Menneskerettigheter i Kina

GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt, The Head Of Obama’s Jobs Council, Is Moving Jobs And Economic Infrastructure To China At A Blistering Pace

2011-08-17T14:15:00.000-07:00

The Economic Collapse | Jeffrey Immelt, the head of Barack Obama's highly touted "Jobs Council", is moving even more GE infrastructure to China.

GE makes more medical-imaging machines than anyone else in the world, and now GE has announced that it "is moving the headquarters of its 115-year-old X-ray business to Beijing". Apparently, this is all part of a "plan to invest about $2 billion across China" over the next few years. But moving core pieces of its business overseas is nothing new for GE. Under Immelt, GE has shipped tens of thousands of good jobs out of the United States. Perhaps GE should change its slogan to "Imagination At Work (In China)". If the very people that have been entrusted with solving the unemployment crisis are shipping jobs out of the country, what hope is there that things are going to turn around any time soon?

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The Tuidang Movement: 100 Million Chinese Hearts Changed

2011-08-15T14:04:00.000-07:00

The Epoch Times | Movement to renounce the Chinese Communist Party reaches major milestone.

When poorly constructed elementary school buildings collapsed in Wenchuan, China, after a massive earthquake in 2008, parents wanted answers. Rather than launching an investigation or tallying the student deaths, however, agents of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) infiltrated the parent groups, broke them up, arrested the recalcitrants, and jailed a man trying to help them.

A similar dynamic happened after the poisoned milk powder scandal broke in 2008. The man who lobbied on behalf of the parents, and whose child was also a victim, ended up in jail.

Meanwhile, millions of peaceful Chinese citizens are monitored, arrested, and tortured to death, because the CCP considers their religious beliefs to be a threat to its rule.

The Chinese regime also crushes all attempts by anyone organizing politically—hence hopes for a future China without these depredations seem bleak.

Enter “Tuidang,” meaning, “Renounce the Party.”

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China's first aircraft carrier 'starts sea trials'

2011-08-10T02:49:00.000-07:00

BBC News | The Chinese navy's first aircraft carrier has begun its sea trials, the state-run Xinhua news agency has said. It quoted military sources as saying that the refitted former Soviet warship left its shipyard in the north-east and the trial "would not take a long time". The move is likely to raise fresh concerns over China's rapid military build-up.

Beijing is currently involved in several maritime territorial disputes, particularly in the South China Sea.

The aircraft carrier left its shipyard at Dalian Port in northeast Liaoning Province on Wednesday morning, Xinhua reported.

"Military sources said that the first sea trial was in line with the schedule of the carrier refitting project," it said.

"After returning from the sea trial, the aircraft carrier will continue refit and test work."

Xinhua did not provide any further details.

The BBC's Michael Bristow in Beijing says China is years away from being able to deploy this carrier as a potent military tool. Even so, the country's neighbours will be worried.

Many are involved in disputes with China over maritime borders - and they will be looking anxiously at Beijing's naval build-up, our correspondent says.

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China's New Lucrative Business: Dead Babies Turn into Stamina Booster Pills

2011-08-09T08:56:00.000-07:00

[Dette er desverre ikke overraskende og knytter inn mot organhøstsaken som advokat Matas og forhenv. kanadisk utenriksminister Kilgour har advaret om gjennom etterhvert mange år, og relatert har man også skandalene rundt 'Bodies'-utstillingene som har kjørt i vesten de siste årene - se her og her. Likene Gunther von Hagens har brukt til sine utstillinger kommer fra fengselssystemet i byen Dalian i Kina, og det er verdt å merke seg at nettopp denne by er beryktet for den voldsomme forfølgelse og de mange drap som har forekommet på Falun Gong-utøvere i byens fengsels-institusjoner. Anm. Christoffer Brekne]

International Business Times | A South Korean SBS TV documentary team accuses Chinese pharmaceutical companies of selling dead baby pills as stamina boosters.

The team reveals that the truth behind the dead baby pill is horrific and disturbing.

Chinese hospitals and abortion clinics that are connected to the business immediately notify pharmaceutical companies when a baby dies, mostly because of a still birth or an abortion.

The companies purchase the baby corpses and store them in some family’s refrigerator to avoid suspicion. The next step in this highly secretive process is putting the corpses in a medical drying microwave and grinding them into pills. The ground baby powder is then put in a capsule, ready to be sold as a stamina enhancer, according to the SBS team.

The Korean team acquired the dead baby capsules and ran DNA tests on it. The test results reportedly indicated the pills were 99.7 percent human. The test also found hair and nail remnants, and even the gender of the baby could be identified. The process will be aired with visuals in the SBS TV documentary on Aug. 6, 2011 in South Korea.

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Chinese “Urban Management” Violence Assists the Regime

2011-08-06T15:29:00.001-07:00

The Epoch Times | The City Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement Bureau is a local government agency established in every Chinese city. The locals call it “chengguan.” It is notorious for using violence to enforce the law.

The exact legal basis for the existence of chengguan and the guidelines for its law enforcement remain unknown. This powerful, yet extralegal, law enforcement entity has created so many civil conflicts that any normal government would acknowledge the enormous negative impact brought by the chengguan. So, one wonders, why does the Chinese Communist Party’s regime continue to develop chengguan and even upgrade its facility and equipment?

Recently, a member of the political science faculty at a university in southern China revealed the mystery to a reporter. While serving as a visiting lecturer at a Communist Party Academy, this professor had a conversation with a local chengguan official regarding whether or not the chengguan system should be abolished. This official indicated that chengguan will not only continue to exist but will also develop further and obtain strong political support by authorities. In order to serve as a deterrent force against people on the streets, its use of violence and bullying must remain.

The reason to maintain chengguan and its authority is that, when facing ongoing calls for civil rights and mass demonstrations, cracking down on crowds with police or armed police easily attracts international attention. But the constant threat of “urban management enforcement” usually does not. In some cases chengguan overstep the mark, and actually precipitate mass incidents. Their purpose is actually to remind the citizenry that the Party is in control, and it is watching.

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Red, Delicious, and Rotten

2011-08-05T02:44:00.000-07:00

Foreign Policy | How Apple conquered China and learned to think like the Communist Party.

A friend in Beijing recently told me a story about the time a China Telecom technician came over to install the Internet connection for her Apple laptop. The man, an experienced worker, puzzled over the slim, silver device. He picked it up gingerly, holding it away from his body as one might inspect a suspicious package. After a few minutes, he set to work, but then grew frustrated when he couldn't find the familiar pull-down menus to configure the connection.

That was just three years ago. Today, it's highly unlikely that any Chinese technician would be similarly flummoxed. Since the first Apple Store opened in Beijing on July 19, 2008, the company has made astonishingly rapid inroads into the Chinese public's pocketbooks and imagination. In any high-end coffee shop like Starbucks or Costa Coffee in central Beijing or Shanghai, the ratio of Apple devices (iPhone, iPad, MacBook, etc.) to non-Apple devices is often more than 1-to-1.

Apple now has four flagship stores in China -- two in Beijing, two in Shanghai -- and plans to open an additional store in Shanghai and its first Hong Kong location within a year. There are also hundreds of licensed Apple resellers in major Chinese cities, as well as many more unlicensed venders (including the elaborate fake "Apple Store" in Kunming unmasked two weeks ago by an American blogger). And these stores are packed with customers: As the company's chief operating officer, Timothy Cook, revealed on a recent earnings call with reporters, "Our four stores in China [are], on average, our highest traffic and our highest revenue stores in the world." Each attracts as many as 40,000 people daily (to accommodate crowds, Apple's stores in China are designed to be much larger than in the United States). From 2010 to 2011, revenue in greater China has ballooned 600 percent, totaling $8.8 billion for the first three quarters of fiscal year 2011.

And yet the same company that enjoys such a sterling, virtuous image in the global press and that's now making buckets of cash in China is precisely the one singled out by China's fledgling civil society groups for its alleged indifference to labor rights and environmental enforcement, as well as an apparent tendency toward secrecy and obfuscation. In a nutshell, just as Apple has been consolidating its success in China, it has been acting depressingly like the Chinese Communist Party.

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Kommunist-Kinas sårede følelser...

2011-07-18T14:17:00.000-07:00

DFs Ugebrev | I 44 minutter sad USA's præsident Obama og fik sig en snak med Tibets åndelige leder, Dalai Lama. Præsidenten havde selvfølgelig budt ham indenfor i Det Hvide Hus i Washington. Jeg skriver "selvfølgelig" - for i USA er det naturligvis en selvfølge, at når et karismatisk menneske af Dalai Lamas karat er på besøg i landet - ja, så tager præsidenten sig tid til en samtale med ham.

Sådan plejede det da også at være i Danmark, indtil en række partier i Folketinget rottede sig sammen i en af den moderne udenrigspolitiske histories mest pinlige sammensværgelser - med det ene formål at fedte for et kommunistisk diktatur. Derefter blev alt ændret. Mere herom senere.

Først lige tilbage til Obamas og Dalai Lamas samtale her i weekenden. Samtalen medførte den forventelige reaktion fra kommunist-diktaturet i Peking, hvorfra man udsendte en erklæring, som slog fast, at "...denne handling er en alvorlig indblanding i Kinas interne anliggender, og mødet har skadet det kinesisk-amerikanske forhold...".

Og så tilføjede man: "Handlingen har stødt det kinesiske folks følelser".

Denne grinagtige sætning lader jeg lige stå et øjeblik, for sætningen i sig selv er et nærmere studium værd. Først skal man nemlig gøre sig klart, at enhver diktaturstat, som hævder at tale på vegne af "folket", lyver. Så når man skriver "folket", mener man i dette tilfælde i virkeligheden "folkekongressen" - som er identisk med diktatoren selv. Dernæst skal man lægge mærke til det med "følelser", for et kommunistisk diktatur, er ikke i stand til at have følelser - endsige i stand til at føle noget overhovedet. Så at bruge ordet følelser i denne sammenhæng er meningsløst.

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Rich in China get richer only faster

2011-07-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

The Guardian | From bikes to Bentleys in a generation: carmakers head east to sell luxury marquesFrom bikes to Bentleys in a generation: carmakers head east to sell luxury marques.

When Zheng Huizhong was growing up in the Henan countryside, he was proud his father owned a three-wheeled farm tractor. Back in the 1970s, that was as automated – and fast – as most people could get in rural China.

Today, however, he is out shopping on Beijing's swanky Jinbao (Treasure) Street for an addition to his Bentley and cannot quite decide which 300km/h (190mph) sports car to splash out on.

"I like Aston Martins because I used to watch James Bond films. But I think I prefer Ferrari, even though they are more expensive," muses the former farm boy, who has made a fortune as a yacht salesman.

Each of these cars cost more than 4m yuan [£390,000] but price is not Zheng's main concern.

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China Missle Sales

2011-07-15T13:29:00.000-07:00

The Washington Times | Newly released classified documents reveal China’s continued violations of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) with sales of missiles and parts to Iran, Syria and Pakistan.

A Sept. 18, 2009, State Department cable on the issue was prepared for an international meeting of the MTCR that year in Rio de Janeiro. The MTCR is an informal association of 34 states that seeks to limit exports of missiles with ranges greater than 185 miles and warheads heavier than 1,000 pounds.

Sent under Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s signature, the cable included a report on Chinese missile proliferation that on three occasions referred to a “lack of political will” by China to stop missile transfers.

“Chinese authorities and firms fail to conduct sufficient evaluations of missile-applicable transactions or to take steps to know their customers,” the report said.

Several cables, labelled “secret,” were made public on Monday by the anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks, showing Chinese violations or circumventions of the accord.

“Other firms that are aware of the vulnerabilities in China’s export-control system take steps to conceal sensitive transactions and avoid detection, including by adopting new names and falsifying shipping documentation. Additionally, some firms may take advantage of government connections to skirt Chinese regulations,” the cable said.

Among the violations were sales to Iran by China’s Dalian Sunny Industries, also known as LIMMT; sales of ballistic-missile goods to Syria; and transfers by Shanghai Technical By-Products International Corp. to Iran of ballistic-missile items.

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Gao Zhisheng's Brother Speaks Out

2011-07-12T14:13:00.000-07:00

The Epoch Times | Chinese human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng was disappeared once more by the authorities 15 months ago, after a short reprieve last April. At that time Gao was allowed to meet with journalists and tell parts of his story, but since then there has been no official word on his case, and his family is becoming increasingly upset and frustrated.

Gao Zhiyi, Gao’s older brother, is on the front lines of the quest to find his brother’s whereabouts. He told of his helplessness with the repeated dead-ends to Chinese Human Rights Defenders (CHRD), an NGO, on July 9.

“I have obtained no information about him” after inquiring for 15 months, Gao Zhiyi said.

“A government can’t just do what it likes. If Gao has broken a law then he can be jailed, but they can’t not tell his family where he is for 15 months.”

Gao Zhiyi says he has made numerous phone calls. “I telephoned a director in Beijing who’s in charge of monitoring Gao Zhisheng. He always claims he knows where my brother is, but sometimes he said Gao might have ‘gotten lost.’ I intended to go to Beijing during the annual ‘two meetings’ of the Communist Party. The director told me he would inform me of Gao Zhisheng’s whereabouts when the ‘two meetings’ ended. At the end of the ‘two meetings,’ I called him again, but this time he said he had no idea.

“Gao Zhisheng will have served his full sentence outside of jail this coming Aug. 14. If he is not released, I will make them account for his re-disappearance even at the cost of my life,” Gao Zhiyi said.

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China jails 6 over migrant workers' riot in south

2011-07-12T14:09:00.000-07:00

The Guardian | A Chinese court has sentenced six people to jail for their involvement in a three-day riot in the country's south by migrant factory workers enraged by the reported beating of a street vendor.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday that the People's Court of Zengcheng city in Guangdong province handed down prison terms ranging from nine months to 3-1/2 years.

The riot was sparked by a confrontation between security guards and a pair of migrant sidewalk vendors in the township of Xintang on June 10. Thousands of migrant workers rioted, torching vehicles and ransacking government offices. At least 25 people were arrested.

The unrest underscored a growing public resentment over corruption, abuse of power and a worsening income divide.

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Keep the Pressure Up About Human Rights in China: Rights Lawyer

2011-07-11T14:45:00.000-07:00

The Epoch Times | Australians should keep the pressure up on China about human rights abuses recommends international human rights lawyer and Nobel Peace Prize nominee, David Matas.

Speaking at the Sydney launch of Chinese and English versions of his book Bloody Harvest: The Killing of Falun Gong for their Organs, Mr Matas said although it appeared that there had been little change since the first report on organ harvesting in 2006, Chinese authorities had responded to pressure.

Illegal organ harvesting from Falun Gong practitioners continues in China today and the figures for transplants remain high, over 10,000 transplants a year, Mr Matas said, but Chinese authorities had made changes to stop transplant tourism and had reduced the number of hospitals conducting organ transplants. They had reduced the number of crimes awarded the death penalty, centralised decision making about the death penalty and also endeavoured to put in place an organ donor system, although it had gained only 37 donors during 2010.

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Architect of Falun Gong Persecution Rumored Dead

2011-07-11T14:41:00.000-07:00

Canada Free Press | If rumors of former Chinese Communist Party head Jiang Zemin’s death prove true, in the coming days, the world’s media will debate his legacy. For hundreds of millions, Jiang will mostly be remembered as the architect of the most systematic, deadly, and protracted assault on Chinese citizens in decades: the persecution of Falun Gong.

With the man who unleashed a campaign of violence, lies, and mass arrests having left this world, his victims and many Chinese with a sense of justice are breathing a sigh of relief. Although his henchmen continue the atrocities, at least Jiang can no longer harm them. There is one less bit of evil in the world.

As a traditional spiritual and exercise discipline belonging to the Buddhist school, for the first half of the 1990s, Falun Gong quickly gained popularity in China after its public introduction in 1992, attracting “qigong” enthusiasts and those drawn to its moral philosophy based on the virtues of truthfulness, kindness, and forbearance. (more info) Indeed, Falun Gong enjoyed considerable official support from government and Communist Party officials, who saw it as a way to improve public health.

By 1999, estimates by China’s State Sports Commission put the number of Falun Gong adherents as high as 70 million people, exceeding the total membership of the Chinese Communist Party. (more statistics)

Although Falun Gong does not espouse any political ideology or aspirations, Jiang Zemin came to see Falun Gong as a threat to the CCP on account of its popularity, independence from the state, and traditional spiritual philosophy.

Thus, in the spring of 1999, Jiang almost single-handedly decided that Falun Gong must be “eradicated.” On July 20, 1999, he initiated a Cultural Revolution-style campaign of propaganda, book burnings, mass imprisonment and coercive “transformation” of Falun Gong practitioners.

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Guangzhou South Station: Something Out of a Zombie Movie

2011-07-10T11:53:00.000-07:00

Sovereign Man | When I left my hotel bound for the new Guangzhou South Station the other day , I didn’t know much about the station– where it was, how far from the hotel, etc. After about 25 or 30 minutes in the cab, I still hadn’t seen any signs for the station and grew concerned that the cabbie was just taking me for a ride.

As we eventually approached the station, I began to understand why it was so far out of town. Clearly, the only way they could find enough contiguous land to build this monstrosity was to go WAY into to the outskirts of the city.

In the end, it was a 27.82 kilometer (17.39 miles) cab ride from my downtown hotel, and took 49 minutes to get there. I know this because Chinese taxis are very efficient and give you a highly detailed receipt.

Guangzhou South Station is absolutely COLOSSAL. By comparison, it is much bigger than any of the 3 international airport terminals in Manila where I live… and I’d say it’s over 8 times larger than the Central Airport Express Station in Hong Kong.

For a start, the Guangzhou South Station is built on THREE levels. I was dropped off at level 2. When I entered there was an “Information” booth straight ahead. It was unstaffed. In fact, the entire second level was completely deserted. Very spooky. It was something out of a low-budget zombie movie.

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U.S. caught China buying more debt than disclosed

2011-07-10T11:43:00.000-07:00

Reuters | The rules of Treasury auctions may not sound like the stuff of high-stakes diplomacy. But a little-noticed 2009 change in how Washington sells its debt sheds new light on America's delicate balancing act with its biggest creditor, China.

When the Treasury Department revamped its rules for participating in government bond auctions two years ago, officials said they were simply modernizing outdated procedures.

The real reason for the change, a Reuters investigation has found, was more serious: The Treasury had concluded that China was buying much more in U.S. government debt than was being disclosed, potentially in violation of auction rules, and it wanted to bring those purchases into the open - all without ruffling feathers in Beijing.

Treasury officials then worked to keep the reason for the auction-rule change quiet, with the acting assistant Treasury secretary for financial markets instructing subordinates to not mention any specific creditor's role in the matter, according to an email seen by Reuters. Inquiries made at the time by the main trade organization for Treasury dealers elicited the explanation that the change was a "technical modernization," according to a document seen by Reuters. There was no mention of China.

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China warns US officials not to meet Dalai Lama

2011-07-10T11:39:00.000-07:00

The Telegraph | The Chinese foreign ministry has warned US officials not to meet the visiting Dalai Lama, saying it hoped Washington would deal "appropriately" with Tibet-related issues.

China reviles the Nobel Peace Prize-winning spiritual leader Dalai Lama, saying he supports the use of violence to establish an independent Tibet.

He strongly denies either accusation, insisting he seeks only true autonomy for the remote region.

The Dalai Lama is currently visiting the United States and is due to give a public talk in Washington on Saturday.

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Tidligere topprådgiver advarer Kinas ledere

2011-07-09T13:00:00.000-07:00

Fædrelandsvennen | Den øverste kinesiske tjenestemannen som ble fengslet etter massakren på Den himmelske freds plass i 1989, mener undertrykkelsen av opposisjonen bare vil føre til mer uro.

Den 79 år gamle Bao Tong var den fremste rådgiveren til daværende leder av Kinas kommunistparti Zhao Ziyang. Zhao ble avsatt og tilbrakte resten av livet i husarrest fram til sin død i 2005.
- En regjering som fratar vanlige innbyggere deres grunnleggende rettigheter, vil aldri bli stabil, sier Bao, som tilbrakte sju år i fengsel og fortsatt holdes under konstant oppsyn av sikkerhetsfolk.

Kinas ledere har de siste sju-åtte månedene gjennomført omfattende arrestasjoner av kritikere, deres advokater og aktivister, blant annet av frykt for at uroen i araberverdenen skulle spre seg til Kina.

- Jeg tror det de har gjort, er feil, sier Bao om Kinas nåværende ledere.

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Kina utviste svensk student etter blogginnlegg

2011-07-09T12:46:00.000-07:00

Aftenbladet | En svensk student som var på utveksling til Kina, ble utvist etter at han oppfordret til en aksjon for ytringsfrihet i Shanghai, ifølge svensk radio.

- Jeg har lenge ønsket å organisere en liten, liten sammenkomst som samtidig kanskje kunne få litt oppmerksomhet fra de paranoide myndighetene, skrev Sven Englund på sin blogg 1. juli.

Innlegget falt ikke i god jord hos Kinas kommunistiske parti som samme dag feiret sin 90-årsdag.

På en separat blogg som han skrev på kinesisk, inviterte den 24 år gamle studenten president Hu Jintao til en såkalt «flash mob»-protest, en gruppe mennesker som samles på et offentlig sted for å gjøre noe merkelig og så forsvinne igjen. Deltakerne ble bedt om å tegne det kinesiske symbolet for frihet et sted på kroppen. Deretter skulle de dra til en sentral plass i Shanghai og stå der i fem minutter.

Det er uklart hvorvidt det ble gjennomført, for Englund ble avhørt på den tiden aksjonen skulle finne sted, ifølge et senere innlegg på hans svenske blogg.

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Vatican Condemnation of New Chinese Bishop Worsens Tensions

2011-07-09T12:38:00.000-07:00

The New York Times | The Vatican’s unusually public condemnation of a newly ordained Chinese bishop this week — in which he was effectively excommunicated and other top Chinese church officials were warned of “serious” consequences — has aggravated the already frayed relations between the Holy See and China’s governing Communist Party as officials here make plans to ordain dozens more bishops, many without the Vatican’s approval.

The decision to formally announce the rejection of the bishop, the Rev. Paul Lei Shiyin, of Sichuan Province, came shortly after China’s state-run Catholic church ignored the Vatican’s objections and went ahead with Bishop Lei’s ordination ceremony, which was attended by seven other bishops previously recognized by Rome.

Reached by phone, a Vatican official declined to discuss the case, but in a statement, church officials said Pope Benedict XVI was deeply saddened by the move, saying it “sows division and unfortunately produces rifts and tensions in the Catholic community in China.”

The Vatican said the seven bishops who took part in the ordination had “exposed themselves to serious canonical sanctions,” which experts said could include excommunication.

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”Vi er ved at miste vores værdighed, vores identitet og vores rettigheder”

2011-07-08T07:54:00.000-07:00

Kristeligt Dagblad | To år efter, at de voldeligste optøjer i Kina i årtier brød ud i Xinjiang-region mellem muslimske uighurere og han-kineserne, siger uighurernes eksilleder, Rebiya Kadeer, at uighurerne har fået nok af kinesernes dominans, og at en jasminrevolution er på vej

På tredje etage på 1420 K Street i centrum af den amerikanske forbundshovedstad, Washington D.C., sidder en spinkel ældre dame med sit gråsorte hår samlet i en hoftelang fletning under den traditionelle uighurske hat. Når man træder ind på hendes lille kontor, hvor det amerikanske og østturkestanske flag vikler sig ind i hinanden, smiler hun varmt og minder mest om en foretagsom bedstemor og ikke, som Kina påstår, en af landets største fjender, en voldelig separatist og sabotør, der på linje med tibetanernes Dalai Lama er ude på at splitte Kinas enhed ad.

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More than 5 million affected by China flooding

2011-07-08T07:38:00.000-07:00

AP (via CBSNews) | Torrential rains have left huge areas of Hubei and Zhejiang provinces under water, with more than 1 million acres of farmland inundated, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

Almost 1,000 businesses have been forced to suspend operations and 5.7 million people have had their lives disrupted, Xinhua said in a brief report. More than 7,000 homes collapsed or were otherwise damaged and direct financial damage was estimated at almost 6 billion yuan.

The downpour triggered a mudslide that buried houses and killed two people in Zhejiang's Changshan county, while two more were killed and two left missing by flooding in Hubei, Xinhua said.

Flooding in eastern and southern China this month has left more than 170 people dead or missing. Roads and railways have been blocked, but aid supplies are arriving and the country's weather bureau says skies are expected to clear up Monday.

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China turns against Red Cross

2011-07-08T00:22:00.000-07:00

The Telegraph | China's Red Cross, the country's largest charity, has come under attack after a young woman who claimed to work at the charity posted pictures of herself online posing with a Maserati.

The pictures have been circulating on the Chinese internet for weeks and triggered a public backlash against the country’s largest charity, amid accusations of corruption and misspent donations.

The scandal began when the woman, who names herself on her microblog as “Guo Meimei Baby” posted photographs of her leaning on the hood of a white Maserati, which she named her “little horse”.
More pictures showed her with an orange Lamborghini, her “little bull”, sipping drinks on a business-class flight, and with a pile of Hermès handbags.

Alongside the pictures, Ms Guo boasted that her title was “commercial general manager” at the Chinese Red Cross, a claim that appeared to have been verified by Sina, the internet company hosting the blog.

For many Chinese internet users, who were already suspicious that the Red Cross may have been misspending charitable donations, the revelation of her apparent wealth was infuriating.

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Is Jiang Zemin Dead or Alive? The Chinese Public Wants to Know

2011-07-07T16:07:00.000-07:00

Bloomberg | On the night of July 4, social networks in China lit up with a rumor that the former Chinese President, Jiang Zemin, had died. I watched the speculation flicker across my computer screen before deciding that, since I live only a few blocks from Jiang’s sprawling Shanghai compound, I should venture outside to see if anything was afoot.

Despite the fervent online activity, the neighborhood was quiet. It is a pleasant, tree-lined area with a large number of mansions -- including Jiang's -- secured behind hulking gates. Foreign passport holders aren’t allowed to live in its immediate vicinity; allegedly, prospective Chinese homebuyers have to agree to a genealogy check to ensure that their families have been foreigner-free for three generations.

The only thing that struck me as unusual in the neighborhood was the four traffic assistants stationed on a busy corner, directing pedestrians to obey the walk signals -- at midnight.
Did traffic assistants at midnight mean that Jiang Zemin was dead?

Like the millions of Chinese communicating on blogs and microblogs, I was looking for any indication that would confirm or refute the rumor. This is what happens in an opaque society.
Over the course of the next two days, I took several more strolls past the compound. In each case I saw -- possibly! -- “something.” There was a motorcycle cop who slowly trawled the neighborhood. There were two uniformed soldiers who walked near me. I couldn’t help but over-interpret -- or perhaps, under-interpret -- their meaning.

Arguably, I was wasting my time walking through the neighborhood two or three times a day. But, arguably, so were the millions of Chinese microbloggers who have tried since the night of July 4 to discuss the rumors about Jiang while contending with Chinese online censors.
The censors blocked the use of Jiang’s name; drawings of Jiang’s pants (he likes, or liked, to pull them up to his chest); the word "river" (Jiang’s name shares a Chinese character); and internet searches for -- among other terms -- the Chinese equivalent of “myocardial infarction,” presumably due to rumors that Jiang had suffered a heart-attack.

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My Journey of Self-Awakening

2011-07-07T15:45:00.000-07:00

The Epoch Times | Ett av de mange vitnesbyrd som Epoch Times publiserer løpende med oversettelser av kinesiske borgeres brev hvor de forteller om hvorfor de har valgt å bryte med kommunistpartiet.

Zhang Ke - I’m an ordinary, thirty-something Chinese. I have a normal life just like many other Chinese people.

I have been educated by the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) philosophy since my youth, and once joined the Young Pioneer Team, and later joined the Young Youth League. I was the Youth League secretary during my three years of middle school. Frankly speaking, I was very proud at the time, and my father who was a CCP member also urged me many times to join the CCP.

But my view on the CCP has gradually changed since 2003, when I entered a university to major in music.

I have a great love and passion for the music, but music study is different from other subjects. There is no need for one to read much literature and research, rather a music student must experience and comprehend.

From that point onwards, I have come into contact with Western music and culture from classical to modern pop music. During my research, I found that Chinese music is lagging behind Western music in both its classical and modern styles. Is it because Chinese are not good enough? Or that we don’t have an “arts gene?” Is our equipment worse than others? Gradually I found out otherwise. It’s clear to everyone that the Arts do not exist in a vacuum. One may say that the Arts reflect a country’s current cultural climate. The highly advanced western arts, whether music or other fields, thrive because they are immersed in a free and democratic environment. Slowly, my research has extended from the arts field to the political field.

China is culturally a great nation, with 5000 years of cultural heritage. Our ancestors created a glorious culture and art, but currently they’re non-existent in China. Who’s to blame? It’s the evil CCP! Modern Chinese art is impetuous, self-seeking and lacking in inner content. The arts have become nothing but a tool for normal people to indulge themselves and under the CCP’s leadership, they have become a means to make money. Many young people learn how to sing or how to play an instrument. But their only reason is to become famous one day so they can live in luxurious resorts and drive fancy cars. The Chinese ideology towards the arts is totally twisted. Who’s to blame? Who else but the CCP!

Certain types of music work and style are not allowed to be studied in school, and are labeled not “main stream arts” by the teacher. In layman’s terms, they are not mainstream because they affect the interests of the CCP.

In the “Nine Commentaries on the Chinese Communist Party,” the CCP is described as a spider. Its evil antennae are everywhere. Everything has to be related to the CCP, who seeks to control everything.

A “good song” in China must be one that praises the CCP and it’s called a “Red Song.” Another type of “good song” would be a love song that doesn’t have anything to do with politics, and doesn’t affect the interests of the CCP. Any songs that have a little other flavor will attract the attention of the CCP’s watch dog – The State Administration of Radio Film and Television (SARFT), who will get involved to investigate. How can art thrive in such environment? It’s impossible.

My 4 years of undergraduate music study can also be treated as the study of Chinese and Western politics. The conclusion from this study has almost made me not want to be Chinese. I detest the CCP and its version of China!

By coincidence, I came to read the “Nine Commentaries,” and got to know about Falun Gong. To be honest, I was really afraid at the time. Because in my mind, which had been stuffed with the CCP’s brainwashing, Falun Gong was not good. But after I read the book, I completely changed, and have come to understand the CCP’s true nature. This also made an important change in me, that loving one’s country is not equal to loving the CCP!

Now, I take pride in being Chinese! My life has a purpose now, which is overthrowing the CCP, and making China a democratic and free country. Maybe I don’t have the ability and power to do so, but I’ll make every endeavor to spread the truth to the people around me.

What makes me happy is that, both my father and I have decided to quit all connections to the CCP. I don’t have blind faith in a particular person, or a particular political party or a particular opinion from some organizations; I only advocate freedom and democracy!

The reason I love The Epoch Times, New Tang Dynasty TV and the “Nine Commentaries” so much, is that they have expressed views that ordinary Chinese people would like to say but dare not. I have tried to refute the “Nine Commentaries” based on the CCP’s point of view, but no matter what, I can’t find any disproof. Because you can’t contradict the truth, the CCP is so afraid and tries to block the news.

I want to say to the CCP: if you feel that the “Nine Commentaries” is making false claims, you could call for a debate in front of 1.4 billion Chinese, and let the people be the judge; but does the CCP dare to do that?

Christ was nailed to the cross by the Romans because he was trying to save mankind and 2000 years later, people are still praising him. Today, though the CCP has nailed Falun Gong and the “Nine Commentaries” to the cross, the results can only be that truth will live forever, and the evil CCP will be cast aside by the people, and bring itself everlasting infamy. The CCP dictatorship will not be allowed by the heaven. The CCP will be eternally damned.

I have decided to devote my life to the democratic movement of China. One day, if there is a revolution in China, I’m willing to give everything to help including my life.

God, please help China, and the Chinese People!