Studies / Reports: January 2006 Archives

By ELISABETH BUMILLER | The New York Times
January 23, 2006
White House Letter

When President Bush met with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany in the Oval Office this month, the talk turned to Ms. Merkel's childhood under Communism, then wandered to the subject of Mr. Bush's latest bedtime reading: "Mao: The Unknown Story," an 814-page biography that presents the Chinese dictator as another Hitler or Stalin.

Participants in the meeting say Mr. Bush spoke glowingly of the book, a 10-year project by Jung Chang, the author of the hugely successful memoir "Wild Swans," and her husband, Jon Halliday, a British historian. "Mao" has been at the top of best-seller lists in Britain and Germany, and was published to mixed reviews late last year in the United States.

The book might at first seem an odd choice for Mr. Bush, whose taste in biography, like that of other American presidents, runs to previous occupants of the Oval Office. But it is not so surprising given that "Mao: The Unknown Story" has been embraced by the right as a searing indictment of Communism.

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BBC News
January 10, 2006

The European Parliament has passed a resolution demanding pressure on China to ban the farming of bears for bile.

The bile is extracted from the caged bears' gallbladder by means of a metal catheter, then sold for use in Chinese medicines and cosmetics.

The resolution was approved by more than half of the parliament's 732 members, with cross-party support.

"We want China to shut all the bear farms before the 2008 Olympics," said British Labour MEP Peter Skinner.

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By Emma Graham-Harrison | REUTERS
January 7, 2006

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's environmental woes spilled visibly over its borders as a toxic slick flowed into Russia in December, but exports of pollution are becoming as common as sales of cheap T-shirts for the economic powerhouse.

The country's leaders are only starting to grapple with the political fall-out at home after years of pursuing economic expansion at almost any price.

Dirty or scarce water, choking air and toxic factory effluent are some of the common problems fouling China's environment and its neighbours'.

Yet the international impact of China's problems have barely registered as cause for concern for Beijing's leadership. It took days for China to notify Russia that an explosion at a petrochemical plant sent 100 tons of benzene compounds pouring down a tributary to the Amur.

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By JIM YARDLEY | The New York Times
December 31, 2005

YUJIAGOU, China - From the prison cell where he contemplated an executioner's bullet, a migrant worker named Wang Binyu gave an anguished account of his wasted life. Unexpectedly, it rippled across China like a primal scream.

For three weeks, the brutal murders Mr. Wang committed after failing to collect unpaid wages were weighed on the Internet and in Chinese newspapers against the brutal treatment he had endured as a migrant worker. Public opinion shouted for mercy; lawyers debated the fairness of his death sentence. Others saw the case as a bloody symptom of the harsh inequities of Chinese life.

But then, in late September, the furor disappeared as suddenly as it had begun. Online discussion was censored and news media coverage was almost completely banned. Mr. Wang's final appeal was rushed to court. His father, never notified, learned about the hearing only by accident. His chosen defense lawyer was forbidden from participating.

"All of you are on the same side," Mr. Wang, 28, shouted during the hearing, his father said in an interview here in the family's home village in northern Gansu Province. "If you want to kill me, just kill me."

On Oct. 19, they did. Mr. Wang was executed so quickly, and quietly, that it took weeks for the word to fully trickle out that he was dead.

China executes more people every year than the rest of the world combined. By some estimates, the number of executions is more than 10,000 a year. The government's relentless death penalty machine has long been its harshest tool for maintaining political control and curbing crime and corruption.

But it has now become a glaring uncertainty about China's commitment to the rule of law. There is widespread suspicion, even within the government, that too many innocent people are sentenced to death. This year, a raft of cases came to light in which wrongful convictions had led to death sentences, or, in one well-publicized case, the execution of an innocent man.

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