Defying Chinese Media Deliver Stenographic Messages

The entire Chinese media 'exploded' after the bullet train accident on 7/23/2011. Even the central TV network weighed in to question the handling of the accident. Premier Wen Jiabao arrived the scene and told the rail system to 'tell the truth'.

However, one day later, the Central Propaganda Department ordered no more reporting on the accident. The accident and any related topics were banned from the Internet as well as traditional media.

A few newspaper defied by continuing cover the disaster, while most of them had to retreat. Thousands of reporters and editors uploaded their 'original edition' of newspaper to the Internet in protest.

Some paper gave in, but in protest, replaced the entire issue of newspaper with advertisement, and advertisement only. Some paper tried to send steganographic message that smart readers would recognize, such as the 'New Beijing' daily's first page story: 'Seven days of continuing rain, two warnings in a day'.

The 'seven days' refereed to seven days after the 7/23 train disaster. The 'first seven days' is also a period while the dead were mourned in Chinese culture. The 'two warnings in a day' referred to the two gagging orders in a day sent from the Central Propaganda Department.

The insubordinate actions cost many their jobs, including a CCTV producer.

Wen Jiabao: Rail Ministry Must Tell the Truth

Premier Wen got to the scene of the bullet train accident. Wen held a press conference after visiting the hospitals and talking to survivors and their families. Wen said he had been on bed for 11 days because of an illness, which was the reason he did not come earlier.

When asked on the handling of the accident, Wen stated he called the Rail Minister immediately. We stressed he only said two words on the phone to the Minister, which were'save life' and not even one word beyond that. Wen said the Rail Ministry must tell the truth of the disaster.

People at the scene accused the officials did not assist passenger to leave the train after the accident. Further, they charged officials harshly called off the rescue operation within a few hours. It is wide spread that carriages were pushed down the 60 feet bridge with people inside. Later, many bodies and a couple of live persons were found in the pushed-down carriage, as well as on the ground nearby. TV reporting from the scene also showed heavy equipment were used to smash the 6 carriages on the ground, without checking whether there were still passengers inside. Later, many bodies were found whose heads and limbs were cut off by construction equipment.

TV programs from the scene also showed carriages were then decomposed into pieces and buried in big holes dug at the scene. Reporters questioned why they had to be smashed to pieces. The Rail Minister stated the action was to prevent advanced sensitive technology fell into wrong hands. The spokesperson of the Rail Ministry stated the action was to use the carriages to pave road.

The news conference was not allowed to be broadcasting on-air in mainland China. However, many reporters posted the questions and Wen's answers in real time on micro-blogs.

Reporters came with many questions. Specifically, they wanted to know which official called off the rescue hours after the disaster, and which official order the train to be smashed and buried hours after the accident took place. They also wanted to know the real death toll. Beijing still insisted on the number 35, while it is obvious the number should be between around two hundreds. Three carriages plunged 60 feet with full load of 80 passenger each according to ticketing. In addition, one entire carriage was wiped out during the collision. The carriage looked like a post card with floor and ceiling ironed together. Nobody would survive.

勒克儿:凌晨3点，刚写完博客，再发一条微博睡觉去鸟：小时候，奇迹是一个柔软的奶瓶，三聚氰氨在里面，良心在外面；长大了，奇迹是一座燃烧的礼堂，孩子在里面，领导在外面；再后来，奇迹是一辆着火的大巴，人在里面，救生锤在外面；现在，奇迹是一节血迹班驳的车厢，你在里面，铲车在外面。

While Wen took a break, more than 20 reporters at the scene shouted together to demand the Rail Ministry to answer questions directly, because unlike Wen who just got up from his sick bed, the Rail Ministry had answers to all questions. However, neither Wen nor the Rail Minister responded to the demand, but wrapped up the news conference and left.

Combing through each word said by Wen, reporters realized Wen only promised to investigate the accident itself, but did not even brush on the clear demand to investigate the handling after the accident by Vice Premier Mr. Zhang Dejiang, the top CCP official at the scene.

Mr. Zhang received a B.S. from North Korea.

1 plus 1 plus 1

one news piece
A disabled peddler was beaten to death by city officials in Anshun of Guizhou. Thousands of people walked to street to protest.

one petition
Please publish the real death toll of the high speed train accident

one prediction
The government may launch a war against a neighbor country/area, for no other purpose but to offset people's anger.

High Speed Train Accident 'Fixed'

The reported accident time was rewound 7 minutes back from 20:34 to 20:27. Weibo time stamp showed the accident had not happened at 20:27.

Perhaps so that the rail system would not look too bad for not knowing the train being rared had been sitting still on the track for too long.

发信人: wagmal (超级偶像，工藤静香), 信区: Military
标 题: 【我日！中共居然把温州动车事故的时间调整了！！】
发信站: BBS 未名空间站 (Sat Jul 23 22:43:57 2011, 美东)

这是23日20点34分的事故发生时间的各种新闻稿，这是第一批最先出来的新闻稿
http://www.google.com/search?q=23%E6%97%A520%E7%82%B934%E5%88%8

而这是23日20时27分的事故发生时间的各种新闻稿，难道中共开始改时间了？
http://www.google.com/search?num=50&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=s

而根据这条微博的发出时间，20时27分的时候火车还没相撞！
http://weibo.com/1890955222/xg7oqzkOD
狂风暴雨后的动车这是怎么了？？爬的比蜗牛还慢…可别出啥事儿啊…
7月23日 20:27 来自S60客户端|举报 转发(12934) | 收藏 | 评

难道中共因为一条微博，故意去改事故时间？
--

※ 来源:·WWW 未名空间站 海外: mitbbs.com 中国: mitbbs.cn·[FROM: 173.224.]

It is also reported individuals of Wenzhou, primarily youth lined up at blood stations to help. Many luxury cars were seen parking nearby. The crowd waiting to donate blood caused multiple traffic congestion at Blood Centers in Wenzhou around midnight.

Observers were assured to see the 'spoiled generation' was also socially responsible.

Eye witnesses told reporters that all together 3 carriages fell under the high-rise bridge. Not even 24 hours after the accident, the carriages were already crushed and compressed by heavy equipment and buried at the scene. Some accused the move was to hide the real reason behind the collision.

@火狼现在已经有7、8辆挖土机抵达事故现场，在坠落的几节动车车厢旁挖了几个直径有10米左右的大坑，挖土机直接对车厢进行破拆，并将车厢的一些碎片进行碾压，然后推入坑中进行现场掩埋——我可以理解为毁灭证据吗？

Hong Kong based Phoenix TV showed many villagers living by the scene were saying there must be victims buried with the train. Villager accused the authority buried the train so that no body would know how many people died.

Phoenix TV has deep roots in Beijing, so the revealing could be read as a different voice within the regime. Mr. Zhang Dejiang, the vice premier, is the top official at the scene.

Officials announced the conclusion of rescue operation by 2:00 in the morning, less than 6 hours after the accident took place. Then heavy equipment moved in to crumble the carriage cars. A survivor was found around 5:00. Around 17:00 another surviving baby was found, after the carriage was pushed down 60 ft from the bridge by a heavy equipment.

yangpigui 许晖
RT @qhgy 王星WX：凌晨4点，央视新闻说现场没有生命体征了，搜救已经在2点多结束；5点，发现一名幸存者。7点，央视新闻说反复搜救没有生命体征了，现场开始切割车体、把竖在桥旁的车厢推倒……下午5点，又发现一名幸存者。心痛。此围脖已被删除。

In the official news press, the spokesperson Mr. Wang Yongping admitted they already buried part of the carriage, but promised to keep the rest. Reporters were not satisfied when Wang said the surviving baby was a 'miracle', and demand an answer as to why the carriages was ordered to be destroyed before searching for survivor. Wang simply repeated that the baby was a miracle without answer the question.

According to passenger on the two train. No rail employee showed up in the initial hours after the accident. The moral of the story is that when trapped in an accident, do not rely on government rescue. Actually, when you are in doubt whether you can make it, get out of their way and hide from government officials until you reach a safe place and announced your whereabouts to the world.

周述恒：转：“整个过程是无序的，我没有见到一个乘务员，没看见任何一个铁路部门的相关人员。全都是靠群众自发组织。 ”—— 温州动车事故亲历者讲述事故全过程《昨晚，我就在那辆动车上D3115》 http://t.cn/alYqJu

While Beijing insisted 35 passengers dead. Shanghai based Oriental Satellite reported from the scene a number of 63. Hospital staffs tweeted more than 100 had died.

Google Cut Firefox Support

Google announced that it would stop updating its Firefox Toolbar, a very popular product among FireFox users.

Google had been lending its hand to the opensource browser project by contributing a big donation in exchange of a place at Firefox's integrated search block. In the darkest days while Firefox was struggling to catch up with Microsoft's Internet Explorer, that was the major source for the by and large community based project.

Fast forwarding to summer of 2011. Google released its own browser 'Chrome' and IE's market has been cut in half. It is obvious that Firefox is the major obstacle on Google's way to take over the browser battlefield. Because enemy's enemy must be a friend, Google Toolbar now exclusively support IE. It is not surprising to see Google back stab once partner, but you will wonder where had Google buried the 'Don't be Evil' slogan.

Well, actually, if you look carefully, 'Don't be Evil' is nowhere to be found in Google's official documentation. What a myth.

China's Internet Population Reaches 485 millions

According to data released by CNNIC, as of end of June 2011, the online population in China has reached 485 millions. 36.2% of Chinese are online, comparing to 77.3% of Americans. 318 millions use their mobile phones to surf the Internet. Their average time online is 18.7 hours per week. The number of individual domains dropped to 7.86 millions from last year's 11.21 millions due to government censorship.

The College Entrance Exam: 2011

College Admission of Shandong Province in 2011

school	total	high	low
Qinghua University	65	719	682
Beijing University	30	708	682
Fudan University	32	682	672
Shanghai Communication University	50	680	670
Zhejiang University	61	694	668
University of Science and Technology of China	40	676	667
Medical College of Shanghai Communication University	12	676	666
Chinese People's University	35	681	665
Nanjing University	65	680	664
Nankai University	60	671	658
Tongji University	108	673	651
Central University of Finance and Economics	62	674	646
University of International Business and Economics	34	670	646
Beijing University of Science and Technology	111	669	646
China University of Political Science and Law	33	665	645
Huazhong University of Science and Technology	128	664	642
Wuhan University	174	664	633
Shandong University	1774	667	629
Shanghai Foreign Languages University	13	652	627
Beijing Foreign Languages University	10	660	626
Huadong Normal University	36	650	626
Northwestern Polytechnical University	135	658	625
Sun Yet-sen University	130	664	623
China Oceanic University	858	659	619
University of Electronic Science and Technology of China	156	648	615
Zhongnan University	272	662	614
Nanjing University of Science and Technology	138	651	613
Hohai University	167	637	607
Northeastern University	180	637	605
Lanzhou University	120	631	605
Sichuan University	251	653	604
Shangdong University at Weihai	865	644	603
Southwestern University of Communications	284	638	603
Wuhan University of Science and Technology	380	630	603
Xi'an University of Electronic Science and Technology	276	658	601
harbin University of Engineering	256	643	600
Hebei University of Technology	47	626	600

What's interesting from the numbers:
• The top 2 universities swiped all high score students with no exception. In other words, the best student getting in any other school is not as good as the worst student who gets in either Beijing University or Qinghua University;
  
• The Fudan University, Shanghai University of Communications, Zhejing University, USTC, People's University and Nanjing University together formed the second tier group.
  
• There is little difference among tier three schools going forward;
  

The above observations echoed the choice made by students in entire mainland China, compiled from another study:

Qinghua University (1.25), Beijing University (1.61), Fudan University (3.36), Shanghai University of Communications (3.60), Zhejing University (5.40), People's University (6.24), USTC (6.28), Nanjing University (7.76)

Number represented ranking of lowest admission score by province.

Twenty years ago, 2nd tier universities and some 3rd tier universities could share a scoop of high score students with 1st tier universities. At the time, there was no clear divide between say, Beijing University and Nankai University. Today, privileged employers should look no further than the top 2 schools. With exclusive access to talents and exclusive resource backed by the national government, Beijing University and Qinghua University leave no air for any other school to breathe.

Here is a bark, here is a bone

Having been muzzled politically, Chinese netizens got their way in two prominent criminal cases.

Case No. 1: Yao Jiaxin, a college student stabbed a pedestrian to death after a road accident because he was afraid she 'might' blackmail him. After talking with his parents, Yao turned himself in to police, who were not aware the incident at the time.

Yao was sentenced to death, and quickly executed.

Yao's case caught national media attention after the Yao's family was portrayed as a wealthy and powerful establishment. Yao, a piano student in Xi'an Music Conservatory, was seen as a typical spoiled junior rich, which has been the people's enemy on the Net.

Later officials from the court and legal systems admitted Yao would have been sentenced to a suspended death which is usually converted to life in jail after a 2 years probation.

Legal Proble at Issue: Had Yao not turned himself in, police might not be able to figure out the case; had he not admitted to the motive of killing, the murder charge could not stand. Yet, the legal system had to give in to the petitions of millions on the Internet, which mostly came out of the initial description of Yao's rich family background.

After Yao was executed, it turned out Yao's family was just an ordinary one. His father was not a senior PLA brigadier general as rumored on the Internet. The Yaos did not live in a million dollar house. The Yaos did not have connections or political clout.

While Yao was executed on June 7, 2011, people's attention turned to another case, which was 'even worse than Yao', the case No. 2.

Case No. 2: Li Changkui, a farmer and migrant worker in Jianxi Province was called back home in Yunnan to join in a fight between Li and Wang family. Li caught into a fight with Wang's 18 years old daughter Wang Jiafei when he brutally raped her, then killed her. Li then killed Wang's 3 years old son Wang Jiahong.

Li was sentenced to death in the trail at a lower court, but was granted a suspended death by the Supreme Court of Yunnan Province after appeal.

In an online survey, 98% believed Li's conduct was even worse than Yao, and that he should be sentenced to death. In response, the deputy chief justice of Yunnan Province stated the ruling would stand, and that the court of law should not be replaced by mass media.

Only days later, the court bent before the media pressure and ordered a re-trial of the case.

Legal Problem at Issue: The Chinese legal system is a 'two-tier trail system'. In theory, the ruling of the Supreme Court of Yunnan Province should be the final ruling. Although the sentencing could be debated, but it was based on legal considerations of 1) the feud between the two families; 2) the killing was not premeditated, and 3) the killer turned himself in. Even if there were flaws in the reasoning, it was a lawful final ruling of the legal system. As both families were poor rural farmers, it was not likely any political or social influence had been factored in the deliberations. The court could have made a better judgement, but the current one was well within the boundary of law.

So has the communists regime softened its grasp? Not at all. What's happening is it is a zero-sum game between the people and the government, at the cost of the integrity of the law, which it appears that either side cares.

Parents of 'Shao Orphans' Arrested

The two leading parents of 'Shao Orphans' were arrested on June 22, 2011 by Shaoyang police on sex charges.

After the broke of scandal of several Chinese government agency, including many provincial level agencies engaged child trafficking on May 9, 2011, Longhui County, Shaoyang Prefecture, and Hunan Province promised to investigate. The investigation disputed all 'rumors' spared on the Internet, and cleared the local governments of any wrongdoing, as a spokesperson told the official Renmin of the CCP Central Propaganda Department on July 14, 2011. Parents alleged their children were taken away by local officials citing family planing violations (most of these children were only child of a family, some have all proper papers, some do not have proper papers due to varies reasons). Health, police and court systems forged document to make these children 'orphans' so that they may qualify for international adoption. Then these children were sold to adoptive families, most Americans', for profit. Because many of these children were named 'Shao', the scandal were referred 'Shao Orphans' in news.

The 'Shao Orphans' is not an isolated incident. Before and after the alleged time frame when the children were taken by force by government officials in Shaoyang, Hunan, several other cases in other provinces went to court trail when many other state run orphanages were found actively engaging in child trafficking for profit. In some cases, state orphanages were found paying for mob to steal babies, so that they could be sold to western families for adoption.

While the parents are preparing for legal actions, the two leading parents were arrested by police, accusing them of buying sex.

Google Plus

Readers of the Seagull Reference can connect to Big Brother Chang through Google+. Send theseagullbog@gmail.com an email if you need an invitation.

New Oil Trace Surfaced in Bohai

One week after ConocoPhillips announced the oil spill had been fixed, new traces of oil were seen from satellite images of Bohai Gulf.

Operating in China has been attractive to western companies primarily because of low labor cost and low environmental cost. Offshore oil rigs use minimal of workers, but had tremendous environmental implication. By ignoring the environment impact, western companies can operate at a tiny fraction of cost comparing to fields in other parts of the world.

One more factor that caused this disaster was the structure of Chinese government. The domestic partner China National Offshore Oil Corp is a ministry level state enterprise. In the government hierarchy, it is half level higher than the marine affairs authority State Oceanic Administration, which is a deputy-ministry level agency. The head of the SOA would not want to risk his political aspiration to challenge a higher ranked state organization.

Police Says Okay to Rape with Rubber On

26 years old middle school English teacher Zhou Qin was raped by a communist official on May 17, 2011, after being ordered to drink by her principle at a government gathering. When she went to the police, she was told it was not a rape case because the alleged rapist Mr. Wang Zhonggui performed the act with a condom. The communist Party Chief Mr. Zhong Xiancong of the A'shi District Police Station told Zhou Qin that he did not see it as a rape case since Mr. Wang was wearing a condom. Mr. Wang is the director of local State Bureau of Land and Resources.

Zhong Xiancong is the Party Chief of the police station in Bijie of Guizhou Proince. Zhong told the victim to settle. Zhong was at the scene when the victim was ordered to drink.

Although the saying sounds absurd, Mr. Zhong stood by his words with interviewed by reporters of Anshun Morning.

Xinhua News Agency

It was not newsworthy to report the Xinhua News Agency caught lying twice in a week. However, from time to time, people were simply interested on the motive of making a lie.

Story No. 1

Mr. Zang Jiebin is the deputy mayor of Xiamen, a Deputy-Ministry Level metropolitan in the Fujian Province. In a video viral on the Internet, Mr. Zang was seen speaking at a conference, while he stated, after touring Germany he observed how difficulty a common German person to access the Internet. According to Zang, German people would have to go through layers of examinations from varies government agencies before they could be granted Internet access. On the contrary, Zang pronounced, people in mainland China should feel lucky about their broad freedom regrading Internet access.

As you can expect, the video was mocked and ridiculed by Chinese Netizens. Some demanded the mayor to reveal his source of information; while some joked he must have teleported himself to the East Germany of 1984.

Well, you guess what, days later, the 'Global Times' under the 'Xinhua News Agency' published an article to endorse the mayor's saying that it was indeed a daunting task for any German to get on Internet. Chinese should thank the Party for granting them freedom not seen in German.

Story No. 2
Singer Ms. Song Zuying performed a song at a patriotic show in Puyang City of Henan Province on June 21. A local official Mr. Wang Jvliu stepped on the stage to present a bunch of flower, then posed for a picture with his hand touched Song's shoulder. Mr. Wang was arrested and throw in jail. Besides being a popular and successful singer, Ms. Song was also rumored the mistress of Mr. Jiang Zemin, the former boss of CCP. It is deemed intolerable to touch the body of an emperor's concubine.

The Xinhua News Agency felt it needed to do something to make the hush punishment 'logical', and soon it found a good chance to jump on.

July 7th was the 74th anniversary of Lugou Bridge Incident which marked the beginning of China's defense against Japanese aggression. A mainland tourist visiting Taiwan saw the Republic of China president Mr. Ma Ying-Jeou at the Sun Yat-sen Memorial and gave him a bear hug. The move surprised Ma's bodyguards but all party were cool and so on. Taiwan media reported the breach of security as a fun story of the day. Xinhua News repackaged the story in its own words, then added a line at the end, the woman was jailed for violating Ma's safety.

Whoever made this up at the Xinhua News Agency must have his brain examined, because he was not helping. Even in the fabricated version of the story, Ma being the president of Republic of China entitles to a security line, while Song, a popular singer, does not. Is Xinhua News trying to spread the rumor that Song was indeed Jiang Zemin's concubine?

Nobody is Safe

20 years old Ms. Tian was born in a privileged family. Her father Mr. Tian Wanchang was the former deputy mayor of Liupanshui City of Guizhou Province, in charge of police, court system and local prosecutors. Her mother was an official of the Ministry of State Security.

The Tian family's life turned upside down when Ms. Tian was raped by an even higher ranked official Mr. Zhou Shili on January 8, 2009 in a hotel room in Guiyang. The Tian family had since been on the road to petition for justice. Two years later, the case went nowhere. The family could not find one agency to admit evidence related to the case.

The story was reported by Hong Kong based ifeng.com.

With all resources pertained to the family of senior officials, they couldn't find justice when wronged by a person of higher rank.

Across the Pacific, the murderer of Caylee Anthony was found 'not guilty' by the court despite a clear, unmistakable, and loud national outcry.

Which system do you prefer?

Cost of Low Cost

Labor cost is not the only reason foreign manufactures rushed to China to set up plants. Although China's labor cost is up, foreign companies are not expected to leave.

ConocoPhillips was caught in a situation BP faced after the Mexico Gulf Oil Leak incident, after a micro-blog indicated an oil leak was on-going in the Bohai Gulf on June 20, 2011. The China's State Oceanic Administration responded half months later, with an official Xinhua news release, in which the oil leak was said to be within an area of '20 square meters (about the size of a typical family kitchen room, it is not a typo)', and had been cleaned up. All news agencies were instructed to use the official Xinhua news release, and prohibited from reporting on the incident.

Bohai Gulf is almost encircled by Liaodong Peninsula and Shandong Peninsula. Approximately 78k km² and blocked by East China Sea and the Yellow Sea, it is almost an inland lake. According to personal blogs and twitters, oil accumulations could be see as far as hundreds of kilometers away from the alleged leaking place by tourists and fishermen.

The State Oceanic Administration declared the clean up had been completed in a news press held on July 4, 2011. Oil trace on water was reported to the agency as early as June 4th, but the origin was not located until sometime after June 17th. The agency stated the leak was 'almost under control' by June 21st. The agency also stated the maximum fine for such incident was CNY 200K ($30k). US based ConocoPhillips was found solely responsible for the oil leak.

ConocoPhillips was awareded Penglai 19-3 Oil Field, the largest off-shore oil field in China with 0.8 billion barrels of known reachable oil reserve. Oil prospecting in Bohai Gulf had been a low hanging fruit with success ratio over 50% in 6 continuous years, however, the area had been contracted to varies foreign companies for development.

China to Acquire Chunk of Facebook

Business Insider reported China was in process of acquiring huge chuck of Facebook. One source indicated a fund was hired to buy stocks of Facebook from former employees, and another source traced to Citibank, whom was in talk to acquiring as much as $1.2 billion representing a sovereign wealth fund of China.

The leads coincident with Facebook showing attention of entering Chinese market. Mark Zuckerberg visited China at the end of last year to meet senior officials there. It is rumored Facebook might work with its knock-off brand as a form acceptable to Chinese censorship requirement. While it looks if China feel comfortable on its influence with sizable Facebook stocks, the company might be granted the entrance as an exception. As of today, Facebook is blocked in mainland China. Google's attempt on social network Google+ was blocked within hours after it was launched.

The Emperor Revealed His New Clothes

The Ministry of Treasure released data on number of Chinese tax payers in the discussion of adjusting exemption level. According to the data, by increasing the level from CNY 2,000 to CNY 3,500, the population of personal incoming tax paying Chinese decreases from 84 million to 24 million.

The number of merely 24 million Chinese earned more than CNY 3,500 cams as a shock to some observers. In recently years, Chinese has been known as big spenders in the western world. They raised up housing price in Canada and often clear entire store of luxurious goods on vacation. The number is certainly at odds with the spending power demonstrated by Chinese tourists.