By Radio Free Asia
August 31, 2010

The beating of an exposer of fraud highlights recent attacks against members of the Chinese media.

A leading Chinese campaigner against academic fraud and fake remedies is recovering as police investigate a brutal attack against him in a Beijing alleyway, his lawyer said Tuesday.

Peng Jian, the legal representative of "science cop" Fang Zhouzi, said his client was recovering well after he was attacked over the weekend by two men, one of whom sprayed anesthetic in his face, and the other of whom tried to beat him with a hammer.

"The thugs planned to have one of them knock me unconscious with the anesthetic and the other one beat me to death with the iron hammer," Fang said in a dramatic account of the attack carried on his personal blog and translated by Hong Kong-based blogger Roland Soong.

The attack took place near Fang Zhouzi's home at around 5 p.m. Aug. 29 after he had finished an interview with Liaoning TV about Taoist master Li Yi, whose claims of superhuman feats of endurance he had investigated.

"Learning from the attack on Fang Xuanchang, I reacted quickly, ran fast, and escaped," Fang Zhouzi wrote, referring to a similar attack on June 24 that left science journalist Fang Xuanchang hospitalized.

The Beijing municipal public security bureau posted on its sina.com microblog: "The police are investigating the attack on Fang and will reveal the investigation results to the public."

Journalists targeted

Chinese journalists and media are increasingly finding themselves the targets of threats and attempts at censorship by private-sector companies as well as government officials if their reporting damages vested interests, overseas rights groups say.

Paris-based press freedom group Reporter Without Borders (RSF) slammed the Beijing police investigation into the attack on Fang Xuanchang as "desultory."

Both Fang Zhouzi and Fang Xuanchang said they are convinced the attacks were acts of revenge by persons they had discredited during the course of their professional lives.

"This was obviously retaliation by someone whom I had once exposed," Fang Zhouzi wrote of his attackers. "They waited near near my residence for a long time until they seized this moment."

"I hope that the case will be solved quickly, along with the case of Fang Xuanchang."

Peng said Fang Zhouzi had also received threatening texts and phone calls about a month before the attack, which resembled in its methods the earlier attack on Fang Xuanchang.

"Fang Xuanchang was attacked by two thugs who hit him on the head with a hammer," Peng said. "Fang Zhouzi was also attacked by two thugs who tried to hit him on the head with a hammer."

"[Like the previous attack], they also used anesthetic, and used extreme force, and didn't say a word. Both attacks appeared calculated to kill their target."

Peng said he believed the attack might be linked to Fang Zhouzi's campaigning against a controversial surgical operation known as "Xiao's procedure," which claims to restore bladder control to people with spina bifida or spinal cord injury.

Fang Zhouzi had recently published an article in the U.S.-based Journal of Urology, which concluded that Xiao's procedure was ineffective, and highlighted the cases of patients who had complained about it on his campaign website.

Xiao's procedure is designed to treat neurogenic bladder due to spina bifida, or spinal cord injury, and has been undergoing clinical trials in China, the United States, and a few other countries.

Response to articles

Xu Youyu, a former professor at the China Academy of Social Sciences, called the attack on Fang Zhouzi a serious incident, but not an uncommon phenomenon in today's China.

"Firstly, he is a courageous and genuine person who works to overturn fraud, fakery, and corruption in academic circles," Xu said.

"I don't think he will be put off by these threats. I am confident that he will continue his work."

Fang Xuanchang also said he believes that the attacks on himself and Fang Zhouzi were the direct result of articles they had written.

"Right now, it doesn't look as if there could be any other reason," Fang Xuanchang said. "This is revenge because we have angered someone with the articles we have written."

"At a personal level, [we] haven't made any enemies, so it's purely the articles. I think we can rule out other possibilities."

Some Chinese media carried front-page coverage of the attack on Fang, with netizens responding in shock and outrage and calling on police to find the attackers.

Original reporting in Cantonese by Hai Nan and in Mandarin by Xin Yu. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

>> Original Source

By Scott McDonald - AP | via UNCENSORED Yahoo! News
August 28, 2010

China's monster traffic jam has reared its head again, with trucks and cars backed up for up to 18 miles (30 kilometers) Saturday on a highway north of Beijing, although that is a third the size of what it was.

The traffic jam came four days after the break-up of an even bigger one -- stretching to 60 miles (100 kilometers) at one point.

State media said the latest jam on the Beijing-Tibet highway was caused by an accident and road maintenance.

The worst of the jam started in Zhangjiakou, a city about 90 miles (150 kilometers) northwest of Beijing, and stretched into Inner Mongolia in northern China, with traffic creeping along in fits and starts.

A woman who answered the phone at the Beijing traffic management office said drivers should not take the highway. "The traffic flow is very slow," said the woman, who refused to give her name.

Traffic jams are part of daily life in China's major cities, with vehicles moving at a crawl in parts of Beijing for most of the day.

In the last traffic jam on the Beijing-Tibet highway, which started Aug. 14 and lasted about 10 days, state media said some drivers were stuck for five days with drivers on the worst-hit stretches passing the time sitting in the shade of their immobilized trucks, playing cards, sleeping on the asphalt or bargaining with price-gouging food vendors.

A bottle of water was selling for 10 yuan ($1.50), 10 times the normal price, Chinese media reports said.

The main reason traffic has increased on the partially four-lane highway is the opening of coal mines in the northwest, vital for the booming economy, which this month surpassed Japan's in size and is now second only to America's.

Officials eased the first jam by directing truckers to take a 180-mile-long (300-kilometer-long) detour, the China Daily said.

It quoted one truck driver, Lu Yong, who was stuck in both jams, as saying he should have prepared some food this time. "Who knows when the traffic will move again?" said the 37-year-old, who was stranded for two nights in the last jam at almost the same location.

A woman at the Inner Mongolian traffic management office said it may take several days to ease the latest jam. "Please do not drive on this expressway," said the official, who also would not give her name.

>> Original Source

By Radio Free Asia
August 25, 2010

Police clear Beijing of dissidents ahead of a star-studded martial arts event.

Police in China's capital have removed a victim of the Tiananmen Square military crackdown from the city ahead of a high-profile martial arts event associated with Hollywood martial arts star Jackie Chan.

Qi Zhiyong, disabled due to injuries sustained when People's Liberation Army troops suppressed the student-led pro-democracy movement on the night of June 3-4, 1989, said he had been taken out of the city to an undisclosed location Tuesday by two regular police and two security guards.

"The police said that it was because of the SportAccord Combat Games," Qi said. "Also I sent an update on Twitter about [fellow dissident] Li Jinping who wanted to hold a demonstration."

"They said they thought I supported the demonstration, and they were putting me under house arrest--for a whole bunch of reasons at the same time."

"I'm in the police car now. They told me that I'd probably be set free at the beginning of September. They don't know the exact timing themselves," Qi said.

Chan's recent Hollywood blockbuster, The Karate Kid, is set in modern-day Beijing and shows an open, prosperous, and hi-tech China likely to find favor with both the ruling Communist Party and Chinese audiences.

Campaigners targeted

Li Jinping has campaigned for years to have disgraced late former premier Zhao Ziyang rehabilitated. Zhao was toppled from power for not taking a hard line with the 1989 student movement, and died under house arrest at his Beijing home in 2005.

Li said he and Qi have worked together to clear Zhao's name.

"The demonstration was to call for Zhao's rehabilitation, for a return to the [guarantees of China's] Constitution, and for returning political power to the people," Li said, after being held for several hours Tuesday at a Beijing police station.

Qi said he had seen messages online from a number of dissidents and activists in recent days, saying they are also under surveillance or house arrest.

He said they included activists Wang Xueqin, Hu Shigen, Gao Hongming, and Liu Shasha.

"What has the Combat Games got to do with me?" Qi said. "It's a boxing or martial arts exchange, I think. What does it have to do with people like us?"

"[The police] said it is an international event with a lot of foreign visitors, and that it is the first time it will be held in Beijing, and that they had to take security measures for it."

Another Beijing-based activist, Wu Tianli, said surveillance is now being used to keep watch on people the authorities fear as potential troublemakers, regardless of the size of the event.

"They are watching us now, whether it's a big event or a small one," Wu said. "Life is going to get tougher and tougher for us petitioners now."

"Before, they might watch you twice a year; now they watch us four times a year, or five. They'll watch you for anything," she said.

Preparation for Games

Chan was in Beijing earlier this week to record the official theme song for the Combat Games, and told reporters he would like to see Kung Fu practiced more internationally.

"I love Wushu [Kung Fu] a lot and I would love to see it included in future Olympic Games," Chan was quoted as saying by the official China Daily newspaper.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) recognizes Wushu as a sport but has not included it as an official event in the Games. By contrast, the Korean martial art Taekwondo and Japanese Judo are now well-known as international sporting events.

However, the IOC allowed China to organize an international Wushu tournament at the same time as the 2008 Beijing Games to showcase the sport--an event that was attended by Jet Li, another Hollywood actor and Kung Fu star.

The Combat Games run from Aug. 28 to Sept. 4, and will feature some of the best athletes on the international martial arts circuit, as well as cultural events showcasing the history of martial arts.

The official theme song of the Games is a rousing anthem with traditional instruments and soaring backing vocals titled "Heaven."

Original reporting in Mandarin by Fang Yuan. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.

>> Original Source

By Matthew Little and Jason Loftus | The Epoch Times
August 18, 2010

The office of Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Lawrence Cannon has called on the Chinese embassy in Ottawa to return a Canadian journalist's passport, which he said was withheld when he refused to provide details about his personal life in Canada.

Zhang Zhaopei applied for a visa to visit China from the Chinese consulate in Toronto on Friday, submitting his Canadian passport as part of the process. But when he went to pick up his visa, he was given a blank sheet of paper and told to list extensive personal information about his work, family, and personal history.

Mr. Zhang refused, saying he would abandon his visa application. But Zhang says he was told he still wouldn't get his Canadian passport back if he didn't provide the requested details.

"I never thought they can do this thing," said Zhang, a reporter for New Tang Dynasty Television and a Falun Gong practitioner.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for Minister Cannon said Canada had asked for the passport to be returned.

"We are aware that the individual in question had requested a visa on Friday to travel to China and that his passport has not been returned," spokesperson Melissa Lantsman told The Epoch Times.

"A Canadian passport is the property of the government of Canada. We have made a formal request to the Chinese embassy that the passport be returned into our possession."

Ms. Lantsman said her office had read Mr. Zhang's story earlier this week in The Epoch Times and that the coverage had brought "much needed attention" to his case.

Zhang was attempting to return to China to visit his family who he has been unable to see in nine years.

Zhang had tried to return to China from Singapore in 2002 and 2004, only to be sent packing once he landed in Beijing and Shanghai, respectively. At that time, he was told it was because he practiced Falun Gong, a traditional Chinese meditation practice that became the target of persecution in China in 1999 and has since put up a spirited defence of human rights.

Mr. Zhang immigrated to Canada in 2005 and is now a citizen. He said he wasn't surprised he was denied a visa this time around, though having his passport withheld did come as a shock.

New Tang Dynasty Television has encountered interference from the Chinese authorities in the past. The regime previously pressured a European satellite carrier to drop the station's signal into China and has also attempted to exclude NTDTV from a press event inside Canada's Parliament Hill earlier this year.

NTDTV and The Epoch Times made headlines in the lead-up to the G-20 this June when a press conference with Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Chinese leader Hu Jintao failed to take place due to the regime's insistence that both media outlets be prohibited from attending, a request the Parliamentary Press Gallery refused to accommodate.

Zhang said the information the consulate requested would have made it easier for the consulate to interfere and monitor his daily activities--something he didn't want to facilitate.

"I think they just want to control everything of myself, including my work and everything ... They want to control everything," he said.

Zhang told the consulate worker handling his case that if they didn't return his passport, he would contact the police. A supervisor there told him to go ahead, he said.

>> Complete Report and Related Articles

By David Barboza | The New York Times
13 August 2010

In an apparent bid to extend its control over the Internet and cash in on the rapid growth of mobile devices, China plans to create a government-controlled search engine.

The new venture would compete with Baidu.com, a private company that runs China's dominant search engine. Baidu's market has grown since Google retreated from the mainland earlier this year.

The state-owned China Mobile -- the world's biggest cellphone carrier -- and Xinhua, China's official state-run news agency, signed an agreement on Thursday to create a joint venture called the Search Engine New Media International Communications Company.

China already has the world's largest number of Internet users, more than 420 million, and also the largest number of mobile phone subscribers, with more than 800 million.

Private start-up companies play a big role on the Web in China, but the government maintains tight control over Internet companies and censors content that it deems dangerous or sensitive.

Now, though, analysts say that Beijing is pushing state-run companies to take a more active role online. China Central Television, the nation's dominant broadcaster, is trying to develop an online video site. Xinhua News Agency is trying to build a global platform of news providers using television and the Internet.

At the announcement of the joint venture in Beijing on Thursday, Zhou Xisheng, vice president of Xinhua, said the new company would build a leading search engine platform. But he also said the move was "part of the country's broader efforts to safeguard its information security and push forward the robust, healthy and orderly development of China's new media industry."

Representatives of Baidu could not be reached for comment.

For years, Baidu has dominated Internet searches in China, holding a sizable lead over Google, which entered the market late. Earlier this year, Google pulled its search engine out of Beijing after complaining about censorship and online attacks that appeared to be coming from hackers within China.

Google now operates its Chinese-language search engine from Hong Kong; it is accessible from China but some results are censored by the government.

Most of China's other big, private Internet companies are involved in online games and entertainment. But on Monday, Alibaba.com, one of the country's biggest e-commerce sites, said the company and a fund co-founded by its chairman would acquire a 16 percent stake in the search engine Sogou, which is owned by the Chinese portal Sohu.com.

Yahoo, the United States portal, holds a 40 percent stake in the Alibaba Group.

>> Original Report