Free At Last

According to Dui Hua Foundation, Xue Feng has arrived home in Houston

Foreign media are reporting that Chinese-American geologist Xue Feng has been released and deported back to the United States, according to the Dui Hua Foundation.

If this is true, it will be a bitter sweet reunion for his family, who have been fighting for his release all this time. He was detained in China in November 2007, then formally detained in February 2008 and then tried in July 2009, then eventually sentenced in July 2010 for "illegally procuring state secrets", a vague charge.

The US government had lobbied hard for his release, and even when President Barack Obama visited Beijing and personally brought up the case, his pleas fell on deaf ears.

Xue's case was a difficult one, as China still insists on recognizing those who were born in China, but became naturalized citizens elsewhere as Chinese citizens. As a result, those returning to the mainland to do business are putting themselves at risk of being in trouble with the law -- even if they may not have done anything wrong, but China feels they have.

With regards to Xue's situation, he was working for an American consulting company and introduced the company to an oil industry database he thought was commercially available. The company bought the information and Xue was detained.

For weeks American embassy officials were not allowed to see him, and when they were finally able to, he told them of being mistreated and abused in prison, showing them cigarette burn marks on his arms.

Once one is charged with anything regarding state secrets, the defendant is pretty much doomed and then it's a matter of how severe the sentence will be. For Xue, he served all but 10 months of his eight-year sentence for good behaviour.

Dui Hua Foundation's executive director John Kamm said, "Dui Hua is delighted that Dr Xue has finally been reunited with his family in America after a terrible ordeal. The foundation wishes him every success as he rebuilds his life."

The family also released a statement asking for privacy so that "they can begin the process of recovery from this unimaginably horrible experience of torture, incarceration for a crime that was not committed, and the unconscionable trauma associated with their forced separation that he and his family have suffered for seven and a half years".

How does one begin to heal from an ordeal like that?

How does one get back that time lost from loved ones?

We hope Xue will heal with time and love from his family.

This is a terrible tale of caution where those who are lured back to the motherland must think twice about returning, with the Chinese government becoming more stringent on foreign competition, and having the freedom to deem anything as "state secrets".

Catching a Tiger

Zhou Yongkang was finally formally criminally charged today in Tianjin

After waiting for months, the big news out of China today was former security czar Zhou Yongkang being formally charged with corruption, abuse of power, and intentionally leaking state secrets.

The charges were laid by prosecutors in Tianjin, signally the Supreme People's Procuratorate has finished its investigation and that the case will be heard there.

Zhou has been accused of taking bribes during his tenures as the vice general manager of state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation, provincial Communist Party chief in Sichuan, head of the Ministry of Public Security, and as chief of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission.

"[Zhou's] abuse of power has led to great losses of public funds and has done severe damage to national and public interests, causing adverse social impact," the Supreme People's Procuratorate said in a statement.

There were no further details about the allegations Zhou had intentionally leaked state secrets.

It was last July that the authorities announced Zhou was under investigation for alleged abuse of power and corruption which was a big bombshell, and ever since, China watchers have been waiting for the next phase.

Ling Jihua tried to protect himself by covering up son's death

This is the first time in decades that the Communist Party of China has broken its convention of not prosecuting retired leaders for alleged wrongdoing.

He was a former member of the then nine-man Politburo Standing Committee, the group of top leaders who run China, and he oversaw the state's security system, including police and courts. Zhou retired in 2012.

Since he was expelled from the CPC in December, state media began piling on hints of his criminal prosecution, that he was also alleged to have "exchanged power and money for sex", and even People's Daily described Zhou as a "traitor" to the party.

The Supreme People's Court's annual work report released last month said Zhou had "undermined the party's solidarity and engaged in political activities [not approved by the authorities]", a rare accusation that some analysts suggest indicates that Zhou might also face charges for political offenses.

Bo Xilai was an ally of Zhou's and is now in prison for life

There has been a tightening of the circle around Zhou for a while, with many of his associates detained for alleged graft. One of them is probably Ling Jihua, who tried to cover up his 23-year-old son's death when his Ferrari crashed into a pillar on Beijing's 4th Ring Road back in 2012. Zhou was the one who tried to help Ling senior stop local police from investigating the incident.

Another Zhou associate, Jiang Jiemin, who was then chief executive of China National Petroleum Corporation, was also involved in the cover up, paying millions of dollars to the two victims' families to keep quiet about the crash.

Fallen leader Bo Xilai was also affiliated with Zhou, who tried to support the former party chief of Chongqing to the end. But it was too late and Bo is now serving a life sentence. There were also allegations that Zhou attempted a "coup d'etat" which may be brought up later in the trial.

There is no court date set yet, but at least for now the stage is set for a showdown between the state and Zhou in the court room.

The BBC tried to ask people on the street in Shanghai what they thought of the motivations behind Zhou being charged, but no one would dare speculate. They probably know, but don't want to tell a western reporter what appears to be a political system that's rotten to the core.

Will Zhou's legal charges result in the end of the purges in the senior ranks of the party? It's hard to say but it demonstrates how much rot there is in the system, but also how determined the party is to get rid of it...

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...

Admiring the Horses in Cavalia

Cavalia showcases a combination of horses, acrobatics and aerialists

Last night I had the chance to watch the opening show of Cavalia in Hong Kong. It's created by Normand Latourelle, who was one of the co-founders of Cirque du Soleil. And while the acrobatic and dance elements are there, the addition of horses makes things more interesting and dramatic.

The show is located by Pier 10 in Central, where there are several white tents put up there, and that's where the entrance is, not across from City Hall, where we thought there was a short cut, but we were wrong.

Nevertheless, once we made our way inside, we realized we snagged excellent seats and on top of that sat next to the Canadian delegation that included the former Premier of Quebec Jean Charest and the Canadian Consul General to Hong Kong! Charest played a big role in bringing Cavalia to Hong Kong, and also helped bring it to Singapore last year.

Beautiful choreography with aerialists and horses

He explained that even though he has seen the show over 10 times, each time it's different, with slight variations with the acts. But also with horses, it's hard to know how they will perform that evening, with some equines choosing not to cooperate.

While the show is based around the male horses -- 40 of them in total -- there are acrobats from Morocco and Ghana, as well as aerialists, a lasso artist and a singer to keep the audience entertained.

Everyone was thrilled to see the horses running bareback around the "stage" -- they looked wild, but were tame, for the most part following the trainer's orders. We were later told that they would only listen to their trainer who may have taught them in either French or English.

Parts of the show involved only humans and some incorporated both. We loved the two aerialists who danced in the air while below two men rode bareback on two white horses in a circle going around and around. The moves were not intricate, but were beautifully presented.

Then there was lots of energy from the acrobats, who used a lot of speed, strength and agility to do numerous backflips and balances with several people together. They also had no problems warming up the crowd, getting people to clap in time with the music and encourage them as they did their stunts.

There was a poignant scene of a guy walking on a large ball, and then a black horse with a very long mane meets him. The horse sees he's eating an apple and wants some too. The interaction between them was very cute and emphasized the loving relationship between horse and man, a theme echoed through the show.

Horses spring straight ahead with rider in various poses

One daring stunt were two men and a woman, each having one foot on one horse -- in effect riding on two horses standing up at a relatively fast clip. Towards the end, the woman tried to handle two more horses running in front and jump over a bar, but twice the horses refused to keep going and she wasn't able to finish it.

Later on, some horses ran around according to their trainer's instructions, but a dappled gray one seemed to want to bully another horse, trying to bite the other's bottom. It was amusing for us, and the trainer took it in stride -- which they have to.

It also explains why there is a group of musicians above playing music, so that it can easily be adjusted in case an act finishes prematurely, or they need extra time to set the stunt up again.

This was the case when a man was standing on a horse as it ran around the ring and he attempted to do a flip, but both times he didn't land properly and fell off. As a result, there's a lot of tension for the audience, but that's what make Cavalia exciting too.

After the show some of us waited behind so that the horses could be showered and we could visit them in the stables. We were given antibacterial solution to clean our hands before entering. Many of the horses were busy eating hay and had their backsides to us! But a few were willing to poke their heads up to see who was around.

Unfortunately we were not allowed to pet them on the nose, and their stalls were designed so that they couldn't even poke their heads out, probably for safety reasons. Nevertheless, it was wonderful to be able to see these magnificent creatures up close.

Cavalia

Now until May 10, 2015

Tickets HK$395-HK$1,995

www.cavalia.com.hk