Jiang Zemin, Li Peng Wanted by Spanish Court

Spain's National Court has issued arrest warrants for former Chinese President Jiang Zemin, Premier Li Peng, as well as three other officials for their role in alleged genocide in Tibet.

Former President Hu Jintao is also under the same investigation, but is not facing arrest at this time.

Spain National Court claims jurisdiction over severe human rights violations even outside its territories on the principle of universal jurisdiction.

Chilean dictator General Pinochet was indicted for human rights violations by Spanish magistrate Baltascar Garzon in 1998. Six days later, he was arrested in a hospital in London by British police acting on a request from Spain.

Starbucks' Trouble Might Have Been Planted One Year Ago

In the past few days, Starbucks have been under heavy bombardment from the propaganda branch CCTV. The official national television station blamed Starbucks for charging higher price in China. The TV program claimed that Starbucks charge a high price of $4.5 for a cup of Latte while the cost of coffee and milk was only $0.80.

Starbucks quickly responded that the material cost only contributed 18% of the price, and that there were other cost involved. In particular, Starbuck said, customers in China used to stay in the coffee shop longer than those in the west, thus increased expenses in store lease.

Customers in China reacted overwhelmingly in favor of Starbuck. The next day, many Starbucks stores find long line of customers waiting for a cup of coffee, partially in support of the coffee store, partially as a public defiance to the Propaganda mouthpiece.

Professor Wang Ye of University of Pittsburgh at Bradford suggested that Starbucks' trouble might had been planted when their CEO Howard Schultz visited China in April 2012. It was believed former Chinese President Jiang's influences were severely diminished at the once-a-decade power transition in March. Jiang's successor Hu Jintao announced that he would withdraw from decision-making entirely to pass the power to new President Xi Jinping. It was viewed as a public humiliation to Jiang's effort to stay in power even after he stepped down from the top position in China in 2003.

Jiang reacted with a news of his meeting with the visiting Schultz to reassure his base that he was still around. The Starbucks was accidentally caught in a crossfire between Jiang and Xi, who understandably would have wished that Jiang had gone away forever and for real.

As professor Wang pointed out, unfortunately, Starbucks stood on the wrong side.

In the meanwhile, Xi Jinping praised Wal-Mart and Coca-Cola for their contributions to Chinese economy.

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?

Plastic Rice

An English blog cited a Vietnamese source 'Very Vietnam', which in turn referred to a Korean language 'Weekly Hongkong' who reported Singapore media alleging plastic rice discovered in market in Taiyuan of Shanxi Province, what a mouthful.

The Seagull hasn't had the privilege of tasting this edition of rice, therefore we can not confirm or rebut the truthfulness of the story. However, given the track record of food safety in the most recent years, nothing is impossible on this magic land.

Around 1996, a rare, expensive kind of rice, bamboo jasmine rice emerged in market. This rare kind of rice has a bamboo green, and a kind of bitter-mint smell of bamboo. Bamboo rice is heavily promoted as good to health. Two years later, it turned out these were ordinary rice with green color. This 'enhancement' technique was funded by China National Science Foundation, as hinted by this 1998 paper.

Around June, 2005, news reported thousands of tons of toxic rice (containing lethal amount of Aflatoxins per serving) in retail market in Beijing. This batch of rice was 'refurbished' by a company run by the Food Bureau of Beijing from old rice already removed from food produce process. The Food Bureau of Beijing denied the report, and insisted no old rice was re-introduced to the food process. Beijing municipal government admitted guilty with mounting evidence after half years of retail in October. The Food Bureau was fined $50,000.

Around 2011, news media reported a significant share of rice in China contained excessive cadmium, a by-product of industrial process. This is not really news worthy. As early as 2002, national testing results published by the Minister of Agriculture indicated 10.3% rice contains too much cadmium, and 28.4% contains too much lead, caused by industrial waste water being used for agriculture irrigation. No relief is expected because 1) there is no alternative source of water in affected areas; 2) it will be impossible to change the soil already contaminated. Century Weekly produced a map of cadmium rice.

A good hindsight guide in buying rice in China is to avoid good looking rice, because they were most likely polished, bleached from old rice. Also any type of jasmine rice should be avoided as they were made from artificially synthesized chemicals.

Readers familiar with what's happening in China know under the authoritarian ruling of the communist Party, no conduct without government endorsement could survive long enough to make a scandal. Bright Dairy of Shanghai was known for collecting riot milk from the market to reproduce new milk. Bright Dairy (Shanghai Stock Exchange 600597) was not punished even after a local TV station in Henan Province caught the entire process and aired it on national network. Former President Mr. Jiang Zemin was the president of Bright Dairy. The Three Deer (Sanlu) Dairy of Hebei Province received a National Science and Progress Award (2nd place, the highest ever in Dairy Industry) for its technique to mix melamine into milk product. With any luck, if the rumor were turned true), we would see the element of government sponsorship again behind the plastic rice incident.

There is no need to worry about food safety of government officials of all levels, because they eat produce only from specially designated 'Special Supply (Te4Gong1 in pinyin) Areas', where corps are grown with most strictly regulated traditional methods. History had proved again and again, sharing of resource with a closed circle is the most effective way of maintaining a regime.

One Man's Death

The general manager of Tonghua Steel Company was beaten to death by angry workers after threatening to fire the entire workforce, 30,000 workers. Workers held on the plant until the provincial government announced Jianlong would not take over Tonghua Steel through television broadcasting.

Chen Guojun was appointed by the private Jianlong Group of Hebei Province. Jianlong's Chiar is son of General Liu Huaqing, deputy Chair of the CCP's central military committee. The CCP's Party boss is Wang Min, nephew of former president Jiang Zemin. With Wang's help, Liu was able to obtain Tonghua, a Top 500 (No. 244 overall in year 2008, No. 128 in manufacturing and No. 195 in taxation) enterprise of China with little investment. Liu rose to Top 10 richest Chinese in 2008 by obtaining state owned enterprises at little or zero cost.

None of the 9 people politico members visited Urumqi after the riot killed 197 innocent civilians, mostly ethic Chinese by Uyghurs. However, Premier Wen Jiabao immediately flew to Tonghua to examine the situation after Chen's death. A general manager with a powerful background weighs heavier than 197 civilians.

Killing Yang Jia

According to the communism government, Chinese in China enjoy civil rights five times better than Americans in the US. When the Chinese version John Brown was captured, he would not be hanged immediately, but rather to receive not one fair trail, but two trails.

Beijing resident Yang Jia was accused of killing six Shanghai policemen with a knife is a heavily guarded police headquarter in Shanghai. The ordeal started when Yang was wrongly imprisoned and tortured by Shanghai police after a routine traffic (bicycle) stop, because the Shanghai policeman suspected Yang was riding a stolen bike. After being released, Yang started an endeavor of complaining about his treatment while detained by the Shanghai police. Yang raised enough noise, that Shanghai police sent two officers to Beijing to negotiate a settlement. It is alleged that Yang's penis was badly beaten, and Yang suffered from erection problems. Shanghai offered to pay RMB 1000 ($170), but no apology. Yang asked RMB $3000 ($500) plus an apology, and Yang was not willing to bargain.

By and large, people from Beijing look down on people from Shanghai. Shanghainese were seen with a stereotype of being greedy, dishonest but with no courage. Being badly beaten by Shanghainese, regardless of how many of them are there or whether they are policemen, is a shame too heavy to bear for a Beijing resident. After months of complaining going nowhere, Yang decided to take things into his own hands.

Yang appeared in the gateway of police headquarter, with a gas mask covering his face. He throw a Molotov cocktail to the garden, which attracted the attention of securities, then entered the building. Yang stabbed 3 policemen on the first floor, then went up fire stairs to the 21st floor to killed 3 more police. The first floor was occupied by the unit who wrongly detained Yang, and the 21st floor was occupied by the unit who tortured Yang afterward. One innocent police was killed on the 18th floor when he accidentally used the fire stairs assuming the building was on fire. In the whole process, Yang made sure he did not hurt anyone not wearing a uniform, and he did not hurt any female officers.

Yang surrendered after having done his business. There's no chance of leaving alive anyway, surrounded by thousands of Shanghai policemen on 21st floor. Yang knew he would be sentenced to death according to Chinese laws, but he had a bigger plan, that was to disclose his suffering under detainment of Shanghai police to the world in the trail. It turned out to be the mission impossible.


Yang didn't know that one of the police officer who beat him was a relative of Mr. Wu Zhiming, the top police in Shanghai, and a senior official of CCP. Wu Zhiming is the niece of Mr. Jiang Zeming, the former Party boss of China.

The country was told seven cops were killed, but it was not told that was because of crime involved another policeman, who happened to be a family member of senior CCP Party leader. In order to hide the truth, the entire justice system was kidnapped.

Shanghai police kidnapped Yang Jia's mother from her Beijing residence under day light. It was such an bazaar scene. Yang's relatives protested to the local Beijing police station. Beijing police was so annoyed at first that they asked Shanghai police to return the lady through a statement issued to a press. Shanghai police then announced that Yang's mother appointed a lawyer for Yang, who is also Shanghai police's in house counsel. Yang's mother was not to be seen, until today. Many prominent lawyers in Beijing sued the Shanghai police for kidnapping Yang's mother, and sued Beijing police for not protecting a Beijing resident from being kidnapped under bright daylight. Many influential writers published open letter condemning the kidnapping, to no vein. It is just bazaar.

The trail was supposed to be open, but conducted secretly by a Shanghai court. Several dozens of Beijing lawyers rushed to Shanghai was denied by the Shanghai court. The trail was supposed to be announced at least three days in advance according to Chines law, but was not. Even Yang's father was not allowed to attend the trail, citing space limitation.

Yang was sentenced to death in the first trail by Shanghai Second Middle Court on Sept 1st, 2008, which Yang appealed. The second trail, which would be the ultimate trail in Chinese law, drew even more controversy. Again, the defense lawyer was named by the court, who acted as one of the prosecution in the trail. Again even more lawyers invited by the Yang family was denied by the court. Still, Yang's mother is detained by unknown agency at undisclosed location. What's more, supporters who peacefully rallies outside the court from all over the country was arrested and jailed. Those who are Shanghai residents had their home searched, and property confiscated.

It would be easier to comprehend the bazaar behavior of Shanghai justice system, if the case was about national interest, or in the least about any metropolitan interest. However, it's all about a policeman, who is alleged a family member of a CCP official. Does it worth it?

Yang is sentenced to death, as expected. But why does it necessary to murder a prisoner in such a bazaar manner that the entire justice system was thrown in? What kind of a signal is sending out by murdering Yang, with the full strength of the Party?

On any given day, dozens if not hundreds of innocent people died from police brutality in every corner of China. Some day some one will say enough is enough.

"[...] Politically speaking, the murder of John Brown would be an uncorrectable sin. It would create in the Union a latent fissure that would in the long run dislocate it. Brown's agony might perhaps consolidate slavery in Virginia, but it would certainly shake the whole American democracy. You save your shame, but you kill your glory. Morally speaking, it seems a part of the human light would put itself out, that the very notion of justice and injustice would hide itself in darkness, on that day where one would see the assassination of Emancipation by Liberty itself. [...]

Let America know and ponder on this: there is something more frightening than Cain killing Abel, and that is Washington killing Spartacus."

said Victor Yugo.

Chen Liangyu in Big Trouble

Chen Liangyu, the Party Chief of Shanghai was removed from all positions as Xinhua News announced today. This is viewed a result of political struggle between Hu Jintao-Wen Jiabao and the Gang of Shanghai, of which Jiang Zemin being the big boss. However, literally everyone in China applauded for the swift action by Hu. Some people even recall the joy after removing the 'Gang of Four' in 1976.

Following is from Zuo Zhijian's blog. Zuo made his name as the hero journalist who uncovered the HYSIS scandal.

早晨10点不到，我和pippa各收到短信一条。pippa的短信说，陈良宇出事了。我的短信说，“贺国强今到沪开会，换马。传沪一号昨中在京规。”

虽然有两条消息，但起初还是不太相信。9月23日晚，陈良宇还在万体馆观看黄金联赛。刘翔在家乡父老面前后发制人，以惊人的爆发力令人惊叹地勇夺冠军。体育馆一定是万人欢呼，陈良宇在那一刻应该是真正享受着执掌这个中国最大城市的荣耀。但是谁又能想到，次日，陈就将从中国政坛消失了呢。

然后赶到办公室，开始求证，问上海市新闻办，答曰正在求证。看来不完全是空穴来风了。中午12：03分，凤凰网挂出简单一则消息。我看到时已是 12：33分左右。在办公室大叫一声，把地址传给了同事，未几，全办公室都知道了。大家都很高兴。然后马上联想到房价，大家都认为应该要下跌，因为陈良宇和相关官员在楼市有利益集团，这次反腐败可能能够击溃这个利益集团，让宏观调控真正起到实效。

给新华社的朋友发消息，问新华社什么时候发稿，因为新华社发了稿之后我们才有可能报道，否则，擅自报道中央政治局委员出事，是严重不守纪律。新华社的哥们说，这事得总社定。不过同事已收到消息，说今天新华社一定会发消息。

这时候一个大学同学用手机联系我，说他听说陈出事了，我说我知道了，凤凰网已经报道了。但对新华社会不会这么快公布消息还不能确定。

将信将疑之间，有人告诉我，新华社已经发消息了。果然12：58：03，新华网发布了10年来最有价值的新闻，陈良宇被立案检查。又过了一阵，有消息说，CCTV也报道了。在网上打开CCTV的视频，发现是下午一点的整点新闻，照念了新华网的稿子，同事们全围了过来。但24号立案调查，次日中午就公布消息，显示这次的信息发布，非常迅速。新闻通稿中，又提到“中共中央政治局昨日（9月24日）召开会议，审议了中共中央纪律检查委员会《关于陈良宇同志有关问题初核情况的报告》。”这句话可能是强调中央在按程序办事，淡化政治斗争的说法。

很快就在baidu的新闻搜索中搜索到了关于对上海楼市的影响。很明显，是看空上海楼市。所以大家都很高兴，毕竟我们这些记者也是上海高房价的受害者。而新华社、CCTV既然已经发稿，那么我们也就有可能做跟踪报道。

要做跟踪报道，最正常的逻辑无疑是调查陈良宇落马的原因，新华网的通稿里写的很详细了。陈涉嫌四宗罪，这四宗罪，其实我们都有报道过，材料还在，只是以前没有点陈良宇的名字而已。

具体来说：

1、涉及上海市劳动和社会保障局违规使用社保资金。这一点很好理解，因为之前采访过程中，不只一个人说祝均一是替罪羊，动用那么多亿的社保资金都是要经上级批准的。但这一点，还需要进一步调查。

2、为一些不法企业主谋取利益。这一点也很清楚，张荣坤收购上海路桥股份时，闯了不少红灯，但他写的“情况说明”把陈良宇写进去了，说2002年3 月26日那次签约是陈出席的。另外张收购上海路桥，最终还是上海市政府批的，这一点市长很难说没有责任。另外一个不法企业主则是周正毅。周正毅农信社旧案显示，周一笔贷款被硬搞成坏帐了事。周最终只获刑3年，甚至至今不引渡香港，这在国际上的影响相当不好。

3、袒护有严重违纪违法问题的身边工作人员。这个关心上海社保案的人都应该知道，秦裕就是陈良宇的秘书，而且做了11年秘书。

4、利用职务上的便利为亲属谋取不正当利益。关心周正毅案的人应该知道，陈有个弟弟。但这一点也没有确凿的证据。至于陈弟弟的故事，可以日后再说。除此四点外，据说还有关于个人作风方面的事情，最后没有公布。

同事在打听最新消息，我开始把以前的材料翻了出来准备开工。中间还下楼买了一包烟，争取找点灵感。

写深度报道的人都知道，导语是最难写的，导语想好了，整个文章的架构就都清楚了。等我终于把导语写好，开始写第一段的时候，msn上领导消息来了，禁令已到。

这是一个意料之中的消息，所以虽然有点遗憾，但也没有太多怨言，这种事我见得多了。去通知合作的同事，也就停工准备歇了。这时候已经大约是下午4点了。

领导又仔细看了一下禁令，觉得也不是没有可操作的空间。也就是说，不能写陈被立案的原因了，但可以写写陈被立案前后，各方的最新动态。这其实也能够透露出当前政情的关键信息。

这是一篇短稿子，我稍微改动然后增加了一些内容后，差不多就成了。刚准备传给编辑，想起来最好给新闻中心领导再把一下关，所以就打印了一下。结果刚到领导办公室，领导笑着说，又来一禁令。这下是规定涉陈新闻一律用通稿。所以稿子彻底没戏。合作的同事已经离开了办公室，电话没人接，遂发短信通知之。良久同事回曰：靠，又被戏弄了。

收拾东西回家睡觉。期间有前同事来问，陈是否真被抓，又有一师兄说要认识一下我。出租车里，电台两次报道陈被立案的消息，司机都把音量调高。司机会怎么想呢？我想必然是拍手称快。

回家看搜房网，全是讲陈的帖子，而且全部看空上海楼市。

然后，许多人亦会关心韩正能否转正。正好前段时间外电有分析韩正可能会有机会，说明预测对了，理由是需要一个懂上海的人来管理上海，目下还找不到最合适的人选来过渡。从以往来看，韩出身团派，今次中央查案下榻之马勒别墅即为往日市团委的办公室场所，这点算有优势。但韩先生能不能转正，那就要看其修为和造化了。至于谁会被调入上海，则说法纷纭。目前可以看出，韩能否转正关键在中央态度，而中央则看民意，民意好坏则看上海楼市能降多少。

说到陈为什么被立案，外界评论仍然多关注人事斗争，但人事斗争之起因或许并非直接由利益之争而起，而是地方与中央之争。上海在宏观调控方面拖了后腿，楼市间的政商勾结导致尾大不掉，终招大祸。实际上，宏观调控之所以效果一般，最核心的原因应是地方政商利益集团的阻挠，所以若要调控，必须以反腐败清场。

又与一干记者聊起陈的案子。前同事此前有观点，认为此案将是中国民主政治的开始。我不知道他的理由，大约可能觉得胡CORE可以借此机会，以反腐之名义，在中央的强力推进下，启动政改。希望是这样，但或许很渺茫。

很多人都会想起陈希同，但愿这次上海政治集团的报应能够给大权在握者一些启示：即民主对自己也有好处，否则不透明的政治斗争伤人终伤己——尽管这种后遗症可能事隔10年才会爆发。现时胡温均为廉政之表率，对子女的管理亦很严格，应该说具备了客观条件，但当局有无此眼界或实力，尚需观察。

在新华社的通稿中，最后说到要在以胡CORE为总书记的党中央的“坚强”领导下，如何如何。坚强二字，颇不寻常。此后新华社连发数篇评论，更是值得玩味。