China: UPDATED-Hu Jia indicted for subversion

UPDATE: from RFA’s Mandarin service [独家报道：律师拿到对胡佳“涉嫌煽动颠覆国家政权罪”起诉书]

HONG KONG—Authorities in Beijing have formally charged AIDS activist Hu Jia with “incitement to subversion” after he wrote articles online critical of China’s hosting of the Olympics, his lawyers said.

Baby Under House Arrest: Hu Qianci at four months. Courtesy of Zeng Jinyan’s blog.

Burma: Monks, nuns in court over Saffron Revolution

From RFA’s Burmese service (in Burmese)

BANGKOK—Burmese authorities today brought 14 monks and nuns—many of them elderly—into court for a fourth time in Rangoon’s North Okkalapa area in connection with the “saffron revolution” of September 2007. All have been held since Oct. 6 at the notorious Insein Prison in Rangoon, and this was the fourth time they have been brought to court only to have their trials postponed; today, a key witness from the government’s Religious Affairs Ministry failed to show up, so the judge set Feb. 21 as the new trial date. The previous postponement occurred on Feb. 7.

Their lawyer, Nyi Nyi Hline, said all 14 were charged with “defamation of religion,” while the monks are additionally charged with “misuse of the monastery as guesthouse”

Wife of Shandong activist prevented from visiting, German TV crew attacked

Jan 24, Yinan county, Shandong. From RFA’s Mandarin service (ZH):

Yuan Weijing and her two-year-old daughter were pulled back home suddenly while they were on their way to nearby Linyi municipal jail to visit blind family planning activist Chen Guangcheng. Four journalists from a German television station were waiting for her not far from the family’s home in Dongshigu village. They were set upon and beaten by some of the security officers guarding Wei.

At 4.30 p.m. local time on Jan. 24, the German TV crew, consisting of three men and one woman, took up their positions outside the Chen family home

China: Hu Jia isn’t against the Olympics, says lawyer Teng

Teng Biao, a Beijing-based lawyer with a PhD from the China University of Political Science and Law,  said he has been frequently taken in for questioning and warnings by national security police since the arrest of fellow activist Hu Jia on Dec. 27. He told RFA Mandarin service reporter Ding Xiao:

“Sometimes it’s the national security police from Changping county. When things are more serious, then it’s a more senior level of national security police. They basically tell me not to get involved in Hu Jia’s case, and threaten and warn me, saying that I could end up being fired and detained myself if I insist on continuing to represent all these human rights cases.”

China’s Pearl River Delta: 40,000 fingers lost annually, 1,000 workers strike daily

Han Dongfang, labour activist-turned-expert (and former Lamma resident), who hosts RFA’s Mandarin service programme, Labor Bulletin(ZH),  says the Pearl River Delta, China’s industrial powerhouse, sees at least one major labour dispute daily. By ‘major’, he means involving at least 1,000 people.

“My figure, unofficially, shows that strikes involving over 1,000 workers happens at least once a day,” Han told reporters Tuesday at his book launch. “These strikes are self-organized (and protesting workers do) not belong to the official union,” he was quoted as saying

Traffickers use drugs on North Korean ‘brides’ in China

We’ve reported extensively on the trafficking of North Korean women into China, where men abound, women are scarce, and the black-market trade in wives often takes a grim and grisly turn. But here’s a new angle, unearthed by RFA’s Korean service: The traffickers, taking a page from pimps in the West, are using addictive drugs to keep their women pliable. “Brokers force North Korean women defectors to take illegal drugs,” said a North Korean woman who defected to China in search of a better life, only to be passed from human smugglers to bride traffickers.

China: Petitioner’s leg broken in beating by authorities

In Beijing, a female petitioner has been detained and another beaten so severely that her leg was broken. Wang Guiying was detained by security personnel after she was found begging on Tiananmen Square. She had fallen on hard times after an official complaint was taking longer than expected, and she was a long way from her hometown in the northeastern city of Dandong. As they took her away from the scene, the officers began shouting at her and cursing her for damaging China’s image by begging at such a landmark of China’s national identity. They set upon her with fists and feet, and Wang ended up with a broken leg.

China: Guangxi riots over girl’s beating

Lan Yuanxian, a 16 year-old migrant worker from Anhui, was beaten up by two or three officials from the municipal management bureau of the Guilin city government, she told RFA’s Cantonese service(ZH) from her hospital bed.

The incident began outside the Ximen vegetable market in the Xiangshan district of the city when a truck wanted to make a delivery of oil to a shop there. Lan’s bicycle was parked in the way for about five minutes, for which local city management officials tried to fine her 50 yuan. Lan protested and argued with them, and was beaten up. Another woman was beaten with truncheons when she tried to stop them.

The incident sparked protests in which more than 1,000 people encircled the city officials’ cars, refusing to leave. More than 50 riot police were called in to disperse the crowd, which took about two hours.

Sex sells. Even in Communist China.

In China, sex happens.

This ought to be self-evident, since the Middle Kingdom’s population is now approaching 2 billion—and storks don’t proliferate in China. Some of the world’s oldest erotica, further, originated in China. The best-known may be the Qing Dynasty masterwork—long banned under Communist rule but widely regarded as the apex of Chinese classical fiction—The Dream of the Red Chamber. But Red Chamber was preceded by The Golden Lotus, the satirical Carnal Prayer Mat, and others—all serving the didactic purpose of enlightening readers about maximizing sexual pleasure. Shanghai Baby and The People’s Republic of Desire are simply new additions to an old genre. Not that any of this rich sexual tradition would have been apparent in modern times, post-1949. (Think baggy unisex Mao suits.) Not, that is, until quite recently.

Burma: Detentions continue. Activist fears for her children.

Thet Thet Aung (female) was one of the activists hunted down by authorities for supporting the Sangha (monks’) movement. She and her husband both supported the Sangha movement, like many others. On 10/8/07 authorities tried to arrest Thet Thet Aung and her husband (Chit Ko Lin – her husband)) near Mingalar market in Rangoon, but only her husband was arrested and she escaped. After the crackdown on the monks’ movement, she and her family with three children moved to her mother-in-law’s house near Mingala market from their house located in Sanchaung, Rangoon. On Oct. 9, authorities searched where they were staying. She wasn’t there. On Wednesday the authorities came and arrested her mother and her mother-in-law (female- 70 years old). Among the three children the youngest, is just 1 year old and not in good health. Thet Thet Aung is still in hiding. After RFA broadcast the following interview, her mother-in-law (a 70 year-old woman) was released: