China Chronicles September 24, 2012
- Former police chief sentenced to 15 years in prison
A Chinese court sentenced Wang Lijun to 15 years in prison for bending the law for selfish ends, defection, abuse of power and bribe-taking this morning.
Wang, Chongqing's former vice mayor and police chief, was charged with several crimes and received a combined punishment for all offences.
The verdict was announced by the Chengdu Intermediate People's Court in southwest China's Sichuan Province. - Wang Lijun sentenced to 15 years in prison
A Chinese court sentenced Wang Lijun to 15 years in prison for bending the law for selfish ends, defection, abuse of power and bribe-taking this morning.
Wang, Chongqing's former vice mayor and police chief, was charged with several crimes and received a combined punishment for all offences.
The verdict was announced by the Chengdu Intermediate People's Court in southwest China's Sichuan Province. - I miss China...
Pezgirl has added a photo to the pool:
..and cool scenes like this just by walking around.
Loonggang district, Shenzhen.
Yashica electro 35GL, expired Kodak NC160 - Culture debate gets heated as Starbucks opens near temple
A COFFEE shop near one of Buddhism's most famous temples in China has sparked a heated debate about a clash of cultures.
Starbucks' newly opened outlet close to Hangzhou's Lingyin Temple, has been called a second "cultural invasion," with critics saying the US chain's commercial style will spoil the serenity that an oriental Buddhism temple should embrace.
Supporters, however, said they welcomed the outlet as a place for tourists to enjoy a drink after visiting the temple.
Talk of an "invasion" was misplaced, they said, as the outlet was not inside the temple but on a nearby commercial street where a KFC restaurant and a shopping mall had been open for more than six months.
The incident follows calls in 2009 to stop the first "cultural invasion" when the Seattle-based coffee chain had to move its outlet out of Beijing's Forbidden City seven years after it opened.
Critics had urged the closure of the outlet which they said was a "humiliation" for a culture exemplified by the ancient buildings.
On Friday, Starbucks announced on its official Weibo microblog that its Lingyin Temple branch would be opening the next day.
Critics were quick to respond.
"Must the ancient Chinese culture give way to the Western and commercial atmosphere? Starbucks should try open branch in London's Big Ben," said Zhixiang.
"So today we can allow having a Western coffee shop near the Buddhism temple, then why can't we have a massage house or a sex toy shop nearby tomorrow?" was another microblog comment.
"Several years ago Starbucks was driven out of the imperial palace, and now it had to turn to monks," another mocked.
But supporters fought back, with many of them saying that it was not the coffee shop that had affected the temple's atmosphere as the commercial street with Western restaurants and shopping malls had been there for half a year.
"Why do we have to keep pretending to ignore the fact that the Lingyin Temple area have already fallen int! o pure commercial atmosphere when the local government started to set up the small businesses?" asked Deng Haijian.
Deng and some other posters said they were calling on local governments to make a start to protecting Chinese culture at major scenic spots by wiping out all small enterprises, both Chinese and foreign shops.
- Police seek 20 violent protesters
THE images of 20 people suspected of damaging property and fighting with police officers during a recent anti-Japan protest in southern Shenzhen City have been published online.
Police used pepper spray, tear gas and water cannon to break up the demonstration on September 16 when thousands of people occupied a crowded street and some attacked a Japanese department store, grabbed police shields and knocked off officers' helmets. At least one policeman was hit with a flowerpot.
After checking the images recorded by surveillance cameras, Shenzhen police have now put online pictures of 20 people they want to interview. They are urging the suspects to come forward as soon as possible and urged the public to call officers if they had any information about their identities or whereabouts.
Police have conclusive evidence from the video footage and hope the suspects will turn themselves in, police said.
Anyone with information about the suspects could be eligible for a reward.
Apart from the 20 suspects being sought, Shenzhen police have detained seven violent protesters, mostly poorly educated migrant workers in their twenties, police said.
Some had called each other to take part in the street protest and some were incited by others to damage property and attack the police, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.
A police officer told the newspaper that with their "blind" patriotism or excessive enthusiasm, the young people could be easily swayed into behaving much too aggressively.
Tensions mounted after Japan announced earlier this month it had completed a planned "purchase" of the Diaoyu Islands, triggering mass protests, with tens of thousands of anti-Japanese protesters taking to the streets in cities across China.
- Chinese flag raised on nation's first aircraft carrier
CHINA'S first aircraft carrier held a flag-raising ceremony yesterday, amid rising tensions over the Diaoyu Islands in the East China Sea.
The ceremony on the 300-meter ship, the former Soviet carrier Varyag now to be the Liaoning after the northeast province where it was refitted, took place in the province's port of Dalian.
During the ceremony, the aircraft carrier raised the Chinese national flag on its mast, the People's Liberation Army flag on its bow and the PLA Navy's colors on its stern.
The aircraft carrier has undergone numerous sea trials since August 2011. Construction of the Varyag ended with the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. China bought the carrier's immense armored hull - with no engine, electrics or propeller - from Ukraine in 1998 and began to refit the vessel in Dalian in 2002.
- Isles row ruins plan for a diplomatic celebration
China has postponed a ceremony marking the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties with Japan, due to the ongoing dispute over the Diaoyu Islands.
"Due to the current situation, the Chinese side has decided that the reception commemorating the 40th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations will be postponed until an appropriate time," an official from the Chinese People's Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries said yesterday.
The ceremony was due to take place on Thursday.
Tensions escalated dramatically after the Japanese government "bought" three of the islands from so-called private owners.
On Friday, China's foreign ministry spokesman Hong Lei said that many of the ceremonies marking the 40th anniversary of Sino-Japanese diplomatic ties had been affected by the row.
"Many plans have been ruined due to the mistaken actions of the Japanese side (and) many of the planned commemoration events have been impacted," Hong said.
"This is something that we did not hope to see. The responsibility lies entirely with the Japanese side," he said.
In Tokyo, a senior adviser to Japan's ruling party said yesterday that Japan should shelve the dispute over the Diaoyu Islands in accordance with a consensus with the Chinese side.
Hirohisa Fujii, 80, former finance minister and chief adviser to the ruling Democratic Party of Japan, said in an interview with public broadcaster NHK that historical consensus and facts should be honored.
In terms of the Diaoyu issue, "we should respect the proposal of 'shelving disputes' made by the late Chinese leaders Zhou Enlai and Deng Xiaoping," he said.
He said young people in Japan should learn more about history and acknowledge basic facts, such as that Japan had indeed colonized South Korea and launched an aggressive war against China in the past.
Meanwhile, the State Oceanic Administration said yesterday that China will promote the use of drones, or unmanned aerial v! ehicles, to strengthen its marine surveillance.
The SOA, which is stepping up efforts to enhance its surveillance of islands including the Diaoyu and Huangyan Island, said the use of drones in marine surveillance was flexible, low-cost and efficient.
- 10 detained in connection with sleeper bus inferno
TEN people have been detained in connection with a collision that killed 36 people in northwestern Shaanxi Province on August 26, police said.
The accident happened at around 2am in Yan'an City when a tanker loaded with methanol from Henan Province left a service area on the Baotou-Maoming Expressway and was hit by a double-decker sleeper bus.
The highly flammable liquid leaked and set off a huge explosion. The bus was full at the time and only three out of the 39 people on board survived. Drivers and passengers in the tanker escaped injury.
Three drivers were found guilty of breaking traffic laws and causing the accident.
The bus driver, who died in the accident, was driving when he should have been resting and the two tanker drivers, surnamed Shan, 52, and Zhang, 43, are being held by police for violations related to the transport of dangerous materials, according to Xinhua news agency.
A preliminary investigation showed that the tanker illegally entered the highway and was driving too slowly, resulting in the collision.
Police have also detained eight staffers of the bus company from the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
China ordered sweeping inspections into the safety of long-distance buses following the crash.
Several provinces have banned the non-stop overnight operation of long-distance buses.
The crash put Yang Dacai, head of the Shaanxi Work Safety Bureau at the center of a media storm after he was seen smiling at the scene.
An online campaign exposed his penchant for luxury watches and eyeglasses and he was stripped of his post after an investigation was launched.
- Rice recipe for Tibetans to cure bone pain
TIBETAN farmer Nyima Tsering says he loves rice, not because it adds variety to his barley-dominated diet, but also because it comes free and is a cure for painful joints.A resident of Banbar County in Tibet Autonomous Region, Nyima Tsering began receiving rice in 2003 as part of a project to fight Kashin-Beck disease (KBD), a chronic bone disease rampant in the area.
"None of my three children has been diagnosed with KBD, while other patients in my family said their joint pain has been alleviated," he said.
The county where Nyima Tsering lives has been hit the worst by disability-causing KBD, but local officials said rice helps to control the disease.
By encouraging residents to replace barley with rice as a staple food, authorities have cut the number of new KBD cases reported in Banbar since 2000.
KBD mainly affects children between the ages of 7 and 12, causing joint deformation, pain and, in serious cases, disability. A 1999 survey indicated that half of the population of some villages in Banbar had been affected.
"The disease has been a major cause of poverty here, as many farmers are unable to work after developing KBD symptoms," said Shilok, deputy head of the regional health department.
Although its exact cause has yet to be determined, experts suspect large amounts of mycotoxin in barley, selenium deficiencies and drinking water contamination may be behind its spread.
A government-funded project launched in 2000 has seen hundreds of tons of free rice delivered to families with KBD patients and local schools every year.
"Although rice is new to many Tibetan residents, they have cheerfully welcomed the government's offer, as it complements the meager local barley harvest," said Deng Youmin, vice Party secretary in Banbar.
Since local soil and water quality is suspected to have contributed to the KBD breakout, officials have relocated some villages and improved water supplies in others, although rice has proven to be the mo! st cost-effective solution for villages that cannot afford resettlement.
The project has seen the number of patients suffering from KBD drop to less than 13 percent of the population in Banbar, Deng said, citing a March survey.
Zhou Lingwang, an official at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said the experiment in Banbar "offered precious insights for other KBD-affected Tibetan areas."
China has pledged to eliminate KBD before 2015.
- Rescue bids for 17 miners
RESCUE efforts are under way at two coal mines in northeast China where a total of 17 people are trapped underground.
Fire broke out yesterday at the Longshan mine in Heilongjiang Province, trapping 11 miners.
There were 13 men working in the mine at the time but two were lifted to safety.
The accident happened at around 8am at the mine in Youyi County of Shuangyashan City, the county government said in a statement.
It said that the county's coal management bureau had ordered the mine to suspend production on September 3, a day after its license had expired but work had continued illegally.
On Saturday, flooding at the Jiayi mine in the same province's Jidong County trapped six miners.
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