(v2.0)
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Section 2 of 3: Brief comments
(Hong Kong Journalists Association)
The HKJA condemns the Chengdu police for the violent interference with the reporting of Hong Kong Journalists. Such brutal acts by the police are indefensible under any circumstances. By such actions the Chengdu police suppressed the right of Hong Kong reporters to report on the case.
As the HKJA understands it, the Hong Kong reporters arrived early outside the court building and started to gather news. They were closely monitored by the police. But before the hearing began, numerous policemen came out from the court and violently forced the reporters to enter an office inside the building.
The police clashed with the reporters and some reporters were slightly injury. Reporters were held separately in separate rooms. The reporters were released 30 minutes after the verdict was handed down. This operation aimed at deterring the news reporting of the case.
The HKJA urges the Hong Kong and Macao Affairs Office (HKMAO) of the State Council and the All-China Journalists Association (ACJA) to follow up and explain this case. All detained reporters carried the Press Card issued by the Mainland authorities. Nevertheless, the court police still accused the journalists of “illegal reporting”.
According to the rule of the Press Card, journalists can report news without interference in China except in prohibited zones. This rule has been implemented for over a year, but the court police still accused the reporters of not informing the court before reporting news. This excuse is a ridiculous joke. It shows that the HMAO and the ACJA failed in their duty by neglecting to explain to the police the implementation of this policy.(NOW news)
Yesterday morning at 9:30am, a relaxed looking Li Zhuang was escorted into the courtroom by court police. Based upon his expression, he seemed to be full of confidence about the verdict today.
As the verdict was read out, Li Zhuang was closely attentive. When he heard that he would be sentenced to 18 months, he jumped up and grabbed the microphone to yell out: "I pretended to plead guilty during the second trial. The relevant departments in Chongqing came to the detention centre and promised me that I would get a suspended sentence if I pleaded guilty. But you sentenced to serve actual jail time. You broke your promise."
According to defense lawyer Gao Zicheng, the situation went out of control for a moment. Several court police officers restrained Li Zhuang.
Li Zhuang yelled out that the prosecutor came to see him in the detention centre and did the following.
Firstly, the procuratorate wantedLi Zhuang to plead guilty during the second trial and show a good attitude without causing trouble for the prosecutors.
Secondly, the procuratorate wanted Li Zhuang not to use Gao Zicheng and Chen Youxi as his defense lawyers in order to make the trial go more smoothly.
Thirdly, if Li Zhuang does not change his defense lawyers, then the procuratorate should ask the defense lawyer to change the not-guilty plea to a leniency plea.
Li Zhuang yelled out in court: "How many martyrs have written confessions, but it did not affect their martyrdom ... I hope that the 160,000 lawyers in China will continue to proclaim my innocent on the outside ..."
After the verdict, our reporter interviewed his defense lawyer immediately. On December 31, 2009 and January 15, 2010, the defense lawyer went to see Li Zhuang at the Chongqing detention centre.
"During the two meetings, Li Zhuang was high-spirited. He wanted us to fight all the way at all costs. He said that he wouldn't plead guilty even if it meant serving jail time. But when the court trial began, Li Zhuang suddenly pleaded guilty. This surprised and shocked the defense lawyers. After the second trial recessed, I went to see Li Zhuang at the detention centre. I asked him why he pleaded guilty. Li Zhuang told me that several days before the trial, two persons from the Chongqing government had gone down to see him separately at the detention centre. However, Li Zhuang was tight-lipped about the substance of that conversation. He said that it was a secret that cannot be disclosed."
The defense lawyer believed that the two conversations affected Li Zhuang greatly and gave him tremendous pressure so that he pleaded guilty at the second trial.
Q1. The Hong Kong SAR government published a consultative document about the elections of the Chief Executive and the Legislative Council in 2012. How well do you know about the associated discussion?
9%: A lot
15%: Half-half
70%: A little
6%: Don't know/hard to sayQ2. Concerning the 2012 Chief Executive election, there is some opinion of increasing the size of the Electoral Committee from 800 to 1,2000 including 100 directly elected District Councilors. The minimum requirement for Chief Executive nomination is 1/8 (or 150 out of 1,200). Do you support or oppose this recommendation?
41%: Support
9%: Half-half
31%: Oppose
18%: Don't know/hard to sayQ3. Concerning the 2012 Legislative Council election, there is some opinion of having five more directly elected seats and five more seats from among District Councilors while holding all the other seats the same. Do you support or oppose this recommendation?
39%: Support
10%: Half-half
32%: Oppose
19%: Don't know/hard to sayQ4. Five Legislative Councilors from the League of Social Democrats and the Civic Party have resigned in order to use the by-elections as a de facto referendum to express public opinion about the constitutional reforms. Do you support or oppose their action?
27%: Support (26% on January 11-13, 2010)
9%: Half-half (12% on January 11-13, 2010)
58%: Oppose (50% on January 11-13, 2010)
6%: Don't know/hard to say (14% on January 11-13, 2010)Q5. If the Legislative Councilor who resigned from your district enters the by-election, will you re-elect him/her to the Legislative Council?
33%: Yes (36% on November 28 to December 4, 2009)
55%: No (49% on November 28 to December 4, 2009)
12%: Don't know/hard to say (16% on November 28 to December 4, 2009)
Beijing-based lawyer Li Zhuang has admitted to the charge of giving false evidence at the second trial of his case at a court in southwest China's Chongqing Municipality on Tuesday.
Ten minutes into the trial, Li Zhuang told the judge at the Chongqing No.1 Intermediate People's Court that he will withdraw his appeal to the verdict issued in the first trial, which he said was based on clear facts and substantial evidence.In response to his defending lawyer Chen Youxi's inquiry, Li said he understood the consequences of the withdrawal and admitted to the charge of giving false evidence. He was also charged with obstructing a witness.
In addition, Li Zhuang also read from a written final statement which consists of six points (Beijing Youth Daily):
一、被刑事拘留以来，对我的思想触动很大，在各级组织各级领导的耐心教育下，我逐渐认识到了自己的所作所为玷污了律师的职责，缺失了一名法律工作者应有的职业道德基础。
二、比较其他民事代理人，刑事辩护人更应该顾大局、识大体，与党中央保持一致。今后我要努力学习，彻底诀别过去。
三、认真反思（这里我要插一句话，我确确实实没有说过龚刚模被樊奇航敲诈，只说他被黑社会敲诈——记者注：这是李庄针对公诉人的一个说法的解释），龚刚模案，浪费了极其宝贵的司法时间，属于思想不纯立场不坚。
四、罪行法定，这是基本原则。作为法律工作者应注重事实、法律研究，不应偏听偏信，甚至在大是大非面前执迷不决。
五、缓慢的思想转变，为此付出了沉重的代价，也为今后的人生吸取了丰富经验。我要吸取教训，追求未来应有的精神境界。
六、《刑法》的宗旨是惩罚罪犯保护人民，我将永远牢记在心。这也是公民应遵守的基本准则。今后无论如何我将为社会做积极贡献。希望二审慎重对待我的上诉。This statement has become the subject of a very "close" reading. There is no need for me to translate these six points, because that is not where the controversy lies. Instead, the key are the first and last words of these six statements.
First, if you string out the first words: 被比认罪缓刑, you get "forced to plead guilty in return for a suspended sentence." Then, if you string out the last words: 础去坚决界诉, you get "once outside, I will resolutely expose this."
Is this over-reading? But what is the likelihood of pure coincidence?
But before you get to this, is this even what he really said in court? After all, this is only a transcript of what he said and did not come directly from him. Did someone make this one in order to make a point even if it will be highly prejudicial to Li Zhuang himself?
On October 7, 2007, Internet communications in the Jinqiao district, Macheng city was suddenly broken. After recovering "automatically," sporadic interruptions continued to occur over the next three days. The Ministry of Telecommunications tried to find the answer.
At that moment, the cybercafe owner Zhao Shuting reported to the Macheng police: "We received a note. The other party said that your cybercafe goes off line frequently because we did this to you and not because of any telecommunication problem. But if you buy our software, your cybercafe will be able to operate normally. If you don't, I can paralyze your cybercafe. The other party asked for 8,000 yuan."
The provincial public security bureau and the Huanggang city public security bureau's Internet supervisory squad quickly joined the investigation. The police believed that the attacker may well be a user at that cybercafe and they were right as they arrested a man named Gao.
Gao admitted that he was dissatisfied with the cybercafe owner and asked the netizen nicknamed "Black Pretty Point" to launch a cyber-attack on the cybercafe. The police then went to Jinan city in Shandong province in search of "Black Pretty Point." But they missed him on several occasions. Finally, in April 2008, "Black Pretty Point" was apprehended.
The police found out that "Black Pretty Point" was not just a computer hobbyist who wanted to play pranks. Instead, he was a sales representative for a "trojan horse chain."
So the police followed the leads provided by "Black Pretty Point" and went four times to Shijiazhuang and five times to Guangzhou/Shenzen. They arrested "Black Pretty Point"s upper link "The Moment When The Snow Fell" and the downward link "Good Mood" and exposed the complete "trojan horse chain."
"Black Pretty Point" is a 22-year-old man named Han. At the time of the crime, he mobilized several dozen "zombie" computers to attack the cybercafe in Macheng. Each attack lasted 5 to 10 minutes. The attack went on for two and a half days. The computer virus that controlled the "zombies" were supplied by "The Moment When The Snow Fell." The latter is a 20-year-old man named Yang who is well known for writing trojan horse software such as "Little Mice" and "Persistent Downloader." "Black Pretty Point" was the sales representative for "The Moment When The Snow Fell," being responsible for the distribution, sales and representation. "Good Mood" is a man named Li who was many responsible for running the trojan horse software to steal people's QQ accounts and online game user ID's to resell for profit.
In October 2007, "Black Pretty Point" got acquainted with "The Moment When The Snow Fell" and offered 500 yuan to buy hacker software. "The Moment When The Snow Fell" spent one week to write the "Little Mice" trojan horse software and handed it over to "Black Pretty Point."
"The Moment When The Snow Fell" also wrote other trojan horse software such as "Persistent Downloader" and "Anger Suppression Test," charging anywhere between several hundred yuan to ten thousand yuan. In order to prevent anti-virus software from erasing the trojan horse virus, "The Moment When The Snow Fell" also provided updates at 1,000 yuan per month maintenance fee. Within six months, "The Moment When The Snow Fell" earned 190,000 yuan.
"Black Pretty Point" earned more than 200,000 yuan in less than six months. But the people under him earned every more. Since the "zombie" computers can be accessed at will, they represent endless wealth. At the hacker websites, "zombies" are openly sold from as low as 0.1 yuan to 1,000 yuan each. Once a hacker purchases a "zombie," he can steal all the bank accounts, game accounts, passwords, game equipment, game currency, QQ currency and so on. These are then resold to "sales people."
It is also possible to use the "zombie" machines to boost up traffic volume for advertisement revenue and website rankings. Conversely, "zombie" machines can be used to extort small- and medium-sized enterprises to pay "protection money."
According to the China Computer Network Emergency Technical Centre, the trojan horse industry generated more than 238 million yuan in revenue while causing 7.6 billion yuan in damages.
After the police cracked the Macheng case, they found out that the three criminals were members of the "Black Hawk Security Network." The police then spent the next six months obtaining more evidence and making preparations. On November 26, 2009, more than 50 police officer raided Black Hawk Security Network locations in Wenzhou (Zhejiang), Huangshan (Anhui), Luihe and Xuchang (Henan). The police arrested the three ringleaders, froze more than 1.7 million yuan in assets and took away 9 servers and 5 computers. The website was shut down.
According to the investigation, two Henan male Li and Zhang started the Black Hawk Technology Limited Company in March 2006. The website "Black Hawk Security Net" then became the biggest hacker training website in all of China.
The website generates revenue through membership fees. In return, members receive training in hacker techniques. The website also provides several thousand different trojan horse viruses for members to download. Since 2005, the website has more than 12,000 paying members and more than 170,000 regular members. Membership dues totaled more than 7 million yuan.
Li and Zhang were formally arrested on December 31, 2009. "Black Pretty Point" and the instigator of the Macheng attack named Gao have already been sentenced to 2 and 3 years in jail respectively.
Yesterday, it was confirmed that our city will have a female traffic police squad, even though they have not made an appearance yet. According to insiders, this squad is in the process of being formed and it is still undecided when they will appear.
According to information, the female traffic police squad was selected first on the basis of physique and education. Our reporter learned that all of them have bachelor degrees, and some even have masters degrees. They are all taller than 165cm (and at least half of them are taller than 170cm). They all look youthful and dynamic. They are all good drives.
The Chongqing police has also showered special favors on this female traffic police squad. Apart from bright uniforms, they will also provide modern equipment. According to our understanding, the female traffic police squad will drive world-class Lamborghini, Bentley, Porsche, Mercedes-Benz and BMW vehicles.
(File photo)The report today that the female Chongqing traffic police squad will be driving Lamborghini, Bentley and Mercedes-Benz patrol cars is drawing plenty of attention. The Chongqing city public security bureau deputy director Gao Xiaodong has now stated: This report is inaccurate. The Chongqing traffic police are equipped with Ford Mondeo and Volvo cars that are made locally. The public security bureau is presently trying to hold to those who published this inaccurate report responsible.
Section 3 of 3: Blog posts
(February 3, 2010) Li Zhuang's Second Trial Whereas you might expect lawyer Li Zhuang to talk about freedom, democracy, human rights and rule of law in China, he said something quite unexpected.
(February 2, 2010) Chinese Reporters Jailed For Taking Bribes Companion China Youth Daily piece about the interactions between local government officials and reporters to negotiate "gag" fees for non-coverage of mining disaster.
(February 1, 2010) The Cover-Up Of The Yuxian Mining Disaster A China Youth Daily story about the mental thinking processes of local government officials who want to cover up a mining disaster.
(January 25, 2010) Those Worried Young People Interviews with the CEO's of Blogbus.com, Fanfou, BTChina and Yeeyan.com all of which were blocked in China in 2009.
(January 19, 2010) Two Deaths In Guizhou A policeman shot two farmers dead. Was it execution? Or was it self-defense? The answer depends on which newspaper you read.
(January 18, 2010) "I am just speculating" Translation of a Han Han blog post that speculates on events in China from 2010 to 2020.
(January 17, 2010) Hong Kong Reporters On The Express Rail Link Protest Two Hong Kong reporters wrote blog posts about the anti-Express Rail Link demonstration on the night of January 15, 2010.
(January 16, 2010) Google Search Results On Chinese Subjects A Chinese netizen shows what Google suggests when searching for terms like China, Chinese, Baidu or simple numbers like 1, 6, 8 or 9. Is it a bug? Or a feature?
(January 2, 2010) January 1, 2010 in Hong Kong A round-up of news reports about what happened on New Year's Day, including the demonstration march as well as other front page stories.
(December 31, 2009) Deng Yujiao and the Law A status update for Deng Yujiao, as well as reflections on the roles of the family, the lawyers, the netizens, the media and the government in this famous case.
(December 30, 2009) Top 10 Internet Phrases In China In 2009 As you read and ponder the humor and absurdity behind each phrase, you will recognize that these are the most rational contemplation of reality in China today.
(December 26, 2009) The Top 10 Media Incidents In China During 2009 Translation of a Southern Weekend article about the top 10 media events in China during the year 2009.
(December 24, 2009) The Case of Akmal Shaikh British national Akmal Shaikh is given the death sentence in China for heroin smuggling. Should his mental illness lead to a reprieve?
(December 21, 2009) Internet Crime Gangs Manipulate Public Opinion A CCTV news report on Internet promotion companies that will fabricate and distribute Internet stories for pay. This is the about the commercial side of "50-cent gangsters."
(December 16, 2009) Lawyers In Trouble In Chongqing A gang boss on trial in Chongqing denounces his Beijing lawyer for fabricating evidence and obstructing justice. Is this a case of malfeasance by one lawyer? Or a case of retaliation against human rights lawyers?
(December 13, 009) Sex, Drugs and Government In Fuxin A People's Congress delegate uses his real name to denounce a senior government official for running group sex/drug orgies.
(December 4, 2009) The Chengdu Self-Immolation The female homeowner Tang Fuzhen set herself on fire in the hope of stopping the demolition of her house in Chengdu city.
(November 29, 2009) The Interview With Wu Hao Two essays about Wu Hao, the deputy director of the Yunnan province publicity department with the innovative approach to propaganda.
(November 28, 2009) The Case Of Le Qian Hebei Youth Daily editor Le Qian was assaulted by an unidentified man who told her, "Let's see you report this!"
(November 27, 2009) Public Opinion Polls And The Proposed 'Mini-Referendum' In Hong Kong Is the proposed slate for the 'mini-referendum' via resignation/by-election the optimal one?
(November 23, 2009) Southern Metropolis Daily Coverage of Panyu Garbage Incinerator Protest Live report and photos from the SMD reporter at the scene of the protest against the planned Panyu garbage incinerator plant.
(November 22, 2009) The Top Ten Hollywood Movies That Suck Up To China Here is a list of ten Hollywood movies that pander to the Chinese people in order to siphon off money from their pockets.
(November 21, 2009) Sima Nan Comments On Obama's China Trip Translation of an interview with a Chinese citizen about Obama's China trip.
(November 14, 2009) Han Han Talks Back To TIME Chinese writer-blogger Han Han was interviewed by TIME magazine and then interviewed by Beijing Youth Weekend about that interview.
(November 9, 2009) Is Dialogue Possible? These are my prepared remarks at the 2009 CoChina-5, which was scheduled to be the HKbloggerCon-CNbloggerCon online exchange.
(November 7, 2009) Three Teens Drowned In Jingzhou Three reports from Xinhua, Southern Weekend and Tianya Forum about the tragic case of three university students who died while trying save others.
Many, many more previous blog posts in the Blog Post Archive ...
