China: Interesting personalities

[JSCh]

From coal miner to sand fighter: Old man persists in desertification control saying he wants to pay back the earth
(People's Daily Online) 17:45, September 14, 2017

Wang Hengxing, an 81-year-old rich business owner devoted to desertification control has turned a large area of desert in Miaomiao Lake Village, Pingluo County, northwest China’s Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region, into an eco-tourism area.

“All I have done is paid the debt to earth,” said Wang, who has invested all his hard-earned money into the undertaking.

Starting second career in seventies

Wang undertook his second career of deforestation control through planting trees in the 70s. Before then he was head of a coal enterprise with a fortune of over 100 million yuan ($15.3 million).

Despite no initial support from family and the difficult conditions of the desert, he persisted in his career.

The sand fighter unremittingly led people to plant trees, dig irrigation ditches, and lay drip watering pipes in the desert. Years of hard work also consumed his health.

To pay the debt to earth

The Miaomiao Lake Village was covered by a large area of desert in the past, while now it is an eco-tourism area with trees and lakes, offering more than 100 jobs to the locals.

When asked in an interview why he insisted on planting trees in the desert several years ago, Wang noted that he excavated a lot of coal during his lifetime, so he would like to plant as many trees as possible to pay the debt to earth.

Media reports brought him fame, as well as trouble. “You are just finding trouble for yourself. Desertification control is a public cause. Can you pay off the debt on your own?” said some people, especially other coal bosses who did not understand him.

To make things worse, Wang received many threatening phone calls asking for a large amount of money every day during that period of time, but he never gave in to the pressure.

Strong support from his children

Wang often worried that he has left a heavy burden on his children, as he invested more than 210 million yuan, almost all his money, in the career.

However, Wang’s children all understand their father’s good intentions and know that he wants them to achieve success through their own efforts and to repay society as he did.

His children even organized nearly 1,000 employees in their enterprise to help plant trees every April, even if they have to shut down the enterprise for a month.

Certainly, Wang’s career would have ended earlier without his children’s support. What he left them seems like nothing.

Forestation is not a cause that can be achieved once and for all, especially in the dry area of Miaomiao Lake Village, where forestry experts say even trees cannot survive.

Wang, therefore, invested money in building a hydraulic engineering system to draw water from the Yellow River. Even so, the water is not enough for the trees.

He had to adopt drip irrigation and the irrigation tapes need to be replaced every year because of the high temperatures and severe sand and dust storms. It can cost up to 6 million yuan each year to maintain the trees.

Wang used to take the money out from the enterprise to support the career. However, the cost became a burden for the enterprise due to the economic slump in recent years.

Fortunately, desert tourism, the breeding industry, and subsidiary agricultural products of the eco-tourism area are able to offset the financial strain to a certain extent.

Although it is difficult for them to take good care of the trees, Wang’s son said they will not let their father down, as that is the best way for them to show filial piety.

 

[JSCh]

Scientist donates life savings of $1.34 mln to education
2017-10-16 15:10Ecns.cn Editor: Mo Hong'e ECNS App Download

Lu Yonggen, a former professor of South China Agricultural University. (File photo/Xinhua)

(ECNS) -- Lu Yonggen, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, has donated life savings of 8.8 million yuan ($1.34 million) to educational causes, Xinhua reported.

The 87-year -old scientist suffering from cancer says his achievements would not have been possible without the Communist Party of China, and that he is willing to make his last contribution to the country.

In March, Lu and his wife spent an hour and a half transferring all money saved in more than 10 bank accounts to South China Agricultural University to establish an educational fund sponsoring poverty-stricken students and talented young teachers.

Lu worked as president of the former South China Agricultural Academy, now South China Agricultural University. Under his leadership, the university gave priority to research and development, sometimes at Lu's own personal expense.

Lu himself also worked hard in his field of rice genetics, climbing mountains in 2001 at the age of 70 to find wild rice. During the past five years, Lu's team fostered 33 new varieties of rice seeds that are grown on land covering 600,000 hectares.

Although a renowned scientist, Lu lived a simple and humble life, using broken furniture dating back to the 1980s in his home.

The couple has an only daughter, but they decided to donate all their money, saying their daughter is capable enough to care for herself.

Lu's attitudes to work and research has motivated many, said the report.

 

[TaiShang]

Judge goes beyond call of duty to help young offenders

By Agencies – Global Times Source:Agencies – Global Times Published: 2018/1/4 23:28:56 Last Updated: 2018/1/6 7:49:09

A juvenile offender reads a letter in front of his peers in prison. Photo: VCG

In the hearts of many juveniles, Chen Haiyi is more like a "mother" than a judge. Chen, chief judge of the judicial tribunal at Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court, Guangdong Province, has helped more than 1,000 juvenile offenders reject a life of crime in the past 20 years.

Chen, 44, isn't satisfied with just doing her job. Instead, she continues to help juvenile offenders fit into society after they complete their sentences. The juveniles she has helped have never committed crimes after being released from prison, and more than 30 of them have been admitted to college.

"Scrutinizing evidence with a magnifying glass and sentencing juveniles with a caliper" are two working rules that Chen strictly abides by. She also strikes a delicate balance between enforcing the law and providing sympathy.

"Behind every unfortunate child is an unfortunate family. They [children] need tenderness and care from society," Chen told the Guangzhou Daily. "A prodigal child who returns is more precious than gold. I don't want any juvenile offender to be abandoned or left behind."

Chen Haiyi Photo: Screenshot from Guangzhou Intermediate People's Court's Weibo account

Evidence matters

In Guangzhou, Chen once saw a prisoner who had been sentenced to death put the written verdict in his pocket. When she asked him why he did this, the prisoner replied: the verdict has my reason for death, so I can clarify it with my family members in "the next world."

Chen recalled that she was deeply shocked at the time and realized the weight that a verdict carries with criminals.

"I want juvenile offenders to see fairness and justice. I also want them to trust the law," she said.

On one occasion, Chen traveled thousands of miles to a remote village in Zunyi, Guizhou Province, just to verify the exact age of a suspect she had tried.

In that case, the suspect, Xiaohu, was accused of robbing and killing a taxi driver as well as repeated theft. Despite repeated interrogations, Xiaohu refused to give any information, but insisted that he was still a minor when he committed the theft and that the birth date shown in his hukou (household registration) was incorrect.

He said that in the hukou, the local police had documented his birth date according to the Chinese lunar calendar, but according to the solar calendar, he was actually one month short of 18 years of age when he committed the theft.

"Xiaohu committed murder. The theft cases had little impact on the severity of the penalty in his situation. But if he insists the age is wrong, he will mistrust the justice of the law if we don't get it right, which will further influence his admission of guilt and ability to reform," said Chen, who then decided to go to his hometown.

As there were no roads in Xiaohu's hometown, Chen had to climb the mountain on foot. Eventually, she found Xiaohu's grandmother and verified that what he said was true.

Because Xiaohu was still a minor with regard to the theft cases, he was given just a one-year sentence for this crime and reprieve for murder. With the two crimes combined, he had his death sentence suspended, Chen announced. Xiaohu accepted immediately and pleaded guilty in court.

"The court uses facts as evidence. One day more or one day less is unacceptable in a trial," she said.

Back to normality

Chen also devotes lots of energy to helping the juveniles she has tried return to normal lives. Some even asked her for dating tips when they were seeking a partner.

She believes that a lack of kinship is the deepest pain faced by these "troubled teens." On some occasions, she mobilized all the resources she had available to help juvenile offenders find their parents.

Once, she met a teenaged female suspect, who was deaf and refused to give any information about herself, even her name.

Chen had previously learned sign language after she learned that there had been a spate of thefts committed by deaf people at railway stations. But when she encountered the girl, she found that her sign language ability was far from enough to effectively communicate with her.

She later brought a sign language teacher to the interrogation and also bought snacks and new clothes for the girl.

Moved by Chen's compassion, the girl revealed her name to be Xiaoqin and told Chen of her past experiences. Xiaoqin was born in Shenyang, Liaoning Province, and had a younger brother.

Believing that her parents only cared for him, at the age of 15, she went to Guangzhou with her boyfriend, who led her into a life of theft at railway stations. The man also instructed her to keep quiet if she was arrested, as the police could not do anything with a deaf minor.

Chen contacted the police department in Shenyang, and found Xiaoqin's parents with their help. They rushed to Xiaoqin's second trial and kneeled down in court in a display of remorse.

Chen put Xiaoqin under detention. After she was taken back to Shenyang, Chen often wrote to the family, urging Xiaoqin's parents to put more energy into their daughter and encouraging Xiaoqin to make a new start.

Two years later, Chen received a call from her parents, telling her that Xiaoqin had been admitted to a special education college.

"I am motivated by seeing these children get back onto their feet," she said.

A long career in juvenile tribunals has made Chen realize that to stem juvenile criminal rates, it's best to start with education.

Now, she often goes to schools to educate students. So far, she has organized over 200 seminars in more than 100 schools in Guangdong Province, and she also edits and designs law publications that are circulated in Guangzhou's primary and middle schools.

While her busy workload is a source of dissatisfaction for her son, Chen has no intention of changing her life. She hopes that in the future, a long-term mechanism will be set up to help juvenile criminals fit back into society.

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/1083414.shtml

 

[JSCh]

Professor in her 20s appointed dean of college
China Plus Published: 2018-01-24 11:45:35

A young professor who is only 28 years old has been appointed as deputy dean of a newly-established institute at the University of Electronic Science and Technology in southwest China's Sichuan Province, reports thepaper.cn.

A file photo of Liu Mingzhen [Photo: University of Electronic Science and Technology]

Liu Mingzhen, an expert in materials science, will lead the Material and Energy Institute which was established on January 19.

Liu obtained her bachelor's degree at the University of Bristol when she was only 21 years old. She then received her master's degree at the University of Cambridge and doctor's degree at the University of Oxford.

She published a thesis on the Nature magazine at the age of 23, becoming the youngest Chinese female scholar to put her name on the world-famous science journal.

In 2015, Liu was included in China's Recruitment Program of Global Experts, a national program aiming to attract more overseas talents.

Before being appointed as deputy dean, Liu Mingzhen led the establishment of the applied chemistry research center at the University of Electronic Science and Technology.