Villagers Confronted Police in Guangdong over Election Fraud
Hundreds of villagers from Shadui Township in the Guangdong city of Xinhui surrounded their township government and had physical confrontation with policemen on Wednesday. Some villager were injured and sent to hospital, Hong Kong Cable Television reported. Villagers said the government did not allow them to vote in the People’s Congress representative election because the government and villagers disputed over use of land. A township official confirmed the conflict but said it was only a “small problem.”

Last week, thousands of residents confronted policemen in front of the city government in Ruian, Zhejiang (see picture). The people claimed that the local government covered up the truth of the suicide of a local teacher and asked for reinvestigation.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_5330000/newsid
_5335500/5335570.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_5340000/newsid_5345100/5345162.stm


Happiness Index Derided by the Public
After decades of measuring progress in terms of hard economic data, mainland authorities are set to chart the state of the nation's well-being with the introduction of a happiness index.

National Bureau of Statistics chief Qiu Xiaohua said on Tuesday that the happiness index will include people's feelings towards their living conditions, such as income, employment, social welfare and the natural environment, the South China Morning Post reported.

The new move was ridiculed by many on the Internet. One commentator wrote on the Chinese online chat-room Huashan forum that happiness as an abstract concept and could not be expressed by numbers.

Another wrote that feeling of happiness is only a subjective perception, which does no good to reasonable policy making, but instead, would confuse people and be a waste of social resources to do such surveys. “For example,” the commentator wrote, “a bagger got some hot soup in a freezing day would also feel ‘very, very happy.’ This is the so called ‘happy of poorness.’ ”

There are also comments, though not the majority, supported such measurement, calling it a tool to educate people that happiness does not necessarily associate with material and therefore could curb the trend of consumerism in China, which the commentator deemed as having positive impact.
http://washeng.net/HuaShan/BBS/shishi/gbcurrent/150711.shtml

“Ten Ugly Quotes of Officials” Censured on the Internet
No.1 “Children, don’t move, let the leaders go first.” (An official from local education commission told panic pupils when they were caught in fire in a theater in a Xinjiang city. More than 300 people died, most of them elementary school students in that 1994 catastrophe. )

No.4 “Stop it! I’ve seen too much of this.” (A local government official told a villager who got down on his knees to plea for help from the government in defending his rights.)

No. 5 “China is very safe, no SARS. Welcome to visit China.” (An official from China’ s ministry of public health told foreigners when SARS broke out in 2003.)

No. 8 “I though I’m a pubic official, and all my food, clothing and expense should be provided by the public.” (A corrupted Guangdong official said after being arrested.)

No. 10 “Who asked you to work? You go find them (the employers). The government doesn’t owe you money.” (A government official in Heilongjiang told migrant workers who appealed to the government to help them get their overdue salary.)

The list is widely circulated on the Internet in China, but the original author is not clear. In online chatroom, the list drew hundreds of comments, mostly expressing their anger, discontent and distrust of government officials.
http://www.tianya.cn/new/publicforum/Content.asp?strItem=free&flag=1&idArticle=329239

Supreme Court Set Limitations on Press Access
National and commercial secrets, personal privacy and name, address and picture of juvenile suspects are among the information barred from publicity, the Supreme Court said on Tuesday. Instead, the court system in China will universally adopt a news release-spokesman approach to handle release of information, Xinhua reported. Judges are also prohibited from speaking to journalists without authorization.

As legal issues are receiving more and more attention from the media and society in recent years and sometimes trigger bitter debate about the judicial process as well as verdict of certain cases, the new move would limit the public’s access to court information through the media.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2006-09/12/content_5082551.htm

Makeover for the Olympics in Beijing
Iron fences installed outside windows facing major streets in Beijing will be removed, the Beijing government ordered on Tuesday. Such fences, installed to prevent burglary, are seen extruding residential and business buildings everywhere in China. Officials in Beijing deem such fences as impairing the city look and therefore necessary to be eliminated before the 2008 Olympic Games. Instead, inside-building fences will be installed, the Beijing Times reported, but no details of funding for such changes were provided.

Besides removing the fences, other projects will be carried out in the next two years to make the city of Beijing look better, including cleaning up the city corners and turning spaces below the city’s giant over-head bridges into parks.
http://www.beijingtimes.com.cn/news.asp?newsid=170484

----by Josie Liu

On his Anniversary, Mao Zedong is Widely Remembered and Debated, Again
The 9th day of September is the 30th death anniversary of the late Chinese leader Mao Zedong. A multi-million museum about him, funded by the government, broke ground on Wednesday and is expected to be finished next year.

Some mainland media published articles in his tribute, highlighting his great achievements and positive impacts on China’s history. While commercial websites like sina.com set up a special section to memorize Mao upon the anniversary, state-run news websites like that of Xinhua News Agency and China News Service do not adopt the same approach. Instead, Xinhua’s website set up a special section to memorize the Long March, a milestone movement in China’s revolution in which Mao played a major role. The official sites' downplay of the event indicates that under the intricate situation in current China, talks about Mao’s legacy and influence have become more and more sensitive or tricky and the government is cautious in dealing with the publicity in that regard.

Among scholars and the public, however, Mao is more of a figure of controversy, whose contribution and destruction to China are constantly debated.

Following are some Chinese websites featuring Mao’s death anniversary:
http://www1.chinesenewsnet.com/Jiaodian/JD_2006_9_6_14_4_39/
index.html
http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/ws/thread.jspa?threadID=3071&start=0&tstart=0&zh=simp
http://news.sina.com.cn/z/mzdss30/index.shtml

Chinese Economy Suffered Great Loss due to Pollution
Environmental pollution cost Chinese economy more than US$600 billion in the year of 2004, or 3 percent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of that year, according to China’s first official report on adjusted GDP according to pollution costs. Pan Yue, deputy chief of China’s state administration of environmental protect, said the reported number was only a small portion of the real environmental cost, because technology limitations did not allow more comprehensive measurement, China News Service reported. Mr. Pan warned about China’s environmental crisis and its increasing impact on the country’s economic growth.
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/other/news/2006/09-07/786348.shtml

Advertising featuring National Leaders Prohibited
The central government has requested local governments to launch an inspection on local retailers’ illegal use of words, names or images of national government officials in promoting their products, Asian Times reported. After earlier crack down, images of China's country leaders are no longer seen on television, print media or billboard advertisements for commercial products, but some stores are still found using such images on site to help boost sales.
http://www.atchinese.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=21792&Itemid=33

----by Josie Liu

What's New In China

New Reshuffle among Provincial Officials
The Chinese Communist Party is planning to change still more provincial party officials, Hong Kong based Ta Kong Pao reported. Shanxi, Henan and Fujian will soon welcome new heads to their party disciplinary commissions, not long after other provinces, including Chongqing, Hubei and Shaanxi saw the same changes. In Chinese political system, the disciplinary commission plays a key role in supervising party officials, who most of time are also government officials. The latest personnel changes are mostly aimed at strengthening such supervisions, analysts say.
http://www.atchinese.com/index.php?option=com_content&task%0b=view&id=21546&Itemid=33

Shanghai’s New History Textbook Draw Criticism
A new standard world history text for Shanghai high school students drops wars, dynasties and Communist revolutions, and instead tries to depict a more harmonious Chinese history and highlights economics, technology, social customs and globalization, an article appeared in today’s New York Times reported. In the new textbook, Chairman Mao Zedong is mentioned only once — in a chapter on etiquette. Authors of the new text said the alterations were not in line with politics but to “make the study of history more mainstream and prepare our students for a new era,” the New York Times reported.

This article was posted on a popular Chinese online forum and draw a dozen of responses, mostly denouncing the changes. One commentator called such changes “tragedy,” and another, “outrageous.”

This new text is currently only used in Shanghai high schools.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/01/world/asia/01china.html?th&emc=th

----by Josie Liu