Mao in China, Good or Bad?

Excerpt from Speculations on Law and Society in Modern China An Essay Robert C. Berring* from ssrn.com “Indeed, the Chinese assessment of themselves has varied just as wildly over time. While there is a certain charm to the Chinese Communist Party’s current judgment of Chairman Mao as “70% good and 30% bad; it underscores the enormous changes wrought in only recent years. Judging Chairman Mao to be 70% good and 30% bad is evidence of this dynamic, and reveals the dangers of a static view. Even the Great Helmsman’s role in history is subject to revi-sion. The time space continuum is very important, which is why snapshots of the system are so dangerous.”

Hilarious! Chinese Guy Creates Fake US Army Unit to Scam a ‘Cash for Citizenship’ Deal

Who says the Chinese are not creative? I would like to submit that when it comes to thinking up ways of scamming people on the Nigerians are better. Here is an excerpt from Yahoo news. from here “LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A Chinese man was arrested on Tuesday for creating a fake U.S. Army unit and selling immigrants on the idea that joining the squad was a path to citizenship, authorities said. Yupeng Deng, 51, allegedly gave his “recruits” military uniforms, had them parade in a Los Angeles suburb and took them to the decommissioned USS Midway aircraft carrier, which is a museum in San Diego. Deng charged more than 100 fellow Chinese nationals a fee of between $300 and $450 to join the fake Army unit, according to the Los Angeles District Attorney’s Office. He called his bogus squad the U.S. Army/Military Special Forces Reserve unit, or MSFR for short, and he gave himself the lofty title of “supreme commander,” prosecutors said. Aside from telling recruits that belonging to the unit was a path to U.S. citizenship, Deng also urged them to pay him cash for higher military rank, according to prosecutors. He also allegedly provided them with fake documents and phony military identification cards.” continue here http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20110412/us_nm/us_fake_army

Long Face, Round Head in China-China Ranks Low on the Happiness Index

One thing that strikes you when you come to China, that is as soon as you cough the soot from your lungs and throat, is the long faces. Chinese seem to be very mirthless souls. New Yorkers, by comparison, are a barrel of monkeys, or so I thought the last time I visited there. It is no surprise then, that in a Forbes poll, the Chinese ranked 125 out of 155 countries in a happiness poll. The leaders was Belgium and the US was 14th and the UK 17th.

Shortcomings of Chinese Law

In this blurb from Randal Peerenboom, he highlights one of the shortcomings of Chinese law and its processes. The context of the clip is that although China’s laws look good or are written well, in practice they can be less than useful. Randal Peerenboom – More Law less courts interpretation prevents interest groups or individuals acting as “private attorney generals” from challenging the administration. Moreover, citizens may only challenge decisions that affect their personal or property rights. This excludes other important rights, most notably civil rights such as the rights to march and to demonstrate, freedom of association and assembly, and rights of free speech and free publication.9

China’s Take on the Korean War

From this site: “History textbooks used in Chinese schools do not clarify who started the 1950-53 Korean War, but up until the establishment of diplomatic ties with South Korea in 1992, they said “U.S. imperialism invaded on June 25, 1950.” The phrase was revised to “the June 25 war broke out, and U.S. imperialism invaded.” continue here http://www.koreaherald.com/national/Detail.jsp?newsMLId=20101028000867

Chinese Student Stabs His Mother Eight Times Over Spending Money

Wooo I remember when I was studying back in the day and a Chinese guy got pissed and killed a couple of teachers as he was upset he didn’t get some grant money. Well, here is another one. This guy, according to the peopleforum.cn, was upset he didn’t get his tuition money on time. So, the story goes, he was walking out with his mom and then suddenly knive’s her eight times in the chest.  Excerpt from here: “Stabbed mother defends ‘disturbed’ son They won’t hand over 23-year-old mother-stabber Wang Jiajing to prosecutors until they get the results of his psychiatric tests, Shanghai police said on Sunday. An economics student at Nihon University in Tokyo for five years, Wang was detained by police on April 1 after stabbing his mother eight times in the chest with a fruit knife at 8:30 pm near the arrivals gate of Pudong International Airport. The attack had followed an argument over Wang’s tuition fees, Shanghai Public Security Bureau said yesterday. The mother, who has not been fully named by media, denied any such quarrel and insisted her son was in fact disturbed, the Oriental Morning Post reported yesterday. “Yes, he did ask me why I transferred the money to him so late last month,” she told the Shanghai-based paper. “He also said that he was always hearing someone talking to him as if an instrument was installed in his ear.” “He talked about looking for a part-time job in Japan last year but couldn’t find one. As prices soared in Japan after the earthquake, I transferred 20,000 yuan (US$3,060) to him, higher than before.” Out of her 7,000 yuan (US$1,071)-a- month salary and 10,000 yuan (US$1,530) borrowed from relatives, the mother had paid between 300,000 yuan (US$45,900) to 400,000 yuan (US$61,200) every year toward her son’s tuition and living fees. It was not clear how much her husband, who lives in the US, had paid. She hoped her son would not be punished. “We are testing the psychological status of Wang now to see whether he was in an abnormal state of mind at that time,” said Lu Feng, a Shanghai Public Security Bureau spokesman, yesterday. The mother, who gained consciousness after several days in a coma, was transferred to a regular ward from the intensive care unit on Friday last week, said a nurse from the Shanghai Pudong New Area People’s Hospital on Sunday. Her stomach and liver had been damaged but her condition was now stable, the Shanghai paper reported Wang would be charged if he intentionally injured another, said a Shanghai Huangpu District Procuratorate Office spokeswoman yesterday, but the family’s wishes would also be considered. “Wang will face punishment under the law as his behavior has endangered a person’s life,” Wang Yong’er said yesterday. “However, as the person attacked was the suspect’s mother, her forgiveness of Wang might make the discipline more lenient.”

Black Lung In China

From this site: “A total of 722,730 cases (of occupational injuries) were reported from 1949 to 2009, and 146,500 lives had been lost to occupational disease, he said. About 90 per cent of the cases were related to pneumoconiosis, or black lung disease, caused by inhalation of dust, especially mineral or metallic.”

Minimum Wage in Select Chinese Cities

File this under ‘don’t waste your time this is a Chinese law which in civilized countries is nothing more than a suggestion’ The following are the minimum wages for a few areas in China. The echange rate is around 6.7 RMB to one U$ -Zhejiang 1,310 yuan ($200) -Guangzhou, in Guangdong province, the minimum wage is 1,300 yuan a month, or -Shanghai minimum is 1,280 yuan a month.

Be a Patriot, No Be Religious, Be a Patriot- Evolving Religion in China

After recent reports of churches being shut down and unauthorized prayer houses raided, the chinadaily has just come out with this gem. They are reminding the sheep to not only obey the law but also be patriotic, and oh yeah, they can do religion too… excerpt from the chinadaily “BEIJING- A senior Beijing church official on Monday urged Christians in the Chinese capital to be patriotic and abide by the law.” But check out this gem. According to the chinadaily one local thug said,“The code of ethics championed by Christianity coincides with that promoted by the Chinese government in many ways.” Hmm, let me think about it. AlAlthough am by no means an expert, I’m pretty sure most Christian religions frown on … oh why bother exexplainingt, I think you can feel me…

Chinese Prohibited From Giving Birth in Hong Kong Hospitals- Will the USA Follow Suit?

The blurb below could signal a sign of things to come for Chinese. For those on the mainland there is an intense desire to have their baby ‘ABC’ or anywhere but China. Giving birth to a kid here is basically a visa death sentence. For those from the Chinese mainland they are allowed burden free passage to very few places, thus many like to have their burden in neighboring Hong Kong where they will have much more freedom of movement. The problem is that Chinese are 1,340,000,000 people with one mind, so when one does it so do the rest. The result is that Hong Kong has been besieged by Chinese women going there to give birth. The Hong Kongese have called for a stop to it, at least at the public hospitals. I can feel the HK authorities on this one after all, man of those who are going to HK to enjoy the privilege are family members of those who have fouled up China to begin with . excerpt chinadaily: “Expectant mothers from the Chinese mainland will no longer be able to give birth in public hospitals in Hong Kong, the xinmin.cn reported yesterday. The Hospital Authority of Hong Kong (HAHK) has announced that from April 8, the department of gynecology and obstetrics should not accept any new registrations from the mainland. The appointment ban on mainland mothers is the first resolution made by medical professionals after the Food and Health Secretary York Chow Yat-ngok said in late March that medical facilities and staff in the HK health-service system was coming under increasing strain”