Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Lu Gang's Death Note Published

Lu Gang, a Chinese student from Beijing with newly minted PhD shot and killed his adviser Dr. Goertz, Department Chair Dr. Nicholson, another space plasma physicists Dr. Smith, and his fellow Chinese oversea student (once roommate) Dr. Linhua Shan on Friday, November 1, 1991. One other person was shot dead and a student worker was left paralyzed.

The University of Iowa shooting had been a controversial from the beginning, partially because the police chose not to publish the entire contents of many death notes Lu wrote to varies local media and his family in China. Some believed those letter would have revealed under the counter trades of academic affairs and portrait Lu a victim and an Ivy Robin Hood.

Twenty years later, the letter from Lu to his family came to light. In the letter, Lu partially blamed his parents for not having money and connections to place him in a better position.

Coming to the States to pursue a PhD degree on full financial assistant-ship is a dream of few Chinese in the 1980s, while Lu lived it. What made him think he deserve more?

Having read the letter, The Seagull believed once and for all, Lu is a villain, not a hero.

Saturday, May 28, 2011

Li Tiantian

心酸,想哭
论坛:江湖论剑作者:alemon发表时间:2011-05-28 00:08

刚放出来的李天天律师在推特上的讲述,只有你想不到,没有他们做不到的。释放,也是一种减少恐惧的方式吧……

@litiantian:我与谁开房,估计我男朋友都不想关心的问题,警察先关心了。他们先找到男方做了笔录,录的很细,谁出的钱,谁先提议去开房,做了几次,谁先挑逗的谁,要求我说的越细越好。

@litiantian:我进去以后,他们还搜了我与男朋友住的房子。所有的东西搜了一遍。我出来才知道。还逼我男朋友看我与其他人开过房的录像,还让他哥哥姐姐。

@litiantian:我出来的时候人是飘着的,走路走不稳,身体好象没有重量不是自己的。被回新疆下飞机后给男朋友打电话才知道警察找过他好多次,还找他单位,找他哥哥姐姐,要求他与我分手,写下分手的东西,我男朋友不写,说不行你们可以把我也关进去,就是别逼我,你们有本事把李天天毙了,我也不会写那样的东西的。

@litiantian:新疆家里人通过我男朋友知道我进去了,3个月都没有睡好觉,担心我是不是出不来了,因为抓我的时候家里进去8个左右的人,有抓我的,有抢我手机的,有骂我的,有找电脑搬电脑的,家里的大猫也从此丢了不回家了。

@litiantian:我有过几次一夜性质的那样的事情,基本都是一次性的,完了谁也不认识谁,也没有什么思想交流的那样的事情,说白了就是与没有感情的,简单交流还不坏的男人开过几次钟点房。目前上海开房都有记录很容易查出来。

@litiantian:我男朋友说我在他们嘴里就是垃圾,坏得不能再坏的人,好在他的心里抗压能力还好,并没有怎么受不了,让他受不了的是警察为这些事情去找他的哥哥姐姐,给他们添堵,我男朋友最生气的是这个,他父母去势的早,哥哥姐姐年龄大了身体也不好。

@litiantian:说了起码不会死,否则死了怎么办?

@litiantian:他们说不会给我男朋友看的,可我被回新疆(他们要我回新疆,但我的钱买了飞机票),到妹妹家后给我男朋友打电话,我男朋友首先就说起这个事情----警察把我开房的证据给他看了,他不看,他们还逼着一定要他看。

@litiantian:在那里住了3天,晚上6人的夜宵花了400多,我心痛政府的钱,指责他们浪费,他们说上级接受了我的意见。换地。

@litiantian:我每天锻练运动,但还是经常见他们就心惊肉跳(虽然我都是开着玩笑于他们交流,但这是表面,为了尊严做出来的,心惊肉跳才我我状态的本质)。为少心惊肉跳,我基本白天睡,夜里运动洗看电视。彻底昼夜颠倒。谁要以后进去就学我这样。以减少心惊肉跳的时间。

@litiantian:看守我的人总是把电视摇控让我用,人的味道我还是闻到了,警察看我没有穿袜子还关心的要我穿上,怕我冷,人味我也闻到了。都是有人味的人,但我却感觉面对的是师子老虎,因为他们不给我阳光,窗子。而这个决定是上级的。中国越是上面人越没有人味。越是正式的决定越没有人味。

@litiantian:律师这花必须在民主的土壤上才芳香艳丽,否则律师的成功都象塑料假花,让人闻不出香气,越漂亮的律师花,越是发出恶臭味。

@litiantian:法律,我很有才华,但律师目前是靠关系和权利赚钱,搞关系与权利勾结不是我的长项。所以不干律师,对我的精神,身体都好。越卑鄙越成功,律师界。话有点大和狂,但不一定是错的。

@litiantian:能说出的恐惧还是小恐惧,不敢说的恐惧才是大恐惧,给猫说好话的老鼠一定内心受到了特大恐惧的袭击,我想很可能是这样。就像有的人会爱上让他她怕的人,可能。人性很复杂,好在是人都想摆脱恐惧。这才是我们努力的重点,比较人与人对待恐惧的不同反应没有什么意思,可能。

@litiantian:你是明白人。还知道世界上有无法忍受的事情,很多人认为忍受是必须的。

@litiantian:找个善良的男人女人在一起,遇到难都会多些支持。

@litiantian:真不好意思把这些涉性的 内容写出来,但不写心里更憋屈。 虽然当时甚至是开着玩笑配合警察做那些涉性的调查笔露的,但内心还是有很深的羞辱感。像是被人拳打脚踢,我还必须笑着说打得不痛一样,无奈,无助,恐惧感还是很强。

@litiantian:好在,我没有在警察面前掉过一滴眼泪,也没有让自己的情绪失控过。当我说你们不给我请律师,不在你们笔录上填写询问人记录人的名字,我就再不给你们笔录上签一个名字,警察说你是想挨打吗?站起身走到了我跟前要打我,我说我也许会咬下你的耳朵或脖子,他上来就抓住了我头发,拿起餐巾纸盒要打我。

@litiantian:我的肉体不被打更重要,在打和回答之间我选后者。

@litiantian:真不好意思把这些涉性的 内容写出来,但不写心里更憋屈。
We shall not forget what this generation have suffered under the Communists regime.

Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Wen Jiabao Cried Speaking to Chinese Diplomats in Japan

Permier Wen Jiabao was seen wiping tears while speaking to diplomats at Chinese embassy in Japan. Wen revealed that it was his personal decision to visit the earthquake-tsunami-nuclear hit Fukushima area. Wen explained the rational of his visit, and signed he might not be able to come to Japan again.

Some read the speech a sign of Wen being increasingly isolated at the top level of power in China. One thing for sure, once Wen retired from his post, he would not be able to go outside China. There has been no precedence of former top leaders being allowed to go overseas after they departed offices.

Monday, May 23, 2011

Ivy Robbery

Bloombergrevealed today about US institutions hiring foreign agencies to recruit international students with a commission for each student enrolled. Paying agent commission based on number of admission was illegal in the US on US students. However, it's a fair game out of the boarder.

In the Bloomberg story blamed on predatory agents. Some Chinese students were lured to the US on false representation of the colleges they were attending. In one example, a student 'paid $47,000 a year to live in an almost empty country inn and attend classes five miles down the road' at 'a satellite campus comprising two buildings and 250 students'.

The problem is darer than what was portrait in the article. Many small US institutions has a designated person in charge of international admission. The person has unchecked ultimate authority in determining who can come and who can not. Often the same person or his friend will run a housing business. A precondition for any international student to get a chance would be agreeing to rent from this person for at least a year.

Not all Chinese are affluent. As a matter of fact, the per capital GDP of China ranked 127th in the world. However, because of China's base population and the ever deepening income gap, a big block of Chinese families are capable to send their children overseas for college. The value of one apartment in Beijing is more than enough to support a Harvard study and some, of course, if the family don't mind living on the street. Well, that's exactly what a Chinese family would do for their child's future. You can't blame sharks going after blood.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Huazhong University of Science and Technology

It turned out the student who hit the Fang Bingxin with a shoe was from Huazhong University of Science and Technology (HUST) Wenhua College.

Huazhong University is one of the mega universities created after the Communists took power in mainland. HUST was funded in 1953, and strengthened through a series of mergers with other colleges and universities over years. Today, the school is home to more than 56,000 students. Since its inception, HUST consistently ranked top 10 universities on varies ranking and forums by all measurable criteria. However, few of its alum had climbed to top tier positions in academic or non-academic areas. While HUST has proud itself of providing mass amount of engineers who are essential for China's technology modernization, many mocked the school for producing excellent self-disciplined slave labor without brain.

Yesterday's incident is an evident that after so many years and hundreds of thousands of alums, some HUST graduates do have a brain capable of independent thinking along solid execution. It is an example of the transition from quantity to quality, which we expect to see more in China, and accidentally, it is the first in China.

Thursday, May 19, 2011

Internet Censorship Tsar Hit by Shoe


Fang Binxing, professor and president of the Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications, was hit by a flying shoe when giving a lecture in Wuhan University in Wuhan, Hubei Province.

Mr. Han Junyi (twitter alias @hanunyi) threw an egg, which missed the target, then a shoe, right on. The second shoe was blocked by Fang's servants. The eggs was prepared by Wuhan University Computer Science students @zfangzhou and @lonelydream2, who backed down when they found their graduation reading committee members were on the scene with Fang. Han Junyi took the ammunition and executed the task. Fellow students helped Han got away from pursuing security forces.

Fang, is proud of being the 'Father' of Communists Government's Great FireWall (GFW). Fang is rated a top 3 shameless intellectual in China.

Fang is also credited for the spreading of democratic ideas and thinking in China. Without Fang's GFW, the Internet would be a chat board and game pad for boring Chinese youth. Thanks to Fang's blocking of information, the Chinese online community has become a training camp for anti-government movements. Fang's ever-growing block list includes everything a youth could have kill their time otherwise on, from Facebook, Google, Wikipedia, Flickr to Python (a programming language), Android (a cell phone operating system), the SourceForge (open source platform), to the most recent addition, FlipBoard (block confirmed yesterday).

Technically and economically, the down side of Fang's achievement is that he build a wall between mainland China and the outside world. While people from the rest of the world are trying to easy the 'digital gap', Fang created a 'digital wall' out of nowhere. Unlike some IT workers who work on the Great FireWall project or the Gold-Shield Project for a living, Fang is very proud of his vision and leading role in retraining information exchange and suppressing different voices. In several interviews on the subject, Fang showed great enthusiastic and enjoyment on the project.

Trivial:
1. Fang was obviously furious after having dodged the egg but being hit by the shoe. Fang scolded the host of Wuhan University why they hadn't prepared better for such an event since there had been public discussions on the Internet, particularly on Twitter. Some online community posted varies rewards (including hugs from hot girls, new shoes and iPad2, etc.) for anyone to hit shoe at Fang. Professors of Wuhan University replied the campus was blocked from accessing the Twitter, so they could not have known.

2. Students and online Chinese Netizens argued the shoe did not hit Fang, because Fang as a human being does not exist in mainland China at all. For example, if you search the name no result will be returned by any search engine. After today's event, even 'President Fang' and 'Professor Fang' became 'sensitive words', and became unsearchable.

3. Fang's seminar today was arranged in Room B404 in the School of Computer Building, a page users often see when the website is blocked by Fang's GFW. It is not known whether the room assignment was intentional by some defiant staffs.

4. Some of the reward offered by Chinese Twitter user for anyone who would shoe attack Fang:
- a movie in Shenzhen, plus a cup of milk-tea;
- a gourmet meal in Guangzhou (except a few insanely expensive restaurants);
- RMB Y200 ($35);
- a meal of Xinjiang delicacy;
- one BitCoin, and Tibetan Beef Noodle in Hong Kong;
- a dinner in Nanjing;
- a dinner at Suzhehui Restaurant in Shanghai;
- tour of Beijing, plus RMB Y300 book voucher;
- nine meals in Chengdu, guest house;
- one hug, accompanied tour of Chengdu (best on weekends);
- a Vancl T-shirt (value RMB Y29);
- a kiss and a hug and a free meal;
- a gourmet meal in Hangzhou;
- Xi'an BBQ;
- one night hotel in Suzhou, complementary tour and meals;
- $100 Apple gift card, can be converted to RMB;
- Guiyang tour, all covered;
- authentic photo book of Sola Aoi;
- a puff account;
- a bag of American pistachio bought at Giant Towson;
- a post card stamped in Krakow Poland the place of the Schindler's List, and a key chain bought at the Gaudí House Museum in Barcelona;
- a covered tour of red light district of Singapore (offer expires in three months);
- a tennis game in Beijing, or buffet in Golden Jaguar with local transportation;
- RMB Y2,000 allowance Taobao purchase;
- one SSH account;
- "China Mist" authored by He Qinglian;
- three months of local transportation in Wuhan, safety shelter and emergency financial support;
- a gourmet meal in Shanghai wine included;
- a movie in Shanghai or Wuhan;
- a covered tour in Dali, Yunan;
- 2 nights in Chiang Mai, Thailand plus a meal;
- a pair of shoes, please post size;
- a Disney stuffed animal;
- lifetime guided tour in Qinghai, all covered;
- RMB Y10 via Zhifubao;
- an IMAX ticket in Shanghai or equivalent cash;
- Suzhou Garden Collection stamps and a night at a Youth Hostel;
- an authentic porn DVD, by default featuring Sola Aoi if not specified otherwise;
- a pair of shoes under RMB Y300 on Taobao or equivalent cash;
- a round-way ticket to Hangzhou, or equivalent cash;
- a buffet at Conrad Hotel in Hong Kong;
- RMB Y50 via Zhifubao;
- a collection of Stanley Kubrick's movies;
- one day travel in Beijing, fully covered;
- two movie tickets in Shenzhen Pacific Theaters;
- a dedicated VPN account with user name and password preset;
- a gourmet meal in Hong Kong;
- "Path of Reform" authored by Zhao Ziyang;
- will split if win lottery tomorrow;
- a pair of shoes;
- a fully covered tour of Beijing;
- one iPod Touch;
- a pair of Nike from US for a shoe within 2 meters range of Fang;
- family meal with hot girls;
- one month shared use of Xunlei FTP service, extension possible;
- 10 VPN accounts;
- Shanghai BBQ with local transportation;
- a gourmet meal in Nanjing with wine;
- a meal in Shanghai, roasted duck and hot pot at Xiangyanglu Restaurant;
- one night top hotel in Suzhou plus escorted tour;
- Paid full membership of Gaming hosted in Taiwan plus two season tickets;
- one toilet;
- a one night stand in Shanghai;
- one QQ super group account and one Tornado download VIP account;
- one iPad 2;
- a round-way ticket to Hangzhou and a one night stand;
- 9 California crabs;
- EUR E100;
- fully covered escort service by a model in a four star hotel in Dongguan, Guangdong;
- one year VPN or SSH service;
- one week covered tour in California;
- RMB Y300 worth of books, can be selected at major online book stores;
- a round-trip ticket to Shanghai;
- lifetime free meals in Hangzhou;
- one Disney admission and one Ocean Park admission in Hong Kong;
- one Republic of China 100 anniversary scarf bought from the President's Mansion;
- ......
The list is really long. After the successful first attack, one person even posted a one year term job with full benefit offering for a second attack.

Monday, May 16, 2011

Ironman China Cancelled at the Last Minute

Ironman China to be held on May 29, 2011 was cancelled at the last minute, announced the World Triathlon Corporation (WTC) last week.

The race was one of a few top level world triathlon competitions held in 2011. The last minute cancellation came as a shock to more than 900 registered athletes. The race was fulled booked. Many first class athletes had been training months for the game.

China has been known for its successfully hosted world class games, such as the Asian Games in 1990 (Beijing) and 2010 (Guangzhou) and 2008 Summer Olympic Games (Beijing).

This is not the first time international game was cancelled for no obvious reasons. The 2007 Lhasa International Half Marathon Challenge was also cancelled at the last minute. It is suspected that the cancellation was out of concern of safety associated with running at the high attitude, coincidentally the lure of the race. For the Tianjin Triathlon, politics between local government bodies and a corrupted central sports authority were rumored to be the blame. The coveted game was originally scheduled to be held in a southern city Kaikou in Hainan Province. It was then moved to northern port city Tianjin when WTC was not satisfied with the preparations in Haikou. However, officials in Tianjin was either totally incompetent or torpedoed by frustrated Kaikou officials.

Saturday, May 14, 2011

Facebook's Falling Path

History does repeat itself. Yahoo's struggle started with it's infamous 3721 team, which equated Yahoo a nickname of largest malware warehouse in Chinese online world. Years later, Facebook is appending itself to Yahoo's falling path in China by tying itself with Baidu, the infamous official sponsored search engine which drew Google out of Chinese market.

Any reader with knowledge of Mark Zuckerberg's personal talk with Baidu's founder Li Yanhong should not be surprised when Facebook's secret smear campaign against Google was uncovered. Facebook's mission of beating Google to a moral new low is bound to be a fool's errand.

Wednesday, May 11, 2011

A Local Resident's Reflection on Government Child Trafficking

发表于 昨天 23:16
你卖席子,他卖孩子

新闻, 老婆, 我不知道, 计划生育, 习惯性
本帖最后由 低调 于 2011-5-11 01:09 编辑

“隆回又出名了”.早上起床,习惯性地翻阅网页,立马向老婆详细地报告这一爆炸性新闻.当我坏坏地等待她那错愕的表情出现时,她却冷冷地看着我:”这也叫新闻?前几年我们那上去那某某某有三个女儿,后来和别人生了个儿子,也是被计划生育的抱走了,再也没见回来.”然后,错愕的就成了我.

我不知道在隆回,有多少人像我老婆那样,早就听说过这样的事情,我更不知道在这个国家,有多少地方在发生着同样的事情.但是,只要成长在这个地方的人,大都和我一样,从小就看着他们拆房,牵猪,三更半夜,伏击,破门,抓妇女,抓老人,抓小孩,逮谁关谁,不给钱,别想出来.几十年来他们都是这样在干着,几十年来,我们都是就这样受着,从愤怒,反抗,到顺从,习惯,麻木,见怪不怪-------只要不是哪天发生在自己身上,就能安稳地做顺民,一有机会,碰到哪个还在傻傻地愤怒的人,还会做个比计生宣传还计生宣传地讲基本国策,讲我国人口形势是如何如何地严峻,讲狠抓计划生育是如何如何必要的一等良民.

但是今天,我们看到,大家都在义粪填阴.其实,我想大部分人义粪的不是做为公民我们有没有权利生小孩,也不是做为公民,他们可不可以满世界地找到肚子大点的妇女或处女就拖去节扎,更不是做为公民,他们能不能随便地冲进我家不暴力或者很暴力地抓走我的父母和小孩再关起来,因为这些,我们熟视,所以无睹,然后,见怪不怪?今天,我们义粪,我们义粪的是他们拆了你房子,扎了你媳妇,关了你老妈,抓走你小孩后居然把小孩卖了,而且天才地赚了一把把绿油油的美金,这怎么行?是的,这确实不行.

于是,我们都表现得很惊讶,表示得很愤怒,尽管我们就是隆回人,我们也表现得很惊讶,表示得更愤怒,大家争相地站到隆回的好人堆里,痛骂着那一小部分坏人,而这部分坏人中的其中一个可能就是你大姨妈她姐夫的老同学或小舅子,也许并没有那么复杂,其实他就是你老同学或小舅子,或许其实不是你老同学小舅子干的但他做的也是这份差事,昨晚把酒言欢时你还兴致勃勃地在听他吹着他那些破门而入的威水史,今早起床发现东风转了西北风,他就成你了口中那个杀千刀的恶人.

虽然我曾经很喜欢看<人之初>,但我从不相信人之初,性本善这种屁话,没有谁是天生善良的,同样,我也相信,没有谁天生就那么地邪恶.当有人犯了罪行,我们总是先急于站队,抢占道德高点,摆个好点的恣态,立马定性,他是恶人,是****,是精神病等等等等, 从不愿去共剖个子丑寅卯,但是,对希特勒你可以这样,对本拉丹你也可以这样,对要加薪也可以这样,因为他们在我的生活中其实只能算是一个符号,而现在我们骂的这些人,他们就在隆回,和我们是那么地接近,他们其中的个体每天都鲜活地存在于我们的周围,你看着他长大,或者你就和他一起光屁股长大,你又怎么能做到和他相处了几十年后这么漂亮地在一夜之间就180度转体,把他定性为天杀的坏人?

隆回搞计生工作的,我算是较熟的只有一个,他家离我外婆就那么几十米,也算是从小玩到大,很好很随和的一个人,中专生,那时候很牛#的,考上了还摆酒,出来分到农机站,卖农药化肥,后来改制了,下岗,做生意,没成,后来找了点关系,挤到了计生部门做事.一个月一千多,养一个老婆二个小孩,起了房子,到现在还没装修.这几年我回家少,但每次回家去他那玩,除了觉得他胖了点,没感觉有什么变化,还是那么随和亲近,但是,他确实就是在做着那些事,有时我都无法想像他这样的人是怎样去冲人家的门的.可他确实在干着这样的事,不干不行,不干就滚蛋,他不想滚蛋,我想,换成我,我也不想滚蛋.不信,你看看那些在公务员门槛前死命挤和挤进去的那些人,哪一个想滚蛋?

几十年前,有个老人,他肯定了猫论,后来,这个国家开始了机会主义竞赛,从官方主导到民间跟进,成败英雄成为惟一的标杆,什么社会的公平公正,伦理道德准则全成了被人讥笑的书生之见,大家都在勇往直前奋力抓鼠,争做好猫,做官的看政绩,做民的看金钱,不管这些你都是以什么方式得来的.在这样的一个大环境下,制度之恶与人性之恶开始双生花.好的环境制度促人向善,坏的环境制度诱人为恶,然后你就能自然而然地看到,有些本来是很好,很随和的一个人,你给他一点恶权,他立马就变得凶狠,残忍,没点人性,因为只有这样,他才能让自己更好地生存.谁都想生存,谁又不想更好点地生存? 其实这些人和我们没什么不同,都一样生长在同一个国度,同一个地方,拥有着同一个操蛋的政府,受控于同一个王八蛋体制,从打小起就被灌输着同样歪曲的人生观,价值观和道德观,这样,我们又会发现人人都是受害者,人人都是施暴人.无分体制内外,收红包的医生在骂着贪官,卖打水鸡的就骂放苏丹红的人,刚刚还在为了择校费大骂学校黑心的家长,语重心长地教育他那宝贝儿子要努力读书考大学当官再发财,抢小孩的人昨天还在骂着那些给他碗里那块肉打了瘦肉精的人坏良心,你骂,我骂,他骂,大家都在骂,骂环境,骂社会,骂体制,但又都自觉不自觉地做着创造这种环境,迎合这种社会,维护这个体制的事情.

我们就这样生活着,有什么问题?没有问题,只有在有些事情你觉得突破了你的底线,才会成为问题.我们讨厌日本人,他们说我们是东亚病夫,我们抗议,于是,我们每天一杯三鹿奶,看着陈真来证明,但东亚病夫病的并不是体格,而是道德与精神,不过,在这里,你只能和别人谈利益,你要是和他谈精神,你就是精神病。

现在,这样的事爆了光,我们都在很鸡动,就好像发现隆回突然有了二个火星人,但这有什么能让我们鸡动的,当我们坦然地看着他们年年都在拆房子,抓老人,抢小孩的时候,就能想到,总有一天会出这样的事情,今天只是卖人,搞不好明天还会吃人.没有最坏,只有更坏.

这样的事情很快就会过去,你都根本无法深究责任,尤其是和像这种真正的具有中国特色的计划生育问题有关的事情,你永远都说不清到底是谁背负着原罪, 类似的事情,或者更坏的事情,在这个国家隔三差五地在发生,而这些恶行之所以一再被包庇,被容忍,并不是因为个个都有背景,而是因为在这个体制下,所有的合法性都来自一个共同的源头,一荣俱荣、一损俱损。所以小时候,我们看电影<杨乃五与小白菜>,他们就算搞到了西太后那里,还是理不清,摆不明.唯一恼火的问题是应当把谁推出来才平得了民愤,然后我们欢欣鼓舞地庆祝某某下了台.铁打的政府,流水的官,哪个又能好,哪个又不会坏?最后,大家满意地回家卖席子,管它明天是他们是卖小孩,还是吃小孩.

我们都在卖席子,不是几个小孩就能吵醒.老子不会醒,打死也不醒.

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Adoptive Parents in the West have Moral Obligations, too

When I indulge myself with iPhone4 and iPad2, do I need to care how it was made? When I place my 2 years old plasma TV on the curb, am I bothered on thoughts where it goes? A little bit, in both cases, but not much. After all, they are consumer goods I buy and trash every day. There might be a feeling after attending a seminar with a tree-hugging speaker, but not much residue after 5 days or 5 tours to Wal-Mart. I am still feeling guilty from time to time, i.e. when taking a break from flipping burgers on my front lawn, by the way.

Adoption is a total different matter. The 'little angle' you received in the mail had been a member of another family before. There had been a caring Mom, a proud Dad and over-joyed grandparents, uncles and aunts. It was a sad story for any family to give up their child for whatever reason.

What if the child was stolen, or worse, taken away from his family by violent force?

In the recent exposed case of Chinese Family Planing Officials made profit by confiscating children from their families and then selling them to the West for adoption, many children were taken away from the arms of their parents by violent force.

It was long known the world that many babies were killed by Chinese Family Planning Officials, which had also been reported by the Seagull. Somehow, that had become acceptable. The killing usually happened in the delivery room where the mother had no chance to see the baby. It is never acceptable to me, and I doubt it legal in any court outside mainland China, but we all knew it was the practice of many Family Planning Officials in many places in China. We sorta taken it as granted. And when that happened, we tend to blame the parents for not being able to elude the officials. But now we are shocked. How heartbroken to see your baby and sometimes toddler taken away from you and know you will never see him again?

The scary part of the recently exposed Shaoyang case was that multiple levels of government, from the village, town to county and province and more than 10 different government agencies were involved. Some fish and hunt babies in remote rural areas and some fabricating papers to make these babies 'clean' for adoption. When 10 different government agencies told you the same story with back dated government records, can you tell?

It is a misquote in some news and blog stories that only 13 children were taken away. These 13 children was the scope of an investigative report published by "New Century". This number reflected a 'partial' list that the reporter could verify in one village (Gaoping Village of Longhui County of Hunan Province) between year 2002 and 2005.

Another misquote in some news and blog stories is that these babies are 'illegally born' per China's Family Planning Act. This is not true. Many of babies were 'lawfully' born only child of a family, with all proper documentation but still taken away nevertheless when their were discovered by the official baby hunting teams. In remote mountain areas such as the reported village, one family living away from the town could be easily overpowered by a team of 30-40 officials. Some were offered a time window to buy back their baby. In the case of the featured family, they were given one day to gather $1,700 to buy back their daughter. This equals 2 times their annual income. They was only able to borrow $1,000 from relatives and friends in one day, not enough to buy their daughter back from local officials. Then the baby was transferred to a higher level government agency where she was prepared to be sold to the West.

Adoptive Parents in the West have moral duties to respond - partially, because they have a unique role to stop this horror. Money talks. The only reason of this tragedy was because the government can make profit by selling the babies to the West at $3,000 per capital.

The always business-minded Chinese government will have to listen to their customers. If their customers stop buying, they will have to figure out how to improve or what needs to change. Chinese governmental never blink under military or political pressure, at least they always claim so. However, the Chinese government has always tried their best to appease to 'economic rules', as they are proud of doing. They will listen to the voice of their customer to keep the adoption business a lucrative income source. Only adoptive families can save more children from being taken away from their parents. Nobody else in the world has the mighty power you process to influence Chinese government's practice on this issue. If you don't want that happen to your children, you should at least 'voice' it for other's children.

There are many ways to help. For your convenience, here is a check list, from which you can pick up one or more entries to help. It wouldn't take you too much time:
  • Inquire this case to the Chinese officials in charge of overseas adoption business;
  • Contact the reporters and give them a pat on the back for their braveness and great sense of social responsibilities;
  • Demand more documents regarding your child's identity in China; not every Chinese government officials lie, some may refuse to participate;
  • Call your local Chinese embassy or consulate and inquire about the case. They will call home, trust the communist system;
  • Until you receive a satisfactory answer, do not adopt more children from China;

This is not the first time government run orphanages were caught selling children for profit. The Hengyang Welfare Center, another prefecture-level agency in Hunan Province, was found linked to children trafficking cases a couple of years ago. In the Hengyang case, the state orphanage hired gangs to obtain children, then prepared them for international adoption. The case went to trail in the court of Qidong County on February 22, 2005. Gang members were sentenced, but no government officials were punished. This is not the first time government were caught confiscating children for profit. Another state run orphanage in Zhenyuan County, Guizhou Province was found doing exactly the same as Shaoyang officials did in this case in 2009. The orphanage vowed not to do it again, but no government officials were punished. The above two cases all covered by Chinese news media, but few noticed and little was done. This is not the first time government promised to investigate. A government task force was formed on March 11, 2006 to address the parents' complaint, regarding the children taken away in Shaoyang. It took one day for the task force to produce a report, which found no wrong doing of any government officials.

The practice of state run orphanages must be stopped. This time it might be different, with the western media's involvement. But the most powerful and ultimate motivation is still the purchasing power of western adoptive families.

Adoptive families in the West have the right to remain silent, but you also have moral obligations to do something, say something, or not doing something. You will have to be either blind or pretending to be blind to say the case was an isolated incident in one remote village. Village officials would not be able to produce the entire identity papers to make a child's file look 'clean'.

Monday, May 09, 2011

Missing Chinese Children in the US

More than 100,000 Chinese children had been adopted by western families at Chinese government run orphanage. In the year 2010, according to 'China Adoption', 3,401 Chinese babies came to the United States through adoption process sponsored by the Chinese government.

American couples were told their Chinese babies were orphans, often discarded by their parents. However, a brave reporter showed many of these babies were 'confiscated' by the local government to be sold to American couples for profit against their parents' will.

The picture on the left is Yang Ling, daughter of Mr. Yang Libing, before the 10 months baby was taken away by government officials in May, 2005. Yang Ling is the first child of the Yang family, therefore it is not even about the infamous One Child Per Family policy. Yang family was given a one day window to collect $1,600 (Y10,000 RMB) to get the baby back. At the time, Yang Lining was working as immigration labor out of town and the poor family couldn't get the money in time. When Yang got back, it was all too late. The girl had been delivered to a government run orphanage in a big city, and there was little the local officials could do. Yang was beaten up by the local officials many times for keep bothering them asking for his daughter. Other family would have given up, but Yang and his wife were persistent, until his wife mentally collapsed in 2009 and had been missing since. Today, through help of a responsible reporter, Yang was able to trace his daughter to the United States, the picture on the right. However, the original contact no longer worked.

The higher level government agencies and the orphanage fabricated the entire dossier, including public notary, police report, and government records even an application with Yang's signature to claim the girl was found in a park, for the little girl to make the adoption process 'legitimate'. According to the journalist investigation, at least dozens of babies were taken away in the same county to be sold to the western families, disguised as orphans during 2002-2005. Many of these children were first child of a family taken away by force.

Before the source Missing Children with family name 'Shao' is to be harmonized by the Central Propaganda Department, reader can view the news article published on "New Century" as long as a video of interview of the father Yang Libing.

According to the investigation by reporters, among 13 babies taken away by government in one village (Gaoping) between 2002 and 2005, 3 were first child of their families.

Yang Libing is still looking for his daughter. The Yang family is waiting for the girl. Anyone reading this with information of the girl please let the adoption family know that the parents of their adopted girl were still looking for her. The mother had gone insane and was missing. The father hadn't worked a job for 7 years. They wanted their baby girl back. One clue, the baby's official last name was 'Shao', named after the upper level government 'Shaoyang'. If you have any information regarding the whereabout of the child, please contact ontact the editor at newsroom@caixinmedia.com, or call by phone at +01186 (10) 8590-5000, FAX: +01186 (10) 8590-5101. Their contact information can be found at the website of the news article.

This was not the first exposure of questionable, to an extend, illegal, practice of the local governments in handling adoptions. It had been reported earlier that some local government would 'purchase' second-born babies at low cost from residents who couldn't afford fines of the One Child Per Family policy, then sold them to westerners for profit.

The message to the western family who plan to adopt a child from China: regardless whatever the story you were told by Chinese officials regarding the source of the child, no matter how many government records came along as evidence, they were probably not true. People who are willing to raise a child of others must be of great sense of humanity and caring. For the sake of broken families in China and parents who are still desperately looking for their own babies, stop adopting children from China. In the least, you should point the article linked to Chinese official sellers, and demand the situation to be improved.

Former Utah governor and the US ambassador to China Jon Huntsman Jr. adopted a girl Gracie Mei from China in 1999. Mr. Huntsman had been told the girl was a girl given up by her family and was found in a park. Mr. Huntsman probably should think the story over again. Gracie's parents might be looking for her return for the past decade, every day and every night.

The reporter's name is Shangguan Aoming. The cover story published on "New Century", issue of No. 18-2011, May 9, 2011.