fine of between one and five times the amount of illegal profit obtained by the defendant.  In practice, the judges have a lot of leeway in assessing the penalties.  Even if the court grants Beijing News the full amount of 2 million yuan it requested, Zhejiang Online probably earned much more than that.

The Beijing News leader spoke of the predicament: the complainant is facing high investment, low rewards while the defendant has zero cost in these IP violation cases.  The complainant will also sometimes run into local protectionism.  In the present case, the Hangzhou Middle Court delayed the trial and then rendered this decision which clearly favors the Hangzhou-based defendant.

(Christian Science Monitor)  Latest investment tip in China: Mung beans   Peter Ford   May 27, 2010

Sensing that China’s red-hot real estate market may be reaching its peak and disappointed by a slumping stock exchange, Chinese speculators have found a new vehicle for doubling their money fast: mung beans. And garlic. The prices of these humble vegetables have skyrocketed at market stalls since the beginning of the year. Mung beans are three times more expensive than in January; garlic is up 20 fold as speculators and wholesalers corner the market. “A number of people have become millionaires like this” says Zheng Fengtian, an expert on agricultural economics at Beijing’s Renmin University, who has closely monitored recent fluctuations in the price of vegetables.

Cornering the market in mung beans (small, green ovals) may not hold the glamour of cornering the silver market, but it is a lot easier. Like garlic, mung beans are grown in only a few places in China, giving local wholesalers a strong grip on distribution, and they are also easily stored while the market climbs. The mung bean market rise may bring to mind the famous Dutch tulip mania of 1636-37, when speculation pushed the flower prices to astronomical levels. It's the classic tale of a speculative bubble. So far, mung bean speculation is not widespread here.

But a salesman named Zhang Wuben is doing his part in spreading the word. Zhang Wuben's TV lectures on the healthful properties of mung bean water have become enormously popular nationwide in the past three months. His claims to be a qualified nutritionist have been debunked by investigative journalists, but thousands of Chinese are believed to be following his advice to boil three pounds of mung beans a day and drink the resulting broth instead of water in order to ward off everything from lung cancer to high blood pressure. “Zhang Wuben might be at the root of this, but when wholesalers saw an opportunity they began to hoard and speculate” says Prof. Zheng. “Then investors started giving money to wholesalers so they could store ten times as many beans as they would have done.”

Related Link: A doctor who prescribes beans and eggplant as cure-alls  Joel Martinsen, Danwei

(MOP)  Who Created "The Most Expensive Chinese Medicine Doctor" Zhang Wuben?

It was in June 2007 that the Chinese Medicine Science and Technology Cooperative Center, a business entity under the Chinese Academy of Chinese Medicine Sciences, organized an event.  It would be the event that paved the way for Zhang Wuben to become the top man in "food cure."

At the time, the Cooperative Center wanted to organize community talks that "popularize Chinese medicine knowledge."  One of its employees Wang Xiaoyu recommended a friend Zhang named Wuben.  According to the Cooperative Center's general manager Yan Liang, they paid their speakers well and Zhang Wuben was a good speaker.

This particular series of talk went on for almost two years.  The talk was free and it drew media attention to its speaker Zhang Wuben.  In time, the Cooperative Center set up a for-pay "Chinese Medicine Research Healthy Home" in which Zhang Wuben was the resident doctor.

During this period, Zhang Wuben met a man named Tang Yanfei.  Who is he?  According to the commercial registry, Tang established the "Beijing Wuxintang Chinese Medicine Research Company Limited" in 2000, being among the first wave of companies that sold Chinese medicine for healthy living.

In 2007, the Zhong'ao Vertical/Horizontal (Beijing) Cultural Communications Company Limited began to package Zhang Wuben.  Tang Yanfei was vice-president at the company.  At first, the company did not achieve much success.  Two years later, another person joined their campaign.  This person is He Xiongfei.  Who is he?  In the 1990's, he was known as the top publisher in the private sector.  His specialty was planning "academic" books."  Reportedly he brought out cultural celebrities such as Wang Guozhen, Kong Qingdong, Mo Luo and others.  In early 2000, he faded from the scene for personal reasons.

According to He Xiongfei, a film/tv investor sought him out in August 2009 and asked him to plan a book for a Chinese medicine master named Zhang Wuben.

"This was the first time that I came across the views of Zhang Wuben.  I was instantly captivated.  I thought that this person had some very innovative views which were very different from those of the authoritative scholars.  He is also humorous and expressive."  He Xiongfei said.  "I thought that he was sure to become popular after he is properly packaged.  His books were definitely going to sell."

He Xiongfei said that the text of the book came from the videos of the talks by Zhang Wuben.  "The words were taken directly from the videos.  They were his own words."

As the planner, He Xiongfei came up with a slogan: "Eat properly to cure the ailments caused by improper eating."  He Xiongfei thought that the slogan would establish a "revolutionary concept."

When the book came out, it was distributed by He Xiongfei's younger brother He Pengfei's company.  "I told my younger brother: You must do your best to promote this book.  This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity."

He Pengfei's company made a huge promotional investment.  The book was featured on the front pages of the two largest online bookstores (Dangdang and Amazon).  "The book was selling more than 8,000 copies a day online.  It was number one at all the bookstores."

"Healthy living books are hot right now.  Anyone who does it will get a hit.  There is a lot of space in the market."  He Xiongfei said that Zhang Wuben's book is the "most commercially successful book" in his entire publishing career.

In August 2009, the Beijing Wubentang Health Technology Limited Company was registered in the Chaoyang District, Beijing City.  The legal representative is Tang Yanfei.  Zhang Wuben was the resident doctor at Wubentang.

According to an informed source, the Zhong'ao Company had assembled a "deluxe promotional team" to package and promote Zhang Wuben.  Among these are Gao Xiang, who planned CCTV's documentary <The Rise of a Grand Nation> and acted as the promotional director of CCTV's program <Winning in China>, now responsible to use his television industry connections to sell Zhang Wuben to the various television networks.  There was People's Daily Market Information Center planning director Wu Zhongjun who turned Zhang Wuben's talks into a series of 30 talks that were edited into book form.  And of course there was He Xiongfei who used his publishing and media connections to promote the book.

"This was a top promotional team.  We promoted everywhere from television to print media to the Internet.  Even some of the skeptical essays were parts of our promotional campaign."  This person said.

According to this person, in spite of the controversy now, they will continue to publish books about the phenomenon of Zhang Wuben and continue to maintain attention on the debate between western and Chinese traditional medicine surrounding Zhang Wuben.

At around noon on May 27, the Yuanling (Shenzhen) police station received a citizen's complaint:  At 9:30 on May 26, the citizen had seen a series of Internet photos in which a mentally handicapped woman was sexually assaulted by a vagrant at the intersection of Zhenxing Road and Yannan Road.

After receiving this complaint, the police set up a special task force.  Based upon the clues in the photos, the police went out to interview people in the neighborhood.  They were able to locate the mentally handicapped woman in the photos.  The woman appeared to understand simple words but she could not speak.  Therefore, it was impossible to determine when the assault occurred.  The task force then began scouring the neighborhood for the vagrant.  After a large amount of patient work, the police found the suspect Tan in a remote grass field in the Huaqiang North district.  At 18:00 on May 27, Tan was brought down to the police station.

At first, the suspect Tan was unresponsive.  After political and psychological education by the police, the suspect Tan finally admitted that he sexually assaulted the mentally handicapped woman.  According to Tan, he scavenges for a living and noticed that the victim was eating discarded food.  He saw that she appeared to be mentally handicapped.  On the day of the incident, he tricked her into going with her into an isolated spot and he sexually assaulted her.

According to the police, the woman has been hospitalized and Tan has been formally arrested.  The police reminds citizens that whenever they witness something like this, they should immediately call the police who can offer immediately help to the victims and punish the perpetrators.  The police also reminded netizens that when they upload information onto the Internet, they need to consider whether the contents have intruded upon the privacy and/or characters of other persons.

 

Link To The Photos

(Information Times, Southern Metropolis Daily)

Yesterday at around 4pm, four workers at a home furniture factory in the Baiyun district of Guangzhou city fell ill from methane gas while trying to clean up an abandoned well on factory grounds.  They were sent to the Taihuo Hospital for treatment.

At around 630pm, the Southern Metropolis Daily reporter was first to arrive at the hospital.  By that time, the workers had regained consciousness.  The reporter was about to interview them when a 1.85m tall man in a white shirt came over and asked: "Reporter?"  The SMD reporter nodded his head.  The man then said that he was also a reporter and took out a plastic card from his bag that he waved before the SMD reporter.  "This is my press card!  We are colleagues."

The SMD reporter noticed that the man kept his fingers over his name in the plastic card.  The photo on the card is that of the man, and the words "Hong Kong Era Chinese People, Reporter" were visible.  The man stopped the SMD interview and said: "I have already done my interview.  You should not do any interviewing.  We want an exclusive!"  The SMD reporter refused to leave.  The man took out his plastic card again: "Take a look.  This photo is that of me.  No mistake.  Don't do any interviewing."  The man said: "I can take you to dinner tonight.  You can leave now."

At that moment, the doctor entered and told the families that the patients were going to moved into the hospital ward.  The SMD reporter followed them but was once again harassed by the man in white.  "I told you not to come over."  The man raised his voice.  When the SMD reporter asked him why no interviewing was allowed, the man got upset: "Why?  Because I am not going to let you!"

The SMD reporter said: "At the time, I was suspicious about his ID.  I wanted to call the police and then them examine it.  But when he saw me take out my phone, he thought I was taking photos.  So he grabbed my hand and said that he won't let me take photos.  When he tried to slap my face with his other hand, one of his friends stopped him and got him to leave."

At around 630pm, three reporters from New Express and two reporters from Information Times also arrived at the hospital.  Together with the two from Southern Metropolis Daily, the seven reporters went to the fifth floor where the poisoned workers were staying.  The "Hong Kong reporter" who interfered with the SMD reporter earlier was seated at the top of the bed in the middle.

When the reporters tried to do their work, the man once again took out his plastic card and said that he was a reporter from <Era Chinese People>.  When the reporters asked why they couldn't do interviewing, he raised his voice and said brashly: "Because I won't let you!"

The reporters said that they were going to call the police.  The photographers aimed their cameras at the man in order to record evidence.  The man immediately threw a blanket over his own head.  Meanwhile several other men in the room also ordered the reporters to stop.

The "Hong Kong reporter" then tried to rush out of the room with blanket still over his head.  But the reporters blocked his way.  They said that this man was posing as a reporter and must not be allowed to leave.  The reporters formed a blockade at the door.  The man used his teeth to bite the two New Express reporters on their arms, got out of the door and sprinted down to the end of the corridor on the fifth floor.  There, he found to his dismay that there was no exit and he had to turn back and try to fight his way out.

At the corner of the corridor, he picked up the garbage can, the broom and the garbage shovel and used them successively against the reporters.  Meanwhile, the four or five other men in the hospital room also came out and helped the "Hong Kong reporter" to attack the reporters.  Whenever the "Hong Kong reporter" spotted a reporter with a camera, he would throw punches at the head and tried to seize the camera.  With the help of two men who held the New Express cameraman, the "Hong Kong reporter" wrestled the camera away.

Then the man did something surprising.  He laid down on the floor and he yelled: "I am dying."  His companions then called aloud for help by telephone: "Bring the knives over and kill these reporters!"  The "Hong Kong reporter" then stayed still on the ground until the police arrived.  The seven reporters received various degrees of injuries, none of which were life-threatening.  The "Hong Kong reporter" was found to be the boss of the Era Decoration Company and not a reporter.  The matter is under police investigation.

(Oriental Daily)

On April 10, 2008, <Ming Pao> published a report about Ma Chiu-sing (nicknamed "Hong Kong bin Laden") demonstrating outside the High Court in Hong Kong.  The report was accompanied by a photo of Ma Chiu-sing pointing at a banner whose contents were clear enough for readers to read.  <Oriental Daily News> believed that the contents of the banner were libelous and therefore filed suit against <Ming Pao>.

During the hearing, <Ming Pao> did not argue whether <Oriental Daily News> was the subject of the report or not.  <Ming Pao> admitted that the contents of the banner were libelous.  However, <Ming Pao> said that all they did was to accurately record the actions of Ma Chiu-sing.  <Ming Pao> not conducting an investigative report and they did not add their own opinions.  <Ming Pao> also claimed that the notoriety of Ma Chiu-sing means that no reader would ever take what he said as true.

In yesterday's verdict, the court pointed out that given <Ming Pao>'s reputation for being fair and balanced, their readers would not expect their reporting to be haphazard and unreliable.  "If readers have to constantly remind themselves that <Ming Pao>'s reporting is haphazard and unreliable, it would be a true tragedy for Hong Kong society."  The <Ming Pao> report also showed that their reporter interviewed Ma Chiu-sing, which meant that there was something in there that deserves to be reported.

The court also rejected <Ming Pao>'s claim that readers won't believe in what Ma Chiu-sing said.  The court pointed out that people have finite memories and they may not be able to bring up all the old facts.  The <Ming Pao> report only mentioned that Ma Chiu-sing was sent to jail in early 2008 for threatening <Oriental Daily News>.  Not mentioned was the fact that Ma Chiu-sing was sent to jail in 2002 for the supermarket poison case.  Such being the case, readers may not remember that Ma Chiu-sing was that person.  The <Ming Pao> report also mentioned that Ma Chiu-sing was assaulted after he came out of prison in 2008.  The court believed that most readers will not think that the assault is accidental.  All in all, the court believed that the <Ming Pao> report was libelous against <Oriental Daily>.

In terms of damages, the court ultimately decided on the amount of HKD 1.8 million.  Upon advice from senior barrister, <Ming Pao> will appeal the verdict.

What was the history before this?  What was on that banner?  From CACV000304/2008 ORIENTAL DAILY PUBLISHER LTD AND ANOTHER v. MA CHIU SING:

Background:

A.  THE CRIMINAL PROCEEDINGS

2.  To set the plaintiffs’ complaints grounding the contempt proceedings in a proper context, it is necessary to go back to the two sets of criminal proceedings that the defendant faced earlier.

A.1.HCCC138/2002 and the subsequent appeals

3.  In September and October 2001, the defendant, signing himself as ‘香港拉登 (HK Bin Laden)’, sent identical letters to three widely circulated Chinese newspapers including ODN.  In those letters, the defendant indicated that he had put poison into certain food product in a supermarket and threatened that if the Chief Executive and top government officials had not resigned within a month, no further warning would be given before ‘the next poisoning action’.  This would target other more general locations, perhaps killing countless people.  Those letters, which enclosed a small sample of the poison he had used, ended with the threat that he was not to be underestimated or thought of as someone not having ‘enough guts’ to do this.  The letters continued, ‘... if my demand cannot be met, I guarantee that I will plan the HK version of 9/11...’.

4.  What the defendant did was, as the Court of Appeal later observed in his appeal against conviction and sentence in HKSAR v. Ma Chiu Sing [2004] 2 HKLRD 974, akin to a threat of terrorism.  Thanks to the responsible and efficient way that the matter was handled by the management of ODN, the defendant was swiftly arrested and brought to justice.

5.  On 13 December 2002, the defendant was convicted in the High Court of three counts of maliciously sending letters threatening to kill unnamed persons (‘section 15 offences’) and two counts of attempting unlawfully and maliciously to administer to or cause to be taken by an unknown person a noxious substance with intent to injure, aggrieve or annoy such person (‘section 23 offences’).  A total of 6 years and 8 months’ imprisonment was imposed.

6.  Upon the defendant’s appeal, the Court of Appeal quashed the conviction of the section 23 offences but dismissed his appeal against sentence on the section 15 offences.  The Court then substituted a sentence of 6 years and 8 months’ imprisonment on the section 15 offences.  Thus, the overall sentence imposed on the defendant remained unchanged.  He was subsequently released from jail in June 2006.

A.2.In the Eastern Magistracy

7.  On or about 19 July 2006, ODN received a letter from a person identified himself as the defendant, threatening to exhibit publicly certain banners if ODN did not publish an article he had written (‘the First Letter’).  On or about 22 July 2006, ODN received another letter written by that person, accusing ODN of ignoring the First Letter and demanding for HK$5 million (‘the Second Letter’).  In August 2006, ODN received further letters from that person again, enclosing photographs showing a banner exhibited at various public places which contained statements defamatory of ODN.  He threatened ODN thus : ‘我今次都預咗你會報吋,衰我都衰過,我仍有人會幫我搞死你,不過今次唔會咁易失拖......咪報吋,你應該知道我嘅能力’.  ODN then reported the matter to the police.

8.  On 31 August 2006, the defendant had a telephone conversation with Inspector Yau Lai Keung (‘Inspector Yau’) posed as Mr Kenneth Lai Kam Wa (‘Mr K Lai’), the personal assistant to the 2nd plaintiff.  He made threats to Inspector Yau.  The defendant was then arrested on the same day.

9.  In June 2007, the defendant was tried before the magistrate in the Eastern Magistracy for two counts of criminal intimidation, which arose from the threats that he made in the First Letter and the telephone conversation with Inspector Yau.  At the trial, Inspector Yau gave evidence against him.  After trial, the magistrate convicted the defendant and sentenced him to 9 months’ imprisonment.  He was released on 15 March 2008.”

To complete the picture, I should mention that the defendant alleged that upon his release from the Stanley Prison on 15 March 2008 he was attacked by a person with a wooden pole.  He alleged that the purpose of the attack was to break his knee-caps.  In support, the defendant produced a report in the Ming Pao of 16 October 2008 to the effect that one Mr. Yuk kin-man (玉健文)had been arrested and charged with a criminal conspiracy to cause the defendant grievous bodily harm with “BUI Van-thanh、TRAN Trong-manh(陳松文)及一名叫‘肥樂’的男子”.  The report gave ESCC 4864/2008 as a reference.  In that report it was also stated that earlier Bui and 陳松文had pleaded guilty and were sentenced to 4½ years and 2 years imprisonment respectively.  The defendant alleged that it was the 2nd plaintiff who was behind the attack.  I must emphasise that that is merely an allegation.  I say no more about the defendant’s allegation since this is a question of fact which may have to be determined at trial.

...

The plaintiffs claimed damages for libel: “... in respect of words contained in a banner erected by the Defendant in front of the Legislative Council Building and the High Court Building on 9 April 2008 and in leaflets distributed by the Defendant to members of the public on 9 April 2008 ...”

... The literal translation of the Words ...

"Is there still rule of law in Hong Kong? Frame-up imprisonment! Bribery! Contract killing!"

" ... To my astonishment, Oriental Daily News and Ma Ching Kwan (馬澄坤) and others of the Ma Family have not dealt with the relevant complaint by lawful means ... but instead not only have they failed to handle the incident by such means, they have gone so far as to fabricate a blackmail letter for 5 million to frame me up. Further, senior inspector Yau Nai Keung (游乃強) who pretended to be the assistant to the chairman of Oriental Daily News has called me up ... "

(1)  " ... To my astonishment, Yau Nai Keung (游乃強) was bribed and falsely alleged that the conversation between us was not recorded, and further fabricated false testimony alleging that I had committed acts of criminal intimidation ... "

(2)  "To my further astonishment, the Mas of Oriental Daily News even hired contract killer(s) to attack me with rod(s) opposite the Stanley Police Station on the morning of 15 March this year when I was released from my frame-up imprisonment..."

(3)  "The Mas of the Oriental Daily News committed 3 sins in open disregard of the law: 1: Imputing crime to some one else, 2: Bribing senior inspector Yau Nai Keung (游乃強) to fabricate false evidence, 3: Hiring someone to commit act(s) of violence openly in complete disregard of the law and discipline".

Having reviewed all the background, you can come back to the <Ming Pao> report (minus the photo).

(Ming Pao)

The self-proclaimed "Hong Kong bin Laden" Ma Chiu-sing was sentenced to 9 months in jail last year for making criminal threats against <Oriental Daily News>.  When he left jail in March this year, he was immediately assaulted outside and sustained injuries.  Recently, he held a banner and demonstrated out the High Court.  The banner mentioned <Oriental Daily News> and its honorary chairman Ma Ching Kwan.  Lawyers representing Oriental Daily News Publishing and Ma Ching Kwan issued letters clarifying the contents on the banner.  They denied that Oriental Daily News Publishing and Ma Ching Kwan have issued criminal treats, or fabricate evidence that led to illegal detention of Ma Chiu-sing, or conspire with a third party to illegal detain Ma Chiu-sing, etc.

Is this fair and balanced reporting?

On October 16, the businessman Song Shanmu donated 1,000,000 yuan to the Huadong Normal University in Shanghai.  Song was a university graduate from the computer science department and he headed the Shanmu Education Group.  As a result of the donation, the western wall of the Number One Instruction Building carried the words "Song Shan Mu Building."

Yesterday a post appeared on the Internet: "When I pass by Huadong Normal University in the Minhang district of Shanghai, I can see the Song Shan Mu Building.  But today, I found out that those words have been taken down.  Is this because Song Shan Mu has been arrested for suspected rape?"

Yesterday afternoon, this reporter went to the Minhang campus.  I asked several students about the whereabouts of this building.  They looked embarrassed at the question.  A female student pointed to a brown building in front and said in a low voice that this used to be the Song Shan Mu Building except the words have now been removed.

"It was just removed yesterday.  A worker suspended himself from the roof and removed the letters.  The students very much support the move."  A first-year student told me that after the news came out that Song Shanmu was suspected of raping his employee, their intra-net BBS exploded.  Many students thought that "suspected rape" would severely taint the dignity and character of their school.  If the building name is preserved, it will cause even more embarrassment and uneasiness among the students.  Some female students said that every time that they see the building, they associate it with rape and therefore feel scared.  "I support the removal of the building name.  This name has brought shame to our university"  A second-year male student thought that the school did the right thing.


Translation: Foxconn Longhua building C4, double suicide reported widely on Internet: Numbers 14, 15 suicides at Foxconn, Xiang Jianxin, Sina.com microblogger, lastest scoop, at around noon, double suicide at Foxconn Longhua C4 building, terrible sight at the scene, the scene has been sealed off.  Details need to be confirmed.

Do you trust a microblog?  You must be kidding.  Most sensible people will require more proof (but microbloggers will probably just re-tweet).  Here is the photo that someone provided:


Translation:
Foxconn number 14 is up on the roof, the police are trying to stop him
At the scene, not only are there women crying out "Don't jump," but there are also "spectators" with smiles on their faces

A common saying on the Chinese Internet is: "No photo, no truth."  So here is the photo.  But does "photo = truth" hold?  You need to exercise a little bit of commonsense.  Take a look at this photo.  How are people dressed?  In winter jackets.  Yesterday in Shenzhen, the temperature was 28 degrees Centigrade (82 degrees Fahrenheit).  Since it had also rained earlier, the weather was hot and muggy.  People in the street were dressed in t-shirts, miniskirts and shorts; they were not wearing winter jackets.  Also if this was outside Foxconn Longhua building C4, then the location is within the factory campus.  So where did the children come from?  Was it Family Day?  This was clearly a fake photo.

The following link was sent in by Joel Martinsen (Danwei).  It is a dateline February 21, 2010 story from Zhangjiajie city, Hunan province.

Yes, they would be wearing winter jackets in Zhangjiajie (Henan) in February.

In Headline News, which is Hong Kong's top free newspaper, there is one small paragraph on page 4 (it is the third story counting from the top left corner and has no photos).

In Oriental Daily, which is Hong Kong's top paid newspaper, the story is featured on the front page.


Grand Century Plaza
Terrifying flying person


Illustration of suicide at shopping mall
1.  A woman finished her lunch at a restaurant, got up and walked away.  She left her cane and handbag behind.
2. The woman climbed over the barrier on the eighth floor of the shopping mall and jumped down.


3. The woman fell from the eighth floor down to between the 1st and 2nd levels.

At around noon yesterday, 45-year-old Yan came by herself to have lunch at a restaurant.  She ordered several dim sum dishes and ate by herself.  At around 3pm, she got out of her seat and walked out of the front door.  She climbed over the glass parapet overlooking the automatic escalators and jumped.  She fell down just below the second level close to the ladies' restroom.  There are a loud bang.  Her skull was split as her brain matter splashed down to the ground level right by the information front desk.  People started screaming and running.  The police and emergency medical service were summoned.  Yan was pronounced dead at the scene.

In Apple Daily, which is the second largest paid newspaper in Hong Kong, the story got an animated news version.  However, this was not the front page which was given to the Foxconn suicides.

When the police arrived, they studied the close-circuit television videos and observed that before the woman had exited from the Jade Garden restaurant.  At the restaurant, a waiter found that a customer had left without paying.  At that table, the police found a walking cane, a pink handbag and a white shopping bag.  According to the bill, there was only one customer at that table.  Based upon the identification in the handbag, the police contacted the family and obtained verification of identity.  The police learned that the woman had been suffering from mental sickness.

Neither English-language newspapers (The Standard and South China Morning Post) had this suicide story.

How many people commit suicide in China each year?

From The Irish Times, "About two million Chinese attempt to take their own lives each year, and 280,000 of those die."

What is the population size of China?

From China Population and Development Research Center, the population clock at this moment is 1,337,445,409.

What is the suicide rate (per 100,000) in China each year?

100,000 x 280,000 / 1,337,445,409 = 20.9 suicides per 100,000 persons each year

How many persons committed suicide at Foxconn (Shenzhen campuses) this year?

10 persons died after falling out of buildings.  Two more fell down buildings but survived.  Another slit the wrists but survived.

How many people work at the Foxconn (Shenzhen) factories?

From Xinhua, "Of Foxconn's 800,000 employees in China's mainland, 420,000 are based in Shenzhen."

What is the suicide rate among Foxconn (Shenzhen) workers?

100,000 x 10 / 420,000 = 2.38 suicides per 100,000 persons each year

So what is the big deal on Foxconn?  The suicide rate (2.38) there is much lower than the national average (20.9).  So there is nothing here -- you should all go home ...

Oh, wait.  But this is not how these comparisons should work.

First, we are only in May and there are 12 months in the year.  Under an assumption of a constant suicide rate, there are expected to be 2.38 x 12 / 5 = 5.71 suicides per 100,000 persons at Foxconn this year.

Next, is the Foxconn labor population comparable to the total Chinese population?  Probably not, because Foxconn workers are predominantly young people from rural areas now moving into an urban area.

From The Irish Times, "The rates of suicide are particularly high in the countryside, with rural suicide rates three times higher than in the cities."  Therefore, the national suicide rate is raised by the rural areas.  A proper comparison ought to be against the urban areas only.

From the World Health Organisation suicide rates (per 100,000) in selected urban areas by gender and age in China for 1999, we see:

The Foxconn workers are young persons in the 15-24 to 25-34 age groups.  So the suicide rate (per 100,000) may be taken to be (3.5 + 6.3) / 2 = 4.9 suicides per 100,000 persons per annum.  It is clear that it would be unfair to compare Foxconn suicide rates against the national average, which includes high-risk categories such as persons age 75+ living in rural areas who probably have no means of livelihood.

From the World Health Organisation, the overall suicide rate in selected urban and rural areas in China for 1999 is 13.9.  These are 1999 data.  If we assume the same ratios between 15-34 and total population, the suicide rate (per 100,000) for persons 15-24 in Chinese urban areas today is 20.9 x 4.9 / 13.9 = 7.37 suicides per 100,000 persons.  Foxconn is still below national average.

Unfortunately, the assumption of constant suicide rates for the rest of the year will not hold.  If you look at the first five months, there is a clear acceleration already in suicides/attempted suicides:

1. January 23, 2010
2. March 11, 2010
3. March 17, 2010 (attempted suicide)
4. March 29, 2010
5. April 6, 2010
6. April 7, 2010
7. May 6, 2010
8. May 11, 2010
9. May 14, 2010 (attempted suicide)
10. May 21, 2010
11. May 25, 2010
12. May 26, 2010

Thus, we have 1 suicide in January, 0 in February, 2 in March, 2 in April and suddenly 5 in May.  If the rate keeps increasing this way, the Foxconn year-end number would go through the roof. 

Why would the suicide rate pick up?  See Wikipedia on Copycat Suicide:

A copycat suicide is defined as an emulation of another suicide that the person attempting suicide knows about either from local knowledge or due to accounts or depictions of the original suicide on television and in other media.

The massive wave of emulation suicides after a widely publicized suicide is known as the Werther effect, following the Werther novel of Goethe.

The well-known suicide serves as a model, in the absence of protective factors, for the next suicide. This is referred to as suicide contagion. They occasionally spread through a school system, through a community, or in terms of a celebrity suicide wave, nationally. This is called a suicide cluster.

To prevent this type of suicide, it is customary in some countries for the media to discourage suicide reports except in special cases.

...

Various countries have national journalism codes which range from one extreme of, "Suicide and attempted suicide should in general never be given any mention" (Norway) to a more moderate, "In cases of suicide, publishing or broadcasting information in an exaggerated way that goes beyond normal dimensions of reporting with the purpose of influencing readers or spectators should not occur. Photography, pictures, visual images or film depicting such cases should not be made public" (Turkey) Many countries do not have national codes but do have in-house guidelines along similar lines. In the US there are no industrywide standards and a survey of inhouse guides of 16 US daily newspapers showed that only three mentioned the word suicide and none gave guidelines about publishing the method of suicide. Craig Branson, online director of the American Society of News Editors (ASNE), has been quoted as saying, "Industry codes are very generic and totally voluntary. Most ethical decisions are left to individual editors at individual papers. The industry would fight any attempt to create more specific rules or standards, and editors would no doubt ignore them."

What will the Chinese and western media do?  Camp outside the factory and try to scoop the next suicide on the front pages?  Or stay mum on future suicides to quell the copycat suicides?

(ESWN comment:  There was a suicide at the neighborhood shopping mall today.  Someone jumped from the seventh floor of the building into the flower bed on the ground level.  The area was immediately blocked off and the body was quickly taken away.  One hour later, shoppers wouldn't know what happened earlier.  I understand that they will bring monks into the mall after midnight to say prayers.  I wonder if I will read about this in the Hong Kong newspapers tomorrow.)

At a time when the media are flooded with accusations that the "ten successive jumps" by Foxconn workers are due to their corporate management/sub-contractor model, we find that no press media are telling us the specific reasons why they are committing suicide.

My understanding is that the first suicide case was Ma Xiangqian, whose family still refuses to accept that he killed himself.  First, they said that he died after being assaulted by his supervisors; next, they said that he was beaten to death by hometown workers; now they are saying that he was beaten to death by security guards.

The second suicide case was due to economic pressure on a person who has an ailing father and impoverished family circumstances.  The third case was someone whose spring vacation overtime pay was stolen from him.  The seventh case was a man with a mental problem.  During the Labor Day holiday, Foxconn assigned two fellow students to keep him company.  His parents were supposed to show up in Shenzhen the next day.  The two fellow students stayed with him in the company hotel, but they failed to stop him from jumping.  The eighth case was a person with romance problems.  The family of the ninth case thinks that it had to do with a job transfer.  The stated reason for the tenth case was that he owed several thousand yuan in gambling debt.

During the last month or so, Foxconn has already stopped more than 30 "abnormal" cases.  Most of these involve emotional problems for women.  One Foxconn worker demanded to meet with his ex-girlfriend who works at Foxconn.  He also demanded 250,000 yuan from Foxconn or else he threatens to jump off the building.  There was a couple from Hubei with the guy beating and berating the woman to jump off the building so that he could collect the compensation.  Another young man broke up with girlfriend and sent a text message to his family to state his intention to commit suicide.  This person was finally located after people in Shenzhen and Shanxi worked hard to find him.

Another unmentioned fact is that the "ten suicide cases" were relatively new workers at Foxconn, with tenure between as little as 28 days and as long as 6 months.

The media also do no mention the fact that the suicide rate at Foxconn is far less than the national average.  According to the 2009 World Health Organisation research report, about 1 million people committed suicide around the world in 2009 of which 26% were in China.  Assuming a population of 1.3 billion in China, the suicide rate is about 20 persons per 100,000 persons per annum.  This report said that suicide is the fifth most common cause of death in China, and the most common cause among young women.

Why are the media evading these facts?

First, they want to earn eyeballs.  When workers from other companies commit suicide, nobody cares.  But when Huawei and Foxconn workers commit suicide, they will have full-page coverage.  This is because Huawei and Foxconn are famous.  For example, two persons jumped out of buildings in Shenzhen and died in April.  Virtually no media reported that.  In Guangzhou, two men took pesticide in a pact and one died.  Three "second-generation poor persons" committed suicide together in Hangzhou.  These suicides were unreported in the newspapers; even if reported, nobody cares.  But the national media are stationed outside Foxconn, ready to report on more suicides.

Secondly, an in-depth report requires an exploration of corporate management.  If one analyzes the specific reasons why the specific individuals committed suicide, one may get a good picture of the psychologies and social conditions of the post-90's generation but one cannot tie this easily to corporate management.  In this way, the media lose their focus and the reason for running an in-depth investigation, and their reports therefore seem ill-informed.  These reporters simply don't understand what corporations, or management, or manufacturing are about.

Thirdly, the "ten successive Foxconn suicides" and ten school ground murder cases are related to irresponsible media reporting.  Overseas, these phenomena are known as "suicide contagion" or "violence contagion."  In those ten school ground murder cases, almost 100 children died or were injured.  The media were simply unable to explain administrative problems at specific schools.  Therefore their reporting can only be called the classical "violence contagion."  Compared to the school ground violence, the Foxconn workers' choice of locations and methods are even more classical "suicide contagion."  Therefore, the media are the arch-criminal in leading young people to commit suicide in China.  In mid-April, I called for attention on this issue but the media has been unwilling to address it.

Fourthly, Foxconn competitors are using these incidents to attack Foxconn.  Recently, there was a popular Internet post about how Foxconn security guards beat up a worker and then tossed him out of a building.  This post came originally from "Anhui" which allowed some people to figure out where the prime mover behind the scene is located.  In 2005, a certain "Foxconn sweat shop factory" media report came from an overseas competitor who wanted to pry the Apple account away from Foxconn.  So there are some people who think that some of the current media reports are being manipulated by Foxconn competitors.

I believe that the media should make objective reports.  That is how to act responsibly.  They should not manufacture news for personal interests.

[ESWN comment:  Why do the Chinese media and Internet users seem to want to see Foxconn dead?  I cannot help but go back to August 2006 when Foxconn sued a newspaper editor and a newspaper reporter for 10,000,000 yuan each on defamatory reporting.  They did not sue the newspaper -- Foxconn sued the individual media workers for huge sums of money which they don't have and will never have.  (The Unpublished FoxConn Story)  "The FoxConn method of litigation was particularly vile.  If they succeed with this, all reporters will live in fear of litigation about their reporting on Foxconn.  This was a challenge to the entire field of journalism in China as well as the freedom of press.  Therefore, the reaction of the field of journalism carries an instinct for self-preservation.  FoxConn had used a similar method to prosecute Commercial Times reporter Joyce Kuang in Taiwan, but they retreated under pressure from the Journalist Association.  From thereon, very few reporters in Taiwan dared to report on Foxconn and even fewer dare to criticize Foxconn."  A suicide cluster is a valid news story and therefore the Chinese media are using this occasion for payback time.  That is one way to look at the media coverage at the moment.]

\

At around 5:30pm yesterday afternoon, Mr. Yu heard the noise of the neighbor Wen Mengfei quarreling with someone.  He went outside and saw Wen attacking his own father.  Wen then went into a restaurant, took a butcher knife and came out to hack the father.  The mother came out and pleaded: "Don't do that!"  Wen then hacked his mother as well. 

Neighbors came forth and tried to persuade him to stop.  Wen took off his short jacket, waved his knife, pounded on a basin and warned others not to approach.  Even though both parents were down on the ground, Wen continued to hack them.  Several neighbors wanted to tackle him but he waved his knife and forced them to back off.

Finally, a restaurant owner yelled out: "Let's all go!"  Everybody picked up whatever was handy, including pot stirrer, brick, stool, clothes-handing rod, etc and rushed him.  Wen Mengfei then took off down the street.

By this time, the Jianghan police station had received a call and eight police officers were on their way.  Wen Mengfei fled down the street with more than a dozen citizens giving chase.  When Wen Mengfei reached the intersection of Zhongshan Avenue and Chubao Front Street, the police officers Lu Bin and Lan Bingxi used their batons to knock the butcher knife out of Wen's hand and the crowd rushed over to gang-tackle Wen.

The episode was captured by a Mr. Yang on his DV camera.

 

According to information, Wen Mengfei was a well-known drug addict.  In the 1980's and 1990's he was a successful operator of a hair salon and a clothing store.  At the time, he was wealthy and people addressed him as "Boss Wen."  But he became to use drugs and squandered his money away.

On the day of the incident, Wen Mengfei was taking the drug known as maguo.  Around 5pm, he became delusional and began to fight with his girlfriend named Cai.  When his parents interceded, Meng got angry and attacked them.

First, let me tell you about my situation.  I joined Foxconn in 2002 and I am still working there.  My family origins are in Sichuan and I was born in Tibet.  I have been at Foxconn for almost ten years, so I am somewhat qualified to speak out.

Several days ago, I saw the open letter from Mr. Li Yi to our President Terry Guo as posted on the company intra-net.  This letter had been carried all over the Internet with all sorts of abusive comments and attacks added by Internet users.  Many of the comments were preposterous and thoughtless, never mind any rational critiques.

I could not restrain myself from writing this letter and tell you about my views.  These views may not represent all Foxconn workers, but they represent a sizeable number of them.

Many people feel that Foxconn's base salary of 900 yuan (plus overtime pay) is exploitative.  I think that it is a bit low too.  But Foxconn has hundreds of thousands of job positions.  Even raising the pay a little bit for each person will lead to a big hit on the company bottom line.  The boss cannot be expected to give your all the profits.  It is the same anywhere.  The workers have to create value at least 10 times their wages before the boss will hire you.

Let me tell you a story.  I had worked in the human resources department before and I had to recruit employees at job fairs.  There was an interesting incident.  The company was hiring an Internet manager to maintain office networks and computers.  The monthly salary for this easy job was going to be 2,500 to 3,000 yuan.  The applicant that I interviewed was a recent university graduate.  After some initial screening in which I determined that he met the basic requirements, I asked him what he wanted for salary.  He thought about it and said: "Foxconn?  8,000 yuan per month."  I asked: "What is the basis for your 8,000 yuan?"  He said: "I need to rent a room at XXX yuan per month; I need to send my parents XXX yuan per month; my girlfriend spends XXX yuan per month; I want to buy a notebook computer; I need to save XXX yuan per month; I need to pay for telephone, transportation, social events, etc.  Therefore I need at least 8,000 yuan per month."  I was speechless!  But I got interested in him and I followed him on his rounds at the job fair.  He applied at every company while requesting 2,000, 3,000 or 5,000 yuan per month in salary.

What does this tell us?  Certain recent graduates have problems with their thinking.  They do not consider what their abilities are.  Instead, they think that big companies pay high salaries while small companies pay low salaries.  It is very common for people nowadays to think that if the company pays too low, you come out losing and you can't concentrate on working hard.

I admit that for the identical job position, a Taiwanese (or other foreign nationality) manager gets paid a lot higher than a mainland Chinese manager.  At first, I thought that this was quite unfair.  Then I began to appreciate it.  You only see that the Taiwanese managers get more pay, but you don't see that they have to live away from their families.  It is not easy on them.  I am sure that President Guo recognizes that.  Take our department.  There used to be a dozen Taiwanese managers but there are only three left.  Most of the managers are now mainlanders.  If you are good, the boss won't let you go.

Many people criticize the Foxconn labor union for not doing anything useful.  I have lots of contact with the union folks and I know what they do.  Actually, to be completely frank, do you expect a Chinese union to organize strikes and get more pay like American or Korean unions do?  I have never seen a single labor union do that in China.  The Foxconn labor union organizes the workers to return home each Spring Festival (that means arranging train tickets for several hundred thousand workers), schooling for the children of the workers, singing competitions, child care for the children during summer, radio talent competitions, etc.  These are facts, but when there are too many workers, some people may not get to share in it.

Management on the assembly lines are strict, even stern.  But do you have any good ideas to let the workers be happy and relaxed on the production line?  Anyway, I haven't come up with such ideas.  I don't know how to let workers put in screws and play jigsaw puzzles on the production line at the same time.

As a former worker in the front line, I can appreciate that the base Foxconn workers are working hard while receiving low pay.  When they make mistakes, they are severely reprimanded by managers who are not always the kindest.  But these cannot be the major reasons why people jump off buildings.  At most, these can be related reasons.  I lean towards social and personal reasons for those suicides.

Life is cruel, and society is insane!  Reality can crush you into suffocation.  Romance, career, family.  When you think that everything is so faraway, you are not that faraway from death!  This explains why all those who committed suicide are lower-level workers.  Even the Xiangtan University graduate Lu Xin was impoverished.  They are weak and vulnerable.  We do not see any senior-level managers go into a free fall.  Many people keep living in spite of their problems with materials, romance, toil or travel.

The suicides have put Foxconn in the eye of the storm.  Many outsiders think that there must be a problem with the company management system (to wit, a sweat factory).  But where can you work without being exploited?  Which places do not extract extra value from you?  This is commonsense!  If you don't believe it, you can try and start your own factory!

I and my colleagues resent the hot terms such as "nine successive jumps," "ten successive jumps" used by the media.  This makes people look forward to "eleven successive jumps" ... "N successive jumps."  Are you waiting to count how many more people will jump!?  Shameless.  This is really too shameless.

Actually, we should be grateful to President Guo.  In China, Foxconn is a relatively good place to be -- they provide food and board, and they issue pay checks on time.  Those evil small factories make you work 16 hours a day with 2 to 3 yuan per hour overtime if you are lucky!  The long queues of job seekers in front of the factory gate should explain everything.  This is how it is in China!  If you don't want to work, then you should get out of the way and let those behind you fill out their application forms! I think that without capitalists like President Guo willing to invest, Chinese workers will be paid even less.  His contributions to the motherland are clear to see!

I have a story about President Guo.  At the 2004 Spring Festival party, several tens of thousands of workers were assembled in the plaza.  Suddenly, the lights dimmed and President Guo came through the front gate.  There was a close-up of him shown on the large projection screen on the stage.  Do you know what happened?  Many of the workers, especially the women, began to cry, because they saw that President Guo had white hair and his face was freckled with age where none existed before!  I don't want to say anything more in the way of flattering and fawning, but this small episode should explain certain problems.

Finally I want to say something to the deceased young people.  It is said that they should be left in peace now that they have moved on.  But I cannot help but nag a little.  As you dropped into free fall, did you think about your parents who brought you up with such efforts?  Now they have to attend your funeral.  Did you think about the heart-rending pain that they had to go through?  Since you are gone now, there is no point in accusing you of lack of filial piety.  I pray that you rest in peace, and I hope that your parents and relatives have peace of mind.

Signed: A ordinary Foxconn worker Zhou Hongbo

On May 25, many Chinese websites began to report on <A Letter To Foxconn Colleagues>.  This letter asks employees to promise that they will not use extreme methods to hurt themselves or others.  Should the employees commit suicide or otherwise inflict injuries upon themselves, the employees and their families may not ask the company to either pay more than the legally allowed compensation or otherwise use extreme methods to affect production at the company.  A signature is required at the bottom, together with employee number, citizen ID number, date of signature, personal contact information and emergency family contact information.

To be more specific, the employees are signing to keep three promises:

1. If I should encounter any problems or hardship in the course of my work and my life in the future, I will contact or seek help from the "employee care center" and other departments in order to seek help and resolution;

2. I shall assume responsibility for my own actions.  If I should encounter difficulties or setbacks, I will contact my relatives in a timely manner, or report to the company managers.  At the same time, I agree that my colleagues and the company's human resources personnel may contact and communicate with my family members but not in a way that might hurt myself or others.  I agree that the company may send me to get medical treatment if I should exhibit abnormality in physical and/or mental health in order to safeguard the well-being of myself and/or others;

3. In the even of an accident not caused by the company (including suicide, self-inflicted injuries, etc), I agree that the company may deal in accordance with the relevant laws.  I and/or my family shall not make demands beyond what is legally mandated, nor take any extreme actions that affect the reputation of the company, nor interfere with the normal production process at the company.

Is Foxconn under social pressure?

(Wenxue City)


We do not welcome the culture of suicide at Foxconn!!!
Thorough investigation why employees are jumping off buildings!!!


In less than six months this year, there have been "ten consecutive jumps off buildings" at Foxconn.
Could there really be nothing wrong with Foxconn's "management culture for jumping off buildings"?!
Foxconn, please put away the arrogant posture of a big corporation.  Please reflect and then reflect again!!!
Foxconn, please do not make us shed sweat, shed tears and then shed blood!

Relevant Link: Foxconn “Suicides” & “Secrets”, Chinese Netizen Reactions  ChinaSMACK

On the afternoon of May 15, Xinahua deputy chief editor, <Reference News> editorial department director and senior reporter Xia Lin delivered a report on "Work Rules for Emergency Situations" to journalism department members of the Tiantsin Foreign Language University.  He discussed several major stories and disclosed some amazing details that were previously unknown.  Discussion of his talk is "banned" on the Internet in mainland China at this time.

|
PPT: Work Rules for Emergency Situations via Xinhua's reporting on the Yushu earthquake

Xia Lin first provided details of the helicopter crash at the Wenchuan earthquake.  A M-171 transport helicopter from the Chengdu Military District was evacuating earthquake victims on the afternoon of May 31, 2008 when it crashed due to low clouds, heavy fog and turbulent air.  All 18 soldiers on the plane died.  Since there was no black box equipment in the helicopter, the remnants were not located for a long time.  Finally the approximate location was found but the military locked down access.

Xia Lin said that Xinhua reporter Li Ziheng got the assignment.  He "borrowed" military uniform and got past the blockade.  The soldiers even let him help out.  He spent the night with the body bags.  Finally, he went through the forest on foot and obtained authentic photos of the crash scene.  The photos were used by more than 200 media outlets, causing a stir both inside and outside China.

With respect to the 7.5 Xinjiang incident, Xia Lin said that the local Xinjiang government tolerated the murders of Han civilians by certain Uighur rioters.  The Han masses thought that "the government was not helping them" and therefore organized self-defense groups spontaneously.  On July 7, the Han's went after the Uighurs.

He said that there was no problem with driving private cars during those days because the main targets were the public buses.  The Uighurs watched people get on board the buses and then they stopped and toppled the buses.  When the buses were set on fire, the trapped passengers were burned alive.  According to the medical examination results, a number of the dead were tortured and raped.  Some Uighur women and children joined the riots, including women who used their high-heeled shoes to hit Han people.  The body of a Han foot-bather was left lying naked in the street.  When the military took charge, the Uighurs and Han's continued to stand off on opposite sides of the street, separated by "the Wall in Palestine."

At the time Xinhua held back on its reporting.  "Under those circumstances, it would exacerbate ethnic conflicts if more photos are released, resulting in a nationwide siege with irreparable losses."  Therefore, they deliberately reported very little and carefully understated the second wave of conflicts on July 7.

Xia Lin said that the July 7 incident occurred on the third day after the initial riots.  The Han's joined together to take revenge against the Uighur thugs.  Of course, the government will announce that "nobody died."  But the Xinhua reporters were definitely going to be out there.  They skipped the arranged press tour and sneaked into the hospital to take photos of the dead and the injured.

He said that Xinhua considered the incident to be a clash of migrant workers.  Those involved were the lowest social echelons of both sides.  The Xinhua photos showed that most of them only had sticks and poles, they were topless and some had tatoos on their bodies.  Xia Lin said, "Those who were in the streets were people who have nothing."

In reflecting on the causes, Xia Lin said that Chinese society is still in an unstable state.  Most members of society cannot maintain stable lives.  Our society has a pyramid shape, with many more people at the bottom echelon.  If the middle-class who have stable lives are in the majority, they would not want their lives to be disrupted and they would actively maintain the stability.

He also said that after President Hu Jintao received the Xinhua Internal Reference News on July 8, he was worried that this could turn into a full-fledged ethnic conflict.  Therefore, he canceled his overseas trip and returned to China.

On October 15, 2003, Yang Liwei entered space in the Shenzhou 5 space craft launched by the Changzheng 2F rocket.  He was the first Chinese astronaut to enter space.

In his report, Xia Lin said that there was a live worldwide broadcast of Yang Liwei exiting the cabin after Shenzhou 5 returned to earth successfully.  In the video, Yang Liwei appeared to be somewhat pale but physically sound.  He was quickly carried out by a group of workers.  In reality, Yang Liwei had already been cleaned up: when he opened the cabin door, blood was streaming down his face.  The blood was wiped out and then the cabin exit scene was re-filmed.

Xia Lin said that when the space craft landed, rocket thrusts had to be made so that the space craft does not fall to the ground in an uncontrolled acceleration.  This meant that astronauts would be subjected to forces of several G's.  Yang Liwei was injured as a result of those forces.  Also, Yang Liwei was subjected to several subsonic resonance during the take-off.  This could have caused serious damage to his body, possibly even fatal.  Yang Liwei thought that he was going to die.  Yang Liwei reported the design flaws which were corrected in Shenzhou 6.  As such Yang Liwei can be said to be a genuine space hero.

This photo appeared on the front page of Southern Metropolis Daily yesterday.  What is going on?  Why are the four security guards (three uniformed and one in white shirt/dark pants) manhandling the bespectacled man?  Why are they standing next to a fire engine?

The bespectabled man is a news reporter.  On the day before yesterday, there was a fire at the Wanfu Biotechnology Limited Company in Luogang district, Guangzhou city.  When the Southern Metropolis Daily reporter and the Nanfang TV reporter arrived at the scene to cover the incident, they were besieged by security guards.  The photo then made it to the front page of the newspaper yesterday.

Yesterday afternoon, Wanfu Company's Research & Development Operations Director Peng Yunping and Personnel Department manager Liang Yinan admitted that their security guards were at fault.  "We do not deny that they are our security guards.  But everything has a reason."  Peng Yunping said.  "Every one of our workers love our company dearly.  The security guards did it in consideration of the safety of everybody."

Peng Yunping said that the security guards were wrong, and their actions have impacted the physical and mental well-being of the reporters.  She apologized to the reporters involved.  She said that the four security guards involved in the incident have been dismissed, and their names have been sent down to the Luogang District public security bureau.  "I feel bad about dismissing them."  Peng Yunping said.

<Youth Times> (based in Hangzhou city, Zhejiang province> published a cartoon of Guangdong province Communist Party Secretary Wang Yang on May 22.  In this cartoon, Wang Yang has his feet awash in the flood (with his trousers rolled up) and making a bow with his hands folded in front of him.  He is attributed to say: "We must apologize to the masses ..."

The origin of the story was that on May 20, Wang Yang said at a conference about flood control in Guangzhou that big changes in urban construction are often accompanied with "loud criticisms."  Therefore, "the various government departments must apologize sincerely" for causing discontent among citizens.

Mainland Chinese newspapers rarely publish cartoons which feature government officials.  In September 2009, <New Express> (Guangzhou) published a cartoon of "Hu Jintabo moved to tears."  That cartoonist was supposed to have been ordered to cease drawing for a month in order to conduct "self-reflection."

Very few people can draw the attention of a countless number of people in China before even being born like Princess Yao does.  Many people were obsessed with the question of whether she would be born in China or America?  The issue at the heart of everything is if her parents let her be born in America, she would automatically gain American citizenship.

This is a purely private matter.  But the celebrity status of Mr. and Mrs. Yao Ming has made it the focus of public attention, which was then quickly elevated to the extremely sensitive level of patriotism.

We now have the answer.  Princess Yao was born in Houston, USA.  According to news reports, Yao Ming is very much delighted but he is also keeping a very low profile.  He said that this was a "personal" matter and he does not want to comment on the choice of birthplace.  He only wants to keep some space for his family life.

What is the American law with respect to citizen status?

According to the Fourteen Amendment to the American Constitution passed in 1868, "All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside."  It couldn't be simpler than that.

There is no doubt that Princess Yao is a 100% American citizen.  The proof of citizenship is the birth certificate issued by the local government to Mr. and Mrs. Yao Ming for their daughter.

There had been plenty of discussion beforehand.  For example, Yao Ming could turn down the automatic citizenship for her daughter.  Actually, given the experiences of so many people have left China for overseas, this is a delusionary story along the lines of a Chinese scientist returning to China in spite of the offers of money and women by the American government.

American citizenship is not a gift.  Even for a star celebrity such as Yao Ming, his immigration process had to go through a complicated series of steps.  Given that Princess Yao was born in the USA, her legal status could not be easily given up by Mr. and Mrs. Yao.

But those ignorant so-called patriots don't know how to stop.  Someone brought up the case of Wang Zhizhi to remind Yao Ming.  According to legend, Wang Zhizhi chose Chinese citizenship for his American-born son and won a lot of applause.  In truth, America recognizes dual citizenship.  The son of Wang Zhizhi can obtain an American passport anytime that he feels like by presenting his birth certificate.

Nobody can take away the citizenship of an American-born person unless he goes though the formal process of renoucing his citizenship after he/she attains adulthood or he/she is convicted of treason.

From the other side, can those Chinese children born in America -- unless their parents are as famous as Wang Zhizhi or Yao Ming -- really choose Chinese citizenship at will?

According to the regulations of the Chinese Consulate in America, any American-born children whose parents have become American citizens or permanent residents must apply for visas to go to China just like any other foreigners.  Those American-born children whose parents still hold Chinese passports are required to apply for special two-year travel visas in order to enter China.  If they overstay, they may be penalized by the border control department.

Many people wonder why the Consulate just won't simply issue them Chinese passports.  The underlying logic is very simple: if they are issued Chinese passports, they can still apply for an American passport.  Although Chinese law stipulates that all children whose parents are Chinese citizens are automatically Chinese citizens, they are treated as foreign citizens by the Consulate so that they don't have too much freedom.

According to this regulation, Princess Yao cannot obtain a Chinese passport without special permission.  She can only enter China with the ill-defined special "travel visa."  But in order to enter or exit China, she requires a passport on which the "travel visa" is to be stamped.  Her only option will be to use an American passport.

From the post-modernist viewpoint, all the traditional forms of patriotism based upon national boundaries or racial identities are being challenged to an unprecedented degree.  After the 911 incident, America has implemented a series of anti-terrorism measures directed against foreigners.  In the end, America has to admit that terrorists are not classified only by nationality or citizenship -- there are all sorts of dangerous elements among their own citizens already.

Certain Chinese patriots need to update their ideas  They ought to realize that not everybody outside of the national borders are enemies.  They ought to realize that not everybody who criticize China are anti-China hostile forces.  They ought to realize that people who emigrate outside China are not betraying the national interests of China.  Bigoted patriotism is passé.  Patriots ought to pay more attention to the heaps of problems building within China.  Why are people killing others?  Why are people dying?  Why are people jumping off buildings?  Why are people immolating themselves?  They should worry about these problems instead of the non-issue of the nationality of Princess Yao!

Q1. For the Chief Executive election in 2012, the Government now proposes that the representatives of Election Committee should be increased from 800 to 1,200 with around 100 representatives returned through election by elected District Council members from among themselves. Besides, every 150 Committee members can nominate 1 Chief Executive candidate, that is, the nomination threshold is set at the ratio of one-eighth of the total membership of the Election Committee. How much do you support or oppose this proposal?
39%: Support
10%: Half-half
34%: Oppose
16%: Don't know/hard to say

Q2. For the Legislative Council election in 2012, the Government now proposes that there should be 5 more seats of geographical constituencies and 5 more seats of functional constituencies, so the total would be 70 seats. Among them, 6 seats would be returned through election by elected District Council members by proportional representation, while existing functional seats remain unchanged. How much do you support or oppose this proposal?
35%: Support
11%: Half-half
37%: Oppose
16%: Don't know/hard to say

Q3. The Government has announced its political reform proposal for 2012. It is suggested that the Legislative Council (Legco) should pass the proposal so political reform won’t stand still. It is also suggested that the Legco should veto the proposal because it does not mention the roadmap to universal suffrage and the abolition of functional constituencies. Do you think the Legco should pass or veto the proposal?
46%: Pass
37%: Veto
17%: Don't know/hard to say

Q4a. (Only ask registered voters who voted in Legco by-election on May 16; base=338) When did you decide to vote?
15%: On election day
  6%: One to two days before the election
  1%: Three to four days before election
  2%: One week before the election (five to six days before)
  4%: Less than two weeks before the election (seven to thirteen days before)
  5%: About one month before the election (end of nomination on April 8)
  8%: About one and a half month before the election (after start of nomination on April 8)
59%: Since the candidates considered to run in the election, or earlier

Q4b. (Only ask registered voters who did not vote in Legco by-election on May 16; base=492) When did you decide not to vote?
11%: On election day
  5%: One to two days before the election
  1%: Three to four days before election
  3%: One week before the election (five to six days before)
  5%: Less than two weeks before the election (seven to thirteen days before)
  2%: About one month before the election (end of nomination on April 8)
  6%: About one and a half month before the election (after start of nomination on April 8)
67%: Since the candidates considered to run in the election, or earlier

Q5. (Only ask registered voters who did not vote in Legco by-election on May 16; base=492) Why didn’t you vote? Please tell me the best reason.
37%: Election is unnecessary, wasting public resources
15%: Oppose/not support referendum movement
16%: No suitable candidates/no satisfied with candidates' performances
  9%: Not enough time
  5%: Election is useless
  4%: Voting is meaningless
  4%: Away from Hong Kong
  3%: Not interested

Never underestimate Internet users.  As long as they can find a reason to convince themselves, they can evince awesome power.  After analyzing and drawing inferences from the indecent photos of Yan Fengjiao, an Internet user has come to this conclusion: those photos were taken on several occasions based upon the dates shown in the photo's internal information.  Certain details in the background (such as a possible condom pack) were also noted.  The point of these analyses is to overturn Yan Fengjiao's assertion that "she had been forced to pose nude."  Once she was shown to be prevaricating, these analyses are then justified.

According to someone in the photography field, this is one of those private photo sessions popular among photography aficionados.  Most of these private session are called "the artistic photography of natural beauty."  Each session costs 1,500 yuan from which the model gets 700 to 800 yuan.  If true, then the once popular rumor -- that posing nude is an entry requirement to become a model -- is pretty ridiculous.  Those models who pose nude are doing so for the immediate pay and not in order to enter the field.

If Yan Fengjiao could foresee that she was going to be red-hot on a dating program such as <If You Are The One>, would she have taken this assignment?  I don't think so.

But she could not have foreseen that.  She was born in a rural village in Yanbian, Jilin province.  At the age of 9, her land surveyor father died in the line of duty.  Her mother took her into the city and she began to work at a very young age.  Her work resumé showed that she held miscellaneous temporary jobs (such as modeling, cosmetician, etc).  This sort of life caused her to have negative opinions about herself, such as "the bad-luck person," "anyone I sit behind in a mahjong game will lose."

In the entire episode, the part causes people to sign with emotion is not her seeming aplomb in the photos.  Instead, it is the calluses on the bottom of her feet.

These is a common saying among people: "People live part by part."  This means that whenever you come to one part, you say what is pertinent to that part.  When Evita Péron lived in the streets, no one would have the foresight to tell her to behave herself out of consideration of the writer of her biography fifty years later.  When Marilyn Monroe posed for nude photos for USD 50, she could not foresee the trouble that will be caused by those photos.  In the world of Yan Fengjiao, the one with all those calluses on her feet, she could only see the immediate income coming from those photo sessions.  When tomorrow comes, she will need to find a new way to live irrespective of how many landmines her former life has left behind for her.

Internet users are judging Yan Fengjiao according to the standards of entertainment stars.  They demand that she be trustworthy.  In truth, she was not even on the fringes of the entertainment industry.  Her popularity on <If You Are The One> was purely accidental.

If you want to condemn someone over this affair, it is definitely not Yan Fengjiao.  It should be the person who disseminated those photos.  Apart from the fact that disseminating indecent photos is a crime, a "private photo session" implies a contract/agreement.  Publishing those photos is a breach of that contract.  It is all the more vicious when this is done right after she has attained a modicum of popularity.

For Yan Fengjiao, tomorrow has arrived.  But it came so suddenly in a way that she could not foresee.

We hope that she will be strong.

(China Press USA)  May 19, 2010.

Zhai Tiantian is a Chinese graduate student at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, USA.  According to his lawyer Mr. Hai Ming, Zhai was arrested by New Jersey police on May 16.  On that day, Zhai had a verbal dispute with this professor over his work.  No physical altercation took place.  But Zhai Tiantian said something along the lines of "at worst, I will risk anything on the line" and the professor called the campus police.  The campus police arrested Zhai and turned over to the New Jersey police.  Zhai is presently held in Hudson County jail.  He is unable to raise the USD 20,000 bond.

According to the indictment sheet, Zhai Tiantian is facing the serious charge of "terrorism."  Specifically, he attempted to set fire to the campus.  Zhai Tiantian deny ever committing arson, not even making any verbal mention of such act.  On the day of the incident, Stevens Institute of Technology immediately canceled Zhai's student visa.  On the next day, the Immigration and Naturalization Services ordered his arrest.  On the third day, INS issued a deportation order.

Mr. Hai Ming said that America is a nation with freedom of speech.  As such, people cannot be convicted on the basis of what they think or say.  Therefore Zhai's case is wrongly handled.  Zhai has a government-appointed lawyer on the criminal charge and Mr. Henning is handling the immigration part.  The outcome of the criminal case will ultimately determine whether Zhai will be sent back to China.  If convicted, Zhai cannot possibly be allowed to stay in the USA because he is a convicted terrorist.

According to the Chinese Consulate's Overseas Chinese Affairs consul Luo Gang, he has previously handled similar cases in which Chinese students ended up in clashes over verbal expressions or actions.  "Chinese and American cultures are different, so that what the Chinese regard as acceptable speech may be regarded by Americans as threats.  This is an unfortunate incident.  Even though the principal intended no harm, he has done himself a great deal of harm.  We don't want to see that.  The case is in the judicial phase, and we must depend on the lawyers to provide aid to him."

(HSW)

Ms. Wang of Xi'an could never imagine that her son Zhai Tiantian who is studying in the USA could be charged with being a "terrorist" and faced with deportation.  Yesterday our reporter met with the haggard-looking Ms. Wang in Xi'an city.  She said that ever since learning about her son's case, she has been sleepless several nights in a row because she was washing her face with tears.

In mid-May, Ms. Wang received a surprise call from a fellow student of her son.  This female student told her that Zhai Tiantian has been arrested by American police and currently incarcerated in a New Jersey prison.

"It was like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky.  He was studying in the USA, so how can he be arrested?"  Ms. Wang said.

"I don't understand.  My son got into trouble last month.  So far, no organization has informed us about anything.  If not for that fellow female student, we wouldn't even know by now."  Zhai Tiantian's father Zhai Taishan said that the family has not been able to contact his son since the middle of April.  It was as if his son had evaporated into thin air.

According to DWnews, Zhai Tiantian had no relatives in the USA and therefore nobody knew that he was in prison.  In mid-May, he made a collect call to the Chinese Consulate for help, and that was how his case became known.

Our reporter contacted the female student who called Ms. Wang.  According to this student from Taiwan, Zhai Tiantian was arrested after a verbal quarrel with a professor, who thought that Zhai said some threatening things.

In the complaint filed by the Stevens Institute of Technology, Zhai Tiantian was characterized as a "terrorist" because he attempted to set fire to the campus.  The school expelled Zhai, the Immigration and Naturalization Services issued a deportation order and the police arrested him.  Overnight, Zhai Tiantian went from an ordinary overseas Chinese student to a suspected "terrorist" who is endangering homeland security in the USA.

The female student said that "Zhai Tiantian was a bit brash in his quarrel with the professor.  But according to Zhai, he absolutely did not say anything like setting fire to the school."  She said that Zhai Tiantian was a good student who got along with his fellow students.  They like this young and smart Chinese student.  She does not understand how he could be a "terrorist."

(Zuolizi's blog)

... The American government and people have always regarded themselves as the standard bearers for the freedoms of expression and religious belief.  Undeniably, America is better here than many other nations.  But this does not mean that America is above and beyond reproach, nor does it mean that America is actually able to realize the freedoms that they talk about.

For example, the American government and people say that freedoms of expression and religious belief are universal values.  Yet, the US Immigration and Naturalization Services' regulations excluded entry by persons who have advocated Communism.  (Reportedly, the regulations no longer say so even though the principle continues to be operational.)  American citizens have the right to advocate and believe in Communism and the Communist Party is a legal political party in the USA.  Americans can do it but others cannot.  What does this say?  This means that the American government does not think that the freedoms of expression and religious belief are universal values.  Alternately, the American government thinks outsiders should not enjoy the freedoms that American citizens have.

After the 911 incident, American society has clearly rolled back on the freedoms of expression and religious belief.  On October 26, 2001, President George W. Bush signed the USA Patriot Act which was passed by a bipartisan majority in Congress.  Thereafter, speech can be labeled "terrorism."  The case of Zhai Tiantian is not the first and it won't be the last.

What is terrorism?  According to Wikipedia:

Terrorism is, in the most general sense, the systematic use of terror especially as a means of coercion. At present, the International community has been unable to formulate a universally agreed, legally binding, criminal law definition of terrorism. Common definitions of terrorism refer only to those violent acts which are intended to create fear (terror), are perpetrated for an ideological goal, and deliberately target or disregard the safety of non-combatants (civilians).

Some definitions also include acts of unlawful violence and war. The history of terrorist organizations suggests that they do not select terrorism for its political effectiveness.Individual terrorists tend to be motivated more by a desire for social solidarity with other members of their organization than by political platforms or strategic objectives, which are often murky and undefined.

The word "terrorism" is politically and emotionally charged, and this greatly compounds the difficulty of providing a precise definition. Studies have found over 100 definitions of “terrorism”. The concept of terrorism may itself be controversial as it is often used by state authorities to delegitimize political or other opponents, and potentially legitimize the state's own use of armed force against opponents (such use of force may itself be described as "terror" by opponents of the state.). A less politically and emotionally charged, and more easily definable, term is violent non-state actor (though the semantic scope of this term includes not only "terrorists," while excluding some individuals or groups who have previously been described as "terrorists").

Terrorism has been practiced by a broad array of political organizations for furthering their objectives. It has been practiced by both right-wing and left-wing political parties, nationalistic groups, religious groups, revolutionaries, and ruling governments. One form is the use of violence against noncombatants for the purpose of gaining publicity for a group, cause, or individual.

My reaction after reading the above: slippery as an eel and impossible to nail down.  Anyone who says the wrong thing in haste, especially foreigners, may be framed up as "a terrorist" by patriots or villains.  Chinese people are familiar with this sort of thing through the term "counter-revolutionary."

How will the Zhai Tiantian case end?  Hard to predict.

But no matter what the outcome is, it is a cautionary tale.  For whom?  Everybody.  But especially for those America worshippers who naively, honestly, stubbornly and foolishly think that America's freedoms of speech and religious belief have no national borders, no restrictions, no intolerance and no limits.

Follow-up:

Parents shocked at arrest of student over ‘terrorist threat’  Fool's Mountain, 2010/05/25
US College Confirms Threat from Chinese Student  China Daily, 2010/05/26

Here are my latest findings:

1. According to the electronic dates on the photos, Wave 1 was dated May 31 and Waves 2 and 3 were dated June 7, also known as the Xiao Jiao-Xiao Wan series.

2. According to the statement from Yan Fengjiao, one series of her photos was taken on May 31.  On June 7, another series was taken in the presence of two females and four photographers.  In this new series, there were at least four persons who are visible.  So it seemed that Yan Fengjiao did not lie.  But was this nude photo session taken under the threat of physical violence?  The police will have to decide.


The faces of two of the men are visible.
The legs of three men are visible in this bed scene with Xiao Wan and Xiao Jiao.


Three cameras as visible in this photo.

3. At least one male photographer has not yet been identified.  This man wears blue jeans and basketball shoes.  Based upon the shape, the legs belong to a man.  There is also a man wearing three-quarter pants and a green-white shirt.  Who is that?  A passerby?  A photographer?


The legs of a fourth man (wearing blue jeans) are visible in this photo.

4.  There is a third female appearing in the Wave 2 photos.  She is decent looking and appears only twice.  She may be a photographer's assistant, or a friend of one of the photographers.  Based upon the back alone, she has been identified as the artistic nude model Bing Bing, who is featured in the Wave 3 photos.


Bing Bing was sitting by herself during the Xiao Wan-Xiao Jiao series

5. In one of the bathroom photos of Yan Fengjiao, there is a blue condom package in the wastebasket!

6. Xiao Wan appears to be even more open than Yan Fengjiao and is willing to assume a greater variety of poses.  According to MOP netizens, Xiao Wan is Jiang Qingwan and not Zhang Wanyou as formerly supposed.  According to Internet information, she is a student, 161cm tall, 40 kg weight, 76cm-59cm-82cm body measurements, participated in China Joy 2008.  She wants to be a cosmetician and she has a boyfriend already.  What is he thinking now?

7. Xiao Wan and Xiao Jiao engaged in lesbian poses.  They are not lesbians, so this only shows that the photographers are perverts!  There is nothing they wouldn't fucking shoot!

8. There are clear bruise marks on the back of Yan Fengjiao?  Was she beaten or what?  This is unkonwn.

Earlier this week, a netizen pointed to a Facebook photo of a dog and made an accusation at a discussion forum against a female student for first beating the animal to death and then posting the photo.  The title of the post was "Public animal cruelty on Facebook; bristling with anger at a 90's person."

This particular post contained no detailed evidence, so that it is impossible to verify anything.  Nevertheless, a large number of netizens left comments and criticized the female student for mistreating the dog.  They also published the Facebook page and photographs of this girl.  They even set up a special Facebook group to expose the girl (including her email and school name).  Within three days, this Facebook group attracted 11,000 persons to sign up.

The Internet attacks deeply vexed the girl.  A teacher from the school told our reporter that the girl has been staying home for the past two days because she was distressed.  The school has sent a social worker to her home to provide counseling for her.

The teacher emphasized that the school immediately followed up on the matter as soon as they found out.  They asked the owner of the dog to explain what happened.  They found out that the whole matter was fictional.  The girl had patted the dog accidentally at one time, but the dog suffered no injuries.  Several weeks later the dog passed away.  The netizen connected the two separate events and made up a causal relationship (that is, the girl killed the dog).  The teacher said helplessly: "After the principal figured out the truth, he provided the explanation on the Internet.  But the principal became the target of more attacks himself!  At present, the school only wants to handle the matter in a low profile way.  We don't dare to draw any more attention to us."

The teacher stressed that this was clearly a case of cyber bullying.  The teachers will emphasize Internet education in class and teach the students to be cautious about what they say on the Internet.

Here is the photo and some associated comments:


May 10 20:34 Yan Yan: I fucking remember that "Tiantian fucking kill it."
May 10 20:47 Yingying Tang: Are you sure that I fucking killed it?
May 11 20:31 Amon Leung: -.-
May 11 21:49 Yan Yan: I am fucking sure that it got the shit beaten out of it
Yesterday 21:26 Kae Chan: You have to nerve to surface?
Three hours ago: ChAn ChIu: Hey, that means that Tiantian was not killed.  He was beaten until green-colored shit came out.  It is not dead yet.

(MOP)

Before the story of the sexy photos of <If You Are The One> guest Yan Fengjiao has even died down, now comes another set of sexy photos from <If You Are The One> former guest Ma Nuo.

Now Ma Nuo is probably the most famous of the female guests on the show because of her posture as the golddigger with the poison tongue with which she used to humiliate the male candidates ("You're too poor!"  "You're too ugly").

Here are the sexy photos, whose fuzziness suggest that they are probably screen captures from a video.

According to the MOPPER who posed this photo, the resemblance of this woman with Ma Nuo is at least 99%.

Ma Nuo says that she has seen these photos and insisted that she is not that person.  She is very angry with this rumor.  She says that she will not participate in any such promotional gimmick and that she will consider taking legal action against the propagators.

Ma Muo then announced that she has identified the female in the photos as the Japanese AV actress named Yuria Satomi 里美ゆりあ (aka 小泉彩).

Here is a video from this Japanese AV actress Rio ゆりあ.

And this is a screen capture from that video.  What do you think?

[ESWN comment:  Should these semi-nude pixelated photos be displayed so prominently on the front page of this website?  Let me put it this way -- they are being displayed prominently on a major Chinese website (MOP) where it has already garnered more than one million page views and several thousand comments.  Well, I don't think that this website should be more prudish than the supposedly censored/repressed Chinese Internet.  If they can do it, why can't I?]

Since this year, ten Foxconn workers have jumped out of buildings.  This cluster of similar incidents has caused certain Foxconn workers to become agitated, vowing to call for a general strike on June 1.  In addition, this cluster has also lead to a "conspiracy theory" whereby someone is suspected of "telling people to jump off buildings in order to guarantee the future for their families."

On the Internet, there is a new corporate logo for Foxconn consisting of penguins jumping off a cliff one after another.  Foxconn has initiated a series of preventative measures, such as rewards for reporting suspected cases, psychological counseling, etc.  They even asked workers to sleep while holding the hands of those in adjacent beds in the dormitories.  But this could not prevent the "tenth" incident from taking place yesterday.

According to a certain "conspiracy theory," the cause of the suicide cluster dates back to an incident in 2009.  When Foxconn made a shipment of iPhone's to Apple, the number of shipped items did not match up with the number of items actually received.  Everything pointed to a lower-middle manager named Sun Danyong, who committed suicide because he could not cope with the pressure.  Afterwards, Foxconn and his family reached an agreement by which Foxconn agreed to pay a one-time-only compensation of 360,000 yuan plus 30,000 yuan in spending money per year for the rest of the lives of Sun's parents.

Afterwards, there began discussions on the Internet that "If you want to commit suicide, you should join Foxconn because you will provide for your whole family" and "If you want to die, you should die in Foxconn." 

When the eighth case of the female worker named Zhu took place on May 11, Foxconn shouldered the moral responsibility even though the worker had committed suicide over personal emotional problems.  According to information, Foxconn gave Zhu's family at least 100,000 yuan, thus reinforcing the rumor that "Foxconn will provide for the surviving family."  So could it be that these suicides are occurring at Foxconn because of the known policies there?


Deleted Internet post calling for June 1st strike at Foxconn

According to the Ministry of Education, 25% of university students have contemplated suicide with half of them suffering from possible depression.  According to the Beijing Psychological Crisis Research Center, 287,000 persons commit suicide in China each year with another 2 million attempting suicides but failing.  That would suggest that the cluster of suicides/attempted suicides may not be so hard to understand.

(Note: Is 287,000 suicides per year high?  That's about 20 suicides per 100,000 persons which would be high but not the highest (behind Belarus, Lithuania, Russia, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Japan, Guyana, Ukraine, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Hungary, see Wikipedia).)

After the first airing of the Jiangsu TV reality show <Locked Room Therapy>, the Internet was flushed with criticisms and praises.  Some netizens believed that <Locked Room Therapy> was perceptive and accurate in its analysis of psychological problems at a time when the Chinese people are paying attention to the lack of psychological support in the face of the many social problems.  But there are other netziens who believed that this new show is diametrically opposite to the hit Jiangsu TV dating show <If You Are The One>.  Whereas <If You Are The One> brought happiness and laughter, <Locked Room Therapy> was bloodcurdling and terrifying.  Worst yet, the show advertised the process as taking place in a "locked room" but it was actually revealing the personal problems of the participants in front of millions of viewers.

As the title suggests, <Locked Room Therapy> involves psychological healing inside a locked room.  This design was recommended by a team of psychologists who said that people are more likely to reveal their problems and feelings in the absence of an audience (just like the confessional box in a church).  But this so-called "isolation" is a joke because the television camera was bringing the event to millions of television households outside.  One netizen said: "Such a program cannot possibly protect the privacy of the participants.  Jiangsu TV is actually using the 'locked room' concept to satisfy the voyeuristic cravings of the audience."  These participants may have wanted to get on <Locked Room Therapy> to seek emotional catharsis to relieve their inner pressures.  Instead they will likely to face even greater psychological pressures after the program mercilessly exposed their personal issues.  Is this healing or exacerbating their problems?  What if the pressure gets to them and they resort to drastic actions?

Previously, netizens have already called the pre-release promotional video a "horror movie preview."  Afterwards most netizens found the first episode to be terrifying, intimidating and eerie.  "I was scared to watch the show from the very beginning.  When the snake was placed in front of the female participant who has a phobia about snakes, I immediately switched channels."  Another netizen said: "Many people, especially females, are scared of snakes.  But snakes showed up multiple times during the show.  Even if you did not have a psychological problem before, you may have one after watching the show!"

During the premiere show, the participant Wang Li threw up while being treated for her phobia about snakes.  With the eerie music in the background, the audience found it uncomfortable and oppressive.  Another participant Xiang Zhonghai told about her sense of loss with respect to her deceased daughter.  Meanwhile, the four screens in the back showed the Wenchuan earthquake and the photo of his pretty daughter.  A netizen wrote: "I had nightmares several nights in a row after watching <Locked Room Therapy>.  The program was too brutal and direct.  The scenes were bloodcurdling, leaving viewers terrified.  I hope that future episodes won't be so scary."

Our reporter interviewed <Locked Room Therapy> producer Jing Xiaoji.  "Programs like <Locked Room Therapy> are commonplace overseas.  The Chinese people are too reserved and unwilling to air their problems.  This is why their psychological problems are getting more severe."  The producer said, "We cannot give up eating for fear of choking.  We must address these psychological problems directly.  The reason why we came up with a program like <Locked Room Therapy> is precisely to make psychological problems better understood and relieved so that people can lead healthy and happy lives."  As for the privacy issue, the producer said that they protect the participants via anonymity and cosmetic disguises.

Although <Locked Room Therapy> has been heaped with abuses, the majority of the reactions has been positive.  Jing Xiaoji said that many viewers called in to say that they have the psychological problems shown on the program and they feel better now knowing that other people share those problems.

 

May 19, 13:50:17:  Two men on the motorcycle passed in front of a surveillance camera.  They went on for twenty to thirty meters, turned around and suddenly snatched the handbag from a female pedestrian.  They accelerated and made a right turn to disappear from sight.

13:50:30: The two men swung around the corner and came in front of another surveillance camera.  The woman was in pursuit and crying out for help.  Seven or eight men holding stools, rods, brooms and even a large cardboard carton move up to the men.  The motorcycle passenger took out a shiny machete and started swinging.  Seeing passage blocked, the motorcylist turned around and headed back where he came from.

13:50:56: A man in a red shirt saw the robbers returning his way.  He grabbed a red plastic stool and dashed up to knock the passenger on the motorcycle down.  The passenger ran away on foot.

13:51:13:  The motorcycle ran straight into a white van and the driver fell down on the ground.  The passenger swung his machete wildly while his companion lifted up the motorcycle and tried to restart it.  Two uniformed security guards and a dozen others surrounded the two.  More and more people joined in.  They held "weapons" such as chairs, rods and brooms. 

13:51:40: Just as the two sides seemed to be in a stalemate, a man in white knocked down the machete wielder with a black office chair.  As soon as the other people saw that, they rushed up and hammered the two robbers with their "weapons."  The two robbers were eventually subdued.


Motorcycle passenger snatched the LV purse from a woman


The red "knight" arrives with a plastic stool in hand


The red "knight" with the stool, the blue "knight" with the broom,
the crimson "knight" with the large cardboard carton

 

On the evening of May 16, the 23-year-old female Chinese student Yao Yu was raped and murdered by a Mexican man in Flushing, New York City.  According to the surveillance video, 28-year-old Carlos Salazar Cruz hit Yao Yu in the head with a metal pipe and then dragged her into the parking space of a residential building.  He sexually assaulted her and hit her again with the metal pipe.  Several pedestrians saw what was happening but they turned and left without offering assistance to Yao.  Someone did call the police, who arrested the apparently intoxicated suspect.

Yao has been pronounced brain dead by the hospital.  She is being kept on life support so that her parents can travel to see her for one last time.

This incident was reported in various media inside and outside of China.  The responses manage to highlight the vile aspects of certain Chinese people.

Firstly, the surveillance video showed that there were a number Chinese persons around the scene of the incident.  These people observed the assault and did nothing.  The only decent person was the one who called the police who managed to apprehend the perpetrator.  These Chinese persons are scum!

Secondly, we see the usual group in China who don't care about the facts but only want to exploit a tragedy for fun.  Here are some of the disgusting and acrimonious comments over at the NetEase Forum:

-- (Shenzhen, Guangdong)
For doting and fawning on foreigners, she deserves to be raped

-- 60.28.*.* (Tiantsin)
You stupid cunts all want to go to the so-called paradise known as America.  This is going to put a halt to that.


-- 117.136.*.* (China mobile phone user)
She is so lucky to be screwed by a foreigner.

-- 121.32.*.* (Tianhe, Guangzhou)
It is better and safer overseas because the police comes when there is an incident.

-- IP unknown (NetEast's Mars Forum)
At least they catch the murderer overseas.  In China it is not certain if he could be caught; even if caught he could be mentally incompetent; even if mentally competent he could get off with paying a bit of money.

-- 59.32.*.* (Shaoguan, Guangdong)
Maybe the girl had too thick of a northeastern accent when she cried out for help

-- 124.72.*.* (Fuzhou, Fujian)
The crime rate may be high in America but their police fight criminals.  In China, the police abet criminals.  This is a qualitative difference.

-- 59.151.*.* (Beijing)
In China, we have no interest in raping foreigners.  Too (whatever)!  Who has heard of a foreign woman being raped in the middle of the street!  This is an issue of morality and quality!

-- 120.6.*.* (Langfang, Hebei)
Ha ha ha!  He must have used too much force and caused her to die.

-- (Panyu, Guangdong)
Another daughter of a corrupt government official bites the dust!

-- 61.191.*.* (Hefei, Anhui)
An overseas students with an ordinary family background.  Ha ha, I sneer.  This is how it ends.

-- (Changsha, Hunan)
May your mother, your grandmother, your wife and your daughter all be raped and murdered too!
May your father, your grandfather and you all be anally raped and murdered!
Anyway, may your whole family die!
Are you happy now, you bastard!

-- 114.83.*.* (Qingpu, Shanghai)
I ought to have a couple more bowls of rice today!  Ha ha, it is great to rape and murder!  I support you!!!!

-- (Chengdu, Sichuan)
Sigh, let everybody see the quality of Shanghai people! I find it hard to offer praise!

-- (Shanghai)
You better off dead.  You thought you will be better than us because you went to America?  I hope that all female compatriots overseas get raped and murdered!  Ha ha ha ...

-- (Jinan, Shandong)
This is the first time that I ever cursed anyone at NetEase.  To the several Shanghai persons above: I fuck your eight generations of ancestors.  Bastards!

Other Chinese websites such as Sina, QQ, Sohu, Tianya etc are filled with similar kinds of talk.

I am not a Chinese living overseas.  Nobody from my family has ever gone to study overseas.  I am not speaking up for overseas Chinese students.  In truth, some of these overseas students are the children of corrupt government officials and crooked business people.  Everybody can see that.  But not all overseas Chinese students come from that kind of family background.   I have met many overseas Chinese students whose family background are plain and ordinary just like Yao Yu.  Like the hundreds of millions of migrant workers in China, they choose to go to a different environment to realize their dreams.  In that sense, these young people are nothing special in terms of rights and privileges.

Whether out of red-eyed jealousy or some other repulsive motive, some Chinese people will pound on the keyboard and unleash a torrent of vile words to insult the dead.  The conscience of these people must have been eaten by dogs!  If you have children who should ever encounter the same situation, the same vile words will be waiting to greet you. 

If these sick people should ever be offered to go to live in a developed country for free, they will probably fight their way to go.  When President Clinton visited China, a female university student posed some sharp question and won applause all around.  What happened next?  This girl graduated and went as quickly as possible to America, the country which she had criticized severely as a so-called patriot.  There are plenty of such Chinese persons.

Whenever a tragedy occurs, we see the bottom lines of where the universal values of morality and conscience lie.  The first thing that comes through is humanity which exists across national borders.  But certain Chinese persons have no humanity.  Those at the scene heard the cries of help from the victim but they turned away unmoved.  Those on the Internet exploit the tragedy of others to impose their interpretations and use irresponsible talk to hurt the survivors.  I am deeply embarrassed by the fact that they are Chinese!

When their own rights and interests are violated, these disgusting Chinese persons scream and holler.  Those Chinese persons should not complain about their second-class status overseas.  Those evil Chinese Internet commentators should not complain that people despise them.  Since you are so callous towards your compatriots, why should anyone esteem you! 

 


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