Chinese Netizens Hailed the Man who Once Sued Zheng Xiaoyu

Left: Gao Chun

Right: Zheng Xiaoyu

The execution of Mr. Zheng Xiaoyu, former director of China’s State Food & Drug Administration, did not stop the public from discussing the case on the Internet. On Friday, someone named Dongwufeng posted an article on tianya.cn BBS with the title: “Zheng Xiaoyu is dead; we can not forget a hero named Gao Chun.”

Gao Chun, a 41-year-old man from Hunan, gained his fame along with Mr. Zheng Xiaoyu’s fall. He was featured by mainland media as a hero who dared to challenge the corrupt system of Chinese government’s drug supervision and approval, despite his powerless status as a drug company pharmacist. People started to notice his story soon after Mr. Zheng was openly put under investigation.

For over a decade, Mr. Gao has kept reporting to authorities in Beijing, including Zheng Xiaoyu and his agency, about frauds he found with his company’s operation when seeking approval for new drugs back in the mid-1990s. For example, some of the “new drugs” were nothing but imported products from foreign drug companies, but were still approved to be registered as new products in China.

After many years, however, Mr. Gao never saw the head of the drug company received proper punishment and the SFDA never really responded to the alleged wrong doings. He lost his job, his pharmacist license and became a migrant worker. Still, he stuck to his course. In 2003, he sued to a Beijing court for the SFDA’s failure to do its job. The court refused to take the case.

Mr. Gao did not stop. One day in 2004, he called Mr. Zheng’s office. The then SFDA director yelled at him: “What right do you have to sue me? What right do you have to fight against me? I exercise power on behalf of the state!”

Mr. Zheng called Gao “the No.1 freak in the world” and Gao responded with calling Zheng “the No.1 corrupt official.”

Although Mr. Zheng’s fall had no direct connection with Mr. Gao’s unremitting petition and legal efforts, the public still admires his courage and perseverance.

“If we have many, many Gao Chun, corrupt officials will sure be scared,” one online comment reads.

There are also others who doubt people like Gao Chun would make much difference. One poster writes that so long as the entire system remains the same, people like Gao Chun could only be the targets of sever persecution by the powerful, or at best be hailed as hero after the fall of certain officials.

“While admiring Gao Chun, [I] feel sad for the country. Without proper check on power, kill one [corrupt official], more will come,” another comment says.


Public comments
http://www.tianya.cn/new/Publicforum/Content.asp?idWriter=0&Key=0&strItem=free&idArticle=953303&flag=1

Gao Chun’s story by Southern People Weekly
http://www.nanfangdaily.com.cn/rwzk/20070211/sz/200702280031.asp

Suicide Official Expelled from the Party

Mr. Song Pingshun

The Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party has decided to expel Mr. Song Pingshun, a high profile official of Tianjin, from the Party, a decision coming nearly a month after Mr. Song killed himself.

Corruptions of Mr. Song were confirmed by the disciplinary commission of the Party, including keeping mistress and abusing his power to gain illegitimate benefits for his mistress, Xinhua reported. He committed suicide on June 3, the official news agency said.

Mr. Song, 62, was chairman of Tianjin Municipal Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), a post he had held for more than four years. He was said to be the highest-ranked Chinese government official who committed suicide amid corruption investigations in 30 years.

After his sudden death, news about the incident mostly appeared in overseas media in early June. The time and manner of his death varied in different news stories, with some reporting he jumped off his office building, some believing he took overdose drugs, and one story even saying he cut his neck. The latest Xinhua release did not mention how he died.

Xinhua story

http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2007-07-05/152913383142.shtml

Online comments
http://club.cat898.com/newbbs/dispbbs.asp?boardid=1&star=1&replyid=19071378&id=1725291&skin=0&page=1

Some earlier reports about Song’s suicide
http://www.nanyang.com/index.php?ch=7&pg=11&ac=738562

http://hi.baidu.com/%B9%FE%B9%FE%D5%E6%D3%D0%C8%A4/blog/item/6192054efe8ee20bb2de05fb.html

http://www6.chinesenewsnet.com/gb/MainNews/Forums/BackStage/2007_6_7_13_5_14_341.html

National Television Turns to Online Forum for Revealing Extravagant Government Buildings

From top to bottom: a city government building in Zhejiang; government building of a poor county in Shanxi; government building of a small town


In a post titled “You are a citizen, but also a journalist,” the popular online public forum tianya.cn asks visitors to contribute photos of extravagant government buildings around them. The post says the China Central Television is calling for these photos to prepare for a program revealing how local governments waste tax dollars for lavish structures.

Nearly 100 pictures of such structures from all over China, provincial capitals as well as impoverished rural towns, have been posted by the public. Some of the buildings are shockingly huge and splendid, especially when they appear in a small city or town that is not economically advanced. Most of these buildings violated construction and spending limits set for official buildings.

Along with the photos are people’s harsh criticisms of government’s lavish spending of public money. One poster lashed out at the waste by composing a poem, and some of the lines read:

Using people’s money, constructing official building
Minding government’s face, forgetting people’s coldness

The more extravagant official building, the less affordable public housing
…

Officials laugh happily, the public frowns in grief
Corruption and waste uncontainable, how can people’s life not be difficult!

In April, The central government banned extravagant governmental structures, including office buildings, governmental hotels and entertainment facilities, and requested local governments to voluntarily report their own extravagance.

The deadline for self-revealing was June 20, but cover-up by local officials was suspected. Calling for revealing by the public via the Internet could be a powerful antidote to officials’ concealing efforts.

For more pictures and public comments
http://www.tianya.cn/new/Publicforum/Content.asp?idWriter=0&Key=0&strItem=free&idArticle=942333&flag=1

Central government’s ban on extravagant official buildings
http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2007-06/18/content_6258564.htm
http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/04/china_cracks_down.php
http://www.china.org.cn/english/government/207621.htm

Local Governments Blamed for Unsuccessful Environmental Campaign

Rivers in China are facing serious pollution

A campaign launched by the central government to protect drinking water resources fell short of its goals and the State Environmental Protection Administration (SEPA) has blamed local governments for not cooperating with the central authorities.

The campaign, a joint effort of seven state departments, requested that by the end of last year, every province should have drawn up the boundaries of protection areas of drinking water resources, and made sure that no waste discharge outlets existed in “first class” protection areas.

So far, however, only some of the provinces have decided their protection areas, and even fewer have lived up to the requirement of removing drainage from key protection areas, Legal Daily reported.

“Even a joint campaign by seven state departments got out of shape when reached the local level, which demonstrated that environmental protection orders from the central government really faces the embarrassing situation of being stalled,” a SEPA official was quoted by the newspaper as saying.

Staff of local environmental agencies, however, complained that they were simply the scapegoat of SEPA’s poor job. In a comment on sina.com.cn, a poster, who identified himself as a local environmental worker, criticized the SEPA for poor coordination among its own departments and making it difficult for local agencies to follow their directions.

Many other online comments called for stronger enforcement of state environmental policies. One poster said that it hurts to “watch rivers around us disappearing one after another,” and voiced hope for “iron strong” state policies and executions.

SEPA has long blamed local governments for failing to protect local environment but has not yet come up with efficient means to deal with the problem, since the agency has little power to control local finance or personnel. A scholar suggested that environmental protection should be included in central government’s evaluation of local government officials, to push them to do a better job.

http://news.sina.com.cn/c/2007-06-14/081313226115.shtml
http://comment4.news.sina.com.cn/comment/skin/default.html?channel=gn&newsid=1-1-13226115&style=0