Global Voices » Bob Chen

China：Google's announcement to clarify rumors brings in more speculations

Bob Chen — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 02:28:40 +0000

What’s going on with Google? Millions of Chinese netizens are wondering.
On Google China’s Blackboard, a Chinese-language blog run by Google.cn, a post titled ‘clear the air of rumors’ stated:

过去几天里，我们看到有很多关于谷歌中国以及谷歌员工的不真实的传言，一些报道称我们已经关闭了在中国的办公室，还有一些报道称我们在中国的员工已经接到通知将于近期离职。这些都是不真实的。目前，谷歌中国的员工同过去一样在办公室正常工作，讨论产品开发，与客户进行沟通。尽管谷歌总部管理层近期宣布他们将会在未来的几个星期与中国政府就一些事宜进行商讨，谷歌中国的员工们仍在一如既往地努力向我们的用户和合作伙伴提供最好的产品和服务，用户和合作伙伴对谷歌是非常重要的

In the past few days we have heard many rumors about Google China and its local employees. Some reported that we have shut down the offices in China and some claimed our Chinese staff would lose their jobs in the near future. These rumors are not true! Chinese employees of Google.cn are, as usual, working in the office, discussing product development and talking with our clients. Although management in Google HQ announced their decision to discuss some issues with the Chinese government, Chinese employees are working hard as always to provide the best service and products to our clients and partners, who are crucial to Google.cn. Jan 19

Last week, Google in its official blog announced its surprising decision to stop censoring the content on its Chinese website, a move interpreted by many as a threat to quit the China market if necessary. It triggered mass reaction from Chinese netizens who mostly supported the action.

However the matter is more complicated than people thought. Rumors about Google’s real intent soon spread across the internet. Different interpretations and perspectives on its possible exit were floated and the controversy has not yet ceased.

Spy inside
It was reported that Google is investigating its employees on suspicion of hacking from inside. As an article in Reuters suggests:
Local media, citing unnamed sources, reported that some Google China employees were denied access to internal networks after January 13, while some staff were sent on leave and others transferred to different offices in Google's Asia Pacific operations.

Let’s look at the original version in Chinese which is widely cited and circulated on the internet.

Google总部在声明退出中国之后，立刻取消了所有中国工程师访问Google代码服务器的权限。
他们都是在上班后发现服务器的home目录进不去了。事先根本没有通知。

Chinese engineers found their access to the Google servers denied as Google HQ announced the decision to quit China. Without any advance notice they discovered they couldn’t access the home server when they came to work

如果Google是有预谋的撤离，为什么要采取这种手段？他完全可以让员工继续工作，做一些善后工作。为什么Google突然那么不信任中国这边的团队？

If Google’s retreat was planned, why they did react in such a hurry? They could have just let everyone in China keep working and help the transition process. Why does Google no longer trust the Chinese team members so suddenly?

唯一的原因就是，Google内部的技术人员中被安插了党的特务（就在Google上海办公处）事实真相就是，这个人在受到党的派遣，应聘Google成功之后，就把Gmail的关键代码down下来然后上交给了组织。而这个组织破解gmail系统的目的就是为了获取“人权团体”的邮件，这些在Google官方的声明都有

The only reason must be is that there were undercover ‘spies,’ dispatched by the Party, discovered at the Google Shanghai office working as technicians. They downloaded the key codes of Gmail after being hired and passed it on to Chinese organizations. The purpose was to hack the Gmail system and intercept the email exchanges of the human rights groups, which motive is reflected in Google’s announcement.

这样一来会暴露gmail系统的所有漏洞，而且Google官方不能承认这个事情，否则他在国际上的声誉会大受影响。特工这次的窃密行动，使Google有面临全面破产的危险（Google官方博客也说了，牵涉到知识产权的问题），说白了，再在中国呆下去，可能要威胁到整个公司的生存，所以才如此仓促的把中国部门的一切工作全部停掉

Of course Google cannot disclose this fact since it would expose all the loopholes of Gmail and its reputation as a secure service provider would be seriously damaged. The espionage posed a significant threat to Google and that is why Google said issues of intellectual property were involved. Google obviously believed the survival of the firm would be put in danger if it stayed in China any longer so Google stopped work in China immediately.

The post furthermore claimed that there were three spies, all of whom were Party operatives. However, quite a few responses to the post ridicule this as simply a sensational speculation.

A rational decision

In boxun.com, a journalist summarized the troubles entangled Google since its entry into China.

2006年2月牌照门
2006年11月辞职门
2007年2月地图门
2007年4月词库门
2007年5月抄袭门
2007年6月报告门
2007年7月流氓软件门
2007年8月恶搞门
2007年10月税务门
2008年3月抄袭门2.0
2008年3月漏税门
2008年6月捐款门
2008年6月泄密门
2008年11月广告门
2009年1月低俗门
2009年4月低俗门2.0
2009年6月涉黄门
2009年10月版权门
2009年12月涉黄门2.0

Partial translation:

2007/2 In Google Maps, a Chinese city was marked with a name from the time of the Japanese occupation
2009/1 Google was criticized by the state for being vulgar
2009/10 Google was accused of infringement of copyright.
2009/6 Google was found to be showing obscene content

试想，有哪一个跨国公司架得住如此频繁的折腾？据统计Google在中国的收入大概是其全球总收入的1%，即使退出中国市场也不影响Google的整体业绩，损失不大，丢脸的是中共独裁政府。

Think about it, which international enterprise can afford to have so much trouble? The income of Google in China only makes up about 1% of its total revenues, so even if it abandons the market it won’t be greatly affected, but the Chinese government would lose face. Therefore, it is believed by some people that the threatened exit is just a cover story for its commercial failure in China.

Blogger Yemingzhu suggests Google takes the chance to quit China as a pretext for its business failure.

另一种说法是谷歌退出中国，采取这样高调的方式是为了掩饰其在中国的商业失败，从数据上讲，谷歌在中国是属于典型的叫好不叫座，赢得美誉度，没有得到实惠，还投入巨大的成本，从商业上讲，对股东要有交代，退出不是不可以解释。

Another is saying is that Google’s high-profile exit is aimed at covering up its business failure in China because Google’s reputation doesn’t win it much profit. Given its huge costs, the exit is understandable.

Google is currently the second largest search engine in mainland China and has about 30% of market share to Baidu’s 60%.
Ma Yun(马云）, the well-known president of Alibaba.com, an e-commerce website, criticized Google:

他说，谷歌在美国的成功是一种创业者精神的成功，是一种永不放弃的精神的成功。而进入中国市场后，则变成了以为可以用钱去改变市场，忽略了过去用脚踏实地、用梦想去改变别人的精神。

Google succeeded in U.S with its entrepreneurship and insistence on its cause. However, in China it daydreams that money can manipulate the market while ignoring the fact that it should stand it’s ground to change others with its passion step by step.

He also called Yahoo’s support of Google a rash decision.

Political conspiracy
Gaoren thought Google’s exit has political motivation, possibly backed by the U.S government.

Google是在中国政府的网络监察制度更严格的时候进入中国市场，希望在中国市场分得一羹。在中国政府的网络监察制度越来越宽松的情况下退出市场，但站出来高调批评网络监察制度，这本身就是滑稽的，也是站不住脚的。至少表明Google和其声明中的道德是格格不入的。 Google只不过是利用政治作为撤出中国市场的遁词。

Google entered the Chinese market at a time of stricter censorship and tried to grab a share of this huge market. But today it is exiting when restrictions on the internet are becoming laxer. It is ridiculous for it to stand up and criticize restrictions at this time. It doesn’t maintain the moral high ground expressed in its statement and is simply using politics as an excuse to quit the Chinese market.

按照Google自己的高调标准，Google本身是一个高举道德大旗的魔鬼。2008年印度22岁的IT专业人士 Rahul　Krishnakumar　Vaid因为在Orkut网站写下“我恨索尼娅甘地（I　hate　Sonia　Gandhi）”而遭逮捕。 Orkut是Google在印度的一个社交网络网站。Google立即向印度警方提供了Vaid的Gmail电子邮件信息。

In fact by its own standards, it is a demon. In 2008 Rahul　Krishnakumar　Vaid in India was arrested because he wrote ‘I　hate Sonia Gandhi’ on Orkut, a social website. Google immediately provided his Gmail information to the police when requested.

2010年1月7号，国务卿希拉里.克林顿（Hillary　Clinton）在国务院请吃饭。这是一场小规模的晚宴，规模虽小，来客却都是通讯科技界的重量级人物。客人名单上有谷歌首席执行官埃里克.施密特（Eric　Schmidt）、Twitter联合创始人杰克.多尔西（Jack　Dorsey）、微软首席研究与战略官克瑞格.蒙迪（Craig　Mundie），以及Mobile　Accord总裁James　 Eberhard，　Cisco的行销总裁Susan　Bostron，纽约大学教授Clay　Shirky，　Personal个人民主组织创始人 Andrew　Rasiej等。这是美国国务院利用信息技术来推进美国外交目标的努力的一部分。

没过几天，在2010年的1月12日Google就跳出来。Google是否在为美国政府的政治目的服务呢？大家拭目以待。如果Google成为美国政府的政治打手，那中国政府对其政治约束是完全必要和合理的。

On Jan 7, 2010, Hillary　Clinton invited quite a few big names in the IT industry to a banquet, including Eric　Schmidt (Google), Jack　Dorsey (Twitter), Craig Mundie(Microsoft), James Eberhard, Susan　Bostron (Cisco), Clay　Shirky (Professor in NYU), Andrew　Rasiej (Human rights group). This was seen as part of a US initiative to push its diplomatic goals using information technology.

A few days later, Google bailed out so is it serving the interests of the US government? Let’s wait and see. But, if it is part of an American political plan, then it is totally reasonable for the Chinese government to curb it.

China: Google's possible exile leads to cyber protests; Netizens on move

Bob Chen — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:07:59 +0000

Do no evil, Google says. But the irony is that it did help the Chinese government block sensitive information from the Chinese internet users, which is necessary for it to operate in China. However, this time it seems to be really provoked and made its simmering feud with the authority public. Google is likely to quit China.

The post on Google blog states the Google China has been suffering from cyber attacks and also, the information of its clients, many of them human rights advocates, were accessed by third party.

What is more well-known is its self-censorship. For example, typing in words such as Tainanmen in Google.cn will never return you pictures or texts about the 1989 incident.

So, when last night Google announced it would lift the censorship, the Chinese internet users flooded to the website to search for all the sensitive terms they never had a chance to access. In twitters, forums, discussion boards, we witness an explosion of talks about Google and its possible departure, or exile, from China.

On Twitter, pzhtx said,

Google热榜中“天安门”上升到第一了，中国网民在送Google最后一程

In the list of pop tags, “Tiananmen” rises to the first place. The Chinese netizens are saying goodbye to Google in this way.

People were mourning that they are now restricted inside the largest LAN network in the world, which is encircled by the strict censorship and the Great Firewall
.
A tweet is madly circulated on the internet:

Facebook的原罪是它能让人认识想认识的人，Twitter的原罪是它能让人说出想说的话，Google的原罪是它能让人找到想找到的东西，Youtube的原罪是它能让人看到想看到的东西……所以它们都被干掉了

The sin of facebook is that it helps people know who they wanna know. The sin of Twitter is that it allows people to say what they wanna say. The sin of Google is that it lets people find what they wanna find, and Youtube let us see what we wanna see. So, they are all kicked away.

It directly affects millions of netizens, because since Google’s expansion in China, its search engine, Gmail, and Google Doc have been widely used. A netizen in Xiaonei, which is a social network website popular among young people, was panic:

陆铠 :早上看到新闻说“谷歌将退出中国市场”……吓醒了……我的Gmail，我的Google docs，我的谷歌咨询，我的互联网

I saw that “Google planned to quit the Chinese market”. I was scared awake…My Gmail, My Google docs, my Google Search, and my internet.

These days are uncommon for Chinese cyberspace. Baidu has just been hacked by self-alleged Iranian hackers, which prompted a cyber war. As a Chinese local search engine with the largest market share, Baidu is often compared with Google. Its reputation is blackened because of its stronger censorship and the fact that it has removed search returns about poisonous milk after taking money from the producers.

王子健 :百度该不知道的都不知道，谷歌不该知道的都知道，他知道的太多了…

Baidu will show you nothing that you shouldn’t know, but Google is the opposite. It knows too much.

Google is highly praised among internet users:

樊春晓→槑 :谷歌退出中国市场？！谷歌有骨气，谴责xx一个，没有民主的地方，谷歌情愿退出，道义、金钱，什么更重要？我收回以前说老外没文化的话，现在他们为我们诠释了什么叫舍身取义，XX，看看现在的中国人，祖宗的美德一点都没留下，枉为华夏子孙

Google quit Chinese market?! A firm of backbone! In a place without democracy, Google prefers to quit. What is more important, money or morality? I won’t say foreigners are impolite anymore, because they have shown us what it means by ‘sacrifice oneself for justice’. Look at the Chinese nowadays, the merit of ancestors were gone. I am ashamed to call us the offspring of the Huaxia Great China.

A sarcastic price of words is getting quite popular around the cyberspace.

90后：今天我翻墙，看到一个国外网站叫Google的，妈的全是抄袭百度的。00后：翻墙是什么？ 10后：网站是什么？ 20后：国外是什么？

People born in 90s: Today I stepped out of the Great Firewall and saw a foreign website named Google. Shit, it is all but a copy of Baidu.
Born in 00s: What do you mean by stepping out of Great Firewall?
Born in 10s: What do you mean by website?
Born in 20s: What is ‘foreign’?

唐鹏 :我党威武，我天朝万岁！！谷歌终于要“自愿”退出中国市场了！！！

Tang Peng shouted: Great Party, Long live the CCP dynasty!! Finally Google would like to quit the Chinese market ‘voluntarily’!!

People soon make up how the state-run media CCTV might comment on the incident

cctv新闻稿：近日谷歌公司由于黄色搜索，侵犯中国作家著作权等问题，遭到了中国网民的普遍抵制。由于业绩下滑严重，考虑退出中国市场。这又是一次中国网民抵制外国不良网络服务商的成功案例！

Recently because Google encountered issues such as obscene search returns, infringement on copyrights, it is boycotted by the Chinese netizens. Also due to the decreasing revenue, it is considering to quit the Chinese market. This is another case of boycotting a perverted foreign website by Chinese people.

Right now, a campaign to put flowers to the Google offices in China is gaining momentum on the internet. It is thought to be a way to memorize Google and express the grief and anger against censorship. In front of the Google Beijing office, people have started to take action for a flower commemoration.

Written by Bob Chen · comments (22)
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China: Akmal's death sentence, a resolute No to memory of humiliation?

Bob Chen — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 22:57:31 +0000

Akmal Shaikh, a British citizen convicted of smuggling heroine into China, was executed on Tuesday although his families along with the British government had pleaded for reprieve, claiming that he is mentally ill.

The supreme court of China however dismissed the request of a mental assessment because the documents provided by the British embassy cannot prove that Akmal is mentally disordered.

After the inject of Akmal by lethal injection, the British government and some right organizations reacted fiercely. British Prime Minister Gordon Brown condemned the execution and said he was “”particularly concerned that no mental health assessment was undertaken.”

Facing the critique, China expressed strong discontent. The spokesman of foreign ministry said the accusation is groundless and warned that the intervention might damage the bilateral relations between the two countries.

In China, drug trafficking is considered as a felony. Carrying or selling heroine of more than 50 grams will get death penalty according to the Chinese law, and over 4000 grams were found on Akmal.

To many Chinese netizens, the incident reminded them of the 2 Opium Wars fought in 19 century that British troop invaded China because Chinese officials burned up the opium
sold by British. China lost the war and suffered from the “100 years of humiliation” since then.

On 163.com, a major portal website in China, over 3000 people supported a comment left after the news piece, which writes:

老外就了不起了…..贩毒就该杀

What's anything special with a westerner? A drug dealer should definitely be executed.

Acekingfang, moreover, thought the execution shows China is rising.

同样是没收“鸦片”、惩办英国毒贩，170年的1839年林则徐的“禁烟”引发清王朝的世纪第一战，英国人靠鸦片和大炮打开了中国的大门…. 1856年清政府在“亚罗号”上逮捕了几名海盗，这一本属于中国内政的事件被英军当做发兵的借口而发动了第二次鸦片战争，150年前的1859年第二次鸦片战争中英法联军在天津大沽口战胜清军，进而向北京城发兵，此年火烧圆明园，烧杀抢掠，虏走中国无数的文物、财宝，使得中华民族遭受历史上最沉重的灾难和损失之一。

Differently, the confiscation of opium and punishment of British drug dealers 170 years ago led to the first war of China in the century, through which the British forced open the gate of China by opium and cannons. 1856 Britain launched the second Opium War, taking the arrest of a few pirates by the Qing dynasty as an excuse. The British-French troop defeated the Chinese army and then marched to Beijing, burning down the Old Summer Palace, and looted away tons of treasures, which was one of the most striking disasters in the Chinese history.

而今当英国贩毒分子在我们的国土上做出法律所不容的事情，我们可以正大光明的用我们自己法律的手段惩治毒贩，绝不留情，不用看别人的脸色，这也从侧面显示：中国可以不高兴，后果很严重！

Today when the British drug dealer violated the law on our land, we can openly and rightfully punish him without any mercy. We don't need to follow the order of others any more. This shows that China can be unhappy, and the consequence of provoking China is serious.

zha811's comment demonstrated a similar mentality

比如把大英博物馆的一些中国收藏拿来我们也许会认真考虑的！！

If you would return some of the Chinese treasures kept in the British Museum which were robbed away from China, we might take your proposal seriously.

zhun2875 said,

这是我们的内政，关英国人什么事？

It is our domestic affair. What has that to do with British?

In China, it is long complained that foreigners, in particular westerners, are treated as if they are privileged with a higher status. In 2008, a train made an unscheduled stop in order to send several Japanese passengers to the airport and even police cars were used to escort them. However, in another case a mentally ill Chinese citizen was fastened by the train attendants to the seat and left to death with no one tending him. This time, the court's ruling that treats people equally seems to win applause.

Wang Wen, a editor of Global Times, believes:

归根结底，外国人在华犯罪，由谁来判，怎么判，必须严格按中国的法律程序来办。洋人犯法，能否与国人同罪，是一个司法公正的问题。

After all, the question of who and how to judge a foreign suspect in China has to be addressed according to the law of China. It is a matter of judiciary justice.

Some opinions hold that it is in fact a diplomatic failure of the British government because it doesn't really get to know how Chinese people think. It is echoed by the commentary:

我很同情阿克毛和他的亲人们，死刑是一个残酷的刑罚，我个人一直觉得，这是一个非常不人道的做法。但，就司法本身的刚性原则显示，只要中国还没有废除死刑，只要别的死刑犯还在遭受这样的待遇，阿克毛就没有任何可以例外的理由。否则，人为制造的区别，将带来更多的悲剧。

I have my sympathy on Akmal and his family. Death penalty is harsh and, inhumane, as I always think. But as long as China has not yet abolished the penalty, and as long as other criminals are punished in the same way, Akmal should be no exception. Otherwise, a distinction made on purpose will only bring more tragedies.

在以往中国因种种罪犯的引渡问题与别国的交涉时，中国总是无一例外的被拒绝。哪怕需要引渡的是恐怖分子，西方也都会用本国法律中的相应条款直接拒绝。最直接的借口是，欧美国家的三权分立和绝对的司法独立，是一道谁也越不过去的门槛。但这次英国举国上下几乎都忘记了司法独立的最高原则，而是寄希望于中国高层对司法的直接干预，试图让阿克毛逃脱一死。

In the past when China tried to extradite even the terrorists the western countries would often refuse citing the articles in their own law. The most straightforward excuse is the checks and balance of power and the independence of judicature. But this time, Britain seems to have forgotten the principle and put their hope on administrative intervention.

当西方试图群起将一个罪犯的生命与更多的东西挂钩，逼中国高层就范时，阿克毛，其实就已经不得的不死了。原因太简单，13亿中国人都在用天枰称着自己和那个叫阿克毛的鬼佬在国家里的重量。鬼佬的生命是命，我们自己就天生是草？

When Britain tried to make the case of something more than itself to force the Chinese administration to compromise the death of Akmal has been fixed. It is easy to see that the 1.3 billion people are weighing the life of Akmal against that of theirs. If the life of a westerner is precious, then ours are worthless?

China: Environmental issues, citizens on move

Bob Chen — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 04:18:18 +0000

Last Thursday, in a press conference the Chinese premier Wen promised a 40% carbon emissions cut by 2020 as a measure to deal with climate change. Facing suspicion and questions, he reiterated the next day in a meeting with developing countries that it was a ‘serious and solemn promise’. But no one could fail to see how far China still has to go to curb its pollution and increasing energy consumption.

In October, Lu Guang, a Chinese photographer, was awarded the Eugene Smith grant, an international award for Humanistic Photography for his pictures documenting pollution in China. For foreigners, these pictures might be just another warning of the world of the environmental degradation happening in China. But for most Chinese, it was shocking in the extreme to see those familiar places, often seen on books and maps or heard from families and friends, now as dead zones unfit for human habitation.

So, what then will be the determining factors in the fight against the deteriorating environment of China?

Not necessarily the government. Compared to environment improvement, it has a stronger incentive in economic development and political achievement. As example, last week was difficult for people living in Guangzhou, the capital of Guangdong province and one of the richest areas in China. People were appalled to find they were almost blinded by haze and fog, generated by car exhausts, construction site activity and power plant emissions. Highways were shut down because drivers could not see cars over 5 meters away. It is the most serious atmospheric pollution day in the last 10 years.

GV Blogger John Kennedy living in Guangzhou described the city as being ‘just like a huge construction site full of traffic jams.’

There is a reason for this huge burst of activity. To prepare for the 2010 Asian games, Guangzhou is being fully mobilized to build simultaneously 8 subway routes and a satellite city of stadiums and residences for the sportsmen, This political imperative takes precedence over all else.

Last Monday, again in Guangzhou, hundreds of residents waited anxiously outside a newly established office which processes complaints and appeals about plans to build several garbage incinerators which may be as close as 1000 meters to their homes. They fear that the resultant pollution will inevitably result in cancers and other diseases

Initially it was peaceful and people followed the procedure to fill in forms and line up but they finally became impatient when only 10 of the hundreds of complaints were received in a 2 hour period. Bloggers twittered about what happened there next.

@wenyunchao 来了辆警车停路边,一分钟后开走了。见到几个本地记者。陆续有人赶来,不过看似丽江的居多。有个人举着标语站到了解放路边,直接向民众诉求。 #pylj

A police car came but left after a minute. I saw a few local reporters. More people came with most of them from Lijiang, a residential area near the planned site of one incinerator. A man held up a sign to protest and appeal to passers-by.

@LEMONed
粗略点算，还在门外排队的就有超过两百人，还不断有人加入。但城管委已经不让再领表了！有来自南国奥园的业主高呼「吕秘书长下台！」 #pylj

I roughly count and found over 200 people lined up outside with more joining in but no more forms are distributed! There are residents from Nanguoao Garden, a residential area, yelling “Secretary Lv step down!”

“广州未来将走垃圾焚烧为主的路子，肯定要建垃圾焚烧发电厂，建几个，政府正在规划” 。

Guangzhou will definitely prioritize trash incineration, so the incinerator power plant have to be built. As to how many are we going to build, the government is still considering this.

The remarks were seen as blind ignorance of the public opposition when in fact, residents had voiced their objections on the internet for months. The plan was revealed as early as 2006 but only in 2009 were the sites confirmed and land use permits issued. People were shocked to find that the view out of their windows in the future would be dominated by the incinerators. Property values soon slumped.

Back to the scene.

@wenyunchao 现场人士举起标语走向旁边的市政府,接访演变成游行及集会,我们将继续为大家直播。 #pylj

People held up their signs and pressed towards the municipal building. The reception of appeals turned into a demonstration. We will keep updating.

wenyunchao 人群已经聚焦在市政府门口,头顶上A4纸复印的标语白花花一片,有个81岁的会江村婆婆也为了,现场口号”市长出来”。 #pylj

The crowd, some as old as 81, gathered at the gate of the municipal building while a white wave of paper signs billowed over their heads. The slogan shouted was “come out mayor!”

@wenyunchao 群情比较激愤,一位会江村民说:我少活二十年也就忍了,可子孙们怎么办?吉祥路这一侧停了六部警车,不过秩序尚好。 #pylj

Many people were enraged. A resident from Huijiang said, “If I have to live 20 years less, then so be it but what about our sons and daughters?” Six police cars were standing by but the overall situation remained orderly.

@LEMONed 喇叭广播说让这里几百人选5名代表进去见领导，这是想把我们先打乱！广州人民这么容易上当？我们随即齐声回应：「选5名领导出来」！警察顿时傻了 #pylj

The government broadcast asks people to select 5 representatives to see the Mayor. It tries to divide us! Are we so vulnerable to such a trick? We immediately shouted back: “You select 5 officials and ask them to come out!” The police were astonished at this.

Weng YunChao, on twitter and also a well-known blogger, comments on the scene:

@wenyunchao 这是未来国内群体运动很有代表性的问题,政府要对话,必须得有民众代表,但民众代表往往成为打击对象,政府往往找不到对话对象。事情往往因此而走向僵局。 #pylj

This will be a typical problem of mass movements in the future. If the government wants a dialogue then there must be representatives from the public. But the representatives are often the target of a crackdown, so the government finds no one to talk with and it then falls into a stalemate.

The indifference of the government and reluctance to talk with people is even a more serious problem than the pollution itself. An article by by Xinkuan Paper states:-

从省情调研中心发布的民调数据来看，超过98%的民众对“涉及众多民众利益，但有关部门垄断行政决策，未能及时通报消息”最为不满———这一对周边环境及民众生活可能产生重大影响的项目，从2004年确定地址、2006年通过审批、2009年开始征地，5年中没有情况通报，没有听证，甚至电厂所在的会江村村民也大多不知道有该项目的存在，直至它突兀地被民众关注。

According to a poll, over 98% people are discontented with the fact that the administration monopolizes the decision-making and fails to consult the public. Trash incinerators are a highly contentious project. But no one was informed and there was no hearing when the location was confirmed in 2004, or when the project was given permit in 2006 nor when the land expropriation started in 2009. Even the villagers in Huijiang where the incinerator would be built knew nothing of it, until the issue abruptly became public.

There has been much controversy on the issue. Is incineration the best method to dispose of the mountains of trash? If the incinerators are not built at these places, where then should they be built? Again, John Kennedy has a coverage on the debate.

The government has made (9) two clear points. First, if the project gets stuck in an environmental assessment, it won’t be carried out. Second, if the majority opposes it, it will also be stopped. But it is left to doubt that it would.

However, distrust of ‘expert assessment’ prevails as experts are losing their creditability as people think they are puppets of power and money. Second, people see little sincerity on the part of the government to consider public opinion as in the past four years it made no attempt at a dialogue. Moreover, the residents have no idea whether they can keep fighting the authority if attention on the issue dies down. Luckily, the demonstration on Monday ended peacefully although no one knows if there will be any act of reprisal or whether their complaints will have any effect.

China: Missing iPhone pressured mainland worker to suicide

Bob Chen — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:29:24 +0000

Sun Dangyang, 25, was born in a small village. He earned his college degree in Harbin University and was then employed by Foxconn, a Taiwanese company and one of Apple’s largest contractors. His parents were proud of their son however they never expected that the job and an iPhone would finally lead to Sun’s death.

On the morning of 16, July, Sun’s body was found at the foot of his apartment block. He left his last words to his girlfriend and some of his friends. Though the exact cause of his death is as yet unknown, judging from his messages, he committed suicide because he was suspected by Foxconn of stealing an iPhone G4 prototype.

The missing iPhone was deadly to Mr Sun. The security chief of Foxconn, in fear of Steve Jobs’ wrath, was said to have harshly interrogated Sun and searched through his home. The reason that Sun was so heavily pressured was that losing an iPhone prototype could mean losing the contracts from Apple which are worth millions of dollars and thousands of jobs.

Sun’s last message to his girlfriend reads:

“My dear, I’m sorry, go back home tomorrow, something has happened to me, please don’t tell my family, don’t contact me, this is the first time that I have ever begged you, please agree to that! I am so sorry!”

After that, he apparently committed suicide.

It could have been a normal if regrettable piece of news since suicide because of intense commercial pressure is not so surprising in China, where the industries are highly competitive. But a sensational post widely circulated on the internet changed everything. The post allegedly recorded an online chat of Sun with one of his friends studying in France. In the online chat which happened right at the night of his death, Sun implied that he was beaten up and humiliated by Foxconn staff.

Sun, as the person responsible for mailing the iPhone prototype back to Apple in US, was the major suspect according to his boss. Sun’s 3-day delay of reporting the loss to his manager further added to suspicion of him. But in the chat Sun explained to his friend:

好友100:12:16
勇哥，你还是先冷静下来把整个事情再回想一下
好友100:12:33
看看什么地方出了问题
孙丹勇00:13:03
我仔细想了一下,机台少只有两个可能性
一是我装箱之前确实就被人无心拿走了,
另外一个可能就是确实有人有意在当晚或第二天拿走了
好友100:13:05
我知道你不是那种人，但是害人之心不可有，防人之心不可无啊
好友100:13:29
这件事情后果严重不？
好友2 00:13:42
那没有回旋或者查找的可能性吗？
好友2 00:14:12
富士康应该有监管措施吧
孙丹勇00:14:23
虽然纸箱有贴保密封条,但是我在那也放有保密封条,而且大的纸箱有人动过,
好友100:15:43
对你有什么影响？
孙丹勇00:17:17
我之所以脱了3天才告诉主管,是因为我一直在找,我当时只是以为机台应该还在产线,想自己把问题处理掉,后来实在找不到了,也知道如果机台泄密会对公司有很严重的后果,就给JEFF 打电话告诉他了

(Friend)
Calm down and think back what has happened.
(Sun)
There can only be two reasons for the missing iPhone.
First, before I packed it up it had been stolen.
Second, someone stole it that night after it was packed.
(Friend)
I know you are not that kind of person. But you should keep alert of others too. Is it serious?
(Sun)
Though the paper box was sealed, it could be sealed afterwards with the strip seal I put there, and I found the box had been touched by some one.
(Friend)
What will happen to you?
(Sun)
I told my boss 3 days later because I had been looking for it. I thought more prototypes were on the streamline so I wished to handle the trouble myself. But I had no way to find it back and I know that leaking an iPhone is very serious a problem. So I called Jeff (his boss)

孙丹勇00:26:55
我今天被环安课做的那么记录,从良心上说,都是真的,没有半句假话,虽然看起来有些地方值得怀疑,我能理解你们,换了我我也会这么想的
孙丹勇00:27:35
但我不能接受环安课对我的人格污辱,

(Sun)
Sincerely, what I said to the security department today is all true though it might look suspicious in some places. I can understand you. If it were you I would thought the same way.
But I can’t afford the humiliation of my personality.

Sun then said:

孙丹勇00:30:02
就是去公安局,法律也明文规定不可以用武力,何况这只是公司而已
孙丹勇00:32:03
我只是有嫌疑而已,亲爱的环安课@#课长,你们有什么理由和资格扣留我在你那,对我动手

“Even at a police station, the law says force must never be used, much less in a corporate office. I was just a suspect, my dear head of security, so what reason and right do you have to confine me and use force?”

好友100:36:58
你千万不要气馁，更不要做什么过激的反应
孙丹勇00:37:58
少机台是我的责任,我能接受,也很愧疚,但他妈的不是我拿的,

(Friend)
Don’t be discouraged and don’t do something overacted.
(Sun)
It is my fault. I am sorry. But it was f**king not me that took the iPhone.

好友100:41:47
这样才更应该好好活，以后给那帮狗东西看
孙丹勇00:43:14
只是这次,估计严重的后果还在后面吧,随便再打我一顿,然后又随便找个理由把我丢公安局去?真不知道
好友100:44:47
勇哥，从现在开始，你一定要张个心眼，然后能留证据就留证据。而且适当的时候一定要服软
孙丹勇00:45:36
那个关人的房间居然没有摄像头,太他妈强了,去过C02 1.5F 这么多次,这次才发现那里还有这么个@#的世外桃园,不知有多少人被在那负过

(friend)
So you should live on to show to those bastards that you are innocent.
(Sun)
But this time, I guess something much worse would soon happen. I might be beaten up again without any reason and thrown to the police station? I don’t know.
(Friend)
Sun, be careful now, keep evidence and don’t resist when there is no way out.
(Sun)
The place that confined me doesn’t have CCTV! F**king a**hole. So many times had I been there but I had never found the place. I can't tell how many people had been bullied over there.

孙丹勇00:57:41
在部门快一年了,真的,很感激部门的各们同仁,和你们相处真的很愉快,特别是我亲爱的JEFF主管,真的很感激你,我之前在工作中出了这么的问题,一直都是你在前面替我挡客户,把事情都处理了,

(Sun)
Thanks my colleagues in this one year. It was a great time with you. Particularly my dear chief Jeff. Appreciate your help. I had so many problems and you always help me deal with the customers.

孙丹勇01:11:51
各位部门同仁,最后说一遍实话:少的那台N90机台不是我拿的

(Sun)
My last word, I didn’t take the Iphone N90

孙丹勇01:19:18
我真的是被你欺负得没话说了,亲爱的@#课长,希望你会很快得到应有的报应,虽然你们有能力打我,虽然能很快再造出一台机子来,但那是FOXCONN 强,不是你强
孙丹勇01:21:28
对了,还有一件事情,欠学校的助学贷款现在只是在还利息,期望不会对学弟学妹的贷款有影响,这件事情的很不好意思了
孙丹勇01:26:27
走了,高歌,好好休息噢,想想明天不用被人欺蓐,不用当替罪养,心里好受多了,

I was so pissed off, dear security chief. Hope you will get your retribution. Though you can beat me and make a new machine soon, it is the power of Foxconn, but not you.
Yes, one thing more. I am still paying back the interest of my college loan. Hope it won’t affect my brother and sister. Sorry for that. See you, my friend. I feel much better thinking that I don’t have to be bullied anymore and I don't need to be a scapegoat.

Two hours later, Sun apparently jumped from the top of the building.

The record was verified and thought to be authentic. Journalists soon found the security chief, Gu Qinming mentioned by Sun. Gu Qinming replied:

顾钦明说，7月15日13时30分许，在获悉苹果公司一部手机样机丢失后，他去了孙丹勇说的包装现场，孙丹勇模拟了当时交接手机的现场，并说交接时他中间离开了一会儿。

On 15, July, I went to the site where Sun allegedly packed up the iPhones. Sun described the scene where he received the phones from the production department, and said he left for a while during the process.

第一次调查结束后，从当时与孙丹勇交接产品的女同事处了解到，产品交接时孙丹勇一直在场，这与此前孙丹勇说他曾中途离开不一致，所以要跟他对一下细节。

But after the first investigation, I heard from his female colleague that he was there during the entire process, different from what he said, so I need to check it out with him.

He also denied that he searched Sun’s home by force.

顾钦明说，搜家是孙丹勇提出的。我们让孙丹勇回忆细节时，他突然提出，为表清白，到他家看看。“我当时觉得不很妥当，但孙丹勇挺坚持的，我就说要是去的话，就写个同意书签个字。”

It was Sun himself who asked us to search his house so that he can be proven innocent. ‘I thought it was not so appropriate but he insisted on that. So I asked him to sign an agreement.

Not many people trust the apology of Foxconn.
gaofei8292 said,

我也是FOXCONN的，对楼主说的深有同感，只要在FSK干过的都一定是深有体会并对楼主说的事情感同身受。
是的，FSK就是这样一个企业。

I am working in Foxconn too. I feel exactly the same with what the post states. Everyone who has worked there would feel the same. Indeed, that’s the way Foxconn is.

牵着蜗牛过马路 echoed the complaint:

兄弟走好，我也是在FSK的，不能不顶了，这里干活没有什么尊严，下面的狗一样的所谓陆干，和那些鸟台干一个鼻孔出气，溜须拍马，克扣我们这些基层的，

Good luck on your journey to another world. I am working in Foxconn too. I have to say that we have no dignity at all. The mainlander cadres are like the dogs of those senior chiefs from Taiwan. They crushed the grassroots together.

82926303 said Foxconn is too powerful a company to beat:

没有哪个电视台愿意曝光一些富士康的东西，即使你给他钱也不愿意，因为不想惹祸上身，多一事不如少一事，富士康太厉害了，因为根源有政府的支持，因为有钱，因为有专业的有名的法律团队……

No TV station would expose the dark side of Foxconn, even if you give them money. Foxconn is so powerful that they got the government support and have enough money and well-known lawyer team.

On the internal forum of Foxconn, there are also posts regretting Sun’s death and complaining about Foxconn’s suppressing atmosphere. Taiwan businessmen are thought to be just like foreign suppressors. sgqlove520 said

哎…台湾，日本的外商从来对我国劳动人民都不当人看。
但是这又能如何呢？不管出了什麽事.主流媒體也不敢報導.
地方政府我想沒什麽好說的了.為虎作倀.草菅人命.
已經屢見不鮮了.到底我國勞動人民的生命及尊嚴
何時才有人出來捍衛呢…

Sigh! The businessmen from Japan and Taiwan don’t treat Chinese workers as human. But so what? The mainstream media doesn’t report on the issue at all. Neither did the government do anything. Who on earth would stand up to protect the life and dignity of Chinese labor?

(Bob Guy also contributes to the post.)

The number one cause for suicide is untreated depression. Depression is treatable and suicide is preventable. You can get help from confidential support lines for the suicidal and those in emotional crisis. Please visit www.befrienders.org to find a suicide prevention helpline in your country.

China: Rio Tinto's trouble - commerical bribery or espionage?

Bob Chen — Sun, 19 Jul 2009 14:38:20 +0000

According to China Daily, the official newspaper in China, Rio Tinto has virtually bribed the entire management of the steel industry in the country.

More than a week ago, four employees of Rio Tinto were arrested on suspicion of ‘espionage, stealing state secrets and harming the nation’s economic interests and security.' Stern Hu, an Australian national who is in charge of iron ore trade in China for Rio Tinto is one of the four detained.

More than ten people in different Chinese steel companies have also been detained for further investigation, including the executive assistant of China Shougang Group.

The state secret involved is said to be confidential documents that gave Rio Tinto the upper hand in its iron ore negotiation with China’s state-owned steel mills. More specifically, it includes detailed information of the industry's projected ore demand and production data.

In the recent negotiation on long-term fixed price ore contracts, Chinese steel mills demanded a 40% decrease in price, back to the levels of 2007. But Rio Tinto insisted on a cutback of 33% at most, a price already accepted by Japan. The big three iron ore companies in Australia threatened a stoppage of supply to the open market, which meant that China had no recourse if negotiations broke down.

This tough position by the miners is because they have been informed of the forecasts of Chinese steel mills by insiders who took bribes. In past years, although the largest buyer of iron ore in the world, China has suffered from price rises of over 90% since 2004.

Columnist Li Fuyong comments:

在2002年以前，中国因为进口量小，在铁矿石市场几乎没有发言权；但是，自2003年起，中国成为最大进口国以后，依然得不到发言权，影响不了谈判局势。每次谈判都以中方失败告终，不得不屈从对方高额要价，世界三大矿山巨头每次都似乎号准了中国的脉搏，对中方的底牌了如指掌.

Before 2002 China had little influence in the iron ore market because of its small imports but even since 2003, when they became the largest importer, China still had little say in the negotiations and had to accept the exorbitant prices. The fact that the big three iron ore producers seem to be well aware of the Chinese mills forecast demand seems quite clear.

More details about how the employers of the state-owned steel companies took bribes were soon revealed. Netizens were furious to see that the people enjoying high pay from their own industry were ‘selling China to foreign companies!’

The article ‘从力拓间谍门看中国商业贿赂‘ (commercial bribery reflected in Rio Tinto's ‘Espionage-Gate')

在2008年北京奥运会开幕前，澳洲铁矿石巨头必和必拓的奥运团队就开始忙碌着接待来自全球各地的“贵宾”，他们主要是购买必和必拓产品的客户和必和必拓各业务高层及业务表现出色的员工。

Before the Beijing Olympics opened in 2008, the team of BHP Billiton had been busy entertaining their guests who were mostly their customers and their own senior executives.

其中，就包括近年来代表中国众多钢铁企业与必和必拓进行铁矿石价格谈判的上海宝钢集团及马钢等钢铁、有色金属企业的高层。

Among them were the senior officials in Bao Gang, Ma Gang etc, who are all steel giants in China representing hundreds of steel mills in negotiations with BHP Billiton.

白天，必和必拓邀请“贵宾”观看奥运比赛，晚上安排客人下榻每间每天数千元的酒店，并与他们在酒店的酒吧或公司预定的场所交流，还专门请演唱“猫”和“Mama mia”歌剧的著名女歌手来献唱。这方面的付出，为澳方铁矿石价格谈判上赢得了先机。

In the daytime, they were invited to watch the Olympic Games and at night, they were accommodated in hotels that cost thousands of RMB per night. BHP Billiton even invited singers from shows such as ‘cats' and ‘Mama Mia' to entertain the guests. All this apparently paid off in the iron ore negotiations.

On the internet, the senior officials were called ‘Hanjian', which means ‘rats amongst the Han Chinese'. It more usually refers to people who helped the Japanese invaders during the WW2.

hanyzj commented on 163.com:

中国人太容易被收买了！

It is so easy to buy off Chinese!

And a netizen named Sunny-day complained:

对付国有企业太容易了，哈哈，美女+金钱，可以横扫一切。

It is so easy to control a state-owned company. With beautiful girls and money, you can overcome everything.

Commercial or political?

The national security bureau has intervened to investigate the ‘espionage’ case. The computer of Stern Hu was confiscated and it was said that confidential information on scores of Chinese steel companies was found inside.

As China stepped up the campaign against commercial bribery there was reaction from overseas.

Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, warned China to handle the case carefully so as not to affect international public perceptions. Also the U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke reacted with ‘great concern' to the arrest of the four employees. Rio Tinto has asked its foreign staff to leave China or not to return to the country.

Last month a Chinese state-owned company called Chinalco just failed to buy a large stake of the Australian mining giant Rio Tinto. Most Chinese people thought the failure was the result of Australian political concern. Therefore an opinion has suggested that the detention this time could be China’s retaliation, but China has denied, saying it was an ‘individual case'.

Rather than the foreign employees, Chinese netizens are angrier at the rats among themselves. 暗香浮动 criticized that the corruption and bribery are the results of monopoly in the steel industry.

而这些垄断行业多是嫡出身，带有先天的优越性，在行业竞争中有着天然的优势，赚了是自己的，赔了找国家要。

The monopoly industries are all state-owned with an inbuilt advantage. They earn what they can earn but when they lose money they seek compensation from the government.

Woyaodese further points out that the centralization of power should be blamed as a hotbed that encourages corruption.

我们对于铁矿石的管制是越来越厉害，这厉害的结果就是中国能够经营铁矿石的进出口的单位只有100多家，远远少于钢铁企业的数量，这些有资质的进出口商最值钱的就是资质，这资质来自权力，当然就要权力寻租了。需要铁矿石的企业，只有找他们代理，而他们的代理费用不如说是倒卖的利润，进口的价格可以加一个 50-100%在给钢厂

We are now imposing strict regulation over the iron ore imports. The result is that only about 100 companies are licensed to import iron ore, a number far smaller than that of the steel companies. The license is their most valuable asset as it means power, the power to make money! Enterprises that need iron ore can only deal with these 100 companies to get the raw material they need so these 100 companies can readily sell ore for a 50 to 100% profit.

Therefore, the qualified companies, which constitute the majority of the negotiation team, all have an incentive to accept a high price. That might be the reason that, this year in order to stop the trend, it is the China Iron and Steel Association who took charge of the bargaining.

A question was raised. Bribery and commission are not unusual in Chinese business circles. Why would China be so adamant in investigating the case that it would even risk international disputes? An article suggested Rio Tinto has violated the hidden rules of business in China. Not only has the failure of China Aluminum Corporation to seize the stake of Rio Tinto seriously annoyed many senior officials, but its tough position in negotiations has also pushed the representatives to the corner.

The article said,

大伙再来看rio近期的表现
通过与中国内地的小钢企达成协议，避开中钢协，满足自己最大利益需求。
大批向中国港口运矿石，就地囤积，制造需求旺盛假象，逼迫中钢协在谈判中就范
这两条还不至于要命，最要命的一点是，把中钢协已经逼到绝路上，放话说，“我们也不坚持百分四十，但三大巨头必须在33%上有所松动”的前提下，依旧步步紧逼。其实中钢协最近那句话完全可以解读为，“老大，算你狠。给我点折扣，让我跟上边对人民有个交代吧，哪怕是0.1%也成，求你了…….”，可是 rio等偏偏装听不见。

Let's look at what Rio Tinto has done recently.
First, it strikes a deal with small steel enterprises to circumvent the China Iron and Steel Association, which is responsible for collective bargaining for the steel giants in China.
Second, it sends a huge amount of iron ore to different ports in China to fake an apparent strong demand in order to pressure the Association.
But the ultimately fatal problem is that it has backed the Association into a corner! The Association has already implied that ‘we won't insist on a 40% decrease but you have to make some concession on your 33% ultimatum!' It could be interpreted as, ‘Come on, we know you will be the winner but give us some discount so we can at least have something to report back to our bosses. Even 0.1% is enough, please!’ But Rio Tinto pretended to be deaf!

其实，33%也好，40%也罢，中钢协谈判组从中没一点提成可拿。他们只需要rio这边有所松动，让他们跟上头和国内舆论有个交代。如果连续两年毫无建树，他们这个组织就没存在的必要，多少人的前程和饭碗就全毁了。但rio不明白啊，一再把人往绝路上逼。既然这样，中钢协和先前被rio得罪的人，也就没路可退了。

Actually the Association has little to gain from the deal whether it is 33% or 40%. They just need some concession from Rio so they have a reason to exist otherwise their future and pay are forfeit. But Rio either doesn't understand this or doesn’t want to!. So the people that have been provoked by Rio Tinto feel that they have no option but to strike back.

（Bob Guy also contributes to the post.)

China: Call for tough response and resent of biased media

Bob Chen — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 06:37:39 +0000

With the presence of thousands of armed police, Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang province, has largely restored order and people are returning to their normal life. The violence that has led to 156 death in past a few days seemed to be gone, but the images of the brutal killings haunted people's mind across the country.

Although the official media keeps appealing for national and ethnic solidarity, the pictures and coverage of the riot presented to most Chinese indicate it is nothing but a hate crime directed at Han Chinese by Uygur gangs. Furious at that scores of innocent people were killed, Chinese netizens are calling for a tough response to what they think is exactly a terrorist attack.

Kukumusic told what he heared from his friend in Urumqi. In his eyes, he saw no so-called ‘peaceful protest' by Uygurs but only brutal butchers:

早上起来终于联系到了一个在乌市的哥们儿，很高兴他还活着（不是开玩笑），后来说到了乌市的现况，他跟我说了点那边动乱的细节，和现在网上论坛里报道的有些不同，一起说出来吧。
维族人在大街上见到汉族人就上去割喉，分成7、8人一组，杀了汉人后，5秒钟就散开，走在路上，常看见躺着很多具尸体。
暴乱的维族人都是生活在贫困线下的维族，据说被境外收买后，实施暴动行为。有一些维族人已经到了丧心病狂的地步，有直接把人从天桥上往下扔，更狠的是有些维族普通老百姓也受到牵连，也被他们错打。

In the morning I finally reached to my friend in Urumqi. Glad that he was still alive (no joking). We talked about the riot, which he revealed to me a lot more details different from what I have seen on the internet.
Uygur gangs rushed to every Han Chinese they saw and cut their throats in groups of 7 and 8. After the murder, they dispersed in 5 seconds. Walking along the street, he can see dead bodies around.
The rioters are those living in poverty. It is said they were manipulated by foreign organizers to carry out the violent killings. Some Uygurs are just crazy that they threw people straight from the bridge. More violently, they even mistakenly slaughtered their own people.

In EastSouthWestNorth.com, a number of witness accounts were translated into English, along with bloody pictures. The people injured, judged from their appreance, are most Han Chinese.

The brutal killings obviously provoked many netizens. Therefore, on the internet the call for a tough strike-back is prevailing. Some even complained the government is too soft.
lgf5156 (YY无罪) said:

我刚才和在乌鲁木齐工作的弟弟通了电话，感觉乌市汉人对政府的所作所为非常不满
认为
1 政府没有很好的保护他们，不相信政府。恐怖分子杀人时，打砸抢时没有武警（这个可能是政府对事件估计不足），等汉族人上街游行时，又是直升机，又是武警，催泪瓦斯，政府指挥镇压汉族人。
2 单位里本来很荣恰的民族关系变得很紧张。只要看到屠杀的汉族人，永远不会对维族有好感了。这是一个非常严重的问题。也非常难以解决。

I have just called my brother working in Urumqi. It can be felt that Han Chinese there are very discontent of the government's performance during the riot.
1. They were not well protected. They don't believe in the government. When the terrorists killed and robbed there are no armed police (perhaps the government underestimated the situation). But when the Han Chinese marched on street, there were helicopters, armed police and tear gas to stop us.
2. The harmonious ethnic relationship in our company turned tense. As long as people saw the scenes that Han were viciously killed, I am afraid they would no longer feel kind of Uygurs. It is a very serious problem.

The harm by the riot to both Uygurs and Han Chinese in Xinjiang is destined to be far-reaching. No one would forget the battle-field-like, horrible killings happened in Urumqi.

A journalist noted down what he experienced after the interview of Uygur women protesting for their missing husbands and sons who are said to be arrested:

当记者结束採访赛马场维族妇女示威后，约过了20分钟，好不容易找到的士返回酒店，车子刚行驶约10分钟途经大湾北路时，经验丰富的汉族的士司机感觉前面气氛不对，急忙停车说，不能再走这条路了。记者不解其意，问他「为什麽不走？」仅过了1分钟，就见前面许多行人像避雨一样慌张跑过来，有人边跑边喊，「快跑呀，前面又有事了！」循声望去，只见眼前100米路面已被大批维族人封锁，随即传来玻璃破碎声。的士司机见状急忙掉头，四周汽车纷纷转向，一时间交通秩序大乱。Mitbbs.com
记者从未经历如此紧张场面，只见路上行人朝同一个方向奔跑….车子至一个交叉路口刚要转弯，车后忽有女人拼命拍打车尾，急呼「帮帮忙，我跑不动了」，好心的司机停车让她上车，
一行人脱险后，记者反问司机﹕「刚才情景好像在伊拉克打仗，要这样紧张吗？」司机回答说，「你没经历过当时惨景，那些维族暴徒连妇女小孩都不放过，被他们撞到能有好结果吗？」

20 minutes after the interview, I finally got a taxi back to hotel. 10 minustes later, when the taxi passed by Dawan N Road, the experienced Han driver felt something wrong and stopped the car, saying ‘we can't go this way'. I wondered what happened. But 1 minute later I saw a crowd running up to us as if a pouring rain was coming, some yelling ‘Run, something is going on ahead'. I looked that way and found a gang of Uygurs has blocked the street. I heared windows crashed. The driver turned away immediately with all other cars. The traffic is chaotic.
I have never seen such a tension. All people ran to the same direction. When our taxi was about to turn, a woman flapped on the window shouting, ‘I can't run anymore, help!' We stopped to let her in.
When we got out of the danger, I asked the driver, ‘It was just like a war in Iraq. Do we have to be so?' The driver said, ‘You don't know about that. Those gangs don't even let women and girls go. Nothing good would happen if they capture you'.

Many Han Chinese are grieved to see that, the effort to restore order in Urumqi is, again, was seen by some western media as ‘crackdown', and the riot as but ‘peaceful protest.'
空气稀薄 complaint:

其实，为了维护民族团结，防止仇恨加剧，中国媒体的报道已经非常“不客观”了，那些血淋淋,惨不忍睹的镜头只有在海外媒体和互联网论坛上才可以见到，无耻的德国媒体竟然说中国政府用宣传propaganda来煽动汉人对维族人的仇恨。
如果是警方武力镇压造成所谓的维族“和平抗议者”大量伤亡，图片呢？视频呢？截至此刻，有哪家外媒，有哪个境外疆独组织能提供哪怕一张（段）这种性质的图片和视频？

Actually, in order to maintain ethnic harmony and prevent hatred, the Chinese media is already way too constraint. Those bloody and shocking images can only be seen in oversees media and internet. But the shameful Germany media said Chinese government used propaganda to fan Han's hatred against Uygurs.
If it was police crackdown that made so large a casualty of ‘peaceful protesters', where are the pictures? Videos? So far, has any single picture be provided by western media or separatist to prove the bloody crackdown?

On Youtube. in response to a video titled 新疆万人抗议呼吁国际关注 (Thousands protesting in Xinjiang, call for international attention), ahuich said

放你妈的狗屁！有计划的镇压！
维吾尔人屠杀了154人，重伤800人，是冲突，是示威。武警前来维持秩序，就是有计划的镇压

Bullshit well-panned crackdown!
That Uygurs killed 154 and hurt 800 is only conflict and protest. But armed police to restore order is well-planned crackdown!

Dugles commented:

如果政府机关枪扫射了。拿我做梦都偷着笑。可怜的中国政府，什么事都不做也照样被人扣屎盆子。既然这样，为什么不痛痛快快的干呢！！！

If the government fired machine guns, I would laugh in my dream. But the poor government, even if it did nothing it will still be condemned. If so, why not just do it?

On New York Times, a series of pictures showing the riot is also criticized as catering to stereotypes and distorting facts.
This picture by Nir Elias/Reuters, which shows a man lying on the bed with the caption ‘Uighurs injured at a hospital in the city during a media tour by the authorities on Monday.', is ridiculed by Chin:

是啊，这照片明明是里面的名字明明是汉人，到了注解的时候变成维族了

The name tag shows the man is obviously a HAN Chinese. But in the caption, he becomes a Uygurs.

walala said:

构图的idea就是: 先拍军警, 再拍维族, 拍伤者/血之类, 也放个维族在照片里. 总之
要旨是暗示军警打维族.

The idea of making pictures is: first armed police, then Uygurs, then injured people blooding, and a few Uygurs. Anyway, it is meant to imply that police beat Uygurs.

Radio Free Asia is also criticized for mistakenly citing a picutre of Shishou incident for Xinjiang riot. What is interesting is that, Rebiya Kadeer, the woman alleged by CCP to be the head of the riot, showed exactly this picture in her interview to depict the situation in Urumqi. Relative information can been at the bottom of this page in EastSouthWestNorth.

The journalists' unscheduled confrontation with a large crowd of Uygurs women, who were wailing for their missing families arrested by authority, was also thought to be suspicious. The protesting women were featured by several influential western newspapers.

The journalist of Wenhui Newspaper wrote about what happened at the time:

在成功吸引众多记者的注意后，这些维族妇女又分成几群，对记者、特别是外国记者，声泪俱下地用维语哭喊。她们当中，每几个人裡便会有一名懂汉语的维族妇女负责用中文作现场翻译，这让记者们很容易地明白其哭诉的主要内容是：她们的丈夫、儿子或父亲，昨晚被警察抓走了、打死了。但当被问及到底有多少人昨晚被抓或死亡时，这些维族妇女却又不断变换「口径」：最初向外媒记者说有100人，之后又改口说300人，最后又称有上千人。

记者注意到，在一些中国记者用普通话向这些妇女提问时，她们会用中文回答说听不懂，但面对外国记者的镜头，她们马上用流利的汉语大声哭诉，并不断有人晕倒。如果发现外国记者没注意到这些「细节」，还会有人主动上前，拉外国记者们去拍。

After attracting the attention, the Uygurs women divided into a few groups, wailling in Uygurs to reporters, particularly those foreigners. Among them, there was one women in each group that translated their words into Chinese so that jourmalists understand what they were talking about easily, that is, their husbands, sons, or fathers were taken away or beaten to death last night. But when being asked how many were dead or arrested, they changed the number all the time: first it is 100, then 300, and finally over 1000.

I saw that when Chinese journalists interviewd them in CHinese, they would say ‘I don't understand Chinese'. But in front of foreign cameras, they would whine in fluent Chinese, and people fainted. If no foreign reporters found out the ‘details', there were people walking up to get have the scenes filmed.

China's youngest mayor questioned

Bob Chen — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:30:48 +0000

The youngest mayor in China is now believed to be Zhou Senfeng (周森峰）.

The newly elected mayor is only 29 years old. His resume shows the rapid promotion he got in the past 5 years. Right after he graduated from Qinghua University, one of the best colleges in China, he was appointed to be the deputy director of the Construction Committee in Xiangfan, a city in Hubei province. A position many people can only dream of in their thirties, it started Zhou's rocketing promotion, that finally leads him to be the mayor of YiCheng (宜城）.

This time, the People's Congress of Yicheng unanimously voted him the mayor, which is another shocking fact. A member in the congress said it was unprecedented. His mysterious promotion, therefore, has become the topic of the heated debate on the internet.

A denial of interview and public concern

A broadcast scription reads:

周森锋成为湖北乃至全中国最年轻市长的消息传开后，各路媒体纷纷要求采访这名政坛新星，但都遭中共宜城市委宣传部拒绝。宜城市委宣传部负责人声称，周森锋比较务实、低调，不希望媒体过多地宣传、炒作。该市组织部门一名工作人员说，相关领导已明确指示，任何人不得私自接受采访。

After Zhou was promoted to be the youngest mayor in China, medias floods in to request interviews with the new political star. But all the requests were denied by the Publicity Department in Yicheng. The head of the department said Zhou is quite down-to-earth and low-profile, and doesn't want too much public attention. A staff told that the officals have ordered that no one should take interviews without approval.

Meanwhile, none of Zhou's colleagues has given any information about the young mayor in his previous posts.

A short path to power
Three years after graduation, Zhou has been promoted to be the vice bureau chief, which is the second position he took. In the following two years, he was promoted for totally 5 times.

An editorial cited by the official media, People's Daily, posed a question on Zhou's rapid promotion. The writer questioned whether the quick promotion violates the CCP regualtions about the procedure of cadre promotion.

Zhou Pengan, the blogger, writes:

再来看看中共中央关于《党政领导干部选拔任用条例》相关条款的规定。《党政领导干部选拔任用条例》第七条第一款规定，提任县（处）级领导职务的，应当具有五年以上工龄和两年以上基层工作经历。

Let's check the relative provisions in ‘Regulations on promotion and appointment of CCP cadres'. The 7th term says that, in order to be a division chief, the candidate must have five years' standing on service and more than two years' experience in grass-root level.

周森锋的简历告诉我们，他2004年7月参加工作，其工龄还不满5年并且缺乏两年以上基层工作经历

His resume told us, however, since he joined the workforce in July 2004, he has not yet served for 5 years and he lacks the two-year grassroots experience.

Justice-Blade echoed the question on China.com:

我相信在科学界，在艺术界，在文化界有天才，但在成熟的政治领域不可能有。

I believe there are talents among scientists, artiest and scholars. But in a mature political system, there is none.

Questioning whether Zhou has special family background that brings him to the position, netizens launched Flesh Search Engine in an attempt to find out the truth. Typing in Zhou Senfeng in Baidu, relative terms such as Zhou Senfeng's father, Zhou Senfeng's wife immediately show up, which indicates that millions of people have already tried to find out about his family.

Zhou's father was the first focus. ‘Who is Zhou's father' became a question frequently seen on the internet. Netizens soon discovered a “suspect”. On around 23, June, the name Zhou Gengyan floated on the internet. According to his public resume, Zhou Gengyan is now the CCP's first secretary of YuZhou, head of the city.

However, official media across the country soon published a story about Zhou's family, claiming that his father is actually a normal worker and his mother a farmer.

The report said:

记者又询问了很多人后，终于找到了周森锋在神垕镇上开摄影店的三姨妈。“我们已经从网上看到了森锋当选宜城市市长的消息了，这孩子越来越有出息了。”周森锋的三姨妈高兴地说，“其实，我们森锋也是贫苦人家的孩子。”

The journalist has talked with many people before he could find Zhou's aunt in the town who runs a photograph shop. ‘We have seen the news that SenFeng was elected mayor on the internet. The boy gets so promising a future.' his aunt said with delight, ‘Actually he is also from a poor family.'

The report, furthermore, depicted Zhou's home as the worst in the town. His father was said to be working in a porcelain plant for living. Moreover, there are netizens questioning that, if Zhou's father is now only the head of a city, he has no way to promote his son to the same level so quickly.

The contradicting versions about Zhou's family lead netizens to question about Zhou's wife. She was first exposed to be the deputy director of the city congress. But again, she was found to be only the head of a subcomittee. Zhou's father-in-law, who is said to be unemployed now has nothing special as well.

Umbrella and research paper
The official statement told that ‘his appointment coincided with the government's campaign to foster more young cadres.' He just took well of the chance and earned his own way in the political sphere.

However, it is not too convincing a statement. In China, it is unbelievable that a person without network can rise up so quickly. It is the belief of the most that there must be something going under the table. Driven by the questions, suspicion and distrust, netizens keep on their fight for truth.

Zhou is now facing the attention from across the country. In Baidu.com, a special post-zone(贴吧）was set for people to discuss about the youthful mayor. More facts about his have been dug out.

Blogger Zhao Dahua said in his post ‘Zhou, can't you hold the umbrella yourself?':

谢疏而不漏的恢恢网络，29岁的研究生周森锋“当选”为中国最年轻市长的消息刚一传开，人们就找到了他今年早些时候下乡视察时由他人打伞的照片。当时，人不多，雨不大，周常委兼常务副市长背着双手，挺着肚子，在他人打着的雨伞下，悠然自得地扫视着瓜地。同时，人们还找到了好几张温家宝、布什、普京等大人物在雨中亲自打伞的照片。比较着这些照片，人们对周市长的架子看着很不爽。

Thanks to the internet, as soon sa the news about Zhou spreads across, people found pictures showing his attendants holding an umbrella for him. The rain was not at all heavy and there were only a few people. Zhou stood there with his hands on the back, watching the field under the umbrella held by his subordinate. People compare the picture with those of Premier Wen, Bush, and Putin who held umbrella themselves in the rain. People were upset to see Zhou's haughty manner.

Moreover, people discovered that one of Zhou's postgraduate papers plagiarized the paper of another scholar. The paper is about real estate studies, which is the major research topic of Zhou's post-graduate study. 木有下文 writes in his post which is widely cited on the internet:

于是我在半信半疑中下载了这两篇文章，对照后发现，其中竟然有好几段几乎一模一样，还有不少段落是修改了几个字，基本意思一样。而且周市长也没有注明“引用”的脚注。通篇看来，我认为不只50%的抄袭

So I downloaded the two papers with doubt. By comparison, I found that quite a few paragraphs are exactly the same, and some paragraphs have only a few words in difference, while with the same argument. Zhou gives no citation either. Thoroughly, I think it plagiarizes the other for more than 50%.

The blogger then cited the similar paragraphs in the two papers. Qinghua University has started checking the paper but not yet given any response.

Unlucky Man?
Zhou, as the youngest mayor, is thought to be by some people just an unlucky person. It should have been exciting to hear young men promoted to the leadership. In response to such comments on the internet, Blogger Chenyunx replied in his post ‘Why do we have to question about Mayor Zhou.'

襄樊市引进硕士博士，是好事情。但是当年引进硕士博士一共多少位？其他人才引进之后是不是一开始就这么重用？周市长一开始就能成为建委副主任，是否经过公开的招考，是否经过审慎的考察？周市长一系列的工作变动，有没有经过正常的程序。一系列工作变动之后，周市长最终成为了一市之长，有没有相应证明他能够胜任这个岗位的证据？有没有工作业绩的支撑？这些东西，是我们必须疑问的。因为，作为一市之长，不是随便去找一个打工仔完成一项工作。他的一个决策的失败，影响的是宜城几十万老百姓的生活。这样一个人物，怎么能够不谨慎。

It is good for the city to introduce in young people with master and even doctor degree. But how many people were introduced in? How many people were promoted? Has there been any public examination and cautious assessment before Zhou was appointed to be the chief director of the Construction Committee? Was there any procedure for Zhou to be promoted? Is there any evidence to prove that Zhou is capable for the position of mayor? Any past achievements? We have to ask about it. His career and policies would affect thousands of people in Yicheng. How can't we be cautious?

对于强势的官员们，需要的是制衡他们的力量，否则，没有制约的权力带来的只有苦涩的恶果。我们需要的不是盲从，不是盲目支持，而是用带着怀疑和警惕的眼光注视那些强大的官员们，让他们在诱惑面前多一些警醒，让他们感受到做错事之后会受到惩罚，这样，他们才能够如履薄冰，兢兢业业的做好他的工作。

We need check and balance on those powerful and aggresive officials. Otherwise, power without constrain only makes bitter fruits. We need no blind support and trust. We need to be alerted and suspicious of those powerful cadres. We need to alert them and let them feel that if they did anything wrong they would be punished. So they will be more cautious and do their job better.

如果面对网民的一点点质疑周市长们都通不过，那么这样的人有什么资格掌管几十万人民的前途？

If he can't even face the questions of netizens, what qualifies him to administrate the thousands of people?

中国民主的进程注定要从网上监督开始，因此，让质疑来的更猛烈一些吧。

The democracy of China is destined to start online. So, let more questions come!

China: More corpses found in Shishou hotel; disputes continue.

Bob Chen — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 12:47:13 +0000

Shishou, Hubei.

The death of a chef triggered a mass protest that finally brought over ten thousand armed police into the town for crackdown. The dead’s families along with thousands of people resisted the police and protected the corpse, because they know once the body was taken away, the death would be identified as a suicide and the truth will be lost forever.

Rumor said that the chef, named Tu Yuangao (涂远高），was killed because he threatened to expose the drug dealings in the hotel after he failed to get his pay. Now, as more injectors were found inside the burned hotel, Shishou people’s suspicion grows. It seems to confirm the rumor that Yong Long hotel has long been used as a den for drug dealers protected by local officials.

A newspaper said

当地还有人士称，事发酒店有公安人员入股。坊间流传最多的是，永隆酒店分别是由三个部门的副职负责人入股，其中有公安局，工商局，还有电力局的负责人。但记者未能证实该消息的真伪。

According to the local people, there are officials in the Public Security bureau holding a stake in the hotel. The most widely accepted version is that the stake holders are deputies of three departments, including public security, industry and commerce, and electricity. But the reporter couldn’t prove it.

The update was reported by a domestic newspaper, which is the first time that Chinese public media gave so complete a coverage, though it still mentioned nothing about the crackdown.

The reporter also said:

21日晚上11时许，本报记者在出事酒店背面的沙堆上发现一些使用过的注射器以及其包装纸。这些注射器的外形与通常医院做皮试的注射器无异。

22日，记者再次探访酒店时，这些注射器依然未做清理。此时，一些围观的群众也对此进行议论，有几个小孩正拿着手机拍摄，一名家住附近的中年女子认为，“这些都是酒店内部吸毒品所用的工具。”

在场的几名市民都对此表示同感，在他们看来，附近没有医院，不可能是医院把这些注射器丢弃在这里，

On 21, I have found some used injectors and wrappers on the dunes at the back of the hotel. They were the same as those seen in hospital.
On 22, when I revisited the hotel the injectors remained there. People standing by were talking about it, and some kids were filming with their cell phones. A woman said, ‘these are all devices for drug abuse.’

Several people around agreed. In their view, there is no hospital around the hotel so it can’t be medical waste.

Moreover, on 22 June, it was said that people were stunned to find 6 more (3 by some source) corpses in the sewage within the hotel, only with bones left. Hearing the news, a few thousands of people gathered again outside the hotel after tens of thousand people were dispelled last night by armed police.

The updates first appeared on twitter:

ChangshaNotes: RT @yuzhiquan: 石首新情况：隆酒店周围又围上了四五千人。永隆酒店又发现三具尸体！（消息来源以为当地的网友，前2天提供了不少实时信息，可信度还不错）现在只能半信半疑。 #石首#shishou#

Latest update in Shishou: some 4, 5 thousand people gathered again outside Yong Long hotel. Three more corpse were found! (It is told by a local netizen who provided us with valuable information in these two days. So it could be trustworthy).

It soon turned into two versions:
First, someone saw two corpses in the sewage, and they were later dragged out.
Second, a skeleton was seen inside the hotel.

It was publicly denied by local TV station. The government asked people not to be instigated by a small group of agitators, but revealed no details about the latest development and has given no explanation.

On 21, more than ten thousand armed police have reached the corpse and dispelled the crowd. The corpse was taken away for autopsy and the result will be revealed in 20 days. The dead’s families were asked to go talking with the local officials for an agreement of cremation as soon as possible. It was said that some of his families have agreed.

Another disputable issue is the dead’s last words written on a payment note.
The ‘testament’, which was a crucial evidence for the police to identify the death as suicide, states:

亲爱的爸爸妈妈：儿子在这里对你们说声不孝了，我也不知道我是怎么了好像有个阴影一直缠着我不放，可能这是我的命吧，我存的那点钱您们拿出用，就当是我对您二老的一点小小补偿吧，儿子欠您们养育之恩再能来世再报了。还有哥，我们只能来世做兄弟了，爸爸妈妈就交给你们了，请原谅弟弟这样不辞而别。希望你好好把事业做大。好了就这样吧。不孝儿子。。叩头。

Dear Dad and Mom,
I am not a good son. I don’t know why there is always a shadow with me. Perhaps that’s my fate. My little savings will be for your use, as a kind of compensation. I can only pay back your love and kindness in my afterlife. And my dear brother, let’s be brothers again in our afterlife. Please take care of our parents. Please forgive my untold departure. Hope your business will go well. All right, that’s what I want to say. Your bad son… Kowtow.

But the testament was doubted to be faked. Blogger Chai Jing（十年砍柴）questioned that a man who has not even finished grade school has no way to write such a testament.

短短两百来字的遗书，不但字迹流利顺畅，且行文层次分明，逻辑谨严。有如一件衙门公文，起承转合皆有。一个准文盲，快要自杀前还如此从容写出这样高水准的遗书？

In 200 short words, the handwriting is good and the structure is clear with good logic. How could a man who is almost illiterate write out so well-written last words?

But some of his families agreed that it was indeed his handwriting, though they suggested he might be forced to write down the note.

The battle and resistance has gone far beyond the Shishou town. The Chinese internet has been put in blackout. On Fnafou, the ‘Chinese twitter', if you search for Shishou there returns no result. But the authority cannot take control of everything. The official website of Shishou government has been hacked soon after the crackdown, and the hackers even put up a bulletin board on the webpage that everyone can leave a comment there. The page has been screenshot.

According to the latest update, the twon has been quite again. But how long will it last is yet unknown.

China: A turmoil triggered by T-shirt

Bob Chen — Fri, 22 May 2009 07:18:37 +0000

Lawyer Liu Shihui's T-shirt, on which a quote is printed, seems to have the power to attract police and disturb the social order. Below is a partial translation of Liu's blog entry about his experience in Guangzhou.

2009年5月12日下午5点多，我在广州市岗顶地铁站靠近C出口的地铁闸口外面等我女朋友….电话联系知道她已经快到了。

At 5 pm, 12 May, 2009, I was waiting for my girlfriend at a subway station in Guangzhou. Calling her, I knew she was on her way .

这时一个保安（胸牌号PT1776）径直向我走来，一双警觉的眼睛上下打量着我的衣服，一脸凶悍地问道：”你是干什么的？在这里干嘛？”我说我在这里等我女朋友。这个保安瞪着凶神恶煞的眼睛，指着我的T恤衫说：”你的衣服不对，这是什么意思？不能在我们这里穿！”

Right then, a security guard came up to me, staring at me vigilantly and questioned me with a threatening voice:‘What are you up to? What are you doing here?' I told him that I was waiting for my girlfriend. But he opened up his terrifying eyes and pointed at my T-shirt, ‘Your dressing is wrong, what do you mean by that? You can't dress like this in here!'

我自制的T恤衫前面印了”一党独裁，遍地是灾。——《新华日报》”几个字，后面印了”共产党反对国民党的一党专政，绝不是要建立自己的一党专政。—-刘少奇”这样一句话。后面的字较小，现在被保安发现”不对”、引起阶级斗争警觉的是我恤衫的前面。

I was wearing a self-made T-shirt, with the remark in the front as this quote: ‘One-party dictation is a disaster - by Xinhua Daily'. On the back, there is a line by the former president Liu Shaoqi, ‘Communist Party opposes the one-party ruling by KMT, and absolutely wants no one-party dictation!' The front side alarmed the guard, whose sense of ‘class struggle' is triggered.

我反问道：”我的衣服怎么不对了？我穿什么衣服关你什么事？我在这里等人接人碍着谁了？”

I rebuked, ‘What's wrong with my clothes? What has it to do with you? Did I hurt anyone by waiting for people here?'

Unexpectedly, more attention was attracted.

这时，一个警察（警号是018464）来了，另一个保安（2409号）来了，地铁工作人员数人来了，其中地铁一人手持相机对我拍照。围观的人越来越多，人们以新奇和不解的目光注视着我的衣服和眼前突发的事情。在警、保、铁三方如临大敌、铜墙铁壁的包围中，在围观人群不明就里的注视中，我犹如汪洋中的一条独木舟。

At the time, a police came by with another security guard. So did a staff of subway, who held a camera shooting pictures of me. More people stopped by, circling us, watching curiously at my T-shirt and the situation. I felt life a canoe in the ocean with so many people looking at me and had the police, guards and staff surrounding me.

“你上面这句话（指”一党独裁，遍地是灾”）不对，要跟我们去调查。”保安满脸阶级斗争。

‘It is wrong to have such words (one-party dictation is a disaster) imprinted on the T-shirt. Go with us for further investigation.' The guard said, in profusion of the class-struggle snetiment.

指着胸前的文字对保安解释：这是共产党自己说过的话，是新华日报的社论，如果你读过书的话，应该知道抗战时期有个《新华日报》，你可以自己去查，并且告知他我是律师，请你不要妨碍我的人身自由。1776号保安暴跳如雷，露出了十足地痞的面目，当着警察以及众多围观人群破口大骂：”你个傻逼，管你是什么师，我读书比你多得多。”并且当众对我讪笑道：”就你这个样子也有女朋友？”面对这个满嘴喷粪的人渣，我怒不可遏，一阵恶心。

I pointed to the quote, telling the guard, ‘This is said by the Communist Party itself. It is an editorial of Xin Hua Daily (the precedence of the present state media in China). If you have been to school, you should know Xinhua Daily was a newspaper during the war against Japan in 1940s. You can check it yourself.' I also told him I am a lawyer and warned him not to infringe on my legal right. The security guard was outraged, behaving like a thug, chiding at me in front of the crowd, ‘You the idiot, I don't care what ‘-er' are you. I have read much more books than you have.' He then ridiculed me,'You such a person have a girlfriend?' I was disgusted facing the man cursing on me.

警察态度虽然没有保安恶劣，但是显然把我当嫌疑人看待，这让我很不舒服。我给他解释：这句话是1946年3月30日中共中央机关报《新华日报》的社论，并跟他说，我女朋友已经出站了，现在她找不见我，我要去接她。警察不许，并要对我“进行传唤”。我指出这是对我人身自由的非法限制，我接不到女朋友，她会很着急。这时警察人数已增为几人，有的强硬，有的和缓。他们和保安将我推拽到一处空地上，然后地铁人员迅速地在我周围竖起了屏风帷帐，将我圈在墙边，以隔阻围观人群探寻的目光和我恤衫文字的对接。

The police was not as mean as the guard, but evidently he viewed me as a suspect. I was so uncomfortable. I explained to him, ‘The line is an excerpt from the editorial issued by the Communist Party's paper, Xihua Daily, on 3 March, 1946.' I also told him that my girlfriend had already get out of the station. I needed to pick her right now. But the police refused my request and was about to detain me. I pointed out it was an illegal restraint. At that time, more than a few police have gathered around, some of them appearing to be tough, while some polite. They dragged me to an open space and the staff immediately erected screens around me at the corner. It was to prevent passer-by to see the line on my T-shirt.

The police and guards later took Liu to a small room for investigation. A security guard, according to Liu, shouted ‘F**k you' for several times and rushed to in an attempt to punch him. Fortunatelly, the irritated guard was stopped by the police. They then took pictures of Liu.

警察问我衣服上这句话的出处。我向他们作了详细说明，并且提出愿意帮助他们在网上搜索这句话，警察说这里上不了网。但是我相信他们通过一定的渠道验证了这句话的存在。

The police asked me where the quote is from. I explained to them in details and offered to help search it online. But They said they could not find any computer here. But I believed they must found out about the quote in some way soon.

During the process, Liu noted down their police numbers on the sneak with his cellphone.

我要求警方向我出具对我进行留置或者其他类别强制措施的法律手续，但是警方称没有。我要求做笔录，先是被拒绝，后来在变换了一个拘禁地点后，才应允我。我于晚上19时自书了一份《我被非法拘禁的经过》交给警方，要求对方“赔礼道歉，赔偿损失。”我告诉警方：这是非法拘禁，我作为律师日后将会告你们，并且会把这件荒唐的事情传上网。

I asked for documents that permited them to detain me, but was refused. I required them to help make a statement, but was first refused and then promised only after I was taken to another place. I later wrote a statement about my experience, asking for apology and compensation. I told them, ‘ This is illegal constraint. I, as a lawyer, would charge you and spread the word online.'

一位警察态度明显和缓，要和我“交流思想”，称：“抗战的时候，国民党很独裁，那个时候共产党反对国民党的一党独裁，所以发表了那篇遍地是灾的社论。但是这句话放到现在，就很敏感……”云云。

我回应道：我是一个律师，做的是法律工作，我判断是非的第一尺度是法律，符合法律规定的事情没有人能够阻止我去做，违反法律的事情我压根不会去做。“依法治国”不是已经入宪了吗，是依法治国，不是依“敏感”治国。

The police's attitude was apparently softened. He tried to persuade me, ‘During the anti-Japan war Communist Party was opposed to the authoritarian KMT, so it published the editorial. But the quote will be quite politically sensitive today…etc'.

I replied, ‘ I am a lawyer. The yardstick I use to judge about right and wrong is law. No one can stop me from doing anything that is not prohibited by the law. Isn't ‘ruling the country by law' written into the constitution? It doesn't say ‘ruling the country by considering whether it is sensitive or not'.

一警员经过较长时间的伏案工作，终于敲出了一份针对我的“讯问笔录”。我粗略地看了一下：上面关于涉嫌违法的事由是“制造谣言和扰乱社会秩序”。我讥笑着对张副所长说：“你不觉得这太侮辱公众常识了吗？如果把它放到网上去，你不怕这个东西会气死躲猫猫？”张副所长无言。鉴于笔录中多处与事实不符，并且警方不同意我复印该笔录的要求，所以我顺理成章地拒绝在那份笔录上签字。

A police finally made out a ‘note of investigation'. I took a rough look. It stated that I ‘made up rumors and disturbed social order'. I ridiculed, ‘ Don't you think this is a violation of common sense? Do you think this is more absurd than the ‘eluding the cat' incident'? He remained speechless. Since the note distorted the fact and I was not allowed to get a photocopy, I refused to sign my name.

或许是警方已经查证了那句“敏感”话的出处，或许是与我对程序的熟知和严谨苛责有关，或许是警方觉得凭一件文化衫就拉一个人太过意不去（特别是那个喷粪保安的行为太过出格），或许是受我要告他们和上网的声言所影响，最后警方人员摆出了要和解的姿态，问我有什么要求。

Perhaps the police had found out where the quote was from, perhaps I was so familiar with the due process of investigation, or perhaps they didn't think it proper to detain someone just for his T-shirt, perhaps they were alerted by my warning that I will put my experience online, they compromised, asking what I wanted.

Finally, the guard that cursed and shoved Liu apologized to him.

晚上8点10分，我离开岗顶地铁派出所。从开始在地铁闸口被盘查，直到被放走，前后历时近3小时。

在和女友回家的路上，我满脸疲惫，感慨万千。今天的环球已然大不同于抗战时期，星星不再是那颗星星，月亮也不再是那个月亮。我不知道，在人类近三分之二的国家已经采用民主制度的今天，因为将某一政党昔日曾经揭示了客观规律的一句历史名言印在恤衫上，而受到后世同一政党（政府）如临大敌之生猛对待的，在当今世界扳着指头数，究竟还能扳倒几个指头？

At 8:10 pm I left the police station. 3 hours has passed since I was caught at the subway station.
On my way home with my girlfriend I was exhausted. Today the world is no more like the one during the anti-Japan war. 2/3 states in the world have adopted democratic system. I simply printed a quote by the party on my T-shirt, a quote that told the truth. But now I was so treated like a state enemy, exactly by the same party that printed the quote decades ago. How many fingers can I raise if I want to count how many such countries still remain?

China: Netizens stand with the waitress who killed an official

Bob Chen — Sun, 17 May 2009 17:46:58 +0000

Deng Yujiao, a waitress in Hubei Province stabbed an official to death and injured another in resisting their sexual advances. Comments on the internet showed no sympathy with the dead official and generally support the 21-year-old girl, acclaiming that she is another Yang Jia who acted in response to an injustice.

The dead man, Deng Guida, is the chief of county investment promotion office. He came with his two colleagues to the entertainment venue Dream City for a massage, and met the waitress there. They asked for 'special service', meaning sex service in China, but were refused.

It is alleged that Deng Guida took from his pocket a wad of money and hit the waitress on the head with it. Humiliated by the action, Deng tried to leave the room but the victim twice pushed her onto a sofa as she attempted to do so. The waitress found a knife, stabbing at the victim's throat, killing him and also injuring one of his colleagues.

The waitress later called police and surrendered.

The news immediately triggered a public discussion after it was revealed. At first it was about whether the girl's action should be regarded as self-defense. Though legal experts agreed she is likely to be charged, some in Xing-Dao Daily, a Hong Kong newspaper, argued,

邓贵大要求邓玉娇提供“特殊服务”，邓玉娇不从，使用暴力手段，两次将邓玉娇按倒在沙发上，已构成强奸行为，且该不法侵害正在进行，并即将邓玉娇的人身造成严重损害。邓玉娇的防卫行为，是在情况紧急，精神高度紧张的情况下采取的自卫行为…不负刑事责任。

The official had requested Deng to offer 'special service', but was refused! He violently pushed Deng onto the sofa twice, an action that could well be seen as an attempted rape. The infringement on Deng's rights was an ongoing one and may well have severely injured Deng. Therefore her stabbing was an act of self-defense and given the emergency….she should face no criminal charge!

Many netiznes spoke highly of Deng. Yi Li in Tianya commented on the news, saying,

邓玉娇，你是好样的。敬佩你，支持你，向你学习。望保重。

Deng Yujiao, you are good. I admire and support you, and will learn from you. Best regards

Moreover, her story was written into a short chronicle in traditional Chinese that was usually used by ancient historians to memorize a heroic example. For those who knows Chinese, the text is here:

邓玉娇者，荆州巴东人也，美而烈，以修脚为业。
一夕，浣纱于室，野三关镇吏黄德智、邓贵大、邓某相携寻欢不遇，见玉娇，遂破门而入，欲强狎焉。玉娇严词斥之，邓贵大怒，鞭面以币，曰：吾辈多金，岂惧汝不从哉。玉娇不顾，贵大愈怒，乃按其于卧塌，强起，复按之，三者相视而笑。玉娇羞愤，遂操细刃刺之，三创而毙，德智复犯，玉娇又刺之，重创，邓者大惧，不敢前。玉娇乃投刃自首于官。

jy_xyp said:

娶女如此,此生足已!!!!

I would be content if I could marry a girl like this.

Virginity is very important in China, and there are numerous stories on how women defended their honor. The sentiment of admiring a girl for defending her virginity, is here combined with a hatred against corrupt officials in the case.

In People.com, a blogger Sun Xiaobo questioned:

一是这些官员哪里有那么钱？因为在争执中，被刺死的邓贵大曾从怀中拿出一沓钱抽打邓某的头部，一个靠工资过日子的公务员哪来的那么多钱，而且一点也不怜惜。到底是公款，还是腐败得来的。官员为何热衷于去娱乐场所？为何热衷于特殊服务？

How come that these officials have so much money? During the dispute the victim hit the girl on the head with a wad of money. How could a public servant on a salary have so much to spare without any thought or scruple? Was it public funds or embezzled money perhaps?

How could they visit entertainment venues so frequently and are obsessed with 'special service' so much?

Bloggers, netizens and intellectuals are taking action to support Deng Yujiao. A public letter calling for people to send their words of comfort to Deng, who is now imprisoned, appeared on the internet saying Deng is a heroine. Many still worry though that the police may manipulate the evidence to help the court rule against Deng.

In a preliminary assessment, Deng was identified as having a mental condition. Also, the police allege that the weapon Deng used was actually a fruit knife rather than the nail clipper that Deng used in her job of clipping nails for customers. On this point, blogger Zhou Zhongming wrote an article:

首先,他们故意不提招商办官员用钱打修脚女的细节.

其次,他们将自卫工具修脚刀换为水果刀.这看似细微的差别,所能形成的造案效果却不可低估:用修脚刀自卫,说明是在工作被挑戏激愤慌张中自卫,用水果刀则不同,洗脚物包间通常不会有,这就为构陷修脚女”折出拿刀再返回刺杀”埋下伏笔.这样就使显而易见正当防卫往故意杀人上靠.

First, the police don't mention the wad of money at all!
Second, they allege the weapon was a fruit knife, not a nail clipper! This is no small difference because if it is a nail clipper, it shows that the girl was defending herself in a panic with a tool right at hand. If it is a fruit knife however, it implies that the girl took the knife from somewhere else and killed the official on purpose rather than in simple self-defense

再次,他们声称在修脚女的包里查出治疗抑郁症的药.这一招最狠毒:可以维护官员的形象;又可以将修脚女投入精神病院折磨,谁都知道进政治精神病院是比死刑恐怖千百倍的事.

Further, they allege that medications for a mental condition were found in the girl's bag. How vicious a trick to protect the officials' reputation! They can even put the girl into a mental asylum. Everyone knows it is far worse to be in a State madhouse than being given a death sentence.

The blogger gave a possible scenario of the police conclusions: that the girl, because of her mental condition and persecution paranoia, stabbed the two officials with a purposely prepared knife.

Could such a speculation be true? Netizens are waiting for a final answer from the police.

China: The fear implied in a real-name internet

Bob Chen — Wed, 06 May 2009 06:42:10 +0000

In China, the internet has become an important platform for citizens' participation in policy making and criticism of officials. The freedom of the internet is largely guaranteed by the anonymity it offers users. However efforts to deprive the users of such freedom have never stopped. Not long ago, a young man in Shanghai was arrested because he accused his hometown government of corruption. The amazing fact is that the local police traveled hundreds of miles to Shanghai to hunt him down after identifying him as the blogger.

Now the authorities in Hangzhou seems to be taking these effort even further. The city congress has legislated that all local users, including bloggers, should register with their real names.

A post by blogger West-of-Lake-West is very popular on the internet these days. This blog entry detailed several articles in a regulation which was to be implemented on 1st May. The piece of law, passed by city congress, is named ‘Regulation on Protection of Computer Information and Internet safety' (计算机信息网络安全保护管理条例).

In article 18, the blogger found that

…..应当记录上网用户的上网时间，用户帐号，互联网网络地址或者域名，主角电话号码等信息。

The internet service providers must record the time, account, IP and telephone number of their users.

The blogger questioned:

我要问的是，如果我去杭州百货大楼去买某品牌的衣服，我需要向杭州大厦登记我的姓名，地址，身份证号码么？有这样的道理么?凭什么我去上网，我的上网信息要被他们记录。你给我个理由，你问过我们没有？

I want to ask, if I am shopping for clothes in a department store , should I have to register my name, address and ID? Does that make sense? Give me a reason. Have you ever asked our opinion about this law?

He then posted online the article 19:

提供电子公告，网络游戏和其他即时通信服务的，具有用户注册信息和发布信息审核功能的，并如实想起申请开设上述服务的用户的有效身份证明。电子公告指的是户料网上的论坛，聊天室，留言板，博客等交互形式。

The providers of online Bulletin Board Systems, online games and other instant messaging services, must obtain the identification of the users. The services the regulation concerns include online forums, chat rooms, bulletin boards and blogs.

An article he found to be the most ridiculous is:

鼓动公众恶意评论他人，公开发布他人隐私，或者通过暗示，影射等方式，对他人进行人身攻击的。

It is illegal to encourage the public to viciously comment on others, publish about others privacy, or commit personal attacks on others by alluding or imputation.

He made fun of the article:

再说了，我想请教法律专家，如何操控定义恶意评论他人，更如何在法律的框架下定义影射与暗示。我说，在杭州有一个姓王的胖子很坏，我是不是影射那个胖子王姓市委书记？

I want to ask the experts how to define ‘viciously comment' under the new law in a way compatible with the principle of legislation? I say, there is a bad, fat guy surnamed Wang in Hangzhou. Am I then alluding to the head of Hangzhou government who happens also to be fat and surnamed Wang?

Finally he said he would be considered as a criminal after 1 May, because

注意，我这篇帖子违反了法律：首先没有身份登记，还有鼓动公众恶意评论，第三，我还可能影射了一个胖子，这个胖子有人说是苹果王，有人说是王苹果，还有pgw,还有王书籍。。。

Take note, this post exactly violates the law! First I didn't register my information, second I encourage ‘vicious comment' and third, I am alluding to a fat man. Someone says it is Wang A, another says it is Wang B and a third says its the Party Secretary Wang….so who is correct?

我们该怎么面对这份法律，我们以后还能怎么说话？我们还有没有批评权利？谁能保证我们在批评的时候的权利？

How could we live with this law? How could we speak up in the future? Are we allowed to criticize anyone? Who can guarantee our right to complain?

我们向全国网友求救。、。。。

We ask for help from netizens all over the country.

China: He saw no conscience, no sympathy.

Bob Chen — Sun, 03 May 2009 18:05:53 +0000

At the end of the blog entry, the professor and lawyer Xu Zhiyong （许志永） wrote down the line:

突然忍不住失声痛哭。我打个车，回到家，跪倒地上，再次痛哭，我感谢上帝让我来到这世上承受这一切。然后，我平静地起来，写下这个故事，为我们的子孙后代，我要告诉他们什么是苦难。

I broke into tears. I called a taxi, went back home and kneed down on the floor, tears in my eyes again. I thanked God for letting me to come to the world to bear all this. Then I took hold of myself and wrote down the story. I would like my children to know what is tribulation and suffering.

Here is the partial translation of Xu's blog about his experience of helping a petitioner who was beaten up in Beijng.

晚上七点多刚打开手机就接到盛其芳老人的电话：“许教授，一直打不通你的电话，山东临沂被打的那个人八点多就被停药了，没钱治病，在同仁医院。”

I got a call from Sheng at 7 pm. ‘Professor Xu, I have been trying to reach you. They have stopped the treatment for that woman from Lin Yi, Shandong who was roughed up this morning. We have run out of money at Tongren Hospital!'

Xu asked what happened and Sheng

她上访，被临沂驻京办的打成重伤。昏迷，可医院不给治了，怎么办啊。”

‘She came to Beijing to appeal about her grief to the central government, but was beaten up by the officials sent from the town she's from. She fell unconscious but the doctors refused to treat her; how should we do?'

When Xu rushed to the hospital, he found the victim lying on the bed with her sister and mother accompanying. But there was no dropping bottle. Her sister told what had happened:

姐姐说，4月27号她被关押在青年凤凰宾馆，那天下午妹妹也被临沂驻京办从马家楼拉过来，头栽倒在汽车里面地板上。姐姐听说后过去扶起她，问怎么了，她很费力地说被打了，肚子痛，然后就又昏迷了。打了几次120和 110，终于把妹妹送到右安门医院。医生说，没事。求医生给开点止痛药医生也不给开，说回家吧，没事。只好偷偷把妹妹送到同仁医院。拍片子的时候不敢说她是被接访的打的。但是后来向一位医生说了实话，医生就说，没事的，医院没病床了，你们回家吧。幸运地是终于找到了一位有良心的医生，他看了之后很吃惊，着急地说，千万不能让她动，有生命危险，赶紧抬她到床上，不能让她动。后来知道，妹妹被打脾破裂。带的几千块钱很快花完了。今天早上，开了药，但是没钱了，拿不了药，吊针就停了。找马家楼派出所，派出所也只是说在协调，从早上一直到现在都没有用药。

On 27 April, the victim's sister was locked inside the Phoenix hotel. In the afternoon she found the victim was sent back from the Lin Yi Office in Beijing (the local government's liaison in the capital). She told in weak voice that she was hit at stomach and then fell fainted again. her sister first sent her to You Anmen Hospital, but the doctor there said there was nothing wrong with her. No even pain killer could they get and they were just told to go home. She had to send her to Tong Ren Hospital.

At first she dared not say she was beaten because of petitioning. When they told the truth, they were again informed that no room was available. Finally a doctor with sympathy came up. He was so surprised to see the victim, urging them not to move her or there was life risk. Afterward, they knew she had lienic rupture. A few thousands were quickly spent up for the treatment. This morning the prescription was suspended. Since then she got no more care.

As a professor of law, Xu has been helping petitioners and minorities struggling for their rights. Therefore he has maintained contact with various petitioner groups and that's why he was so quickly informed about the situation. Hearing the victim's story, Xu ran downstair to find the doctor.

来到一楼。急诊医生办公室。我问医生，这个病人需要不需要紧急治疗？医生跟我们来到病房，摸了摸病人的腹部。然后问我，“你是他什么人？”
我只是一个普通公民，我说。
“那我不跟你说。”
“那好，你跟她家人说，她需要什么治疗，需要什么条件。”
“按照开的药治疗。”他说。
“但我们没钱拿药啊。”姐姐哀求。
“走，我们下去拿药。”我平静地说，正好，今天我身上带了银行卡。

I came to the ER office, asking whether the patient needed immediate care. The doctor came to her, examining her abdomen. He then asked, ‘ What's your relationship with her?'
‘I am just a common citizen.' I replied.
‘Then I can't tell you.'
‘Fine, but tell her families what she needs, and at what cost.'
‘Just as the prescription says.'
‘But we got no money!' The sister bagged.
‘Go, let's get downstairs for the prescription.' I said calmly. I happened to have my debit card with me.

划价，这个晚上的药费是850元。似乎这个过程很漫长，终于拿到了单据，一直很坚强的姐姐突然跪到了地上，泪流满面。我扶起她，想我应该早一点来，应该早一点。从来没有像此刻觉得这点钱这么有价值。

It was 850 RMB for the night. Paying the money seemed to be a long process. When I finally got the receipt the usually stubborn sister suddenly kneed down with tears on her face. I pulled her up, wishing that I could have come earlier, just a little earlier. I have never felt that the money could be of so important a use.

他们一家来北京上访，因为2006年妹妹和母亲被人欺负，打伤很重，但对方被判缓刑。妹妹不服一直上访。2007年被临沂驻京办的打成了脑外伤，也曾经被送过精神病院

The girl's name is Yao Jing. Their family came to Beijing for petitioning because in 2006 her sister and mother was bullied and wounded but the culprit was simply on reprieve. They felt it was unfair. In 2007 she had been beaten up and got brain trauma, and had been sent to insane asylum.

Xu described the Phoenix Hotel the victim's sister was locked in:

那是一个很黑很黑的黑监狱，我听到的同样的故事太多太多了，我怎能不去黑监狱呢？

That is a black prison, deep black. I heard so many stories about it. How can I not go to visit the black prison?

在一个特权腐败成为常态的社会里，他们没有任何社会关系，可是他们偏偏认死理，执着上访，他们是这个国家的贱民，他们是我的同胞，我的兄弟姐妹。

In a state where privilege and corruption turned routine, the petitioners had no connections at all but they believe in justice stubbornly. They are the ‘untouchable' in this country, but they are my countrymen, my brothers and sisters.

走廊里突然传来呼救声，一个妇女被五六个男人拖走了。护士进来说，“待会外面有吵闹不要开门。”也有一个男人挨个进门说：“把门关好。”
我和盛其芳来到走廊里。又有两个妇女一先一后被五六个男人拽着拖向电梯。我问怎么回事，没人说话。那个妇女在电梯关门前喊了一声“中国没有人权！”

Suddenly, a yell for help came from the corridor. A woman was pulled away by 5, 6 men. The nurse told us to ignore the noise.
I came out with Sheng to the hallway and saw another two women being pulled by 5 men to the elevator. I asked what had happened but no one answered. The woman shouted ‘no human right in China' before the door was closed.

姐姐在一旁说，听说他们是东北的，在天安门服毒自杀被送到这里的。一个接访的恶狠狠地问我干嘛的，我说在这里看病人。“没你的事，一边去。”

The sister said they were from northeast China and sent here because of taking poison in Tiananmen Square for protest. A staff questioned me what I was doing there, I answered I was watching a patient. ‘None of your business, get lost.' he said.

“绑架！怎么会没我的事？”我说，“应该报警。”
可惜这时我的手机没电了。一个挂着同仁医院胸牌的男人过来说，“我就是同仁医院保卫处的，你少管闲事啊。”
刹那间，我终于爆发了，我听到了一个仿佛穿破时空的惊天动地的怒吼：“丧——尽——天——良——！你们知不知道什么是——丧—尽—天—良！丧—尽—天—良！”

‘It's kidnapping! None of my business? I should call police.'
But my cellphone had no power. A man with a tag indicating him as a security guard in the hospital came by, telling us not to boss around.
At that moment, I finally burst into fury. I heard myself yelling piercingly, ‘You have no conscience! No conscience! No——CONSCIENCE！‘

恍惚中，我穿过人群

I walked through the crowd in a faint.

China: A citizen campaign to reveal the forgotten dead

Bob Chen — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 08:10:50 +0000

从车上下来的高举冲锋枪的警察高喊“把手举起来，原地不要动”这个只有大片中才有的场景让我有些不知所措。

The police rushing down from the car with a sub machine gun at hand shouted at me, ‘put your hands up, freeze!' It was so astonishing a scene that I had only seen at American blockbuster.

In his blog, Li Peifeng so recalled his encounter with the police in Si-chuan. No smuggling, no robbery, all he was doing is simple - he was volunteering. But his story is no less exciting and hair-raising than any thriller. He was chased by Chinese police.

A covered fact

As the anniversary of Si-chuan Earthquake, the devastating disaster that claimed over 80000 on May, 12 last year is approaching, China has to pick up the heavy, heartrending topic again. But for many parents whose children were buried in rubble, their nightmare has never gone away for the entire year.

The government failed to publish a complete list of the victims in Si-chuan earthquake. There are only cold numbers of death toll while their names, age, and reasons of death remain unknown. In particular, the names of student victims are seen as a top secret.

Los Angles Times explained,

The possibility that corruption might have been involved in the building of schools is the most politically sensitive aspect of the earthquake post-mortem.

According to an official announcement last year, over 6000 students died at the earthquake. Schools collapsed at an extraordinary high rate compared to other buildings standing nearby. In Beichuan, the county middle school had its two floors sunk into the ground.

Netizens and bloggers, scrutinizing pictures of the relic, found that the wreckage exposed the scarcity of steel girders, which should have been a major supporting component.

Premier Wen Jiabao, inspecting the area devastated, has avowed to tell the public who should be responsible for the shoddy works. But the promise has not yet been fulfilled. Though the recently released National Human Rights Action Plan has emphasized on a state effort to register names of victims, Blogger Ai Xiaoming felt frustrated,

5·12地震过去即将一周年，人们遗憾地看到，到目前为止，尚未有任何一份有关灾区垮塌学校建筑质量的专家调查报告得到公布；公众不仅难以查询到某一学校垮塌原因的详细信息和鉴定结论，而且也不了解这一调查过程到底持续了多久、经过了怎样的程序、是由哪些单位以及责任人实施的.

An year has passed since the earthquake but now, people are so sorry to see that there has never been an official report about the actual quality of school buildings that collapsed. The public has neither access to the detailed reason why a school collapsed, nor information about whether anyone is doing any quality inspection.

校舍倒塌，除了天災，究竟有沒有”豆腐渣工程”的人禍？哪些有？哪些沒有？遇難學生的家長需要一個答案，但政府卻再三推搪，連最基本的遇難學生確切人數，至今都無法公佈。

What role does human related factors play in this natural disaster? Is there corruption involved? The parents of victim students need an answer, but the government pushed them away. Not even has the list of dead students been released.

The blogger also noted that the public propaganda had already set the tone about who is to blame:

四川地方媒体数家报纸在2008年6月25日同一天登出了同样内容的报道，标题为《地震是毁房罪魁幸存者应理性看未来>。

Several newspapers in Si-chuan published one article on the same day (25, June, 08), titled ‘Earthquake as chief culprit, survivors should look ahead rationally'.

Citizen volunteers, a vulnerable new force

江油市局的警察曾拿着打印的我的照片到旅馆，跟老板说“这个人是一个犯人，看见他的话通知我们”，我可不想再被他们连夜送往“到了你就知道了”的地方了。

The police in Jiang You city used to bring my photo to a hotel and told the landlord that ‘the man is a criminal. Inform us once you see him'. I don't want them to send me to somewhere that I have no chance to know unless I am there.

—–Volunteer Yang Licai , ‘investigation diary'.

What the government has failed to accomplish, citizens were going to take over. Ai Weiwei, a Beijing artist known for co-designing the “Bird's Nest” Olympic stadium, launched a small project that sends volunteers to Si-chuan for investigation. They knocked at the doors one after another, visited families with victims, and tried to interview school officials.

In this way, the volunteers have managed to detail as many as 6000 names of dead students.

However, it was so costly a process. Ai Weiwei's predecessor Tan Zuoren was the first victim of the government's effort to prevent such investigation. The Los Angles Times reported,

Tan Zuoren, a literary editor and environmentalist who was creating an archive of children killed in collapsing schools, was arrested in March 2009 on charges of subverting state authority, according to Amnesty International. It said his dog was stabbed and his computer stolen in a pattern of harassment leading to his arrest.

Tan Zuoren's project kicked off in February. He appealed to people on the internet and mustered an army of self-organized volunteers. Asia Times reported that

他的好友、四川作家冉雲飛感慨：”你是一個鬍子拉碴的堂*吉柯德，一些自詡聰明的人甚至不無暗諷你的大戰風車，但你依然故我，做著你的調查與努力。”
他被拘時，只有十五歲的小女兒在家，她說：”四五個人沖進來，有人穿著警服，有人沒有，他們出示了證件，然後抄家，然後帶走爸爸。爸爸一句話都沒有說。”

Tan's good friend, Si-chuan writer Ran Yunfei told him,' You are a Don Quixote with beard. Some self-claimed clever men say ironically that you are fighting against a windmill, but you keep doing what you believe in and insist on your cause.'
When he was arrested only his 15-year-old daughter was at home with him. She said, ‘4, 5 people broke in, some in uniform, others not. They showed their IDs, ransacked the house, and then took my dad away. My dad said not a single word.'

Ai Weiwei is determined to finish Tan's plan. In his blog, he published a batch of phone records that noted down how officials turned down his request of a complete list with names and schools of the killed students. The verbal fights between Ai and staff from a variety of departments are sometimes bitterly amusing. In most cases, Ai was redirected to some other bureaus. 150 phone calls were noted down. But no concrete answer was given

Later, Ai launched his long-term project. Hepublished a notice about his campaign on his blog

2008年12月15日，我们开始了“5.12汶川地震死亡学生”的调查整理工作，在多次向四川省政府民政，公安和教育机构要求公布死亡学生人数及名单,遭到拒绝的情况下，通过网络信息线索，对地震重灾区域进行了实地走访调查。在2009年5月12日的地震周年到来之前，完善这份“汶川地震死亡学生”名单。拒绝死亡，尊重生命，寄托哀思，告慰亡灵。

Since 15, Dec,2008 we have started our investigation on student victims in Si-Chuan earthquake. Time after time our requests to gain access into the victim list were refused. Therefore, we collected clues online and marched to earthquake zone for field research. We hope we can compile a list of victim students before the anniversary of the disaster. We refuse death, respect life and bear the condolence in memory of the departed.

China: Our right to be spared from fear

Bob Chen — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:54:48 +0000

Blogger Lan Xiaohuan （兰小欢）, in his post ‘Bitter Smile', reflects on how a nation permeated with fear has muzzled people's voice. Lamenting that the cost to claim the rights of a citizen is getting higher today, he also lampooned the infusing fear that crushes people's courage and love, concluding that Chinese have never really stood up without fear.

He starts with an anecdote of his childhood:

我小的时候非常胆小。记得五六岁那会儿，有一次姐姐放学回来给我讲了个她听到的鬼故事，非常恐怖。我吓得整晚上都睡不着，一直抱着父亲。他要睡过去，我就叫醒他，让他抱着我。第二天，被折腾了一夜的父亲怒斥我姐：“你看看，你都把他吓成什么样了？！以后再敢这样我就揍你！”

I was very timid when I was about 5 years old. One day，back from school my sister told me a ghost story which is so scary that I was sleepless the entire night and thus kept my father awake, because I would shake him up once he fell asleep. Next day, my dad scolded my sister, ‘Look, you have scared him so much! I will beat you if you dare do this again!'

今天收到一封孩子的来信，信中写道：“我最近有件很担心的事情，请您帮帮忙。之前，我在百度BLOG上面发表有关学潮的文章被删除了，之后账号也被锁定。还有在学校校园网屡屡使用翻墙软件看国内禁止浏览的信息。那么，我会不会已经被当成黑名单记录在案了？这些事情会不会影响我出国？我早就计划出国啦…. 希望您能帮我解答下，谢谢啦。”

Today I received a letter from a kid, which writes, ‘I have been so worried recently. Could you please help me? Not long ago I have published an article about Tiananmen Square incident on my blog in Baidu.com. It was deleted by the admins and my account was also locked. Moreover, I have often broken through the GFW (internet blockade) to read webpages that were censored in China. So, will I be put on some blacklist? Would this ruin my plan to study abroad? Please give me some advise, thanks a lot!

看完之后我大笑，然后回信用几乎是谐谑的口气安慰了他。但紧接着便有些心酸，想起了我父亲责骂我姐的话：“你看看，你都把他吓成什么样了？！”

I broke into laugh after reading it, and comforted him almost in a tone of banter. But then I somewhat felt sad for him, recalling what my dad scolded my sister, ‘Look, you have scared him so much!’.

制造恐惧并不一定需要暴力，只要处处加大行为的成本就够了，甚至都不用真的加大成本，只要展示一下行为的成本有随时被加大的可能便够了。….看看那些这些日子被请去喝茶的人们的故事，看看那些公民调查者们最近在四川的遭遇，看看这些人心里的担忧，便知道了。

It doesn't have to rely on violence to create fear. It only needs to increase the cost of acting justice. Not even that is needed. As long as it is shown clearly that such cost can be raised at any time, we will be deterred. Look at the stories about people being ‘invited' to talk with the public security agents; look at how citizen journalists were treated in Si-chuan (where 5.12 earthquake happened). Look at their anxiety and fear, you should know everything.

成本弄得那么重，瘦弱的肩膀实在是担不动啊。

The cost is too heavy for our slim shoulders to take on.

如果只是匿名上网牢骚几句都被噤声，即便远渡重洋都还要为自己的“错误言论”惴惴不安，只是说几句话都要心头挣扎半天，又如何能抱怨面对恶徒的拳头和匕首时，人们不见义勇为呢？更别说我们还曾经真的把最容易站立的青春用坦克履带压成了扁平。

If our a few slight complaints have to be silenced, if we have to worry about our words even when staying abroad, if we have to go through intense inner struggle before any speech, how can we face boldly the thug's fists and pistols？ How could you complain that people no more stand up against the evil?

49 年的时候，有人说：“中国人民从此站起来了。”可从那以后，每隔一段时间，我们都要重新站起来一回。香港回归，站；卫星上天，站；奥运开幕，又站。外国人有时候不解：“你们不是早就站起来了么？怎么还反复站了又站，有完没完啊？”看到这样的误解我就很愤怒：“妈的，平时都爬着，怎么还不让人动不动站起来伸伸懒腰啦？我们对自己人忍气吞声，自然就要对你们外国人扬眉吐气，否则不他妈憋死啦！”

In 1949 Mao claimed that ‘Chinese people have now stood up!' But since then, we had stood up again and again. When Hong Kong returned to China, we proclaimed we stood up. When our satellite was launched we stood up. When Olympics opened, we stood up again. Some foreigners wondered, ‘haven't you already stood up? Why now you still keep saying that you are standing up?' I was angry with their question, ‘Damn it, we have never really stood up before. We have always been crawling on the ground so why can't we just stand up occasionally to take a break? We submit to humiliation to our countrymen at home so that we have to hold our heads high to you foreigners. Or we will be suffocated by our simmering fury!'

是啊，我们自己都要爬着活，又如何敢腆颜教育下一代“勇气”和“爱”呢？我们能做的，不过是在他们小时候讲讲勇气和爱的童话，然后在他们长大了真正要展示勇气和爱的时候，大喝一声：“快！趴下！”

So, if we adults have to bend over on the ground with humiliation, how would we educate our children about ‘courage' and ‘love'? What we can do is but to tell them fairy tales about courage and love when they are children, and at the time they are going to make it real, we will shout, ‘ No! Stay low!'

也许下次回国的时候，我该去拜会一下那具广场上从未谋面的尸体，调侃着说：“你看看，你都把他吓成什么样了？”

Maybe next time when I am back to China, I should visit the Tiananmen Square to talk with the dead bodies lying there, ‘Look, how much have they scared you!'.