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April 8, 2007 (Sunday) － Issue No. 96 |
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French
Company's Beijing Manager Arrested for His Beliefs |
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Chongqing
Writer Quits the CCP Joining 20 Million Withdrawals |
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Calls
for Kidney Market as Transplant Demand Soars |
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Hu Jintao's State Visit to Russia Change Chinese-Russian Relations? Past histories of mistrust and poor cooperation between the two giants are deeply rooted. Lack of a solid foundation for building improved cooperative strategies between the two countries may render any current or future discussions useless....…Full Article |
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Chinese classical dance is particularly comprehensive and abundant in its vocabulary. Taking different forms in each historical dynasty, Chinese classical dance has absorbed elements from all areas of Chinese culture including Chinese opera, martial arts and spirituality......…Full Article |
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Ma Jian is the branch manager of the French PCM Pumping Industry's Beijing office. He also manages the company's business in northern Asia. On February 28, 2007, Ma was arrested by Beijing police as he was working. He was secretly sent to a brainwashing class where he was tortured for 20 days. On March 19, Ma was transferred to the Detention Center in Beijing's Dongcheng District. Ma, 38, has a Masters degree in Business Administration. Ma has worked in the French PCM company for nearly four years. He began to practice Falun Gong in 1996. Ma has remained steadfast in his practice even after the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began to persecute Falun Gong in 1999. According to a report on Clearwisdom.net, Ma was arrested by the police at about 5 p.m. on February 28. The arrest took place in Ma's office. Eyewitnesses revealed that Ma was beaten by police during the arrest. Ma's whereabouts had been since unknown after his arrest. Ma's wife Yao Lian now resides in Canada. She has appealed to the international community in an effort to draw attention to her husband's unlawful arrest. Falun Gong practitioners in France and Canada are working on rescuing Ma. On March 24, Yao and Amnesty International co-hosted a press conference in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Yao appealed to the international community to help rescue her husband. Mr. Sushil Handa from Amnesty International's Montreal branch called for international attention to the CCP's continuous cruel persecution of Falun Gong practitioners in mainland China. He also called for attention to the CCP's violation of human rights and international human rights treaties. The press conference was attended by many media groups including CBC French Radio. Following Ma's
unlawful arrest, his family went to the Dongcheng branch of Beijing
Public Security Bureau to request information. A police officer from
the Dongcheng branch denied that Ma was being held under arrest. Ma's
father-in-law and mother-in-law were later asked to sign an arrest
document for Ma Jian. On the written arrest document, the arrest date
was many days later than the actual date on which Ma was arrested
by police. Because of the inconsistencies in the record, Ma's in-laws
refused to sign. CHINA—Gu Wanjiu, a freelance writer from Chongqing City, China, states proudly that he quit the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) on March 22, 2007. The number of people quitting the CCP and its related organizations is now over 20 million. Gu said, “Judging from all the signs, the CCP is just a mindless clown. I don’t want to be part of the clown, so I quit the organization.” After graduating from Zhengzhou Air Defense College, Gu, 49, became a public servant of the Banan District Tax Bureau in Chongqing City, Sichuan Province and a member of the Chongqing Writers Association. At present, he is a columnist for the Web site “Fire of Liberty.” He started to write in 1988 and since then has published nearly 20 books. Request Denied Without Reason Gu was invited to work abroad and applied for early retirement. He handed in his applications for early retirement and for going abroad at the same time. Although his early retirement application was immediately approved, his application to go abroad was rejected. Since the authorities did not offer any reason prohibiting him from going abroad, Gu appealed to the court and the intermediate court. But the authorities maintained the original decision. Gu wrote in his declaration to quit the CCP, “This Marxist and Leninist based party can only ‘deceive, censure and punish people.’ These three tricks serve no use and the CCP is incapable of doing anything else. So I insist to quit the Party.” Gu said that the number of people quitting the CCP is on the rise. After Gu retires, he wants to teach in an Internet college on human rights in China. He has written academic works on the subject, but they were forbidden publication in China. ‘Heaven Will Eliminate
the CCP’ Some people worry
about China’s future after the CCP is gone. Gu thinks that since the
members of the CCP are all Chinese people, won’t the Chinese people
live better by getting rid of the ideology and culture of Marxism
and Leninism? Gu said, “I know that China will become a better place
without the CCP.” Back The Next Magazine, a weekly publication from Hong Kong, reported that infant corpses and fetuses have become the newest supplements for health and beauty in China. Not only is the placenta considered a beauty remedy, but also aborted fetuses are much sought after delicacies. In Guangdong, gourmet body parts are in high demand and can even be purchased through hospitals. The magazine's investigations into this form of cannibalism took them to Liaoning province. According to The Next Magazine, during a banquet hosted by a Taiwanese businessman, a servant Ms Liu from Liaoning province on the mainland inadvertently revealed the habit of eating infants/fetuses in Liaoning province and her intention to return for the supplement due to health concerns. The Taiwanese women present were horrified. Ms Liu also disclosed that even though people can afford the human parts there are still waiting lists and those with the right connections get the "highest quality" human parts, which translates to the more mature fetuses. A male fetus is considered the "prime" human part. At the The Next Magazine's request, Ms Liu personally escorted the reporter to a location where a fetus was being prepared. The reporter observed a woman chopping up a male fetus and making soup from the placenta. During the process, the woman even tried to comfort everyone by saying, "Don't be afraid, this is just the flesh of a higher animal." The boy's remains were cremated in the mountains in accordance with the customs of the region. In fact, in China, reports about meals made from infant flesh have surfaced from time to time. A video is on the Internet for people to view. In the introduction, the Chinese claim that eating a human fetus is an art form. On March 22, 2003, police in Bingyan, Guangxi Province seized 28 female babies smuggled in a truck from Yulin, Guangxi Province going to Houzhou in Anhui Province. The oldest baby was only three months old. The babies were packed three or four to a bag and many of them were near death—none were claimed by their parents. On the morning of October 9, 2004, a person rifling through the garbage on the outskirts of Jiuquan city in the Suzhou region, found dismembered babies in a dumpster. There were two heads, two torsos, four arms, and six legs. According to the investigation, these corpses were no more than a week old and they had been dismembered after cooking. What would make
people do such a thing without any fear of condemnation? Since Mao's
Cultural Revolution, a complete lack of morality and respect for human
life has become the norm in China. Over time, domination by the Chinese
Communist regime has led to inhuman behavior and human rights violations
resulting in abnormal practices such as cannibalism. Back ROTTERDAM—World markets match buyers and sellers for goods as different as oil and wheat or cars and computers. Why not for human organs like kidneys? Strong demand for life-saving transplants and short supply of organs has raised ethical issues about whether humans should be treated like vessels to provide spare parts. With a potentially vast supply of organs from often poor donors in developing countries for mostly rich recipients in the West, calls for "kidney for sale" schemes are getting louder. The traditional ethical view that buying and selling organs is shameful—upheld by legal bans on sales in Europe and North America—is now under pressure due to a dramatic shortage of one of the most frequently transplanted organs, the kidney. "It is morally wrong to continue to let patients suffer and die on dialysis when we can do something to prevent it," Arthur Matas, a University of Minnesota transplant surgeon, told a conference in Rotterdam on European transplantation policy. But defending the moral high ground is hard, because ever longer transplant waiting lists have fuelled a growing black market. The poor sell kidneys to the rich in what Netherlands Health Council adviser Michael Bos called "medical apartheid." In a paper for the conference, Dr. Javaad Zargooshi called a commercial kidney system run in his native Iran since 1988 a failure. It had taken over 90 percent of the market, undermining voluntary donations, but donors had no post-operative care. Gabriel Danovitch, a University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA) transplant surgeon, noted Hong Kong got half its kidneys for transplant from altruistic donors before it returned to Chinese rule in 1997. "When Hong Kong could buy kidneys in China, live donations fell to 15 percent," he said. "In Israel, live donations fell by 30 percent when insurance companies said they would pay for 'transplant tourism' abroad. Swiss parliamentarian
Ruth-Gaby Vermot-Mangold said nobody had a right to replacement organs:
"If we in the rich West need organs, we will have to launch campaigns
on our own ground to persuade people to act responsibly and donate
their organs." Back Chinese president
Hu Jintao arrived in Moscow on March 26, 2007 to begin a three-day
state visit. Political observers have suggested that a new Chinese–Russian
bilateral partnership may emerge as a direct result of discussions
initiated during Hu's visit. Analysts believe that Hu's trip was targeted toward breakthroughs on a bilateral economic front, especially for further energy guarantees. An integral topic during the visit is how to enhance bilateral political and economic cooperation with each other in the global arena, so as to leverage the United State's influence. Different Intentions Behind Possible Bilateral Cooperation Hu believes that the establishment of a bilateral partnership with Russia will strengthen China's influence on global affairs. With increased global economic and political influence, China's negotiating position with the United States on matters of global importance will also be strengthened. Experts agree that Chinese-Russia cooperation on military and energy fronts is a good idea. But past histories of mistrust and poor cooperation between the two giants are deeply rooted. Experts familiar with Russian issues are quick to point out that most Russians would be happy to see a reduced U.S. influence on global issues. From the perspective of stronger bilateral ties with China, many Russians are worried that sparsely populated eastern territories may one day be annexed as Chinese. There are currently tens of thousands of Chinese living, working and running businesses in Russian Siberia. But, at the same time, Russian nationalism and racist attitudes are solidly entrenched in the Russian mentality. It is not uncommon to hear that laborers and businessmen from Asia, including China, and Africa are attacked or insulted on the streets in Moscow. Experts have suggested that Hu's objective for his state visit to Russia is to improve the political and economic relationship between the two powers. But, most experts are pessimistic that Hu's objective will be achieved. Back The
Language of Chinese Dance Back "Ladies of the Manchu Court" (NTDTV) Chinese dance is a comprehensive system, strict in its sense of precision and unity yet unrestricted in its visual language and capable of depicting all forms of beings and emotional expression through bodily and facial movement. The Divine Performing Arts dance troupe has just finished their Australian tour of their Chinese New Year Spectacular – a show which successfully and admirably displays their mastery of not merely expression through dance, but communication of traditional Yet the movements of classical ballet is prominent in the early training of Chinese dancers and is evident in the dancing of Divine Performing Arts. According to Ms Ren´s personal experience, ballet training is a good foundation for Chinese dance. "It's good to start with ballet because it helps people to stand up straight, neck straight and everything straight, their arms... everything has the formality in it," says Ms Ren. "At the same time, when we are practising Chinese dancing, we pay great attention to the rhythm, the meaning, the messages within each movement," she said. Chinese dance can be generally divided into two categories, classical dance and folk dance. Chinese classical dance is particularly comprehensive and abundant in its vocabulary. Taking different forms in each historical dynasty, Chinese classical dance has absorbed elements from all areas of Chinese culture including Chinese opera, martial arts and spirituality. When choreographing a piece representing an aspect of a particular dynasty, Ms Ren explains the level of research required to accurately portray the subject: "When I choreographed the Ladies of the Manchu Court dance, I had to go back and study the Qing dynasty, the history, the culture, customs. First I have to understand the culture then I know how the movements are expressed. That's where we get our inspiration from," she says. Ms Ren spoke of the dance, "Herding on the Mongolian Plains" which she choreographed, "It's very free spirited. There's a masculinity in there, a strong sense of independence... their integrity, and pride of being Mongolian." Through their performances, the Divine Performing Arts troupe have opened a wide door to a greater appreciation of Chinese dance. Back |
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