News: June 2008 Archives
By Joe McDonald, Associated Press Business Writer | The San Francisco Chronicle
June 26, 2008
The government has ordered China's fast-growing phone companies to stop adding new customers in August so they can better focus on ensuring service for the Beijing Olympics, company employees said Thursday.
The moratorium on new phone and Internet connections adds to sweeping measures, including traffic bans and factory shutdowns, that are meant to provide better conditions for the games, a major prestige event for the communist government.
"We simply won't touch the network any more to ensure its stability for the Olympic Games," said an employee of China Telecom Ltd., China's main fixed-line carrier, who said he had seen an internal company memo on the subject. He asked not to be identified further because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
Original reporting by Ding Xiao for RFA's Mandarin service. Service director: Jennifer Chou. Written and produced in English by Sarah Jackson-Han.
RADIO FREE ASIA
23 June 2008
Chinese authorities have demolished a Uyghur mosque in remote and restive Xinjiang amid mounting tension over security ahead of the Beijing Olympics, according to a Uyghur exile group and local officials.
"The mosque was illegal in the first place," a Uyghur government official said by telephone. Asked for details, he replied, "It's difficult to talk about it. It falls under classified information. I cannot give you any detailed information."
A village elder who asked not to be named said village youths had been gathering for Friday prayers at the mosque in secret, angering local officials.
"They reject these prayers at government-registered mosques," the elder said.
The mosque was built in 1999, without a permit, 80 kms from the Upper Kumtagh village in Kalpin [in Chinese, Keping] county, he said, adding, "The mosque was illegal."
Local authorities recently learned of the secret gatherings, he said, after "two members of the local youth community were arrested when they went to inner China to learn kung fu, and they talked about the Friday prayers."
According to exiled World Uyghur Congress spokesman Dilxat Raxit, the mosque was targeted because it resisted pressure to publicize the Beijing Olympics.
The county government Web site said the mosque had been demolished because it was illegally built and has been conducting illegal religious activities. It also said those who violate religious laws and regulations will face punishment.
Resistance to curbs
"China is forcing mosques in East Turkestan to publicize the Beijing Olympics to get the Uyghur people to support the Games [but] this has been resisted by the Uyghurs," Raxit said in a statement distributed by e-mail.
Raxit said the mosque, which had been renovated in 1998, was accused of illegally renovating the structure, carrying out illegal religious activities and illegally storing copies of the Muslim holy book the Koran.
Education campaign
The Web site also said local authorities have mobilized people from all walks of life to study Communist Party policy on ethnic minorities in a bid to curb the infiltration by separatists and terrorists.
This education campaign, the Uyghur official said, "has nothing to do with the Beijing Olympics. We are in a remote area and the demolition of the mosque has nothing to do with the Olympics."
A primary school official in Kalpin county said Monday that the local education bureau had instructed every school to make and distribute Olympic-related pictures and artworks.
Olympic torch
The Olympic torch relay passed through Xinjiang last week under tight security.
Residents were told to remain indoors with few exceptions and gatherings were banned. Foreign media were under tight controls, and large-scale traffic restrictions were also in place during the torch rally there.
Beijing has said it fears Muslim separatists may be planning "terrorist activities" around the Olympics, vowing to tighten security in the region, where anti-Beijing sentiment is rife.
Six decades of tension
Both Tibetans and Uyghurs have chafed under Beijing's rule for the last six decades, and Chinese authorities have faced persistent accusations of repression and abuse.
China has waged a campaign over the last decade against what it says are violent separatists and Islamic extremists who aim to establish an independent state in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region, which shares a border with Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Mongolia.
After the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, Beijing took the position that Uyghur groups were connected with al-Qaeda and that one group, the East Turkestan Islamic Movement (ETIM), was a "major component of the terrorist network headed by Osama bin Laden." The ETIM has denied that charge.
By Jim Yardley | The New York Times
22 June 2008
The visit of the Olympic torch to the Tibetan capital, Lhasa, came and went in about two hours on Saturday. Leaders of the ruling Communist Party probably exhaled once the flame was trundled onto an airplane without incident and flown out of a city that only three months ago had erupted in violent anti-Chinese protests.
But if Chinese leaders were anxious to avoid protests, they did not avoid using the torch relay as a stage to again lash out at the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader. Zhang Qingli, the Communist Party secretary of Tibet, stood beneath the Potala Palace, the historic seat of the Dalai Lama, and bid farewell to the flame with a speech that at times was itself fiery. "Tibet's sky will never change and the red flag with five stars will forever flutter high above it," Mr. Zhang said, according to Reuters. "We will certainly be able to totally smash the splittist schemes of the Dalai Lama clique."
The broadside against the Dalai Lama punctuated an abbreviated torch relay in Lhasa that was partly broadcast on state television and that quickly brought criticism from pro-Tibetan groups outside China. For months, advocates for Tibet have demanded in vain that China not take the torch through Lhasa.
"The torch relay in Lhasa is China's latest episode in a series of betrayals of everything the Olympics represent," Kate Woznow, campaign director of Students for a Free Tibet, said in a statement. "Parading the torch through Lhasa while Tibetans live under virtual martial law is China's most egregious exploitation of the Games yet."
The Tibet Autonomous Region and other Tibetan regions of western China have been under a security crackdown since March, when violent protests broke out in Lhasa and spread. China has accused the Dalai Lama of masterminding the uprising, a charge he denies. Last week, he called on Tibetans not to protest when the torch passed through Lhasa.
Only a few months ago, the controversy in Tibet appeared likely to cast a pall over the Summer Olympics in Beijing. China had designed the global torch relay as the longest and grandest ever. But it had become the occasion for large protests in London, Paris, San Francisco and elsewhere, as pro-Tibet advocates clashed with Chinese supporters. Talk of boycotting the opening ceremonies of the Games spread through European capitals.
By Agence France Presse
June 21, 2008
It is unacceptable for China to block Internet content, a European Commissioner said Friday, calling the Internet a free and open medium.
"We say for instance to the Chinese, very clearly so, that their blocking of certain Internet content is absolutely unacceptable," said Viviane Reding, the European Commissioner for Information Society and Media.
"So Europe speaks up in this sense, and is fighting for the freedom of speech and the freedom to receive the news," she said.
Her comments to the Foreign Correspondents' Association of Singapore came after she was asked what concerns she had about freedom of expression in Asia.
China maintains some of the strictest Internet censorship in the world with its "Great Firewall" regularly blocking any kind of information or content that the ruling communist party views as improper, unhealthy or anti-China.
An activist said in Tokyo on Thursday that Chinese censorship of the Internet and restrictions on reporting have worsened despite Beijing's pledge to improve media freedom ahead of the August Olympic Games.
China has actually tightened control of the Internet as the Olympics approaches, said Zhang Yu, a member of the Independent Chinese PEN Centre, a branch of International PEN, a writers' association.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS | The New York Times
18 June 2008
A retired Chinese schoolteacher who criticized the construction of schools that collapsed in last month's powerful earthquake has been detained, a Hong Kong-based human rights organization said Wednesday.
Police detained Zeng Hongling in Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan province, on charges of ''inciting state subversion,'' according to the Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy.
Zeng wrote three articles for an overseas Web site that criticized the shoddy construction of many schools that collapsed during the devastating 7.9-magnitude quake centered in Sichuan, killing hundreds of children.
The series of articles titled ''My personal experience in the earthquake'' appeared on www.ObserveChina.com, a Chinese-language Web site hosted in the United States. One was titled ''Earthquake relief efforts fully reveal the true face of Party officials,'' which questions the role of Sichuan officials in relief efforts.
School collapses have become one of the most heated issues in the earthquake recovery process -- and one that local communist leaders seem anxious to suppress.
State-controlled media have largely ignored the topic and parents and volunteers who have questioned authorities have been detained and threatened.
By Cara Anna - The Associated Press - via ABC NEWS
June 15, 2008
A photograph hinting at shoddy school construction was pulled from an exhibition about last month's devastating earthquake, an apparent indication of rising government sensitivity over an issue that has already prompted angry protests from parents of children killed.
The photo showed a hand clutching a twisted piece of steel rebar that looked no thicker than a pencil, taken from the ruins of the middle school in the town of Juyuan that was one of 40 that collapsed in the May 12 quake.
The picture featured prominently among a collection of quake artifacts when it opened to the public last week. By the weekend, though, it was gone. Organizers were reluctant to say exactly why.
"We don't know if we were told to remove the photo," said Wu Zhiwei, assistant to the general manager of Museum Cluster Jianchuan, the organizer of the exhibit and the largest privately run museum in China. "And if we were told to remove the photo, we're not sure we could tell you."
School collapses have become one of the most charged issues in the quake recovery process, and one that local communist leaders seem anxious to suppress.
The entire state-controlled media have almost completely ignored the issue, apparently under the instructions of the propaganda bureau. Parents and volunteers helping them who have questioned authorities about the issue have been rounded up, detained, and threatened.
By Edward Wong | The New York Times
June 13, 2008
Parents who lost children in a particularly horrific school collapse during the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province scrapped their plan for a one-month mourning ceremony on Thursday after local officials warned them not to go through with it, two of the parents said.
In telephone interviews, the two parents said the group's members were told not to contact one another and not to stay in the town of Juyuan, the site of the collapse of a middle school that left hundreds of children crushed to death.
Officials spoke to some parents on Wednesday night to persuade them to cancel the memorial service, said the two parents, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisal by the government.
On Thursday, the government used buses to take different groups of parents to different sites outside town, the two parents said. There, the parents were given food and water.
Officials have offered the parents who lost a child the equivalent of $1,740 on behalf of the central government and $435 on behalf of the local education department, the two parents said. The parents have been told that they will get more than $4,600 from the central government, but that the money will be distributed in stages.
Government officials could not be reached on Thursday evening for comment.
An estimated 10,000 students died in school collapses during the 7.9-magnitude earthquake that ravaged southwest China. In late May, parents from several schools began holding vigorous protests to denounce corruption and to call for investigations into the collapses. The protests spiraled into the biggest political challenge to the government in the aftermath of the earthquake.
So starting last week, local officials and police officers began clamping down on the protests. More than 100 parents who lost children in Juyuan protested in front of the courthouse in the nearby town of Dujiangyan on June 3, only to be surrounded by police officers. Several crying mothers clutching framed portraits of their dead children were hauled off to a neighboring building while journalists were barred from covering the event.
Police officers and soldiers also set up cordons around the most prominent collapsed schools and prevented journalists from approaching.
The night before the June 3 protest, officials in Juyuan persuaded six of seven parent leaders not to attend the rally, one mother said.
Chinese journalists said the central government had ordered Chinese news organizations to stop reporting on the school collapses.
By Dan Martin - Agence France Presse | via (uncensored) Yahoo! News
June 12, 2008
Police on Thursday kicked foreign journalists out of a city where the collapse of several schools in China's earthquake drew charges of corruption from parents of dead children.
The action, which came one month after the May 12 quake, followed a promise the day before by China that foreign reporters would be allowed unfettered access to report on the disaster aftermath.
The reporters' expulsions appeared to underline government unease over smouldering parent anger following the collapse of schools in the quake, which many parents blame on corruption that led to shoddy construction of buildings.
Two AFP staff members were among at least six foreign media representatives held by police when they tried to report at collapsed schools on Thursday.
Police grabbed the AFP staff and roughly threw them into a police van, damaging a camera, near the Juyuan Middle School where hundreds of students died in the quake.
They were later taken to government headquarters in Dujiangyan city and held there for more than an hour before being ordered out of the city.
"You cannot report anywhere in Dujiangyan. You must leave," a police officer said to the pair as they were being held.
Despite promises of free reporting, authorities have displayed increasing unease over the issue of the roughly 7,000 collapsed schools, many of which crumbled while adjacent buildings held firm.
Over the past week, the ruins of several such schools have been sealed off after increasingly vocal demands by parents for an investigation.
Parents said earlier this week they had received condolence letters and offers of "comfort money" from the Sichuan provincial government, but what they wanted was a full investigation and justice for their dead children.
"We refuse to accept the money until the government investigates what happened," a parent who gave only his surname, Liu, told AFP on Thursday.
The man's 13-year-old son, his only child, died at Juyuan Middle School. Parents say about 500 children died there.
Liu said parents had been offered amounts ranging from 20,000 to 30,000 yuan (2,900-4,300 dollars).
"Corruption was definitely involved in these cases," he said.
On Wednesday, a top national official denied to some of the same journalists who were expelled that China was tightening up on media coverage in the disaster zone.
By Michael Bristow | BBC World News
June 05, 2008
Parents fear there will not be a proper investigation into why so many schools collapsed in last month's earthquake in China.
Many complain that although local authorities have promised to investigate, they are slow to give out information and worried that contractors and officials responsible for shoddily-built classrooms will not be held accountable.
Their concerns are voiced as China once again promises to investigate the schools issue, according to state-run news agency Xinhua.
Nearly 70,000 people died when the magnitude-8 earthquake struck south-western Sichuan Province on 12 May.
Children paid a heavy price in the disaster, although there is still no overall government figure of how many thousands of school pupils perished in the rubble.
Quality problems
Parents immediately demanded to know why so many school buildings collapsed, and the government initially responded to that call with officials promising within days of the quake to conduct a thorough investigation.
"If quality problems do exist in school buildings, we will deal with the persons responsible strictly," said Han Jin, an education ministry spokesman.
He added that parents who had lost children would get answers, Xinhua reported.
That message was repeated again on Wednesday when the State Council, China's Cabinet, said all collapsed school buildings would be appraised.
But parents whose children died when Juyuan Middle School fell down complain they have been told little about any investigation.
Zhao Deqin's twin 15-year-old daughters died when the school, near the city of Dujiangyan, collapsed killing at least 270 children.
She said: "Officials are not answering questions. They are just playing for time."
Another parent said he had visited the local government offices many times, but had been told only that the "relevant authorities" were investigating.
"The school fell down after 10 seconds. What else do you need to know," he said.
'Broken Lego'
There does appear to have been a problem with the Juyuan Middle School.
US structural engineer Kit Miyamoto inspected the school while he was in Sichuan checking other buildings for clients.
On a website posting, he concluded that the school's concrete floors collapsed because they were not supported properly.
"Just imagine building a Lego house, but using Lego blocks that have no protruding nubs to tie the Legos together," he wrote.
"This Lego house would not be able to resist lateral shaking. The school building is like these weak Lego houses."
An expert from China's Ministry of Construction also came to a similar conclusion, according to China's Southern Weekend newspaper.
He said there were problems with the school's location, structure and with the materials used to build it, it was reported.
But despite the complaints, Juyuan's local authority is saying little.
No-one was available when the BBC asked for an interview with a senior official.
And officials appear to be attempting to tone down public displays of grief and anger.
The school was sealed off earlier this week. Police guard the entrance, preventing people from going in.
By The Associated Press | USA TODAY
06 June 2008
China on Friday denied allegations that its operatives secretly copied the contents of a U.S. government laptop computer and used the data to try to hack into Commerce Department computers.
U.S. authorities say they are investigating whether surreptitious copying took place when a laptop was left unattended during a visit to China by Commerce Secretary Carlos M. Gutierrez for trade talks last December.
Shortly afterward, three serious attempts at data break-ins at the Commerce Department were reported, according to U.S. officials.
In Beijing's first comments on the allegations, Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said Chinese officials knew nothing about the laptop cited in the reports. He repeated China's claim that it too was a victim of cybercrime.
"These reports are totally groundless," Qin told reporters at a briefing for a new round of U.S.-China trade talks later this month.
The reported incident is the latest in a series of cybersecurity problems blamed on China. Reports last year cited officials in Germany, the United States and Britain as saying government and military networks had been broken into by hackers backed by the Chinese army.
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By Associated Press | via ABC World News
June 03, 2008
DUJIANGYAN, China -- Chinese police dragged away more than 100 parents Tuesday while they were protesting the deaths of their children in poorly constructed schools that collapsed in last month's earthquake.
The parents, many holding pictures of their dead children, were pulled down the street away from a courthouse in Dujiangyan, a resort city northwest of the Sichuan provincial capital of Chengdu.
"Why?" some of them yelled. "Tell us something," they said as black-suited police wearing riot helmets yanked at them.
The parents had been kneeling in front of the courthouse yelling, "We want to sue." Their children attended a high school in Juyuan, near Dujiangyan, where 270 students died.
Police dragged an Associated Press reporter and two photographers who were covering the protest up the steps into the courthouse, trying to prevent them from seeing the demonstration.
"The parents were here to give their report to the court," said one police officer who refused to give his name.
Calls to local police were not answered Tuesday.
Asked why reporters were removed from the courthouse, an official from the foreign affairs office of the local government, Zao Ming, said "this is not a good place to do interviews. ... In a disaster like this, there will be a lot of opinions. The government will solve their problems."
There were also several Japanese reporters at the courthouse. One witness who did not want to be identified said police told the parents: "The Japanese are reporting bad things about you."
The protest happened while Chinese leader Li Changchun, the country's fifth-ranked ruler, was touring other parts of the city. The official Xinhua News Agency said Li was checking heritage sites damaged in the earthquake.
The government says the May 12 earthquake destroyed 7,000 classrooms. Many parents have accused contractors of cutting corners when building the classrooms, resulting in schools that could not withstand the 7.9-magnitude quake. Pictures of collapsed schools surrounded by buildings still standing have fueled anger.
More than 270 students died when one high school collapsed in Juyuan, near Dujiangyan. The Southern Metropolis News quoted a rescuer as saying that rubble from the school showed that no steel reinforcing bars had been used in construction, only iron wire.
By USA TODAY
June 02, 2008
Foreigners attending the Beijing Olympics better behave -- or else.
The Beijing Olympic organizing committee issued a stern, nine-page document Monday that covers 57 topics. Written in Chinese only and posted on the official website, the guide covers everything from a ban on sleeping outdoors to the need for government permission to stage a protest.
Visitors also should know this:
• Those with "mental diseases" or contagious conditions will be barred.
• Some parts of the country are closed to visitors -- one of them Tibet.
• Olympic tickets are no guarantee of a visa to enter China.
Fearing protests during the Aug. 8-24 Olympics, China's authoritarian government has tightened controls on visas and residence permits for foreigners. It has also promised a massive security presence at the games, which may include undercover agents dressed as volunteers.
The guide said Olympic ticket holders "still need to visit China embassies and consulates and apply for visas according to the related rules."
The government hopes to keep out activists and students who might stage pro-Tibet rallies that would be broadcast around the world. It also fears protests over China's oil and arms trade with Sudan, and any disquiet from predominantly Muslim regions in western China.
"In order to hold any public gathering, parade or protest the organizer must apply with the local police authorities. No such activity can be held unless a permit is given. ... Any illegal gatherings, parades and protests and refusal to comply are subject to administrative punishments or criminal prosecution."
The document also warns against the display of insulting slogans or banners at any sports venue. It also forbids any religious or political banner at an Olympic venue that "disturbs the public order."
The guidelines seem to clash with a pledge made two month ago by International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, who said athletes could exercise freedom of speech in China. He asked only that athletes refrain from making political statements at certain official Olympics venues.
"Freedom of expression is something that is absolute," Rogge said in Beijing in April. "It's a human right. Athletes have it."
The detailed document is titled: "A guide to Chinese law for Foreigners coming to, leaving or staying in China during the Olympics." This appears under the slogan of the Beijing Olympics: "One World, One Dream."
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