China Chronicles May 30, 2012
- Ted tide kills abalones
Seafood farmer You changxiong in Yutang Village, Baiqing Town in east China's coastal Fujian Provice holds dead abalones from his seafood farm as red tide hits the waters off the coast in Pingtang, Fujian. You will suffer aloss of an estimate 3 million yuan from the red tide. Local fishery authorities reported that the red tide has killed l 50 percent of the 100 million abalones local seafood farmers have raised, causing a damage totalling 220 million yuan. Red tide is a phenomenon resulted from large concentrations of aquatic microorganisms.
- Chinese national victim
A Chinese national was killed in yesterday's earthquake, the Chinese Consulate General in Milan said.
The death was reported by other Chinese living in the stricken area.
The identity of the deceased was not available.
- Beijing summit to be 'fruitful'
THIS year's Shanghai Cooperation Organization Summit is expected to produce fruitful results, Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Cheng Guoping said in Beijing yesterday.
The 12th meeting of the Council of Heads of Member States takes place in Beijing on June 6-7.
Cheng said the summit will identify the direction for the SCO's development and major tasks for the next decade and adopt the Strategic Plan for the Medium-Term Development of the SCO in accordance with the consensus reached at the Astana summit, he said.
Cheng said significant outcome documents would be adopted.
"In the political field, we will adopt the Declaration on Building a Region with Lasting Peace and Common Prosperity, which will be the first political document of the SCO themed on building a harmonious region," he said.
In the security field, the amendments to the SCO Regulations on Political and Diplomatic Measures and Mechanism of Response to Events Jeopardizing Regional Peace, Security and Stability will be adopted, which will boost the SCO's ability to prevent and tackle emergencies.
In the economic field, member states will reach a new consensus on establishing multilateral financing guarantee mechanisms and speeding up transportation facilitation, he said.
China has been the SCO rotating president since last year's Astana summit in Kazakhstan.
- Putin's state visit
RUSSIAN President Vladimir Putin will pay a state visit to China on June 5-6, the Kremlin press service said yesterday.
In Beijing, Putin will take part in a Heads of State Council meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Founded in Shanghai in 2001, the SCO comprises six countries - China, Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
Putin is to visit Uzbekistan on June 4 and Kazakhstan on June 7.
- Novelist's gift turned into retreat for the rich
A classic garden and library donated to the city of Hangzhou by China's bestselling kung fu novelist has been turned into a high-end clubhouse serving expensive meals.
In 1994, Hong Kong-based Louis Cha, better known by his pen name Jin Yong, spent nearly 14 million yuan (US$2.21 million) building the Cloudy Pine Sanctum, a tranquil retreat for literature and cultural communications, beside the scenic West Lake, and donated it to the government of Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province, in 1996.
But instead of serving the public, the exquisite garden has been turned into a luxurious club targeting wealthy businessmen and government officials, the China News Service reported yesterday.
An unnamed employee told the news agency that the garden offered four meals a day. The minimum charge for a feast was 500 yuan per person, and a group banquet could cost 10,000 yuan, he said, adding that a pot of tea cost 100 yuan per person.
An official with the property-management authority surnamed Fan said large banquets were held only occasionally and mainly for the authorities.
But Fan disclosed that "an internal employee" signed a contract and paid 450,000 yuan in rent per year to operate the Cloudy Pine Sanctum.
Before a major renovation in 2008 when the structure was turned into the luxurious club, local cultural groups set up offices there, Zhang Dong, an official with the Hangzhou West Lake Culture Research Association, told CNS.
The Suzhou-style garden, occupying an area of 3,200 square meters, used to be a popular rendezvous for writers and artists, and it cost just 35 yuan per person for a pot of tea, he said, adding that the group was "swept away" after the renovation. Zhang said the authorities never followed Cha's instructions and charged admission fees.
Cha, 88, is one of China's most renowned literary figures. His 15 works written between 1955 and 1972 earned him a reputation as one of the greatest martial arts writers.
He is also the bestselli! ng livin g Chinese author, with more than 100 million books sold worldwide. They have been translated into English, French, Korean, Japanese, Vietnamese, Indonesian, Burmese and Thai.
The novelist could not be reached for comment.
- Peking duck restaurant sorry for swill oil sale
A renowned Peking roast duck restaurant has issued a public apology after two of its chain locations were found to resell leftover kitchen oil to street vendors in Beijing.
The Beijing-based Quanjude Group apologized after the arrest of Wang Duohao, who fabricated certificates, collected gutter oil in the capital's Sanyuanqiao and Aoyuncun outlets and resold it to street vendors who make fried snacks from 2004 to October 2011.
Wang collected 50 to 60 kilograms of swill oil, including duck grease that dripped into collecting boxes and pipes under the restaurants' stoves, each day from a Quanjude outlet. He has been accused of making and selling toxic and harmful food, prosecutors in Chaoyang District said.
The Supreme People's Court, the Supreme People's Procuratorate and the Ministry of Public Security said this February that producers and sellers of gutter oil or illegally recycled cooking oil could face the death penalty.
The company said it has cooperated fully with the police investigation into Wang and retained the right to sue him.
"We have rectified loopholes in kitchen residue management regulations," the group announced on its website.
The two chain restaurants have changed to a licensed recycling firm and ordered it to provide information about the buyers of the reprocessed oil.
"We attach great importance to the responsible disposal of waste oil. We will continue to fulfil our social responsibility and welcome supervision by the public and the media," the restaurant announced.
Gutter oil can contain carcinogens and other toxins.
The government launched a massive crackdown in 2011 after media reports said gutter oil was rampant in China. Police have busted 100 gutter oil manufacturers since last August and arrested about 800 suspects.
- Police bust kidney-transplant ring
THE ringleader of a kidney-trafficking gang that housed kidney sellers in a residential complex in Hangzhou has been arrested and 28 sellers have been rescued, police said yesterday.
The man identified as Dong Ge was apprehended in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province, said Wang Jun, official with the Dingqiao police station in Hangzhou. He didn't reveal details as the police investigation is ongoing.
According to an undercover report conducted by news portal qq.com, nearly 30 young men who were either in debt or wanted to earn quick money were waiting for surgery and cash payment of 35,000 yuan (US$5,530) for a kidney.
A man surnamed Ji said he sold his kidney in order to buy a Yamaha motorbike. A seller surnamed Li, 20, said he had to collect money to compensate his co-worker in an accident settlement.
The post said the gang found sellers in railway stations, took them to a hospital for physical examination and provided them accommodations as they waited for kidney-removal surgery.
The illegal network rented a four-room apartment, three for sellers and one for agents, on April 24 in Hangzhou, capital of eastern China's Zhejiang Province. The sellers, including university students and bankrupt businessmen, had their cell phones taken away and were given nearly 50 yuan per day for food to cook by themselves.
Some were found by agents, who could earn 3,500 yuan from a deal.
Three sellers were escorted to underground kidney-transplant clinics in the southern provincial capitals of Kunming and Guangzhou, the post said.
- Ex-fugitive Lai heads to life term
LAI Changxing, a notorious smuggling ring kingpin, is to begin a life sentence for smuggling and bribery after he failed to appeal the court ruling, the Intermediate People's Court of Xiamen in Fujian Province said yesterday.
Lai didn't appeal within 10 days after the verdict was announced on May 18, the Xinhua news agency reported.
Lai formed a smuggling ring with bases in Hong Kong and Xiamen since 1991, importing cigarettes, cars and other commodities worth 27.395 billion yuan (US$3.69 billion) and evaded duties of nearly 14 billion yuan from December 1995 to May 1999, prosecutors told the court at his trial.
Once China's No. 1 fugitive, Lai fled to Canada in mid-1999 and for 12 years fought deportation to China by arguing he could face the death penalty or be tortured and would not get a fair trial in his home country. He was repatriated to China on July 23, 2011.
- Officials punished after fatal fire
SEVERAL officials have been punished after a kindergarten fire in central China's Hunan Province killed two children and injured three others on Sunday, local officials said.Chen Li, head of the Lantian Kindergarten, and Ou Xiuqiu, a school nurse, have been detained while eight local education officials, including the deputy director of the county education bureau, have been suspended from their posts.
The fire broke out about midnight Sunday. Two children died of smoke inhalation and another three were slightly injured and are in stable condition, the Xinhua news agency reported yesterday.
A preliminary investigation showed Ou ignited mosquito-repellent incense, which triggered the blaze, and left children sleeping alone without getting approval.
The Lantian Kindergarten was located in a two-floor residential house away from the country fair in Haotou County. It has suspended classes and been cordoned off, the Sanxiang City Express, a local newspaper, reported.
The injured students have been discharged from the hospital and are back home.
- Interviewing Jin YeYe 5/6
johey24 has added a photo to the pool:
After about an hour the conversation moved to less happy times .... talking about bad old days, and the younger man in the back heard these stories for the first time. To me this was a very moving moment and I am very happy with this photo. It encapsulates a lot of the "lost" history of this country, a history younger people here do not want to know about and older people having experienced the pain of it do not want to talk about.
Ever since I can remember, I have been very interested in history. Having lived in Shanghai for 7 odd years, one of my deep, deep passions has become Chinese History, a sub-field I knew very little about when I arrived here. Having met so many wonderful but very, very old people at Tong Tong's park over these years, it has become a fantasy of mine to "interview" them and ask them about their own histories here in Shanghai during the tumultuous 20th Century, about their experiences here during those horrible years and what their views are on modern China and what they think of the "Little Emperor" society being created around them today.
Problem is that neither my nor Mau's Chinese is good enough for this and no Chinese person I have met yet has had the necessary proficiency in English to understand the smaller nuances of the probing questions I want to ask.
That was until I met Cici about 6 weeks ago. Five minutes after she first walked into my class I just knew she was the person I have been waiting for. all these years We convinced her to help us and last week we did the prep work in the old neighbourhood we frequent. Then, today, my dream came true : we interviewed our first Old Timer, and who better to start with but Jin YeYe (Grandfather Jin) or as he is known on my flickr stream, Uncle Benny.
I have to admit that I was glad that I was wearing sunglasses for my eyes watered up way too many times during the 2 hours we spoke to him.
Some of the things he told us today.
Born in 1923, Jin YeYe is 89 years old. In 1941 he fled to Shanghai in order to escape the Kuomintang's forced conscription of young men in the countryside. When he arrived in Shanghai, he faced the same problem but this time escaped by lying about his age. He told them he was 29, thus too old for them, and got away with it!
His marriage was an arranged marriage. At that time he really was 29, his wife 19. Despite arranged marriages being abolished in 1949 when the PRC was established, the family culture was still too strong and he married the lady chosen by his parents. She gave him 3 sons and a daughter and they are looking forward to their 60th anniversary next year. They now have a Great-Great Grand daughter of 3 years old.
Because of the Japanese War (1937 – 1945), the crazy years between 1945 and 1978 and because of his countryside background, he does not have much formal education. Today he can read little more than headlines despite the Government's attempts at schooling people of his background in their workplaces in the 1950's.
On the question of who cooks for him, he said he and his wife cook for themselves, despite their oldest children living with them. When Mauro asked why the kids do not cook for their parents, he became sad, saying that children today are not filial (do not respect their elders).
We asked him what he thinks Chairman Mao would think of modern, 21st Century China. He just shook his head, then dropped his head. After a few seconds he sadly pointed at my friend Xiao Fei (a small businessman) standing behind him and said, "He would kill him and then destroy everything build up since Deng took power in '78".
On a question about his own thoughts about China today, he said that he sees around him is very good because back then we 4 would not have been able to sit here and talk as openly about everything as we are doing today.
Bless his soul.
Should you want to know more about Grandpa Jin and other people like him, I would love to know about it.
Links to previous photos of Uncle Benny on flickr:
www.flickr.com/photos/7830239@N06/773931298/
www.flickr.com/photos/7830239@N06/6368058467/ - Ringleader whose men rounded up 30 kidney sellers arrested
POLICE have arrested the head of an organ trafficking ring who allegedly housed many kidney sellers in a residential complex in Hangzhou, capital of Zhejiang Province.
The suspect surnamed Li was captured in Changsha in central Hunan Province, according to Hangzhou police. But they refused to provide any detail.
Police in Hangzhou began to investigate the case after an anonymous post on www.qq.com said nearly 30 young men who were either in debt or wanted to earn quick money were waiting for sell their kidneys at 35,000 yuan (US$5,533.5) each.
The post said the gang picked up the sellers in railway stations, took them to hospital for physical examination and housed them in the residential complex as they wait for a kidney removal surgery.
Three sellers have been escorted to underground hospitals in Kunming and Guangzhou in southern Yunnan and Guangdong provinces for the surgery. - Driver arrested for rampage that killed 6, injured 8
THE number of people killed by a farm vehicle that ran amok yesterday in a small town in central Hunan Province has climbed to six after two more victims died in a local hospital last night and early today.
A villager surnamed Tian in Yinjiaxi Town had a quarrel with a fellow villager surnamed Huang and drove his vehicle over Huang, killing him on the spot yesterday noon. Tian kept driving and knocked down 13 people on the road.
Four died at the scene and 10 were rushed to hospital for rescue, but two of them succumbed to their wounds in a hospital in Zhangjiajie City, today's People's Daily reported.
Tian has been arrested by police and investigation is ongoing, the paper said. - Second tremor felt in Tangshan after yesterday's jolt
ANOTHER earthquake measuring 3.2 on the Richter scale hit north China's Hebei Province around 5am this morning, the China Earthquake Networks Center announced.
The epicenter is 6 kilometers underground in the border between Tangshan City and Luanxian County, the center said. It followed a 4.8-magnitude quake in the same area at 10:22 yesterday morning.
The tremor this morning was felt by many Tangshan residents but local life was not affected.
Some seismologists believe the two quakes were aftershocks of the devastating 7.8-magnitude quake in 1976, which claimed more than 242,000 lives. But the notion was questioned by researchers with the state seismological monitoring center.
Both experts said the aftershocks were normal movement of the earth's crust and people need not to panic. - Hangzhou police probes kidney trafficking ring
POLICE in Hangzhou, capital of eastern Zhejiang Province began to investigate online allegations that a kidney trafficking gang housed many kidney sellers in a residential complex in Jianggan District.
The anonymous post on www.qq.com claimed that nearly 30 young men who were either in debt or wanted to earn quick money were waiting for surgery and cash payment of 35,000 yuan (US$5,533.5) for one kidney.
The post said the gang picked up sellers in railway stations, took them to hospital for physical examination and provide them accommodations as they wait for a kidney removal surgery.
Three sellers have been escorted to underground kidney transplant clinics in Kunming and Guangzhou in southern Yunnan and Guangdong provinces.
Nearly 1 million Chinese need kidney transplant but only about 4,000 of them were lucky to have a transplant last year. The shortage of donated kidneys has led to a boom of underground kidney transaction. - Officials punished after fire kills 2 kids, injures 3
SEVERAL officials were suspended after a kindergarten fire in Rucheng County, central Hunan Province killed two children and injured three others on Sunday, local officials said.
But authorities didn't reveal detailed number and identity of the disciplined officials.
Chen Li, head of the Lantian Kindergarten, and Ou Xiuqiu, a school nurse, have been detained while several local education officials have been suspended.
The fire broke out around midnight on Sunday. Two children died of asphyxia due to smoke inhalation and another three are being treated in a hospital. They are in stable condition, Xinhua News Agency reported.
Preliminary investigation showed the fire was caused by mosquito-repellent incense.
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