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After a US resident found a note in one of her Halloween decorations claiming to be from a Chinese labor camp, the US Homeland Security has been investigating labor conditions of Chinese made products. It's also reopened the discussion on China's controversial labor re-education system. NTD spoke with Gu Chuan, a visiting scholar at Columbia University. He says that China's prisons and labor camps do not rehabilitate people, and the international community should pressure the Chinese regime to reform the systems.
Chinese Citizens Speak Out Against China's Prison Labor System
It’s a modern-day version of a message in a bottle. From a Chinese labor camp to the home of a US resident. On Sunday, the Oregon-based Oregonian newspaper reported a letter resident Julie Keith discovered inside a box of Halloween decorations. She bought it from Kmart in October, 2011.
Former Masanjia Detainees Corroborate Forced Labor Plea Letter
By Albert Ding & Gary Pansey Epoch Times Staff Created: December 20, 2012 Last Updated: December 26, 2012 Prominent Chinese lawyer Guo Lianhui in his office. Guo recently posted an article defending Falun Gong practitioners and asserting that they should be free from persecution. (Courtesy of the subject) “Vast state financial resources have been used for a long time to persecute a spiritual group with many believers throughout China and the world. This is a barbarity indeed rarely seen in the history of mankind.
Chinese Lawyer Supports Falun Gong in China | Democracy & Human Rights
The U.S. Congressional Executive Commission on China held a hearing on December 18 on the persecution of Falun Gong , a meditation practice in China. Present at the hearing was Chung Ting-pang, a Taiwanese citizen illegally arrested and detained by Chinese authorities in June when he visited his family in the mainland. [U.S.
Abducted Taiwanese Testifies at U.S. Congress on Persecution of Falun Gong
A Group in Hong Kong Appears as Front for Beijing | Regime
By Li Zhen Epoch Times Staff Created: December 19, 2012 Last Updated: December 22, 2012 Activists wearing green uniforms gathered along the roadside with anti-Falun Gong banners near the site of the Tuidang event; they later yelled and used horns to aggravate the Falun Gong protesters. (The Epoch Times) Earlier this year an organization began making its presence felt throughout Hong Kong’s streets, harassing people, and presenting Chinese communist propaganda wherever its members congregated. Despite claiming to be a non-profit organization involved in charity work, by far the most prominent public activities by the Hong Kong Youth Care Association (HKYCA) so far have been directed towards harassing and sometimes threatening practitioners of the Falun Gong meditation discipline. The organization’s actions have been widely criticized by Hong Kong’s citizens, and labeled as an assault on the freedoms of speech and belief.
The Christmas season is upon us and parents, relatives and friends will be scouring toy stores looking for the perfect children’s present. This year the US Consumer Product and Safety Commission stopped two million dangerous children’s products from entering the US. The US recently set higher standards for lead levels and required third party testing on all children’s products. Despite the new regulations, the CPSC said it recalled 38 toys in 2012. Earlier this year, the Michigan Network for Children’s Environmental Health and the Ann Arbor Ecology Center tested 99 pieces of cheap jewelry from 14 different retailers.
Watch Out for Dangerous Christmas Toys
As families begin to rebuild their lives after Friday’s brutal school stabbings in Henan’s Guangshan County, new details are coming to light. [Wan Quan, Wounded Teacher]: "The culprit was slashing madly and the students were running everywhere protecting their heads. I climbed upstairs to try to fight with him. He slashed me back." The assailant, Min Yingjun, is in custody and has been charged with jeopardizing public security, according to state-run CCTV.
New Details Come To Light In Henan School Stabbing
Jackie Chan Investigated Following Gun Claims
Jackie Chan continues to make it into the spotlight but not for his movies. In an interview last week the star infuriated Hong Kong residents by saying protests there should be restricted. But now new details are emerging from the interview that’s started a police investigation. Chan claimed in the past that Triads, a Chinese style mafia, harassed many Hong Kong actors.The 2008 earthquake in Sichuan province claimed at least 80,000 lives. A research published this month now suggests the devastating seismic activity may have been caused by human factors. In this report, Canada-based Probe International says evidence indicate that a hydroelectric dam in the area probably triggered the earthquake. The report is not the first to link the dam to the tremors. Several dozen have already been published on the subject. The paper is authored by Fan Xiao.
Engineer: Hydroelectric Dam Linked to 2008 Sichuan Quake
On Sunday Japan elected Shinzo Abe (pronounced Ah-Beh) from the Liberal Democratic Party to be its new Prime Minister. Abe has expressed a tough stance on China. Particularly over the territorial conflict in the East China Sea. Responding to Japan’s election results, China’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman says she hopes Japan’s new leaders will work on bilateral relations.
China Calls For Better Sino-Japan Relations from Shinzo Abe
Chinese activist Hu Jia was attacked by plainclothes national security officers from Tongzhou County in Beijing on Friday (December 14). Hu was leaving his home when squadron commander Su Lijun led an attack. Hu was on the phone with a Reuters journalist at the time. [Hu Jia, Chinese Rights Activist]:
Chinese Activist Hu Jia Assaulted At Home
Wang Lijun Penalized More Than 5,600 Policemen in 3 Years | Regime
By Leo Chen Epoch Times Staff Created: December 17, 2012 Last Updated: December 18, 2012 Wang Lijun, former Chief of Chongqing Public Security Bureau, in March, 2011. (Feng Li/Getty Images) Wang Lijun, who set off a political firestorm in February after attempting to defect to the U.S. Consulate, caused the demotion of at least 5,600 policemen during the three years he worked as chief of the Public Security Bureau in Chongqing City. At least one official was severely tortured and another was executed under Wang’s watch.Chinese State-Media Skews Connecticut Massacre
Many across the world are mourning the massacre of school children in Connecticut, last Friday. But Chinese state-run media took it as an opportunity to fan the flames of nationalism. State-run CCTV provided round the clock in-depth coverage and analysis of the shooting, touting China’s zero-tolerance gun laws. Editor of China’s state-run Global Times, Hu Xijin, was also quoted saying, “Isn’t this a human rights disaster?” It was subtle stab at US calls for human rights reforms in China; something the Chinese regime has continuously called an internal matter. But Chinese netizens lambasted the nationalistic reports.On Friday in Henan Province, a man walked into a primary school and stabbed 22 children . None were killed. The same day, in Newtown, Connecticut, a man armed with at least three semi-automatic weapons shot his way into an elementary school and killed 26 people, including 20 first graders. The two eerily similar acts of violence against children have inspired inevitable comparisons, especially between the gun-loving culture of the U.S. and China, where guns are prohibited for personal use.
School Violence in China and U.S. Spurs Reflection, Debate
Organ Harvesting in China: Supply and Demand
On October 24, 2012, Xinhua reprinted an article from another state media, China Youth Daily, which reported that the Guangzhou Military Command General Hospital has a computerized system that automatically matches and allocates organs to waiting patients. According to the article, “In this nationally connected system, a computer matches organs with patients waiting for a transplant without any human intervention.” The hospital is one of 160 involved in a pilot program for this system.China
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