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October 14, 2007 (Sunday) － Issue No. 122 |
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Chinese Regime Attempts to Arrest Vocal Competition Contestants |
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Peking
University Hospital Confirms Live Skin Transplant Banks |
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China's
Rural Poverty Line Far Below International Standard |
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Rights Torch Relay Reaches Sweden The torch represents the hope of concerned citizens around the globe that the Chinese people will be granted the human rights guaranteed by the Chinese Constitution and belonging to every human being....…Full Article |
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The world largest U.S. toy company, Mattel, apologized to China for the recent recall of 21 million Chinese-made toys. Mattel confessed that among the recalled toys, 87 percent were due to design flaws, while 13 percent were due to use of lead paint......…Full Article |
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Police in Fushun City in China attempted on Monday night to arrest three individuals who had applied to take part in a vocal competition to be held in the United States. None of the three happened to be home at the time, and thus escaped arrest. The three singers had planned to compete in the International Chinese Vocal Competition, which is sponsored by New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV). The competition is scheduled to begin on Oct. 15 in New York City. According to Ms. Carrie Hung, a spokesperson for NTDTV, the attempted arrests "show the impact that NTDTV is having on people inside China. This competition has attracted a lot of contestants from mainland China." She feels the attempted arrests happened "fundamentally because the CCP [Chinese Communist Party] fears losing control of the Chinese people. NTDTV is independent and broadcasts uncensored, honest reports about China. The CCP fears how NTDTV's influence inside China is growing." The three singers had previously been in touch with NTDTV about their visa applications. They had first gone to the U.S. Consulate in Shenyang City one month ago to apply. After each of them had shown the required 300,000 yuan (approximately US$39,000) in financial resources, the Consulate nonetheless rejected their requests upon learning they intended to take part in the NTDTV competition. The NTDTV Vocal Competition Organizing Committee then mailed a letter to the U.S. Consulate, and the Consulate in turn contacted the three singers asking them to wait for the result. How the Chinese police learned of the singers' intention to take part in the competition is not clear. All three had passports and so their local police would not have learned of their intentions through a passport application. However, it is common knowledge in China that many of the Chinese employees of the U.S. Embassy and Consulates are assigned their positions by the Chinese Public Security Bureau. The International Chinese Vocal Competition is the second in a series of competitions being sponsored by NTDTV. The International Chinese Classical Dance Competition was held in July in New York City. NTDTV also plans international competitions in Martial Arts, violin, piano, Chinese Sports, Chinese Cooking, Chinese Traditional Costume Design, and Chinese Realistic Painting. The renowned Chinese tenor Mr. Guan Guimin heads the vocal competition's Judges Committee. He has explained that the purpose of the competition is to promote the traditional vocal arts and to show their beauty and elegance. According to NTDTV, so far over one hundred contestants from 19 countries have applied to compete. Ms. Hung sees
in the attempted arrests on Monday a symptom of much larger problems.
She asks, "How could the hosting country for the Olympics behave
in this way? The CCP wants people to believe it has made improvements
in human rights. But when three professional singers wish to do something
as simple as take part in an international competition, then we see
what rights the CCP allows them." Back On September 20, 2007, a Sound of Hope Radio reporter called the Dermatology Department at the Peking University (PKU) People's Hospital to inquire about a skin transplant. The doctor he spoke with revealed that live skin of the required type is delivered immediately to the hospital from the skin bank. A doctor from the Transplant Division of the Department, Dr. Li, told the reporter if he needed skin from a third party, there is a state-run live skin bank that can provide a matching donor. Dr. Li also mentioned the skin comes from young living individuals. The following is the recording: Reporter: "Do you have skin from death-row prisoners?" Dr. Li: "You mean allograft skin (skin flap from another person)?" Reporter: "Yes." Dr. Li: "Of course we do. We have a bank for skin grafts like that." Reporter: "How does the bank work?" Dr. Li: "Our skin bank stores skin grafts from living persons only. It doesn't take skin from dead people because the cells are dead and it will be useless to plant it in your body. The skin grafts are kept in a liquid culture media and will stay alive for 24 fours." Reporter: "I want skin from a young healthy individual, is it possible?" Dr. Li: "Definitely." Dr. Li also revealed: "The skin banks are supplied by a national network. We order a specific type of skin and it will be delivered immediately from one of the banks. All the banks are integrated and belong to a network approved by the government. There are eight skin banks in the country, one of them is located right here in Hebei Province." This live skin
bank interview revealed by the PKU People's Hospital matches the results
of an investigation of an international organization. This interview
proves that there is a large live organ transplant bank organized
by the government. The Chinese government is accused of removing live
organs from Falun Gong practitioners or death row prisoners to supply
national organ transplantation. Back Recently, because of a wide spread pig disease, China's pork prices skyrocketed again, which helped push the Consumer Price Index (CPI) to the highest on record for the past 11 years. Regarding the
situation, The Epoch Times interviewed social economist Dr. Cheng
Xiaonong and commentator Ma Xiaomin, a former journalist from a Shan'xi
Province TV station. Both of them believe pork prices will continue
to rise and the regime's regulation won't solve the problem. The price
increase has already had a big impact on people's daily life, which
increases people's dissatisfaction. This will have a negative impact
on the 17th Communist Party Congress and next years Beijing Olympics. Since pork prices skyrocketed, mainland media often report that sick pigs' pork has secretly entered the market. On October 2, a resident from China's northeast city Jilin, told Epoch Times that since July, large amounts of infected pork entered markets in Jilin and surrounding areas. According to a Jilin resident, on the October 1, China's National Day, one could not find pig feet, a popular and inexpensive meat product in China, in any of Jilin City's major markets. Some meat shop owners have been infected by an unknown skin disease on their arms. Their skin color changed to red with white spots. Shop owners believe they were infected when selling pork from infected pigs. 'Olym-pigs'—Privileged Group's Safe Food Right Facing international pressure about China's export products' safety issue, the regime disclosed to the media that it is raising high quality pigs at a high cost to satisfy meat demands for foreigners and athletes during the Olympics next year. Some pig farmers even told the media, it is their glory to accept this "political task." The regime wants to comfort foreigners by releasing such information, but on the contrary it creates a strong backlash among Chinese people. Dr Cheng said, "The system of raising 'Olym-pigs' has existed for a long time, but in the past it only served high ranking communist cadres. The 'Olym-pigs' news exposed the communist cadres' food privilege. This kind of farm has existed in Beijing for a long time, it is not something new, it just expanded because of the Olympics." "In order to flatter the international society, the regime unconsciously made public its food privilege." Chen added. Ma Xiaomin said, "'Olym-pigs' itself proves China has a serious food safety issue. The communist regime has no confidence that it can solve its general food quality issue. It also proves the regime only cares about saving face, but not people's daily living. "When more
and more of these kinds of incidents are exposed, people will better
understand that all problems in China are created by the regime. Their
dissatisfaction will accelerate the regime's disintegration."
Back The China Development Research Foundation (CDRF) recently released China's National Development Report for 2007. The report points out that the population of poor in China's rural areas may be largely underestimated based upon China's official poverty line of yuan ($91) annual per capita net income. The internationally accepted standard definition of a poor person is one whose daily income is one US dollar or less. In terms of Chinese yuan (renminbi), those who earn 2,500 yuan (US$333) or less annually in China should be categorized as poor. However, the poverty line set by Chinese authorities is approximately one-fourth the standard set by the international standard. Mr. Fang Jue, a Chinese political commentator living in the U.S., pointed out that the Chinese regime deliberately sets a low poverty line standard. "I am of the opinion that China's poverty line standard is consciously, instead of unconsciously, set low. Its purpose is to cover up the widening gap in China between poor and rich, and also to conceal the Chinese regime's serious mistakes in poverty eradication. China sets a poverty line "defined according to Chinese characteristics," which is only one fourth of the international poverty line standard. This is an act to fool Chinese people and the international community," said Fang Jue. Fang continued, "China's poor population actually totals 150 million to 200 million, using the internationally accepted one US dollar per day guideline. This enormous number is much more than the Chinese official estimate. Therefore, poverty reduction still has a long way to go in China, and it will take the Chinese regime a very long time to correct its mistakes in poverty alleviation." Dr. Cheng Chuyuan, professor of Economics at Indiana's Ball State University, said that the Chinese authorities should make massive efforts to improve rural farmers' lives. Dr. Cheng commented, "One dollar only helps one stay alive. One dollar maintains survival rather than a minimum standard of well-being in life. What if one is sick? The widening gap between poor and rich should also cover problems concerning Medicare and environmental pollution. If there is no food to eat and clean water to drink, one dollar serves no purpose. China should make vigorous efforts to improve rural living conditions." Dysfunctional
public services in China's rural areas have overburdened the rural
poor with excessive medical and educational expenses. Medical and
educational expenses are a "new contributor to poverty,"
according to a member of the China Reform Foundation. The huge burden
of medical expenses, in particular, changes rural poverty for the
worse. Back GOTHENBURG, Sweden—The Human Rights Torch Relay completed another leg, arriving in Gothenberg, Sweden where it was greeted by Members of Parliament representing all major political parties in Sweden. The torch represents the hope of concerned citizens around the globe that the Chinese people will be granted the human rights guaranteed by the Chinese Constitution and belonging to every human being. The message of the Torch appealed to Olympic medalist in sailing 1964 and 1972, Pelle Pettersson who participated in the event. "When one hears about how serious the situation is in China, and there is a possibility to influence the Chinese authorities through activities like this so that the lives of the people can improve, I will definitely support it," said Pettersson. The Global Human Rights Torch Relay was initiated by CIPFG to call on the international community to prevent the Olympics Games in Beijing from being exploited by the Chinese communist regime to improve its image, despite widespread violations of human rights. "I think the Chinese communists have basically no understanding of human rights, but for sure they understand the language of economics," said Member of Parliament Cecilia Wigström. Over the years the Chinese regime has intimidated countries that criticise its human rights abuses by threatening to impair their business opportunities. Wigström said that China needs to trade with other countries and vice versa, so there is no reason to fear its rage. "If we have a common line of response within the EU and the USA we will have much more economic power, and I think they will have to consider it," Wigström added. "Our voices
from the Swedish government and the ordinary citizens must be clearer,"
said Mr. Peter Rådberg who thinks that it is doubtful to host
the Olympics in Beijing because China has violated the rules of Olympic
Committee and should be disqualified. "The pressure of the world on China will force the regime to be more open," said Member of Parliament Hans Rothenburg. Back The
'Made-In-China' Danger Back On September 21, 2007, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced a recall of about one million China-made cribs from among 11 styles designed by U.S. crib supplier, Simplicity Incorporated. These cribs have been sold in the U.S. market through both the Target Corporation and the Babies "R" Us Company from January 1998 to May 2007. That same day, the world’s largest U.S. toy company, Mattel, apologized to China for the recent recall of 21 million Chinese-made toys. Mattel confessed that among the recalled toys, 87 percent were due to design flaws, while 13 percent were due to use of lead paint. With several months of bad press concerning the safety of products that come out of China, twists to these recent stories suggest that these U.S. companies share a significant portion of the blame. But consider all the incidents involving China's product safety over the past year, and a definite pattern begins to emerge. With so many stories concerning the safety of Chinese-made products, many in the West have started to ask, "What has gone wrong with China?" As reporters began to dig into the story, many began to reveal the appallingly low wages earned by Chinese laborers. The article "China, The Violin Prodigy" published on the Los Angeles Times on Jan. 13, 2007, mentioned that the violins made in China are "incredible." A violin maker in Studio City, California is quoted as saying, "They're just gorgeous instruments for the price." But at what cost do we enjoy this low price? Has Labor Exploitation Reached its Limit? Cheap labor and poor working conditions have provided China with a competitive advantage in taking the global market by storm, however the products continue to reveal problems with quality. Has the strategy of exploiting low-cost labor to broaden the market share reached the limit? Toy maker, Chen Dong (alias) in Shantou City, located in China's Guangdong Province, employs more than 200 workers in his factory. Appreciation of Chinese yuan has boosted material costs and squeezed the profit margin. Under such circumstances, the only ways to stay profitable, according to Chen, are (1) sourcing cheaper raw materials; (2) resorting to tax evasion (a method of 70 to 80 percent of Chinese companies) and (3) labor coercion. "We would like to offer higher wages to the workers, but we simply can't," Chen explained. "The rental expense and labor cost keep increasing, but the selling price keeps falling. It is harder and harder to make money. We do whatever we can do to survive. If we fail, we can't do anything but shut the door." Back |
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