Results tagged “thepolice”

Editor's Note: This is an update to that flash mob we told you about earlier. The writer was the organiser of the event.

From Matt Seigal of catshanghai.com:

There was a message floating around to meet on Nanjing Dong Lu outside the Sofitel at 3pm in order to stand still for five minutes. Passers by look amused and the police appeared rather baffled. I was going to join in, but I didn’t want to pass a chance to film the event on my cellphone. The event was great fun.

Ex-Playboy covergirl, epileptic dancer, and Shanghai Baby Bai Ling, was, as we told you earlier, arrested for shoplifting, but apparently, her shoplifting charges have been dropped and she was fined a grand total of US$200 for disturbing the peace. Here is her account of the incident:

"I went across the [hall] with the toy in my hand, and asked which battery would fit. They told me [they knew which would fit], but they had really long line and I had to make the flight," the New York Post quoted her as saying. Bai claimed store clerks asked if she could wait and she agreed, exiting to the side of the shop, continuing to call and text. The next thing she knew, she was being arrested for shoplifting.

Continue reading "Bai Ling fined US$200"

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.

For Part 1 of this story, click HERE.

People who made the news this week

Long story short, the place is a zoo, but what'd you expect. Of course, things are made worse by the weather. Here are some pics from the last few days. From what we've been hearing both in the news and in our apartment elevator, the dastardly weather gods have caused big time cancellations and problems. Despite the crowds of cold people and the massive B.O. from the people waiting inside the subway station, things seem more or less ok. Order has been maintained. Lots of places are already sold out, but order has been maintained, in part thanks to the police and PLA.

Translation of captions:

OPPOSING THE SHANGHAI MAGLEV ONSTRUCTION PLAN: 10,000 RESIDENTS TAKE PART IN THE 'HARMONIOUS WALK' NEAR PEOPLE'S SQUARE

Continue reading "Maglev protest videos"

Yesterday, we were tipped off on our Contribute page that an anti-maglev protest was going to take place today 2pm at People's Square. Apparently that has been derailed by the police. From Reuters:

Police in China's financial hub of Shanghai detained scores of people on Saturday after hundreds showed up to protest a planned extension of the city's magnetic levitation train, or "maglev", worried it would emit radiation.

Continue reading "Anti-maglev protests derailed"

This is just a rumor at this point. But it is a strong rumor. Not a weak rumor, or a flat out lie (like these). Basically, we think you can mark your calendars ... and use pen.

From the RFA Unplugged blog:

Authorities in the southern Chinese city of Dongguan have dispatched several hundred riot police to Baima village, where a land dispute has flared into clashes with local residents.

Continue reading "Video: Land dispute clashes in Baima village, Guangdong"

... and going with strange girls who want to practise their English to coffee shops is STILL a bad idea, folks. Yet another chump — this time a Swedish guy on a business trip — has fallen for the time-honoured scam by following a pair of temptresses who were "dressed like university students" (so wearing mortar boards, presumably) to the Manabe coffee shop on the 3rd floor of the Brilliance Shimao Plaza, Shanghai Daily reported...

Shanghaiist has often wondered what China would look like if it had complete religious freedom, as in the freedom to organise and set up religious denominations and associations outside of the five "official religions", and to have all these religious groups enter the free-wheeling marketplace with their books, CDs, video programmes and what not. This weekend, we caught a glimpse of that when a woman claiming to be "Jesus' sister" was arrested in the Guangdong province. She charges upwards of RMB100,000 to "heal" each cancer patient and owns three fancy villas.

We've been somewhat faithful readers of Foreign Policy for awhile and noticed that they had a couple of articles that either mention or focus on China in their recent issue. Jeff Chang has written an article called It's a Hip-Hop World where he talks about how globalized hip hop has become, and, in this context, mentions Shanghai. More worrisome than a bunch of seventeen-year-olds in baggy pants is information we found in the article on...

It is back — Shanghai's biggest, baddest, scariest, spookiest Halloween party! If you came to our kickass party last year, you'll know what we're talking about. If you didn't, ask your friends who did, or see what you missed out on here and here. We created such a ruckus the police came to join in the fun!

We told you about some Chinese journalists probing the Fenghuang (凤凰) bridge collapse getting harassed and beaten by local thugs, and EastSouthWestNorth has followed up with a translation of a fascinating first-hand account of the assault on People's Daily《人民日报》reporter Wang Kefei (王克非). He was accompanied by journalists from China Youth Daily《中国青年报》, the Southern Metropolis Daily《南方都市报》, the Economic Observer《经济观察报》 and Oriental Outlook 《瞭望东方周刊》, some of whom were also attacked. The attackers are allegedly men working for the local department of agriculture. The local propaganda chief has threatened to take legal action against the China Youth Daily, Southern Metropolis Daily and Oriental Outlook reporters for "illegal news coverage", while the five reporters have threatened to sue the Fenghuang government.

Remember the pre-op transsexual who was detained in Shenzhen early last month for going on her one-(wo)man demonstration on the streets, holding a placard that says, "I want a sex change, even if it means death!" (我要变性！死了都要变!), and attracting a huge crowd before the police led her away? Well she has gained quite a lot of media exposure in the last two months or so. And just yesterday, Phoenix Princess (凤凰格格) announced through a Youku video that a few sex-change hospitals have gotten in touch with her thanks to the kind help of various media outlets and netizens, and that if nothing goes wrong, she will undergo sex-change operation very soon. As Shanghaiist understands from an American friend who also happens to be a pre-op transsexual seeking surgery in China, many hospitals offering sex-change operations are now competing to work on high-profile cases like Phoenix Princess and herself in their bid to establish themselves in the field, so they may use them as successful case studies to attract new clientele from around China, and eventually overseas. We wish Phoenix Princess all the best for her upcoming surgery!

Hu in new bid to tighten screws on rival faction, by Chua Chin Hon of the Straits Times:

One has died from an undisclosed illness while another is already behind bars on corruption charges. But there appears to be no let-up in Chinese President Hu Jintao's attempts to put the squeeze on members of the rival Shanghai faction, a group of senior leaders and officials allied with his predecessor Jiang Zemin.

Continue reading "Snippets: The Shanghai faction, counterfeit and corruption"

Despite some pretty damning arguments regarding the plausibility of blending cardboard and caustic soda into baozi, steamed pork buns, the internets are chattering again: Government conspiracy and cover-up! The fake buns being fake is itself fake!

Update: EastSouthWestNorth translates a story from Southern Metropolis Daily tracing how the story of the bogus buns was found to be fake, and says kudos to the netizens who raised the following doubts from the beginning:

Last Friday, over 800 cats were rescued in Shanghai's Xinzhuang area, where they were about to be shipped to Guangzhou to meet their maker. However, local cat lovers here in Shanghai informed the police, resulting in a stand-off between the cat-lovers and the cat meat shippers that lasted several hours. The cat meat shippers claimed that the cats were from a legit cat farm in Anhui province, and had documents to prove it; the cat-lovers claim these were forged. The Chinese reports mention that some of the cats were quite dirty while others had collars, which in their eyes proved that the cats were captured. In the end, word of the situation spread through the internet and the stand-off, which started around 10pm and lasted until the wee hours of the night, was resolved with the cat-lovers collecting around 10,000 RMB and buying the freedom of the cats. Read the Chinese reports and take a look at some pictures here and here.

Whatever the case may be, naysayers at the time of Hong Kong's return (including Time and Fortune which predicted the demise of Hong Kong) have all been proven wrong. Led by the buoyant mainland economy, Hong Kong continues to boom and thrive today.

A 17year old girl in Xi'an was robbed on her way home. Her three assailants were stopped by a courageous passer-by who then subsequently stabbed him to death before fleeing away. Well, it turns out that the dead hero is a Jiangsu entrepreneur and millionaire who used to give frequently to charity. You can see in the video how the understandably distraught girl was asking to see the man one last time after the police pronounced him dead and covered him up. So should he have saved the girl? Did he die in vain? Netizens are divided it seems. Said one commenter on 56.com:

The hostage crisis at the Putuo KFC two nights ago was a shining triumph for the Shanghai police, who managed to kill the bad guy and save the migrant worker's little four-year-old girl. Now, you can relive the glory with this account of the proceedings (in Chinese). Although we would have preferred to see Samuel L. Jackson or Kevin Spacey handle something of this danger, there was some local talent on hand. One of the negotiators dressed up and pretended to be the store manager, but to no avail. A female special forces officer also dressed up as a KFC employee and brought food and drink, but evidently, someone didn't do the chicken right, because the hostage-taker got nervous. The special forces officer had a gun stuffed in her pants but decided that this wasn't the best moment to use it.

When we read that a man had taken a 4 year-old girl hostage at a Putuo district KFC yesterday afternoon, we wrongly assumed that it would was just some loony, maybe an institution escapee that would be quickly overpowered by bystanders or the police—problem solved. Not quite so.

Or more like who won't be performing. We've already told you about Live Earth, Al Gore's 24-hour, 7-continent series of concerts on 7/7/07. Well, lists of performers at different venues (cities participating are: East Rutherford, New Jersey [near New York]; London; Rio de Janeiro; Maropeng [near Johannesburg]; Tokyo; Shanghai; and Sydney) are starting to be announced. First up, the US and the UK.

Shanghaiist contributor Micah has posted some information about the present and future of Wujiang Lu in the comments section of our post from yesterday. We thought they were worth highlighting.

Sure, your wife/husband/partner might slap you, but assure them that this is not a fanciful excuse, because it could really happen to you.