Woman Beaten to Death in McDonalds in Shangdong

A female customer was beaten to death in a McDonald's restaurant in Zhaoyuan, Shangdong Province.

According to witnesses's account, a group of family members of friends started asking cell phone numbers from customers in a McDonald's restaurant in downtown Zhaoyuan city on May 28, 2014. When a woman refused to give them her cell phone number, the group was annoyed. The group of six men, women, and youth started beating the woman was a stool in the restaurant, then with an iron bar (until it broke). Although the woman was heard begging for her life, and willing to give her cell phone number, she was beaten to death after her head was smashed to pieces.

Many witnesses called the police, but they did not arrive until the woman was killed. The police did not stop the group beating the dead body, even after they arrived at the scene. The incident was covered up by the local police and the traditional media until someone uploaded a cell phone video to the Internet.

The video went viral instantly. Chinese netizens criticized the police's handling of this incident because:

1. The tragedy took place in the most popular Jinbai Plaza in the city, and the nearest police squad is only 400 yards away. How come it took so long for police to respond?
2. Why the group were able to ignore the police after they arrived at the scene and kept beating the obvious motionless body?
3. In a police report which was released after the video had gone viral, the police stated it was a result of an oral altercation between customers of the restaurant, despite the video cleared showed that was not the case.
4. The official report said the victim died in the hospital, while the video cleared showed that was not the case.
5. The official described the incident as a brawl, while the video cleared showed that was not the case.
6. The police refused to release the identities of the group.

Witnesses said the group was driving a Porsche Cayenne. The victim was said to be a 37 years old mother of a seven year old boy, who just got off her work shift in the plaza and was waiting to go home with her husband.

Many speculated the background of the group of six. However, more likely they are just some uncharacteristic 'common' wealthy people with some connections to the local government. Because it has grown to a national incident, the Party will not allow any questioning to its authority, not even under such extreme situation. The Party will see any reaction to people's demand a reflection of its weakness. Any demand of justice is seen as a challenge to the Party's ruling. Therefore, the Party will unfortunately see it the only way to survive is to side with the murderers.

And that's how things have been going in China.

It's a real terror, as a girl could be killed when eating a fast meal after work at the McDonald's in a busy city plaza a few hundred yards away from a police squad, just for not giving her cell phone number to a group of strangers.

In the mean time, the Central Propaganda Ministry has already identified two perfect targets: the McDonald's and the underground Churches. Millions of net police had been mobilized to post on the Internet claiming the girl's death was McDonald's fault. More are instructed to label the gang of six murders as preachers of underground churches who were collecting telephone numbers to spread the gospel.

As the Chinese social networks websites started blocking this incident, some Chinese netizens looked outside and asked President Obama to intervene by filing petition at the White House 'We the People' site.

Chen Guancheng

Chen Guangcheng, a self-taught lawyer, is a blind man, born 1971. The Chen family, Chen, his wife Yuan and his daughter kesi, lives in East-Shigu Village, Yinan County, Linyi Prefecture, Shangdong Province, about 300 miles from Beijing.

A person of 'Light' and 'Sincere' (the two Chinese characters of his name Guang-Cheng), Chen was not new in Irking communists leaders in Shandong. 1996, Chen's petition ended the local policy of taxing people with disabilities, as it was ruled out in a national law enacted in 1991. Also, in 1998 Chen's petition stopped local government from double taxing farmers' land. However, the crime he had committed was exposing government brutality in the exercising of the One Child Per Family policy. Chen was jailed four years from 2006 to 2010. Chen was released from the prison in September, 2010. Chen returned to his home in Linyi, Shangdong. After that, nobody has been able to visit him, or speak to him over the phone.

The village Chen lived was remodeled into a jail. The villagers he once helped had been lured into living-in guards. 900 people, including 300 government employees and 600 villagers had been placed on the payroll of a task force to isolate Chen from the outside world. The villagers were paid CNY 160 ($20) a day for monitoring Chen. CNY 500 for each visitor they capture.

The only connection between Chen and the outside world is his mother, who is allowed to bringing in food to his house. His daughter, 7 years old Kesi Chen was not allowed to go to school. No paper or stationary was allowed to pass in the house, so Chen can not even home-school his daughter. Hundreds of surveillance cameras had been installed pointing to Chen's house from every angle possible. Flush lighting converts nights to days. Cell phone signals was jammed, too.

Chen's village, has earned a spacial statues, that you must visit to claim legitimacy in the moral high-land. Waves of activists, reporters, intelligentsia and other groups had attempted to visit Chen, who is legally a free man with no string attached whatsoever. Nobody has been able to accomplish that mission. More recently, a Xinhua News reporter traveled in personal capacity to the village, only to be robbed, beaten, and thrown out like a dog. His taxi was stopped at a check point near the village by traffic police. Then was led by the police to a yard, where local villagers robbed him, and jailed him for days before set him free in another town. The reporter has since been suspended by the Xinhua News.

Chen was not an anti-government, or anti-Communism, or even an activist on all account. He was not against existing law nor government policy, in particular, not against the One Child per Family policy. The only thing he did that was not in alignment with the Party was that he tried to expose those wrongdoings in the enforcing this police by local government officials.

It's not that nobody from upper up hasn't heard of the incident. Chen's situation had not only enraged Chinese, but had drawn attention from almost every corner of the world, and remained the hot topic on every negotiation tables the central government sat by in the world. British Foreign Secretary expressed concern over Chen's trail in 2006. In 2007, 34 US senators wrote to President Hu himself to express their willing to see Chen's release. Earlier this year on the eve of President Hu Jintao's State Visit to the US, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton publicly renewed her commitment to see Chen's free. July, the House Committee on Foreign Affairs approved an amendment to Appropriation Bill of 2012 calling for the release of Chen.

Reflecting on Chen's experiences, it seems the Communists Party showed more toleration on policy issues, than on personal accountability, even when it was about the accountability of the lowest ranking agents. The common traits between the Communists Party and a mafia is that they valued loyalty the most. The difference between the two is that the CCP does not hold any principle. The Seagull is curious on how long can a mafia hang on street smart, without any principle.

20 more people from all over the country who do not know each other just signed up on the sina-weibo, the knocked-off edition of Tweeter that is allowed to operate in China, to visit the village today. They are in the age range from 17 to 69. They knew what would they be facing, but they felt it was nothing in comparison to what Chen has been suffering. They felt if their visit/mistreatment by police can bring one more thread of light on this unbelievable situation, and leads to its final resolution, it would be well worth it.

All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes

Jinghong Mu was a molecular biologist before she died of cancer in 2008. She knew her time was coming when she gathered her family and relatives and announced she would leave the medical expenses account of $100,000 to a fund to support education of poor kids in her hometown, instead of spend it on her treatment. Jinghong passed away soon after.

Her parents look after her fund, and yesterday, they gave up the first round of scholarship to students of Linqing Second High School.

Jinghong's parents are retired professors of University of Sciences and Technology Beijing. Jinghong was born in Linqing, Shangdong, the hometown of her father, but grew up in Beijing. Jinghong had the best education a Chinese kid at her age could have, going schools in Beijing, then studying in Beijing University, PhD of Penn State, Post Doc tours in Rockefeller University and Southwestern Medical Center, still her heart was with the people under poverty in Linqing.

Jinghong had always tried to do something for Linqing. In the second year she came to the States, she came across a book titled 'All God's Children Need Traveling Shoes' in the College bookstore. She felt lucky for being able to take the journey of adventures in knowledge and cultures. Jinghong would want kids back in Linqing also felt the joy and be able to travel in the conquest of their own destinations. The best shoes would be, knowledge.

Now, a few lucky students in Linqing just received their traveling shoes, we hope they will go as long as their will and determination carry them.

A Voyager learns 'God's children need traveling shoes', Tuesday, June 26, 1990. The Daily Collegian online

A voyager learns 'God's children need traveling shoes'
One day, I opened a book in a bookstore. On the first page of the book there was only one line: God's children need traveling shoes. Immediately I was absorbed into the world of the author's beautiful imagination.

Traveling all around the world has always been my dream. When I was in college in China, with a group of friends, my favorite game was played on a map, and the dearest topic was traveling. My life there was filled with warm comfort and strong belief that one day I would do it. Two years ago, I left for the United States, and then Penn State University. Although I had been away from home before, I had never been on a plane, and certainly never traveled out of China. "This is my start," I wrote in my journal and hoped the whole world could hear this announcement.

"What is going to be?" I wove my fantasy with the little information that I had read and heard about the United States. The plane hurtled over the Golden Gate Bridge and the spreading forest in California, then headed to the Los Angeles International Airport located by the seashore. The plane was almost scraping the waves of the sea which is greyish blue in her sobriety. I felt the touch of this vast land and the freedom bestowed on it, which is geographically as old as the land I came from, yet sparkling fresh in her historical youth.

On the road from New York to State College, I met an old man, a Greek immigrant. Twenty years ago he came to the United States with a few pennies and many dreams. He looked at me and advised: "Be tough first, then you will have chances to be soft." This advice must have come out of his bitter struggle. Later whenever I was tangled with some uneasy situation, I would repeat this sentence, and it would give me some strength.

State College greeted me charmingly. The weather and flora here were similar to those of my hometown due to the similar latitude, which lessened my homesickness. The first semester was full of fascination. Like a moving feast, every day was full of new experiences and discoveries. There were just too many first times.

The first time I took a ride in a rainy night, the mountain road of Pennsylvania cradled me like a boat, and aroused my memories of the long travels by train in China. The first time I danced in a bar, the whirling light and the rhythm of music intoxicated me and carried me away. The first time I sat in front of the computer in Pattee library, all the famous names and book titles just flew from the screen to within my very touch. I was amazed when I was told that signing out 200 books was the maximum limit for one semester. 200 books -- Unbelievable!

As time elapsed, gradually the feast ended, and consciousness intruded. I grew unsatisfied about the simple happiness that I had felt. Like a person in the desert, I was thirsty, thirsty for books in my native language and talks with some spiritual meanings. The mystic story of China, the warm-hearted people of that land, and the colorful culture created by my people are all on the other side of the Pacific Ocean. But I am here in America. I felt I was floating in the air without touching solid ground; where did I belong?

After a time of confusion, I began to realize the similarities between our two cultures, and the people of our two lands. Trimming away the differences, the similarity of the peoples' ideas become striking. The same content could be expressed in different forms, the same thought could be carried in different languages. Every culture has many layers, therefore one has to find the layer that is warm and dear as a seedbed in which to grow.

Once more I live in the surroundings of friends, near or remote. They present their own views, and lead me to many new fields that I never set foot in before. While I receive their ideas, I give my ideas, values and culture, and sometimes the traditional Chinese food I prepare. The characteristics of my friends and the culture they represent fascinate me. An old black story teller and a musician, by singing a folk song, showed me the greatness that black people had rooted in their humility. A girl from the Ivory Coast told me her awareness of her role as one of the first generation of professional women that come from Africa to the West.

My album is the carrier of my traveling experience and has become my pride. I took pictures of whatever people and scenery struck me. Birds have been my favorite subjects, the eagles, the seagulls, the doves and the airplanes, those fortunate creatures who go according to their wills, their spreading wings are full of the desire for flight. I admire them.

For almost two years, State College has been my charming host, and will continue to be during the time I stay here. But one day I will leave, as I left my home in China. After staying in America for about two years, and realizing how strong the combination of will and determination can be, the dream of traveling all around the world seems more and more realistic. Standing in the Happy Valley shielded by the mountains, I can smell the ingredients of excitement from the other parts of the world in the wind blowing from outside. "What is going to be?" I wonder once more.

On the second page of my album there are two maps, one of the world and the other of America. The places that I have been are marked. On the first page I wrote: All God's children need traveling shoes.

Internet Cafes Suspended in Shangdong

All 21 Internet Cafes across Guanxian had been suspended by the Communism Party as a preemptive measure after a mother and her infant were killed by local 'Family Planning' officials.

The woman was about to deliver the baby when government officials rushed to the deliver bed to inject lethal drugs to kill the infant. The mother fought fiercely to protect her baby, and it took eight communists and three injections to kill the baby. The mother bled to death in the process.

Both Phoenix Net (Beijing backed) of Hong Kong and the China Youth Daily in Beijing reported the suspension of public Internet cafes, with no mentioning of the death of woman and her infant. Some traditional media blamed the brutal practice of the 'family planning' agencies without elaborating details (West China Metropolitan, Info Yunnan. Details of the incident had been posted to every corner of the Chinese online world, such as Tianya. Spokeswoman of the Communist Party stated the local government acted within its legal power to regulate Internet Cafes, which had become a major distraction to school children from their coursework.