Friday, June 30, 2006

Toyota Oil Leaks, Update

Toyota apologized for the quality problem with engines made by its engine plant in Changchun. Reiz and Crown produced before 4/29/2006 will be fixed free and the warranty will be extended from 2 years 50 kilometers to 4 years 10 kilometers.

This is a rare win for consumers in China, thanks to Mr. Li Hongyu, a Ritz owner in Tianjin who sued Toyota for the horrible quality issue. On June 24, 2006 in a joint inspection, experts from Toyota's Changchun plant, where the problem engines were manufactured, acknowledged that Mr. Li's brand new Reiz was still leaking oil, even after a 6 hour engine service by Toyota.

This is merely another incident of the confidence crisis faced by Japanese car makers in China. In a wide spread online message, a Honda Accord were photographed as broken into two parts in a fatal accident after spinning into the road block in low speed.

Original entry

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Yingtan Dragon Boats, Update

The Seagull received an EMail from Charles Liu, which is attached blow:


Hi Jonathan. Just want to update you on the "Yingtan: Thousands of Dragon
Boats Destroyed" blog:

- Hundreds of dragon boats did race yesterday in Tanyin:

http://www.jx.xinhua.org/news_center/2006-05/31/content_7142844.htm

- The reason holes were cut in old boats was concern for safty. And
hundreds, not thousands, were kept out of water that way. Compensations were
given to the boat owners. Some US media have choosen to translate the
Chinese word "safety" as "security" to insinuate a political undertone, but
the news reports in China all points to basic concerns over water safety and
villagers/clans fighting over race results.

http://www.folkcn.org/news/class/xwjj/wh/043834351.htm

- The public opinion in China is pretty much against arbritary destruction
of private property, although necessity of
paternalistic/authoritarian/oppressive governance in China is entirely
debatable.

Here're some chinese search engine results worth taking a look:

http://www.baidu.com/s?wd=%BD%AD%CE%F7+%D3%A5%CC%B6+%C1%FA%D6%DB&cl=3

Regards,

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

How to Avoid Being Arrested by Cops

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8520847761350501823

Thursday, June 08, 2006

Dumbest Dam Engineers

The engineers and managers working on the 'three gorges dam' project were the dumbest in the world, and they exposed their stupidity in front of the world.

Yesterday, they were supposed to destruct the protecting dam parallel to the main dam. First of all, they couldn't do it by themselves, that they had to hire an Austrilian company to do the job. Secondly, they knew some 42 blasting caps were missing right before the ignition, but they thought it didn't matter. Then, with part of the protecting dam still standing in the river, they declared a total victory, and enjoyed a firecracker ceremony.

Now, their stupidity just make the work from unnecessarily difficult to impossible, because the river is already on the same level on both side, and another explosion could severely comprise the safety of the main dam, which cost $300 billion to build. History will remember the names who were responsible: Ma Shancai 马善才 chief manager of the explosion, 曹广晶 deputy project manager.

Most Disturbing Picture In the World

China's family plan law can be summarized as 'one child per family'. But that's not the whole picture. On a humane side, you can have another child if you marry again, or if you are a minority, or if both husband and wife are the only child in their families. It all sounds logical and reasonable in consideration of the population issue China is facing today.

However, the evil of the family plan law is the part that is not spelled in words. Besides the marriage, you still need a permit to give birth to a child. The permit is issued on a quota system to your employer or the residential committee. Even if you are married, and you do not have child, you can't be pregnant if you don't have the permit. For those who have to wait for the permit, it's embarrassing. Think of this, come to your boss to tell him that you 'plan' to do it with your husband in the next two weeks. If you did it before a permit can be secured, 'they' will correct it.


A woman from Henan province was carrying her first baby, without a permit. She was forced an abortion seven months of pregnancy. The baby cried, then died within minutes. Then 'they' charged her for a fee to have the child 'processed'. She did not have the money, so the child was left in a supermarket plastic bag on her bed. The woman's name is Wang Liping, 23. She lives in Diaoyutai Village, Guying Township, Huiji District, Zhengzhou. Zhengzhou is the capital city Zhengzhou of Henan Province. She was kidnapped by the local officials on May 31, 2005. The abortion was performed by Laoyachen Hospital. She was kept until June 3, 2005 when she was allowed to contact her family. Detailed story and more pictures can be viewed here.

If you wonder why this is happening in China, and I can tell you why. Had this happened to me, I would have killed every doctors, every nurses, every local government officials who did this. I will kill every member of their family too, along with their dogs, their cats, and their goldfish. Only then, will they learn.