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March 25, 2007 (Sunday) － Issue No. 94 |
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Chinese
New Year Spectacular Gains Admiration from the West |
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Piercing
the CCP's Shadow Over Hong Kong Government |
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Chinese
Currency is the World's Dirtiest, Say Chinese Officials |
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to the President of the International Olympic Committee We hereby request that you raise the issue of human dignity and human rights in China with your colleagues in Beijing to stop the persecution of those whose fundamental rights are being denied....…Full Article |
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Petitioner’s Seven-Year-Old Daughter Hides in Basement Zheng’s seven-year-old daughter, Zheng Linxin, who had previously been illegally detained for 65 days and forced to attend a legal training class, now hides with her mother and brother in the damp basement of the Beijing Petitioners’ Village......…Full Article |
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As the audience exited the Regent Theatre on a hot and steamy autumn day in Melbourne, it was immediately obvious that the people who attended the Chinese New Year Spectacular, were from extremely diverse cultural backgrounds. Many buses of school groups, spectators from both East and West, elderly people and young adults were all brought together for the same purpose—to share and enjoy a show rich with historical and spiritual meaning. Romanian-born dentist, Mihai Rosca said: "I'm fascinated by the erhu (Chinese violin). It's quite different form the violin that is played in Romania. There was a lot of colour, which is great, very abundant colour and the silk [costumes]. It's making a bridge between Asian and European culture." Soprano Bai Xue, who won the prestigious China's National Excellent Performer Award in 1988, has gained recognition with the expressive quality of her voice in bel canto technique. With a vocal agility that enables her to perform a wide range of music, from arias of the western classic-romantic tradition to Chinese folksongs, she has performed in major productions in Europe, Australia and across North America. Former Mayor of Chelsea Les Williams and his wife Nora found the Chinese language and singing very delightful. He confided that although they are not able to understand Mandarin or Cantonese they recently had a New Tang Dynasty Television (NTDTV) Satellite dish installed. They were looking forward to watching the programmes. Although the English programming is ever increasing on NTDTV, the majority of the shows are in Chinese. Mr Williams admires the oriental culture: "Very interesting, very colourful. The Chinese language is very pretty. Really nice indeed. I loved the lady that was singing so beautifully, the singers were marvelous. The pianist was most appropriate. I enjoyed it thoroughly. And thought it was amazing to see all the kids that are here. Where did they all come from? Because they were enjoying and they seemed to be right with the show all the way through." Divine Performing
Arts group serves as the artistic force behind New Tang Dynasty Television's
Holiday Wonders and Chinese New Year Spectacular shows each year.
Its mission is to rediscover the essence of true, traditional culture
and to bring arts to the world that celebrate human dignity and positive
values. It thus produces and performs works that centre on classical
themes and divinely-inspired cultural traditions. The group's performances
aim to provide an experience of consummate beauty and goodness. Back March 25 will be the official polling day for the third election to select Hong Kong's Chief Executive. The election has been heating up with two televised debates between the candidates: Alan Leong Kah-kit and the incumbent Donald Tsang Yam-kuen. A pro-democracy march led by the democratic faction on March 18 to demand universal suffrage by 2012 brought even greater attention to this race. But heat of another kind has colored this election as the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has repeatedly tried to interfere. Tactics have included labeling Leong's proposals as attempts to turn Hong Kong into an independent country, ominous warnings to the Election Committee not to cast a blank vote, and sending various threats via CCP officials. Tensions in Hong Kong have risen as its citizens observe the CCP's behind-the-scenes rule of the territory. 2007 and 2008 represent very important years politically to Hong Kong as the territory is set to have three important elections to select the Chief Executive, the District Council, and the Legislative body. A figure like Alan Leong on the Chief Executive ballot reveals how the territory's citizens have begun to boycott the CCP's power that is often used to manipulate Hong Kong's political appointments. Prior to this election, the CCP has always had a hand in manipulating the selection of Hong Kong's Chief Executive. Yet this year a candidate nominated by the democratic faction, Alan Leong, has made for an exciting competition in challenging the incumbent, Tsang. Leong is a senior attorney of the Civil Party and has made outstanding contributions to the battle against Article 23, a provision which aimed to jeopardize Hong Kong's Basic Law, giving the CCP greater control in the region. Since the CCP took over Hong Kong from the British in 1997, this is the first election to see a Chief Executive candidate nominated by the democratic faction to oppose the CCP's appointed candidate. As a result, this year's election has attracted greater attention. Although the incumbent
Chief Executive is confident of winning the majority of the votes
from the 800-member Election Committee, the final outcome is yet to
be determined. According to Alan Leong, his participation in the election
has resulted in many pleasant surprises and has already altered the
CCP's influence in the region. Leong said that Beijing is shocked
with Hong Kong's new-found hunger for democracy. Back CHINA—The Ningbo Municipal Intermediate Court has sentenced freelance writer Li Hong (whose real name is Zhang Jianhong) to six years imprisonment for "inciting subversion against the state." China's state-run media released news of this case on the day he was sentenced, March 19. Li's wife, a cousin, and a friend were present in the courtroom during sentencing. The entire session lasted only 20 minutes. Li and his defense attorney, Li Jianqiang, were not given any opportunity to respond to the sentence, Li indicated that he was going to appeal. Li's wife, tearfully told The Epoch Times, "I can't accept it, not at all! The sentence was too heavy! We did not expect such a heavy sentence. Initially we thought that the case might be dismissed, or at least [he would get] a lighter sentence or probation." "He is just a writer—writing articles to expose the authorities and reveal corruption. He wrote commentaries based on his conscience and did not do the so-called 'inciting subversion.' This sentence is too unfair, too unfair." Li's defense attorney, Li Jianqiang, indicated that the Country Report on Human Rights Practices released by the U.S. State Department on March 6 mentioned Li's case. The Chinese regime then counter-released a U.S. human rights report two days later. Thirteen days later, Li Hong was sentenced to six years imprisonment. "Should this be mere speculation? When I returned to the hotel that evening, a reporter from Reuters phoned and told me that the Xinhua News Agency released an English version," said Li Jianqiang. "I then completely
understood that it was the Chinese Communist Party (CCP)'s integrated
disposition! In recent years, the Xinhua News Agency has had only
four similar news releases on political cases; the Du Daobin, Gao
Zhisheng, Xiaoshan house church, and Chen Guangcheng cases. They were
all cases by imperial order without exception!" Back According to a report in the Guangzhou Daily , during a meeting of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) on March 14, a deputy from Guangdong Province said that China's currency is becoming too dirty while in circulation. This problem was echoed by other deputies. One deputy said that because the weather in Guangzhou City is more humid, the situation is more severe than that in Beijing. The currency might spread large quantities of bacteria in Guangzhou. Another deputy, Peng Linji, also quoted more data which revealed that in the world's most populated country, each piece of paper money contains as many as 180,000 bacteria, which undoubtedly makes it the dirtiest paper money in the world. The data also pointed out that a university in Turkey published the results of an investigation on cashiers, revealing that the rate of hepatitis infection among cashiers was six times higher than that of other groups of people. Deputy Peng Linji suggested setting up currency disinfection systems to reduce cross infection and the spreading of bacteria from contact currency, thus reducing the possibility of people becoming infected by the bacteria from currency in circulation. Previous Studies There were also previous media reports that revealed an experiment conducted by the Hong Kong City College Bacteria Research Center that among the six Asian countries—Hong Kong, China, India, Pakistan, Cambodia, the Philippines and Korea. The Chinese RMB currency contains the greatest amount of bacteria. There were was as many as 178,000 bacteria cells on the Chinese RMB which is 160,000 more than the currency used in Hong Kong and Cambodia in second place. It was reported that related departments in China collected nearly 5000 RMB bills from Shanghai, Chongqing, Guangzhou, Nanjing and Dalian. It was discovered that there were more than 10 strains of bacteria such as colon bacilli, hepatitis B virus (HBV), streptococcus, mold, salmonella, etc. on the currency samples. Some doctors claimed
that colon bacili comes from excrement. If people do not wash their
hands after going to the toilet would transfer the bacteria if handling
currency. Back We hereby request
that you raise the issue of human dignity and human rights in China
with your colleagues in Beijing to stop the persecution of those whose
fundamental rights are being denied. We have great hopes that the
2008 Beijing Olympic Games will be conducted in true Olympic spirit.
We base this statement on the following: Petitioner’s
Seven-Year-Old Daughter Hides in Basement Back According to the China Tianwang Center for Human Rights Affairs in Beijing, on March 18, Zheng Dajing, an appellant in Beijing who traveled from Hubei Province, was escorted back to Yunxi County. In the afternoon, when Zheng Dajing arrived in Hubei, an insider contacted both Zheng’s wife Ms. Cao Xiangzhen and a reporter for British TV Channel 4. That same day, the reporter called Cao Xiangzhen and said that the television station would try their best to help Zheng Dajing. According to sources, while Zheng was confined to the Beijing Siyuan Hotel by Beijing police on the evening of March 16, he was locked up in the washroom for 24 hours. Zheng’s seven-year-old
daughter, Zheng Linxin, who had previously been illegally detained
for 65 days and forced to attend a legal training class, now lives
with her mother and brother in a damp basement of the Beijing Petitioners’
Village. On March 2, Zheng Linxin and other appellants’ shanties were
destroyed by the Beijing authorities three days after the photos of
their detention places were published on 64Tianwang.com. On March 18, 64Tianwang spoke with Ms. Cao Xiangzhen. She said that their son had been crying heavily and that since his father was arrested, he didn’t want to live anymore. He wanted to go to Tiananmen Square to commit suicide by jumping off a building. Ms. Cao cried, “Now the people who hunt down appellants are everywhere outside where we live. I don’t dare to go out to work. If I were arrested, nobody will take care of my daughter and son. We are hiding in the basement everyday.” Ms. Cao also told a reporter that she would go to sue Beijing police for kidnapping Zheng Dajing. The China Tianwang Center for Human Right Affairs believes that while the Chinese Communist Party’s “Two Conferences” were in session, appellants’ rights were ignored and violated. These violations of human rights occurred while the privileged and wealthy groups were protected. It is not hard to envisage that there will be an irreconcilable clash between the two sides in the future. The China Tianwang Center for Human Right Affairs has requested that the Chinese authorities place human rights and property rights on an equal footing. Otherwise, in its absence, a societal upheaval will likely ensue. Back |
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