Results tagged “protest”

There's a lot to protest about in China: ethnic tension in Xinjiang, forced eviction and resettlement, and even gay rights. Now you can add video games to that list as well.

A lot has changed since we last reported on the recent syringe stabbings in Xinjiang. First, remember how we said that only a handful of people had been stabbed? Well, it turns out that the actual number is around 470, according to a recent post from AGI News in Beijing. What's worse, CCTV reported that the needles are now presumed to have been filled with AIDS contaminated blood. As a result, government officials have claimed the attacks were carried out by members of the Uyghur minority, which triggered a spat of protests by Han Chinese for more forceful persecution of Uyghur separatists related to the original protests in July.

In one of the more bizarre police conflict stories of late, over a hundred gay men congregated at People's Park in Guangzhou this week to protest police efforts to keep homosexuals out of the park. The police have used reports of petty crimes such as robbery and stealing to keep homosexuals out of the park, which serves as a meeting place for gay people. Protesters verbally clashed with the police after park guards attempted to force the group to leave the premises, and several protesters and volunteers were detained and questioned before the protest began.

She delighted audiences in Ang Lee's first film, The Wedding Banquet, but despite her Independent Spirit Award-nominated turn as the sassy artist from Shanghai who marries her gay landlord, May Chin (高金素梅) didn't pursue much of an acting career in the years following.

• Protest at China TV tower [The Straits Times] "Demonstrators gathered outside a fire-gutted tower near the new China Central Television (CCTV) headquarters in Beijing on Tuesday, protesting against what they called forced eviction, state press said. About 30 residents accused the state-run television station of trying to get them to move from the area to make way for the massive and nearly completed construction project, Xinhua news agency said. After about an hour, police persuaded the protesters to put away their banners and leave, the report said. "
• China Backs Off Latest Rio Tinto Claims [WSJ] "Chinese officials distanced the government from allegations on a state-backed Web site that employees of mining giant Rio Tinto PLC had used years of "deceit" to obtain state secrets that cost China's steel industry more than $100 billion — spotlighting the murky and often confusing way China handles such secrecy cases. The allegations, published over the weekend, had quickly gained widespread attention, as they appeared to represent the government ratcheting up pressure over the case of four Rio Tinto employees, including an Australian citizen, who were detained last month by the Shanghai State Security Bureau on vague accusations of using bribery to obtain secrets that harmed China's national interests."
• Another suspect dies in Kunming police custody [GoKunming] "A man being held in detention in Kunming died in a hospital on Saturday with no clear cause of death, according to a Xinhua report. According to a police spokesperson speaking to reporters on Sunday, 43-year-old Wang Shukun (王树坤) had been held in the Guandu District Detention Center since July 19 before being checked into a hospital by police on August 6. After undergoing emergency procedures to save his life, Wang died early Saturday, the spokesperson said."

While we've been inundated by news of the ethnic tensions between Uyghurs and Hans, it seems like there's another ethnicity that feels its not getting fair treatment in China - Nigerians. In Guangzhou, the death of a Nigerian who was trying to escape a police visa check allegedly triggered a 200-strong protest by angry Africans. Emmanul Egisimba, a clothes seller, had been trading at the Tangqi Foreign Trade Clothes Plaza in central Guangzhou when plainclothes police started checking visas in the area. He ran but was cornered on the second floor, 18 meters above ground. So he decided to jump, allegedly to his death. The protest, which was as much over “tight visa controls” thanks to the 60th anniversary as it was over Egisimba's sad demise, is believed to be the first by foreigners anywhere on the mainland. Source: SCMP

The planned protests against the Green Dam Youth Escort turned into celebrations on Wednesday, when Chinese authorities suddenly postponed their order of the infamous censorware program. In turn, Lots of young Chinese netizens gathered to turn their Green Dam anger into a feast.

Today marks the 12 year anniversary of Hong Kong's return to China and to commemorate it, they're holding their annual protest rally led by the Civil Human Rights Front (a tradition that has gone on since 1997).

• China halts £18bn hydropower dam project over environmental concerns[guardian.co.uk] "China's environment ministry sought to reassert its authority on Friday by blocking a 200bn yuan (£18bn) cascade of hydropower dams near Shangri-la that would generate as much electricity as the Three Gorges Dam. Despite pressure from local governments that want to push ahead with big ticket development projects to offset the financial downturn, the ministry suspended approval of the project along the Jinsha iver in Yunnan province for failing to carry out adequate assessment of the environmental impact."
• All Eyes Inward [Newsweek] "Until recently, the way Chinese artists got famous was to talk politics. The generation that grew up during the Cultural Revolution and the difficult years that followed was highly politicized and gained global recognition for its tongue-in-cheek images of Mao Zedong and Tiananmen Square, often rendered in eye-popping color... Though still hot, those new-wave artists are giving way to a very different group: the "me-first" generation, whose members talk about each other and themselves."
• New tax plan sparks China protest [BBC] "Protesters in the south-eastern Chinese city of Nankang have overturned police cars and blocked roads over plans to more strictly enforce payment of taxes. Officials in Nankang said several hundred protesters blocked a major road while others delivered a petition to a local government office."

• Beijing professor's remarks spark angry protests [AFP] "About 30 protesters tried to force their way into China's elite Peking University on Friday to confront a law professor who said 99 percent of the people petitioning the government with grievances are mentally ill and could be institutionalized."
• Chinese Online Games Market Grew 63% In 2008 [Gamasutra] "New data from analyst group Pearl Research shows that China's online games market grew 63 percent in 2008 to a total $2.8 billion. In its new Games Market in China report, Pearl Research forecasts that the Chinese online market will be worth more than $5.5 billion by 2012."
• The Pavilion Wars [The Atlantic] "The upcoming World's Fair should offer the chance to build a showpiece U.S. pavilion. But thanks to behind-the-scenes maneuverings and State Department incompetence, we may end up with a Chinese-funded pavilion—or no pavilion at all."

Protesters have clashed with the police in a Tibetan-populated prefecture of Qinghai province. According to state media, dozens of angry people threw small explosive devices at police after a resident was stopped on the road for an identity check. Tensions in the area are running high, since tomorrow is the 50th anniversary of the failed Tibetan uprising. The state report did not say whether the protesters were Tibetan. Source: AFP

• Top Chefs Leave Jean-Georges, Head to HK [Cityweekend SH] "Former Jean-Georges Chef/Partner Eric Johnson and his right hand pastry man, Jason Casey, both veterans of Three on the Bund’s most luxurious dining destination, have wrapped up their multi-year stints under Jean-Georges Vongerichten and will launch their own restaurant, Union J, in a prime location in Hong Kong—on the 2nd floor above the California Club."
• Chinese displaced by Three Gorges Dam protest [AP] "More than 2,000 people displaced by construction of the Three Gorges Dam clashed with police in central China during a protest Wednesday over missing resettlement payments, leaving 30 protesters injured, a Hong Kong-based group said."
• Report: Zhang plans film to mark China anniversary [AP] ""Raise the Red Lantern" director Zhang Yimou plans to make a movie to mark the 60th anniversary of communist China, cementing his shift from a dissident to a government-favored artist. Zhang is still working on the script for the film, China Central Television reported Wednesday."

While we were getting gussied up for the Shanghaiist Valentine's Day party, homosexuals in Beijing were taking to the streets in a remarkably open advocation of gay marriage.

Local officials are still trying to strike the proper balance between transparency and the traditional Chinese methods of information dissemination (or lack thereof) which we have all become so familiar with — namely, "monitoring," "controlling" and "blocking."

Photo from Brian's Tree

The Olympic torch moves today to Qinghai Lake in the Northwestern province of Qinghai, after making a one-day cameo in Lhasa. The Saturday visit to the Tibetan capital was carefully monitored in light of March’s uprising, and tight security continues in the province that was another sight of spring unrest. As the torch makes its way through China’s heavily-minority sections, several pieces of interesting news and commentary have surfaced covering the situations of various ethnic minorities in the PRC:
• The LA Times explores tensions in Tibet far more complex than just pro-China, anti-China struggles — the region also has strained relations between Tibetans and Hui Chinese, a minority ethnically identical to majority Han Chinese, but Muslim. The historic friction flared up last summer in the town of Guojia, when a Tibetan women alleged that she found a tooth in the soup she had ordered in a Muslim restaurant across town. Violence erupted against the neighborhood’s Hui restaurants, many of which have now gone out of business as proprietors flee the area for their safety.
• Blogging for China brings us a translation of a post on a Uygur forum describing one Minkaohan’s (ethnic minorities raised and educated alongside Han Chinese) discovery of his own, inevitable “racial complex,” and the importance of setting that polarizing emotion down in favor of national and local peace, cooperation and unity.
• Earlier today, we mentioned that China has released over 1,000 involved in Tibetan unrest, but The San Diego Union-Tribune reports that arrests are still occurring in other areas of Asia. Three Tibetan activists were jailed for three months in Katmandu, Nepal on Saturday, while hundreds of exiles from the region were detained for protesting inform of the city’s Chinese Embassy.

"An adult giant panda usually created 10 kilograms of faeces perday, however, now it only produced 2-3 kg because of scarce food, said Wang."

On the list of things that seriously really piss us off children’s movies, Americanized kung fu and animated pandas don’t exactly play a starring role. In fact, it’s probably fair to say they don’t even make a cameo. Unfortunately for artist Zhao Bandi (赵半狄), all these things seem to be at the top of his list, and all these things are clearly evident in DreamWorks’ new film Kung Fu Panda. To display his righteous outrage, Zhao rallied his (only?) two friends and fellow panda advocates for a protest outside the Beijing State Administration of Radio Film and Television offices, brandishing a petition calling for the film’s release to be canceled. Choice words from the protest, courtesy of WSJ Blogs: “If the Hollywood film ‘Kung Fu Panda’ is released on Jun. 20, it will be just like snatching the necklaces and watches from the corpses of disaster victims.” Um, ok. How so?

Among the main gripes with the film: Hollywood is exploiting China’s “national treasure” (its pandas) and its martial arts; the film is made by Dreamworks, a studio founded by Steven Spielberg (who withdrew from his role as an adviser to the Beijing Olympics earlier this year over concerns about China’s role in Sudan); and more broadly, it’s a Hollywood film, and Hollywood is the place that produced Sharon Stone, reviled in China for her Cannes comments about Tibet, the Sichuan earthquake and karma.

ABC News: Athletes banned from Beijing opening ceremony

                        

We're somewhat late bringing this to you, but yes, over the weekend, anti-French protests took place over the weekend all over China outside Carrefour stores in Hefei, Qingdao, Wuhan, Shenzhen, Xuzhou, Zhengzhou, Luoyang, Jinan and Kunming. Although these were mainly anti-French anti-Carrefour protests, they were described by People's Daily as "protests against Tibetan independence".

From Mutantpalm.org comes a post about a Ming Pao report about a BBS posting (!) in which it was stated that some black-suit clad Freetibetters came into the subway and began playing tapes that advocated, well, you can guess what. This blog says the same thing. The four men got on on Line 2's Lujiazui and started playing the recordings and then got off. That blog post also mentions that security is a bit tighter on the subways these days, with security trying to make sure no one walks onto the subway with any appreciable amount of flammable material.

From Al-Jazeera English:

The Beijing Olympics are still 5 months away but they're attracting attention for all the wrong reasons.

Continue reading "Al-Jazeera: Tibetan activists condemn Beijing Olympics"

We were walking to the metro station the other day when we saw these posters outside a defunct spa at No. 1855 Xinzha Lu, near Yanping Lu. Upon closer inspection, it seems that residents are not pleased because they have not been consulted on the proposed opening of a senior citizens' hospital on the first to third floors of their residential complex.

A group of Shanghai residents who had applied to the government for the right to hold an anti-maglev protest were rejected by the government. Despite this, small numbers of them intended to go on another "walk" in order to publicly air their grievances. This time, they were stopped by some other residents. According to this AP article, this is what happened:

Residents in armbands used a megaphone to warn people not to "linger here too long," to avoid problems with the police, who had rejected their petition to hold a protest march against the magnetic levitation, or maglev, train.

If you visit Contrasts Gallery on Jiangxi Lu now, you will find lots of migrant workers have actually made it their temporary home, but that is not some avant garde artist doing his latest exhibition. Here's a note from reader Arjen van der Schoot who loaned one of his paintings to the exhibition that is currently being held hostage by the workers:

Contrasts Gallery on Jiangxi Road opposite Hamilton House over a disputed RMB 1 million renovation at the gallery. About 20 workers have squatted in the gallery for nearly a month now, desperate to go home for Chinese new year with money they claim they are owed. The workers are sleeping on makeshift beds on the floor and the walls are lined with mounds of rubbish, mostly empty lunch boxes. Electricity has been cut off leaving most of the gallery submerged in icy cold darkness. The workers are also keeping about 25 works by well-known artist Qian Gang hostage. The 25 works represent two years worth of work, and Mr. Qian is anxious to have the issue resolved and his paintings, some of which are on loan from private collectors, returned. The gallery’s staff is taking turns to keep an eye on the workers.

China Daily: Shanghai to base growth on service industry

Thanks to the commenters on that last post, especially the one that alerted us to videos of the protests/marches that were on the Taiwan Youtube site. There were two that we found, embedded below. The first one is just a short clip of people walking around during the day. The second is from Xujiahui in the evening, with more chanting, from the evening of January 6. Oh yeah, and to the commenter who mentioned that we ought to put "alleged" in front of "health effects", you're probably right. If you're interested in learning a little about what health effects maglevs might have on people, you could try this Google scholar search. No definitive answers, but maybe a rudimentary way of glimpsing what is out there.

If you have never seen what a Chinese job fair looks like, you NEED to take a look at this clip. Recruitment fairs usually have more security guards for crowd control and police on standby than other fairs, but it looks like even the organisers of this most recent fair in Jiangxi were taken aback by the turnout. As captured on the clip, a stampede almost broke out but fortunately, it did not. The truth...

A prominent former Thai senator accused of sex crimes against four underage girls was sentenced to 36 years in prison on Tuesday, when an appeals court stiffened the sentence of a lower court.

Shanghaiist has just touched down in Beijing. And just as we were wondering if it was just us, or if the air in the Jing was really that much worse *cough*cough*, this is what we read:
• Birth defects in Chinese infants have soared nearly 40 percent since 2001
• There is one Chinese baby born with birth defects every 30 seconds
• In Beijing, the incidence of breast cancer has increased 23 percent in 10 years, with about 45 women out of every 100,000 diagnosed with the disease, says the Beijing Center for Disease Control and Prevention. In Shanghai, the figures are even worse, at 55 out of 100,000, up 31 percent in the past decade.