EastSouthWestNorth: Daily Brief Comments, July 11-31, 2009
[]& Hu Bin Meets The Press (07/31/2009)
(People's Net via
Today at 10:45am, the perpetrator of the May 7th
Hangzhou traffic accident Hu Bin was sent to a prison to begin his first
day of his three year jail term.& At 3pm, two teachers and two fellow
students from the university where he was studying at came to visit him.
In the interviewing room, Hu Bin wore prison garb and
glasses and sat down in front of everybody under the watchful eyes of the
prison guards.
On the evening of May 7, 2009, Hu Bin and the
individuals with family names Kong and Yuan started out in their cars from
the airport and sped down the roads.& When he passed Second West
Road, his car hit a young man named Tan Zhuo on the pedestrian cross-walk.&
Tan died.& This incident caused a major storm in social opinion.
&After the incident, I was very scared.& My mind
went blank.& I knew that I had caused a big problem.&& He said
&I'm sorry& several times during the interview today.& &I am sorry
about Tan Zhuo, I am sorry about his parents, I am sorry about my parents.&
I have created huge hurt for both families.&
&During my two months at the detention center, I kept
reflecting about myself.&& Hu Bin paused and then said, &I will feel
conscience-stricken for the rest of my life.&
The first impression that Hu Bin gave people was in the
photo of him covering his face with his hand.& Two months later, the
Hu Bin who appeared before the public looked like a bespectacled
middle-school students.
Is this the real Hu Bin?& Faced with these doubts,
Hu Bin himself even had to admit: &There might have been some changes.&
My hairstyle is different.& I gained weight.&& He said that he
wore glasses during the court trial whereas he was wearing contact lenses
on the night of the accident.
As for the scar on his arm that netizens wondered about,
Hu Bin dispalyed a clear long white mark to the camera.& He told the
reporters, &This occurred during my third year in elementary school.&
&The one on the left is Teacher Yu, the one on the right
is my class master.&& Hu Bin was able to recognize his former
teachers and fellow students immediately.& When it came to the second
fellow student, he said: &Ah Fu ... we usually address each other by
nicknames.&
&After this incident, you should realize that you made a
mistake.& You behave better here.& We look forward to your
return.& Our class is incomplete without you.&& The teachers and
fellow students told him.
The 15 minute interview session was over quickly.&
The class master did not say anything until the time of parting came.&
She turned around and choked as she said: &You are still young.& You
will mature.&
&Thanks, Teacher Wang.& I will.&& Hu Bin was
very firm in his last words.
(Wei Yingjie at
From the very beginning, I never believed that it was
possible for a different person to take Hu Bin's place.& This is not
because I had been near the scene of the incident, nor because I had some
inside information.& My information is like what most people have.&
I made that judgment based upon commonsense.& In my view, even if the
law enforcement authorities dared to let Hu Bin go, it would be most
stupid to use a substitute to serve out his jail term.
Operationally, the law enforcement authorities could
have &helped& Hu Bin by directly giving him a suspended sentence.&
This is how traffic incidents are normally handled.& Since there is a
legal basis for which precedents exist, the public may be dissatisfied but
they can't blame the law enforcement authorities.& But to impose an
actual jail term and then let a substitute serve the term?& They
wouldn't dare buy off the entire court.& Besides, they could have
imposed the sentence first and then made the substitution afterwards.&
By that time, who was going to know which Hu Bin is sitting in prison?&
The court workers would be risking their careers if they dared to make the
switch right in front of the public and the media.& In the worst case
scenario, they could have sentenced him and then let him out on bail on
some excuse.& That would be better than doing a switch.
[]& The Death of
Chen Guojun (07/31/2009)& ()
Chen Guojun is about 41 years old.& In the eyes of
the Tonghua Steel and Iron Factory workres, he is a stern general manager
and his conversations with the workers or even low-level cadres are always
in the form of dressing down.& A Tonghua worker narrated the
following scene: It was around noon and about 20 minutes before lunch.&
Three blast furnace workers stopped the furnace and packed up to leave.&
Chen Guojun came in and demanded to know why they were not working.&
The workers explained that it was almost time to get off work.& Chen
Guojun began very angry, pointed his finger at them and said: &You are all
suspended!&
While the workers think of Chen Guojun as stern and
inhumane, certain senior Tonghua Steel and Iron Factory managers
considered him to possess &good character, honest and professional.&&
A vice general manager said that there is a huge gap in management
philosophy and system between private companies and state-owned
enterprises and Chen was the &sacrificial victim of these two types of
corporate cultures.&
On July 24, it was the first day when Chen Guojun became
Tonghua Steel and Iron Company's general manager again.& As a senior
manager assigned by the Jianlong Group to Tonghua Steel and Iron, his
mission of the day is to meet with the managing cadres at the most
important iron-smelting and coking factories.& Apart from himself,
another seven Tonghua Steel and Iron Company senior managers went to the
other factories with the same mission -- to assuage the cadres and
workers, &keep production steady, keep safety steady and keep the team
The urgency was due to the fact that certain workers
were upset when the news came that the Jianlong Group has acquired
controlling shares in Tonghua Steel and Iron.& On July 23, more than
1,000 people gathered in the factory area.& At about 8:30am, July 24,
Chen Guojun came to the iron-smelting company office building.& The
meeting went fairly well.& Although some cadres were unenthusiastic,
they agreed to carry about the publicity and leadership campaign because
of promises such that &the entire leadership will be retained,& &no
changes of middle-level cadres in the mid-term& and &no layoffs and no
salary reductions for the workers.&
But at about the same time, almost 3,000 current and
retired workers and their families were demonstrating in front of the
Tonghua Steel and Iron office building.& They blocked the railroad
leading to blast furnaces numbers 1, 2 and 3.& Since raw materials
was not coming in and finished products were not moving out, these blast
furnaces were forced to shut down and cease production.
At 10:30pm, Chen Guojun left the iron-smelting factory
and went to the coking factory.& There were demonstrators everywhere
in the factory.& The steel burglary-proof doors leading to the second
floor were locked.& The slogan &Jianlong, get out of Tonghua Steel&
were rising and falling outside the old Coking Building.& The eight
senior managers of Tonghua Steel and Iron were visiting all the factories
to talk to the workers.& The demonstrators decided to target general
manager Chen Guojun because the other seven were all &old Tonghua persons&
whereas Chen Guojun was someone sent in by the Jianlong Group.
The crowd wanted Chen Guojun to come downstairs and
address them.& When there was no response, someone began ramming the
steel door.& According to eyewitnesses at the scene, there was almost
10,000 people surrounding the old Coking Building.& People egged each
other on.& They changed slogans and they used heating panels to pry
over the burglary-proof steel doors on the second floor.& The time
was 11:20am.& Tonghua blast furnaces 4, 5 and 6 had also shut down
and ceased production.
The crowd piled into the second-floor conference room.&
Chen Guojen told the workers that if they wanted to say something, they
should do it properly instead of this way.& The workers replied &Jianlong,
get out of Tonghua Steel!& and &Get lost quickly!& Tonghua's business
has nothing to do with you Jianlong people!&& Someone threw water
bottles at Chen Guojun and someone else even took off their work boots and
threw them at him.& Someone picked up a chair to throw at Chen but
Seeing what was happening, Chen Guojun sternly demanded
the workers to return to their work posts &or else you are all fired!&&
When the workers heard him say that, they got angrier.& They dragged
Chen Guojun into the corridor where they punched and kicked him.&
This first beating was not very serious as Chen Guojun was able to get
away and hide.
Almost every burglary-proof door on the second floor of
the Old Coking building was smashed.& There was a big hole in the
wall and broken glass all over the floor.& When people realized that
Chen Guojun had disappeared, they searched the rooms one by one.& So
Chen Guojun was eventually found.& But Chen insisted on maintaining
his tough attitude.& &He said, 'If I so much have one breath left in
me, I will make sure that all of you are fired tomorrow!'&& The
reaction was an even more severe beating.& Eyewitnesses said that
Chen Guojun was beaten at least three times.& On the last occasion,
he was sent tumbling down from the second floor to the first floor by a
&He laid on the ground, breathing heavily.& He
could not speak anymore.&& The time was 16:30 or so.& The
remaining blast furnace number 7 had also shut down and ceased production.&
The Tonghua Steel and Iron Factory was totally idled.
&He was dead.& But people kept throwing bricks at
his body.& This shows how bad he was and how people hated him.&&
A Tonghua workers said.& According to eyewitnesses, Chen Guojun was
motionless after around 7pm that evening.& According to the Jilin
provincial government, &Chen Guojun died at 11pm when efforts to revive
him failed.&
[]& Foot-long Rats
In Hong Kong Prison (07/31/2009)& Background:
(06/28/2009)
()& Hong Kong murder accused 'has done nothing
wrong'&& By Arjun Ramachandran&&& July 28, 2009.
The family of an Australian man charged with the murder
of a Hong Kong taxi driver has launched a strident defence of him on blogs
and social-networking sites.
Kelsey Mudd, 22, faced court yesterday over the June 27
incident, in which a 58-year-old taxi driver died after a smash in Hong
Kong’s central district in the early hours of the morning. The incident
made headlines after the emergence of dramatic video footage of the
incident showed Mudd with blood splattered across his face.
At the time, Hong Kong newspaper the South China Morning
Post said Mudd and the driver had argued shortly before the crash, and
that after the crash Mudd had driven off in the taxi before hitting
another taxi. But in a website - - created in
support of Mudd and to raise money for his legal defence, Mudd’s father,
Michael, labelled initial reports ‘‘wild and totally unsubstantiated
allegations’’. In court yesterday to support his son, Michael Mudd said
his son was holding up well in custody. ‘‘He’s strong. He’s done nothing
wrong,’’ he said.
Mudd, who has not entered a plea, appeared in court with
his hair shortly cropped and wearing a dark blue suit jacket over a
checkered dress shirt and khaki pants. He did not show any emotion, but
briefly glanced to the back of the courtroom, where his parents and
friends were seated.
Mudd’s lawyer, Ian Polson, argued in court that the
crash &always was and is a traffic accident&. He said there was no
evidence Mudd was behind the wheel during the accident that killed the
driver. &It’s been blown all out of proportion,& he told the judge.
The website created by Mudd’s family argues Mudd did not
drive off in the taxi, but that it ‘‘moved off down a slight incline and
hit another taxi’’. The site, along with a Facebook page and a blog,
described Mudd as a ‘‘hard working, quiet, and responsible young man’’.
The geography and environmental sustainability student at California State
University, Chico, was on summer vacation in Hong Kong at the time of the
accident. He had chosen to volunteer with a Hong Kong charity, Adventure
Ship, it said.
In a note from jail, Mudd has described having trouble
sleeping, and seeing ‘‘4 rats over a foot long’’ and a cockroach in his
drinking cup.
Mudd was remanded in custody after his case was
adjourned to August 28. His lawyer said he plans to apply for bail. Mudd
holds both an Australian and American passport, was born in Hong Kong and
moved to San Francisco at age nine.
Online discussion at
[]& Hong Kong By The
Numbers (07/30/2009)& () (815 persons
age 18 or over were interviewed by telephone July 22-23, 2009 at a response
rate of 44.3%)
Q1.& How satisfied are you with the performance of
the Hong Kong Legislative Council during their first year of this term?
32.3%: Dissatisfied
54.5%: So-so
10.9%: Satisfied
& 2.3%: Don't know/hard to say
Q2. Over the past year, some people think the Legco
members were &too conservative& while others think that they are too
&radical.&& What is your opinion?
14.4%: Too conservative
34.8%: Appropriate/so-so/half-and-half
39.5%: Too radical
11.3%: Don't know/hard to say
Q4. How satisfied are you with Legco chairman Jasper
Tsang Yok-sing?
18.8%: Dissatisfied
53.6%: So-so
23.9%: Satisfied
& 3.7%: Don't know/hard to say
Q5. Do you think that the Legislative Council is
adequately reflecting public opinion in their work?
42.1%: Inadequate
36.9%: So-so
18.4%: Adequate
& 2.6%: Don't know/hard to say
Q6. Do you want the Legislative Council to do more on
supervising the government or cooperating with the government?
51.4%: More on supervising the government
37.9%: More on cooperating with the government
10.7%: Don't know/hard to say
[]& Hong Kong By The
Numbers (07/30/2009)& ()& (1,019 persons 18 or older were
interviewed July 25-29, 2009 by automated voice system)
Q1.& How satisfied are you with the overall
quality of free over-the-air television programs in Hong Kong?
& 6%: Very satisfied
23%: Satisfied
47%: So-so
13%: Dissatisfied
& 8%: Very dissatisfied
Q2. Which types of programs should the free
over-the-air television stations add more to their program line-ups?
& 4%: Children programs
& 6%: Finance programs
24%: Educational programs
15%: News programs
12%: Movies
11%: Variety programs
& 5%: Drama series
12%: Other
11%: No opinion
Q3. Some people think that the local free over-the-air
television programs are unfair and unbalanced.& Do you agree?
45%: Agree
18%: Disagree
37%: No opinion
Q4. Some people think that the local free over-the-air
television programs are of poor taste.& Do you agree?
51%: Agree
23%: Disagree
26%: No opinion
Q5. Do you think that it was appropriate for
interviewers with artistes to be broadcast during news programs?&
(Note: The most famous episode is the interview of Gillian Chung by TVB
general manager Steven Chan Chi-wan.)
12%: Appropriate
63%: Inappropriate
25%: No opinion
Q6. Do you think that a situation of monopoly exists in
free over-the-air television at this time?
19%: No opinion
Q7. Do you think that the Broadcast Authority exercises
adequate supervision of local free over-the-air television now?
19%: Adequate
36%: Inadequate
38%: Not familiar with the supervision
& 7%: No opinion
Q8. Do you think that the sanctions imposed by the
Broadcast Authority against violations are sufficient now?
14%: Sufficient
37%: Insufficient
40%: Not familiar with the sanctions
& 9%: No opinion
Q9. If you should feel extremely dissatisfied with a
certain television program, would you make a complaint to the Broadcast
Authority?
26%: No opinion
Q10. If 'No' to Q9, what is your reason for not making
a complaint?
& 7%: Don't how to go about making a complaint to the Broadcast
23%: No spare time to make complaints
56%: Don't think complaints are useful
& 8%: Other reasons
& 6%: No opinion
[]& Illegal Parking
(07/30/2009)& ()&
A man parks his car in front of someone else's private garage, thus blocking
the garage owner from taking his car in or out.& For the sake of
neighborly disharmony, the man leaves a message on his own car to the garage
In translation:
If you dare, you scratch my my car!
Your daddy me is parking my car here for sure.
If you have the balls, you can come out for a meeting.
I fuck your bitch mother, your mother-in-law, your wife, your elder
sister(s), your younger sister(s), your elder sister(s)-in-law, your
younger sister(s)-in-law!
If you don't believe me, you can tell your wife to come out and meet me?
[]& &My Name Is Liu,
And I Am Not Hu Bin's Stand-in Double&& (07/29/2009)
Hu Bin was the Hangzhou driver who killed a young man
while speed racing in the street on May 7.& Here is the photo at the
scene of the incident.
When he was recently tried and convicted in court, he
looked something like this.
Could this possibly be the same person?& Or was
someone being paid to serve the three-year jail sentence?& While
netizens are understandably skeptical and cynical, the West Lake Court
insisted that this was the driver (who had grown fatter and paler after
2-1/2 months in detention.
Shortly afterwards, netizens came up with a photo of
someone who resembles the person on trial and identified him as a taxi
driver named Zhang Lica.& All of a sudden, &Zhang Lica& became a very
search term at the search engines as everybody strove to be the next to
break the case open.
Yesterday, someone posted at the
Dear esteemed netizen friends,
In recent days, the raging rumor was that I am the
stand-in of Hu Bin.& I hereby declare that I am not the stand-in of
Hu Bin.& I am just a taxi driver in Hangzhou.& My parents are
ordinary workres.& Previously, I led a simple and calm life.&
Recently, the raging rumor was that I was the stand-in for Hu Bin, and
many netizens sought confirmation with my friends, family and unit.&
This has seriously affected my life and work.& I am annoyed beyond.&
The telephone rings non-stop at my family home and work unit.& Today,
I am resting at home.& Please do not hype this matter any more.&
Please the Party and the government, the Hangzhou public security bureau
and the Xihu district court in their ability to make basic determination.&
I thank everybody for that.& I am making this statement through the
iFeng ZBBS.& I can understand how people feel, but please spare me
and not disturb me anymore.
Zhang Lica, July 28, 2009.
Of course, it is impossible to establish that this is the
real Zhang Lica.
today, there was another development.
A Beijing man named Liu is approaching the media to
state that while he was the person in the photo, his name is not Zhang
Lica and he was not present as the defendant in the Hangzhou court trial.&
Liu is 28-year-old and he is an administrative assistant at a state-owned
enterprise in Beijing.& Liu is perplexed: &I don't know how my photo
got posted on the Internet and I don't know why people are saying that
this is Zhang Lica.&
According to Liu, he has never visited Hangzhou before.&
The photo on the Internet was taken several years ago, but he owns that
shirt and bracelet.& To prove that he is the person in the photo, he
sent our reporter some of his other photos including the one with the pink
shirt (which was taken next to another man).& &If you like, you can
come over and meet me in person.&
After his photo was posted on the Internet under then
name of Zhang Lica, Liu's life had been severely disrupted.& &Some
friends told me.& I received dozens of phone calls a day from friends
and colleagues.&& This case had been reported by the media.&
When friends saw the photo on QQ, they called me.& &My parents
thought that I got myself into trouble.& Fortunately, the human flesh
search engines did not find my phone number and address, so I have not
been contacted by strangers yet.&
When asked about the photo from the court trial, Liu
said: &Frankly, when I saw that photo of Hu Bin in court, I thought that
there was a certain likeless.&& Liu thinks that netizens have
irresponsibly used the human flesh search and created major turmoil for
Yesterday afternoon, Liu took time off from work and
contacted a dozen or more newspapers and websites to clarify the case.&
&I don't want to hire a lawyer.& I just want this to go away.&
[]& Young Models At
The Hong Kong Book Fair (07/27/2009)& This subject is
under-reported in the English-language press and over-reported in the
Chinese-language press.& Here are a few selected blog posts for the
purpose of sampling some of the flavors:
()& July 25, 2009.
I will be talking about the Young Models at the City
Forum tomorrow.& The content will be related to the following photos.
Fans reaching out to grab the
'milk' that Kama is handing out
What is the sense of aesthetics
when the central gate is wide open?
There is a problem with interpretation here
Extraordinarily
Extraordinarily
revealing.
There is a problem when a woman
uses her arms to squeeze her tits
to pose for a photo without feeling
any embarrassment.
()& July 26, 2009.
- First, please do not label me as an anti-&Young Model&
person.& I am mainly opposed to how the media is exploiting them and
creating bad influence.
- Certain media kept saying that &young models& can get
more exposure by wearing less clothing, which caused more &young models&
to give sexy performances on various occasions.
- Actually, these &young models& cannot be described as
&models.&& &Models& use their bodies to wear and carry clothes,
accessories, brands and products.& Their own bodies are not the
selling points.
- We should deplore the mass media for setting the
bottom line lower and lower.& If it takes sexy photos to achieve
popularity today, will it take compensated-friendship tomorrow?& Will
prostitution be just as widely reported and made popular in the future?&
If that is the case, the moral bottom line of society will be torn away
layer by layer so that Hong Kong becomes just like Japan.&
Compensated friendship?& No problem.& Adult videos and
prostitution?& No problem.& Of course, compensated friendship,
adult videos and prostitution can be legalized, but the mass media does
not have to promote them and hence lower the moral standards of society.
- Even though the photos of the &young models& are
neither indecent nor obscene, we can use common sense to make our
judgments.& Clearly, certain photos in the albums have unhealthy
ideas.& For example, the close-ups of
placement of a pool dropping toothpaste and ice cream
on the chest.& I don't want to spell out what is healthy or
unhealthy, but the fact is that they are unhealthy and I don't want to
hear the publishers come up with rubbish such as &it is normal for ice
cream to fall on the breasts.&& You are just trying to fool children.&
This is like you telling the children that Mary is just an inflated doll
with a O-shaped mouth.
- The problem is that normal and obscene photo albums
are being sold in public areas.& Immature young people cannot tell
the difference between so-called obscene photos and &no-big-deal& photos.&
In the absence of information, this will affect the values of young
Although it is hard to tell between healthy sexiness and
indecency/obscenity, I think that when Miss Hong Kong contestants and
models wear swim costumes or when movie stars walk down the red carpet in
sexy clothes, they will not deliberately spread their legs apart, flash
themselves or get down on all fours.& If the &young models& were to
wear bikinis and pose on the a beech, it would be healthy sexiness.&
The problem is that photo albums are clearly using obscene poses and
suggestions as selling points.& I think that society should hear some
voices of condemnation here.
It is a unique Hong Kong characteristic to have &young
models& accusing each other's photo album for being unhealthy to the mind.&
It is another unique Hong Kong characteristic to say that the &young
model& photo albums will cause young people to imitate them.& Such
social phenomena in Hong Kong will always be the reflection of the
spiritual state of the people of Hong Kong.& The &young models'
affair showed that the people of Hong Kong are poor at appreciation.&
They will look at everything from the viewpoint of moral enlightenment.&
Nobody will ever look at whether the thing is beautiful or good in itself.&
The aesthetic judgment of Hong Kong people has not improved with freedom
of publication.& Instead, it has still remained in the feudal era
where discussions are kept at a level of whether something should be
published or not.
The &young models& photo albums are not textbooks on
human biology or anatomy.& Everybody knows that the &young models&
photo albums are soft porn.& Its spiritual healthiness and moral
enlightenment value has to be lower than the Bible, the Buddhist Sutras
and the Koran.& It is risible to even want to discuss its moral
enlightenment value.& Social mores change not because of these photo
albums, but because of the criticisms of these things.& I consider
Hong Kong to be a cultural desert not because too few books are published
and not because of the lack of a West Kowloon Cultural District.&
July 26, 2009.
I hear that there will be some &young models& wearing
low-cut dresses selling photo albums at this year's Hong Kong Book Fair.&
Hey, that's cute.& Is that for real?& But somehow quite a few
people object to this and they even organized to &please tell the young
models to get lost.&& I am perplexed.& The Book Fair is public
space.& How come you can go but other people can't?& Is this
what Article 23 says?& Many starlets are clearly not well-educated
but they write books that get sold at the Book Fair.& There is no
problem with that.& It is alright if people will read and buy the
books.& Free market.& Free society.& So how come starlets
can come to the Book Fair, but not &young models?&& Are you
practicing discrimination?
Young people should learn the art of tolerance.&
Besides the sentence &XX please get lost& is inappropriate.& &Please&
is a courteous expression& but &get lost& is rude.& The two phrases
are incompatible.& Either say &they should please depart& or &tell
them to get lost.&& Rather it is the poverty of art and cultural
criticisms in Hong Kong.& Let us look at the newspapers in developed
countries.& The New York Times has book reviews, film reviews,
television reviews, music reviews and theater reviews.& There are
also specialized magazines that review mass culture, such as Rolling Stone
and Playboy.& In Hong Kong, the only music magazine and the only film
magazine have both folded.& Instead, tabloid magazines are
everywhere.
You may feel that I am writing this essay in support of
the &young models.&& Congratulations!& You have just passed the
test for a typical Hong Kong person, because you easily divided people
into two camps and then automatically signed me up for this party
[]& How Buildings
Are Built In Shenzhen (07/26/2009)& ()
He came to Shenzhen twenty-one years ago, and he never
left the pier.& Although many tall buildings in Shenzhen were built
with the bricks that he hauled, he has never seen what those b buildings
look like.& He has only seen the rows to high-rise buildings in
Shenzhen on television.& According to Lao Liu, he has walked 229,950
kilometers on the pier since 1998 hauling bricks.
At the Xixiang Pier in Bao'an district (Shenzhen city),
they wore old clothes and army boots and they used their poles to carry
bricks off the boats.& Day after day, year after year.& They
sweat profusely in the high temperatures.& They sweat more in one day
than an ordinary person would sweat in an entire day.& They use their
poles to feed their families.& The high-rise buildings in Shenzhen
are the fruits of their labor.
The Tonghua Iron and Steel Factory Mass Incident
(07/26/2009)& ()&
China police, 30,000 workers clash: rights group
About 30,000 Chinese steel workers clashed with police
over plans to merge their mill with another company, and beat a manager to
death, a Hong Kong-based human rights group has said. About 100 people
were injured in the incident on Friday in the northeastern city of Tonghua,
the Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy said in a statement.
A police officer at the Tonghua Public Security Bureau's
control centre on Sunday confirmed to AFP that a clash took place, but
refused to provide any details or comment on the reported death. Company
and local government officials were not immediately available for comment.
Tonghua Iron and Steel Group employees opposed plans for
Beijing-based Jianlong Steel to take a 65 percent stake in the mill, the
centre said, adding they accused Jianlong of mismanagement during
temporary stewardship last year. The Tonghua employees attacked Jianlong
general manager Chen Guojun when he ordered them to return to work, the
centre said, adding Chen's friends had confirmed he had died after workers
blocked an ambulance from responding. The workers had complained about
Chen's alleged three-million-yuan (438,000-dollar) salary, as the mill's
pensioners received as little as 200 yuan (29 dollars) a month, the
statement said.
Beijing is trying to consolidate its steel industry,
which comprises hundreds of small producers, through mergers aimed at
creating big players that have the potential to be globally competitive.
July 25, 2009.
A big thing occurred at the Tonghua Steel today.& I
will say that it is a big thing only, because I don't know if it is a good
thing, a fortunate thing, a bad thing or a tragic thing.& A life
perished under the hands of countless number of workers, and that person
was the newly appointed Tonghua Iron and Steel Company Mr. Chen who came
from the Jianlong Group.
It is late night, but there is still random sounds of
firecrackers being set off outside.& I cannot judge what that means.&
For the Tonghua Steel workers, this m for the Jilin
government, i for Chen, it may be a farewell dirge.
This affair began on July 22.& On that day, the
Tonghua Steel Group which is based in Changchun city (Jilin province)
announced that the Jianlong Group has invested money in Tonghua Steel
again to the tune of more than 50% of the shares in the new Tonghua Steel
Group, while the Jilin State Fund Committee only has 34% of the shares.&
This means that the the largest iron/steel state enterprise in Jilin
province has been taken over by the private enterprise Jianlong Group.
When the news came that day, the workers at the Tonghua
Iron and Steel Factory (which was the principal production facility of the
Tonghua Steel Group) were worked up.& There were voices of
condemnation, surprise, incomprehension and despair.& It has been a
mere three months since the partnership between Jianlong and Tonghua Steel
was re-organized.& Back in October 2005, the Jilin provincial
party/government worked hard to set up a partnership between the only
large-scale state enterprise in Jilin -- the Tonghua Steel Group -- with
the biggest iron/steel investment company in China -- the Jianlong Group.&
At the time, the Jianlong Group infused capital into the Tonghua Steel
Group and acquired almost 40% of the shares.& Although the Jianlong
Group was not the majority shareholder, the general manager and the
financial director quickly became Jianlong appointees under the guise of
&introducing private-sector management system.&& So there began a
series of dubious operational moves.& The entire Tonghua Steel
management was changed.& It became neither state nor private: the
senior managers drew high salaries while mouthing that they represent the
Party and the county, and the workers were being laid off and their
salaries were cut.
The 2008 financial crisis caught many companies by
surprise, and the new Tonghua Steel Group was no exception.& At a
time when the iron/steel industry was in a depression, Tonghua Steel Group
continued to lose money.& The Tonghua Iron and Steel Factory cut its
salary down to an average of 300 yuan per month.& By comparison, the
Jilin New District factory continued normal production and their workers
suffered no salary cuts (in normal times, the Jilin Iron and Steel Factory
workers receive higher salaries than the Tonghua Iron and Steel Factory
workers).& The Tonghua Iron and Steel Factory were not pleased that
workers at the same company receive different pay only because the
investor or the previous owner before the merger was different.&
During this period, the Tonghua Steel workers contacted various media or
communication channels to show these abnormal problems there, but nothing
happened.& At the Internet forums such as Baidu, , Tianya and
other places, posts about Tonghua were deleted.& In 2008, there was a
death at the Tonghua Iron and Steel Factory that came as a result of
management-worker conflict with the deceased being the factory manager.&
In a mere three years, the relationship between cadres and workers at
Tonghua Steel nose-dived with all sorts of conflicts happening.&
After the consecutive losses in 2008, Jianlong decided in early 2009 to
split the shares in the Tonghua Steel Group.& After negotiation, the
Jianlong Group obtained 100% of the shares in Jilin Iron and Steel as well
as the original iron ore mountain formerly owned by the Tonghua Steel
Group.& In March 2009, the Tonghua Steel Group and the Jianlong Group
formally divided their shares.& When the announcement was made
public, the sound of firecrackers went on through the night in the
residential areas of the Tonghua Iron and Steel Factory workers.
Before the splitting of the shares, Tonghua Iron and
Steel Factory had lost almost 1 billion yuan in just the first quarter of
2009, while the Jilin New District lost only 200 million yuan.& After
the share splitting, in April, the Tonghua Iron and Steel Factory lost
almost 100 in May, there w in June, it
made a profit of 60 million yuan.& Everybody at the Tonghua Iron and
Steel Factory was delighted.& In July, everybody at the Tonghua Iron
and Steel Factory was ready for a good fight.& But right at this
moment, the Jianlong Group infused capital into Tonghua Steel to obtain
majority control.& When the Tonghua Iron and Steel Factory workers
and families saw how a private enterprise swallowed up a state enterprise
and they were being fooled once again, their anger and passions boiled
As a state enterprise with a share system, there has to
be principles by which big decisions are made.& First of all, when a
big change is pending, the Communist Party and the workers' union should
hold a meeting of representatives as well as sought the opinions of the
workers.& Since the Tonghua Iron and Steel Factory is a state
enterprise, its reform should follow the procedures for state enterprises.&
Secondly, the workers are also shareholders of Tonghua.& Even though
each worker holds only a very small number of shares, they are almost
20,000 strong and the sum of their shares is not small.& When there
is a change at any enterprise, there should be a shareholders' meeting
which is announced beforehand.& When the two groups decided to merge
again, many senior managers at the Tonghua Steel Group were not even
aware.& As for the publicity materials for the enterprise
re-organization, the workers only got them the day after the
re-organization was announced.& When the Jilin Provincial State
Capital Committee issued its decision to re-organize, several general
managers at the Tonghua Group resigned as a group.& Meanwhile the
worker movement at the Tonghua Iron and Steel Factory began to develop
This was a spontaneous worker movement without any
organizing.& Everything was based upon the hatred of the Jianlong
Group and the dissatisfaction with the policy-decision of the Jilin
provincial senior leaders.& On the morning of July 23, certain Jilin
Province State Capital Committee leaders and Jianlong Group senior
managers came to hold a meeting at the Tonghua Iron and Steel Factory
about the re-organization.& They were surrounded and shoved by 100
current workers and 50 family members.& That afternoon, the Tonghua
public security bureau began to call the various departments of the
Tonghua Iron and Steel Factory to gather details of the clash.& On
the morning of July 24, almost 300 current workers and family members
assembled in front of the Tonghua Iron and Steel office building.&
They raised banners such as &Jianlong, get out of Tonghua Steel,& chanted
slogans and demonstrated.& At around 9am, the demonstrators headed
towards the Tonghua Iron and Steel Metallurgy District.& They blocked
the railroad leading into the Numbers 1, 2 and 3 blast furnaces.& Shortly
afterwards, the Numbers 1, 2 and 3 blast furnaces stopped production.& By
noon, the demonstrators still had not dispersed.& They gathered
around the various railroads leading to the Metallurgy District.&
Number 4, 5 and 6 blast furnaces also stopped production.& In the afternoon, Number
7 blast furnace also ceased production.& By this time, production had
ceased or slowed down everywhere in the Tonghua Iron and Steel Factory.&
All the units either halted or cut down on production.
On July 24, in a certain room at the Tonghua Steel
Hotel, the newly appointed Tonghua Steel Group general manager named Lee
(who came from the Jianlong Group) met with the various Tonghua Steel
factory managers.& The various Tonghua Steel factory managers went to
the various middle-level cadres and worker representatives to ask them to
stabilize the workers.& Meanwhile, the newly appointed Tonghua Iron
and Steel Factory general manager named Chen led a team to the Jiaohua
factory to speak to the middle-level cadres and worker representatives
there.& For unexplained reasons, some of the demonstrators learned
about this meeting and rushed over to the Jiaohua factory office building
where the meeting was being held.& It was reported that Chen had an
argument with the demonstrators and made them angry.& A group of
demonstrators charged inside the meeting room, dragged Chen out into the
corridor and assaulted him.& When the news came out, the
demonstrators in various places moved towards the Jiaohua factory.&
Tonghua city mobilized many public security officers, traffic officers and
armed police officers to head towards the Tonghua Metallurgy District and
imposed traffic restrictions.& The Jilin provincial and Tonghua city
leaders also went to the scene, but the situation was still not under
control.& At 19:00 in the evening, there were almost 10,000 people in
the Tonghua Metallurgy District.& According to reports, Chen had
already been beaten many times.& Some even said that criminal
elements joined in the beating.& By this time, Chen was already dead
and the sight of his body was hard to watch.& But many workers still
hung around and forbade government workers to come in.& At around
21:00 that night, the Tonghua Steel Group announced on television to the
Tonghua Iron and Steel Factory workers and their families that the Jilin
provincial government has decided that Jianlong will withdraw and never
participate in any reorganization of Tonghua Steel again.& By around
22:00, the demonstrators and the spectators dispersed gradually.
The incident occurred too quickly and the scale of the
incident was beyond the imagination of almost everybody.& By
midnight, I still could not believe everything that has happened.& I
have met Chen.& He was the type of professional manager who would
even tremble when he had to speak in public.& Based upon my
understanding, nobody at Tonghua Steel rated him as a qualified manager.&
But some people were happy with him because he followed orders.& It
should be said that his ending is tragic.& No matter how many
mistakes he has made, he should not have to pay with his life.& His
death is the bad result of the failure of the reform in the Jilin
iron/steel system, serious mistakes on the part of senior Jilin provincial
leaders and the fruit of the opportunistic investment made by the Jianlong
people.& The Tonghua Steel workers saw that the factory that their
forebears had built up over a period of more than 50 years was suddenly
taken over by someone else, especially at a moment when the factory seemed
to be getting out of trouble and looking to grow.& When they failed
to get the support and understanding of the leadership, they resort to
extreme actions.& The Jianlong Group people are a team of brilliant
financial experts with a deep background, but they never dreamed that they
would trip over in this case.& The northeastern Chinese people are
renowned for their toughness, and the contradictions in this case have
gone too far for any reconciliation.& With the exception of a few who
can actually do stuff, the Tonghua Steel leaders are bureaucrats looking
after their own interests and lacking vision and ambition.& They only
see profit and self-interest.
The ending of this affair is a tragedy.& Although
firecrackers are going off outside the window, I am only hearing bitter
sounds of laughter from hell.& In my sorrow, I can watch the clock
ticking away.& I feel sorrow over the brash moves of the Jilin
provincial leaders.& I feel sorrow over the perverse developments in
society.& I feel sorrow over the blindness and barbarity of the
Tonghua Steel workers.& I feel sorrow over the bottomless greed of
the Jianlong people.& I feel sorrow for the family of the deceased
From this, I remember several incidents that have
occurred in Jilin province: the corruption case of the Changchun city
deputy secretary Mi Fengjun, the corruption case of the senior managers at
the Jilin Food Enterprise, the cheating at the university entrance exam in
Songyuan city, the criminal elements inside the Tonghua city public
security bureau, the failure of the system reforms at the Jilin Iron and
Steel Enterprise, the decline of the ginseng industry in Jilin province
... What do they tell us?& Jilin is ill, and seriously ill at that.&
As a province that is known for producing agricultural food, Jilin ought
to be a base for cultivating simplicity and honesty, instead of being the
breeding ground of greed and lust.& The problems at Tonghua Steel are
not just contradictions that occur during the reform of state enterprises,
but they show something even deeper.& Does it require a death to draw
attention?& Who can save Jilin?
()& Chinese state steel workers beat private firm boss
to death&& By Tania Branigan.& July 26, 2009.
Thousands of angry Chinese steel workers clashed with
police and beat to death an executive of the firm trying to take over
their company, a Hong Kong-based human rights organisation has said.
Rioters killed Chen Guojun, the general manager of Jianlong Steel Holding
Company, after learning that the privatised firm was to buy a majority
stake in state-owned Tonghua Iron and Steel Group. The deal now appears to
be scrapped.
The violence in Tonghua city, Jilin province,
north-eastern ,
on Friday is believed to be the country's biggest civil disturbance since
last summer. It comes weeks after inter-ethnic conflict between Han
Chinese and the Muslim Uighur minority in China's north-west region of
Xinjiang left 197 people dead and 1,700 injured.
The Information Centre for Human Rights and Democracy
said 30,000 people were involved in the latest incident, although some
internet postings put the figure at closer to 10,000.
China is the world's largest consumer and producer of
steel, but its industry is regarded as inefficient. The workers are
thought to have been fearful of further large-scale redundancies at a
company that reportedly axed many jobs only a few years ago. Reports
suggest Tonghua has between 20,000 and 50,000 employees.
Millions of people were laid off by state enterprises in
the 1990s and workers often complain that they receive little
compensation.
The human rights centre said workers were angry that
Chen earned about 3m yuan (?267,000) last year while Tonghua's retirees
were given as little as 200 yuan a month. They blocked roads and smashed
police vehicles, the centre said, adding that 100 people were injured in
the violence. Authorities in the area have made no formal comment on
events and phone calls to the companies went unanswered. But the South
China Morning Post quoted a police officer from the public security bureau
as telling them: &Yes, it did take place … Workers from Tonghua would not
allow ambulance and medical practitioners to enter the building to rescue
Mr Chen and he died.& Local television said on Friday night that the
takeover would be scrapped, the newspaper added.
Beijing-based Jianlong – one of the largest private
steelmakers – is thought to have invested in Tonghua as early as 2005 and
to have attempted to take a controlling stake last year, only to back out
after it failed to improve the company's fortunes. But as the steel market
rebounded, thanks in part to a government stimulus package, Jianlong made
another attempt to take over.
One account posted on the internet suggested that
several hundred workers had begun a demonstration on Friday morning and
closed down production at much of the site. When they learned that Chen
was briefing senior staff, they rushed into the meeting. An argument
ensued and they assaulted him.
The incident is thought to be the largest civil
disturbance since up to 30,000 people took to the streets in Weng'an,
Guizhou, last summer, trashing police and government headquarters over
rumours of corruption and official abuses. China has seen a rising number
of &mass incidents& in recent years. According to the ministry of public
security, the tally rose from 10,000 in 1994 to 87,000 in 2005. Figures
have not been published since then but experts believe they may well have
increased further. The government is particularly sensitive to such unrest
this year ahead of the 60th anniversary of Communist Party rule this
October. In China, six decades is considered a complete life cycle.
()& Manager beaten to death in plant riot&&&
By Wang Huazhong in Beijing and Liu Mingtai in Changchun (China Daily)&&&
July 27, 2009.
An executive was beaten to death on Friday as 3,000
steel workers threatened with job cuts protested following the takeover of
their company in Tonghua, Jilin province. Jianlong
Steel Holding Company representative Chen Guojun was killed at a facility
run by Tonghua Iron and Steel Group, in northeast China's old industrial
heartland.
The brawl broke out after Tonghua workers were told to
expect job losses during a meeting with a delegation from Jianlong Steel,
a privately owned firm based in Beijing. It was the second time Jianlong
had launched a takeover bid for the State giant and many feared the
company planned to drain State assets before following up with
cost-cutting measures, including redundancies.
&Employees (many of whom are shareholders) are close to
enjoying financial gains as the price of steel continues to rise,& said a
police officer that identified herself only as Wang. &Then, Chen
disillusioned workers and provoked them by saying most of them would be
laid off in three days. Chen, saying that a total number of 30,000
employees would be cut to 5,000, infuriated the crowd.&
The angry steel workers beat Chen and then blocked
ambulances, police and government officers from reaching him. He is
believed to have died in the midst of the steel workers at 8 pm Friday.
&Chen, the manager, did not deserve to be killed. Unfortunately, he was
targeted after unleashing the anger of the furious crowd,& said Wang. The
demonstration led to a halt in production at all of the seven blast
furnaces belonging to the steel manufacturer, which has a yearly
throughput of about seven million tons.
Jianlong held 49 percent of shares in Tonghua between
2005 and the start of 2009, and restructured the company. Last year, the
joint venture experienced significant economic losses due to the global
financial crisis, leading to a drop in production and cuts in salaries,
causing discontent among workers. One netizen said the murder at the end
of last year of Song Kai, the head of a Tonghua-affiliated steel mill,
allegedly at the hands of a 28-year-old worker, was another example of the
friction between management and workers in the joint venture.
Jianlong left the partnership in March and workers
reportedly celebrated with fireworks. This month, Tonghua State-owned
Assets Supervision and Administration Commission reported that the
company, which &went through some very tough challenges in past 10 years&,
had made a profit of 42.7 million yuan ($6.2 million) in June. But on July
22, workers learned that Jianlong had secured more than 50 percent of the
company's shares, giving it full control.
Local government representatives announced on Friday
night that the deal would now be shelved permanently and the crowd
dispersed. Jianlong and Tonghua are respectively
ranked 158th and 244th in the top 500 Chinese companies.
()& Size of deadly protest exaggerated: official&&&
July 29, 2009.
A spokesman from the steel plant in Jilin province that
was the scene of a deadly protest on Friday has denied reports that 30,000
workers were involved. Zhang Zhidong, spokesman for the Tonghua Iron and
Steel Co, said it would be impossible for the protest, which culminated in
the beating death of an executive, to have involved 30,000 people, as was
reported by Reuters and AFP. &We only have 13,000 on the payroll,& he
A work group organized by the provincial government to
investigate the incident said the executive who was killed, Chen Guojun,
had been sent to the plant by the Beijing-based Jianlong Heavy Machinery
Group to conduct a merger discussion in an effort to take a controlling
share in the Tonghua Iron and Steel Group.
Wang Xidong, deputy head of the Jilin provincial
State-owned asset commission, said the proposed change in ownership would
only have affected managerial personnel, rather than the rumored cuts to
the workforce that stirred the protest.
According to police, around 1,000 protesters gathered in
the company's office building on Thursday morning protesting the potential
takeover. The protest turned violent when the workers tried to stop the
production line, at which point Chen was injured. The injured manager is
understood to have fled to a worker's dormitory, where he was allegedly
discovered by a small group of protesters and beaten, while others threw
bricks at arbitrators and police in an apparent bid to prevent a rescue.
Chen died in hospital at 11 pm Friday.
Jianlong has been Tonghua's second-largest share holder
since 2005. The planned takeover has now been shelved. &The provincial
government has agreed to terminate the merger discussions after the
protest, and the company's production has been resumed,& Zhang said.
Workers are understood to have feared that Jianlong, a private company,
planned to cut manpower after taking control of the company.
Jianlong had been poised to take over Tonghua earlier
this year but that deal fell through. &Jianlong stopped the merger
discussions at the beginning of this year, when our company suffered
losses amid the financial crisis,& said retired Tonghua worker Zhang
Guanghui. &It resumed the talks, as the company's business recovered. Why
should we let such a private firm to take control of us?&
Another worker, Sun Dejun, said salaries had not
increased during the past three years, ever since Jianlong bought a large
stake in the company. &Jianlong has always called for payroll cuts to
improve efficiency. Workers have been worrying about their job security,&
he said. &I retired from the company this year. I now live on my
retirement pension of 1,000 yuan ($146) a month, which is in sharp
contrast to the yearly pay of 100,000 yuan for mid-level managers in the
company,& said a worker who declined to give his name.
State-owned asset commission official Wang said the
Tonghua group was the largest State asset in Jilin. It accumulated a
deficit of 900 million yuan in the first three months of the year after
the iron and steel business was hard hit by the global financial crisis.
However, the company, with annual production capacity of 7 million tons,
saw its business recover in June, when it reported 40 million yuan in
profits. The profits doubled to 80 million yuan in July. &The merger had
been approved by the provincial government, which is expected to help
Tonghua reach the development goal of hitting 10 million tons in annual
throughput,& Wang said.
Workers from State-owned firms, especially retired
workers, often believe that State-owned firms are &iron rice bowls& that
can guarantee lifelong employment and secure pay, and many have opposed
mergers with private firms, Wang said.
[]& Tiger, tiger
burning bright (07/25/2009)& It is customary in ESWN's Section 1
(Recommended Photos/Videos/Readings on Greater China (in English) to link only
to non-mainstream media items.& So this item
from Global Times may seem surprising because it is coming from a &government
mouthpiece.&& The subject of the article is the Tiger Temple blogger, who
has been called the first civic reporter in China.& Here is what he has
to say about the Global Times article.& Approval or condemnation?
July 23, 2009.
On July 8, the English-language Global Times (which is
under People's Daily) gave two full pages
lives of drifters who live around Tiananmen.& Many photos were
included to record the lives of these ordinary people who were able to
return to normal lives through the help of kind-hearted netizens.&
This was a rarely seen news report in Chinese media.& It is
noteworthy that the report used five early photos that I took of drifters
in the Tiananmen area.
Note: The title borrowed the first sentence from William
Blake's poem :&
Tiger, tiger, burning bright.& The next line is &In the forests of
the night.&
[]& Inward and
Outward Looking from Hong Kong (07/25/2009)& ()
宋以朗打算向公眾展示張愛玲的書信，便聯絡林鄭月娥，想找一些保育計劃中的舊建築，用作張愛玲資料館或紀念館。林鄭便答道，哦！張愛玲，我看過許鞍華改編她小說的電影，也算是不錯的作家，可是她在文學史上的地位還有爭議性，不適合為她設館。I
am so tired of it。我真是很累很累，很厭倦。
...本刊另去信馬家輝，他指致電林鄭月娥問及設立張愛玲紀念館的可能性時，林太的反應是呆了一下，然後表示她知道張是個跟香港有關連，很出名的作家，也看過許鞍華拍張愛玲的電影，並多次強調張愛玲沒有留下實在的空間、住所、故居之類，很難設館，認為張愛玲是否值得紀念，恐怕仍有人有不同意見，但表示如果民政局支持，她亦不會反對。
(in translation)
Roland Soong wanted to exhibit the letters of Eileen
Chang to the public and therefore contacted Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor
(note: Hong Kong SAR Secretary for Development) to try to find certain old
buildings in the preservation plan to serve as an Eileen Chang archive or
memorial museum.& Lam replied: &Oh! Eileen Chang.& I have seen
Anne Hui's film adapations of her novels.& She is an okay writer, but
her position in literature is controversial and therefore it is not
appropriate to set up a museum for her.&& I am so tired of it.&
I am really very tired, very tired, very wearied.
...Our magazine also wrote to Ma Ka-fai.& He
replied that when he asked Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor about the likelihood
of establishing an Eileen Chang memorial museum, Mrs. Lam paused for a
moment and said that she knew that Chang was a famous writer who had ties
with Hong Kong.& She has also seen the Eileen Chang movies directed
by Anne Hui.& She emphasized repeatedly that Eileen Chang has not
left any actual spaces, residences, homes and so on in Hong Kong, so that
it is hard to establish a museum.& She believed that it was
controversial whether Eileen Chang is worth memorializing.& But she
said that she would not object if the Civic Affairs Bureau supported the
For the record, I state that I have never met or spoke to
Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor in my life.& PERIOD.& Thus I know
nothing about that conversation.& I hope that clears up any confusion
about my role that arose from this magazine article.
I am more interested in a seemingly unrelated issue about
inward and outward looking in Hong Kong.& In the matter of Eileen
Chang, she grew up in Shanghai, attended university in Hong Kong, became a
famous writer in Shanghai and immigrated to the United States.& Her
most famous works -- &Love In A Fallen City&, &Lust, Caution& and &Small
Reunions& -- include considerable portions that were set in Hong Kong.&
Does Hong Kong want to appropriate Eileen Chang and leverage her global
fame?& That is for people like Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor to decide.&
If they only want to look inwards, they will be promoting some authentic
Hong Kong writer who does not and probably never will resonate with the
outside world.& If they look outwards, they might want to link a known
product to Hong Kong because it will be so much easier.& I have nothing
more to say on this subject, because there is clearly a conflict of interest
due to my role as the executor of the literary estate of Eileen Chang.
Instead, the true subject of this comment is about
blogging.& I moved to the United States in 1971, studied, worked and
lived there.& In
2003, I returned to live in Hong Kong and began this EastSouthWestNorth blog.&
I began as a Hong Kong blogger, writing about the place in which I lived in.&
Within a year or so, I began to realize that I was totally missing the
opportunities.& Of course, I can write about Hong Kong but nothing that
I say or write means much in terms of audience numbers or influence either
in Hong Kong or elsewhere.& Nothing that I say about Hong Kong will
ever matter either in Hong Kong or the world at large.& PERIOD.& I
won't go into what I think are the reasons (and it is about the government
and the media industry).& I am just stating this as
my belief, and I challenge you to find any evidence that bloggers influence
anything in Hong Kong.
I realized instead that the greatest opportunities are in
mainland China.& I reside in Hong Kong and therefore I enjoy the
freedom of access to information through the Internet, both inside and
outside of China.& I reside in Hong Kong and therefore I also enjoy the
freedom of speech to forward the information to other parties (inside and
outside of China), especially since I am bilingual and can quickly translate
from Chinese to English.& That is why the EastSouthWestNorth blog
gradually shifted from a parochial Hong Kong blog to an English-language
Greater China blog which is said to influence global opinion.& This is simply where the action
is.& If I am still writing about the impact on my personal life due to
the demolition of the neighboring building and questioning how it was
allowed to grow from 60 feet tall to 300 feet tall, almost none of my
current readers will know me or care.
I made my decision because of what I observed and I
perceive should be my priorities.& I decided to look outwards instead of inwards.&
I thought that what happens in China will matter more to China, Hong Kong
and the rest of the world much more than what happens in Hong Kong on a
daily basis.& Therefore, I became a Greater China bridge blogger.&
Other people will have different observations, priorities and decisions.&
That is only natural.& There is no right or wrong either.& I
respect other people's decisions.& I am only amazed why I seem to be
the only Hong Kong blogger who writes about mainland China by leveraging my
many freedoms.& Why won't other Hong Kong'ers also look outwards to mainland
China and change the future of Hong Kong, China and the whole world?&
As an example, there was that mass incident in Urumqi on
July 5.& I compiled the series of news reports in
.& It was not rocket science.& The so-called &old-tech&
entries were either western media reports (some of which may be blocked by
the Great Firewall in China), mainland Chinese reports (which are mainly
official media reports) or my own translations from Chinese-language media reports
from all over the world.& This was a no-brainer aggregation but it has
apparently been accepted by many people all over the world as the best
reference source available.& This is what a Hong Kong blogger can do
through the unique combination of freedom of expression and press as well as
bilingual skill.& Why isn't anyone else in Hong Kong doing this?&
Can you imagine the impact of 100 EastSouthWestNorth covering everything
(politics, mass incidents, environment, pollution, human rights, minorities,
happening in Greater China?
Returning to the topic of Eileen Chang here.& The
publication of &Small Reunions& year is regarded as the major cultural event
so far in 2009.& If Eileen Chang belongs simultaneously to Shanghai,
Hong Kong and the United States, then Hong Kong has a comparative advantage.&
Eileen Chang is not a significant literary figure in the United States
except in certain academic circles (such as Departments of East Asian
Literature in universities).& Eileen Chang is also &politically sensitive& in mainland
China because she had written some &politically incorrect& novels (such as
&Rice Sprout Song& and &Naked Earth&) and married a collaborationist.&
Therefore, Hong Kong is in a position to leverage its relative advantages
and make something of it.& Does Hong Kong want to look inwards or
[]& Midnight
Surprise for Netizen In Caoxian (07/24/2009)& For the background
in that case, please see .
()& July 24, 2009.
Yesterday at around midnight, the Caoxian court judge
came to the detention center and presented Duan Lei with a criminal
verdict document.& The verdict said that the procuratorate is
withdrawing the complaint on grounds of insufficient evidence and the
court has agreed &in accordance of the law.&& Based upon the Supreme
Court Criminal Prosecution Law article 177, &the Shandong province Caoxian
procuratorate has been allowed to withdraw the complaint.&& The
verdict sheet that the decision was effective the next day and that all
other dissent may be filed within the next five days with the Middle
People's Court in Heze city (Shangdong province).& The decision was
dated July 23.
At around 3am, the Caoxian public security bureau people
arrived at the detention center and presented Duan Lei with &The decision
document on rescinding the case& and &The release certificate&.& &I
was able to leave next,& said Duan Lei.& He was asked to go to the
Panshi hotel because the Legal Daily reporter in Shandong was waiting to
interview him.& This was also where he spend his first night after
his arrest.& Since there was nowhere else for him to go in the
middle of the night, he went back to that hotel to meet with the reporter.&
He spent half the night with the reporter.& He said that everybody
was courteous.
In the morning, Duan Lei called his father to tell him
about the release and to take him home.& In the morning, the Caoxian
political and legal committee, the publicity department, the public
security bureau, the procuratorate and the court held a forum.& They
wanted him to attend and told him that reporters have been invited to go.&
He said that he had just &come out& and he did not want to say thing for
the moment because of the psychological pressure.& He only wanted to
go home and see his mother and grandfather.& The father and uncle of Duan Lei attended that forum.& According to them, the relevant
departments acknowledged mistakes in the case, mainly due to the issue of
whether the case should be prosecuted by the government or the
individuals.& But they seemed to know that there was a mistake and
they rectified it.& Duan Lei's uncle also told me that the Zhuangzhai
town party secretary Guo Feng (note: the person who was allegedly libeled)
was not present at the forum.
[]& The Yazhou
Zhoukan Interview With Hailaite (Heyrat Niyaz) (07/24/2009)& ()
Hailate was born in Xinjiang and grew up in Xinjiang, so
he has personal experience with the Xinjiang issue.& He has also
conducted extensive resea}