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Mar 12


[NOTE] This is a translation of a report filed by (王和岩) Wang Heyan in (财经网) Caijing Net two days ago. The content of this report has been making quick rounds in various Chinese Internet forums. It was also picked by other news medias.

The Communist Party Group of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Committee (CPPCC) is staying at the Friendship Hotel. The members of this group are mostly current and former chairmen of CPPCC at province, city and regional levels. They are all experienced officials. [Note: CPPCC is generally where officials are parked after losing or retiring from power (i.e., active party or government positions).] Since they are no longer in the administrative structure and are not constrained in what they can say as before, I had high hopes to dig out something interesting from them.

However, things didn’t exactly go as I planned. Even though they are no longer in power, they kept their arrogance dignity intact, and are simply inaccessible.

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Mar 12

This may start like a bar story, but it may end as a rant: one day, a Canadian colleague, an American colleague and I (Chinese) were having lunch, and we were talking about the health care problems each face in our countries.   In Canada, you pay high tax, but health care is free.  In America, you pay relatively low tax (according to the Canadian), but healthcare is ridiculously expensive.  China’s medical system is so diverse and constantly changing that I don’t know where to start.  Continue reading »

Mar 11

The U.S. accused China of harassing a U.S. surveillance ship in the South China Seas earlier this week.  According to this CNN report,

During the incident, five Chinese vessels “shadowed and aggressively maneuvered in dangerously close proximity to USNS Impeccable, in an apparent coordinated effort to harass the U.S. ocean surveillance ship while it was conducting routine operations in international waters,” the Pentagon said in a written statement. Continue reading »

Mar 10

minipost-German and/or Chinese?

Written by: berlinf | Filed under:-mini-posts | Tags:, ,
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In a recent commentary in the Chronicle of Higher Education (March 6, 2009, A33), Professor Brockmann (professor of German at Carnegie Mellon University) pointed out that the study of foreign languages should not be a zero-sum game.His commentary is a response to the University of Southern California’s plan to eliminate the German Department to usher in studies of Eastern Asian languages such as Chinese and Japanese. I think he has got a point in saying that this is not a zero-sum game.

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Mar 09

The unique history of China and the interaction of Chinese people with the rest of world give China many friends around the world. Those ties have been both strong and historical, despite Chinese’s common animosity towards old Western colonists and Japanese imperialists. This historic foundation will continue to benefit both China and the world for a long time.

The following article is an interview with a well-known Jewish scholar, covering topics both past and present, including sensitive ones such as Muslim world and China, 2008 Beijing Olympics and Steven Spielberg.

Mar 08

As reported by the Reuters, Dalai Lama just issued an ominous warning in Frankfurter Rundschau on Friday:

I am very worried. Many Chinese citizens have armed themselves, and they are ready to shoot. It is a very tense situation. At any moment there could be an explosion of violence.

I suppose Dalai Lama was referring specifically to Han and Hui Chinese citizens, who were on the receiving end of  indiscriminate violences by Tibetan mobs freedom fighters a year ago. Leaving aside the plausibility question of Chinese citizens stocking up guns in China, I wonder why they would feel the need to arm themselves nowadays?

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Mar 07

This post is perhaps a bit ahead of its proper time since the 20th anniversary of June 4th is still about three months away. Nevertheless, the recent chatters in the blogsphere made me check out the background of Chas Freeman, Obama’s choice as the head of the National Intelligence Council, and his comment concerning June 4th. Well, it’s kinda difficult to keep on skipping through posts concerning Freeman, about whom I knew absolute nothing, when James Fallows decided to jump into the fray with a post titled “A fight I didn’t intend to get into: Chas Freeman“.

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Mar 06

Chinese student sue for infringement of rights

Written by: miaka9383 | Filed under:-guest-posts | Tags:,
2 Comments » newest

I was looking at back news for the last month or two in the society section of Xinhua.
This news is extremely interesting… A chinese student had to change his name because the official told him they can’t issue him a new ID card that represents the letter C.
So he sued in court but he ended up having to change his name anyway.. what justice is that? The only benefit that he seemed to get out of it is free id card.

*sigh* poor kid that is all I have to say…
And I think the government of Jianxi Province should upgrade their computer system.
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Chinese student, police don’t “C” eye-to-eye over name on ID card
www.chinaview.cn 2009-02-26 23:39:29 Print

NANCHANG, Feb. 26 (Xinhua) — Is a strange name a crime?

When a certain Zhao family in east China’s Jiangxi Province had a son 23 years ago, they decided to give him a highly unusual name– namely, C. As the family tells it, C stood for China, and it was also intended to encourage the boy to learn English.

But it caused the college student trouble with the police, and he had to change his name.

The Yuehu branch of the Yingtan public security bureau in Jiangxi went on trial Thursday afternoon, as Zhao C sued it for alleged infringement of his rights, a court source said.

The court hearing started at 3 p.m. in the Yingtan Intermediate People’s Court. After a three-hour hearing, Zhao agreed to change his name, but he has yet to decide a new name comprising Chinese characters.

In return the police bureau has agreed to issue him a new ID card free of charge.

Zhao had told the court the police office refused him a new ID card as part of a nationwide replacement program. The police claimed that it was technically not possible to put English letters in names and told him to get a new name.

“I was registered at birth under that name,” Zhao said. He contended that allowing the first registration meant the name was accepted by local security officials.

“I like my name. It is easy to remember and my classmates called me Cici,” he said.

The case first went to court in January 2008, when Zhao’s father, Zhao Zhirong, who himself was a lawyer, sued the Yuehu branch on his son’s behalf. The People’s court of Yuehu District sided with Zhao and ordered the security bureau to issue a new ID card.

But Wan Cheng, director of the Yuehu branch, refused, saying: “It is against China’s regulations to include letters in people’s names.” The branch appealed last June.

According to the fourth clause of the Law of Citizen’s Identification Cards, characters, numbers and symbols could be used on people’s new ID cards.

Zhao Zhirong argued that “C” as a symbol could be used in the name.

However, lawyer Liu Xiqiu noted that the clause actually meant characters, numbers and symbols could be used in “different areas of the card”. “Just as characters are used in names, numbers and symbols are used in the birthdays, addresses and ID numbers,” he said.

Filling the spaces incorrectly would result in the computerized registration system failing to accept the application, Liu added.

“If you fill the name space with letters in the computerized registration system, you won’t be able to submit the form,” he said.

But in 1985, when Zhao was born, registration forms were hand-written, and there were no such problems.

Some students of similar age to Zhao sympathized. “It is unique,” said Lan Tian, a student from the Nanchang University. “The name has been used for so many years and it was the fault of the government at the beginning that resulted in the lawsuit, why should Zhao be punished?”

But another student, 21-year-old Liao Zhenhua, said changing the name was the right decision. “Adding a foreign letter in the name is an erosion of Chinese culture.”

“People should be serious with their names, as they are symbols that will accompany you throughout life,” said Ma Xuesong, head of the sociology research institute of the Jiangxi Provincial Academy of Social Sciences.

“People’s names should be in line with their nation’s culture. If you want uniqueness, you can have strange pennames or online nicknames,” he said.

Liu Xiqiu believed that the case reflected a flaw in the Law of Citizen’s Identification Cards.

“Relevant clauses should be specified so as to prevent similar problems,” he said.
Editor: Yan

Mar 05

As the current world economy crisis drags on, there are still lingering hopes that China just might remain a bright spot in the world economy and help lead the world back to recovery. Continue reading »

Mar 01

Chinese officials in Yunnan have recently taken the unusual step of inviting internet users to help in investigating the suspicious and controversial death of Li Qiaoming in policy custody last month.

The controversy began a little over a week ago, when on February 12 in Puning county of Yunnan province, a public security bureau announced that inmate Li had sustained fatal brain trauma during a game of 躲猫猫 (eluding the cat) with fellow prisoners.  躲猫猫 appears to be a physical game of rough and tumble played by inmates within some Chinese prison systems, and the term 躲猫猫 has since become a hot search term on the Internet in China, generating over 35,000 comments on QQ.com alone.  Continue reading »