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February 4, 2007 (Sunday) － Issue No. 87 |
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Forty
Percent of College Students in Guangzhou City Believe They Will Collapse
From Stress |
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Reporters
Without Borders Visits China |
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Chinese
Officials Still Killing Falun Gong for Organs, Report Says |
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Regime Jams Phone Lines of Chinese New Year Global Spectacular Chinese agents have been jamming the show's ticket-purchasing and information hotlines in an attempt to prevent legitimate customers from seeing the show. The repeated calls to the hotlines are all made using recordings from a phone number from mainland China, 86-17911022000....…Full Article |
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China's Anti-Satellite Weapon No Threat to U.S. Missle Defense Brigadier General Patrick O'Reilly says the Missile Defense Agency's system, designed to destroy ballistic missiles heading for targets in the United States, uses the same type of technology that could be used to counter China's anti-satellite weapon......…Full Article |
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A survey of 126,000 college students in China revealed that 20.3 percent of the students have psychological problems. In the colleges in Guangdong Province, between three and five students from almost every college are sent to mental hospitals every year for psychological disorders. The numbers are increasing rapidly because of the stress of future employment and relationships. In addition, more and more students are committing suicide. According to investigations carried out by Beijing, the most common cause of students deferring college 20 years ago was contagious diseases. Today the most common cause is psychological diseases. The percentage is higher among graduates. A psychological investigation conducted last year on 7,000 college students in more than 20 colleges and universities in Beijing showed that 12.3 percent of college students have above-average psychological problems. Fifty percent have no future goals and feel confused about their future employment. Only 8.3 percent are confident and have definite goals for the future. An investigation of college students in Guangzhou showed that 40 percent of students were very anxious about their future career. The investigation covered students' self-evaluation, study environment, future employment, emotional problems, relationships, and family situations. The questionnaires were distributed to 1,200 college students in Guangdong Province. The investigators received 1,116 valid answer sheets, which was a 93 percent response rate. What attracted the most attention was the question, "Are you very stressed at present?" 39.4 percent of college students said "yes" and that the stress had made them "nearly collapse." This response was higher among female students, and also higher among seniors and graduates, compared to freshmen and juniors. According to statistics
from the Guangzhou Mental Diseases Hospital, the percentage of college
students affected with psychological problems is increasing every
year. Among the 1,500 patients admitted to the hospital every year,
about 100 are college students and most of them are from colleges
in Guangzhou. Back PARIS—Recently, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the human rights organization known for defending freedom of the press around the world, was for the first time able to make an official visit to China. According to RSF Asian affairs lead, Mr. Vincent Brossel, who himself had just returned from China, RSF held talks with the Chinese communist regime. They raised the issue of press freedom and suggested ways to improve it. Beijing said the authorities would consider these issues in exchange for the temporary halt of a boycott against the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. But Mr. Brossel stressed that if Beijing does not fulfill its promises, the RSF will resume the boycott. "We submitted a list of 80 prisoners' names, mainly journalists and cyber-dissidents and demanded their release," Brossel told the reporter. "We also requested the right to visit these prisoners. Our third demand is frequent and serious talks with the Chinese regime. Also we urged the Chinese authorities to revoke its suppressive restrictions of the Internet." Among the 80 people, Brossel particularly mentioned Internet users who downloaded or spread information about Falun Gong, Tibet, Xinjiang Province (a province with high population of Chinese Muslims) and Christianity, and promised to make every possible effort to restore their freedom. The RSF demanded the Chinese regime give substantial feedback. To pursue a constructive conversation, the RSF agreed to halt the boycott against the Beijing Olympic Games. But if Beijing would not keep its promise, the boycott would be resumed. Brossel said, "It is clear to us that the conversation does not mean we gave up our right to criticize the regime. Our annual report, news releases, activities and our voiced support to journalists and dissidents will reveal to the world what is happening in China. We will always stand on the side of democracy, not dictators." Brossels also said that the RSF will watch over the freedom of international journalists during the Olympic Games in China. The RSF also reminded Beijing not to break the new regulations that promise to allow more freedom to foreign journalists working in China that took effect on January 1, 2007. The Chinese government
did not allow RSF to visit the imprisoned journalists, but RSF said
they would continue requesting to see the detainees. Back With just eight months until the Seventeenth Party's Congress, the power struggle inside the Chinese communist regime has developed into a life and death battle between the two factions led by Hu Jintao and former leader Jiang Zemin. Targeting one another's factions to weaken and dismantle the other's power is not a simple game of battleships. The "Shanghai
faction," Looses Ground Next Target: Jiang
Mianheng Hu's target is still aiming higher and closer to Jiang Zemin. Currently, negative news regarding Jiang Zemin's eldest son Jiang Mianheng began to show up on China's internet. People in Shanghai are being encouraged to report any questionable activities involving Jiang Mianheng. And once again, Shanghai tycoon Zhou Zhengyi, who has close ties with Jiang's faction, was also arrested. Hu's Greatest
Challenge—the Military Sooner or later,
there will be a decisive battle between Hu and Jiang, and judging
from the current situation, it's not far away. Back "We believe that there has been and continues today to be large-scale organ seizures from unwilling Falun Gong practitioners," conclude the Canadian authors of a groundbreaking report on organ harvesting in China, in its revised version introduced in Ottawa on Jan. 31. After releasing their original report on July 6, 2006, authors David Matas, an international human rights lawyer, and David Kilgour, the former Canadian Secretary of State for Asia-Pacific, have travelled to almost 30 countries to conduct further research and publicize their findings. Matas said the new report aims to answer criticism leveled against the original report and present new information. It will also produce a more analytical framework to the discussion, he said. The 65-page report, over 20 pages longer than the original, addresses 33 topics, 16 of which are new. The new report sheds light on the state of health and military financing in China. Both rely on money made from illegal organ transplants to make up for budget shortfalls, says the report. The report cites 41,500 unexplained organ transplants from 2000 to 2005—the 6-year period since the persecution of Falun Gong began in 1999—that do not come from convicted executed prisoners, the brain-dead, or family donors. "Falun Gong practitioners that simply get killed and [their organs] sold to the highest bidder—these are the people we are trying to protect," said Kilgour. The report authors suggest a series of ways to discourage foreigners, who account for a significant number of the organ transplant recipients in China, from seeking organs there. "The reason it is happening is that we have a totalitarian government combined with what I call 'carnivore capitalism' where anything goes, and it shouldn't surprise people to know that this unimaginable practice is happening," he said. Kilgour believes
the International Olympic Committee should "start to make some
very stiff demands on China," starting with stopping organ harvesting
immediately. He added that if the organ harvesting does not stop,
thousands and thousands of people will arrive in Beijing in 2008 with
badges saying "stop persecuting Falun Gong" or "stop
organ snatching." Back Just days before the New Tang Dynasty TV's Chinese New Year Global Spectacular opens in Houston this weekend, agents of the Chinese regime worked nonstop to undermine the show. Chinese agents have been jamming the show's ticket-purchasing and information hotlines in an attempt to prevent legitimate customers from seeing the show. The repeated calls to the hotlines are all made using recordings from a phone number from mainland China, 86-17911022000. Other cities hosting the touring Chinese New Year Spectacular, such as New York, Washington DC, Chicago, Boston and Atlanta, were also the target of harassing phone calls throughout the last two days. These calls jammed the phone lines, making it impossible for customers to ask for information. The Chinese communist regime has severely interfered with the New Year's celebration show. According to NTDTV Los Angeles, the Chinese consulate there used various means to undermine the Spectacular, including writing to media and government officials to defame the show and pressuring sponsors to withdraw their support for the show. The Chinese Consulate General in Sydney sent large number of letters to members of Parliament of Australia and New South Wales, attacking NTDTV and urging the legislators not to record or write New Year's greetings for NTDTV, and not to attend the NTDTV reception and New Year's show. In South Korea, the Chinese communist regime pressured the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Department of Culture and Tourism, and the National Theater of Korea to cancel the NTDTV New Year Spectacular. NTDTV hosted a press conference on January 29, inviting reporters from the Associated Press, Reuters, New York Post, Bloomberg Radio, New Yorker TV, and several other media companies. At the press conference, NTDTV exposed the underlying reasons for the Chinese regime's suppression and interference. Dr. Samuel Zhou, Vice President of Programming at NTDTV, pointed out that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has long maintained a philosophy of struggle and violence, and cannot coexist with authentic traditional Chinese culture. Wu Fan, editor-in-chief of China Affairs magazine, strongly protests the CCP's illegal activities. He said these activities violate U.S. law, and has called for the U.S. government's attention. Back U.S.
Official: China's Anti-Satellite Weapon No Threat to U.S. Missile
Defense Back The deputy director of the U.S. Missile Defense Agency says his organization could fairly easily develop a system to counter China's new anti-satellite weapon, but it has not been told to do so. The official, who spoke in Washington Monday, also said the new Chinese weapon does not threaten the U.S. ability to detect and intercept incoming ballistic missiles. Brigadier General Patrick O'Reilly says the Missile Defense Agency's system, designed to destroy ballistic missiles heading for targets in the United States, uses the same type of technology that could be used to counter China's anti-satellite weapon. "We have tremendous kinematic [launch] capability with our missiles," said General O'Reilly. "We have the sensors and the battle management [system], so that work would be straightforward if we were given that guidance and mandate to do, but we haven't at this time." General O'Reilly declined to say how long it might take to adapt the anti-missile technology designed to protect targets on the ground to make it protect targets in space. President Bush has not asked for it yet. When China shot down one of its own satellites three weeks ago, many experts expressed concern that the new weapon could threaten U.S. satellites and the many military and civilian capabilities they provide. But General O'Reilly says the weapon does not threaten the new U.S. missile defense shield. "Our system has many different layers involved, and many different communication systems, undersea, fiber optic, satellites, hardened terrestrial," he said. "And those systems themselves have hundreds and hundreds of backup lines in them. So we're not built around a single thread. Our infrastructure is very robust, very hardened and very diverse and dispersed." General O'Reilly also said the capabilities of the U.S. missile defense system are growing steadily, with additional interceptor missiles being installed at facilities in California and Alaska. He said there was another successful test last Friday, in which an interceptor missile destroyed a target vehicle at a very high altitude. He also reported that the system's radar capability is increasing. The missile defense system is currently aimed at protecting the United States against a ballistic missile attack from North Korea or Iran. Although the system is not fully operational, the general said he is confident it would have responded successfully if last July's North Korean missile tests had threatened the United States. Back |
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