Coronavirus Numbers Keep Rising

The roads pretty much everywhere in Beijing are empty these days

The Chinese government is desperately trying to put a positive spin on how it is handling the epidemic. It has sent out confident messages that the country is at war to beat the coronavirus and that the battle will be won.

But the story on the ground couldn't be further from the truth. For example, most of the Chinese capital is deserted with everyone at home. My Beijing friends report staying at home with their families for the past 22 days, only going outside to fetch food delivered to them.

Some people only go outside to collect food deliveries

Many people are terrified because they don't have much knowledge or information about the coronavirus, and some don't have enough protective gear like masks. A Beijing friend told me about an elderly couple who went out to buy fruits and then came back home infected. 

Another talked about how sons or daughters take care of their sick parents to the hospital and then came home, didn't wash their clothes right away and then they were infected or they spread the virus to other people in the family.

Wonder if these stories were counted in the official statistics?

China is anxious to show its number of cases are declining, especially in Wuhan, but that hope is now thrown out the window with news that over 500 people are infected with the coronavirus in five prisons in three provinces which has bumped up the total of confirmed cases to over 80,000.

The numbers of prisoners infected in China are worrying

"With a heavy heart and sense of responsibility, I am reporting to you that as of February 20, five prisons in Hubei, Shandong and Zhejiang have reported infections among their populations," He Ping, head of the ministry's Bureau of Prison Administration, said in Beijing.

More than half the cases were in Hubei province, the epicenter of the epidemic, 207 cases in Shandong, and 34 in Zhejiang.

Either the prisoners were initially infected by a new prisoner who already had the virus, or from possible visits from family? Even if someone was supposedly healthy when they were initially imprisoned, they may have developed symptoms later. And then Chinese prisons are known for being overcrowded, which make them a hotbed for transmitting all kinds of things...

So now prisons have been told to be more vigilant about monitoring prisoners' health for the coronavirus.

Already heads have rolled for the outbreak of infections. In Shandong province, Xie Weijun, Communist Party secretary of the province's Department of Justice, and seven prison officials were sacked for mismanagement of the infections. And in Zhejiang province, the provincial government said two prison officials were fired as well.

There were already unconfirmed reports of infections in prisons last weekend, and again people were punished for posting these stories online.

Passengers are slowly disembarking from Diamond Princess

Another friend I had lunch with today in Hong Kong has a lot of mainland clients and has an office in Shenzhen. He says he hasn't heard from his clients at all, while his staff are also stuck at home, though they are expected to be back at work next week.

So for now he hasn't had much to do and his superior who used to be so busy is now asking a lot of questions now that she has time on her hands...

Meanwhile in South Korea the numbers of confirmed cases have doubled to 208 today, as well as one casualty. Many of the cases are linked to Shincheonji Church of Jesus in Daegu, which is really a doomsday cult that has 200,000 followers in the country.

Did their leader know this infection might be the end of them?

Japan is getting flack for how it has dealt with the Diamond Princess cruise ship passengers. Was cooping them up on the ship the best thing to do? Or did it quickly result in hundreds of cases? It seems some among the crew could be infected.

Back in Hong Kong, my neighbourhood supermarkets and shops are having stocks of tissue paper again and wet wipes, but no toilet paper... I was tempted to buy a giant package of wet wipes when I stopped to think -- wait a second do I really need that much?

At lunchtime across from my office in Causeway Bay there was a massive line in front of a cosmetics shop called Colour Mix where they were all waiting for masks to be sold (See the above video). It seems people refuse to pay high prices and are willing to wait in line... or maybe because they have nothing else to do?

Coronavirus Spikes, Hong Kong's Leash Tightens

The number of coronavirus cases is now over 60,000 worldwide

Every morning turning on the computer and seeing the latest coronavirus numbers is a necessary but dreaded task. But this morning it was even more shocking because the number of cases was over 15,000, almost tenfold the day before to a total of over 60,000. The number of deaths increased by 254 to over 1,300.

That's because China decided to broaden the definition of cases to not only those who have been tested and confirmed to have the coronavirus, but also include those who show symptoms that make them highly suspect of having the coronavirus, or COVID-19 to enable these patients to get the necessary care and hopefully hospital bed they need.

Zhang Xiaoming has been demoted one rung down

Previously Wuhan would only get a certain number of test kits per day in a bid to slow down or make the number of cases seem smaller. But someone has somehow persuaded China that to better control the outbreak, a more realistic show of numbers is necessary so that enough aid and help gets there.

It's hard to understand -- Wuhan doctors and nurses are working around the clock -- have the PLA doctors and nurses helped relieve them? Or are they too busy manning the newly-built hospitals?

In any event, everyday the numbers are only going to keep growing -- and these are only the cases that China is willing to tell us. There could be many more they have yet to reveal...

In the midst of the release of these shocking numbers, Beijing has demoted Zhang Xiaoming from director to deputy director of the Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office.

The new HKMAO director is now Xiao Baolong

The top position has been taken over by Xia Baolong, a vice chairman of the Chinese People's Consultative Conference and was previously Zhejiang party chief; most importantly he is a Xi Jinping loyalist.

And what is Xia known for? During his leadership in Zhejiang, he apparently issued the order to remove some 2,000 crosses from churches in Wenzhou, which is considered the centre of Christianity in China.

So... one can imagine Xia will be taking a harder line on Hong Kong than Zhang... Hong Kong's protesters will have a formidable opponent to conquer or charm.

China watchers conclude this latest move indicates Xi has changed the puppeteers, but the puppet (Carrie Lam Cheng Yuet-ngor) remains. It shows that Beijing is going to take more control over the city, than depend on the puppet to do the dirty work...

Hong Kong Bookseller Moves to Taiwan

Lam Wing-kee at Hong Kong Airport on Thursday, leaving for Taiwan

The Hong Kong government is intent on passing the extradition bill, allowing the extradition of fugitives to any place the city has an agreement with, including the mainland, Taiwan and Macau.

It's a controversial bill that worries a lot of people, including Lam Wing-kee.

You may remember him as one of the five booksellers at Causeway Bay Books who was kidnapped across to the mainland in late 2015 and reappeared back in Hong Kong in June 2016. At the time he claimed security agents in Ningbo, Zhejiang province had put him through eight months of "mental torture".

Lam resurfaced in June 2016 to tell the media of his detention

He was the only one to speak openly in Hong Kong about his experience, but now with the extradition bill coming up, Lam has decided to move to Taiwan, which he did on Thursday.

Opposition lawmaker Claudia Mo Man-ching, who accompanied Lam to the airport, said yesterday that Lam, 63, decided to leave a month ago and open a bookshop in Taiwan.

"He is extremely worried and convinced he is at the top of the list of those who could be extradited," Mo said. Lam, who was still wanted across the border, had "absolutely no faith in the mainland's legal system," she added.

Someone close to Lam said he had the blessing of the Taiwanese authorities. However it is unclear if his plans to open a bookshop will succeed or not.

Lam was one of five booksellers snatched and taken to China

This is not his first attempt at opening a bookshop there. Despite two years of planning, a deal to open a bookshop fell through last June. His partners pulled out after the wife of a Hong Kong investor complained of threats from mainland authorities.

Nevertheless, lawmaker and former secretary for security Regina Ip Lau Suk-yee said Lam's concerns were unfounded, since selling books was not illegal in Hong Kong and could not trigger extradition across the border.

"I really don't understand what's the basis of his worry," she said.

However Mo said the Chinese authorities could easily set up Lam by charging him with another crime.

Surely Lau would know that, or she has no idea what really goes on across the border?

In any event, we wish Lam the best of luck, but if he fails to set up his bookstore again, where will he go?

Hu Junior Rising up Political Ranks

Hu Haifeng has been promoted to party boss in Xian, Shaanxi province

The Two Sessions are still going on in Beijing until Friday, and the other day there was an interesting announcement -- former president Hu Jintao's son, Hu Haifeng, will be promoted to become the new Communist Party chief in Xian, the capital of Shaanxi province.

The 46-year-old will be elevated to the rank of vice minister, a big jump from his current position of party boss of Lishui, a much smaller city in Zhejiang province. Hu will also become a member of Shaanxi province's standing committee.

While Xian is an important economic centre in China's northwest, it is dealing with the fallout from a political scandal where several officials are under investigation by the party's anti-corruption watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Hu Haifeng is former president Hu Jintao's son

The officials were accused of corruption and dereliction of duty after they ignored direct orders from President Xi Jinping to demolish illegal villas built in a nature reserve in the Qinling mountains.

Beijing-based political analyst Zhang Lifan says Hu's promotion is seen as a gesture by Xi to appease Hu Jintao's supporters, as the president faces greater challenges domestically and internationally.

"Xi is facing a difficult situation now," Zhang said, referring to the trade war with the United States and slowing economic growth.

However, Zhang warned Xian would be a difficult assignment for someone who was not politically experienced and Hu needed to prove he was up for the challenge.

"[Hu] Haifeng initially was not very happy about becoming an official. He planned to become a technician and academic," said an acquaintance of the younger Hu.

"But the [party's Organization Department] picked him because the central government needed to bring in brilliant young people born in the 1970s."

Hu graduated from Beijing Jiaotong University in computer science and didn't enter politics until 2013. He worked as a senior engineer at state-owned Tsinghua Holdings and later became the president of Nuctech, a security scanning equipment maker controlled by Tsinghua Holdings.

Some Nuctech scanners for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil

By the way, Nuctech has a near monopoly on security scanning equipment in China, pretty much a slam dunk in terms of revenues. For starters, every subway station entrance in the country has these scanning devices...

However, Hu's record isn't completely blemish free -- the company was embroiled in a corruption scandal in Namibia in 2009. Hu was president of Nuctech until the year before and then party boss of parent company Tsinghua Holdings in 2009.

At the time Namibian authorities said Hu was not a suspect, but they still wanted him to testify. News of the case was completely censored in China.

No one knows what happened in the end...

Hu's political career started in 2013 as deputy mayor of Jiaxing, a city in Zhejiang, just months after his father retired. He was later promoted to mayor of Jiaxing three years later and Lishui's party boss in July, making him the youngest prefectural-level party chief in the province.

In Lishui, Hu promoted environmental protection and eco-friendly industries, aligning himself with Xi's message that "green hills and clear waters are the true gold and silver mines".

Last April, Xi openly praised Hu's green development strategy and last month, Hu wrote an article in a party magazine in Zhejiang where he vowed to live up to the president's praise and achieve a healthy balance between economic growth and environmental protection.

Hu seems to be one to watch, even though he is reluctantly rising up the political ranks. When Xi throws you a bone, you gotta take it...

Singapore's Burgeoning Art Collection

Inside the National Gallery Singapore there is a lot of space to roam around

After an epic lunch at Odette, the contemporary French fine dining restaurant at the National Gallery Singapore, my friend and I walked around the museum.

I came here over two years ago and was very impressed by the renovation of the Supreme Court Building into a beautiful space that has a lot of room for people to wander and many restaurants and cafes. 

Georgette Cheng's Family Portrait

We checked out one exhibition in particular -- (Re) Collect: The Making of our Art Collection.

The museum went through its collection of over 8,600 pieces and showed almost 130 of them that demonstrate how it has evolved since the 1960s. In it there are works by various Asian artists not only from China like Zao Wou-ki, but also Indonesian, Malaysian and of course Singaporean.

One of the artists that caught my eye in particular was Georgette Chen (nee Chang Li Ying) (1906-1993), originally from Zhejiang province. Her father was an antiques dealer with businesses in Paris, London and New York. He was also a supporter of Dr Sun Yat-sen, which is why Chen and her 11 siblings -- yes a family of 12 children -- were encouraged to speak Mandarin at home and were sometimes taken on trips to China to see the revolutionary effort.

As she was born into a privileged household, she was allowed her to follow her interest in art and even went to Paris and New York to study. She eventually settled on Paris, where she met Eugene Chen, a Chinese diplomat and friend of Dr Sun. Chen was also an art and music lover who encouraged Georgette's art career. They married in 1930.

One of S. Sudjojono's sketches of daily life

However, during the Sino-Japanese war, they were imprisoned and her husband died in 1944 in Shanghai.

She moved to Singapore and her art focused on still lifes, landscapes, and the human figure. In the exhibition there are some of her works, including one called Family Portrait. It features the family of Chen Fa Shin, a long time family friend of the artist.

The description of the work explains the family was close to her as indicated by their relaxed postures. Each family member took turns posing for her, as she sketched them in charcoal and then she painted over the lines with oil.

Chen also became a teacher at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts for many years.

Another interesting artist is Indonesian artist S. Sudjojono (1913-1986). The museum presents a series of ink and watercolour sketches that look like the precursor to infographics. The sketches are so intricate and include some text. They are observations of daily life as well as portraits and urban landscapes.

Stacks of old medicine bottles by Navin Rawanchaikul

One particularly intriguing work is by Thai artist Navin Rawanchaikul (b. 1971). His art installation, Asking for Nothingness looks like a massive collection of old medical bottles stacked up in several circular shelves.

But when you walk behind the stacks, the bottles aren't empty -- they are filled with black and white photographs of elderly people. You can't really see their faces and you're not meant to. The artist is shining a spotlight on how society neglects the elderly and illiiterate caused by rapid modernization.

This is Rawanchaikul's attempt to preserve the seniors' stories, reaffirming their cultural value in society. It's a pretty eerie piece, but it's provocative and forces you to think of all these people, shoved in the back of a cabinet and forgotten.

The National Gallery Singapore also has amazing views on its top floor. When you emerge from the elevator, the roof actually has water running on the glass ceiling and it creates a beautiful reflection of the urban landscape nearby. 

The bottles have pictures of elderly people in them

The rooftop area also provides great views of Marina Bay Sands, the exhibition centre and a massive grassy area for cricket. Of course there are restaurants and bars there for guests who want to eat and drink while taking in the view.

National Gallery Singapore

1 St Andrew's Road

Singapore

178957

Picture of the Day: Trumping the Rooster

The giant inflatable rooster that bears a resemblance to Donald Trump

Well, it is the Year of the Rooster and the Year of Trump.

So why not mash them together?

That's what a Seattle-based graphic artist had in mind when he designed giant inflatable roosters whose headgear look very similar to the new American president.

"I can definitely say Mr Trump has a lot of similarities in that he likes to tweet," says Casey Latiolais.

"And he also likes to tweet at or around sunrise, and if you take away the fact that roosters are kind of loud and self-absorbed, then I think you can start drawing similarities that way."

The factory in Zhejiang province producing these inflatable birds can't keep up with demand for these Trump-like roosters, with workers going on their annual Spring Festival holiday.

But it's funny how Latiolais has drawn a link between the rooster and Trump, who likes to rule the roost, strut his stuff and puff up his chest...

Hong Kong Video Plea goes Viral

Agnes Chow in a screen grab from the video posted on her Facebook page

A month ago, Agnes Chow Ting sent out a video plea on Facebook. Called "An urgent cry from Hong Kong" the video shows her reading out a letter in English, talking about the disappearance of the five booksellers, and how it was important to find out what happened to them.

That video went viral and was seen by over 1 million times and shared 13,000 times.
"I was quite surprised [when the video went viral]. It shows that people all over the world care about what is happening in Hong Kong -- they are shocked by it. I hope people will lean about the political situation and keep their eye on Hong Kong. I am really happy that everyone is showing their support," the Baptist University student and core member of Scholarism said.

"This is the first time that we are aware of Hong Kong people being taken to the mainland because of political feelings about Chinese President Xi Jinping."

Over a week ago Gui Minhai made a strange confession on state television, admitting to killing a young woman in a drunk driving accident in Zhejiang province in 2003, while Lee Po's wife was able to see her husband over a week ago in an undisclosed location on the mainland.

The other three associates have not been heard from since they disappeared.

Chow says more protests need to be organized to further pressure the Chinese government to reveal what has happened to the five people.

"I hope people will start to care more about the booksellers. This case shows we do not have the kind of freedoms we should," she said.

In her video, Chow talks about how Hong Kong people believed that with "one country, two systems", their rights and freedoms would be upheld.

"In the past, we were safe because we lived in Hong Kong instead of mainland China. However, the circumstances have changed with the abduction which was suspected to be done by the police in China towards this bookseller who kept being low profile before."

As a result, in the video, Chow says she fears for her safety too.

"I hope everyone in the world who believes in universal values of freedom and human rights could stand up and speak for this incident to stop the political suppression," she says.

"Even I am afraid of my personal safety after this incident. I still believe we should continuously fight for freedom from fear because it is an important core value that we should uphold."

In the end Chow quotes from German pastor Martin Niemöller, who became an outspoken critic of Adolf Hitler and voiced his regret for not doing enough for the victims of Nazi rule.

First they came for the activists, and I did not speak out. Because I was not an activist.

Then they came for the journalists and I did not speak out. Because I was not a journalist.

Then they came for the bookseller, and I did not speak out. Because I was not a bookseller.

Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.

Reality Stranger than Fiction

Gui on state media apparently admitting guilt to a fatal drunk driving incident

The case of the missing booksellers has taken a bizarre twist, as one of them, Gui Minhai, who holds a Swedish passport, suddenly emerged on Sunday on Chinese state television.

The co-owner of Mighty Current publishing company looked pained as he seemed to read from a statement admitting he fled the mainland to flee from a suspended two-year sentence for killing a 23-year-old woman while driving drunk in Ningbo, Zhejiang province in 2004.

One of the conditions of the sentence was that he had to stay in China.

"I was afraid of going to jail, and there was no way I could develop on the mainland, so I thought I better run," Gui said.

Causeway Bay book store is behind Sogo department store

He apparently surrendered to mainland Chinese police in October last year, though he has been missing since November.

"I have to shoulder my own liability, and I'm willing to be punished," he added, while sobbing.

However, while it is confirmed by his friend that Gui was involved in a drunk driving fatal accident, it is not clear exactly which year it was. While Gui said it was 2004, state media said it was 2003, though CCTV carried reports of the crash in April 2005 when Gui was 46 at the time.

But Gui was born in 1964 so he would have been 40 when the incident happened.

Some basic fact-checking was not done properly on this report.

Nevertheless, his daughter Angela has never heard about this drunk driving case before, and questions the authenticity of his supposed confession.

Gui's friend Bei Ling, co-founder and president of the Independent Chinese Pen Center, says it is highly unlikely Gui returned to the mainland to face charges.

Gui's Pattaya apartment where four men tried to take computers

"What has happened to him is abduction conducted by a country," Bei, a dissident poet said from Boston. "the Chinese government needs to come out and offer an explanation."

He also doubts the video-taped confession, saying it looked like Gui was reading from a "scripted speech".

Bei adds some men tried to go into Gui's apartment in Pattaya, Thailand and seize his computers, but the management office refused to let them in.

Reality seems stranger than fiction here. Meanwhile people in Hong Kong continue to be gripped by this case and wonder what this all means for the rest of us...

Xi's Internet Vision

Xi Jinping gives the keynote address calling for a system of cybersecurity

The World Internet Conference has started in Wuzhen, Zhejiang province, and it seems there are double standards when it comes to foreign reporters and local ones covering the event.

Turns out all overseas guests and tech tycoons were given a Mi Note LTE by Xiaomi, for not only making calls but also using wifi.

All these smartphones were pre-installed with an app offering helpful information about the conference agenda, and was theirs to keep after the conference.

The coveted Xiaomi phone to jump the firewall

Also -- the guests reported being given special access to websites that are usually blocked on the mainland, such as Facebook, Twitter and Google.

One Hong Kong reporter was put in a hotel near the conference site and was given an individual account and password for his in-room wifi.

There he was able to access the normally blocked sites. But if he switched off the account and tried to use the regular internet, he was unable to access the same sites.

Local media not only did not get the Xiaomi phone, nor special access to the blocked sites. Even worse, they had to stay in hotels further away from the conference venue.

Meanwhile Chinese President Xi Jinping gave a 30-minute speech, spelling out his vision for a new system of cybersecurity governance to prevent cyberterrorism, and that each country had its right to set its own rules.

"There should be no internet hegemony. No interference in another country's internal affairs. No engagement in tolerating or supporting internet activities that damage another country's national security," Xi said. "We should respect other countries' rights to peaceful involvement in international cyberspace governance, including their choices of internet development, regulation and public policies."

Not having access to the internet is counterproductive

Ah, that favourite word -- hegemony. Only China uses it liberally to jab at countries like the United States for its supposed control over the world.

But really, no one "owns" the internet. While it is understandable that it needs to be regulated for things like violent pornography, racism, holocaust deniers and so on, the internet should be accessible to everyone who wants access to information.

We are living in an age where being able to access this information is so crucial to one's education, job and well-being that to deny it to people by claiming the need to regulate for "national security" is not the way to help a country develop its citizens and economy.

It seems like the Chinese government wants its people to remain in the dark -- one of the last few ways it can control its citizens through the information they receive.

It's quite ironic China is hosting this internet conference and trying to persuade others of its case for each country controlling its own internet and not to interfere in other countries' affairs.

Sound familiar?

Corruption Begets Salacious Tale

The party's over for Ding Qingping who was extradited back to China

A trickle of Chinese fugitives are being repatriated back to the motherland as part of Operation Skynet, part of Chinese President Xi Jinping's crackdown on corruption.

This tale you're about to read reeks of gobs of money, sex and blackmail.

Ding Qingping started out as a small contractor, but became a big player in the property sector after starting Zhonggang Group in 2003. The company developed real estate projects in several cities in Zhejiang, including Hangzhou, Ningbo, Yiwu and Jinhua.

In order to raise money for a project in Jinhua, Ding secured bank loans worth as much as 200 million yuan and took another 90 million yuan from individual borrowers, according to the Qianjiang Evening News.

However, Ding was not able to pay the high interest.

On September 28, 2008, he sent all his employees on a holiday in Hainan province, took the company's money and boarded a flight from Shanghai to Canada with his wife, leaving behind his huge debts and an unfinished high-rise in Zhejiang province.

In Canada he obtained residency through an immigration investment scheme. But then he ran out of money and then got vindictive.

He began contacting his mistresses -- note more than one -- back in China, asking to meet him in hotels in Hong Kong and elsewhere, where he secretly taped their sexual encounters and the blackmailed them for money, the report said.

In 2011, mainland police issued a red notice to Interpol requesting member countries to locate and arrest Ding.

He was finally caught in Spain in December, and then earlier this month, a Spanish court agreed to the Chinese authorities' extradition request and was just sent back to China recently.

Jackie Collins (left) would have loved this tale, right?

While it's game over for Ding, we have to admit extorting money from his several mistresses is surely creative. One wonders what his wife thought of his scheme.

In light of this incident, we mourn the passing of Jackie Collins, who made a name for herself writing titillating tales of sex, money and power.

Surely she would have found stories like this perfect for novel fodder... and they're apparently real!

Chinese Hi-tech Firms Highly Sexist

Adult film star Sola Aoi was cited in Alibaba's recruitment ad

China likes to say that "women hold up half the sky", back in Mao Zedong's days, and even then that wasn't true either.

Seems like the country has hardly moved ahead when it comes to gender equality, but perhaps these days criticism may finally get things going in the right direction.

JD.com's ad for International Nurses Day last month drew ire

Nasdaq-listed online marketplace JD.com promoted International Nurses Day with images of health workers in lingerie-like uniforms.

"I will never buy things from JD again. What disgusting behaviour!" one woman wrote.

The firm quickly yanked the ad and apologized.

Meanwhile on e-commerce giant Alibaba's official recruitment website, its ad said the company was looking for support staff for computer programmers, mentioning porn star Sola Aoi.

"You can be like 'Teacher Aoi' whose virtue and skills comprise a doubly strong and pervasive fragrance, the world in her breast," the ad read.

"You can be like Song Hye-kyo, from a respectable family, a heavenly beauty, who makes fish sink and birds alight, who obscures the moon and makes flowers blush," it said, referring to a mainstream South Korean actress.

Nothing mentioned about what office-related skills they should have or language ability...

It turns out Chinese technology companies have a history of inviting Japanese adult film stars to events. While the authorities ban online content they deem pornographic, illegal downloads have allowed adult film actresses to have huge followings in China.

Rola Takizawa on stage at an event hosted by Qihoo

In 2013, NetEase invited Anri Okita to its offices, where she ate lunch and took pictures with male staff. Shanghai-based gaming company Dream invited Yui Hatano to its annual company party last year, and internet security company Qihoo 360 hosted Rola Takizawa.

One wonders what the female staff at these companies thought of the company fueling their male colleague's carnal desires in the workplace... or they just shook their heads and continued working...

"In mainstream [Chinese] society, there is objectification of women and gender inequality," said Wang Ping of the Zhejiang Academy of Social Sciences. "It might be more serious in technology companies."

For now, though it seems Alibaba has learned its lesson. Following criticism, it removed the ad and apologized.

It was "intended to be an attempt at humorous marketing to recruit IT talent," the company said. "We apologize to anyone offended... Alibaba is committed to providing equal opportunity and fair treatment to all employees on the basis of merit, without discrimination."

Until attitudes seriously change from the top, sexism will continue to be rampant in China's companies... which means with men in charge, it probably won't change anytime soon...

Being Socially Responsible

Chen Qiaoling (above) and Chen Hongrong recorded China's food scandals

Three years ago, Chen Qiaoling and Chen Hongrong, both graduate students at Tsinghua University's School of Economics and Management, founded Yueyaduo Food Safety Research Centre.

They published a book called China's Food Safety Record in January, documenting all the food-safety scandals reported in the media in recent years.

It took them two years to compile the book, and the pair paid for all the expenses to produce it. This book is the first to record food-safety incidents in China, and has been compared to former CCTV news presenter Chai Jing's self-financed documentary, Under the Dome, about China's air pollution.

Originally Chen Qiaoling thought after graduation she would have a stable job in Beijing, then buy an apartment and a car, and get a hukou or residency permit. But Chen Hongrong challenged her. "Shouldn't you do something beneficial to society and shoulder your social responsibility?" he asked.

Chai Jing made a documentary about China's air pollution

"I was touched by what he said. Hearing the phrase 'social responsibility' reminded me of a course I had taken about business ethics and social responsibility," Chen recalled. "I told him how the course included a case about food safety, and we started talking about the widely reported food-safety problems in China. We decided to do something about the issue, because it was an essential part of everyone's life. Nobody can escape from it."

As neither of them had taken courses related to food safety, the pair had to do extensive research. To gather more information on the ground, they went to nine provinces and municipalities, including Zhejiang, Shanxi, Shaanxi, Hunan, Fujian, Shandong, and Hebei provinces, as well as Beijing and Tianjin.

They went to local farmers' markets, farms and supermarkets and surveyed people's opinions about food safety.

"We found that many people only had a very limited understanding. For example, some thought that if an agricultural product has been sprayed with pesticide, it is unsafe; others thought all food additives were not safe," says Chen.

"From these surveys, we realized that we needed to come up with something to let the public know what food safety is."

They were inspired by Harvey Wiley, the first commissioner of the US Food and Drug Administration in the early 1900s. He and his colleagues published a series of reports on many food-safety issues that made the government, food producers and the public realize the need to improve the situation.

After compiling the book, Chen says there are two important issues regarding food safety in China, one of which is that many Chinese lack integrity.

"Many producers know they are using meat from dead pigs and cows, and that they are producing counterfeit food, but they don't care," she says.

"The second problem is the government cannot implement its regulations effectively. For example, China has set standards for edible oil, but a food-stand owner who sells deep-fried dough sticks isn't aware of them. He also won't know how to check whether the oil he uses complies with the standards. This is why more government guidance is needed."

At first only 200 copies of China's Food Safety Record were published for friends and family, as the authors didn't think anyone would read the book, let alone be willing to pay for it.

But after the book was in bookstores, they were surprised to find many people wanted to buy them, including civil servants, teachers and students majoring in agriculture, and people in the food industry, as well as readers who were concerned about the issue.

"Many people seem to think that it is very difficult to shoulder social responsibility," says Chen. "But actually once you start, it is not that hard at all. It is something many people can do. Many just don't have the courage to take the first step."

We thank Chen Qiaoling and Chen Hongrong for taking the initiative to do the research to put this book together as the definitive record on China's food-safety. Hopefully the government, particularly the central government will take notice and see the shortcomings in implementing its food safety measures and devise more effective ones.

The main issue of integrity is a troublesome one, whose root lies in morality. When people have no morals, then ensuring food safety is very difficult. How does one change the attitudes of unscrupulous people? It's going to take a long time to root out...