China Chronicles December 1, 2012

• World's first high-speed railway for frigid regions starts operation

  THE world's first high-speed railway in areas with extremely low temperature, which runs through three provinces in northeastern China, started operation today as part of the country's efforts to revitalize the old industrial base.

  The rail line extending 921 km links the capitals of Heilongjiang, Jilin and Liaoning provinces and the port city of Dalian, Liaoning, with designed speeds of up to 350 km per hour.

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• Xi urges care, love for HIV patients

  VICE President Xi Jinping urged society to avoid discrimination against HIV/AIDS patients during a visit to a clinic in Beijing yesterday.

  Xi, who is also the general secretary of the Communist Party of China, was talking to HIV carriers, doctors and anti-AIDS volunteers at a community clinic in south Beijing on the eve of World AIDS Day.

  He shook hands with HIV carriers and learnt about the progress in treatment and counseling they had received.

  "HIV/AIDS is not terrible in itself, but what is really dreadful is the ignorance of HIV/AIDS and the prejudice against AIDS patients," said Xi.

  "All HIV carriers and AIDS patients are our brothers and sisters, and the whole society should light their life with love," he said.

  On arriving at the clinic in Puhuangyu Community in south Beijing, Xi put on a red ribbon pin, symbolizing solidarity with AIDS-affected people.

  He was briefed on the work of the clinic, including anti-HIV medicines for people in high-risk groups. He asked the medical staff to make sure that the people rid themselves of their worries and persist with drug treatment.

  In a counseling service room, the Party chief met an HIV carrier surnamed Sun and praised his work in educating people through a program for affected people. Xi said that with care and medical treatment, it was possible for many patients to make a recovery.

  He also stressed the unique role of counseling services in combating HIV/AIDS, such as helping infected people allay fears and the sense of inferiority to be more confident.

  Xi said although effective disease-control measures have been implemented in China, "we must take note that the situation for preventing and controlling HIV/AIDS is still grave, prejudice against HIV-affected people remains serious, and there is a lot to do in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention and control."

  He called for an earnest implementation of the country's 2011-2015 plan for HIV/AIDS prevention and control, which requires the par! ticipation of the entire society, an all-out investment and a comprehensive prevention.

  "The prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS should cover all the affected people without differentiation to ensure that the care from the Party, government and the whole society can reach them," he stressed.

• Man sentenced to death for 6 sex slaves, murders

  A MAN in central China's Luoyang City was sentenced to death yesterday for keeping six women as sex slaves in a basement of his apartment for two years and murdering two of them.

  Li Hao, 35, married with a young son, was convicted of murder, rape, organized prostitution, illegal detention and pornography by the Luoyang Intermediate People's Court in Henan Province.

  Three women, who were among the six sex slaves and helped in murdering the two women, were also found guilty of murder. One of them was sentenced to three years in prison, while the other two were put on probation.

  The court learnt Li had dug two cells in the basement of his apartment building in 2009. He kidnapped six nightclub and karaoke bar workers and locked them up for up to 21 months.

  Li repeatedly forced the six women to have sex with him starting in August 2009.

  He forced them to perform pornographic acts which he uploaded on the Internet and charged fees for viewing. Occasionally, he loaned them out as prostitutes, the court said yesterday.

  Li also forced and instructed one of his sex slaves, a woman surnamed Duan, to help him kill another woman in 2010.

  Li, with Duan's help, beat the victim to death in front of others to force them to "obey."

  He buried the body close to where they slept as a warning.

  Then next year, Li asked Duan and two others surnamed Jiang and Zhang to kill another woman.

  It was previously reported in the Chinese media that the woman was killed and buried after a fight over who would sleep with Li, but the court did not announce the reason why Li murdered her.

  All the three women were found guilty of murder but they were shown leniency in their sentences for committing crimes under threat, the court said.

  Li was caught in September last year when one of the women managed to escape after she had been forced to go on the street to earn money as a prostitute but went to the police instead.

  Li went to his sister's place to bo! rrow money with the intention of fleeing the city but police caught up with him before that.

  The court said that Li Yuan, his sister, was also convicted on charges of harboring a criminal.

  She gave Li 1,000 yuan to help him escape. She was put on probation, the court said.

  Li worked for Luoyang City Fire Bureau and later became an official with the city's Quality and Technical Supervision Bureau, the Southern Metropolis Daily reported.

  According to police, Li kept the women - all in their early 20s - with the sole purpose of making money through prostitution or pornographic sites.

  According to Xinhua news agency, the Luoyang police chief apologized last year for failing to detect the crime earlier and suspended four policemen.

• Killer's relatives, friends ask court to show mercy

  A COURT in southern Guangdong Province was asked to give a light sentence to a university student who killed his father because he could no longer stand being abused, Nanfang Daily reported yesterday.

  The 23-year-old identified as A Qiang hacked his father with a butcher's knife more than 20 times on May 6 after the man cursed him and attempted to slash him during a quarrel, the court said.

  A Qiang surrendered to police after the attack.

  Relatives, friends and his school signed a petition on A Qiang's behalf, asking for a lenient sentence. The court didn't announce a decision.

  "I just wanted to injure my father to make him stop," A Qiang told Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court on Thursday. "He said he would slash me and threatened me. He was crazy. I had to do something."

  He also told the court he did not regret it.

  "My father didn't care about the family at all. He always vented his anger on us. When he needed money he borrowed from loan sharks, but he always asked us to pay off his debts," A Qiang added.

  His mother and two sisters cried during the hearing.

  "Our family is sick," A Qiang's younger brother said during the court hearing.

• Organized crime boss to be freed in Macau

  THE Asian gambling mecca of Macau is bracing for the release today of a notorious organized crime boss who was at the center of the gangland violence that plagued the city in the late 1990s.

  Wan Kuok-koi, also known as "Broken Tooth Koi," is scheduled to walk free from Coloane Prison sometime between midnight yesterday and noon today after serving most of a 15-year sentence, the Macau government said.

  Wan was convicted of loan sharking, money laundering and being a gang leader in November 1999. As head of Macau's 14K triad, Wan waged a brutal war with rival triads, or organized crime gangs, for dominance of the lucrative VIP rooms in Macau's casinos.

  Wan was arrested shortly after a bomb destroyed the car of Macau's director of investigative police, Antonio Marques Baptista, who was unharmed by the assassination attempt because he was out jogging at the time of the blast.

  According to news reports in Macau and nearby Hong Kong, authorities have been preparing for his release by warning hotels and casinos to tighten security and plan to keep a close eye on him after he gets out.

  Officials have also warned Wan to behave after his release, the reports said.

  The measures are a response to fears that Wan's release would be followed by a return to the former gang violence that rocked Macau and claimed dozens of lives in the city, including 37 in 1999 alone.

  Some worry he'll try to get involved again with junkets, which arrange for wealthy Chinese mainland gamblers to come to Macau, lend them money and make big profits by collecting on debts.

  But analysts say when Wan leaves prison, he'll likely find he has lost much of his power.

  Macau's decision to end a four-decade casino monopoly in 2002 opened the way for foreign operators to modernize the industry.

  Las Vegas Sands Corp, MGM Resorts International and Wynn Resorts Ltd have all opened glitzy resorts in recent years. Macau is the only place in China where gambling is legal.

  "Wan Kuok! -koi is yesterday's man," said Steve Vickers, a former head of intelligence at Hong Kong's police force who is now chief executive of business intelligence and risk consultancy SVA.

  "Whilst Wan remains connected with his previous gang members, there is just no room for the wild bunch in Macau anymore. He will be neutralized should he create trouble," said Vickers.

• Broadcaster suspended over obscene content

  CHINESE regulators suspended a broadcaster yesterday after an unaired segment of a TV game show was leaked online showing a raucous shouting match about nudity between spectators and a woman who calls her daughter the next Lady Gaga.

  Jiangsu Education Television's programming was suspended because the show was deemed vulgar and not educational enough.

  The decision was prompted by the game show "Bang Bang Bang," which has games of chance for cash prizes as well as entertainment segments with attractive women. A video clip of an episode that had yet to air, apparently filmed by an audience member, features Gan Lulu, an auto show model well-known in China for racy outfits. Gan's career was launched when her mother posted a nude online video of her to gain publicity.

  The six-minute "Bang, Bang, Bang" clip, still available on YouTube, shows Gan, her mother and audience members shouting and swearing after one person asks whether Gan's risque images have undermined morals in China.

  Gan's mother Lei Bingxia also in the audience, stands to take up the argument, using several unprintable slurs.

  "Can your mom make you the sexy goddess of China?" she later shouts. "Can your mom make billions of people like you? Gan's mom can!"

  "I'm the best agent in China, I'm telling you! I will not only make my daughter the world's Lady Gaga, but the world's Marilyn Monroe."

  The State Administration of Radio, Film and Television ordered the show canceled on Wednesday for "amplifying ugliness." It said it had a negative influence on society.

  On Thursday, it issued a second directive saying the station had to suspend all programming because it violated broadcasting rules by identifying itself as an educational channel while offering entertainment content.