China

Carrefour boycotts flops

Julien — Fri, 02 May 2008 17:43:41 +0200

Chinese web-users planned to boycott Carrefour from May 1st. But after having firstly added fuel to the fire, the Beijing authorities have finally decided to put a stop to the campaign, with an impressive police effort. See the report.
This report was put together with amateur material compiled by Zhang, our Observer in China. Watch the report.

First images of the convicted Tibetans

Julien — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:05:57 +0200

Thirty Tibetans accused of taking part in the riots last month have been convicted today with sentences ranging from three years in jail to life imprisonment. One of our Observers has sent us the first images of the trial, made public by the state press agency Xinhua, just as the sentences were handed out.

According to the Chinese TV channel CCTV, the trial lasted all day and was open to the public. These photos show ten of the thirty Tibetans who were sentenced today in Lhasa. The second image is particularly interesting - a man sitting in the front row of the public benches sporting traditional Tibetan dress. Is he a pro-Beijing Tibetan? The image has been carefully chosen, perhaps to show that - just as the authorities insisted from the very beginning of the crisis - Tibetan people support the Chinese government and only a violent minority took part in the riots. We will try to find out more and update this post soon.

Amateur photos of train crash carnage

Julien — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 18:40:28 +0200

These amateur photos, taken after the fatal train crash in Shandong, eastern China, were posted online just hours after the carnage occurred. The collision happened early Monday morning when a coastal-bound passenger train jumped the rails and struck a crossing overnight express train. Seventy people have been confirmed dead and over 420 injured.

Publicly humiliated, like in the Mao days

Julien — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:41:44 +0200

When a local factory owner filed a case against a power station for stealing his sand and tampering with the land, he did not expect to be found guilty of blackmail. Paraded through the streets for eight hours, condemned in public and jailed for three months, Tang Xiaodong has now launched a campaign to seek justice.

The local villager's plight began when power station developers announced late 2005 that they were planning to build a new plant close to his sand factory in Dao Country, Central China. When construction began, Tang says the developers made changes to the area without previous consultation. The changes, such as raising the land level by two metres and modifying fencing borders, resulted in the capture of his land. He said they also stole 200,000 metric cubes of sand and grit belonging to the sand factory. He decided to fight for his ownership rights and filed a case against the power station owners.

In February of last year he was set to leave Xialiu village for a holiday. Yet, upon his departure, he was arrested by a policeman and held in custody. Four days later, following negotiations with the mayor, the power station constructors forced Tang to sign an agreement. They said he would receive compensations worth €3,500, far short of the ground's value. However, the contract was no such thing. In fact, the document was later used as evidence against Tang when the developers accused him of trying to extort money from the company.

Chinese ship endeavours to get weapons to Zimbabwe

Julien — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 11:46:16 +0200

The An Yue Jiang in a Japanese port. Photo: http://niraikanai.sakura.ne.jp (We couldn't find a recent amateur photo of the boat).

Refused in South Africa and turned away from Mozambique, 77 tons of weaponry bound for Zimbabwe are now heading towards Angola in hope of access to land. Will the Chinese vessel succeed in reaching its final destination? Unions, lawyers and anti-arms activists hope not.

Shortly after Zimbabwe's doomed elections more than three weeks ago, desperate and unpopular president Robert Mugabe ordered three million rounds of AK-47 ammunition, 1,500 rocket-propelled and over 3,000 mortar rounds and mortar tubes from China. Last week, the An Yue Jiang arrived on the continent in Durban. But in the face of a 300,000-strong African union and refusal to transfer the goods from the country's high court, the ship fled on Friday. Its plan to offload in Mozambique was also rebutted and the vessel is now gambling on Angola, where it is thought to be headed. While Zambia's president urged everybody in the region to prevent the ship from docking on Monday, reports that it will offload to another vessel in the area have started circulating. Surrounding countries worry that the weapons will fuel escalating police brutality reported in Zimbabwe.

China's new chart-topper: "Don’t be too like CNN"

Julien — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 12:37:45 +0200

We've published several posts (here and here) about the onslaught of online criticism aimed at the Western media, in particular CNN, over its coverage of violence in Tibet. Here's the latest example of CNN bashing : a song originally broadcast on the state TV channel CCTV, and now running rife on the Internet. See the video.

A Chinese protester campaigns in front of Carrefour in Beijing

Julien — Wed, 16 Apr 2008 12:09:58 +0200

Chinese web-users angered by disruptions during the Olympic torch's tour through Paris last week are organising a campaign to boycott Carrefour starting May 1st, according to Reuters. Our Observer in China has sent us images of a mini-protest in front of a Carrefour store in Beijing. The police intervened in the affair, but only by asking the protesters to move on.

UPDATE (18 APRIL 08 10am): Protests against Carrefour have sprung up all over China and the demonstrators have extended their crusade to several other French companies including Luis Vuitton, Sephora and Dior. See new pictures at the bottom of the post.

"Putting out the flame is really going to upset the Chinese people"

Julien — Mon, 07 Apr 2008 16:29:07 +0200

The Olympic flame had to be put out for half an hour during its tour around Paris because of havoc wreaked by mainly pro-Tibetan protesters. ChinaWolf, who set up a YouTube channel to "defend the Chinese reputation", explains to us why he thinks the protests were unacceptable.

The saddest peep show in the world

Julien — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:21:25 +0200

These desperate migrant workers from southeast China, who often leave their wives behind to find work, are reduced to paying women ten cents to see their private parts.

The photos, taken in Nanchang city in southeast China, have been circulating on the Chinese blogosphere since they were posted on an online discussion forum on March 27. Taken with a camera wrapped in a bin liner (pictured), the images show migrant workers paying a woman in exchange to see and touch her private parts. A common practice for migrant workers, says Zhang, our Observer in the country. Many men leave their families behind to find work in a big city, and might not have sexual relations with a woman for many years. The price for a quick peek is between one and two RMB (10 and 20 euro cents). This is just one issue arising from the mass migration that has swept China in the past few decades. It has also seen thousands of children orphaned and millions of people working under slave labour conditions.

The Child Coal Hauler

Julien — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 17:43:16 +0100

Since blogger Xu Alun released this documentary on February 10, it's had over half a million hits. It tells the story of three homeless orphans working as coal-haulers in a southern city of China. According to our Observer in Hong Kong, a specialist in social problems in China, this is just one example of millions of "left-behind children" in the country.

The Child Coal Hauler by vlogger Xu Alun