China's negative news from official media and updates

[Brotherhood]

Former Shanghai official jailed for life for corruption - People's Daily Online November 16, 2010

A former official in Shanghai was sentenced to life in prison Monday for embezzling state-owned assets and accepting bribes totaling 108.3 million yuan (16.3 million U.S. dollars).

Wang Miaoxing, former Party chief of Changzheng Township in Putuo District, was convicted of transferring 97 million yuan from the Shanghai Xinchangzheng Group into his personal account between 2004 and 2005, according to the verdict from the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court.

During those two years, Wang also served as Chairman of the Shanghai Xinchangzheng Group, owned by the township government.

Additionally, Wang was convicted of taking 6.3 million yuan in bribes from 1998 to 2006 and embezzling 5 million yuan in company assets from 2006 to 2007.

He was also ordered to return all embezzled assets and bribes and an additional one million yuan worth of personal assets were confiscated by authorities.

Source:Xinhua

 

[Brotherhood]

China mine safety official jailed for life for taking bribes - People's Daily Online November 18, 2010

A coal mine safety official in southwest China was sentenced to life in prison Wednesday for taking 9 million yuan (1.35 million U.S. dollars) in bribes.

The No. 5 Intermediate People's Court in Chongqing Municipality announced the verdict on Wednesday in which Wang Xiping, former deputy director of Chongqing municipal administration of coal mine safety, along with three other defendants, were found guilty.

Wang was convicted of accepting 5.4 million yuan as bribes from coal mine owners, along with Chen Hongqiang, Wu Jungen and Lin Hua, between August 2000 and July 2009, the court said.

Wang was also found guilty of acting on his own when demanding and accepting 3.6 million yuan in bribes from more than 20 coal mine bosses.

The other two principals, Chen, a former criminal police officer, and Wu, former chief of the technology and equipment department under the municipal coal mine safety administration, were both sentenced to 15 years in jail.

Lin, who worked at a vehicle rental company, was also found guilty of accepting a 50,000-yuan car for Wang, and also used the car, himself.

As an accomplice, Lin was jailed for one and a half years.

The four defendants did not appeal the first-instance verdict at the court.

Source:Xinhua

 

[Brotherhood]

Hospital scam sparks crackdown - People's Daily Online November 18, 2010

China's Ministry of Health vowed to crack down on bribery in hospitals after news of the corruption scandal involving dozens of doctors in East China broke early this week.

Those found to have accepted bribes would face suspension from work or even cancellation of their medical licenses in serious cases, the People's Daily reported on Wednesday, quoting an unnamed official with the ministry.

In China, some pharmaceutical and medical equipment companies pay kickbacks to doctors and hospital staff to boost product sales, and the problem has run rampant in parts of the country, undermining patients' interests, the report said.

An online post on Monday revealed that dozens of doctors at several hospitals in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, including the Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital affiliated to Zhejiang University, were taking bribes from a pharmaceutical company.

They were said to have taken cash, oil cards, shopping cards and digital cameras from the Hangzhou Tairui Medical Device Co Ltd, in return for buying the company's products.

The online writer, named CCTV9090, said he learned of this from a flash disk he happened to pick up on a bus.

Meanwhile, 10 pictures were also published, in which the names of doctors and the kickbacks they took can be seen clearly.

He Chao, director of the Sir Run Run Shaw Hospital, denied his doctors involved in the scandal had taken cash, but he admitted that some doctors had accepted cards and digital cameras, but "only to use them for medical purposes".

As the public reacted angrily toward the doctors listed in the post, insiders said it was an institutional problem.

"In China, it is common for hospitals to profit from drug selling to continue operating, since they are in charge of the pharmaceutical departments and this provides chances for some doctors to make illegal money," said Xiao Yonghong, chief physician of the No 1 Hospital affiliated to Zhejiang University.

"Meanwhile, because the drug market and the medical device market are intensely competitive, some companies use bribes to promote sales," he said.

The Ministry of Health has asked provincial health authorities to establish a system to register cases of bribery in the medical industry and make them known to the public.

Provincial health authorities, hospitals and medical organizations should not buy products from enterprises that have been involved in bribery cases within the past two years, the report said.

With the ongoing public hospital reforms, the Ministry of Health has tried to root out such problems. The central and local governments have increased investments in public hospitals to prevent them from relying on medicine sales.

The profits made in some hospitals have been eliminated since the introduction of public bidding for medicine.

For public hospitals chosen for the reform trials, the government have invested heavily to cover all operational costs, including the purchase of drugs and medical devices.

"There used to be opportunities to get kickbacks, but now there is no access," said Wang Xiaodong, a surgeon in Zichang County People's Hospital, one of the hospitals in Shaanxi province chosen for reform trials.

"However, it takes time to spread this method to hospitals nationwide."

By Cang Wei and Shan Juan, China Daily

 

[ThatDamnGood]

Drink all that soft drinks and eat all that fast food from USA, now see what happens. Same situation in India too.

***
China now global diabetes epicenter
Last Updated(Beijing Time):2010-11-15 07:34

China has the highest number of diabetics in the world with an estimated 92.4 million sufferers, 61 percent of whom have yet to be diagnosed, experts warned on Sunday.

People who go without being properly diagnosed are more likely to have blood glucose that is poorly controlled, which leaves them open to the risk of developing complications that affect their eyesight and kidneys, having a stroke or a limb amputated, experts said.

"A combination of poor public awareness and limited access to early detection services are largely responsible for the low diagnostic rate on the mainland," Ji Linong, head of the Chinese Diabetes Society (CDS), said on Sunday at an event marking World Diabetes Day, which annually falls on Nov 14.

"The government should spend more on services to intervene and prevent diabetes," he said, recommending a universal screening program for high-risk groups.

Those aged over 40, overweight or living in well-off urban areas are at a higher risk of developing diabetes, medical studies have shown. Overweight children are also susceptible to developing the disorder.

"Early diagnosis and treatment would help provide effective medical intervention, which lowers the costs incurred," Ji said.

According to the latest study jointly conducted by the CDS and the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), 13 percent of the total medical expenditure in China, around $25 billion, is related to diabetes.

People with diabetes in China require three to four times more inpatient care, as well as outpatient and emergency room visits, than their healthy counterparts of the same age and sex, the study found.

Without intervention, "the cost of treating diabetes will rise rapidly in the next 10 to 20 years, as patients who have gone undiagnosed develop serious complications whose treatment will definitely cost more," Ji said.

In emerging countries like China and India, phenomenal changes like rapid economic growth, new trends such as mass urbanization, different diets and increasingly sedentary lifestyles have all greatly increased the risk of developing diabetes.

Worldwide, diabetes currently affects more than 300 million people and is expected to cost the global economy at least $376 billion in 2010, or 11.6 percent of the total world expenditure on healthcare, IDF statistics show.

"It has become a leading threat to global health and development," IDF President Jean Claude Mbanya warned on Sunday.

Without intervention, by 2030 there will be 500 million people throughout the world with diabetes at a projected cost of more than $490 billion for the global economy, he estimated.

"Policymakers need to integrate plans for diabetes prevention into national health systems and countries have to find ways to develop economically in a way that is not harmful to public health," Mbanya said.

Source:China Daily

 

[Comfortably Numb]

@Brotherhood i dont think that you need to explain that the government gives out negetive news. Government let the people know what should be known to them in China. But alas which government does not do that. China do it directly and others do it indirectly. Its more of jingoism of "lets bash communism". If people in China are happy about their growth why the hell we people should fire around "lets bring them freedom" attitude.

well said,
cant agree more.

 

[Brotherhood]

Economic crimes spreading beyond China's borders: Ministry - People's Daily OnlineNovember 20, 2010

Economic crimes in China, which have risen by 9.2 percent a year since 2000, were crossing borders and becoming "internationalized," the Ministry of Public Security said Friday.

Deputy head of the ministy's Economic Crime Investigation Department (ECID) Liu Wenxi said public security authorities had increased cooperation with foreign counterparts to seize criminals and recover their takings from abroad.

"This is a growing challenge in our struggle to safeguard national economic security," he said.

A total of 250 fugitive economic criminals had been arrested in more than 20 foreign countries and regions since 2006.

"Economic crimes, with annual increase of 9.2 percent since 2000, are the mainstream of crime in China," Liu said.

Public security organs across the country had uncovered more than 4,800 cases of business bribery, involving more than 4,300 people since 2006, and retrieved funds totaling 335 million yuan (50 million U.S. dollars).

In recent years, more ordinary people were also involved in economic crimes, such as illegal fund-raising and pyramid selling schemes, Liu said.

Last year, police investigated 2,641 fund-raising crimes, up by 56 percent year on year, and dealt with 2,618 pyramid schemes, a rise of 106.9 percent, according to the minstry.

Liu warned that commerce websites were being used by criminals to spread criminal methods, sell illegal merchandise and cheat people of their money.

Last year, Chinese police broke up a pyramid scheme that had taken about 1 billion yuan (146.56 million U.S. dollars) since 2007. Run by a company named Hong Kong Link World International Sci-tech Ltd., it had enrolled tens of thousands of people across the country through the Internet.

Source: Xinhua

 

[hembo]

Nicknamed Along, the young boy carries firewood home down a mountain path in Niucheping village of Liuzhou city in Southwest China’s Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, Nov 3, 2010. The six-year-old HIV-positive child has been collecting wood to support himself since both of his parents died from the deadly virus. He receives 70 yuan of subsistence allowance per month from the local civil bureau plus periodical material supplies from kindhearted people, but he still lives alone without a guardian.

~~snipped~~

Along makes a fire to prepare for dinner. His grandmother, who lives 15 minutes’ walk away, built two vegetable plots for him, and pays regular visits despite not living with him. Photo taken on Nov 2, 2010.



What were you doing when you were six years old?

This is so sad. Six years old!!! And no ones doing anything about him... Even his grandmother?? Really sad times we live in..

 

[no_name]

Possible they did not expect him to survive into adulthood, being HIV positive. It will be interesting if, through these hardship, he actually develops resistance to the disease. Then he would have been a medical miracle. (Isn't that kind of like the bollywood movie plot?).

If he survives though, you can bet he will be quite a character.

 

[applesauce]

This is so sad. Six years old!!! And no ones doing anything about him... Even his grandmother?? Really sad times we live in..

yea this made me wonder, why cant his grandma live with him? is there some special reason? and he has no other family, uncles aunts etc?

 

[CardSharp]

This is so sad. Six years old!!! And no ones doing anything about him... Even his grandmother?? Really sad times we live in..

Hopefully now that there is some media attention on him, he would be given help by the local government and by kind hearted people from around the country.

 

[Brotherhood]

Workers shot in deadly row between rival mine bosses - People's Daily Online November 23, 2010

Some of the nine miners previously thought to have died in a shed explosion last week in Southwest China's Yunnan Province were killed by gunshots, local police said Monday.

Explosives at a shed at the Xiaosongdi Coal Mine were detonated at 9 am Thursday, when Zheng Chunyun, boss of the nearby Yuejing Coal Mine, arrived with more than 80 people armed with knives and steel bars.

Nine people were killed and 48 others injured in the incident. Most of the victims were with Zheng.

"Autopsies show some of them were gunned down before the blast," said Lu Qingwei, head of the public security bureau of Luxi county, where the mine is located.

Lu declined to give more details about the case.

The incident was apparently the result of a long-standing dispute between Zheng and Wang Jiangfu, the owner of the neighboring Xiaosongdi Coal Mine, who Zheng had accused of plundering his resources.

The local land and resource authority investigated last month and backed Zheng's accusations, according to Yunnan-based Shenghuo Xinbao.

It ordered Wang to stop operations in Zheng's mine and calculate the amount of coal his company had mined there, for which Wang reportedly had to pay tens of millions of yuan in compensation.

On November 18, Zheng and his staff went to Wang's coal mine to inspect the process as scheduled, when the explosion occurred and two of Zheng's men were gunned down, the paper reported citing witnesses.

Zheng and his staff had traveled in more than 10 cars and minibuses to the Xiaosongdi Coal Mine, said the report.

"The only thing we can confirm now is that the coal mine explosion was deliberately set off," a police officer surnamed Zhang from the Luxi Public Security Bureau told the Global Times Monday. Five people who were injured in the incident and were in critical condition are now stable.

The police have detained Wang Jianfu, boss of the Xiaosongdi Coal Mine, Zheng Chu-nyun and eight other suspects, Lu said.

Xinhua contributed to the story

By Deng Jingyin, Global Times

 

[Brotherhood]

Domestic violence still widespread in China despite anti-violence efforts - People's Daily OnlineNovember 26, 2010

China has set up an interdepartmental mechanism, as well as optimizing laws and regulations, to protect women from domestic violence, Meng Xiaosi, vice-president of the All-China Women's Federation (ACWF), said Thursday.

At a ceremony in Beijing marking the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, Meng, however, warned that violence against women and children was still widespread.

According to a 2007 ACWF survey, domestic violence existed in 30 percent of the 270 million Chinese families, with over 85 percent of the sufferers being women.

About 100,000 Chinese families break up each year as a result of domestic violence, the ACWF said.

At the ceremony, Jiang Yue, a law professor at Xiamen University, said domestic violence was present at random in the east and the less-developed west, as well as in rural and urban areas.

"There is no link between domestic violence and the level of economic development," she said.

Jiang also said domestic violence was allowed to spread because of the fact that China has no laws punishing non-criminal domestic violence and the belief that domestic violence is a private issue and the police should stay out it.

Source:Xinhua

 

[below_freezing]

men who hit women should have their *** chopped off and pickled in a jar.

 

[ThatDamnGood]

Talent show star dies in plastic surgery accident - China.org.cn

A 24-year-old female singer died early last week when she was having plastic surgery in central China's Hubei Province, local authorities confirmed Wednesday, as postings about her death drew extensive attention from Internet users.

Wang Bei, once a contestant in the popular talent show Super Girl, died on Nov 15 in an anesthetic accident during plastic surgery, said a spokesman for the health bureau of Jiang'an District, Wuhan City, capital of Hubei.

Before the announcement, rumors about Wang's death spread quickly on the Internet. Many of Wang's fans, who believed she was actually still alive, said the news was malicious while some others suspected Wang deliberately spread the news to attract attention.

Wang's mother, who took the same cosmetic surgery to narrow her lower jawbone, is currently recovering in Zhong'ao Cosmetic Surgery Hospital.

Zhong'ao Cosmetic Surgery Hospital is a legal medical facility administered by the health bureau of Jiang'an District, the spokesman, who declined to give his name, said.

Wang's death has triggered concerns about the safety of plastic surgery in China. "I wonder who would dare to get plastic surgery after hearing about this tragedy," Internet user Ye Xiaolun said.

"Wang Bei's death was inevitable. I hope the tragedy can raise people's awareness on the slack supervision of the plastic surgery industry," Internet user Pu Jing said.

As demand for plastic surgery surges in China, some doctors not trained in the field are carrying out plastic surgery, which is risky and irresponsible, said Zhang Huabin, a professor of plastic surgery with Guangdong Medical College.

 

[Tigershark]

The Financial Times acknowledged the existence of a perception gap between the West and China and one reason for it was the existence of a Western double standard. Here is an excerpt

China is, indeed, held to a different standard. In its dealings with the world in general, and the west in particular, China suffers from two handicaps: its power and the nature of its regime. Like other great powers, China is judged by a much higher standard. It is expected to use restraint under all circumstances (particularly in dealing with less powerful countries) and to assume greater international responsibilities. But unlike democratic powers, China also pays an implicit but substantial authoritarian penalty. Because the democratic west views authoritarian regimes as illegitimate, China’s international behaviour is seen through far more sceptical and distrustful prisms in the west. As a result, whenever China is featured in an international dispute, western sympathies naturally flow to China’s opponents. To western politicians and opinion-makers, such ideological bias is second-nature. But to an average Chinese, such differentiated treatment engenders outrage. Few states are subject to such a triple standard.

And here is the original article
FT.com / Comment / Opinion - Why the west should not demonise China

whenever China is featured in an international dispute, western sympathies naturally flow to China’s opponents.

This can reach irrational levels. Western news media regularly attribute kidnappings and bombings to Islamic extremists but any unrest in China is necessarily due to the conspiracy of the "evil" Chinese government.

But unlike democratic powers, China also pays an implicit but substantial authoritarian penalty.

The author here is being too kind to the Western double-standard. The Western media also had a racist-driven media frenzy during the rise of Japan. The West cannot deny that they fear the rise of a non-white country. Their antipathy toward China is also driven by racist paranoia.

Add to that the fact that the rise of China also threatens US and NATO military dominance, and the Western media has plenty of reasons to skew the media coverage about China. Western media coverage of China is propaganda--noncentralized and nondirected--but propaganda nonetheless.