Relax!  This was just a riot police training exercise ...

[ESWN Comment:  Why would she be so popular in mainland China?  Tsk, tsk, tsk.  Imagine what would happen to a mainland broadcaster who said something similar about their leader/ex-leader!  This would have been a career terminator.  Therefore, the mainland Chinese broadcast hosts tend to be more strait-laced and boring.]

(Next Weekly)

"Godfather sat down on the bed.  He did not say anything.  Suddenly he pushed me off the bed and put his body on top of me.  He began to take off my trousers.  I started to yell, 'No! No!'  My fellow students just returned and they banged on the door to get godfather to open the door.  I yelled 'Save me!'  But after a while, I could not fight back any more ... and Godfather took me."  Ah Yun recalled how she was raped the first time by Lee Kwok-wah at the age of twelve.

When she was twelve, her father went to jail, her mother ran away and the three children were left alone.  The village mayor took Ah Yun to the Children's Home of Kindheartedness and said: "You don't have to worry.  Everybody says that this uncle from Hong Kong is very kindhearted.  He'll let you study, eat and sleep."

The Children's Home of Kindheartedness was founded by 46-year-old Hong Kong'er Lee Kwok-wah, and specializes in taking care of children from the impoverished mountainous areas of Yunnan.  There are 27 children with similar background as Ah Yun, most of them being girls between 11 and 14 years old.

When she first got into the home, Lee Kwok Wah gave her a mobile phone and a bank ATM card with 100 yuan in spending money.  By contrast the other children only got two yuan for breakfast money.  "After I took the phone and card, Godfather asked me to sleep with him.  He promised to give me clothes and money, whatever I wanted.  I refused.  He kept putting his hand on my shoulder or touch my breasts and behind."

One day after school in 2006, Lee took Ah Yun and another child to the hostel by the train station.  Lee told the other child to go and buy something.  Then he raped Ah Yun.  "I called my mother to tell her that I didn't want to be at the children's home anymore.  But mom told me to stay on."  An Yun said that she did not know how to tell her mother about the rape.  She knew that her father was in jail and her mother made very little money in gathering tea leaves.  So Ah Yun had to put up with being the sex slave of Lee Kwok-wah for the next two years.

Lee Kwok-wah works as a social worker in Hong Kong.  He visited the Children's Home in Yunnan four times a year, spending more than two weeks there each time.  Ah Yuan said that she had to sleep with him while he was there.  Any time of day or night, Lee may make a sign to her to go into the room.  He even did it right in front of the other children.  Sixteen-year-old Ah San said: "We dared not look.  We just keep our eyes fixed on the television screen.  We saw Godfather and Ah Yun moving under the blanket, and Ah Yun making little cries.  It was frightening."

Finally things broken open when a Hong Kong donor went personally to Yunnan.  She handed out paper and pen and asked the children to write about their daily lives.  She interviewed the children separately in detailed.  Then she went to the media and disclosed what was happening.  But Lee Kwok-wah had fled back to Hong Kong.

The Next Weekly reporter went to ask Lee about the charges.  He said: "There are so many children there.  They couldn't all be complaining about me?  They can say whatever they want over there!  I have no comments."

Asked if he would return to Yunnan to clarify things, he said: "I am not able to make contact with them.  Do you think that this is as simple as making a telephone call?"

Actually, while he was saying that "it was not as easy as making a telephone call," he was also calling the housekeeper Xiao Yang at the Yunnan Children's Home to tell her to keep her mouth shut.  But he did not know that Xiao Yang was being interviewed by our reporter at that moment and the reporter heard exactly what what Lee said: "When the police comes to ask you, you say that you know nothing.  Nobody believes what children say.  Only your word counts."

[ESWN Comment: This case is relevant to the nature of 'one country, two systems.'  The alleged crimes took place in mainland China and the alleged perpetrator is a Hong Kong resident.  The Hong Kong police have arrested Lee Kwok-wah for "committing sexual offenses against children outside of Hong Kong" (see Apple Daily).  There is no extradition agreement between Hong Kong and mainland China.  In Hong Kong, the maximum penalty is 10 years in prison plus HKD 3 million in fines.  In mainland China, the penalty for raping children under 14 years of age is 10 years.  If two or more children were raped, the sentence begins with a minimum of ten years in prison.  More serious cases can result in a life sentence, or even the death penalty.  If the two systems are to converge in 2047, which one should it be?]

(China Times)

At just before 8pm on September 2, the TVBS-N news channel was reporting on news related to former president Chen Shui-bian.  The host mentioned that "Some Democratic Progressive Party bosses wanted most for Ah Bian to take his NT$ 700 million overseas to start a brand new political party ..."  During the transition to the next news item, a female voice suddenly emerged: "Nuts!  How is it possible that Ah Bian would take that money out ... Go eat shit!"  (神經病，阿扁怎麼可能拿那錢出來…吃大便！)

The audience were stunned and their calls overwhelmed the channel.  Afterwards, the TVBS spokespeson said that the voice belonged to the hostess Liao Yingting 廖盈婷 for the ensuing 8pm program.  She was testing her microphone at the time and her words were accidentally aired.  "We were changing hosts during which there was a brief test for sound volume.  At the time, she said something purely for testing and it carries no meaning.  What she said does not represent the views of this channel."

The office of Chen Shui-bian demanded an apology within 24 hours, and TVBS has complied.  TVBS also indicated that there may be sanctions over the mistake, but the public apology was their immediate priority.

 

 

While Liao Yingting was speaking her mind, she may also be speaking for many other people.

(UDN) 

With clenched fists, glimmering eyes and flying spittle, Chen Shui-bian addressed his supporters in Kaohsiung with the usual Ah Bian flair.  The "God of War" Ah Bian from the Democratic Progressive Party elections surfaced in the streets of Kaohsiung once again.

During his speeches and radio interviews in southern Taiwan, Ah Bian kept emphasizing that the Kuomintang wanted to destroy "the president of the people of Taiwan."  He continued to manipulate the ideological issue of Taiwan sovereignty in order to severe his connection to the many corruption and money laundering cases.

Yesterday, Ah Bian pulled another trick by claiming that during his run for the presidency, he had received a cheque endorsed in the back by Kuomintang's Lian Chen to the amount of NT$100 million.  He said, "Do I dare to cash such a cheque in the midst of a presidential election?"  The cheque was found among the belongings that the special investigators took away during the raid earlier this week.

But why did Ah Bian refuse to identify the specific presidential election (2000 or 2004)?  Why did he refuse to identify who wrote that check?  Lian Chen was a candidate in the 2000 and 2004 presidential elections, so why would he give NT$100 million to his opponent?  When the Democratic Progressive Party senior officials heard about this yesterday, they found it incredible: "Does Ah Bian know what he is saying?"

If Ah Bian had access to so many top secret documents, why didn't he have them investigated during his eight years as president?  He is using these inside stories as his secret weapon to counter-attack from a desperate situation.  Instead, the world is learning that Ah Bian has been keeping so many "unspeakable secrets" for so long.

(New York Times)  Despite Warnings, China’s Regulators Failed to Stop Tainted Milk.  By Jim Yardley and David Barboza.  September 26, 2008.

...

Fu Jianfeng, an editor at one of China’s leading independent publications, Southern Weekend, recently used a personal blog to describe how his newsweekly discovered cases of sickened children in July — two months before the scandal became public — but could not publish articles so close to the Games.

“As a news editor, I was deeply concerned,” Mr. Fu wrote on Sept. 14. “I had realized that this was a large public health disaster, but I was not able to send reporters to do reporting.”

...

By midsummer, some Chinese journalists were learning that sick babies were arriving at hospitals.

Mr. Fu, the editor at Southern Weekend, wrote in his blog that Sanlu applied pressure to block reporting and used its political connections to prevent some other newspapers from publishing articles about the problem. But with only weeks before the Olympics’ opening ceremony, the timing made media coverage nearly impossible. “We couldn’t do any investigation on an issue like this, at that time, in order to be harmonious,” Mr. Fu wrote.

...

On July 24, a television station in Hunan Province reported that infants who had consumed the same powdered formula were suffering kidney problems. The station showed packages of Sanlu formula, but was careful not to name the company.

Yet the problem remained largely concealed. “I felt very guilty and frustrated then,” Mr. Fu wrote. “The only thing I could do was to call every friend I knew to tell them not to feed their children with Sanlu milk powder.”

The problem was finally exposed in September when the New Zealand government, after discussions with Fonterra executives, contacted authorities in Beijing. Beijing officials say they knew nothing about the scandal until September, though a Fonterra company spokesman said the company believed the central government knew in August.

Chinese leaders have since responded forcefully, even as they have distanced themselves from responsibility for the scandal. The aggressive initial tone of media coverage shifted this week, as state media outlets like Xinhua, the country’s official news agency, emphasized how much the public appreciated the government’s response. And censors were filtering the Internet and removing certain postings, including the blog item by Mr. Fu.

Reached by telephone on Friday, Mr. Fu said he could not answer any questions about his blog.

[ESWN Comment: While that original blog post no longer exists, an English-language translation ("Let Me Skin Sanlu Alive") was posted here on September 20, 2008.  I have also saved a copy of the original Chinese-language blog post.  This goes to the core of the function of a Chinese-to-English bridge blog -- to communicate what the Chinese are saying themselves and before the western media picks it up incompletely.]

At the court trial yesterday, the famous "anti-tiger camp" representative Hao Jingqsong took out a black umbrella on which was printed the words" Zhou Zheng-long = Scapegoat."  The dates "07.10.12" and "08.06.29" were also printed.  07.10.12 was the date on which the Shaanxi provincial Department of Forestry held the press conference to announce that the South CHina tiger is alive and well.  08.06.29 was the date on which Zhou Zhenglong was detained.  According to Hao, Zhou is suffering on behalf of the government officials behind the scene.

Hao Jingsong told the press that the Xunyang court turned him down twice for a courtroom seat on the grounds that all seats have been taken.  He said that "the court lied."  In addition, many media reporters did not pass the qualification examination of the county publicity department and were not admitted either.

(oeeee.com)

Hao Jingsong told the reporters: "If Zhou Zhenglong does not disclose signfiicant information at the trial," Hao would denounce the 13 cadres and public servants involved in the case for dereliction of duty to the Supreme Procuratorate.  Hao said: "I'm prepared to petition the State Department of Forestry to reveal all information.  I hope that they will disclose the information about who was involved in the South China tiger investigation, the investigative process and results.  The taxpayers have a right to know where their money went!"

Internet users must certainly have received strange emails such as: "Hi, I am XXX and I have established a personal page at YYY website.  I invite you to be my friend ..."  This is the latest technique in promoting websites that is preferred by certain social networking sites.  As such, it is called "viral marketing."

This type of forced selling is not as despicable as spyware/malware but it is annoying enough.  It is one thing to send emails, but this stuff pops out as soon as you open your MSN.  Even if there is no legal recourse against this type of hooligan behavior that is completely contemptuous of netizen rights, it is morally reprehensible.  The reason why these barbaric marketing methods are popular is that some websites have no legal or moral restraints.  Ethics is missing from spam mail to "virus marketing."

What else can an unethical website do?  That is hard to say.  Recently, there is the potential offered by Baidu and other websites that were swept into "milk powder gate."  When the milk powder scandal broke open, a netizen published a document that recommended an increase in cooperation with websites such as Baidu to delete negative information.  Baidu has denied that this occurred.  But we can discern that certain influential websites may be tempted by commercial interests.  Based upon commercial considerations, some companies must be tempted to spend money to shut down netizen opinion.  Meanwhile, the probability of an unethical website colluding is 100%.

Actually, some websites have spotted the "business opportunities" in Internet opinion.  The recent issue of <Business Week> (Chinese edition) has an article titled <How transnational companies deal with Internet crises in China> which mentioned that some websites "can monitor and suppress negative information or otherwise manufacture an opinion environment for a monthly fee of USD 500 to USD 25,000."  That is to say, these websites search and classify negative information for clients (or potential clients) for the clients to judge and respond.  In a serious incident, the websites can even manufacture or guide public opinion to restore the client's image.  Some public relations companies hire students to makes posts to support/attack certain brands at a price of USD 0.15 per post.  They are the mythical "boosters."  Of course, it is perhaps more appropriate to call them the "commercial 50 cent gang."

In discussing this with a friend, he thinks that this is a thoroughly proper commercial activity.  I disagree.  To "manufacture" or "guide" public opinion requires using fair and transparent means.  You cannot say that you can pose as a netizen in order to misinform in order to save the image of your company.  Besides, in the absence of any legal or ethical restraint, a company can create negative information about a client first and then pretend to "solve it."  In the anonymous Internet world, the likelihood of this happening is 100%.  Therefore I have always said that the Internet must deal with not just the pressure from political ideology but also from the corrosion from financial ideology.

Some people may be perplexed about why the Internet is not clean.  The answer is simple: the Internet is the true representation of the real world (I call it the mirror image of reality).  When the off-Internet business world is irregular, do you expect sunshine Internet dealings?  The market ethics on the Internet is at least comparable as in the real world.  Given factors such as anonymity, the Internet is even more unscrupulous.  The so-called "viral marketing" is just the top of the iceberg.

Earlier, our newspaper reported that the Nandeng county Department of Transportation director and middle-level cadres went a tourist trip on public money.  This drew a high degree of attention from the Hanzhong city and the Nandeng county party disciplinary committees.

On the morning of September 26, the Hanzhong city party disciplinary committee deputy secretary Liu Ximin told our reporter: "Based upon the report, we conducted an investigation.  We have basically learned what happened about those Nandeng Department of Transportation cadres going out on tour.  The fact is that the director and 14 other middle-level cadres went on a tourist trip in Shandong as organized by a certain Hanzhong city travel agency."  The cost was 2,800 RMB and the money came from traffic fines collected by the department.  These cadres will have to repay the fees and, depending on the severity of their mistakes, be subject to penalties such as warnings, severe warnings and revocation of party membership.

At 3:30pm yesterday afternoon, the reporter once again went to the office of the Nandeng county Department of Transportatoin.  At an office on the second floor, the reporter witnesses another scene: Someone was surfing a pornographic website during work hours!  The reporter noted that the name plate for this individual was "Wei Yanjun" and his title was Office Manager of the Department of Transportation.  In a follow-up, a cadre with the Nandeng county party committee told the reporter: "The computer at the Department of Transportation had been infected by a virus.  The pornographic website 'popped' out automatically!"

When Premier Wen Jiabao spoke about the tainted milk powder affair, he reminded corporations about carrying out their social responsibilities.  This reminded me of a chat with a business administration professor last week.  She also criticized business administration schools at Chinese university for not paying attention to corporate social responsibility.  At the overseas business administration schools, they teach their students about corporate social responsibility, including making it a compulsory course, in order to produce managers with conscience.

But is that really the crucial point about the tainted milk powder affair?  I look over the course materials used in overseas corporate social responsibility classes and I see discussions of hot topics such as how to balance the highest return on investment for shareholders against the interests of society, to ensure that environmental pollution does not occur during the production process, to design and manufacture environment friendly products, to protect labor rights and even to promote cultural diversity.  But will these courses teach the students not to add poison into food?  Of course not.  This is such a simple concept that it does not have to be taught, much less in a corporate social responsibility context.  This is simply the moral bottom line for human beings.  In like manner, would a sex education course for young people have to teach the students not to rape someone to vent their lust?

When a country is such that the business administration schools have to teach their students not to put poison into food or sex education courses have to teach the students not to commit rape, then isn't this a terrifying place to live in?  Very unfortunately, we are precisely facing such a crisis of the collapse of the moral bottom line today.  The tainted milk powder affair may be attributed to the ruthlessness of business people or government-business collusion or the dereliction of duty by the supervisory agencies and administrative departments.  But at the root, this is still a problem about fundamental morality.

Frankly speaking, no milk producer anywhere would have introduced a step in which the amount of melamine is tested during its production process, because it is impossible to imagine why anyone would put melamine into the milk.  If all the manufacturers in China have to conduct tests for situations that normal people cannot imagine, then the costs of MADE IN CHINA quality control would be the most expensive in the world.

The reforms started thirty years ago.  It was only in the last 15 years that a large group of Chinese brands have risen up.  How were these big brands that seemed ready to challenge the global market built up?  Many of these businesses did not do so by working solidly on their product quality to build up their brands gradually.  Instead, they rely on the imported business know-how and terminologies, and they parrot the talk about new millennium marketing and brand image management.  In other words, they did it with public relations and advertising instead of the fundamentals.

When Yili, Mengniu and other large milk-related product makers want to rescue their companies, they employ the same old tricks that they used over the past decade or so.  Their crisis management did not really engage in the essential spirit.  What do I mean by spirit?  It is very simple.  Their idea of crisis management is to emulate the overseas experience by having the top manager resign in order to save the company.

I often read in news reports that certain corporate leaders spout off various trendy and impressive business philosophies and brand concepts.  Later on, I read these same corporations got into trouble and some of the corporate leaders were even sent to jail.  They can talk all day, but in the end they got tripped up on the most basic mistakes.

To talk to a bunch of people who would add harmful material in milk about corporate social responsibility is just an illusory bubble as talking to a bunch of people who have never even traveled in a car about how to choose the best airplane seats.  From this perspective, the tainted milk powder affair has burst a certain bubble about the economic development in China over the past 15 years.  The truth has now come out: We have not even learned how to stand yet, but already we want to fly.

The news story is titled "Premier Wen Jiabao on the milk powder: My heart hurts very much."  The netizens are allowed to comment as well as vote Yes/No.  Here are the votes on September 24, 2008.  The counts were 994 supporting and 446 opposing.  This is of course contrary the popular image of the beloved Premier.

By September 26, 2008, if you go back and look at the same comments, the counts were 1,307 supporting and 107 opposing.  Now the Premier gets more than 90% support.

Q1.  Are you satisfied with the way that the Ma Ying-jeou administration is handling the melamine-tainted milk-related products coming from mainland China to Taiwan?
  1%: Very satisfied
  7%: Somewhat satisfied
31%: Somewhat dissatisfied
46%: Very dissatisfied
15%: No opinion

Q2. Do you have confidence that the Ma Ying-jeou will solve the tainted mainland Chinese milk powder affair?
31%: Confident
57%: No confidence
12%: No opinion

Q3. The Ministry of Health raised the melamine minimally acceptable threshold up to 2.5 ppm.  Do you approve?
  2%: Very much approve
  7%: Somewhat approve
22%: Somewhat disapprove
52%: Very much disapprove
17%: No opinion

Q4.  Do you think that Ma Ying-jeou should form a new cabinet?
54%: Yes
22%: No
24%: No opinion

Q5.  Some people say that the Ma Ying-jeou administration is useless.  Do you agree?
22%: Very much agree
18%: Somewhat agree
31%: Somewhat disagree
16%: Very much disagree
14%: No opinion

Q1. Are you satisfied with the overall arrangement of the Legislative Council election?
36%: Satisfied
42%: So-so
12%: Dissatisfied
10%: No opinion

Q2. Do you feel that this was a clean Legislative Council election?
67%: Yes
12%: No
21%: No opinion

Q3. Do you think that this was an enthusiastic election?
11%: Yes
50%: So-so
33%: No
  6%: No opinion

Q4. Did you vote in the Legislative Council election?
71%: Yes
23%: No
  6%: No opinion

Q5. How did you decide how to vote? (Base: Yes in Q4)
67%: Personal preference
11%: Pre-election public opinion poll
  4%: Respond to call for strategic voting
15%: Other
  3%: No opinion

Q6. Who did you vote for? (Base: Yes in Q4)
46%: Pan-democratic list
13%: Independent
18%: Pro-establishment list
23%: No opinion

Q7. Why did you decide not to vote? (Base: No in Q4)
  3%: Dissatisfied with some organization releasing exit poll data before the election was done
21%: Dissatisfied with the culture of smearing and urgent appeals
19%: No registered as a voter
26%: Did not like any candidate
  7%: Too hard to choose
11%: Didn't have time to vote
  9%: Other
  4%: No opinion

Q8. Which of the following methods is the most effective way of learning about the candidates?
  9%: Internet
  8%: Promotional materials
13%: The candidate materials printed by the government
21%: Media reports
  1%: Advertisements
16%: Debate forums
13%: Personal contact
  8%: Other
11%: No opinion

Q9. Some websites were calling for voters to lie to exit pollsters.  Do you ...?
12%: Support
52%: Oppose
36%: No opinion

Q10. Some organization released the exit poll results to the media before the election was over.  Do you ...?
14%: Support
53%: Oppose
33%: No opinion

Q11. What do you think that newly elected Legislative Councilors should forus on?
33%: Improve people's livelihood
  6%: Improve relationship with central government
16%: Promote social harmony
  5%: Pay attention to education
  7%: Promote development of political system
10%: Promote sustainable economic development
13%: Reduce rich-poor gap
  5%: Other
  5%: No opinion

Q12.  How would you classify your political leaning?
27%: Pan-democrat
28%: Middle-of-the-road
11%: Pro-establishment
34%: No opinion

The "warmth-seeking tour" of former president Chen Shui-bian came to Taichung today, where there was an even bigger and more enthusiastic crowd than in southern Taiwan.  Chen Shui-bian was particularly ecstatic.  Although he had previously pleaded "If you love me, then don't hurt me by wanting me to run for the president again," he cited Ma Ying-jeou's example of announcing a run for the presidency on the day after a criminal indictment and said that this was viable.  So will he make his announcement to run for the presidency on the day after his expected indictment over the state secret fees case?

The crowd chanted: "Go, Ah Bian!  Go, Ah Bian!"

Even though this was not an election rally, the crowd was going wild.  The venue was packed and cheers went on continuously.  The "warmth-seeking tour" of Chen Shui-bian reached a crescendo here in Taichung.

Chen Shui-bian: "I am not afraid of being oppressed by the Kuomintang.  I am willing to go to jail again on behalf of the 23 million Taiwanese people.  There have not been any political prisoners for a long time.  Ah Bian is willing to become the first political prison under the rule of Mr. Ma's Kuomintang.  I am willing to sacrifice myself in order to build an independent Taiwan nation."

Chen Shui-bian: "On the night of his indictment for graft over the special fees, Ma Ying-jeou announced that he was a candidate for the presidency.  He said that he would continue to run for the presidency all the way.  Right or not?"  The crowd: "Right!"  Chen Shui-bian: "On the day when I am indicted for graft over the state secret fees, should I announce that I will run against Mr. Ma for the 2012 presidency all the way?"

Chen Shui-bian got more and more excited as he said: "If the Democratic Progressive Party is to be strong again, it has to be led by someone.  If no one can lead, Ah Bian is willing to lead.  Is that okay?"

(UDN)

In Taichung today, Chen Shui-bian was interviewed on radio.  Earlier this morning, the special investigators had raided twenty-seven places including Chen's office, his residence and the homes of his children and assistants.  Chen complained that the judiciary was unfair.

Concerning the question of whether his wife Wu Shu-jen should have to show up for her court trial, he said: "Who is going to be responsible if she should lapse into a vegetative state?"  He said: "Mr. Ma Ying-jeou says that the judiciary is independent.  Do you believe it?"

(TVBS)

In related news, the Presidential Office treasurer Chen Cheng-hui for Chen Shui-bian was held under detention with no visiting rights today.  The judge deemed that she was involved in graft, forgery of document and money laundering.  The prosecutors had seized her computer and recovered deleted files which showed that she transferred state secret fees to the account of the Hong Kong bank accounts of the family members of Tsai Mei-li (who is a classmate and good friend of Chen Shui-bian's wife Wu Shu-jen).  Even if Chen Cheng-hui was only carrying out the orders from her boss, she is equally guilty.  The reports were that Chen Cheng-hui was emotionally distressed at the court hearing.

In this neighborhood, there are many business people who just dump their garbage everywhere.  This resulted in environmental pollution.

If you don't put out a public notice, people throw garbage everywhere.

Here is the initial public notice that was ineffective
because the penalty was too light.
"Garbage dumping is strictly prohibited; fine of 100 yuan."

So what does it take to have a civilized neighborhood?  Here is the public notice that was effective in curbing the garbage dumping.

Message:  "If any turtle egg should dump garbage here, then either
you have no children or else you will never get rich.
Whosoever tears this notice out shall have no children."

See, no garbage anymore ...

What was the creative concept behind the notice?  It taps into the psychological mindset of business people.  Why do they want to make money?  In order to get rich.  Why is the purpose of getting rich?  In order that their children should live well.  This ad says that you won't have any children, and therefore it taps on the two key factors.

But is it a good thing to use uncivilized language to obtain a civilized neighborhood?  The neighborhood residents are uneasy about the uncivilized language, but they don't feel that they have a better alternative.

This issue of <Next Weekly> reports that the prosecutors found ex-president Chen Shui-bian's daughter Chen Hsin-yu had wired money over the figurehead accounts of the ex-president's wife Wu Shu-jen's classmate and family for the purpose of insider stock trading.  The modus operandi was identical to that used by Chen Hsin-yu's husband Chao Chien-ming.  With this development, this means that the entire family (Chen and his wife; his son and daughter-in-law; his daughter and son-in-law) are all in legal trouble for graft, money laundering, tax evasion and insider trading.

The dumbest part of this whole story was that NT$34 million flowed from Chen Hsin-yu's account to the various figurehead accounts which then routed them to a single account.  On the same day, Chen Shui-bian's former Presidential Office secretary-general Chen Che-nan (now serving jail time) had used several of his own figurehead accounts to route NT$34 million to that very same account.  The money in that account was then used to purchase 4 million shares at NT$17 per share.

This information was previously known to investigators when Chen Shui-bian was still president.  The current investigators have determined that the previous investigators deliberately declined to pursue the case.

What does Chen Hsin-yu have to say for herself?

(TVBS)

This morning, investigators from the prosecutor's office searched more than twenty locations, including the homes of the family members of Chen Shui-bian and their associates.  Chen Hsin-yu showed up late for work.

She said: "Why don't they go after Ma Wei-chung's account?  The prosecutors never called her in for interrogation.  Why?  You tell me why?"

Reporter: "Why did you into insider trading?"

Chen Hsin-yu: "I did not engage in insider trading.  You are making up these charges.  You can smear my name and you can twist my character.  But you cannot fool God.  God will watch demons like you from Heaven, and He will know how to punish you."

 

 

(Ming Pao)

Yesterday, more than two hundred senior citizens gathered in front of the Jishou city government building to petition.  During this period, an official vehicle with license plate 0004 (which belongs to Xu Keqin, the governor of the Tujia/Miao Autonomous Region) came through led by a police escort car.  A senior woman and a middle-aged woman rushed forward to block the car.  But the vehicle did not stop.  The middle-aged woman fell to the ground, but the senior woman held on to the car door and was dragged for more than 200 meters.  The vehicle stopped only because there was a truck blocking the intersection ahead.  Angry citizens rushed forward to surround the car.

According to witnesses, the government official inside the car got out and was condemned by the car.  The chauffeur and the governor Xu Keqin were both assaulted.  Large numbers of public security officers and armed policemen rushed to the scene.  Xu Keqin left the scene quickly under the protection of the armed police.  The chauffeur was severely injured.  The crowd went ahead to overturn the vehicle.

More and more people showed up until several tens of thousands of people were chanting: "Down with corrupt officials!" and "Give me my pension back!"  The armed policemen took no action.  A government official asked the crowd to calm down and promised an investigation.  The crowd then dispersed.

The commander-in-chief of the anti-Chen Shui-bian movement was Shih Ming-deh.  His former wife Chen Li-ju has just published her memoirs titled <The Pure And Lovely Song of a Taiwanese Woman>.  She revealed that Shih had demanded an abortion when she got pregnant and that her visits to him in jail were just occasions to pour out his lust.  Forty-two letters from Shih to her are also included.

Shih Ming-deh's other ex-wife Linda Gail Arrigo was also present at the press conference for the book publication.  She quoted Li Ao: "Ex-wives are scary animals" and said: "When we two ex-wives are here, we have the explosive power of an atomic bomb."

Concerning this attack from his ex-wife and daughter, Shih Ming-deh said that when he was in jail, his ex-wife had a child with someone else.  Furthermore, she signed divorce papers before he got out of jail.  But now she is questioning him for deserting wife and daughter.  Where is the social justice?  He also complained that his ex-wife and daughter periodically threatened him in order to get money from him.

The book mentioned that Chen Li-ju first met Shih Ming-deh in July 1958 when she was only 14 years old.  They made love the first time in February the next year.  Chen wrote that when Shih went to jail for the Formosa incident, she went to visit him and found many other oppositional female comrades clamoring to visit him while holding personal letters from him.  In November 1959, Chen informed that she was pregnant two months.  "I expected him to be very happy, but he angrily demanded that I get an abortion."

Chen recalled: "Nori (=Shih Ming-deh) spent a lot of thought on sex.  For example, he signed his letters with 'Cane' which refers to his phallus.  He called my vagina 'Red grape' or 'Grape.'"  In the letter, Shih admitted that he fondled the female political officer six or seven times in the nude during the time of his military service at Kinmen Island.  Shih also listed more than ten ways in which Chen should improve her sexual techniques, including being on top of him and fellatio.

Chen also revealed when Shih went for a hospital for a medical check-up in June 1974, she went to visit him.  As soon as she stepped into the room, Shih dragged her into the bathroom, stripped her and made love with her on top of the toilet seat.

Shih Ming-deh's office issued a statement that Shih has never authorized the publication of her personal letters.  The statement asserted that the ownership of the letters belongs to the recipient, but the publication rights belong to Shih.  However, a lawyer pointed out that a letter is not a literary work.  Instead, a letter is an expression.  When the letter lands in the hands of the recipient, the ownership belongs to that person.

In Foshan, a post titled <Need a backup boy with/without girlfriend> was made last month at the local Tiantian New Forum's dating section.  "This was just a minor post, but more and more people applied and debated until it grew far bigger than we imagined," said a person at the forum.

The poster named 尕ωéπ claimed to be 19 years old and neither pretty nor ugly.  She lists four qualities that would disqualify any applicants:
- shorter than 170cm in body height
- older than 24 years
- pervert
- ugly to the point where she can't be seen in the street with
She does not mind if the applicant has a girlfriend or not.  To show her sincerity, she showed fourteen photos of herself.

The girl stated that she already has a boyfriend with whom she spends almost all her time.  She only wants a backup boyfriend for her spare time.

The post was suspended on August 31.  By that time, there were 22 pages of comments with almost 10,000 page views.  Eventually, it rose to the front page of the forum.  According to the tally, there were more than 200 applicants.This was as popular as any discussion of current affairs.

In the comments, a netizen was skeptical: "You say that you don't mind me having a girlfriend and this make me think that you are pulling a joke."  Another netizen wrote: "You want to two-time?  Ha!!!  I don't know what to say.

There were plenty of negative comments.  "I think that you only want a backup boyfriend for an ATM."  "Nobody should refuse happiness, but two-timing is despicable!"  The netizen named Green Sun called her a "wanton" "slut."  "If two-timing becomes a popular social trend, it will destroy morality, increase divorce rates and decrease fidelity."  Green Sun also said that the website was polluting the dating forum by letting this post exist.  Another netizen said that "we have to teach her lesson because she is being too blatant about this and we can do this by using human flesh search to identify her and inform her boyfriend."

On the other side are her defenders.  A netizen wrote that even cars have spare tires, so people should have a backup in love.  He said that backup lover is just a new lifestyle which does not change the nature of love.  Rather, this only plugs in the flaws of love.  But this post was in the minority and was promptly attacked by others, who argue that while one is free to have a backup lover, this was very selfish.  The debate then escalated to a conflict between the 80's and 90's generations.

Yesterday, the reporter contacted the girl.  She said that although many netiznes applied, she did not accept a backup lover and she does not intend to look for one anymore.  She was upset at the post that called her a "slut."  "It was going too far.  Actually, I could have wrote back to start a fight but there was no need."  As for the storm, she had asked the administrator to delete the post and she has not been back to the forum for a while.  On her QQ, her signature is "Go my own way and people can say whatever they wish."

The "South China Tiger" affair has been going on for a long while, but the public has not shown the customary fatigue.  For this, we have to thank the ability of the relevant government departments to continue to create news for consumption, from their denial at first to the long-anticipated court trial due soon.  They were always able to provide astonishing information that aroused the public.  But who could have imagined that the minimal right to defend oneself could even become a topic for public debate.  So we find ourselves debating heatedly whether "there will be an open trial" and "where/when will it be held."

According to the law, there should not be an issue about an open court trial.  According to the Article 152 of the Criminal Prosecution Law, there are only three situations without open court trials:- the case pertains to state secrets, or personal privacy has to be preserved, or under-aged minors have to be protected.  But this writer has the uneasy feeling that the court will transform an open court trial into a closed one by invoking "only limited seats are available."  It is alleged that citizens would have to apply to the city government or party publicity departments for seats on a first-come, first-serve basis.

We have heard "limited seats at court" more than once at certain cases that draw a high degree of attention from the public.  The Chinese court system has undertaken large infrastructure construction for many years.  But somehow they become short in space whenever an important trial comes on.  I don't know if this courthouse is in shoddy shape, but the photos on the Internet don't indicate so.  Based upon the usual process, "limited seats" mean that a certain number of unknown people "come first and get the limited number of passes."  Together with the already scripted prosecutorial and defense statements, an "orderly" public trial is ensured.

But at this South China tiger trial, the local court lacked even the minimal experience of handling public affairs.  They are actually giving the right to assign seats to the city government/part publicity departments.  Pardon me for being ill-informed, but when the propaganda department can control who gets to attend, is this a judicial event or a propaganda activity?  From the small details, we can spot the big problem: The Shaanxi authorities have all along treated the trial of Zhou Zhenglong as a propaganda activity and not a legal matter!  This meant that the propagandists had to control the proceedings (including the appointment of Zhou's defense lawyers).

In the words of Liu Hongbo, "we have our own way of doing things."  But this way of doing things in fact hurts the course of justice!  So what is the public "South China tiger" trial going to impart to the establishment of rule of law in China?

(Xinhua via e23.cn)

At a training class for Zhengzhou city cadres, the party disciplinary committee secretary Wang Zhang said, "95% of corrupt officials have mistresses."  Based upon an analysis of more than 50 cases in Henan province, he concluded that there are seven types of mistresses.  Why do women become mistresses to corrupt officials?
1. She is a kept mistress who gets money for satisfying the sexual demands of the corrupt official
2. The two do it out of love
3. She is a hostage because the corrupt official has something on her
4. The two do it out of mutual interests
5. She is a 'fourth person' in a relationship (with the husband, the wife and the child) but she has no desire to oust the wife/child because all she wants is money and power
6. She does it out for the enjoyment that is paid for by the corrupt official
7. She is a composite of two or more of the above

Wang Zhang explained that there are five types of behavior:
1. She is using her body to gain power
2. She is using her body to help the corrupt official
3. She is selling her body for money
4. She is using her body to force the official to be corrupt
5. She is using her body as bribe

Concerning the last type of behavior, Wang Zhang cited the case the female director Liu Guangming of the Anshan city State Tax Department.  In order to seduce officials, she spent a total of 5 million yuan to go to Hong Kong and Shanghai for cosmetic surgery.  In particular, Liu spent 500,000 yuan to get the most beautiful arse.

This leads to much speculation about Liu Guangming.  What does she look like?

(Wenxue City)  The first photo below is used in the Xinhua report.  It is hard to reconcile the person in the photo with the textual description.  The other photo looks so different that it may be a mistake.

Name: Liu Guangming
Sex: Female
Place of origin: Anshan city, Liaoning province
Height: 1.72 meters
Age: More than 50 years old (although you would think that she is only 28 or 29 if you see her)
Career: Tax administrator; deputy director of city tax office; director of city tax office; department head of city State Tax Department; director of city State Tax Department.

As more products were found by the General Administration of Quality Inspection to contain melamine, many of the well-known Chinese makers of milk-related products are trapped in a confidence crisis.  At the same time, many mainstream Chinese websites are being questioned about the manner by which they are handling the keywords related to the companies in trouble.

This reporter noted that while Baidu responded several times to public doubts and said "The search results explain everything," the other mainstream websites chose to maintain silence.  These websites are now facing a confidence crisis of their own.

The effect of the "Document showing Sanlu paid Baidu 3 million yuan" continues to reverberate.  In that document provided by a netizen, Sanlu's public relations company recommended Sanlu paying 3 million yuan to get Baidu to filter out all negative news about the kidney stones.  It also claimed that Yili and Mengniu paid 5 million yuan to buy off Baidu.  The document said that Sanlu has established stronger cooperation with Sina.com and Sohu.com.  "Except for the reports coming from the authoritative national organizations, those two websites will not publish any negative news about the Sanlu Group for the rest of the year."

Baidu denied that.  The other websites have not said anything.  But netizens continue to use various means to seek out the truth and raise doubts.

Among the doubts, the biggest one is about Baidu, the search engine with the largest market share in China.  Search engines are used by netizens to find news and information.  Ever since the Sanlu milk powder affair broke open, some netizens think that the number of pages found on Baidu is far less than its competitor Google.

The first report that named Sanlu was <Fourteen Gansu infants suspected to have kidney disease from taking Sanlu milk powder>.  Searching for this report title, there were only several hundred results on Baidu but several hundreds of thousands on Google.  People thought that Baidu is filtering out this title.

The netizen 'pang_ying" wrote that searching for "Sanlu kidney stone babies" showed that Baidu had only 1/30-th the number of results as Google.  Similar comments have been made at many forums and constituted the evidence against Baidu.

The Baidu public relations person was interviewed by Southern Metropolis Daily recently, and explained that the difference is that Baidu used precise matching while Google used fuzzy matching.

This person said that Baidu used precise matching on <Fourteen Gansu infants suspected to have kidney disease from taking Sanlu milk powder> whereas Google's results included many for <Fourteen Gansu infants have kidney disease simultaneously possibly because from taking Sanlu milk powder>.  Although it was the same article, the former title was used by fewer websites whereas the latter was used broadly by the news websites.

This person also pointed out that another reason why netizens were getting few results was that they used the wrong keyword at first.  During the first few days, the netizens misspelled 'melamine' (三聚氰胺 instead of 三聚氰胺).  This reporter tried it himself and observed that this phenomenon exists.  On September 31, a KDnet user was recommending that people search for 三聚氰胺 among other things.  The reporter also noted that this explanation appeared quickly on the Internet.

So Baidu said that they are using "exact matching."  But other netizens produced new evidence.  On September 18, a netizen at DoNews pointed out that the claim was just an effort by Baidu to hoodwink the netzizens using so-called sophisticated theory of search engines.

This netizen pointed about that if "Wenchuan+earthquake" was searched, Baidu yielded more results than Google.  But when "Sanlu+melamine" was searched, Baidu yielded fewer results than Google.  "Why is it that Baidu falls behind Google only when the Sanlu milk powder is posing a huge risk against public health?"

But another netizen offered a different view.  "What do you know about precise matching?  There are many methods and strategies in matching.  Can you come to a conclusion by making just a couple of comparisons?  Try searching for '踵塃.'  Baidu has one result and Google has almost 2,000 results.  When different algorithms are used, there can be vast differences.  If you don't understand something, you shouldn't babble.  When you say something, you have to be responsible."

At the same time, another post titled <Exposing the standard rate for Baidu to filter out negative information: 10,000 yuan per story> began to circulate on the Internet.  The post included two pieces of internal email purported to be from Baidu.  It also claimed a a senior manager at Baidu quoted a price of 10,000 yuan to filter out a piece of negative information.

As of this time, Baidu has not yet made a public response to this post.  The veracity of this post has not been confirmed.  The reporter noted that the DoNews post that questioned the Baidu claim about precise matching has been removed.

Actually, Baidu was not an isolated case in the public confidence crisis about Chinese websites over the Sanlu milk powder.

On September 17, the General Administration of Quality Inspection issued the report <22 baby milk powder producing companies were found to have melamine>.  Very quickly, netizens found out that many mainstream websites including Sina.com listed the company Yili as "Yi Li' with a space in between.  They pointed out that search engines treated "Yili" very differently from "Yi Li."  The former is a single keyword, while the latter is the combination of two separate keywords.  This meant that the negative reports on "Yili" would be buried among the many pages that contained "Yi" and "Li."  This quickly became the topic of conversation at many forums.

Very quickly, some of the websites eliminated the space in "Yi Li."  But curious netizens did not give up. On September 19, a netizen noted that in the page source code of the reports on Yili, the code is actually "Yi<!>li" with an extra invisible <!> inserted.  Once again, netizens wondered if this is proof of Yili public relations.  In the same reports, Mengniu and others did not have the extra <!>, which only appeared for Yili.  This showed that this was not an accident or mistake.

Faced with these doubts, many websites chose to stay silent.  As of now, there has been no response from websites such as Sina.com which are being subjected to doubt.

"Let's hope it isn't true," wrote a netizen on September 18.

Related Link: Sanlu’s public relations pawns: a relay of lies in China’s media  David Bandurski, China Media Project

... The first one to name "Sanlu" publicly was Shanghai-based reporter Jian Guangzhou (see Why Did I Publish The Name Sanlu?), and he is being regarded as a hero in China.  Before him, many newspapers reported the cases of infants having kidney stones, but they only referred to "a certain company" without naming it.  Even after the Sanlu affair broke open and all of China was deploring the company, the local media in Hebei province only cited official Xinhua reports and did not do any exposés of their own.

Is Sanlu such an intimidating force?  Actually, Sanlu was not the only one.  The state announced that 22 companies were producing tainted milk power.  On September 17, <Yantai Evening News> published a list of only 20 names.  When the readers made a comparison between the two lists, they found that the two missing ones were Aomeiduo and Leilei which were both located in Yantai city.  At a time when media information is available so widely and quickly on the Internet, it is sheer stupidity to cover up in this manner.  How much credibility can such a newspaper have?

Many local newspapers follow the orders of local government officials.  At a time when people are dying, the local government officials still want to serve as the umbrellas of local protectionism.  The bottom line is that this is about "power" and "money."  When a company makes money against its conscience, the local government officials raise more tax revenues, increase the GDP, list more accomplishments and earn promotions.  These two forces become interest groups.  Behind the newspapers without credibility are the local governments which have lost credibility and the sense of responsibility.

Conversely, the local government officials can wield their powers against the misbehaving reporters with charges such as disruption of public order, defamation, rumor mongering and so on.  Under such circumstances, very few reporters would risk their jobs to speak out.

Another controversial incident is that the CCTV program <Weekly Quality Report> positioned Sanlu as the top brand to promote the "Made in China" label.  This was a "soft commercial" dressed up as a news story, and its communicative message was even more powerful than a regular commercial, because the consumers will transfer the trust in the media onto the product.  Thus, the harm was greater when things went wrong.

CCTV pleaded innocence and said that it was misled by Sanlu.  But why did CCTV spend so much effort to promote a brand?  In reality, Sanlu, Mengniu and Yili are all big advertising clients at CCTV.  Mengniu was said to have invested about 200 million yuan on CCTV this year.  The interest network behind the scene could not be clearer.  The so-called news has lost all its value and become a commodity that can be purchased for a price.  Can this kind of news be objective anymore?

The news media are called the conscience of society.  This conscience is being seduced and tested in many ways: ad expenditure; free gifts; travel trips; "shut-up" money after incidents; various public relations techniques to "hijack" the media.  As for any media that refused to go along, the companies use force to pressure them into submission.  After Sanlu got into trouble, it attempted to spend 3 million yuan to get Baidu to filter out unfavorable information.

Jian Guangzhou said that as his Sanlu report went into print, he had visions of the Sanlu people calling him up the next day to accuse him of being irresponsible and to sue him.  He could not sleep that night.

For background, please see Daughter of Shanxi Coal Mine Boss Shows Off Her Lifestyle (at ChinaSMACK).

(Shanxi News Net via 6Park)

On the evening of September 21, 31-year-old Chen Daoning turned on his computer and visited the forum that he administered.  Chen is an employer of a technology company in Taiyuan city.  In his spare time, he is an administrator of the Longcheng Hotline Space Forum under the nickname "Which way?"  He said: "I entered the forum and I saw that the posts about the daughter of Shanxi coal mine boss was right in the front with many comments.  It was very busy as many of the regular visitors kept making comments.  Some of them said that the show-off girl has to be found, others said that this was a fake video, still others said that this was embarrassing for Shanxi and so on.  I looked at the video carefully and I found many suspicious points.  People mentioned some of those points.  In an inspiration, I wrote a call for a human flesh search to expose this girl."  Chen called it the campaign to restore Shanxi's good name.

But Chen recognized very clearly that such human flesh searches are often mass entertainment.  "When there is no name and just a few photos, the likelihood of finding the person is very small."

But the Internet human flesh engine quickly yielded results.  Based upon the clues within the video, the Space Forum netizens kept looking for the photos at various other forums.  But the reality actually disheartened Chen.  The first photo of the villa turned out to be the new American home of basketball star Yao Ming as first published in a certain Guangzhou magazine.  The photos of the cars were found to be the showroom models of a certain car sales store.  The brand-name handbags were new products posted at a certain online store.  "There was no technical sophistication in the fakery.  Without using half of the power of the netizens, the fakery was destroyed."  Chen posted a 'correction' post at the forum to prove the fakery by listing the origin of each of the items.

Another netizen wrote: "Without even looking at these items, she must be a fake.  She claimed to be a person who was born in the 1990's and moved to the United States three years ago.  Therefore, she must be at most 18 years old.  Three years ago, she was at most 15 years ago.  At that age, the only way that she could do so is by having an American citizen as parent.  It takes at least 5 years for a new immigrant to become naturalized as a citizen.  So his parents must have moved to the United States in 1998.  At that time, coal mining was not big business yet.  So his dad could not even get a green card as an immigrant-investor."

After taking apart the video, the human flesh searchers continued to function and they found the first netizen who posted the video.

On September 6, the netizen "Huanweichen" was identified as the first one to post the video.  Through the clues provided by the netizens, this reporter was able to contact here via QQ.  She is a 22-year-old girl who claims to be a student at a certain university in Beijing.  She is also the planner for a DV club.  Concerning the many condemnations, she said indifferently: "How much is real on the Internet? Isn't it more fun to have real and fake stuff?  If you believe it, then it is real!"  She said that she uploads videos almost weekly for video websites.  So far she had made almost 2,000 videos.  Most of them are re-posts from elsewhere but some of them are her own creations.  She does so for fun as well as the training experience in video production. 

Last week, she uploaded another video titled <Overseas daughter shows off her wealth>.  These two videos about showing off wealth have more than 250,000 hits and almost 30,000 comments all at amazing pace.  According to the general manager of Space Forum, video sites are the fastest growing platform.  In early 2007, the sex video of a female actress enabled a newly founded video website to grow ten times in volume.  One month later, the video website procured 12 million yuan of venture capital.  At the video websites, the most popular videos are about "sex," "violence" and "showing off wealth."  This is how the video websites subsist.

Another netizen said that the netizens also make money via videos.  Certain video websites have a profit-sharing plan with the netizens, who can get one cent for every video viewing. [2.5 million viewings would mean 25,000 yuan!]

Related link: The China Beat: Coal Miner’s Daughter

Satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the job performance of President Ma Ying-jeou:
52%/17%: Announcement of cabinet
41%/37%: One month after inauguration
30%/49%: Two months after inauguration
32%/47%: Declassification of state secret fees information in the matter of former president Chen Shui-bian
40%/41%: One hundred days after inauguration
28%/51%: Four months after inauguration

Satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the job performace of Premier Liu Chao-shiuan:
27%/53%: Four months after inauguration

Confidence/No Confidence in economic policies of Ma Ying-jeou's administration
41%/47%: Four months after inauguration

Confidence/No Confidence in crisis management (e.g. typhoons, stock markets, etc) by Ma Ying-jeou's administration
21%/65%: Four months after inauguration

Satisfaction/dissatisfaction with the handling of the Chen Shui-bian corruption case by Ma Ying-jeou's administration:
24%/55%: Four months after inauguration