(MOP)

12:10  the AK 558 website was attacked by Korean hackers and is closed.  The command center for the Crusade/Jihad has been transfoered to IS channel 558520.

16:50  Baidu has begun to "harmonize" the webmasters of the forums which support the Crusade/Jihad (including the Heike forum, the Hack forum, the Hongke forum, the Fujian forum).  These people have had their titles removed and their IDs banned.

17:10  The Heike Alliance announced that they are attacking Baidu because they want Baidu to continue accept registration at the Super Junior forum before war begins at 19:00.

17:30  The largest Korean shopping website was attacked by unknown hackers.  Its home page has been changed by someone said to be the "Chinese Hackers, Zhejiang division."

17:36  Someone who may be a technician at the 360 Security Company has accepted responsibility for the hacking incident.  He says that he wants to "compare notes" with the Baidu security team.

18:00  The Baidu forums are experiencing instability as a number of the forums have collapsed.  Baidu says that they are "undergoing emergency recover."

18:20  The Korean Super Junior forum is out.

19:10  Some members of the Hacker Alliance have successfully bypassed the registration identification system at Baidu.  But their posts have limited firepower.  Members of the Hongke Alliance have also bypassed identification and flushed the forum with posts without any opposition.

19:35  MOP has successfully used "human flesh search" to identify the real identity, mobile phone number, home telephone number and address of the Super Junior forum webmaster.

19:40  The membership registration system at the Super Junior forum has been compromised by the Hacker Alliance.  The Halo Team is leading the way to flood the forum.  Baidu is working to patch the flaw, but the Hongke Alliance is launching an attack to delay them.  Various other Korean websites are being attacked by Chinese hackers.

19:55  Status report
- 414 QQ "brain-damaged" groups related to Super Junior have been bombed out
- Hongke/Hacker have taken the official Super Junior website out
- Blood has taken the Super Junior Forum at Baidu out
- Music download statistics have been banned
- Renren's Super Junior section is half-paralyzed.  A reporter refreshed the page at 21:30 and again at 21:31.  Within one minute, there were 42 more pages of new comments with almost identical comments about the Crusade/Jihad.


The Super Junior forum at Baidu being flooded with the identical message: <Blood-colored Halo Alliance>  Those brain-damaged witches are strongly requested to apologize


Baidu administrator: We will not hesitate to ban any user who participated in tonight's action.  We will provide technical information to the law enforcement department about any activity that violates state laws to insure severe punishment!
Baidu complaints department: The bastard at the administrative group has just banned me.  Please do whatever you please.


At around 1am, the Baidu home page was inaccessible with an "Unable to resolve domain name" message. Another screen capture purportedly at 1:30am showed an extra option on the Baidu home page to "Google it!" instead.  "I visited Baidu at 1:30am and I found out that "Baidu it!" has become "Google it!"  It was the same thing even after I refreshed the page.  Five minutes later, I went back to Baidu again and I was directed to www1.baidu.com which behaved normally.  Another five minutes later, www.baidu.com was back to normal again."

Shi Jinquan was a well-known photogbrapher/promoter under the nickname "Knight Golden Fountain".  He has been on Guangdong TV, Guangxi TV and other websites.  He carried out well-known Internet incidents such as "Winner of 360 million yuan lottery in Henan treated 10,000 hometown people living in Guangzhou to go home and celebrate with him," "Youth threatened to commit suicide unless Li Yuchun undergoes breast enhancement," "The exclusive nail house handbook" and so on. 

On May 25, a series of photos titled "Shenzhen drifter rapes mentally handicapped girl in the street" appeared at iFeng and later at Sohu.com.  There were 10 photos in all, showing the entire process of how a male drifter raped a mentally handicapped girl at the intersection of Zhenxing Road and Yennan Road in Shenzhen at 10am on May 23.  "Knight Golden Fountain" saw those photos and realized that they were going to be a sensation.  So he downloaded the photos, added his personal logo and posted the photos to his own blog as well as the MOP, Netease and other forums.

The record of a rape in broad daylight generated a storm.  Even as the netizens condemned the heinous crime committed by the drifter, they also condemned the photographer for being cruel and indifferent.  After all, the accompanying text indicated that the action had lasted more than 20 minutes during which the photographer did nothing to stop the crime.

The Futian police quickly arrested the photographer named Tan.  But at the same time, the police also arrested the original poster named Zhang as well as "Knight Golden Fountain" for "theft/disseminating the privacy of others" and sentenced them to three days of detention each.

Yesterday morning, Shi Jinquan was interviewed by our reporter.  He was perplexed about being detained for re-posting someone else's photos.  As he recalled, the police came to him at 4pm on May 27, three days after he made his post.  "I re-post frequently on the Internet, and I usually sign my own name."  Although he explained that he did not take the photos and he was only re-posting, the police still took him into detention along with the original poster named Zhang.

"I don't know much about the law and I did not think too much when I made the re-post."  Shi Jinquan thought that his re-post did affect the principals of the case.  But he was careful to make sure that photos did not show the private parts of the principals.  Therefore, he felt that three days of detention was too much.

According to the Futian police, Shi Jinquan and the citizen named Zhang had violated Article 42 of the PROC safety administration law for spying, filming/listening and disseminating private matters.  The penalty was five days or less of detention or 500 yuan or less in fines.

Since that post was carried widely across the Internet and was read by countless number of persons, why was Shi Jinquan picked out for detention?  The police explained that most netizens were only following others or just showing their concerns, and therefore had negligible reach.  But Shi Jinquan deliberately spread the photos on a grand scale across the Internet.  That was why he was detained along with the original poster.

==================================

From the blog of "Knight Golden Fountain," here is an example of his Internet promotion methods:

The owners in a certain Beijing building wanted him to draw Internet attention to their rights case against a certain company XX.  His plan was to announce on the Internet that a cat was going to be killed by torture over seven days!  Each day, photos will be posted showing the cat and a man wearing a "Company XX" uniform and a safety helmet at an abandoned railway track.  The intention was to raise nationwide anger at Company XX through the direct exhibition of cat torture.

The details of the plan include:
(1) The character could be either male/female and any age.  The important thing is to have no Internet information on the person which can be located by "human flesh search."
(2) The tools are one lovely-looking cat, one Company XX uniform, one safety helmet, one bucket of paint and one brush to write "Company XX" on the wall
(3) The entire process is to be filmed in still photographs or videos.
(4) The accompany text should be written in the first-person in a boastful, arrogant way so that people would want to kill the author!
(5) The information should be spread through the web portals and video portals, celebrity blogs, QQ chat groups for reporters, emails to reporters, telephone hotlines.
(6) The cost of operation is between 300 to 5,000 yuan.

Risks and Rewards
(1) The mastermind could be found out by "human flesh search" and Company XX may file a lawsuit
(2) If the torture is too brutal, the public security department may intervene and even arrest the torturer and mastermind.  This could be the trigger for a law on cruelty against animals.
(3) But if the plan is successful, it may do tremendous damage to Company XX.

 

Recently, the "69 Crusade/Jihad" affair has been the talk of the town.  Several tens of thousands of Chinese Internet users have pledged to flood the websites of Korean celebrity stars at 7pm on June 9.

This so-called "69 Crusade/Jihad" was triggered by the Korean singing group Super Junior promising to give away several thousand free tickets for their Shanghai World Expo concert but actually only handing out 500 tickets.  This caused a stampede in which fans spit at the World Expo volunteer workers who were trying to maintain order.  Afterwards, netizens organized first from the World of Warcraft forum and spreading to the Tianya and MOP forums against Super Junior and their fans.

According to the official "69 Crusade/Jihad" website: "At 7pm on June 9, we will organize all patriotic Internet users at Baidu, MOP, Tianya, Sohu, Sina, Tencent, Renren, Hongke Alliance, Heike Alliance, the various hawkish military forums ... to join our fight!!  We need all types of people to join in.  We look forward to seeing you.  This so-called war consists of making posts/comments to cause the targeted websites from being able to provide normal services.

...

Because the "69 Crusade/Jihad" originated at the World of Warcraft website, an industry insider who does not want his/her name revealed said that the whole thing could be a publicity stunt organized by the World of Warcraft team.  June 9th was chosen because they were targeting the 9.57 million college entrance exam candidates.  Netease, which runs the World of Warcraft, declined to comment.

Another opinion was that this was a marketing ploy by the game websites 178.com to promote the AK platform.  The official website for "69 Crusade/Jihad" is "ak558.org" and it is also called Channel 558 at AK with appropriate instructions to download the software.

178.com has issued a denial about the aforementioned speculation.  178.com CEO Zhang Yunfan said that the recent campaign has put stress on their servers but they have not deleted the relevant channel.  Because 178.com has kept the channel while other competitors have deleted the relevant channels, people are congregating at 178.com.  Zhang said that 178.com has not done anything to make this event happen.

Last year, the Jia Junpeng affair also began at the World of Warcraft forum.  That affair was later show to be a planned Internet marketing campaign.

Ms. Wang of Longwan district (Wenzhou city) suspected that a clothing store sales clerk stole her mobile telephone.  She went back and confronted the sales clerk.  Without any proof, she slapped the sales clerk 17 times within a span of 4 minutes.  The surveillance video was posted at many websites and raised the ire of Internet users.  Our reporter has learned that the local police has sentenced Ms. Wang to 8 days of administrative detention plus a fine of 500 yuan.

The story goes back to 6:50pm on April 13.  As always, the sales clerk Ms. Liu was serving customers in the clothing store.  A middle-aged woman charged into the store and said that she lost her mobile telephone there the day before.  Since the surveillance system was not working at the time, there was no recording of what happened.  But this woman suspected Ms. Liu had stolen her mobile phone.  Therefore, she slugged Ms. Liu many times.

According to the surveillance video, Ms. Wang came into the store and immediately slapped Ms. Liu on the back of the head.  Ms. Liu stood near the counter, lowered her head and seemed to be offering some sporadic explanations.  But Ms.Wang did not stop and kept slapping Ms. Liu.  In the words of a police officer who viewed the video: "Ms. Wang administered 17 slaps in a span of 4 minutes.  She did not necessarily hit the face all the time; sometimes she slapped the body.  The slaps carry a tone of contempt."

The Longwan police found that Ms. Wang lived in Tianhe town in Longwan district.  Previously, Ms. Wang had been sent off to drug rehabilitation as well as three times for labor reform (laogai).  The police issued a summons for Ms. Wang to appear for interrogation.  Ms. Wang did not show up.  Last evening at 7pm, the police learned that Ms. Wang was at a certain mobile telephone store and intercepted her.  "Ms. Wang was rueful about what she did at the clothing store the other evening.  She seemed both excited and discouraged."

 

A survey of the essay topics is provided at Danwei.  Chinese netizens are already rushing ahead to re-interpret in the light of certain social phenomena.

National (I)  Why chase mice when there are fish to eat?  Interpretation: Why would children of rich people need to work when money just falls into their hands?

Beijing: Looking at the stars with your feet on the ground.  Interpretation:  The famous nightclub Passion had a Chinese name that meant "Paradise on Earth."  Those who cannot afford to enter can only gawk heavenwards from the outside.

Shanghai: The city and me.  Interpretation: More free publicity for the Shanghai World Expo.

Chongqing: Tough problems.  Interpretation: Earthquake prediction is known to be a hard science problem.   (English interpretation which does not work in Chinese: Chongqing has a problem with toughies (=hoods, thugs, criminals, crooks) and that is why they ran this anti-crime campaign that resulted in the arrests, trials and convictions of hundreds of these toughies.)

Tianjin: The world I live in.  Interpretation: My world has plenty of earthquakes and sinkholes.

Guangdong: Becoming neighbors with you.  Interpretation: Don't bother unless you are sincere (which is the Chinese title of the red-hot dating show <If You Are The One>).

Zhejiang: As roles change.  Interpretation: When the "Little Party" (=third party interfering with a marriage) becomes the "Second Mistress" (=mistress paid by the husband for regular extra-marital sex).

Liaoning: Happiness is ... ?   Interpretation: Not having to live in a snail house (which is a small, expensive apartment).

Hubei: Fantasy.  Interpretation: Housing prices control.

Sichuan: The most perfect youth period.  Interpretation: Those young people who commit suicide by jumping off buildings at Foxconn.

Jiangxi: Recovering childhood.  Interpretation: Melamine-tainted baby formula.

(Taiwan News Online)  June 2, 2010

Two Taichung City police officers were disciplined after they were found in the presence of a suspected gangster when he was shot, reports said yesterday. The revelation comes at a bad time for Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu, at the start of a re-election bid when Taiwan's third largest town already has a reputation for a deteriorating law-and-order situation. The central government decided Monday to send 40 specially trained police officers to Taichung to ward off further gang attacks.  Four police officers were playing mahjong with suspected gangster Weng Chi-nan and hid behind a tea table when he was shot last Friday, said Huang Kuo-shu, a Taichung City Councilor from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party.

Taichung police chief Hu Mu-yuan told Huang that a retired police officer had invited two other officers to drink tea together at a biotechnology company. The two officers did not know that Weng would also show up, while the two other officers were their drivers, Hu said. He denied they played mahjong and said they were not carrying their guns because the incident happened outside their working hours. Both senior officers received one demerit, while one was also demoted to a non-executive position and the other would retire as scheduled on Wednesday, Hu said. The two drivers only received a serious warning each because they were just following orders, he said. Even though the company office did not have a dubious reputation, police officers should avoid contacts with questionable individuals, Hu said.

The presence of the four policemen at Weng's killing came to light as investigators watched surveillance camera recordings of the scene, reports said. Mayor Hu told the Taichung City Council that police officers should not have contacts with criminal underworld figures. "Citizens are already feeling despair over the law-and-order situation in Taichung City," Hu said.

(Taiwan News Online)  June 8, 2010.

Surely no one would have thought even a month ago that Taichung City Mayor Jason Hu of the ruling Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), would face a leadership crisis that could threaten his chances to win the mayoralty of the combined metropolis Taichung City and Taichung County in the Nov. 27 special municipality polls. However, the presence of four senior police officers at the scene of the killing of a gang leader in Taichung City may present such a test.

A master in foreign and media relations, Hu's nine years as mayor of central Taiwan's largest city has been clouded by a reputation of failure in combatting organized crime and, according to various surveys, a ranking as the worst city in Taiwan for civic order. Thanks to the KMT's strong clout, Hu defeated triumphed in two previous mayoral polls in late 2001 and late 2005 against challengers from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party and was expected to win handily in the November 27 poll. However, the KMT mayor and his administration are now troubled by a lack of discipline in policy integrity as well as the chronic failure to tackle rampant crime rates.

Hu once incorporated the theory of a "broken window," formulated by two United States academics in the 1990s on crime prevention, as a guideline for improving Taichung's bad record of crime fighting. Simply speaking, this notion argues that the presence of some broken windows in a building will invite vandals to break more windows and posits that the best way to curb crime is to both quickly fix "broken windows" or community problems and enforce the law for even the smallest infractions, including jaywalking and panhandling, in order to prevent more serious crimes.

Supposedly, the most success story of this theory was recorded by former Republican New York City mayor Rudy Guiliani after he became mayor in 1993. Upholding a promise to "get tough on crime," Guiliani hired former NYC Transit Police chief William Bratton as chief of police, who launched a "zero tolerance" strategy in which the NYPD cracked down on all sorts of minor infractions, including subway fare dodging, public drinking and urination and even "squeegee men" who wiped the windows of cars stopped at intersections by red lights and demanded payment. Almost immediately rates of both petty and serious crimes dropped substantially and continued to decline during the next decade.

If Guiliani could do this, the argument goes, Hu should be able to accomplish a similar feat. However, what distinguished the mayors of New York City and Taichung City has been political will and determination and the ability to secure implementation. Before becoming mayor, Guiliani had served as an attorney-general and was "untouchable" from pressures form the organized crime organizations and other vested interests. Despite criticism from the media and opposition from the city council, Guiliani relied upon his toughness and determination to fight against crime and successfully rejuvenated tourism and manifested these same characteristics in lifting the city out of the aftermath of the Sep. 11, 2001 terrorist attack. What Guiliani possessed is exactly what Hu has lacked.

Taichung's convenient geographic location and the business-friendly environment has made the central city a favored location for organized criminal gangs to set up operational bases. The police force is both insufficient large and equipped and law enforcement has never been effective. Murders, shootings, kidnaps and fights among gangsters have been rampant in Taichugn under Hu's administration, but the "Achilles's Heel" has been the failure of the city government to enforce stricter discipline and effectively investigate and crack down on alleged corruption between the police and the organized crimes.

The controversial case of four police officers hiding in a gun shop while the murder took place revealed the dark side of the local police force and the failuure of the city's police commander to promptly report this incident to Hu revealed a grave lack of internal discipline and exposed Hu's powerlessness. The eruption of this scandal coincided with the KMT's nomination of Hu for mayor of the merged Taichung municipality and triggered a plunge in his approval ratings from 56 percent in March to 46 percent and the gap between Hu and DPP nominee Su Chia-chyuan has considerably narrowed even before Su has truly launched his campaign. Su may well take advantage of Hu's woes by highlighting his own robust administrative record in cracking down on crime during eight years as Pingtung County mayor and his experience as interior minister.

The deteriorating law and order situation in Taichung is a major blow to the KMT's hopes to win three of the five municipal mayoral seats. Taichung had been considered a "shoe-in" constituency for the ruling party, but leading media pundits and voters are now reconsidering the quality of Hu's governance and leadership. Hu is now in danger of falling through a "broken window" of the lack of confidence among Taichung voters to give him four more years and may take President and KMT Chairman Ma Ying-jeou down with him.

Here are the television news videos that contain the surveillance videos:

 

 

In Hefei city (Anhui province), a Ms. Wang was getting worried about the absent-mindedness of her 16-year-old son.  He appeared listless and tired.  When asked, he only said that he has been studying too hard.  Ms. Wang sensed that something was wrong.  Upon pressing her son, Ms. Wang learned a shocking secret.  She immediately asked a relative who works at the City Communist Party Committee for help.  An investigative team was formed and the truth became known after one month of wok.

It turned out that the female English-language teacher named Kong Feiyan had "seduced" Ms. Wang's son, who was worn out by having to have sexual intercourse several times a week.

As a result of the irregular relationship between Ms. Kong and her students, she is now an Internet celebrity.  She graduated from the Anhui Normal University and went on to teach at the Number 42 Middle School in Hefei city (Anhui province).  She is well-known for delivering results as her students excelled in English.

Kong Feiyan has been suspended by the school pending investigation.  So far, 54 parents have complained to the relevant departments.  Although the official results have not been published, Internet users have run "human flesh search engine" to ferret out the details of the personal live of Teacher Kong.  One of their findings is a Xiaonei blog by Kong Feiyan which was only registered yesterday.

Here are some blog posts by Kong Feiyan:

Many people say that I seduced 900 students over a three year period.  This was likely to be a media report.  Any person with a brain would know that this is impossible.  900 students over 3 years means one per day.  Where can I find some many people?  Nevertheless, it would be accurate to say that there were 100 over 3 years.  I don't deny that.  Many people say that I seduced them.  I really don't know what to say.

Here is the photo of Kong Feiyan:

Yesterday I returned to the school to get my remaining pay ... As soon as I stepped out, I saw the father of Zhao Baoqiang standing there.  He looked grim-faced as if I was an enemy for ages.  Zhao Baoqiang stood silently next to him.  His father rushed up to me say ... Aiii, his son was told by other students to ask questions after class and then he asked for extra lessons.  Your son is no better than me.  Seduction?  Can you seduce 900 students?  This is a joke.  How can this be a seduction?  This is a case of both being willing parties.  If your son didn't want to, could I get my way?  Instead, everyone acts as if they are respectable and decent folks.  But what was on their minds before this came out?  Besides, I treated your children.  I prepared the lessons and I lectured well.  I did my best for your children.  What do you want?  Because I had intimate relationship with a lot of people, does that mean that I seduced them?  We were just taking advantage of each other.  If I took advantage of your child, then you child also took advantage of me.

Addendum (MOP):

Here is another photo of Teacher Kong:

What is that dress that she is wearing?  What is that bit of red color that is showing on the white dress?  Oh, Teacher Kong can be found in a Hong Kong tabloid magazine as an LG girl!

I predict that this story will develop as follows:

1. The pretty girl in the photos will emerge and claimed to be a victim.  She will identify herself and promptly promote herself.

2. The victimized school will issue a clarification to dispel the rumor and ask not to interfere with normal education.

3. The victimized Teacher Kong will stand up and condemn the rumormongers, possibly suing them in court.

4. The victimized students will stand up and announce that they had not asked Teacher Kong to provide "extra lessons" outside class.

5. The LG spokesperson will say that the LG girl is just a public relations worker hired to promote company products.  LG condemns the rumormongers.

6. An Internet promotion company will indicate that they planned everything.

7. The Publicity Department will instruct all websites to delete all related pages.

8. The Teacher Kong blog will be informed that the contents are improper and it will be locked up as a private blog.

Yesterday morning at 9:44, a post appeared at the Baidu forum under the nickname 'Body Disposal Squad':  "I accidentally strangled my girlfriend to death.  I live in a four-person dormitory room.  Someone is going to be back at 11am.  What should I do?  I only have one leather suitcase.  I ask for advice on how to deal with my girlfriend's belongings, how to remove the corpse and how to cover it up.  I don't know how to dispose of a corpse.  How can I fool the medical examiner?  Also, how can I move the corpse as faraway from the dormitory as possible?"

This sensationalistic post drew attention quickly.  When some netizens expressed doubts, the poster wrote at around 10am: "Please read the <Jinjiang Daily News> tomorrow.  We'll meet again!  Perhaps I have hung around Baidu's forum about Horror too often, my hands are trembling but I don't feel anything else."  The poster 'Body Disposal Squad' went offline after that.

Because the contents of the post appeared "realistic" and "horrifying," many netizens thought that it was authentic.  By 10am when our reporter went to that post, more than 1,000 people have read it and more than 60 people left comments.

The Jinjiang (Fujian) police received a citizen report about the post and immediately began to investigate.  Did someone commit murder in Jinjiang?  And did he even dare to ask for advice on how to dispose of the corpse on the Internet?  By afternoon, the police had arrested the poster at a cybercafe, who is a 20-year-old young man named Yang originally from Chongqing.

The case was quickly solved.  According to Yang, he was bored after getting off work at 8am.  So he went to a cybercafe.  He scanned through the posts at the Terror forum at Baidu and came up with an idea: he would make up a scary murder and post it on the Internet.  "It was fun and exciting!"  To make it more realistic, he even told the netizens to look for the news story in Jinjiang Daily News. 

"Hey, this should not be illegal.  I have to go back to work in the afternoon!"  Yang said.  He does not have a girlfriend at the moment.  He never thought that "making an Internet post could be against the law."

With the permission of the police, our reporter interviewed Yang.  The first impression was that he was bright and handsome.  Yang said that he came to Jinjiang with this parents in 2000.  He quit school after second year in junior high school in order to work.  During his leisure time, he likes to watch horror films, hang around Horror forums on the Internet, play online games about murder and mayhem, etc.  With respect to the Internet post that he made that morning: "It was for pure fun.  I want to create a sensation and get some page views."  He claimed that he is "psychologically healthy.  I want like to experience that sense of excitement.  I don't really want to kill anyone."

According to the police, Yang fabricated a story on the Internet that disturbed public order.  As a result, Yang will be given ten days of administrative detention.

According to Jinjiang Court judge Su, Yang's fake post contained relatively detailed time and location.  For the sake of realism, he also told people to follow the story in Jinjiang Daily News.  Judge Su said that the Internet is a public platform for disseminating information to undetermined persons.  Yang's post was convincing to some of these people and struck fear among those who live in Jinjiang where the "murder" took place.  If Yang had said "I killed someone" without specifying the time and place, or if he discussed the matter directly with designated persons via QQ, it would not have caused mass terror/panic and and there wouldn't be a crime.

What if Yang wanted to kill someone and was seeking advise on the Internet on how to dispose of the body?  Judge Su said if Yang only had the intention to commit murder, then the post would not be a crime.  But if Yang not only had the intention, but he obtained the information through the Internet and went ahead to prepare to commit that murder, then it becomes premeditation/conspiracy.

According to the final results, 579,795 persons voted in the five-district by-election.  Since there were 3,373,342 registered voters at the time, 3,373,342 - 579,795 = 2,793,547 persons did not vote.  The turnout rate was 579,795 / 3,373,342 = 17.19%; conversely the "no show" rate was 100 - 17.19 = 82.81%.

Why didn't they vote?

According to the Hong Kong University Public Opinion Programme poll, the reasons why these registered voters did not vote on May 16 are:
37%: This election is unnecessary, wasting public resources
15%: Oppose/not support referendum movement
16%: No suitable candidates/not satisfied with candidates' performance
  9%: No time
  5%: Election is useless
  4%: Voting is meaningless
  4%: Away from Hong Kong on that day
  3%: Not interested

This is not that impressive until these percentages are applied to the 2,793,547 registered voters who did not vote.  So here are the key reasons again with the numbers being person counts:
1,033,612: This election is unnecessary, wasting public resources
  419,032: Oppose/not support referendum movement
  446,968: No suitable candidates/not satisfied with candidates' performance

Out of the 579,795 votes cast, 500,187 were for the candidates of the Civic Party, the League of Social Democrats and Tertiary 2012.  This was described as the greatest mobilization since July 1, 2003.  Therefore, the government must obey the voices of these people.

Yet at the same time, 1,033,612 + 419,032 = 1,452,644 persons refused to vote because they thought that the election was unnecessary or that they oppose the referendum movement organized by the Civic Party, the League of Social Democrats and Tertiary 2012.

Who should the government listen to?

More interesting is that in the 2008 Legislative Council election, 1,524,249 persons cast votes out of 3,372,007 for a turnout rate of 45.20%.  Of these about 60% (or about 900,000) voted for pan-democrat candidates.  So about 400,000 pan-democrat voters did not vote in this by-election.  Why not?

(Apple Daily)

In the 2008 Legco election, the pan-democrats received 900,000 or so votes.  In the May 16th 2010 de facto referendum, about 400,000 of these votes went missing in action.  The number of null votes also reached a historical high.  What were these people thinking?  Could it be that they don't "love democracy" anymore?  We have provided the following reasons based upon the analyses of Internet users, scholars and commentators.

Reason #1: They disagree that this was a referendum and they couldn't vote on the issue instead of the candidate
They support "achieving genuine universal suffrage as soon as possible and eliminating the functional constituencies."  But they found individual legislators who resigned to run again in the by-election to be extremely repulsive.  They believed that the de facto referendum was an attempt to "hijack" their support.  They were concerned that their vote may be misinterpreted as support for these candidates.  On the Internet, there is a popular saying: "Do I have to vote for Raymond Wong in order to prove that I support universal suffrage?  That would be worse than having to go to bed with Yufa in order to prove that I am not gay!"

Yufa is a character in the movies of Stephen Chow.  Here is the photo of 'her':

They believe that there should be at least two choices in a proper referendum.  If there is no opponent who stands on the opposite side in the issue, you can only choose "support" and you cannot choose "oppose."  So this is no way to reflect popular opinion.  In this election, the other candidates (such as Tertiary 2012) are unknowns with no records of accomplishments.  It would be irresponsible to vote for them.

Reason #2: Public support for universal suffrage has been loud, clear and consistent and there is no need to hold a referendum to highlight it again

They believe that the past electoral support for the pan-democrats are enough to show that the public supports university suffrage.  "Why do I have to declare my stand again?  Isn't the historical 60%/40% vote split between the pan-democrats and the pro-Beijing camp conclusive evidence already?  Why do I have to vote for someone with whom I may completely disagree with in terms of ideas in order to prove something that has been proven a long time ago?"

Reason #3: The promotional tactics and violent political language of the Civic Party/League of Social Democrats were repulsive

They believe that the two parties flooded the Internet with annoying brainwashing propaganda.  This includes essays, songs and videos using foul language.  In the later stages of the campaign, the referendum movement cast all those who won't vote as enemies; they said that these were irresponsible people who do not deserve democracy.

 

In the video <Eighteen like-minded persons support the referendum>, they vilify those who don't want to vote as funny-talking "pseudo-humans" and "Kong girls."  This alienated the undecided voters who thought that the referendum movement "practiced hegemony in the name of democracy and wantonly suppressed dissident voices."

Reason #4: The definition of a successful referendum kept changing and was a sign of the fear of losing

At first, the Civic Party/League of Social Democrats anticipated to see pro-establishment candidates fielded in the by-election and determined that victory will be theirs if the two parties receive more votes than the pro-establishment plus null votes.  The pro-establishment camp boycotted the by-election.  So the Civic Party/League of Social Democrats said that the votes won by their two parties plus Tertiary 2012 will show the force of opposition against the functional constituencies.  Some voters harbored doubts about the meaning of a referendum which seems to be interpreted and re-interpreted at will by politicians.

Reason #5: The proposed political reform package was acceptable, and there is not need to re-elect those five ex-legislators to exercise the veto

They believe that if the pan-democrats veto the political reform package, the government will have the excuse to postpone universal suffrage once again.  They believe that while the newly added district council seats may not be directly elected, the voters will adjust their district council voting once they realize that district councilors can elect legislative councilors from among themselves.  Thus, the voters will look at political positions and not just district work alone.

Chinese University of Hong Kong Department of Political and Administrative Sciences associate professor Ma Ngok agreed with some of the reasons above.  "Some people were not happy with the referendum, or the path taken by the League of Social Democrats, or the fact that the legislators resigned and ran for re-election.  But that does not mean that they don't support democracy."  He said that the number of blank ballots showed that people were not happy about certain political parties.  "They got too shrill with scolding people.  The propaganda from the Civic Party/League of Social Democrats were counter-productive to some voters.  In the end, they became hegemons."

The Number 2 Subway Line in Nanjing has been opened for just over one week.  Already there have been two impromptu pole dance performances.  The first one took place on the afternoon of June 1 when a woman in a red shirt and white nid-riff pants did a number.  One day later, a woman in black hot banks also did a number.  Many passengers took out their mobile phones to take photos and videos.

Afterwards, you can go to any website and you will be able to find the Nanjing Number 2 Subway Line pole dance videos.  People asked who the two "steel pole sisters" are.  "Wow!  They look professional enough!  Who are they!"  "Hey, they're both pretty!"  "Did they plan this together?"  But careful netizens made a comparison of the two videos and decided that it was one and the same person.  "The two dancers are very similar in physique, hairstyle and dance moves.  Especially the leg splits which are completely identical.  Also they were both wearing the same red-black high-hell shoes."  These shoes would provide the clue wherein netizens located more information about the mysterious woman.  At the 2010 Nanjing Auto Show, one of the car models wore those same shoes!

So why did Sister Steel Pole dance in the subway?  Was it a personal show or a planned marketing campaign?  There are two conjectures on the Internet.  According to the first conjecture, Sister Steel Pole is the trainer at a certain dance club and she did it to promote the club.  According to the second conjecture, it was the subway operator which planned this promotional gimmick in order to draw attention to the number 2 subway line.  However, authorities there have vehemently rejected the second conjecture.  "For us, anyone who buys a ticket can ride in the subway.  If a passenger wants to something, it is up to him/her.  But a pole dance may result in injury to the dancer or other passengers, or damage to the pole which is the same as those designed for pole dancing.  Therefore, we advise people not to do so."

Some people were displeased with the show put on by Sister Steel Pole, because it is lacking in refined taste.  But other people welcomed her.  "I thought that she danced well.  She did not interfere with other people.  Why not let her show her art?"  Another netizen wrote that he thought that Nanjing is lacking in "humor" and "mood" but Sister Steel Pole has show how performance art can be exhibited in the subway system.

 

Recently the sex photos of Ru Qiling has been re-hot on the Internet.  All that happened when a taxi driver found a mobile telephone.  There were 39 videos stored in the telephone featuring the female television hostess Ru Qiling.  Amazingly, the sexy videos featured different men and are least 20 minutes long.  This taxi dirver then posted 9 photos that were captured from the videos.

Subsequently, the Hong Kong tabloid magazine Next Weekly featured the story on its front page.  Mainland Internet users can neither buy nor access this magazine on the Internet.  So they will just have to make do with this front cover as well as a reprint of the inside story.

So far, this seems to be just another one of those "celebrity sexy photo gates."

But this is not what it seems at all.

First of all, who is Ru Qiling?  Nobody in Hong Kong has a clue.  A female television hostess?  Nobody has seen her on television.

Next, you take a look at the magazine cover.  This appears to be Issue 1043.  But in Issue 1043 of the real Next Magazine, the front page story is about a former Mr. Hong Kong who left a mobile phone in a taxi and the contents (including sexy videos) were leaked onto the Internet.  If you just swapped out the photo of Mr. Hong Kong with this Ru Qiling person and change some headlines, you can the other magazine cover.

So who is responsible for this Internet spoof?  Well, the fake magazine cover actually lists the "ONS social network" together with a website URL.  So the whole thing was just a promotional gimmick.  And Ru Qiling may not even exist.

In May this year, the Guangdong police opened up police microblogs for 21 cities in the province.  After one month, the total number of page views was just over 90,000.  This caused some to question why the police bothered to set up microblogs.  But on the day before yesterday, the police ran a live broadcast of a standoff between the police and an armed man.  259,000 page views were registered for this one incident.  Although the information was updated only slowly, and the content and expressing are still very much "officialese," this was an innovation that drew positive reviews.

According to information, the suspect named Chen Guosheng was a compulsive gambler.  Over the past few months, he has mental problems.  Each time he lost money in gambling, he scrawled warnings like "Gambling is bad for you" on walls.  On the day before yesterday, Chen wielded guns and grenades in his apartment.  The standoff lasted ten hours, during which Chen shot a policeman, he also lobbed a grenade that failed to explode, police snipers fired at Chen,  police tossed tear gas grenades into the apartment, police dynamited the apartment door and rushed in to shoot Chen dead.

 

 

This incident took place yesterday afternoon at Building 15, Jinlun Garden, Wenzhou city.  This is an upscale neighborhood.  On the second floor of the building, the owner reared two Tibetan mastiffs each weighing at least 100 kilograms.  These two Tibetan mastiffs which resembled two lions cast fear among the other residents.

At just past 7pm on May 30, it was almost dark already.  Ms. Sun was returning home after doing some shopping.  Suddenly, one Tibetan mastiff came down on the bamboo construction stairwell and attacked her.  She put up her hands to defend herself but she was no match.  Her husband Mr. Wang quickly came up and tried to pull the Tibetan mastiff off.  But the other Tibetan mastiff quickly came up and dug its teeth into his right arm.  A security guard showed up with a stun gun but did not dare to do anything.

The fight continued for five minutes before the owner of the Tibetan mastiffs appeared.  But those two Tibetan mastiffs paid no heed to the orders from their owner.  The owner had to use force to pull them off.  By that time, Ms. Sun was covered with blood.  She was sent to the hospital where her condition was regarded as serious.

Her younger sister said: "My sister has two kids: one 3 years old, one several months old."  The younger sister is taking over childcare after this attack.

At around 10pm, the police came and took the two Tibetan mastiffs down to the police station.  The owner dragged the very unwilling Tibetan mastiffs into the police van.

But when the police van reached the district gate, the residents blocked the way.  "There were almost one thousand persons.  The line was as long as 50 to 60 meters," said resident Mr. Lim.

"You rear Tibetan mastiffs which can only hurt people."  "Vicious dogs are not allowed in this neighborhood.  If they got crazy, they might attack small children.  Let's dispose of them right now!"  The residents were filled with rage.

At 0:15am, the neighborhood property management found iron cages and put the Tibetan mastiffs inside.  A hundred residents hauled the cages down by the Yangjiaqiao River.  The two Tibetan mastiffs seemed to have sensed their doom and began to weep.

The resident tossed the cages into the river and let the Tibetan mastiffs drown.

By that time, the raging crowd calmed down.  The resident pulled the cages back up, confirmed that the Tibetan mastiffs were dead and then they dispersed.

Yesterday, the owner of the Tibetan mastiffs went to the hospital to visit Ms. Sun.  The female owner grabbed Ms. Sun's hand and said repeatedly: "I am so sorry!  I am so sorry!"

According to the owner of the Tibetan mastiffs, they have those mastiffs for just a year.  Normally, the mastiffs are kept inside the home.  But a bamboo stairwell was recently erected in order to repair the water tower, and the Tibetan mastiffs took the opportunity to come down and attacked Ms. Sun and Mr. Wang.

According to one resident, they have been complaining about these Tibetan mastiffs without result.  In March this year, the bigger Tibetan mastiff had bitten a mover.  The owner paid more than 2,000 yuan in compensation in that case.

The property management had asked the owner of the Tibetan mastiffs to control her pets.  However, the property management did not enforce the law to remove the Tibetan mastiffs by force.

Zhai Tiantian, or TJ as he was called by his friends, was a regular graduate student here at Stevens Institute of Technology before he was arrested on charges of making terroristic threats to the school. Now he sits in the Hudson County Correctional Facility, awaiting his trial and possible deportation, and his case has unexpectedly caught the eye of international press outlets, whose coverage, according to Institute officials, has blown the case out of proportion.

On April 15, Zhai called into the Howe Center Desk and made a verbal threat to burn down one of the campus buildings. The dispatcher reported this threat to the police, who found the threat to be credible and arrested Zhai later that day said Michael Schinelli, Assistant Vice President of Graduate Marketing and Communications. Since Zhai is a foreign national, a Chinese citizen, the police also informed the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that they would be making an arrest. The DHS then independently made a decision as to their involvement, and aided campus police with the arrest. There will be a grand jury hearing for Zhai on June 1, when some members of the administration will be testifying. Campus police would not confirm which campus building was threatened in Zhai's call.

Zhai matriculated at Stevens in 2003 and received his Bachelor of Engineering in Civil Engineering and his Master of Engineering in Systems. He was pursuing a Ph.D. in Enterprise Systems at the time of his suspension. Schinelli described Zhai as "well-Americanized and integrated into the Stevens community." The first complaints about Zhai began in February of this year, when members of the Stevens community raised concerns about Zhai's behavior in academics and the workplace. Around early March, Zhai began showing alarming behavior. Stevens officials had an official meeting with Zhai on March 9 to discuss his behavior. An investigation concluded that Zhai's behavior violated the Stevens student code of conduct, though Schinelli could not comment upon the specific infractions because of student privacy laws. Stevens determined that Zhai's behavior was putting other students in jeopardy, and on March 11 he was indefinitely suspended from the school. Zhai appealed the suspension, but the appeal was turned down.

Days earlier on March 5, Zhai was visiting Manhattan to see someone affiliated with NYU. On March 10, he was arrested by the NYPD for aggravated harassment in the second degree connected to events that transpired on March 5. Joseph Stahley, Assistant Vice President of Student Life, clarified that Zhai's suspension was unrelated to this arrest by the NYPD and was a result of a series of events that transpired here on campus alone.

According to media outlets, Zhai denies the charges against him and says he never mentioned destroying campus buildings to anyone. He sees the arrest as an attempt by the Institute to deal with his questioning of the school's authority. Before his suspension, Zhai claims that he had argued with a professor over his academics. In addition, he also previously spoke out against the Institute in a TV interview, threatening to sue the school for discrimination. Hai Ming, Zhai's government-appointed lawyer, said "[t]his is probably the real reason why the school is dealing with him this way."

Zhai's story is notable because it has been taken up by international media who, according to Schinelli, are misreporting the details. China Daily, for example, has reported that Zhai was arrested for charges of terrorism. According to their website, "Zhai has been accused of trying to set fire to a campus building and of making threats to one of his professors with whom he had a disagreement."

However, Schinelli says that these are not the facts of the case. Schinelli said Zhai is charged with making terroristic threats, not with being a terrorist. "Making a terroristic threat is not the same as being accused of being a terrorist. It covers a broad range of offenses and threats…We're not sure what was pushed out there that generated what's probably a hard to believe story in this country. Over [in China], it certainly seems plausible that someone might be thrown in jail because they disagreed with a professor. [It's]...not anything that would happen over here in real life. That's obviously not how things work in an American university."

Schinelli does not know where the source of this misinformation came from but noted that it could either be coming from Zhai himself or China's government-controlled media. Schinelli says it's hard to tell whether the false story was purposefully orchestrated or if the new sources were simply misinformed. Since the story broke, several Chinese press outlets have contacted Schinelli for Stevens' side of the story, and Schinelli has corrected several of their reports. One press outlet thanked him for the corrections and reprinted their story. They even stated that Chinese readers were interested in Stevens side of the story. Other sources such as NJ.com and the Associated Press have contacted Schinelli as well.

Schinelli said that they chose not to publicize the arrest in order to avoid embarrassment for both Zhai and the school. It was not until foreign press became recently involved that the school began receiving phone calls and emails on the matter. Schinelli said, "We do not want have Mr. Zhai vilified by the media nor do we want [Stevens'] reputation to be affected."

Schinelli said, "We have an incredible international student community here that we value tremendously." He added, "Were hoping that Mr. Zhai can obviously be returned to his family, that he can receive any help that he needs, and we wish him well. But we certainly want to dispel the stories that we've seen in the foreign press."

[ESWN comment:  This is a case which involves cross-cultural communication and the role that bridge blogs play.  According to the above article, the events began in early March this year.  But nobody in China or the Chinese diaspora knew about them until late May.  The first Chinese-language report first appeared in Chinese-language US-based DWnews and was translated by ESWN.  This was a straight translation to point out to English-language readers that this case has drawn attention in China and the Chinese-American community.  At the time, there was no English-language coverage of the case at all.  The ESWN translator has no idea what the rights or wrongs in the case are -- he only tells you what the Chinese readers are reading right now.  You may be one of those insiders who think that they know the truth of which the masses are ignorant about (and we have heard that kind of talk too many times in China), but people out there are forming their opinions about the case based upon what they read.  If you don't tell your side of your story, you can't change their thinking.  A bridge blog can give you some idea about what they are thinking.  What are you going to do to change their thinking?

ESWN followed up the translation of a follow-up report of a prison interview with Zhai Tiantian in which further details were released.  More questions are being raised.  Stevens Institute of Technology has attempted to address the issues with the article above.  They may have satisfied themselves that they have addressed all the questions.  Unfortunately, they are forgetting that they are not out there to satisfy themselves -- they ought to addressing the people who harbor doubts about them.  The cold reality is that these people do not read the Stevens Institute of Technology on any regular basis.  To communicate, you have to reach that audience, which reads the Chinese-language media in China and the Chinese diaspora.  If you have your story to tell, please contact DWnews and other Chinese-language media.]

The crudeness of the Zhejiang Satellite TV dating program <Rushing Towards Magnificent Love> is raising plenty of controversies.

Controversy #1:  Female guest Lou Yao got on stage and immediately declared: "Unless you have tons of money, you can forget about me!"  So Brother Leopard went up to her with the claim that his monthly income is in excess of 1,000,000 yuan.  He also brought along a diamond ring, a car key to a Lamborghini and a bachelor status certificate.  Instantly, the haughty Lou Yao changed her attitude towards Brother Leopard.  She even accepted his proposal of a trial marriage and a male virility test.  In short, she accepted every condition.  As a result, she has been given the title of "super gold digger."

Controversy #2: Ever since the debut of <Rushing Towards Magnificent Love> on May 28, its crassness has been castigated.  The single most controversial figure was the "Angry Radio Man" Wen Feng.  As the resident psychologist, Wen Feng always looks angry and spews forth a lot of angry words without being helpful at all.  Furthermore, the hosts did not appear to be in control of the situation so that the guests and experts are always coming up with the most astounding sayings.

Controversy #3: Although Zhejiang Satellite TV has repeatedly insisted that the guests are not hired guns, the presence of <You May Be The One>'s popular guest Luo Lei on this show raises the voices of doubt sky-high once again.

The Zhejiang Satellite TV producer is saying that the authentic behavior of the guests are exactly what the program needs.  As for all the brash talk, the producer indicated that they are helpless because they have no control.  "As long as they do not violate existing laws and broadcast practice, anything goes.  As for anything else, the production team cannot be held responsible.  If the programme seems to be pre-arranged and scripted, then let us say that we don't want any pre-arrangements.  We want 'authenticity'."

As for the public suspicion that the program is just trying to latch on to a popular trend, the producer said:  "This program is different from the other dating programs in that we get down directly to marriage.  The program hosts discuss mostly about marriage with the guests.  This is very practical."  The producer also denied that they have "hired hands" to boost program ratings.  He insisted that Luo Lei applied to appear on the program on his own, as opposed to any special deal.  "He is actually someone who really wants to have a family of his own.  We will not reject any guest just because he/she appeared previously on a similar program"

The doctoral student Zhai Tiantian at the Stevens Institute of Technology in New Jersey, USA has been accused of making "terroristic threats" and held at the Hudson County Correctional Center for 47 days already.  DWnews wrote him and received this reply on June 1.#006

Here are some excerpts:

As this point, I would like to focus on fighting off the current charge being pressed against me. Long story short: they picked something I said on the phone out of context, pressed “terrorist threat” charge against me. When I asked why, Stevens simply ignored my question, and replied “you should of watch your mouth”, and the Assistant Vice President of Stevens, Joseph Stahley, replied “I have the floor!” which I didn’t understand, he then further elaborated as “it’s an American expression, it means: “I’m in charge!...”

...

…Even the campus police who arrested me, who I have known for years, privately admitted to me that, if he tells me the truth behind my arrest, he would lost his job, to which I replied: “That’s okay, I won’t blame you and I forgive you.

While we seek justice, I would like to keep the collateral damage to a minimum. Knowing the person who I believe to be responsible, I wouldn’t be surprised if he fires a lot of innocent people just to shut their mouths which he already have, from what I was told by friends from the outside.

While 中國領事館 (translation: the Chinese Consulate) further investigate my case, I would suggest the media and caring reporters, such as yourself, to call Stevens institute for an explaination of my arrest, and the reason for denial of my appeal.
Ms. Weatherall --- Vice president, who denied my appeal without explaination, ignored my tution referral request.

Joseph Stahley—Assistant Vice President, who suspended me based on nothing, also whom I believe to abusing his power, issued my arrest with his political influence in Hoboken, and his direct control to all staff in Stevens Campus Police Force....”

On May 28, the Stevens Institute of Technology published a report on the Zhai Tiantian in the campus newspaper.  The report said that on April 15, Zhai Tiantian went to the students affairs office at the Howe Center Desk and said that he wanted to set fire to a campus building.  The school informed the police about this "verbal threat."  According to the newspaper, the police thought that this was a credible threat and therefore arrested Zhai Tiantian.  The assistance vice-president of graduate studies Michael Schinelli said: "We are not sure what took place that caused led to this unbelievable story.  In China, it may be possible for someone to be sent to prison for having an argument with a professor.  But this could not possibly happen in American reality."

But on April 15, Zhai Tiantian was arrested by the local police deputy chief, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Stevens Tech campus police.

With respect to the Tiananmen incident of June 4th, 1989:

The Beijing students did the right thing
56%: Yes
18%: No

The Chinese government did the right thing
14%: Yes
68%: No

There should be a reversion of the official stand
61%: Yes
23%: No

With respect to human right conditions in China:

China's human right condition has improved since 1989
78%: Yes
  5%: No

China's human right condition would improve 3 years from now
48%: Yes
10%: No

Hong Kong people have a responsibility to instigate democracy in China
75%: Yes
17%: No

Hong Kong people have a responsibility to instigate economic development in China
78%: Yes
17%: No

Hong Kong people should put more effort into
37%: instigating economic development in mainland China
32%: instigating democracy in mainland China

China should emphasize more on...
46%: economic development
31%: democratic development

(Southern Metropolis Daily)  June 1, 2010.

(Apple Daily)

... At first sight, there was nothing special.  However, one of those cartoons was no child's play because it crossed one of the sternest forbidden taboos in Chinese politics.  In this cartoon, a child has just drawn a cartoon in the school journal (issue number one, May 1985).  There are three tanks in a row, with one person (namely, a soldier with a gun) leading in front.  On the top left corner, there is a flame just like in the Statue of Liberty.  Many people will remember immediately the scene in which Wang Weilin stood in front of the tanks twenty-one years ago.  This photo was almost instantly deleted from the Southern Metropolis Daily website.

 

Other people were able to detect more hidden messages in those cartoons:


In this cartoon, the boy on the right wears a sport uniform with the number 53.  Since 53 + 11 = 64, this proves the whole thing is about June 4th.  Another cartoon has a teacher showing how to do arithmetic on the blackboard: 1 + 3 = 4.  Therefore, this is also about June 4th.

Another cartoon has a student painter drawing a landscape.  There is a red sun on the top right corner.  The painter holds two paint brushes in his hand, forming a cross.  Once again, this is a disapproval of the Red Sun (=Ma Zedong).  The white cloud on the left looks like a raised middle finger and the white cloud on the right looks like a vagina, so this is saying "Fuck you!"  Yet another one shows a PLA soldier saluting in front of the Chinese national flag.  However, the caption reads "At the time, I was just scrawling" and that is another insult.

This leads to discussions about intentions and consequences.

With respect to intentions, neither the cartoonist nor anyone from the Southern Metropolis Daily has said anything so far.  You can look at the cartoons above and decide whether you agree those readings or not.  Each person can reach his/her own conclusions.  Indirectly, Southern Metropolis Daily has indicated that people are misreading and over-reading those cartoons.  As a result, Southern Metropolis Daily has deleted those cartoons from its Internet editions.

What about the consequences?  Whether the cartoonist or Southern Metropolis Daily intended these cartoons to carry those messages or not, there may be consequences.

In September 2009, <New Express> (Guangzhou) published a cartoon of "Hu Jintabo moved to tears."  That cartoonist was supposed to have been ordered to cease drawing for a month in order to conduct "self-reflection."

For the cartoonist here, it may lead to "self-criticism" or even a permanent work ban; for the section editor, the editor on duty, the chief editor and the publisher, it may mean "self-criticism," re-assignment, demotion or even dismissal for either dereliction of duty or participation in a conspiracy.  Please bear in mind that none, one or more parties may be in on this conspiracy but the others will be innocent collateral damage.

Here is an exchange:

A: There is no conclusive evidence to suppose that the cartoonist and/or Southern Metropolis Daily intended all these implied messages.  If they really intended to do so, they would have come out by now and told people that such were their intentions.  They have not done so yet.  (Or perhaps the cartoonist knew it but the Southern Metropolis Daily editors did not, but now they are all in this together.)  If they never intended anything like this, it will be upon your conscience for getting them into trouble that they don't deserve.  This is particularly tragic as the Southern Metropolis Daily is considered the bastion of liberalism in China.  Why would the wholesale firing of their current staff and replacement with party apparatchiks be good?

B: If the cartoonist, the section editor, the editor on duty, the chief editor and the publisher get into trouble for these cartoons (whether or not they intended the messages or not), we are not the ones to be blamed.  Please do not shoot the messenger.  If you want to blame anyone, you should blame the Communist dictators who will not permit freedom of expression and press.

A: Indeed, this is the modus operandi of you freedom fighters.  You put words into people's mouths, get them into trouble and then you have your next set of martyr heroes to score your political points.  You don't care what happens to the cartoonist and the Southern Metropolis Daily.  In fact, you want them to suffer horribly to the maximum degree just so you can make your points.

B: How dare you impute that I am putting words into people's mouths!?  How dare you suppose that I want people to suffer just to score points!?  You act as if you know the truth when you know nothing yourself.

A: It is supreme irony that you are charging me with imputing your motives!  You had no compunction in imputing motives behind the cartoons without any basis.  Yet you object to others imputing your motives.  You reap what you sow.  You can't have it both ways.  Now that I have had my say, you can start imputing motives on me: fifty-cent gang, freedom-hater, anti-CNN chauvinist pig ...

Yesterday we reported that the Linxian County (Shanxi) government closed down all the cybercafes within the county.  Certain Internet users and local residents said that the cybercafes were closed on the eve of the university/high school entrance examinations.  Our report drew a lot of comments.  The Linxian County Cultural Bureau told our reporter that cybercafes were being re-organized and not because of the exams.  However, the Linxian County government website had a article titled <Linxian launches surprise clean-up campaign for the cybercafe market to make way for a better study-exam environment>.  That article has been removed from the website since then.

According to a cybercafe owner, the Linxian county television station had aired a program in which it was said that "the cybercafes will be cleaned up just like criminal organizations in Chongqing."

"This is just a normal re-organization of the cybercafes.  We want to regulate them."  Linxian Cultural Bureau director Zhang Jinsheng told our reporter yesterday afternoon.  Zhang said that the cybercafes have been closed down, but it had nothing to do with the university/high school entrance exams.  The Cultural Bureau then sent a copy of <Opinion on the closing/re-organization of commercial cybercafes>.  The opinion was that surprise inspections have found that "the various cybercafe operations failed to check ID or register real names; admitted juveniles; permitted smoking; etc.  Based upon feedback from the masses, the decision was to order all cybercafes in the county to close down and re-organize."  This opinion also stated, "After serious re-organization to the satisfaction of the relevant departments, the cybercafes may re-open for business."

Some Linxian county cybercafe operators disagree with this explanation from the Cultural Bureau.  Many operators told out reporter that their understanding of the situation was different.  Since the government did not specify how long the "re-organization" would last, they asked around and learned that there was virtually no likelihood of re-opening until after the high school exams are over.

According to the article <Linxian launches surprise clean-up campaign for the cybercafe market to make way for a better study-exam environment>, county mayor Zhang Jianguo held a late night emergency meeting on May 25 to lay out the plan: "The university/high school entrance exams are approaching.  Cybercafe operations must be regulated further in order to maintain order in the cultural market and provide a good study-preparation environment for exam candidates."

Linxiang County had formed a surprise inspection team led by the deputy mayor, the deputy secretary of the party disciplinary committee and the director of the Audit Bureau.  Based upon the post-inspection report, the main problem is that the cybercafe users did not have their ID's registered.

"My cybercafe had no other problems except for the fact that not everybody was registered."  One cybercafe owner whose facility was inspected said.  "The main problem is that the government had been ineffective against the illegal cybercafes.  Legal cybercafes like ours have very few problems.  During the exam periods, we close at 10pm on our own in order not to affect the exam candidates."

There are six licensed cybercafes in Linxian county.  For convenience, they are all located in the Food Courtyard.  There are several dozen illegal cybercafes in Linxian, many of whom only have several computers.

With an anticipated shutdown lasting more than a month, the cybercafe owners figured that they will lose at more than 10,000 yuan in income.  They will not receive any compensation.

65-year-old Chen Youming was a member of the Chinese National Table Tennis team in the 1960's.  In 1961, the 26th World Table Tennis Championships were held in Beijing.  China assembled a team of 108 top table tennis players to train and prepare.  This team won many championships there.  Premier Zhou Enlai called these 108 generals the "foundation for China to flourish in table tennis over the next 50 years."

On May 21, Chen Youming, his wife and his son joined a 4-days/3-nights tourist group to Hong Kong.  Reportedly, it was his late life wish "to see Hong Kong."  He had joined an economy tourist group which was handled by Win's Travel in Hong Kong.  The tour guide was unlicensed: "The tour guide was a free-lancer who took on this assignment.  She had been working for Win's Travel for one month.  The manager who hired her did not verify her status."  This tourist guide is her 40's and comes from the mainland.

On that day, this tourist guide borrowed someone else' credentials.  After Chen Youming's demise, this tourist guide has vanished (possibly returned to mainland).  According to industry sources, some travel agencies deliberately hire mainlanders to work as tour guides.  "They are especially vicious in ripping tourists off.  If anything happens, they go back to the mainland.  The travel agency has less responsibility."

At around noon on May 22, the unlicensed tour guide took the group to JW Jewellry Outlet Limited at the Peninsula Plaza in Hung Hom district.  According to the surveillance video and the statements from the store workers, Chen Youming looked around for a whiled and then walked outside to read a newspaper.  Half an hour later, the tour guide called Chen Youming back into the shop.  When Chen wanted to exit again, there was an argument with the tour guide.  The tour leader also joined in the argument.  Chen was believed to have fainted from the excitement.  The store workers summoned an ambulance to take Chen to the hospital, where he was pronounced dead.

The key to the incident is the content of the verbal dispute.  At least two industry sources told our newspaper that the tour guide scolded Chen Youming for not making any purposes.  Chen rebutted: "I came with the tour group only to see Hong Kong."  The tour guide said: "This is a shopping group, so you must make purchases."  The tour guide attempted to prevent Chen Youming from exiting the store and a dispute ensued.

On May 24, Chen's family lodged a complaint with the Travel Industry Council of Hong Kong.  They stated directly that they were not satisfied with the attitude of that tour guide.  The Council contacted the relevant tour guide, who denied ever leading that group.  The tour guide has filed a police complaint about her credentials being stolen and misused.

 

Ms. Ouyang of Wuchang city complained to our newspaper yesterday that when she tried to use Baidu to search for the China Southern Airlines website, the top three results were scam websites.

Yesterday our reporter got on Baidu to search for "China Southern Airlines website" and then he clicked on the top three search results.  The weird thing is that all three websites have very similar looking pages, except that they have different telephone reservation numbers with the 400 prefix.  Strangely enough, the online reservation system at all three websites were being upgraded so that customers had to dial the telephone numbers.

Our reporter called the customer service number for the top search result, which was labeled as "China Southern Airlines ticket reservation website" with "discounts as high as 90%."  There was a lot of background noise on the receiving side as if many people were talking at the same time.  The man who took the call declined to accept PayPal, Online Bank and other methods.  He demanded instead cash payment through ATM machines, cash transfers, etc.  Our reporter also called the next top search result ("China Southern Airlines ticket reservation website") and was also asked to transfer cash.

Our reporter then dialed the 95339 customer service number for China Southern Airlines.  The customer service representative said that the company has only one website (http://www.csair.com), that they only use the 95339 number and definitely no number with the 400 prefix, and that they have also received customer complaints about reaching fake China Southern Airlines websites through search engine result, transferring money for ticket purchases and received nothing.

Our reporter found that many of the fake websites had similarly sounding names (such as www.casier.com, www.400csair.com, etc).  If you are not careful, you can be easily tricked.  These scam websites do not provide online reservation; they do not allow the more secure PayPal, Online Bank, etc; they want people to call them and provide information about their names, ID numbers, bank account information, etc.  The information may be used in additional fraudulent activities.

How is it possible that the scam websites could outrank the actual website in search results?  Our reporter found that the top three websites are participating in the "Baidu popularization program."  Our reporter called up the Baidu agent in Wuhan city.  The worker there said that if you pay Baidu 3,600 yuan, you can get your website to show up near the top.

After this news story showed up, the scam China Southern Airlines websites have been shut down.  For example, www.400csair.com now shows a message page about website shutdown:


[Sorry!  We are unable to find the website that you want to visit.  This is likely due to the following reasons:

(1) Your website has been permanently shut down due to information content that:

(1) contravenes the basic principles of the constitution;
(2) endangers national security; leaks state secrets; subverts state authority; disrupts national unity;
(3) endangers national honor and interests;
(4) incites ethnic hatred and discrimination; disrupts ethnic unity;
(5) disrupts state religious policies; advocates evil cults and feudal superstition;
(6) disseminates rumors; disrupts social order; destroys social stability;
(7) disseminates obscenity, pornography, gambling, violence, murder, terrorism and otherwise incites to commit crime;
(8) insults or libels others; invades the legal rights of other persons;
(9) contains other contents not allowed by laws and administrative rules.

(2) You website contains information (such as news, publishing, medical curing, health maintenance, medicine, medical equipment, culture, audio-visual programs) that require screening or permission to provide electronic bulletin service.  Please contact the relevant departments to complete the procedures before your website can be opened.

(3) Your website has been temporarily shut down for other reasons.  Please contact customer service for detailed information.]

Related Link: BP Buys 'Oil' Search Terms to Redirect Users to Official Company Website  Huffington Post

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