The Effects of Pushing out "Low-End Population"

Migrant workers gathering their things and getting ready to leave Beijing

Last night I met up with a friend from Beijing who's visiting Hong Kong and we caught up since we last met up.

I asked him about the evictions of the migrant workers and he shook his head, sad at the turn of events.

Following a fire in Beijing's Daxing district that killed 19 people, the local government has used the tragedy as an excuse to get rid of the "low-end population", though this campaign has been happening for the past year.

Parts of Sanlitun have been completely demolished

When I was in Beijing in April, the back streets of Sanlitun, where many expats hung out and used to buy cheap DVDs, or have manicures and pedicures, massages and buy cheap clothing and food, were being torn down.

"Beijingers are happy the streets are cleaned up and feel that the city is now becoming more international like London and New York," my friend said, adding he didn't like Beijing anymore because these colourful aspects of the city were now fast disappearing.

In other words, Beijing is gentrifying.

He told me about a small restaurant across the street from where he lived. It wasn't really a restaurant -- a kind of shack -- where they sold all kinds of food, from jianbing or a savoury pancake, to fried chicken wings, noodles and char-grilled lamb skewers called chuar.

It was run by a bunch of young guys from Henan. While my friend described them as a bit on the tough side, perhaps dealing in things other than food, they were nice people, who he got to know as acquaintances. He'd stop by after work for a beer, or pick up a snack for his wife to bring back home, and have a quick friendly chat. They were also open until 5am.

But now they were gone and he didn't know where they went. More importantly he didn't know where to get his snacks and drinks now.

Some people are hardly given much notice to leave

The small cigarette and liquor shops that supposedly sold items that were collected by senior government officials as "gifts" and sold for cheap are also gone. The last time I was there, the closet-sized sex shops had also disappeared.

Not all expats have the same view as my friend who is from the UK and has lived in Beijing for many years. These foreigners like seeing migrant workers gone and the streets are now cleaner, or getting rid of businesses that didn't fit in the neighbourhood, like the aforementioned shack selling food and perhaps were noisy late into the night.

Nevertheless these were businesses that were convenient, cheap and useful for many residents, and what are left behind are empty stalls, or areas that have been completely demolished, leaving no trace of their previous existence.

However my friend has the last laugh -- expats are complaining it's hard to find an ayi (a maid) these days. Gee, I wonder why?

He says his ayi may leave next year if she too is pressured, but doesn't know where to go. She doesn't want to go back to Anhui province, and do what? She has lived in Beijing for over a decade and makes good money cleaning people's flats.

The Beijing government may think it's doing a good thing getting rid of the "low-end population", but really it's shooting itself in the foot. These migrant workers keep the city going. They were the ones who built all the new buildings and infrastructure, but you deny their children education because they don't have hukou or a residence permit, and now you force them to leave because you consider them an eyesore?

How is that equality in the so-called socialist People's Republic of China?

Mao's Loyal Army

Fans of the Great Helmsman make sure critics are silenced

It used to be that criticizing Mao Zedong would result in disaster for one's entire family, so the younger generation is shocked to find that criticizing him can still ruin careers.

Television producer Liu Yong was fired after he defended a critic of Mao online around December 26, the great leader's birthday.

Liu, a producer at Luohe Television in Henan province, was suspended for "wrongful speech that violates political discipline and morals", his employer posted on social media.

The statement didn't exactly explain what triggered the sacking, but Liu apologized on social media on Monday for "having hurt the feelings of the public".

A massive gold statue of Mao in Kaifeng, Henan province

Oh that wonderful phrase of "hurting the public's feelings" has been trotted out yet again.

Previously Liu had posted criticism of the Party and government, and on Sunday posted support for a professor who was forced to retire after criticizing Mao publicly on the eve of the late leader's birthday.

Deng Xiangchao, a communications professor at Shandong Jianzhu University, reposted a joke about Mao on December 25. Without naming Mao, Deng's post compared the late leader to an imperial ruler.

"Being an imperial ruler in China takes skill," the post read. "You should call hereditary rulers revolutionary comrades, and change the emperor's edict into a supreme instruction. But don't be honest about it."

The post angered Mao supporters, who held protests at the university last week. They held banners and yelled slogans such as "down with traitors".

Although some academics supported Deng on the grounds of freedom of expression, the professor, who was one year shy of retirement age, was forced to retire and stop teaching only a day after the protest, when the university accused him of posting "wrongful speech".

And now Liu is also a victim of this purge.

Let this be a fair warning to all!

The incident demonstrates that the country and its people still have very strong feelings about Mao. His followers are disappointed that rampant corruption and the widening wealth gaps were caused by market reforms and the intrusion of Western values.

But there are those who see Mao as a merciless and Machiavellian dictator who was indifferent to the loss of innocent lives, and who uprooted traditional culture and purged intellectuals and his colleagues.

And a posting on social media is enough to get you sacked!

Picture of the Day: Challenging Conditions

Students had to sit outside breathing in air pollution while writing exams

In Linzhou, Anyang, Henan province, 480 students were made to sit outside in the choking smog to write their exams.

The eighth grade pupils had to take the exams on Monday afternoon when local education authorities said schools should close from Monday because of the severe air pollution, according to Dahe News.

Pictures taken by a parent show the students in a football pitch either squatting or seated with low stools used as tables.

Visibility was so bad that day, it was down to only 200 metres.

The school principal didn't seem to understand what all the fuss was about.

"We thought that since we had already organized it, why not just finish the whole process [despite the school being ordered to close]," the principal said.

Ah, the pragmatism of the Chinese wins over health concerns of sitting outside and breathing in severe smog...

Fact of the Day: 61 Million Left-Behind Children

There are 61 million left-behind children like these ones in China

In China, the latest survey by the National Health and Family Planning Commission reveals there's a staggering 61 million left-behind children, a third of them younger than 17, who are not raised by their parents.

The mothers and fathers have gone to mostly coastal cities to find work to send money home and only see their children once or maybe twice a year.

The lack of hukou or residence permit in big cities prevents parents from bringing their children with them because they don't have access to decent housing, schooling and health care.

Many are raised by grandparents or relatives in hometowns

So these children are left to mostly grandparents or relatives to care for, and there are many sad cases of them dying.

Last June, four left-behind children from the same family, ranging in ages from give to 13, committed suicide together by swallowing pesticide in Bijie, Guizhou province. And in November 2012, five boys died from carbon monoxide poisoning after starting a charcoal fire to keep warm inside a dumpster.

Experts believe these incidents happened because the parents were not around to raise them.

But at the same time, where else can these parents go to try to make a better life for their families? Provinces like Anhui, Henan and Sichuan are the sources for the most migrant workers, as 44 percent of rural children in these areas are left behind, way above the national average of 35.6 percent.

What is the central government's response?

In February, the State Council, China's cabinet, issued a guideline to local authorities to improve the physical and psychological health of such children. But there are no details on exactly how they would do that. And would Beijing come to check on the the local authorities to see if the have implemented any programs to benefit left-behind children?

They only have access to basic education which isn't enough

They are the most neglected people in society next to orphans.

Sixty-one million children is not a number to dismiss -- it's almost the population of Britain. And yet they barely get basic education and health care, let alone the emotional support they need to grow up to be confident and relatively happy people with decent jobs.

The government needs to do more for these children, but anything effective and immediate doesn't seem to be a priority. Beijing likes to parrot how it has lifted more than 800 million people out of of poverty.

But what about these 61 million children? They are the next generation who deserve at least a chance to thrive.

Food Safety Fears... Again

A butcher selling pork in a wet market in Hong Kong

Yesterday Hong Kong's Food and Environment Hygiene Department found 319 pigs from the mainland with traces of Salbutamol and Clenbuterol -- drugs usually used to treat asthma, and artificially enhances animal growth and leaness.

However, the announcement was not made until 40 pigs had been sent to 27 retailers in the city, including two Wellcome stores and two Kai Bo Food Supermarkets.

There were a lot of questions why the authorities didn't stop the meat from being distributed, as they could not confirm if any more of the contaminated pork was on the market or if it had been consumed.

Pigs in Jiangxi province were found to be contaminated

Hui Wai-kin of the Pork Traders General Association of Hong Kong criticized the department for letting 40 of the tainted pigs to go through food production before safety results were known.

"Why would the pork be released to the market for sale before seeing the rest results on safety," he asked.

The spokesperson for the department could only say that 2,200kg of pork was confiscated from importers, and an additional 1,300kg turned in by wholesalers would be destroyed.

The contaminated pork came from Jiangxi province, which has now banned all livestock farms there from exporting pigs to Hong Kong. We get 20 per cent of our pork from Jiangxi, and from Guangdong and Henan provinces. One wonders if that pork is also safe to eat...

Pork is such a staple in Cantonese cuisine that it's hard for many families to go without it. They find it more flavourful than beef, and use it for everything from long-simmering soups to stir-fries, dumplings, roasted, and in bun fillings for dim sum.

Many vegetables sold in Hong Kong are from China

This is not the first time Hong Kong has had to deal with contaminated food from China. It again raises the issue of food security that the authorities don't seem to care about, as we also get 80 percent of our water from across the border too, and for very cheap, but is it safe?

Cheap is not a vote of confidence for Hong Kong people, some of whom have decided to reduce their meat intake, or only eat meat from overseas, go completely vegetarian or even vegan.

Surely the Hong Kong government is acutely aware of its residents' feelings towards food imports from China. Taking the necessary precautions to alert people about contaminated food should be its number one priority and stopping it from getting into the food distribution system.

A local doctor has warned that eating large amounts of tainted pork could result in heart failure for those with heart disease.

Do we want to know this after the contaminated pork entered our food distribution system? And if you eat pork almost daily, does this mean the toxins from the pork stay in our bodies for a long period of time? No one is telling the answer.

All the more reason to eat less meat, though vegetables from the mainland have been sprayed excessively with fertilizer and pesticides too... What can we eat?

Human Rights Lawyer on Trial in Beijing

Pu Zhiqiang was on trial yesterday for what he wrote on Weibo

Yesterday one of China's most outspoken human rights lawyers, Pu Zhiqiang defended himself in court on charges of inciting ethnic hatred or "provoked trouble" by writing microblog commentaries critical of the Communist Party.

Pu's lawyer Shang Baojun said the three-hour trial at Beijing No. 2 Intermediate People's Court ended with no verdict, though he expected one "very soon".

The trial took place 19 months after Pu was detained by police after he attended a private seminar to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown.

Many believe his detainment and subsequent trial are a way to silence him and warn other rights advocates not to speak out.

Plainclothes police in black masks shoved supporters around

Pu is charged with "inciting ethnic hatred" and "provoking quarrels and provoking trouble" for the content of seven Weibo messages he posted online between July 2011 and May 2014.

He could face up to eight years in jail.

The online messages are mostly critical of the government's handling of an ethnic conflict in Kunming, Yunnan province last year, and sarcastic comments about two officials.

Shang, Pu's lawyer, said while Pu admitted his microblog writing style was "sharp, caustic and sometimes vulgar", "he said he didn't think he had incited ethnic hatred or provoked trouble. He had no such intention," Shang said.

Pu was not asked whether he admitted to his guilt during the trial.

Security was tight outside the courthouse and while there were many supporters, some of whom were pushed around forcefully by plainclothes police wearing black face masks while talking to foreign media.

Even foreign diplomats were roughly handled, including American diplomat Dan Biers who tried to read out a statement. It took a while before the situation calmed down before he could read it out in its entirety.

A supporter was forcefully pushed to the ground while filmed

He said the United States embassy called for Pu's release and urged "China to uphold fundamental civil rights and fair trial guarantees".

"Lawyers and civil society leaders such as Mr Pu should not be subject to continued repression but should be allowed to contribute to the building of a prosperous and stable society," Biers read out in his statement.

Some of Pu's supporters outside the courthouse chanted, "Pu Zhiqiang, not guilty!"

"He is a good lawyer who helped the underprivileged. He should never be convicted," said Zhang Jie, a petitioner from Jilin province.

Another from Henan province said: "How can he be charged just because of a few words he said?"

China law expert Eva Pils at King's College, London, said Pu's trial was "part of a crackdown on civil society [and] was clearly related to his free speech advocacy and role as a government critic".

"The authorities have made it clear that they see rights lawyers in particular as enemies of the state [and] that it treats the human rights movement as a subversive force it aims to annihilate," she said.

There are health concerns for Pu as he suffers from diabetes, heart disease and high blood pressure. Requests for bail have been rejected by the court.

China needs people like Pu to hold the government accountable, but the authorities clearly see him as a threat. We shall see what the verdict is, but it probably won't be what we are hoping for...

Greed: How Much is Enough?

With corrupt Chinese officials, how much cash can one stash in one's home?

How much is enough to live on?

For corrupt Chinese officials, not matter how much they embezzle it's never enough.

Take disgraced former general Gu Junshan, who allegedly took more than 20 billion yuan in taxpayer money.

He was a former deputy logistics chief of the People's Liberation Army, who strangely built a pistol-shaped house in his hometown of Puyang, Henan province. He filled it with so many valuable items that it took four full loaded trucks to take them away when corruption investigators busted him last year.

The items included maotai or Chinese liquor produced exclusively for the military filled two trucks alone. Then there were also gold figurines, including one of Mao Zedong.

Gu also pocketed over 100 million yuan for selling a Shanghai military property worth 2.4 billion yuan.

So he just sold land owned by the PLA (really public property) and kept a cut to himself? Didn't anyone notice?

It all caught up with him last year when he was charged with bribery, embezzlement, misuse of state funds and abuse of power. His fate is not known.

Another official with ill-gotten gains is former National Energy Administration head Liu Tienan.

He and his family had access to 12 foreign passports, and Liu had five properties in Beijing, Qingdao (Shandong province), Taiyuan (Shanxi province), and also possessed five luxury watches and five artworks by renowned painters Qi Baishi and Fu Baoshi.

Liu was jailed for life last year by a Hebei court for taking bribes of more than 35 million yuan and abusing his power.

Then there was former energy official Wei Pengyuan, who stashed so much cash that graft inspectors broke four bill counting machines when trying to find out exactly how much money he had.

"Wei owned more than 10 properties worth over 100 million yuan... more than 230 million yuan in cash was found in his home," stated a  transcript of his case.

Last year 680 corrupt officials were caught by the Ministry of Public Security, and with Operation Fox Hunt 2015 launched yesterday, the government intends to catch even more suspects.

Reading about these three corrupt officials makes one wonder how easily they had access to whatever money and valuables they could get their hands on, and it was never enough. Or did they think it was a game to steal as much as they could before they got caught? Or did they do it because everyone else was doing it and felt they were missing out if they didn't do it too?

Someone should do research on these corrupt officials to find out the the psychology behind them, because no matter how many officials get caught, there are still many more behind them...

Innocent Observation?

The picture of a student's letter to Xi Jinping

Seems like the the topic of the Chinese president's weight is off limits when it comes to the censors.

A nine-year-old schoolboy from Henan wrote an essay suggesting Xi Jinping should shed some pounds and it went viral after his father thought it was amusing and posted a picture of it on his WeChat.

It was soon picked up by the media, but then word came down from the propaganda department to take down any reference to it.

The innocent letter by Niu Ziru was addressed to "Xi Dada", a close term for an older man, and started off talking about the space industry.

"The United States and Russia -- even the European Union and India -- are all planning to land on Mars. Let's hurry up," Niu wrote.

Then he changed the topic to something he thought was a "lighter subject" by saying, "Xi Dada, you could lose some weight. [You] don't have to look as slim as [US President Barack] Obama. It's all right to look like [Russian President Vladimir] Putin."

The Zhengzhou Evening News ran a story on the letter, but then it and other news outlets scrubbed the story from their online editions.

What's wrong with an innocent suggestion as that? He's only concerned for Xi's health...