China Press

(Below is the whole article copied from here.)

Sun Oct 21, 2007 2:03am EDT

HONG KONG (Reuters) - Hundreds of Buddhist monks, celebrating a U.S. award for the Dalai Lama, clashed with police for four days in the capital of Tibet, the far-west Himalayan region of China, a Hong Kong newspaper said on Sunday.

China, which reviles the Dalai Lama as a separatist, has angrily denounced the award of the Congressional Gold Medal as a "farce" that would hurt relations between Beijing and Washington.

After the clash, about 1,100 monks and dozens of visitors were not allowed to leave the Zhaibung monastery in Lhasa which was surrounded by 3,000 armed police, the Ming Pao newspaper said.

It did not say if there had been any arrests or injuries, but there had also been clashes at a nearby monastery and police had set up checkpoints on the main roads in the area.

It gave no further details.

Tibet has been ruled by China since communist troops invaded in 1950, and the government deals harshly with Tibetans who press for greater political and religious freedom.

U.S. President George W. Bush awarded the Dalai Lama the medal on Wednesday and called on China to open talks with him.

Jumping a queue, spitting, littering and loudly clearing one's throat in public are some of the frequently observed bad habits that are giving Chinese travelers a bad reputation, according to the Spiritual Civilization Steering Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, the official etiquette watchdog.
> The government is hoping to use the Olympics to help its citizens get more civilized.
> To reduce queue jumping, the municipal government has set the 11th day of each month as the "queuing day", urging citizens to stand in line to get on bus, subway or buying tickets.
> During the week-long May day holiday this year, more than 50 people in Beijing have been fined up to 50 yuan (about US$6.7) for spitting.
More here.

More than 225,000 people were evacuated in the Hainan province due to the severe tropical storm caused by typhoon Lekima. Most of the evacuees were fishermen and the occupants of unstable buildings. The typhoon has left for Vietnam. More here and here.

Confucian organizations in Shandong Province in East China are proposing that Confucius quotes greet the visitors. "The quotes include "When a friend comes from afar, is that not delightful?", "All men are brothers", "Do to others as you would be done by", "Virtue is not left to stand alone. He who practises it will have neighbors", and "In carrying our rites, it is harmony that is prized." More here.

Zi Beijia, a Chinese reporter who fabricated a TV news saying that Beijing dumpling makers used cardboard as a filling, was Sunday sentenced to one year behind bars with a fine of 1,000 yuan for the crime of "infringing commodity reputation". More here.

An article about how Chinese entrepreneurs are getting into Chinese politics even without being members of the party. The party's interest is that it has enough influence over the thinking of this 'new social class' and that it motivates this class to be incorporated into at least local level politics. A typical interlink between politics and business.

Excerpts:

The "new social stratum" includes private entrepreneurs, technicians and managerial-level staff in private or foreign-funded companies, the self-employed and employees in intermediate organizations.

It is estimated that the "new social stratum" consists of 50 million such professionals, who possess or manage capital totaling 10 trillion yuan (US$1.3 trillion), according to the UFWD.

"Through the class, we inform and publicize the new policies and guidelines of the CPC to the new social stratum, learn their thinking, and discover, train and select candidates to form a talent contingent outside the CPC," Lin says.

Private entrepreneurs are trying to win elections for village committee heads, deputies of people's congresses and members of political advisory bodies.

The most outstanding representatives are Wan Gang, Minister of Science and Technology, and Chen Zhu, Minister of Health, who were the first non-Communist cabinet appointments since the 1970s when China launched its economic reform and opening up, Zhen says.The most outstanding representatives are Wan Gang, Minister of Science and Technology, and Chen Zhu, Minister of Health, who were the first non-Communist cabinet appointments since the 1970s when China launched its economic reform and opening up, Zhen says.

An illusion called 'greater Tibet area'

A Chinese interpretation of Dalai Lama's vision and goal of "greater Tibet area" and his alleged reasons for claiming this area. The article shows misinterpretation of history, and mainly accuses Dalai Lama of an attempt to get rid of other than Tibetan ethnic groups (referred to as "ethnic cleansing") and pleasing 'foreign bosses'.

Excerpts:

The Dalai Lama, however, has been insisting on the establishment of a political entity in Tibetan-inhabited areas to build an "alliance" relationship with China, requiring all other ethnic groups to move out of the so-called "greater Tibet area" and millions of people to give up their ancestral homes.

This is not only an attempt to change the current relation between the central and the local government, but also a move to implement ethnic discrimination and ethnic cleansing. We must learn from the slaughters and bloodshed caused by ethnic conflicts and disputes the world over.

Then why does the Dalai Lama insist on this groundless and impossible concept of "greater Tibet area"? There are at least two reasons. One is that many of the Tibetan people exiled with the Dalai Lama in 1959 are from Tibetan areas outside the Tibet Autonomous Region. The Dalai Lama needs to set a common illusion of "a united, independent and free Tibet" to buy these people's support. The other reason is that the claim was designed by their foreign bosses and they, as their flunkies, dare not disobey it.

The Dalai Lama and his followers in his "government in exile" have often expressed their recognition of the Simla Conference. Therefore, the so-called "greater Tibet area" in essence is "semi-independent" or in "disguised independence", which aims to serve the open and complete "Tibet Independence" and disunite a quarter of China's territory in future.

But the Dalai Lama and his alike do not really understand that the political claims they make against historical development and reality to please their foreign bosses, no matter under what splendid banners, are only "medieval fantasies" that go against the time and the interests of Tibetan people as well as people of all ethnic groups in China. The Chinese government will not be fooled!

Comfortable housing and happy lives of Tibetan farmers and herders

..See how Chinese read Tibet in full in here.

White Paper on Tibet including many documents on human rights and minorities in China is here.

Door of dialogue open to Dalai Lama if he gives up 'Tibet independence': Premier

Premier Wen Jiabao said on Friday that the door of consultation and dialogue on the personal future of the Dalai Lama is always open if he truly gives up his pursuit of "Tibet independence."

"We need to observe what he says, and more importantly, we also need to watch what he does. I hope the Dalai Lama will be able to make contributions and do more things that are conducive to national unity and the development of Tibet," Wen said.

The whole article is here.

A ceremony to honor the intangible cultural heritages at both provincial and national level.

Shaolin Kungfu was among China's first batch of state-level intangible cultural heritage sites drafted last June, and also included in a first-ever provincial-level intangible heritage list, wrapping up a total of around 148 valuable items.

More info here.

The report seems very boring, but it is long and an ideal bed time reading to fall asleep really fast.

REPORT ON THE WORK OF THE GOVERNMENT - the whole text here.

The number of death sentences meted out last year by Chinese courts hit a record low in more than a decade. China has seen a gradual decrease of capital crime cases since 1997. The exact number of death sentences last year was not revealed.

Last year 889,042 people were convicted by courts at all levels across the country, and 153,724 people received sentences of longer than five years, including life imprisonment and death penalty.

The whole article is here.

Law 'needed for weapon research' - the whole article here.

France calls to lift China arms embargo

France Thursday renewed the call for the lifting of the EU ams embargo on China, denouncing opposition to the move as illogical, according to a news report.

France's Defence Minister Michele Alliot-Marie Thursday called it "paradoxical" to "maintain the embargo for political reasons while at the same time giving China the Olympics, which are supposed to go solely to countries that respect international rules."

Alliot-Marie said lifting the embargo would not pose a threat, arguing that European and French rules on arms exports "are even stricter than the rules of the embargo," according to the report.

Outgoing French President Jacques Chirac has been a chief proponent of ending the arms embargo.

Japan and the United States have protested the move and voiced concern about China's military spending, which is due to rise some 18 percent this year.

But Alliot-Marie said it was "normal" for China "to expand its defense equipment in light of the role that it is playing and will be drawn to play in the world due to its population and economic power."

China has said the growth is primarily caused by the sharp increase in the wages, living expenses and pensions of 2.3 million People's Liberation Army officers, civilian personnel, soldiers and army retirees.

Alliot-Marie acknowledged there had to be "a consensus by all European countries to lift the embargo" and that it "doesn't exist today."

In particular, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has opposed lifting the embargo.

Japan denies coercion of 'comfort women'

Park Og-ryon, 87, (front L) and Kim Soon-og, 88, (R), who were forced to become comfort women or sex slaves by Japanese troops during World War Two, chant anti-Japan slogans with nuns at a protest in front of the Japanese embassy in Seoul September 6, 2006. [Reuters]

TOKYO -- The Japanese government has found no evidence that the military or the government forced women to work in World War II military brothels, the Cabinet said in a statement to a lawmaker Friday.

...Historians say as many as 200,000 women, most of them Asians, worked in Japanese military brothels across the region in the 1930s and 1940s. Japanese defense documents uncovered in 1992 showed the military had a direct role in running the brothels, which the government had previously denied.

The whole article here.

No casualties were reported.

The quakes wrecked 5,969 homes, and disrupted water supplies to 400 people. In addition, buildings and walls in 80 schools suffered cracks or damage. The quakes also damaged ten bridges, and a local reservoir reported leaking, said Zhu Zhihua, head of the county government.

The whole article here.

Curse of the Golden Flower vs. Marie Antoinette

At the 79th Academy Awards on Sunday, February 25, "Curse of the Golden Flower" misses Oscar statuette to "Marie Antoinette" for the costume design.

The nominated designer of the Chinese film was Hong Kong based Yee Chung Man; there were more than 40 designers working on the glamorous costumes worn by the lead actress and actor over two months.
More info here.

The official report is here.
Chan is the first Chinese (of Hong Kong origin) to head a UN agency. Her goal for her term is to improve the health of Africans and of women.

According to recent measures, migrants without temporary residence certificates must immediately move out of their rented rooms. Lawyers stepped forward to defend the migrants. This initiative is another "incentive for Chinese legislators to abolish the controversial residential registry system that was introduced twenty years ago to prevent excessive influx to urban cities and guarantee a sound security order". Under the system, a migrant is not allowed to permanently stay in a city.

The whole article is below and here.

Seven months ago Beijing faced a barrage of criticism after it announced measures to 'maintain public security' that dictated migrants without temporary residence certificates must immediately move out of their rented rooms.

Discordant voices swept through the media, labeling the policy as discriminatory against migrants and a violation of their rights.

Ten lawyers from Central China's Henan Province have stepped forward to defend the migrants by submitting a letter to the People's Congress and the State Council, claiming the existing temporary residence permit system runs counter to China's laws and should be revoked, reported ce.cn on December 27.

The letter, which was made public after three-months of research and preparation, is another new incentive for Chinese legislators to abolish the controversial residential registry system that was introduced twenty years ago to prevent excessive influx to urban cities and guarantee a sound security order.

The crowd of voices calling for the elimination of the controversial system reached a climax after 27-year-old Sun Zhigang became a victim of the system in 2003.

On March 17 of that year Sun was wandering down a street in south China's Guangdong Province without his ID card or temporary residence certificate. His life changed forever after being stopped by local law enforcement officers. He spent his last three days at a local repatriation clinic.

On March 20, he died. An autopsy showed his body was covered in bruises.

His death marked the end of China's repatriation system and set in motion a nationwide backlash over the decades-old temporary residence permit system.

Lawyer Fan Honglie noted that rendering a temporary residence certificate to a migrant is a typical administrative licensing measure.

Fang said as a citizen of the People's Republic of China, A migrants should not be acquired a temporary residence certificate.

Under the system, a migrant is not allowed to permanently stay in a city.

The lawyers said it is inevitable that China's social economic development will produce a human flow among cities and result in the management of migrants.

The lawyers said that the central government should not hamper the human influx via administrative measures.

For China, 2003 was a turning point due to the issuance of the People's Republic of China Administrative Licensing Law. Several cities, led by the northern city of Shenyang repealed the system in July, 2003, but announced its revival in December, citing security reasons and complex management of migrants.

Local officials claimed their decision three years ago was hurried, adding management there are new problems in managing migrants, without elaboration.

The lawyers rebutted the officials' claims, saying strict enforcement on ID card management will solve the issue.

China has the Law of the People's Republic of China on Resident Identity Cards and the People's Republic of China Administrative Licensing Law, which can replace the outdated system, the lawyers said.

According to an online poll organized by sohu.com, more than 80 per cent of the 19, 497 respondents agreed with abolishing the system, while 11 per cent disagreed.

Many employers fail to provide full maternity leave and hospital costs to female migrant workers. The whole article is below and here.

BEIJING, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- A national survey shows that only 36.4 percent of all employers provide more than 90 days maternity leave to female migrant workers.

The survey, which was conducted by the All-China Women's Federation in 2006, also shows that only 12.8 percent of employers cover hospital costs when their migrant worker employee gives birth.

Among the companies which offer maternity leave, 14.4 percent claimed they give full pay, 21.1 percent pay part of the new-mother's wage, while around 64 percent of employers did not provide paid maternity leave to migrant workers, according to the survey.

The survey also showed that 68. 2 percent of women living in rural areas and 62.3 percent rural migrant workers were provided prenatal examinations, up markedly from figures in previous surveys.

Notorious issues with migrant workers not being paid by their employers (mainly construction companies or restaurants). Employers fail to do so in order to keep their workforce in place and under control. Last week, a rural worker died when claiming his and other comrades' unpaid wages. The whole article is below and here.

A young rural worker who was beaten up last week and died while claiming unpaid wages has aroused widespread indignation over the plight of China's migrant millions. Many of the migrants are anxious to be at home for the New Year.

Xie Hongsheng, a 28-year-old peasant from southwest China's Sichuan Province, died when he was beaten up by a gang of strangers last Wednesday at a construction site in northwestern Shaanxi Province. Xie was demanding immediate payment of about 40,000 yuan (US$5,130). This sum of money was owed to a dozen rural workers including himself and his father.

The team finished putting up a 14-storey apartment building for Guanzhong Construction Engineering Co. Ltd. in mid November but Geng Zhengjun, the project manager, had paid them only 11,000 yuan (US$1,410).

Xie's father, 51-year-old Xie Youyuan, also took a pounding at the hands of the thugs. He needs a few months to recuperate from a cerebral concussion and bone fractures, said Dr. Gao Lijun at the No. 3 Hospital of the Chinese People's Liberation Army in Baoji, the city where they were working with about 50,000 other rural workers.

Wages in arrears: a chronic problem

Factories and construction companies who withhold workers' pay have been a persistent problem in China in the last 10 years. Many of the workers are migrants from rural areas. Until recently they've had little bargaining power with management.

A survey of the Ministry of Agriculture shows China's migrant worker population has grown to 114.9 million with an estimated 6.7 million new migrant workers this year. The central government has ordered local officials to make sure workers are paid on time and in full but enforcement is lax.

A recent investigation found that 980 employers in northwestern Gansu Province owe 130 million yuan (US$16.6 million) in wages to some 130,000 migrant workers. Most of the debtors are construction firms and restaurants. This is according to the provincial labor and social security department that investigated nearly 6,000 businesses in October and November to make sure all migrants' wages are paid.

Meanwhile, the eastern province of Jiangxi has blacklisted 518 companies for defaulting on 62,000 migrants' wages of some 24 million yuan (US$3.1 million).

Anxious to bring home cash for the coming New Year holiday some unpaid migrants threatened to jump off high rises while others staged open protests. A group of 87 construction workers took their bedrolls to the doorstep of the Beijing-based Chaolin Company this week claiming 1.4 million yuan (US$180,000) of wages in arrears.

The workers had built an office building for the company earlier this year but were still waiting for 85 percent of their wages that should have been paid upon completion of the project.

"I can't go home empty-handed. I won't be able to face my family," said a migrant worker called Hu. He and his co-workers spent 48 hours in the open air sleeping on thin bedding in the freezing cold until local police and the Beijing Municipal Trade Union intervened in the dispute Wednesday.

Mr. Deng, a Chaolin Company manager, complained the workers were "making a fuss" but said the management was ready to solve the dispute "as soon as possible". On Thursday the workers were still waiting for a solution in their ramshackle, unheated sheds on the northwestern outskirts of Beijing.

Seeking help

Unable to get their wages after years of pleading, 137 construction workers in central China's Hunan Province recently sued a local court for failing to play its role.

Zhuzhou Intermediate People's Court solved a dispute between the workers and their employer, a local real estate developer, over 860,000 yuan (US$110,260) of wages in arrears since 2002 and froze the company's assets until all the default payments were made. But the assets were illegally sold in 2005 putting an end to the workers' last hope of getting their money.

Only then was Liao Heping, legal representative of the developer, arrested. He was forced to pay 100,000 yuan (US$12,820) in cash but most of the money covered legal fees and very few workers got paid.

The workers then prosecuted the court for breach of duty but lost the lawsuit two weeks ago when the Hunan Provincial People's Higher Court ruled that market disorder, rather than the intermediate court, was to blame.

"We won't give up," said Liu Huihan, one of the three representatives who've been acting as plaintiffs on behalf of the workers. "Justice must help us recover our hard-earned money," said Liu, holding up a circular issued by the Supreme People's Court instructing subordinate courts to accelerate lawsuits brought by migrant workers to recover unpaid wages.

The document issued in August said local courts should deal promptly with lawsuits brought by migrant workers over unpaid wages. Once the cases are concluded the courts should ensure that court verdicts are enforced in a timely manner.

But the litigation process is often too long and costly for the workers who, with big families to feed, sometimes can't wait to move onto the next job.

"We don't encourage workers to go through arbitration and litigation. On the other hand we warn their employers to pay wages in time to avoid escalating friction," said Liang Yongan, a lawyer at a legal assistance center for migrant workers in Shijiazhuang, capital of north China's Hebei Province.

Six Chinese localities including Beijing and Hebei have set up such centers this year to provide free legal counseling services to migrant workers.

And trade unions in 30 major Chinese cities have teamed up to help migrant workers claim their wages. Early this year the trade union in Chengdu, in southwest China's Sichuan Province, helped 18 Sichuan farmers solve a notorious labor dispute with an employer in Xinjiang. Unable to get their wages after building a water storage facility the farmers tried to walk home to Sichuan in despair but got lost in the desert and one of them died.

With the help of its nationwide counterparts the trade union from their hometown claimed their wages from the Xinjiang company and obtained jobs for the 17 workers in Ningbo, a booming city in eastern Zhejiang Province.

China's trade unions in 2006 helped 2.8 million migrant workers claim 1.3 billion yuan (US$162.5 million) in wages, according to the All-China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU).

About 29.5 million peasant-turned migrant workers had joined trade unions by July 2006 and they plan to recruit 8 million new members each year for the next three years, according to the ACFTU.

Trees covered with frost in Harbin, Northeast China's Heilongjiang Province on January 2, 2006.

China Donates Culture Center to Bangladesh

"It will be a vocational center, where boys and girls learn computer technology and where all types of newspapers, magazines and books are available, including Chinese weekly magazine Beijing Review, English version of Chinese books like Mao Zedong on Diplomacy, Islam in China, China Sports, etc."

Loss of Hutongs Plagues Capital

In the 1980s, the city boasted more than 3,679 hutongs. Two thirds have been destroyed up till now giving way to the new developmnent.

Beijing had 458 hutongs in the early Ming Dynasty (1368-1644) and 978 of the communities during the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911).

The Panda

China has 217 pandas that have been bred in captivity.

There are about 1,600 pandas living in the wild in China. The vast majority of them -- about 1,100 -- live in one of the 59 natural reserves that China had set up for pandas by the end of 2006.

Hu calls for fighting against Taiwan secessionists
US urged to honor one-China policy
Taiwan's leader trying to ruin ties

..The mainland and Taiwan split in 1949 at the end of a civil war.



Taiwan leader Chen Shui-bian reaffirmed his adherence to "independence" in his New Year's address on Monday.

President Hu said that the mainland's Taiwan policy of "peaceful reunification" and "one country, two systems" will not change.
The mainland will strictly adhere to the one-China principle, continue efforts to seek peaceful reunification, always place its hopes on the Taiwan people, and never compromise in the struggle against "Taiwan independence".


Hu's New Year Resolutions

-- Timely resolution of contradictions and problems in China's economic and social development, speeding up the construction of a harmonious society to provide an excellent environment and conditions for the convention of the 17th National Congress of the Communist Party of China in the later half of this year;
-- the government will exert more effort in addressing social problems concerning people's life and pursue energy efficiency and environmental protection in its "sound and fast" economic development;
-- pushing forward the reform of the political system in an active and steady manner to expand democracy, especially at local levels;
-- strengthening social security networks, improving medicare services and safety production mechanisms and maintaining public order and social stability;
-- adhering to the absolute leadership of the Party over the People's Liberation Army, promoting military innovation for better national defence;
-- stepping up the fight against corruption and striving to build a clean government, enhancing inner-Party democracy to achieve harmony inside the Party, and constantly improving the Party's administration.
-- various Parties of the CPPCC to promote unity of different political forces, religions, ethnic groups, social strata and Chinese people at home and abroad, so as to achieve social harmony.