Harmonious China

What's happening around the nation as one year closes and another begins

• 2007 is definitely the year of angry students. After last month's bloody riot at the Hefei PLA Artillery Academy is a Christmas Eve clash in Tianjin's Nankai University, said to be among China's top ten universities. We all know the powers-that-be do not like angry students, so they will be watching this in 2008.
• In the above picture, laid off bank workers at the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) branch at Shiyan city, Hubei province. The top banner (from the bank) reads: Creating A Peaceful Work Unit, Constructing a Harmonious Bank. The lower banner (from the demonstrators): I Gave the Bank My Youth, the Bank Grew Up while I was Laid Down. (h/t to CDT)
• Another hot topic for the year 2008 will be the new labor law and worker rights, as this LA Times article suggests. The China Law Blog talks about how big a deal this new law will be. Already, Carrefour looks set to run into problems with its 40,000 employees.
• Chinese AIDS activist Hu Jia (胡嘉) has been detained by national security police in Beijing on charges of “incitement to subvert state power,” while he was chatting on Skype with another activist Qi Zhiyong. His wife, child and mother-in-law are once again under surveillance.
• Meanwhile, human rights lawyer Guo Feixiong was reportedly beaten in prison (proxy required) and is now on the fifteenth day of his hunger strike.
• The Sydney Morning Herald has a report on unhappy Chinese peasants taking the law into their own hands.
• A hospital on the verge of bankruptcy is suing local governments in Yunnan and Shenzhen for defaulting on the payment of the medical fees for a migrant worker who set fire on himself after failing to get his wages for his boss. The total fees amounted to RMB700,000. (h/t to Global Voices)

Photo from txrjy.com