Chen Jingjun Named Chairman of Fujian Province

Chen Jingjun was announced as the Chairman of the Fujian Province by Republic of China (ROC), effective on Nov 28, 2007. Although Taiwan authority does not have actual control over the mainland, it still sees mainland China, plus Mongolia and some lost border areas its territory, as stated in its constitution.

The governor of Fujian Province named by the People's Republic of China (PRC) is Huang Xiaojing.

Super Soldiers

In the ranking system of Chinese military, People's Liberation Army (PLA), Sergeant Level 6 (SL6) is the highest rank a soldier can achieve. Comparing to western (US) system, SL6 is in between the Command Sergeant Major (CSM) and Sergent Major of the Army. Very few SL6 are serving in the PLA, all of whom are legends in their troops.

SL6 Hu Xiangde (胡象德), Guangzhou Command communication technician
SL6 Chen Yongzhong (陈永中), Lanzhou Command instructor
SL6 Li Chuancai (李传才), Nanjing Command aviation
SL6 Shi Wangjun (施万军), equipment maintenance
SL6 Zhang Chengyong (张承用), Chief Equipment engineering corp
SL6 Ye Zhihong (叶枝洪), Border Patrol ship maintenance
SL6 Jiang Xiliang (姜喜良), Strategic Artillery maintenance
Navy SL6 Zhi Xiangming (雒祥明), submarine welding technician
Navy SL6 Wang Shunxi (王顺喜), submarine operation technician
Navy SL6 Zhu Wenwei (朱文伟), submarine operation technician
Navy SL6 Ren Xiaohai (任晓海), submarine sonar technician
Navy SL6 Leng Shixi (冷世喜), submarine sonar squad leader
Navy SL6 Yao Huangui (姚焕贵), boiler squad leader
Air Force SL6 Wu Xianzhi (吴宪枝), remote control airplanes squad leader

Yahoo Buys Understanding on Jailed Journalists

Families of Jailed Chinese journalists settled with Yahoo on a case filed in California alleging Yahoo unnecessarily assisted the Communism Police in convicting and jailing of journalists not liked by the state.

Yahoo's Jerry Yang was grilled on the Capital Hill on the ordeal earlier this month.

Per undisclosed terms, Yahoo will set up a fund to help the life of the families of jailed journalists. The journalists were using Yahoo EMail accounts, which were turned over to Chinese authorities. The tricky point is they were not using Yahoo China, that might be obliged by law to cooperate with the authority.

Find your place on the celebrity marathon meter

Katie Holmes finished the NYC marathon last Sunday, became one of many celebrities who conquered the 26.2 mile endurance. Find your place on the following celebrity marathon meter:


Celebrity Marathon Meter

	person	race	year	reason on the list
2:04:55	Paul Tergat	Berlin	2003	World Record
2:46:03	Alan Turing	Amateur Athletic Championships	1947	Mathematician
2:46:42	Lance Armstrong	NYC	2007	Cyclist
2:50:53	David Petraeus	Omaha	1982	Commander in Iraq
3:30:18	John Edwards	MCM	1983	Senator
3:31:00	Michael Dukakis	Boston	1951	Governor of Massachusetts
3:44:52	George W Bush	Houston	1993	43rd US President
3:56:12	Will Ferrell	Boston	2003	Actor
3:59:36	Sarah Palin	Humpy's	2005	Governor of Alaska
4:03:19	Shinya Yamanaka	Tokyo	2012	Nobel Laureate in Medicine 2012
4:26:05	Mike Huckabee	Little Rock	2006	Governor of Arkansas
4:29:20	Oprah Winfrey	MCM	1994	Talk Show Host
4:34:18	Lisa Ling	Boston	2001	TV Host
4:45:36	Jennifer Amyx	Johnstown	1975	5 Years Old
4:54:36	Bill Frist	MCM	1997	Senate Majority Leader
4:58:25	Al Gore	MCM	1997	Vice President
5:29:58	Katie Holmes	NYC	2007	Wife of Tom Cruise
5:40:03	Fauja Singh	Toronto	2003	92 Years Old
6:06:00	David Paterson	NYC	1999	NY Governor, legally blind

Holmes' entry was neither chosen by the lottery, while 60,000 runners failed to be selected, nor secured through one of many run for charity clubs sponsored by the event.

Luxury Government Buildings Questioned

An article published in the Japanese Sankei Express (産経新聞) questioned the wisdom of a Chinese local government in Anhui Province for building luxury government buildings while leaving school kids under collapsing roofs.

Japanese funded for the rebuild of Yangzhuang Elementary School in Yingquan District, Fuyan of Anhui Province. A new teaching hall with 12 classrooms is being build thanks to $80,000 from Japan. Yangzhuang Elementary School applied for the grant in 2001. At the time, all but 4 classrooms in the 600 kids school are collapsing, and kids took classrooms under shaking bricks. They had applied for Chinese national educational grant earlier, but didn't get any. The application for international assistant was passed by the local government to the provincial government, and finally landed in the General-Consulate of Japan in Shanghai.

About the same time, the local government started building their luxury office building, which is often ridiculed by local residents as the 'white house'.

Japan sent in investigators to check out the condition, and they were shocked by the scene of hundreds of kids reading under falling roofs. The project was fully funded by Japanese Foreign Ministry's safety enhancement funds. The rebuild started in March of 2006, and finished by the end of the year. Now the school is the best building overseeing the village.

Japanese investigators published an article in the influential Sankei Express on June 22, 2007. Although they recommended the funding, but they argued that they were shocked by the excessive luxury of the office building used by the local government. The regional (county level) government's new office building is comparable to the Palace of Versailles in Paris. Its cost should be more than enough to rebuild hundreds of country schools. So what was it in local official's mind?

The article was noticed by Chinese Nanfang Daily in an investigative report. Despite the extreme poor condition of the building, the education system in the region is severely suffering from underfunding. Even teachers were not paid. The local Party boss, Mr. Zhang Zhian was reported receiving the position by bribing his county Party boss with $12,000. Nevertheless, he is still holding his position, and praised by his Party bosses.

Chinese have long been known as investing in education. However, that's only on the individual level done by individual families. The communisms government never behaves that way.

On the contrary, Japanese government place education the top priority. Education played a significant role in Japan's uprising in the late 19th century.

The question is: should the Japanese government take care of Chinese education, while the Chinese officials busy building luxury government buildings?

Lust, Caution

Beautiful women don't die, they just fade away.

Distinguished Teacher Killed by Neighbor

Zhang Yurong, a distinguished retired teacher was killed by her neighbor Cao on Sept 6, 2007. According Cao's wife and the police, Cao fell out a competition for participating the Torch Relay for the Olympic Games to be held in Beijing in 2008. Cao had also been depressed for declining touring business. In the morning, Cao decided to kill a person to 'practice fitness', and he happened to see Ms. Zhang who shares in the same yard, 36 Zhanzi Hutong, Shichahai, Beijing. He killed Zhang with kitchen knife.

Zhang is a distinguished high school math teacher. Graduated from Beijing Normal University, and earlier the High School affiliated to Beijing University. A Beijing native, teacher Zhang taught students in the No. 2 Haolibao High School, Erguna Zuoqi, Hulunbeier Meng, Inner Mongolia before she taught at the Geology Research Institute School in Zhuozhou, Hebei Province. Zhang is love by her students. Zhang left behind her husband, teacher Zhou, and daughter Zhou Nan.

God Bless Good People.