Ways That Are Dark

Li Heping is a prominent human rights lawyer in China. The New York Times reports in Chinese Lawyer Recounts Abduction  that he was kidnapped and tortured in Beijing on the eve of China’s National Day holiday.

In the telephone interview on Tuesday night, Mr. Li said he was followed after leaving his office late Saturday by a group of men who eventually grabbed him, put a bag over his head and drove him to a location where they beat him in a basement, sometimes tormenting him with a high-powered electric rod.

Later, he said, the abductors drove him to another location in the suburbs of Beijing, where they left him and told him that he and his family ought to leave Beijing immediately.

After being released by his abductors, Mr. Li said he returned home to discover that some of his personal belongings were missing, including legal files and his license to practice law.

In a statement released to a human rights group, Mr. Li said: “As a lawyer, I had the chance to experience electric punishment and torture. I was rolling on the ground and they continued laughing and beating me. This torture lasted about four or five hours.”

The complete article describes Li Heping as a lawyer who has become well known for his defense of environmental activists, imprisoned lawyers and church leaders.

I’ve been following the adventures of Greg and Francie, who are traveling around the world and blogging about it. They spent several months in China and visited numerous places. I was glad that Greg rounded up this part of the journey with an intelligent and thoughtful 5 Things I Loved And hated About China.

Excellent stuff!

The big Olympic news yesterday was U.S. President George Bush accepting an invitation to attend the 2008 games in Beijing.

But Sophie Richardson, an Asia expert at Human Rights Watch, an advocacy organization, said Mr. Bush was giving “an enormous propaganda opportunity to an abusive government.” The group has not called for a boycott of the Games, though, on the theory that the Olympics could be used to raise awareness of human rights abuses in China. She called on Mr. Bush to do so.

The above is quoted from The New York Times article Bush, After Talks With China’s Leader, Accepts Invitation to Beijing Olympics

The fine line President Bush has to walk with human rights in China is clear. This week, CNN reports that Beijing has arrested a land rights activist who wrote a letter to the government rejecting the games and demanding more respect for human rights. (Source: Report: China arrests anti-Olympics activist).

Perhaps this is what the President was referring to when he said, “China’s leaders can use the opportunity to show confidence by demonstrating a commitment to greater openness and tolerance.”

Was it just yesterday that I wrote about cut and paste journalism in China? Then today, China proves once again that when it comes to making mistakes, they still do things bigger and better than everyone else.

From The Guardian’s This week we want to know all about … The Homer Simpson X-ray:

Xinhua, the state news agency, published a health report on its English-language website, China View, under the headline: ‘Two new genes found for multiple sclerosis.’ It was illustrated by an X-ray scan of a human head, presumably from the agency’s picture library. Unfortunately, it was a cartoon X-ray image of Homer Simpson, he of the domed head and doughnut-sized mouth - and walnut-sized brain.

Doh!

This cock-up is nearly as big as the time that Beijing Evening News plagiarized a satirical article from The Onion and passed it off as real news, not knowing the difference. I wrote about that in Beijing buns a fabricated story?

You wouldn’t expect the official state news agency to have a sense of humor, but it’s not asking too much for them to set an example when it comes to copyright infringement and intellectual property.

As part of our continuing coverage of the countdown to the 2008 Olympics we would like to share with you some information on the cost of prostitutes in Beijing. The truth is, since writing about how prices for sexual services are plummeting in Oldest Profession Flourishes in China we have received a lot of traffic from people looking for information on prices.

Thanks to people doing their homework before visiting Beijing, the top search engine terms leading people to this site are now “Price of prostitutes in Beijing.” If those are the words you typed into Google that led you to this site, congratulations! Put your hairy palms together and give yourself a hand.

This is a short follow up on the Chinese government’s directive to local media that all news must be good news. The new rules are adding more pressure to the already challenging job of copying and pasting articles from Reuters.

The task is not always easy, as one episode showed during ceremonies Aug. 8 marking the one-year countdown to the Beijing Games.

The government-run China Daily ran an item on its Web site that evening pointing out that the site of the festivities, Tiananmen Square, was also the place where in 1989 the People’s Liberation Army crushed pro-democracy demonstrators, killing many. The item — true but touching on a subject banned from Chinese newspapers — was taken down the next morning and an investigation was launched. The author, colleagues said, had lifted the sentence directly from the Reuters news agency in a copy-and-paste maneuver common in Chinese journalism.

The offending journalist was suspended without pay for a month and fined the equivalent of $133, they said.

The above cut and pasted from The Washington Post article: Chinese Media Told to Play Up Positives of Traffic Test.

The Guardian reports in All news must be good news, says Chinese government that local media have been ordered to only report positive news stories in the build up to October’s 17th party congress. That means coverage of ongoing food and safety scandals, including the recent collapse of a bridge in Hunan province that killed over 40 people are off limits.

This makes one question what exactly will be discussed at the party congress. If the media can’t discuss real problems facing the country, will the government leaders have time to talk about them? The most important aspect of the upcoming congress will be the expected unveiling of the next generation of national leaders in a politburo reshuffle.

China has one of the world’s largest parliaments, with about 3000 delegates. Parliament meets for about two weeks a year.

Product Safety is turning into the Chinese news story of the year, and it’s not going to go away until there are fundamental changes to China’s manufacturing practices. A day after it was reported the toymaker at the heart of the unsafe toys controversy committed suicide, Mattel is recalling even more toys. This is a bad sign not only for parents, but for the reputation of Chinese businesses worldwide. In recent months it has been reported that of all companies in China, Mattel has one of the highest safety records and most sophisticated systems of ensuring product safety. Where does that leave the rest of the manufacturers?

Consumers fears will not be allayed until we get a glimpse of some really significant changes. No longer will strongly worded assurances and lofty gestures be enough. China needs to overhaul the way it things are made in its factories if it wants to enjoy the rest of the world’s confidence. The “Made in China” brand is too valuable for the world’s biggest toy factory to be lost as a result of shady businessmen who sell their friends “fake lead-free paint” for children’s toys.

Get more on the latest toy recall in The New York Times article Mattel Issues New Recall of Toys Made in China.

The head of a Chinese company behind a recall of toys that could cost $30 million committed suicide over the weekend. Zhang Shuhong, president of Lee Der Industrial, which supplied toys coated with lead paint to Mattel, was found dead in one of his warehouses over the weekend.

The Washington Post reports that:

His death dramatized the high stakes in an international scare over unsafe Chinese products and an increasingly vigorous government crackdown designed to restore confidence in the export industry.

It has also been reported by The Washington Post and The New York Times that the paint in question was sold to Lee Der by a company controlled by a close friend of the deceased.

Read more in Chinese Toy Executive Found Hanged After Export Ban and  Owner of Chinese Toy Factory Commits Suicide.