SOH News

Edge on China 65 - Headlines from China

Following the detention of China’s human rights advocate lawyer, Hu Jia, his defending lawyer, Li Jingsong, has been closely monitored by plainclothes police officers and prevented from getting out of his house.

On 27th of December last year, Beijing Police Bureau detained Hu Jia under the criminal charge of “suspension of inciting to overthrow the government”. Afterwards, Hu Jia’s wife, Zeng Jinyan was placed under house arrest. Zeng Jinyan’s communication with the outside world was cut off completely; she was neither allowed to step outside the door nor allowed to accept any visitors.

Li Jingsong had met 56 writers, lawyers and academics who jointly petitioned and called for Beijing to fulfil its promise of improve human rights when bidding for the Olympic Games, and release Hu Jia immediately.

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According to Chengdu News, on the 11th of this month, six hundred police of Chengdu City in Sichuan Province marched into Taiping village to forcefully demolish villagers’ houses.

According to a report by Radio Free Asia, several villagers got injured when attempting to prevent their home from being demolished by the police.

Presently over three hundreds villagers have managed to prevent the police from commencing demolishing, but it is unclear how long they will be able to hold out.

According to some villagers, the police have previously used violence to force residents away from their home in order to carry out the demolition and relocation.

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In a press conference held this week by the Epoch Times at China’s embassy in Tel Aviv it was announced that over 30 million Chinese people have now renounced their membership in the Chinese communist party and its affiliated organizations.

Supporters at the conference held banners, which told the story of the various crimes against humanity carried out directly or indirectly by the CCP - crimes such as torture, murder, organ harvesting from live Falun Gong practitioners, the massacre in Tibet, demolishing citizens’ houses and restricting freedom of expression.

The banners also paid tribute to the 80 million citizens who died unnatural deaths during the party’s rule.

The wave of renouncements from the CCP began in November 2004, following the publication of the Nine Commentaries on The Communist Party. The book is a series of nine essays thoroughly reviewing the almost 60 years of the Chinese communist party’s existence.

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Authorities in China’s Shanwei City have used thousands of police to crack down and arrest human rights activists in order to complete the last power transmission tower for the City’s power generating plant.

On the 8th of January, the ribbon cutting ceremony was held for the opening of the Hong Haiwan power generating plant.

Villagers went forward with their protest against a lack of compensation for their land that was resumed to build the power plant, but violently restrained and dispersed by security teams and police.

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According to reports from HeilongJiang news, dozens of people from Heilong Jiang province were arrested after going to Beijing to appeal against mistreatment from local authorities.

It is usual for aggrieved citizens to take their complaints to Beijing to be heard by authorities, but recently the response has been a heavy-handed dismissal or, as in this case, arrest.

China Tianwang Human Rights Service calls for unconditional release of all those detained people, and ensure their constitutional rights of appeal protected.

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A man who filmed a dispute between officials and villagers in China on his mobile phone has prompted a nationwide outcry after being beaten to death by the officials on the spot.

Thousands of people have been posting messages on Chinese websites calling for the government agency involved in the incident to be abolished.

There have also been large demonstrations in the province of Hubei where the attack occurred.

Local police questioned 24 people over the killing, four remain in custody.

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According to Heilongjiang News agency, prosecutor Yu Yongshen has confirmed that within two days Chunlin Yang’s case will be transferred to court.

Chunlin Yang is a well known human rights activist and was arrested by the Chinese Communist regime after issuing of an open letter to overseas media outlets, to make them aware that the lands of some ten thousand farmers from Fujin in Heilongjiang were forcibly resumed.

Mr Yang’s letter also asked people to boycott the Olympic Games unless China improves its human rights record.

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Mr. Yang from Guangdong Province had not only quit the Chinese Communist Party and its affiliated organizations with his entire family, but also encouraged successfully for more than 80 of his relatives and friends to quit the Party.

He stated that authorities unlawfully arrested Beijing human rights advocate, Hu Jia, which intensified the anguish of ordinary people and accelerated the demise of the Communist Party.

Mr. Yang stressed that facts and truth proved that human rights in China has not been improved but has deteriorated ahead of the Olympics.

Mr. Yang calls on Chinese people from abroad and domestic to speak the truth, as the reality speaks for itself, and people need to step out to expose the lies of the CCP.

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Following the malignant cases known as “enslaved child labours” in Shanxi Province, according to Hong Kong “Sun Press”, a hairdressing assistant from Shenzhen was kidnapped by sinister gangs and taken to Qian Dong Township of Chaozhou, Guangdong where they are being subject to rape by turn and are forced to prostitute as “sex slaves”.

A young woman escaped and told the media about her ordeal.

At Qian Dong Township, a large number of young girls have similar experience like hers, being tortured by the criminals who would bash the enslaved girls and assault them sexually, which she claimed the local township as “sex slaves camp”.
All strata of local government in Chaozhou City have turned a blind eye to such crimes.

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Chinese community media has verified that during 2007, some one hundred and fifty Falun Gong practitioners died in China as a result of persecution.
Of these, 53.3% were female practitioners and practitioners over 50 years of age.
In the last eight and half years, since the Communist Regimes and Jiang Zemin launched the suppression of Falun Gong in July of 1999, there have been over three thousand confirmed deaths of Falun Gong practitioners as a result of persecution.

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Chinese New Year Spectacular Spectacular News

The Chinese New Year Spectacular continued to woo audiences in the US and Canada this week as the Divine Performing Arts tour visited Dallas Texas, Boston Massachusetts, Denver Colorado, and finally Ottawa in Canada.

The mission of the Spectacular is to revive China’s authentic culture based on 5,000 years of history a culture many believed during ancient times to have been passed down from the heavens.

Hosted in English and Chinese, with vivid, colorful costumes, powerful thundering drums contrasted with soothing music smooth enough to penetrate the soul, the Chinese New Spectacular is truly a crowd pleaser

The week started with the premier performance in Dallas at the Nokia theatre at Grand Prairie.

On the opening night, State Representatives Paula Pierson and Kirk England acknowledged the Spectacular by presenting one of the State Resolutions. Council member Richard Fregoe, on behalf of Charles England, Mayor of Grand Prairie, also presented a proclamation in acknowledgement of the event.

After the show Ms. Pierson said it was a wonderful performance that celebrates the long history of Chinese culture.

“The whole performance is amazing, absolutely wonderful. The programs are bountiful and the color, music, songs, dances, and the background are all magnificent.”

Dallas hosted the Spectacular for a total of 3 nights with the final performance playing on the 9th of Jan.

Next stop on the tour this week was Boston at the Boston Opera house for 4 performances over three days. A special audience member Dr Yang Jianli, a democratic dissident who just recently emerged from five years in one of Beijing’s prisons brought a special perspective to the Divine Performing Arts Chinese New Year Spectacular.

He said that some of the pieces in the show were critically important in letting people know about persecution happing in China today he said that Beijing persecutes democratic activists, intellectuals and writers, dissidents, human rights activists, Falun Gong, and members of underground churches. We need to tell the truth to the world

He was also very impressed wit the spiritual side of the show.

As Bostonians soaked up Chinese culture the second troupe of the Divine Performing Arts touched down in the ski city of Denver Colorado for 3 weekend performances at the Temple Hoyne Buell Theater

Bob and Daffney Baker who watched the second show in Denver on the 12 of January have business in China and have been there often. Daffney Baker was made “a little teary-eyed” by the show. She said, “It is wonderful, just wonderful. I love it. It is beautiful, just beautiful. The dancing is spectacular. The costumes are just fantastic.”

The final Denver performance drew just as much praise, Don and his wife Nancy, from Denver, described the show as colorful and delightful. “I loved the music,” said Nancy.

And rounding out the week of Spectaculars the troupe headed to Canada for their first performance in Ottawa at the Prestigious National Arts Centre. The Canadian reception was surely a warm one

Stephanie Chitpin, associate professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Ottawa, attended the show with her family.

“The singing is one of a kind. The poise, agility of the dancers — it’s really spectacular in every sense of the word,” she said, adding that the integration of western and eastern music and cultures was “fantastic.”

After Ottawa, the show will travel to Montreal and Toronto before continuing its world tour, which includes a 15-show run at New York’s famed Radio City Music Hall. By the end of its tour, the Spectacular will have reached a total live audience of over 650,000 in more than 60 cities across the globe.

www.bestchineseshows.com.