Social Cause 01 (Jul 08 - Jul 15)

[winston]

China activists dead in custody: rights groups

AFP - At least two activists died in custody before or during China's Communist Party congress and tens of thousands had their movements restricted, rights groups said Monday.

CHRD -- a nationwide network of activists in China who compile reports of human rights violations -- said Zhang Yaodong, a petitioner from Henan province, was beaten to death in police custody in the capital on November 5.

On Thursday last week, Chen Chengxiang, a petitioner from Hubei province, set herself on fire in protest over local corruption in front of the Beijing office that houses the UN Commission on Human Rights, the group said.

Another campaign group, the Hong Kong-based Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy, said Xu Wanxia, 53, a petitioner from the eastern province of Anhui, was detained by police in Beijing on November 8 and pronounced dead in Anhui six days later.

The group said hundreds of petitioners, Christian activists and rights lawyers were also targeted during the crackdown, adding that "up to 100,000 people" had been affected according to "conservative estimates".

Social unrest in China has risen markedly in recent years with an estimated 180,000 protests in 2011 over a wide range of issues including corruption, government land grabs, police brutality and social welfare, studies show.

To counter the instability, China allocated $111 billion this year for "stability maintenance", exceeding the nation's declared defence budget.

http://www.france24.com/en/20121119-chi ... hts-groups

[winston]

Jailed dissenter freed after outcry

Authorities yesterday released a village official sent to a labor camp for criticizing the Communist Party after his case prompted anger against controls on speech and the labor camp system.

Ren Jianyu's treatment in the southwestern municipality of Chongqing generated a storm of criticism from internet users and even state media, as well as reviving debate over freedom of speech and the much-maligned "re-education through labor" system.

Ren, 25, was sentenced in September 2011 to two years in a labor camp for posting online messages that called for the downfall of the party's "dictatorship." Ren Shilin confirmed the release and described the spirits of his son as "quite fragile."

The outcry over the case came as Beijing looks to reform the system, which empowers police and other agencies to detain people for up to four years without a court process.


Source: REUTERS

[winston]

Thousands of Chinese Protest, Smash Police Cars By LOUISE WATT

Thousands of residents protested in a southeastern Chinese city after a traffic accident, smashing police cars and overturning three police vans, police and residents said.

One resident said people became angry because police and paramedics took nearly an hour to arrive to help the injured, while a Hong Kong-based human rights group said it was to do with corruption.

People are fed up with corruption and high-handed officialdom, pensions that have not kept pace with inflation, and families being forced from their homes to make way for developments.

"About 10,000 to 20,000 onlookers became angry because police officers and paramedics took nearly one hour to arrive," said Lin.

He estimated that 1,000 to 2,000 people clashed with police and overturned three police vans.

Later Sunday, the propaganda department of Fuan's Communist Party committee put out a statement countering accusations police and paramedics had been slow to respond.

The Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy , said about 10,000 people clashed with police, and that 10 police vehicles had been smashed, three overturned and 20 people injured.

The scenes were triggered by the local police corruption, the center said in a faxed statement that didn't cite any sources.

It alleged that Fuan's traffic police were illegally registering license plates to vehicles from outside their jurisdiction for 50,000 yuan ($8,000) and that local residents suspected the sedan had such a license.

http://abcnews.go.com/International/wir ... s-17751059

[winston]

Hero of milk scandal dies

The man who first alerted authorities about melamine-tainted milk powder in mainland dairy companies has died, barely two weeks after he was attacked by unidentified men in Xi'an city.

Jiang Weisuo, 44, was an operator of a dairy company in Shaanxi province. He was assaulted on November 2 after attending a company meeting.

A suspect has been detained, but the motive of the attack remains unclear, mainland media said.

Unconfirmed reports claimed Jiang had been fatally injured by paid killers.

In 2006, Jiang reported the illegal activities of local dairy companies to the police, such as putting chemicals and additives into their milk products.

His reports were ignored by the authorities until the dairy industry was rocked by the scandal in 2008, as they discovered that dairy farmers and dealers had been adding melamine into raw milk to boost its nitrogen content and pass tests that measure protein levels.

Jiang was hailed by the media for exposing the scandal when it emerged that melamine- tainted milk powder killed at least six babies and left more than 290,000 others with kidney damage.

Many dairy companies were consequently shut down by the government.

State-owned Sanlu was one of the 22 dairy firms found to have the industrial chemical melamine, usually used in plastics and glue, in their milk products.

Xi'an police confirmed the arrest of a suspect but would not say whether Jiang was assaulted by paid killers.

Source: The Standard HK

[winston]

Dissident slams Chinese politicians' 'dirty wealth'

Chinese dissident writer Liao Yiwu accused China's political elite of accumulating "dirty wealth", saying it had turned his country into "one of the biggest landfills in the world."

http://www.france24.com/en/20121130-dis ... rty-wealth

[winston]

US flays jailing of Chen kin

Beijing defended its human rights record after the United States slammed the jailing of the nephew of blind activist Chen Guangcheng and voiced concerns over the government's policy in Tibet.

Chen, who was jailed for four years after exposing abuses under the "one child" policy, caused a diplomatic row in April when he escaped house arrest in his Shandong village and reached the US embassy where he sought asylum.

As he was allowed to leave for New York, government officials and police descended on his home, prompting his nephew Chen Kegui to attack them with a kitchen knife, wounding three people.

He was sentenced to three years and three months on Friday in what the US State Department called a "deeply flawed legal process."

But the foreign ministry said: "The legitimate rights and interests of relevant personnel have been duly protected.

"We express strong dissatisfaction with [the] gross interference in China's internal affairs and absolutely cannot accept this."

The State Department called the conviction a violation of internationally accepted human rights norms.

"We are deeply disturbed about reports that Chen Kegui was tried and convicted in a legal proceeding that lacked basic due process guarantees," spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

"He was convicted in a summary trial in which he was not fully represented by legal counsel of his choosing. He didn't have an opportunity to present his own defense. So this was a deeply flawed legal process."

She also said the families of three of the over 80 Tibetans who set themselves alight since 2009 to protest Beijing's rule met last week with Assistant Secretary of State Mike Posner, who voiced "deepest condolences" and "grave concern for the spiraling violence and harsh crackdown in Tibetan areas."

Washington is also "concerned about rising tensions that result from counterproductive policies, including those that limit freedom of religion, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and association in Tibet," Nuland said.

The ministry in Beijing said the meeting further marked "gross interference in China's internal affairs" and insisted that people in Tibet are "leading happy and peaceful lives."

Source: AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

[winston]

Police clash with thousands of rioters in China

AFP - Police in a south China city bordering Vietnam clashed with thousands of rioters who were protesting against excessive brutality meted out to a suspected smuggler, the government and a rights group said.

The incident occurred Friday in Dongxing city in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, with rioters destroying numerous police and border patrol vehicles and clashing with security forces, local police said in microblog postings.

http://www.france24.com/en/20121208-pol ... ters-china

[winston]

Rare protest in capital against new rail

Beijing authorities allowed a rare protest to take place yesterday against a new high speed rail line, with about 300 demonstrators shouting slogans in a busy eastern suburb.

Residents were concerned the new line from Beijing to the northeastern city of Shenyang would run too close to their apartments and local schools, causing excess noise and electromagnetic radiation.

They also complained the government had refused to listen to their concerns and accused them of faking an environmental impact assessment.

"I only knew this line was planned two weeks ago when I got a letter from the government thanking me for my support," said a woman protester named Zhang. "But neither I nor any of the other residents support this. They are inventing things."

Police allowed the largely middle-class protesters to march down a main road, where they briefly blocked an intersection, shouting "down with the high speed line" and "change the route." They peacefully dispersed later in the afternoon.

The stability-obsessed Communist Party is wary of any protests, especially in the capital, and often detain demonstrators or break up protests before they reach critical mass. It worries that the tens of thousands of sporadic protests could coalesce into a national movement and threaten its control.


Source: REUTERS

[winston]

China Officials Apologize to Reporter Beaten in Pollution Story

Provincial authorities apologized to a China Central Television journalist who was beaten up while reporting a story about pollution at a paper mill, the state-run Global Times newspaper said today.

Zhao Xi was attacked Jan. 9 after he went to film illegal pollution emissions at the mill in Yueyang in southern Hunan province, the newspaper reported. Two employees at the mill were arrested and local officials visited Zhao to apologize, it said.

The local government held an emergency meeting after the attack and ordered an investigation into the pollution allegations, according to the newspaper. It said Zhao suffered “slight injuries” to his forehead.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-01-1 ... story.html

[winston]

The Stand Aloners by Stuart Wilde

To contradict accepted beliefs or official propaganda is to stand alone, totalitarianism goes after the thinkers, intellectuals and journalists first. It is estimated that 300 journalists in Russia have been murdered or they have disappeared since the early 1990s. SEE HERE

Truth has few friends in a world of state-sponsored gangsters. The child that pointed out that the emperor had no clothes, probably got slung in jail and they tortured his teddy bear and shipped him to Guantanamo Bay.

It takes bravery to stand for truth and then to remain silent condemns you spiritually, because you are colluding with evil, tacitly condoning it.

If you embrace the truth you will never really walk alone as the Gods are behind you, but in the real world you may face antagonism and hate.

All my working life I’ve faced closed doors and icy glares, but I’ve found a warmth with my readers, who have kept me going by word of mouth. In the end the word of mouth became vast. The open door offers an icy chill that I don’t need.

Walking Alone You Stil Stand Tall

With the advent of the Internet, the state control of information was lost. The truth is everywhere now, hundreds of millions of pages of it. It’s refreshing, for while truth is a needle in the eye of tyrants, it may not ever bring them down. Other forces will come.

http://www.stuartwilde.com/2013/01/the-stand-aloners/