Dongguan Hold On

Dongguan is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong Province with a population of 8 million. The city situates itself between Guangzhou and Shenzhen. For decades, it had been known as the 'manufacturing capital' of the world. Recently, it is also dabbed as the 'sex capital' of China.

For whatever reason, the CCTV under the Central Propaganda Ministry named Dongguan in it's national news broadcasting, accusing it of harboring prostitution activities, a criminal offense in China. It came as a sudden earthquake. Over six thousands police combed the city, and 67 prostitutes and their clients were arrested in one night. It's an inconvenience and understandably disappointing for those who rely on the service. But the reaction from the public was interesting, to say the least. According to online data research, more than 80% of online comments support the illegal business. Shy of mentioned the word prostitution per se, online media and even some publication use banners with bold fonts to show support 'Dongguan Hold On', 'Dongguan Be Strong'. Data analytics studies suggested that the great majority of males posters mocked and taunted the CCTV and the police, while women who as a whole did not approve prostitution activities kept silence.

An off duty police officer was seen holding a sign on the street in Hong Kong to protest for a colleague who was arrested on a sex trip in Dongguan. Local residents also displayed banners with the phrase, 'our soul is not for sale', with an undertone of mocking the reporters of CCTV.

What made Chinese, known for being introverted otherwise, to publicly spoke up for such an embarrassing act?

In an unrelated incident hundreds miles away in Guan'an, Sichuan Province on the same day, a police officer confiscated a scale from a peddler who was selling vegetables without a permit. The officer then threw the scale down a ditch. It appears the peddler was not beaten or mistreated. Still passerby were engaged, and soon a brawl was ensued. Thousands of people who had no ties to the peddler surrounded the police force, and demanded an apology.

It's no secret that any public defiant to the communists party rule will predictably gain a standing ovation from the audiences, anytime, any where. In many cases, it doesn't matter which side was at fault. Bashing the government has been a fashion for intellectuals and often a marketing technique for businessmen.

Since assuming the power in 2012, the Xi/Li administration has arrested and jailed more dissidents than twelve years of Hu/Wen administration combined. But obviously, people did not blink.

Shouldn't 'they' be scared?

Chinese Police BBQ Cats on Street

A group of Chinese police officers were seen barbecuing cats on road side. A reporter of the Southern Metropolitan took this photo on 12/21/2011, in front of the office building of the Patrol Unit of the Hongmei Police Bureau in Dongguan City of Guangdong Province.

An undercover reporter was dispatched after alerted by residents nearby. The officers told the reporter they caught the cat a moment ago. 20 minutes later, they walked in the police office building with the cooked cat.

Hitachi Refused to Fix Troubling Elevator

A newly elevator installed in Building 11 in No. 1 Wanjiang of Dongguan, Guangdong made several residents hospitalized, though no one had died of it, yet.

An incomplete record of the symptoms includes:

19:20 July 7, 2009, Lost power and dropped;
17:00 July 10, 2009, Dropped from 8th floor to 7th while ascending;
14:00 July 11, 2009, Dropped from 6th floor to second while ascending;
21:30 July 13, 2009, Dropped from 9th floor to 7th while ascending;
13:25 July 15, 2009, Dropped from 7th floor to 5th while ascending;
8:50 July 21, 2009, Lost power and dropped

The Hitachi elevator, among 35 others in the community, is still within warranty. The property managing company had reported to Hitachi repeatedly, and Hitachi had revealed the surveillance camera of dropping incidences. However, Hitachi couldn't locate the cause of the problem, and refused to fix it.

Chinese consumers often complained the handling Chinese market by Japanese companies. In a high profile case, Mitsubishi refused to recall SUVs sold in China on a fuel line issue after similar mode vehicles had been recalled in Japan. Although large amount of the affected SUVs were used by the Chinese military, Mitsubishi resisted the media pressure and public outcry to issue the recall.

Missing Children Parents Marched to Protest Guangdong Government

Parents of missing children in Dongguan marched at noon on April 18, 2009 to protest the government's inaction in stopping child abductions, a lucrative local business in south China.

According to a loosely organized group of missing parents who are actively looking for their kids, more than 1000 children had been abducted since year 2007 in the city of Dongguan, and more than 500 happened in 2008 alone. Many were taken away from their mother's arms by force in public. In one day October 18, 2008, more than 20 boys were abducted in town of Qingxi of Dongguan.

Toddlers and infants, especially boys were taken and sold to be slaves. Many would have their arms and legs amputated eyes blinded, and be used as beggars. They would then be trained and placed in busy intersections in large cities. Physically disabled kids usually draw more donations from sympathetic passerbys.

Dongguan police said they did not have specific numbers on missing children cases, and whatever numbers the parents are using must be exaggerated. The missing parents showed reporters their detailed names and family contacts of all cases registered voluntarily by parents looking for their kids. Nobody knows the real number, but it could only be larger than what has been known.

The Communist Party Boss in Guangdong Province is Mr. Wang Yang. Wang is known for his steadfast stance of local economy first.

Pig Ban in Dongguan

Dongguan, Guangdong bans pig farming beginning January 1, 2009. The major concern behind the highly controversial decision is said to be the pollution caused by pig defecation. It is no longer a secret that China is suffering a crisis of pork shortage. Pork being the main source of animal protein for most Chinese is touching every normal people's life as gas to commuter Americans. For the first time in many years China imported a sizable load of pork from the US. However the import pork is beyond price range of 99.97% of Chinese people.

In history, pig defecation was not a source of pollution, but rather a key booster for organic agriculture. However, processing pig defecation became a burden for farmers when the price of chemical fertilizer dropped to near zero. Unprocessed pig poops strained the local pollution control effort, which had already been running in the red zone because of the fast growing industries. To the end, it's cheaper for the Dongguan government to purchase pork from other areas, and leaves the precious pollution facilities to industrial growth. A quick Googling dug out an interesting blog about using pig poop to control industrial waste water polluted by heavy metals. Coincidently, the major type of industrial waste in Dongguan is that of heavy metals.

In less than a month, Dongguan people will be cooking pork from some other (remote poor) areas of China, where people don't really care about pollution.

Dongguan, a tiny town unknown to outside Guangzhou 30 years ago, grew into a satellite city of Guangzhou in the 90s, and now a mega-city of more than 10 million people of its own.

Courts Adopted New Sentencing Guideline

Courts of Dongguan in Guangdong province adopted a new sentencing guideline which takes monetary compensation to victims into criminal case. Chen Si of the Dongguan Medium Court explained the new guideline in a recent interview. Chen used a case to illustrate the benefit of the new guideline. In a fatal robber case, the murder Wang paid $6,000 to the victim Cai's family. The money helped the victim's family out of financial desperation. The victim's family was quite satisfied, so the sentence was subsequently reduced to life in jail.

$6,000 means a lot for a poor family.

Dongguan was a little know county of Guangzhou not long ago. However, it grows into one of the most prosperous area as a mega industrial park. It's GDP would ranked top 5 among major cities in China.