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[Aussie Mike]

Forbes.com
Posted by Jessie Chen

A mine worker (Image by AFP via @daylife)
The following is a translation of this NetEase article.

Today, let’s pay attention to the weird things that people are getting used to in China.

Social Phenomena

1. Frequent Mine Disasters

On March 28, 2010, a vast mine disaster happened at the Wang family coal mines, which are owned by Huajin Coal Company. After the accident took place, 108 mine workers escaped successfully, but 153 mine workers were stuck in the shaft. All of a sudden, the disaster got the attention of the media. The media were focusing on the rescue process. After a few days, 111 more workers were rescued, and 38 people died.

In fact, the Wang family coal mines incident is just one of many mine disasters in China. In the first half of 2010, Chinese mine disasters haven’t stopped. Coal mine disasters have happened in many places, such as Xinyu in Jiangxi Province, Xiangtan in Hu’nan Province, Yichuan in He’nan Province, Chengde in Hebei Province, Tacheng in Xinjiang Province and Jincheng in Shanxi Province. The mine disasters have occurred all over China. When we see mine disasters, it is normal that people are worried, sad and angry. But if people see the disasters happening again and again, what should the people feel? I hope that we will not become numb because we are used to all this sad news.

2. Visitors Fall to Their Knees to Meet Government Officials

The former mayor of Zhuanghe city might be the first government official who lost his job because of citizens’ knees. On April 13th, more than 1,000 people from Longwang Temple Village, which is in Zhuanghe city, were in front of the city government office. All the villagers were on their knees, hoping to meet the government officials. However, the villagers still weren’t allowed to see the mayor. After 11 days, Sun Ming, the mayor of Zhuanghe city, was suspended by the higher government office.

On April 22nd, almost 100 villagers from Guangdong province were kneeling in front of a government office. The people were trying to protest the fact that their farms were occupied unfairly. Unfortunately, the appeal was ignored.

A Chinese couple, authors Chen Guilin and Chun Taofu, indicated in their “Chinese Farmers Survey” that upon seeing farmers kneeling down in front of him, Director Zeng Xiaodong had tears on his face. Zeng said, “Because of significant pains and long hardship, these old men were resigned to kneeling on the ground?”

Ten years ago, a report (about the government’s visitors) would shock journalists. Nowadays, visitors kneeling down right in front of government offices is not surprising. Is this a sign of progress in China, or a signal that things are not working correctly?

3. Unjust Charges

When the She Xianglin injustice case was still a hot topic, charges against Zhao Zuohai shocked the whole of China in 2010.

It took 6 days in total between when the “deceased” Zhao Zhengshang was back in the village and the “criminal” Zhao Zuohai was released. But before Zhao was released, he had spent 11 years in the prison. Zhao suffered from harsh interrogation and jail, his case has been a sample of “Village Unjust Charges”. On June 21, the president of Henan Province Court came to Zhao’s new home, and apologized to Zhao with a bow.

No matter what, Zhao’s life can’t be restarted. However, more unjust judgments are a painful part of Chinese justice…

4. Violent Evictions and Unclear Governmental Operations

Here is the current Chinese style of forced evictions. The homeowners try to kill the removers, and protest with slogans on their roofs. The government officials hire people to throw bricks into the houses at night and write threatening words on the gates. Forced evidtions have lead to social dissatisfiction and instability. The “sunshine eviction” policy, which was announced by the central government, has become a “black-box eviction” policy. Local governments not only never tell the public why the lands are sold out and what the lands will be used for, but also the public is forced to sign agreements to keep quiet about the violent evictions. Meanwhile, the subsidies [granted to homeowners] after the evictions are vastly different from place to place. Some people become millionaires in one night, but some people lose everything in one day.

What are the obstacles of a harmonious society? The answers could be plenty, but violent eviction must be one of them.

5. Rough Government Officials

During the 2010 National People’s Congress and the Chinese Political Consultative Conference, different local officials displayed different manners. Some ministers answered the questions with smiles. However, one of the government officials asked a question in reply to a female journalist: “Which unit [publication] are you from [do you work for]?”

In China, we have heard many inappropriate statements like, “Are you speaking for the (Communist) Party or the public?”, and official lines such as “We will do research about it.” The fact is that the Chinese government officials don’t know how to talk properly. The officials either talk in a stilted manner, or keep silent. The problem exists among most Chinese government officials.

6. Charitable Contributions Went to Government Coffers

After the May 12 (2008) Sichuan earthquake, there was a huge development in charity in China. However, a question remines: where have all the donations gone? This April, one person published a post with a question: Is the Chinese government stealing donations?

Wang Zhenyao, director of the ministry’s Social Welfare and Charities Division, indicated that the heavy state involvement was due to a “systematic problem.”

Behind the “policy issue,” the givers were worried: Were the donations used by  government officials for limos?

Related reading: Sichuan Earthquake Donations: Where Did the Money Go?


7. The Loss of Talent

What is the important in the 21 century? Talent! Ge You and Feng Xiaogang (a famous movie actor and director in China) both know this. However, the loss of talent is a problem that China is facing. A report from the Chinese Academy of Social Science says that China has lost the most talented people in the world [to other nations].

When will the talented people come back? A CEO from study abroad organization gave a simple answer: When China beats America, those talented people will come back automatically.

[Aussie Mike]

Weird Things That People Get Used To In China: Part 2
Posted by Jessie Chen

Image via Wikipedia
This is a continuation of Weird things that people get used to in China: part 1.

Social Phonomena

8. Identity Theft for College Entry

In the September of 2004, Wang Zhengrong, a senior police officer in Hunan province, bribed Luo Caixia’s tutor and exchanged his daughter’s identity with Luo’s. Wang’s daughter was sent to Guizhou Normal University in the end. After the “‘Luo Caixia” incident was exposed, officer Wang was sent to prison for four years for counterfeiting of national documents.

Since then, numberous “Luo Caixia” incidents have occurred in various places. The seemingly discerning college enrollment process is just an ornament under the threat of power and money. The last case to grace the media is from a college in Henan province; the school just returned more than 300 identity thieves.

Related reading: Identity theft case signals abuse of power will not be tolerated

9.  Secret Restorations of Government Officials

Chen Jiulin lost $550 million of domestic assets and was arrested in Singapore. However, he has returned recently. In June of 2010, Chen appeared on a senior manager’s list of a central enterprise named Ge Zhou Ba Group. Southern Weekly reported the news, and suspected the SASAC (state-owned assets supervision and administration commission) policies for punishment and the central corporate nominating system were to blame.

Chen’s return is the latest sample of officials’ secret restoration. The Chinese citizens have seen too many “political resurrections.” People argue that it’s not that dismissed officials can’t be forgiven, but that the their restoration to office must make sense and be made public.

10. Shocking Phrases from the Two Conferences (The National People’s Congress and the Chinese Political Consultative Conference)

It is definitely not news that there are shocking words spoke during the two major Chinese conferences. However, this year’s Two Conferences is still exceptional. Since the Two Conferences is a huge deal in China, lots of firms are taking advantages of the marketing opportunity. This year’s news is thanks to Yan Qi, a CPPCC National Committee member as well as the CEO of Chongqing Carefree Habitat Food Culture (Group) Co., Ltd. Yan proposed closing down all the social internet cafes so that the government can build up new, public ones. The proposal sparked a huge public reaction, and the Carefree Habitat website was hacked immediately.

On March 11 (of 2010), CPPCCC member Han Fangming wrote the following on his blog: Last night, a group of people were invited to Yan Qi’s restaurant for dinner. During the meal, Yan showed satisfaction about the consequences that her proposal caused, stating her purpose was to great the most shocking news to come out of the Two Conferences. Yan also said the value of Carefree Habitat had increased 500 million RMB just because of this incident.

In response, Han Fangming said that members from private groups should not seek personal benefits from the state conferences.

11. Has China’s Rich List Become a Bad Luck List?

Huang Guangyu, who is China’s richest man, is serving a 14-year prison sentence for bribery, disclosure of secret information and other crimes. The Huang Guangyu case proved the rule that  “China’s rich list =  bad luck list”  once again.

At the end of last year, the Hurun Research Institute reported that, between the year 1999 and 2008, 49 out of China’s 100 richest billionaires have been involved to fatal business incidents. Professor Ding Xueliang, from the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, summed up the reasons for the frequent failures of Chinese billionaires. First, the power of Chinese governments is very big and broadly applied. Second, the operating specifications for private enterprises in China are limited but not fixed. Third, temptations from the Chinese market are unavoidable. Although there is a high risk from investment, the number of risk-takers still continues to grow.

12. Everyone Strives to be a Government Official

The test to be a government official is the new “national test” and the number of candidates is exploding. After the number hit 1.05 million in 2009, the total number of candidates recently reached the highest in the history with 1.46 million. Back in 2003, the number was only 87,000, meaning the number of candidates had increased almost 16 times in 7 years.

The motivations are very clear: stable working environments and nice salaries.Su Nanhai, the chairman of Human Resources and Social Security Research Institute of Labor, admitted that the popularity of the government official test is strongly related to the current system in China: “The present distribution of social interests are still concentrated in a small number of departments and positions.”

13. The Disappearance of Natural Environment and Wild Animals

Do you remember the compositions about the environment you wrote in primary school? Rivers and shrimp are good memories for our generation, but these good times are impossible for the younger kids. All the (wild) shrimp are gone; rivers are either dried up or turned into drainage ditches.

In fact, we are all just guests of the earth. There is no reason to destroy our kids’ future. Because they also have the right to enjoy the land, the rivers, and the living envrionment.

14. Government Officials Scold Taxpayers

If Guangzhou citizen Wang didn’t film his fight with local legislative officials, more Chinese people would be suffering the ‘roaring work’ attitude. (In fact, even though citizen Wang’s issue was solved properly, most people are still taking rough governmental manners.)

The staff in the Guangzhou Municipal Office of Legislative Affairs has rude manners, and whoever has been to the office must have the same impressions. Their lunch break starts at 12 p.m., but the staff refuse to help anyone after 11:30 a.m. Some of the public’s tax money is used to hire government officials, yet the officials are acting like the masters of everybody. China’s last fedual dynasty was disorganized almost 100 years ago, but the old Chinese-style reputation of government workers remains.

15. (Governmental) Traveling at Public Expenses

The Hong Kong Mingpao News reported that, in 2009, only 5 mainland governmental groups went to Taiwan. However since March of this year, 11 ‘visiting groups’ went to Taiwan.

People call visiting Taiwan is “visiting relatives,” and these travels abroad are absolutely at the public’s expenses. Even though these groups claim to be pursing a certain mission, or working as a certain project team, what they really do is just visit famous sites and have fun. People think there should be fewer of these groups.

16. Corrupt Officials Exposed by Thieves

Seven years ago, when the former governor Hu Fangyu in Guizhou province was sleeping, a thief broke into his house and stole his pants. After the thief took away all the cash, the pants were left behind at the local hospital. Two school students found the pants and gave them to the local police office. The police found 4 deposit receipts all with large dominations. Afterwards, the Discipline Inspection Department started to investigate Hu, and finally Hu was “shuangguied.” (Shuanggui is a disciplinary measure outside the regular legal system under which a party is detained and interrogated.)

Guangzhou Daily called this case one of the “most shocking government corruption cases.”

This brings us to 16 weird social phenomena in China. Expect more in the part 3.

[Hills]

This topic sounds more to me like ,weird things that people get used to AROUND THE WORLD.Why China specified.Yeah ofcourse it's true,we cant justify a wrong by another but the intentions of our acts are clearly of greater importance than the acts in themselve,arent they?.Again here is the thing,if for one reason people in china are USED TO this phenomenom refered to as weird,how then do we categorise them as negative.

Don't know the angle of this article,but which ever way its being looked,China,as other countries,is unique in its self and thus justifies what goes on and what doesnt.Man  we cant go into details,

Shit flies around,you know that

shalom