2009年7月30日 星期四

中国工人没有真正自主权

德语媒体 | 2009.07.30

中国工人没有真正自主权

中国的"和谐社会"很不和谐,工人为讨薪罢工,冤民为讨说法上访。上周周末,吉林通化钢铁集团又发生了大型"群体事件"。《法兰克福评论报》介绍事件经过时写道:

"这样的场面使人想起了阶级斗争的时代:中国一家国有企业的工人们打死了一名经理,因为他要使企业私有化并要大规模裁员。共产党立即宣布停止兼并,但工人领袖并没有作为无产阶级英雄受到欢迎,而成了刑事犯正遭到追捕。"

《柏林日报》报道了通化事件的来龙去脉,特别注意到"国家媒体把这样的事件称为'群体事件',这一概念被普遍用于未经批准的示威活动,这表明中国政府谴责抗争行动":

"官方只是简短报道了这一事件,因为北京竭力要把有关中国社会紧张形势的信息控制在最低限度。但互联网论坛上,人们指责说,这一事件代表了中国许多 企业的现状。一位博客说,'问题在于制度'。因为中国不存在能起作用的企业职工代表委员会或工会,所以工人只能采用阶级斗争的手段进行反抗。但共产党已不 同情这样的阶级斗争了。"

《南德意志报》指出,"中国钢铁工人愤怒打人致死的残酷做法是令人震惊的个别事件,在中国很少发生。但这样的冲突本身绝非个别案例。在人民共和国,尽管很少出现使用极端暴力的情况,但罢工越来越多。"文章认为,问题在于:

"共产党领导人不允许独立工会存在。而国家的工会不关心工人,所以只能非法罢工,带头人往往被捕入狱。不久前,北京虽然发布了新劳动法,这可以视为对工人不满做出的反应,但这并没有触及最大的问题,也就是企业中工人没有真正自主权的问题。

中国钢铁工业结构改革中出现了系统性错误,通化就是一个例子。中国1200家钢厂中的大多数是亏损的国有企业或所谓的小钢厂。钢铁工业有巩固加强的 必要,北京支持这样做,但贪婪的经理和党的干部在此过程中一再牺牲工人利益,自己大发横财。在外国人入股的合资企业中,罢工和示威也越来越频繁。工人感到 自己被政府和国家的工会抛弃,起来自己把握自己的命运,有时他们会难以自控。"

《南德意志报》同一天的另一篇文章写道:"1982年,中国删除了宪法中规定的罢工权利。政府说,社会主义制度下不需要这样的东西。但今天中国的罢 工越来越多,工人们也越来越能取得成功。由于害怕抗争成为燎原之势,中国政府对单个事件做出让步,但它拒绝建立一个初期就能化解工潮的有效体制。最近所有 冲突中,都看不见唯一能合法代表工人的全国总工会,它只是共产党延伸到企业中的手臂,工会干部关心的是与经理们做赢利的买卖,而不是工人的困苦。"

摘译:王羊

责编:谢菲

本文摘自或节译自其它媒体

不代表德国之声观点


Dongguan MAYOR GOES FOR GROWTH AMID GRIM DATA

CHINESE MAYOR GOES FOR GROWTH AMID GRIM DATA
By Tom Mitchell in Dongguan 2009-07-30

Dongguan, the south China city whose factories alone outpace those of Vietnam in exports, has recorded a 10 per cent decline in employment since the onset of the global economic downturn, its mayor said yesterday. The city, about 90km north of Hong Kong, was hit by a fall in exports of 24 per cent over the first six months of 2009 compared with the previous year's first half as consumers cut their spending. As a result, gross domestic product grew 0.6 per cent in the first half, compared with the national figure of 7.1 per cent and a 30-year average in Dongguan of 18 per cent. “Manufacturing is Dongguan's pillar industry,” Li Yuquan said. “The global financial crisis has had a strong impact on Dongguan.” Mr Li said registered employment had fallen to 5.7m, an implied loss of 630,000 jobs. In January, the government estimated that 20m of the country's 130m migrant workers had lost their jobs. Most of Dongguan's 10m residents are migrants. In spite of the grim data, the mayor was confident that Dongguan could reach its official annual GDP growth target of 10 per cent. “We are under great pressure to meet our GDP goal because Dongguan is an export-oriented economy,” Mr Li said. “But we have every confidence we will achieve it.” The Dongguan government, whose revenues are also under pressure, has allocated Rmb1bn ($146m, €104m, £89m) in emergency financing for smaller enterprises, with Rmb4bn more earmarked for support. According to Mr Li, some 1,200 companies have taken advantage of the funds. He also said the local government had helped enterprises secure an additional Rmb20bn in bank loans. The crisis has primarily affected smaller factories, with 342 closing in the first six months of this year. Some 865 closed in 2008. “I can assure you that these figures are accurate,” Mr Li said. “The main impact of the financial crisis has not been factory closures but shrinking orders and manufacturing capacity.” Larger factories appear to be benefiting from the pain. C.K. Choi, general manager of a Nokia factory in Dongguan, said he was on track to beat last year's 5 per cent rise in export revenues. In China, Dongguan last year ranked behind only Shenzhen, Shanghai and Suzhou in exports, with $65.54bn in shipment.


中国广东省东莞市市长昨日表示,自全球经济开始下滑以来,该市就业人数已减少10%。仅东莞一地的工厂,出口就超过越南。 2009年上半年,随着消费者削减支出,这座位于香港以北约90公里的城市受到出口同比下跌24%的打击。其结果是,东莞GDP在上半年同比增长0.6%,远低于7.1%的全国GDP增幅、以及18%的当地30年平均增幅。 “制造业是东莞的支柱产业,”东莞市长李毓全表示。“全球金融危机对东莞造成了沉重打击。”他表示,登记就业人数已跌至570万,这意味着该市失去了63万个就业岗位。 今年1月,中国政府估计,全国1.3亿外出务工人员中,已有2000万人失去了工作。东莞市1000万居民中,多数是外来务工人员。 尽管有上述糟糕的经济数据,但东莞市长仍表示相信,该市能够达到10%的官方年度GDP增幅目标。“为了达到我们的GDP目标,我们承受着巨大压力,因为东莞经济是以出口为导向的,”李毓全说。“但我们完全有信心能够实现目标。” 尽管市政府的收入也面临压力,但东莞市政府已拨出10亿元人民币(合1.46亿美元),用作扶持中小企业的紧急融资,并已预留另外40亿元人民币扶持资金。 据李毓全介绍,已有大约1200家企业利用了政府资金。他还称,当地政府还帮助企业又争取到了200亿元人民币银行贷款。 危机主要对中小型工厂产生了影响,今年上半年有342家工厂关门。2008年则有大约865家工厂关门。“我可以向你保证,这些数字是准确的,”李毓全说。“金融危机的主要冲击并不是工厂关门,而是订单和制造产能的缩水。” 规模较大的工厂似乎正得益于困境。诺基亚(Nokia)东莞的总经理蔡志强(C.K. Choi)表示,他的工厂有望打破去年出口收入增长5%的纪录。 东莞去年的出口在中国仅次于深圳、上海和苏州,发货额达到655.4亿美元。 译者/和风

Chinese Workers Say Illness Is Real, Not Hysteria

Du Bin for The New York Times
By ANDREW JACOBS
Published: July 29, 2009
JILIN CITY, China — Tian Lihua was just beginning her morning shift when she felt a wave of nausea, then numbness in her limbs and finally dizziness that gave way to unconsciousness. In the days that followed, more than 1,200 fellow employees at the textile mill where Ms. Tian works would be felled by these and other symptoms, including convulsions, breathing difficulties, vomiting and temporary paralysis.
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Du Bin for The New York Times
From left, Deng Yanli, Tian Lihua and Li Xiuying at Jihua Hospital in Jilin. Ms. Deng told of suffering convulsions and dizziness.
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Du Bin for The New York Times
The Jilin Connell Chemical Plant began producing aniline, a highly toxic chemical used in manufacturing, in the spring.

The New York Times
Textile workers were stricken in the industrial city of Jilin.
“When I finally came to, I could hear the doctors talking but I couldn’t open my eyes,” she said weakly from a hospital bed last month. “They said I had a reaction to unknown substances.”
Ms. Tian and scores of other workers say the “unknown substances” came from a factory across the street that produces aniline, a highly toxic chemical used in the manufacture of polyurethane, rubber, herbicides and dyes.
As soon as the Jilin Connell Chemical Plant started production this spring, local hospitals began receiving stricken workers from the acrylic yarn factory 100 yards downwind from Connell’s exhaust stacks. On some days, doctors were overwhelmed and patients were put two to a bed.
A clear case of chemical contamination? Not so, say Chinese health officials who contend that the episode is a communal outbreak of psychogenic illness, also called mass hysteria. The blurry vision, muscle spasms and pounding headaches, according to a government report issued in May, were simply psychological reactions to a feared chemical exposure.
During a four-day visit, a team of public health experts from Beijing talked to doctors, looked at blood tests and then advised bedridden workers to “get a hold of their emotions,” according to patients and their families.
Western medical experts say fear of poisoning can lead people to describe symptoms that exist mainly in their minds. But outbreaks of psychogenic illnesses on the scale of what has been reported in Jilin are rare, they say.
The official diagnosis has done little to ease anxieties in Jilin, an industrial city in northeast China where verdant low-rise mountains form a backdrop to a thicket of smokestacks. More than two months since the health complaints began, at least two dozen people remain hospitalized, and many others insist that they are suffering from toxic poisoning. Local residents say the “mass hysteria” verdict is an attempt to cover up malfeasance.
“How could a psychological illness cause so much pain and misery?” said Zhang Fusheng, a 29-year-old textile worker, gasping as he lay tethered to an oxygen line in the hospital, his limbs seized up and his eyes darting back and forth. “My only wish is to get better so I can go back to work and take care of my family.”
In May more than 1,000 residents blocked railroad tracks in the city for hours to draw attention to the sick workers. Their ire intensified after the State Administration of Work Safety posted a statement on its Web site describing the problem as a “chemical leak” and advising other companies to learn from Connell Chemical’s mistake. After a few hours, however, the statement had been removed.
“We are simply laboratory mice in Connell’s chemical experiment,” said Xie Shaofeng, 34, a textile worker whose wife remains hospitalized.
The episode comes at a time of rising environmental degradation in China brought on by decades of heady growth and lax pollution controls. Although many people here have long lived with sullied air and water, they are increasingly aware of the toll that they take on human health and are demanding greater restrictions on noxious industries.
Fear of contamination was heightened last fall after the government acknowledged that thousands of children had been made ill by milk adulterated with melamine, an ingredient used in the manufacture of plastics.
The Ministry of Health in Beijing declined to provide details of their findings in Jilin, but according to local officials, investigators found no evidence of organ damage that would point to chemical exposure. They added that those claiming to be sick had been in different parts of the sprawling textile factory and offered inconsistent descriptions of the odor of what they said caused their symptoms.
Although they say those who fell ill in Jilin could have been poisoned, psychogenic experts outside China say it is also possible for some to have been affected by toxic fumes while others exhibited psychosomatic illnesses set off by real poisonings.
Robert E. Bartholomew, a sociologist at the International University College of Technology in Malaysia, said the government’s handling of the episode, including the ban on reports in the news media, might be fueling paranoia. “The best way to handle psychogenic illness is to be open and transparent, which tends to dissipate concerns,” said Mr. Bartholomew, a co-author of “Outbreak! The Encyclopedia of Extraordinary Social Behavior.” If it is indeed a case of mass hysteria, he said, it would be the largest instance of workplace psychogenic illness on record.
The episode is not Jilin’s first experience with the perils of aniline. In 2005, an explosion at another factory that produced the volatile substance killed eight people and sent 100 tons of deadly benzene and nitrobenzene into the Songhua River, tainting drinking water for millions of people downstream.
Public anxiety was high even before the new $125 million aniline plant opened in early April. During a test run last September, two security guards standing in front of the textile plant were overcome by fumes. Connell paid them compensation, although it is unclear what adjustments were made to the manufacturing process and, more important, the venting of its airborne byproducts, a mix of carbon monoxide, hydrogen sulfide and nitrogen oxide.
Shortly after production began, Li Hongwei, a 34-year-old Connell worker, collapsed and died on the job. Although rumors suggested that he had been poisoned, factory officials insist that Mr. Li succumbed to a heart attack. His family, which received a compensation package that included a job for his wife and a monthly $200 stipend for his mother and son, declined to talk to reporters.
After Mr. Li’s death, the authorities forced Connell to halt production for a month. But in early June, not long after it resumed, Wang Shulin, a 38-year-old technician at the textile mill, went into convulsions while on the job. He was sent to the hospital but died just as doctors were administering a CT scan, according to co-workers. The cause of death was a brain hemorrhage.
Factory officials insist that Mr. Wang’s death had nothing to do with chemical exposure.
Such assurances have done little to quiet fears that Connell continues to taint the air. Li Jingfeng, 35, an electrician at an ethanol plant that abuts the aniline plant, said chemical detectors at his factory had gone off five or six times in the last month, forcing workers to evacuate. “Everyone is nervous about what’s coming out of that place,” he said.
Those who continue to insist that they were poisoned have placed local officials in a difficult position. Some patients have been sent to other cities for treatment; those who refuse to leave local hospitals say doctors have been given orders to stop their medication. To get the skittish back to work, factory officials have added an incentive of $20 to $30 to monthly salaries that range from $120 to $200.
In interviews, a half-dozen of those still hospitalized in Jilin said they had not been given a diagnosis nor were they allowed to see their medical records. One of them, Deng Yanli, 30, who is troubled by convulsions and constant dizziness, showed a receipt for 10 medications that included vitamin injections, pills to combat nausea and other treatments commonly given to stroke victims. She said doctors at Jihua Hospital stopped administering the drugs in early June in an effort to get her to leave.
The hospital director referred questions to the Jilin City Health Bureau, which issued a statement saying, “We have done our best diagnosing and treating these patients.”
Officials at Connell, which has resumed full production, say they are eager to move past the episode. Although privately owned, the plant has a complicated corporate structure that includes investors from Hong Kong and a number of local government officials. The aniline plant and the neighboring textile mill are partly owned by one another, and Connell, according to a company Web site, also runs a pharmaceutical concern that supplies Jilin City hospitals with 90 percent of their intravenous drugs.
Cementing the company’s prominence is its president, Song Zhiping, a representative to the National People’s Congress, China’s legislative body.
Connell executives said Ms. Song was traveling during a reporter’s visit to their offices, but Xu Zhongjie, vice chairman for corporate governance, said Ms. Song felt wounded by the allegations against her company, which he described as preposterous. “I come here every day, and do I look sick?” he asked with a broad smile. “If we were spreading poison, the government wouldn’t allow us to continue production, and I have faith in the government.”
Xiyun Yang contributed research.

2009年7月27日 星期一

高雄世運 史上最成功

總會主席誇:高雄世運 史上最成功

為期十一天的世界運動會昨晚閉幕,觀眾揮舞手上的LED燈宛若星河,與環場煙火相互輝映,場面壯觀。
記者劉學聖/攝影

高雄世運昨晚閉幕,高雄市長陳菊(左)將世運會旗交給IWGA會長朗‧佛契(中),轉交給下屆主辦城市哥倫比亞卡利市代表(右)。
照片/KOC提供
「高雄世運是有史以來最成功的世運!」為期十一天的世界運動會昨晚落幕,國際世運總會主席朗.佛契在閉幕典禮上的宣示,讓四萬多名觀眾歡聲雷動,全場沸騰久久不歇。

這次世運創下多項紀錄,包括參與國家、選手與志工最多;中華隊八金九銀七銅亮眼的成績,更是歷屆世界賽事中奪牌最多的一次。身為主辦城市的高雄市長陳菊透露,為了世運,一、兩個月來嚴重失眠,「現在最想好好睡


一覺。」

昨晚閉幕典禮高潮不斷,觀眾大膽秀創意搶鏡頭;眾人一起揮舞手上的LED燈,串成耀眼的星河;歌手陳昇迎賓開場,伍佰壓軸。

陳菊致詞時,用八個「感謝」表達她對世運圓滿落幕的感動;感謝參加世運的國際人士、高雄市民、志工、市府團隊等,也感謝爭取世運的前市長謝長廷和兩位前代理市長陳其邁、葉菊蘭,並謝前KOC執行長陳以亨、紀政。

陳菊另以閩南語說,「咱的團結」,不只這十一天,以後每一天,台灣人都可以超越一切的不同,團結成就台灣、維護台灣,爭取台灣國家的尊嚴、爭取台灣的成功和光榮。

她並替台北市的聽障奧運打廣告,請民眾用支持世運的熱情,參與九月在台北舉行的聽障奧運,讓台灣持續發光、發熱。

朗.佛契分別用閩南語和中文向在場人士問好,感謝「台北當局」和高市府舉辦這場賽事。他和陳菊把下屆二○一三年世運的會旗,交給主辦國哥倫比亞卡利市代表。

這次世運票房成績節節高漲,KOC聲稱,共售得六千五百萬元,超過預估一倍;很多觀眾原認為「世運不好看」,最後卻大讚「世運真好看」。

【2009/07/27 聯合報】@ http://udn.com/



以「高雄世運」模式追求台灣出頭天

第 八屆世界運動會經過十天競賽,明天將於南台灣高雄舉行閉幕式。這一我國首次主辦的全球綜合運動賽會,從十六日令人讚嘆與感動的開幕式以來,由於運動員的努 力、主辦單位的效能、義工的熱忱服務,外加高雄市民與觀眾熱情參與,不但為世運會開立朗佛契(Ron Froehlich)主席所稱讚的「難以超越」標竿,讓台灣擁抱世界的同時,也使世界看到台灣友善、熱情、自由、多元、效率的種種面向。我們認為,高雄世 運不僅有如《富比士》(Forbes)所報導,一掃高雄近年港口吞吐不振的鬱卒,更已為處境艱困的台灣開創出頭天的新模式。

我們國家處境艱 困,最主要當然是中國處心積慮、無所不在的併吞野心及打壓。即令國際運動比賽,也因中國把政治黑手伸入,污染體育而有所謂「奧運模式」,以致我們在國際 間,國名被稱為「中華台北」,國旗遭梅花旗取代,國歌竟成國旗歌;一言以蔽之,我國不是國家,是被歧視的「運動實體」。同樣惡劣而令國人憤慨的,在中國國 民黨蓄意配合之下,即令國際比賽於台灣舉行,我方竟也主動禁絕觀眾席上的國旗:八年前馬英九主政的台北市舉行亞洲盃女子足球賽,與去年中國高幹陳雲林前來 一樣,警方都攔阻沒收自己國家的國旗。

就此而言,這次高雄世運,雖然並未突破「奧運模式」,但是東道陳菊市長歡迎各式旗幟進場,許多觀眾還 以稱呼及加油歡呼等實際行動,為我們國家代表隊「台灣隊」正名。如果說,中國國民黨拿「奧運模式」來為虎作倀,踐踏自己的國家地位及象徵,高雄世運已然為 國際比賽在台灣,邁出不自我作踐,進而維持尊嚴的重要一步。

高雄世運同時凸顯,只要齊心協力,眾志可以成城。高雄市主辦世運,歷經民進黨執 政時期,從中央到地方政府,一起努力,除了與世運當局折衝,理出以主辦國爭取尊嚴自主之道,並建設完成《紐約時報》讚譽為「人文氣息令人陶醉」,魅力不輸 中國北京奧運「鳥巢」的主場館,且於開幕式結合鄉土、國際、傳統、藝術、文化與科技,展現台灣多元豐富文化創意及高雄在地特色,不僅感動了五百萬台灣電視 觀眾,也讓至少二十個國家看到台灣。相形之下,中國國民黨對於高雄世運,從其地方議員於籌辦時的唱反調,到黨國要員寧競相前往北京奧運接受中國招待,卻以 缺席高雄世運開幕式蓄意與中國隊唱和,台灣人民對此當然看得一清二楚。

高雄世運的順利圓滿,因而不但要歸功於綠色執政,繼高雄市政建設景觀 脫胎換骨之後,又以主辦世運會讓台灣人揚眉吐氣,同時也必須推崇以南台灣為主的眾多義工及觀眾。大會統計顯示,至少有七千位義工,穿梭於二十三個比賽場 館,從事各式各樣服務運動員與觀眾的工作。此外,有如本報獨家報導,一位擺攤的台南市民蔡宗益,臨時當起義工,憑著比手畫腳與熱誠,主動以機車載送自由飛 行的金牌法國選手文森返回比賽場地。同樣令各國從選手到朗佛契主席所稱道的,是觀眾與市民的熱情友善,主動對運動員及世運會歡迎並協助的熱誠。

然 而,這種從南台灣出發,表現台灣社會活力、樸素、自信、能力與積極任事的珍貴特質,儘管在高雄世運充分表露,且深受國際人士所讚賞,如今的執政者,非但棄 之如敝屣,而且刻意加以嘲弄醜化。經濟部日前為兩岸經濟合作架構協議(ECFA)所作漫畫人物,以住台南的「閩南人」、講台灣國語、學歷較低等刻劃對 ECFA持異議者,即凸顯馬政府以刻板印象,歧視南部民眾的可惡心態;經濟部不僅應即回收,尹啟銘部長也必須向台灣人民道歉並下台。

高雄世 運模式既已成形,明天的閉幕式,中國參加與否,即無關宏旨:要參加以接受台灣民主自由洗禮,台灣觀眾不會拒絕;再度缺席,亦只暴露自身雞腸鳥肚而已。比較 重要的,很多台灣人要拿台灣國旗進場,以形成台灣國旗旗海,驕示世人;至於有人要持中華民國國旗以別苗頭,也應受到歡迎。畢竟,這一國旗受國共兩黨壓制久 矣,而不限旗幟,包括雪山獅子旗,充分尊重公眾表達自由,正是高雄世運模式的核心精神,且係足以讓台灣人最終出頭天的要素。



(2009/07/27 14:25)

高雄世運26日晚圓滿落幕。(圖/高雄世運提供)

地方中心/高雄報導

為期11天的高雄世運在26日晚間舉行閉幕晚會,不過早在入場前就有大批的民眾在現場排隊,就是為了要領取主辦單位免費發放的LED燈,5萬支炫亮的燈是主辦單位在72小時裡日夜趕工做出來的。

2009年世運會閉幕式就此展開,觀眾席上人手一支LED燈組成美麗壯觀的星河,但您知道嗎?要讓觀眾有如此的參與感,其實並不簡單。高雄市文化 局副局長劉秀梅指出,「當創意出現,然後週邊的困難都解決了,才發現時間非常趕,不到兩天的時間,動員了公司所有的員工把手邊的工作先放下來,幫我們世運 閉幕先趕工,做這個5萬個LED燈。」

閃閃發光的LED燈製作成本一個要價100元,廠商連夜趕工,不到72小時製作5萬盞成本500萬,簡單的造型再加上三顆白亮的燈光,民眾第一時間拿到手開心得不得了。民眾表示,「高雄世運在這部份,有要營造像是銀河的感覺,在5月份就已經有網友相約要一起來了。」

主辦單位絞盡腦汁的點子,果然讓世運閉幕式一開場就充滿夢幻,小創意大效果,一顆小小的LED燈,不僅照亮高雄的夜空,也讓民眾留下美好的回憶。(新聞來源:東森新聞記者蔣志偉、崔文沛 )

香港报摘

中国 | 2009.07.26

香港报摘

本周,香港媒体在报道中国大陆新闻时间关注的焦点主要有:中国最高领导之子执掌的公司卷入国外行贿案,中宣部欲盖弥彰;习近平可能将于九月担任中央军委副主席;奥巴马将会见达赖喇嘛,北京何去何从?德国之声香港特约记者李华摘编如下:

最近,中宣部对大陆媒体的管理口径又严厉起来。香港《明报》的报道写道:"中国内地掌管意识形态、新闻出版的中宣部弄巧成拙,已经不是一次两次了。 最新的例子是,中宣部近日下令内地媒体和网络,要求封杀两条'敏感消息',无意中却令这两则消息不胫而走。坊间消息笑称,看到中宣部的'封杀令'后,才得 知原来还有这些事。"

报道写道:"外电报道,国家主席胡锦涛之子胡海峰曾经执掌过的清华同方集团威视公司,近日在非洲纳米比亚卷入诈骗和行贿案。由于事件涉及最高领导人 家人,中宣部近日下发'禁令',要求内地各网络搜寻引擎在输入'胡海峰纳米比亚'、'纳米比亚行贿调查'、'清华同方行贿调查'、'南部非洲行贿调查'等 关键词时'请屏蔽为全站无结果'。京城耳语称,中宣部的'禁令'更引起大家关注,并透过各种途径阅读国外有关报道,令事件传播得更快。在胡海峰事件前,中 宣部也曾下发通知,要求各媒体'不得打听、採访'央视著名女主持王小丫再婚一事,否则'记者开除,总编辑撤职',这一禁令叫人丈二和尚摸不覑头脑。"

报道接着写道:"现年41岁的王小丫,是央视《开心辞典》主持人,她自01年离婚后,感情生活一直备受关注。较早前,内地传媒报道王小丫再婚,但对 其夫婿身分却都讳莫如深。由于中宣部的禁令,更激发民间八卦兴趣,不停向王小丫身边同事、朋友打探消息。京城消息指,王小丫个多月前已与54岁的最高人民 检察院检察长曹建明结婚,因两人都是再婚,加上曹建明身分敏感,两人当时只低调宴请小量亲朋好友,对外则严密封锁消息。但中宣部的一纸禁令,却无意中泄漏 了这一'国家机密'。"

另外,《明报》还报道,习近平有可能在今年9月在北京召开的中共十七届四中全会上确立接班人地位:"由于2012年的中共十八大将是换届的大会,按 照十六大换届的往例,接班的总书记胡锦涛是于十五届四中全会上出任中央军委副主席,正式介入军队事务。因此,一般认为,被看好是未来中共总书记热门人选的 国家副主席习近平,很大可能在9月的十七届四中全会上出任中央军委副主席。"


去年的西藏和今年的新疆骚乱,令人对北京的西藏和新疆政策充满了担忧。《苹果日报》署名"李平"的文章写道:"乌鲁木齐骚乱酿成严重伤亡之后,如何 确保西藏、新疆未来几个月的稳定,如何化解国际舆论关注中国民族政策、宗教政策的压力,都令正筹划中共建政60周年庆典的北京当局如坐针毡。而美国总统奥 巴马有意在10月会见到访的达赖喇嘛,无疑更令北京需要及早寻求对策。"

文章写道:"去年西藏、甘肃、青海、四川的藏人地区爆发大规模抗议示威后,北京铁腕镇压,并将责任推给达赖,中共西藏区委书记张庆黎更公开辱骂达赖 '是披着神圣外衣的狼,是人面兽心的怪物'。但是,正是达赖努力约束激进藏人组织,去年11月全球藏人代表大会也决议拥护达赖的中道政策,西藏今年才能平 稳度过多个敏感日子。如果北京能正视这一事实,的确有必要改善同达赖的关系,并以此作为调整宗教政策、民族政策的开端。"

文章接着写道:"对于奥巴马会见达赖,北京学者多认为不可能阻止,问题只在于如何减轻其影响。德国总理默克尔、法国总统萨尔科齐曾分别于2007年 9月和去年12月会见达赖,北京其后报复,相隔6个月、4个月才恢复中德、中法高层会晤。这种报复方式并不适用于中美关系,北京不能因此推迟奥巴马访华, 否则对中美关系的伤害将难以修复。北京所能做的是,透过西藏政策的让步,换取华府低调处理奥巴马会见达赖,减轻事件对西藏、新疆问题的刺激。"

摘编:李华

责编:石涛

2009年7月25日 星期六

英國報章有關中港台的報道和評論:(2009年7月24日)



國家機密的奇怪定義
力拓事件引起澳洲媒體的廣泛關注
力拓事件引起澳洲媒體的廣泛關注
英國報章有關中港台的報道和評論:(2009年7月24日)

周五的《金融時報〉發表人權觀察亞洲研究員凱恩的評論文章。題目是:北京對國家機密的奇怪定義。

文章說,如果外國投資者們以前認為他們不必太關注中國在基本權利方面的作為,那麼力拓事件應該使他們警醒。

力拓的四名員工,包括一名澳大利亞籍人士被指控在鐵礦石價格談判過程中竊取中國的國家機密。

凱恩在文章中說,雖然過去十年來中國政府在司法改革方面做了很多工作,但它的司法系統並不穩定而且仍有很大的不可知性。對於什麼是國家最大利益的判定必須服從於真正的法制這一概念,中國共產黨仍感到不很舒服。洩漏國家機密這一罪名就是最好的例證。

文章說,在中國的外國公司通過力拓案在卡夫卡式的中國國家機密法律方面上了一個速成課。這個法律可以把一個極大範圍內的信息都定為國家機密,包括同'經濟和社會發展'有關的信息以及十分模糊的'其它問題'。

文章說,國家和地方官員可以在一些材料已經出版後決定這些材料是否為國家機密。而這些決定卻不能通過法律的渠道進行挑戰。直到2005年,有關中國國內自然災害的信息還屬於國家機密。即便是一些已經公開流通的信息也會帶來麻煩。師濤案就是很好的例子。

文章指出,中國人代會上個月公布了一個國家保密法的修訂案。但該修訂案的關注重點是電腦裡儲存的信息和網上流通的信息。對於國家機密定義的廣泛標準並沒有任何改變。

凱恩在文章中說,在中國的外國投資者通常對於在他們商業利益之外的任何法律的改革和透明度的增加並不關心。也從來不努力去推動。但力拓一案顯示出,當中國政府認為其利益受到威脅時,外國投資者不跨出商業利益界限的態度並不能保護他們。

中國屏蔽威視涉嫌腐敗案調查內容

威視公司隸屬清華同方集團
威視公司隸屬清華同方集團

星期五的《泰晤士報》刊登一篇有關中國設防火牆屏蔽有關一宗非洲行賄調查案的消息。文章說中國之所以屏蔽該調查的內容是因為受調查的威視公司曾由中國國家主席胡錦濤的兒子胡海峰所領導。

文章說中國一些主要的互聯網引擎例如新浪和網易等在報道了有關威視公司在納米比亞涉嫌腐敗接受調查的文章後,幾個小時都無法打開。文章說中國的中宣部發出通知說凡是帶有諸如胡海峰、納米比亞、納米比亞行賄案調查等字樣的關鍵詞搜索時,一律不要顯示搜索結果。

同時,《金融時報〉在星期四的報道說中國政府發起了一場網上屏蔽運動,中宣部不但下令中國的搜索引擎屏蔽涉及此案的任何搜索,還關閉了一些社交網站,例如Facebook、YouTube和Twitter。

文章說納米比亞的檢查官員曾前往北京,請求就案件約見胡海峰,但只是作為證人,並未將其視為嫌疑人。

《泰晤士報〉的報道說,中國政府對任何牽扯中共高級領導人家庭成員的商業行為報道都十分緊張,因為普通的中國人一直懷疑這些高乾家屬享有特權。

文章說,2007年胡錦濤訪問納米比亞時曾同意給納米比亞一筆貸款。威視公司去年與納米比亞政府簽署了一份為他們提供安檢掃描機的合同,作為一個5,500萬美元合同的一部分,並用中國政府所提供的貸款支付。

但據報道納米比亞政府所支付威視的1280萬美元的首期款項,隨後被以"顧問費"名義轉入了當地一家顧問公司的帳戶。該帳戶由顧問公司兩名老板和威視駐納米比亞的中國代表共同持有。因此以上三人因涉嫌欺詐、貪污及行賄被當局逮捕,並已被正式立案起訴。

丟失i-Phone手機導致員工自殺

星期四的《泰晤士報》和《獨立報》對於在深圳的台資企業i-Phone生產商富士通的一名員工自殺的消息都有報道。

i-Phone
深圳台資企業i-Phone生產商富士通的一名員工自殺

泰晤士報報道說這名叫孫丹勇的員工負責把16部i-Phone第四代產品送到i-Phone總部,但翌日發現其中一台手機失蹤。幾天後,孫丹勇仍然找不到失蹤的樣機,向上級報告,公司繼而展開調查。他在3天後被發現墮樓身亡。

《泰晤士報〉的報道說孫丹勇的朋友曾對中國的《南方都市報》說,該公司對孫丹勇的住所進行搜查,並拘留了孫丹勇,對之進行毆打。

文章說該公司保安部門的負責人已被暫時停職,並被送交警察機關,但該官員否認他毆打孫丹勇。

文章繼續說在事件發生之後,蘋果公司迅速做出了反應,蘋果公司的發言人譴責這起事件,並對孫丹勇的死表示悲傷。蘋果還要求他們的供貨廠家對待所有的員工要尊重。

文章最後評論說這個悲劇凸現了圍繞新一代蘋果產品所面臨的來自記者、消費者以及競爭者各方的壓力有多大。

2009年7月24日 星期五

“裁員就是謀殺”韓 國雙龍

國警方說﹐他們會儘量等待佔據雙龍汽車(Ssangyong Motor Co.)部分廠房的被裁減工人撤出﹐希望避免以暴力方式結束持續近兩個月的工廠被佔事件。

約500名被裁員的工人和200名同情者週五時仍手持自製武器佔據著這家韓國汽車製造商的一個汽車噴漆廠。本週早些時候﹐警方已將他們趕出了主廠區。

抗議者週四再次用大型彈弓向警察發射了螺母、螺栓等“彈藥”。他們還在建築物噴上了一條標語﹐稱“不談判﹐毋寧死。”

在今年破產重組中被裁減的2,600名員工中的部分人七週前佔領了首爾郊區的一處工廠﹐並停止了生產。他們要求雙龍讓他們重新工作。按銷售量計算﹐雙龍是韓國五家主要汽車製造商中最小的一家。

主 要生產運動型多用途車的雙龍一直面臨巨大的財務困難﹐同其它陷入困境的汽車製造商一樣﹐去年開始的全球性衰退讓該公司也面臨著生死存亡的考驗。由於油價上 漲和經濟放緩導致的需求下降﹐2008年雙龍發生了歷史上的第二大虧損﹐全年共虧損7,100億韓圓(約合5.67億美元)。汽車交貨量從2007年的 12.2萬輛降至8.1萬輛。

今年1月﹐中國的上海汽車工業集團總公司(Shanghai Automotive Industrial Corp.)對雙龍進行了破產重組﹐並將控制權交給了韓國的一個管理者和銀行債權人團隊。上海汽車2003年收購了雙龍汽車﹐今年第一季度﹐雙龍汽車虧損 了2,650億韓圓。

根據破產法院2月份批准的重組計劃﹐雙龍計劃裁減7,100名員工中的2,600人。約有1,600人接受了離職方案。其餘1,000名工人決定進行抗議﹐他們在5月31日控制了這家公司的一個製造廠﹐並停止了生產。他們在廠房上張貼的標語稱:“裁員就是謀殺”。

停 產破壞了雙龍脫離破產重組的能力。汽車設計師被迫在筆記本電腦上工作﹐在臨街的電腦店中召開會議﹐而這通常是學生晚上玩在線遊戲的地方。雙龍6月份沒有生 產一輛轎車﹐共售出轎車217輛﹐其中在韓國之外只售出了20輛。政府官員說﹐到上週末時﹐仍佔領工廠的被解雇工人數量已降到了約500人﹐但他們得到了 來自其它工會和公司的大約200人的增援。

专访林和立:疆藏政策非调整不可

中国 | 2009.07.24

专访林和立:疆藏政策非调整不可

香港《南华早报》前知名撰稿人林和立最近在香港《明报》发表文章,标题为"北京非调整疆藏政策不可"。文章指出,中国民族自治政策未能有效实施,造成民族 自治区基层群众的不满,但胡温高层对此并未察觉。疆藏等地发生接连发生重大事件后,却"没有一个副省长级官员掉乌纱帽",反而可以随意把责任推给"国外反 华势力",加剧矛盾。德国之声记者连线林和立,就中国民族政策以及相关问题进行了一番探讨。

德国之声:林先生您好!我们今天的话题是您最近发表的一篇文章:《北京非调整疆藏政策不可》。从您的角度而言,您为什么认为北京要调整它的疆藏政策呢?

林和立:我觉得汉族和维吾尔族、藏族的矛盾主要是因为北京从50年代开始都没有按照宪法规定,赋予新疆和西藏高度的自治权利。而且相反,过去七八年 以来,对于少数民族地区,尤其是西藏和新疆的教育、语言、宗教,中央和地方管得很紧。比如在西藏喇嘛的活动受到限制,新疆也是这样。在学校里,少数民族的 语言并没有受到尊重。相反,汉语的教育水平是提高了。所以基本上没有满足少数民族对于高度自治的要求。当然,有少部分藏族和维吾尔族人士要求独立。其实争 取所谓西藏独立和新疆独立的只是极少数人。大部分新疆和西藏的少数民族只不过希望北京改善一下对新疆和西藏的政策,他们并没有要求独立。目前北京主要还是 依靠武力,比如7月5号乌鲁木齐发生骚乱以后,中央增加了军警武警。光靠军警来控制局面恐怕很难解决问题。而且汉族、维吾尔族和藏族的矛盾可能越来越严 重。强硬的政策,对于汉族跟少数民族长期的共处,不会有什么好处。

德国之声:林先生,您刚才提到,也是很多自由知识分子和海外知识分子也提出,要实行真正的民族自治,给与维吾尔族、藏族还有其他少 数民族真正自治的权利。但是我们也听到有不同的观点,比如北京大学人类学民族学的教授马戎,他认为中国的民族问题恰恰是因为太强调民族差别,没有强调"中 华民族"这个概念。他认为中国照搬了当年苏联按照民族来划分行政区的错误做法,造成了一部分民族精英的民族意识不断加强,反而造成隔阂。他认为应该淡化民 族意识,强化"中华民族大家庭"这个概念。您对这样的看法怎么评论呢?

林和立:我看过马教授的文章。总的来讲,中国有五六十个不同的少数民族,其中大部分少数民族,包括清朝的满族,被汉族同化了,通过通婚或是文化教育 等等。汉族和其他大部分少数民族关系没有出现对立,或是矛盾。我们不要忘记历史和民族本性,他们的风俗习惯,还有他们跟外国,比如新疆维吾尔族跟土耳其、 中亚地区的国家的关系。要求汉族跟维吾尔族交流、通婚,或是转化为中华文化的一部分,这个恐怕不容易。而且如我刚才所强调的,过去几年因为发生了一些冲突 事件,所以汉族和维吾尔族以及藏族之间的矛盾反而越闹越大。所以我认为,希望56个少数民族跟汉族成为一个大家庭,这个愿望可能不太现实,而且我觉得可能 性也不是很大。

德国之声:您刚才提到,现在汉族跟维吾尔族还有藏族的矛盾,其实比以前更大了。我们想从另外一个角度来观察这个问题,就是在其中媒 体扮演了什么样的角色?您以前也是资深的媒体人。观察北京在去年的西藏事件和今年的新疆事件,媒体政策在其中扮演了怎样的角色?它是调和了还是激化了民族 之间的矛盾分歧呢?

林和立:从某个角度来讲,北京官方媒体,特别是电视,有关去年三月西藏发生的骚乱,还有这次乌鲁木齐刚发生的骚乱,国内媒体强调了藏族还有维吾尔族 的所谓暴乱分子、打砸抢烧分子对汉族人的迫害等等。那些镜头可能会引发大部分汉族人对于少数民族的仇恨,好像对增进民族间的和谐没有任何帮助,反而会引发 一小部分汉族人,尤其是一些所谓的"愤青"吧,愤怒的青年人,他们对维吾尔族和藏族的仇恨。所以我觉得中央宣传的口径需要改善,就是说那些播出来的画面应 该强调和谐方面,避免给一般的汉族观众或是读者造成错误的印象,即所有的疆族人都追求独立,而且他们都进行打砸抢烧暴力手段的。这些错误的印象是很危险 的。这个会把目前汉族同其他少数民族的矛盾无限扩大。

德国之声:我们看到在新疆事件一开始的宣传里,官方媒体也都是强调了汉族民众受到攻击和打砸抢的事实。或者说他们强调了事实的这一 面。然后,我们后来也发现官方媒体越来越多地强调维族人民和汉族人民是一家人,或者维族帮助汉族、汉族帮助维族的故事。官方媒体是否也意识到了这点呢?

林和立:官方媒体,包括平面和电视、网络的宣传,他们也举了很多例子,比如相互帮助,还有尽管新疆这么紧张的局面,两族人也有互相帮助的一面。但是 那些宣传的画面好像说服力不是很强。对一般的汉族民众,触动他们神经的,还是打砸抢、暴徒攻击无辜的汉族民众的画面。这些画面对他们神经触及的力度要高得 多。

采访:石涛
责编:叶宣

2009年7月23日 星期四

宏碁、華碩遵照辦理「綠壩」

〔編譯陳柏誠、記者邱燕玲/綜合報導〕《華爾街日報》報導,儘管中國已經延後強制銷售該國電腦加裝 「綠壩」軟體的規定,不過包括宏碁、華碩等一些亞洲電腦商已遵照辦理,惠普和戴爾仍在觀察。前立委段宜康、邱太三昨因此痛批宏碁、華碩是「幫中國箝制言論 自由的幫凶!」「協助中國尋找異議份子列出黑名單!」要求其說明立場,否則未來將結合人權團體抵制其產品!

《華爾街日報》指出,對這些公司而言,中國市場至為關鍵,因為中國是出貨量僅次於美國的全球第二大個人電腦(PC)市場,逼得這些公司必須表態順從,以保 持和中國政府的友好關係,讓業務運作順暢。不過執行規定,卻也有可能惹惱用戶,因為綠壩品質很差,讓用戶容易遭到網路攻擊,也違反了消費者選擇的自由。

針對《華爾街日報》報導,台灣新社會智庫總幹事梁文傑、副總幹事段宜康、法政組召集人邱太三昨天召開記者會,譴責宏碁、華碩「助紂為虐」!

段宜康表示,電腦安裝綠壩軟體後,若出現色情等不良圖片會自動終止相關程式,並提示用戶「此信息不良,將被過濾掉」等文字,表面上是防堵小孩瀏覽色情網站,但包括法輪功、六四、西藏等與政治有關的關鍵字也會被過濾,並可封鎖網站網址。

段宜康指出,原本中國要求七月一日起在中國銷售的電腦都要安裝綠壩軟體,但美國商務部、歐洲商會等二十二個國家商業團體,甚至美國貿易代表都要求中國撤銷此要求,使得中國無限期延後要求加裝的時間,因此目前在中國銷售電腦的廠商都可不用安裝。

綠營籲政府約束台灣廠商

段宜康說,包括惠普、戴爾、SONY在中國銷售的電腦都沒有安裝綠壩軟體,台灣引以為傲的宏碁與華碩卻自動向中國示好,協助中國官方控制中國人民的言論自由。

他並呼籲政府要有態度,美國都動用官方力量與中國談判,要求中國取消此規定,台灣政府對此不知道是不知情還是麻痺,或是裝作沒看見毫無反應,他要求政府應向中國抗議,並約束台灣廠商。

梁文傑則呼籲民眾,電腦若有出現綠壩程式的畫面,請踴躍檢舉。

2009年7月17日 星期五

At a Factory, the Spark for China’s Violence

At a Factory, the Spark for China’s Violence

Alan Chin for The New York Times

A shift change at the Early Light Toy Factory in Shaoguan, China, where Han Chinese and Uighur workers clashed in June.


Published: July 15, 2009

SHAOGUAN, China — The first batch of Uighurs, 40 young men and women from the far western region of Xinjiang, arrived at the Early Light Toy Factory here in May, bringing their buoyant music and speaking a language that was incomprehensible to their fellow Han Chinese workers.

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Related

Rumbles on the Rim of China’s Empire (July 12, 2009)

Times Topics: Uighurs

Alan Chin for The New York Times

After the melee, the 800 Uighur workers were moved to an industrial park not far from the factory, guarded by the police.

Alan Chin for The New York Times

A family with a halal restaurant in Shaoguan was hired to cook for the Uighur workers after they were moved from the factory.

The New York Times

Many workers in Shaoguan were recruited from Xinjiang.

“We exchanged cigarettes and smiled at one another, but we couldn’t really communicate,” said Gu Yunku, a 29-year-old Han assembly line worker who had come to this southeastern city from northern China. “Still, they seemed shy and kind. There was something romantic about them.”

The mutual good will was fleeting.

By June, as the Uighur contingent rose to 800, all recruited from an impoverished rural county not far from China’s border with Tajikistan, disparaging chatter began to circulate. Taxi drivers traded stories about the wild gazes and gruff manners of the Uighurs. Store owners claimed that Uighur women were prone to shoplifting. More ominously, tales of sexually aggressive Uighur men began to spread among the factory’s 16,000 Han workers.

Shortly before midnight on June 25, a few days after an anonymous Internet posting claimed that six Uighur men had raped two Han women, the suspicions boiled over into bloodshed.

During a four-hour melee in a walkway between factory dormitories, Han and Uighur workers bludgeoned one another with fire extinguishers, paving stones and lengths of steel shorn from bed frames.

By dawn, when the police finally intervened, two Uighur men had been fatally wounded and 120 other people were injured, most of them Uighurs, according to the authorities.

“People were so vicious, they just kept beating the dead bodies,” said one man who witnessed the fighting, which he said involved more than a thousand workers.

Ten days later and 1,800 miles away, the clash in Shaoguan provoked a far greater spasm of violence in Urumqi, the capital of the Xinjiang region. On July 5, a demonstration by Uighur students protesting what they said was a lackluster investigation of the factory brawl gave way to a murderous rampage against the city’s Han residents, followed by killings carried out by the Han.

In the end, at least 192 people died and more than 1,000 were injured, according to the government. Of the dead, two-thirds were Han, the authorities said. Uighurs insist that the toll among their own was far higher.

Shaoguan officials, who said that the rape allegations were untrue, contended that the violence at the toy factory was used by “outsiders” to fan ethnic hatred and promote Xinjiang separatism. “The issue between Han and Uighur people is like an issue between husband and wife,” Chen Qihua, vice director of the Shaoguan Foreign Affairs Office, said in an interview. “We have our quarrels, but in the end, we are like one family.”

Li Qiang, the executive director of China Labor Watch, an advocacy group based in New York that has studied the Shaoguan toy factory, has a different view. He said the stress of low pay, long hours and numbingly repetitive work exacerbated deeply held mistrust between the Han and the Muslim Uighurs, a Turkic-speaking minority that has long resented Chinese rule.

“The government doesn’t really understand these ethnic problems, and they certainly don’t know how to resolve them,” Mr. Li said.

In the government’s version of events, the factory clash was the simple product of false rumors, posted on the Internet by a disgruntled former worker who has since been arrested.

A few days later, the authorities added another wrinkle to the story, saying that the fight was prompted by a “misunderstanding” after a 19-year-old female worker accidentally stumbled into a dormitory room of Uighur men.

The woman, Huang Cuilian, told the state news media that she screamed and ran off when the men stamped their feet in a threatening manner. When Ms. Huang, accompanied by factory guards, returned to confront the men, the standoff quickly escalated.

The Uighur workers have since been sequestered at an industrial park not far from the toy factory. Officials refused to allow a reporter access to the workers, and a large contingent of police officers blocked the hospital rooms where two dozen others were recovering from their wounds.

“They want to lead a peaceful life and not be bothered by the media,” said Mr. Chen, the Shaoguan official. He said the government of Guangdong Province, where Shaoguan is located, and the factory would provide them employment at a separate plant.

Officials at Early Light, a Hong Kong company that is the largest toy maker in the world, declined to comment.

In the city of Kashgar, the ancient heart of Uighur civilization, the Shaoguan killings have inflamed longstanding anger over the way China manages daily life in Xinjiang. Many Uighurs complain about policies that encourage Han migration to the region and say the government suppresses Uighurs’ language and religion. When it comes to employment, they say coveted state jobs go to the Han; a 2008 report by a United States Congressional commission noted that government job Web sites in Xinjiang set aside most teaching and civil service positions for non-Uighurs.

“If we weren’t so poor, our children wouldn’t have to take work so far from home,” said Akhdar, a 67-year-old man who, like many others interviewed, refused to give his full name for fear of reprisals from the authorities.

The Uighurs who work at the Shaoguan toy factory, all of them from Shufu County outside Kashgar, are part of a growing wave of 1.5 million people who have migrated from Xinjiang to more prosperous cities of coastal China. This year, more than 6,700 young men and women left Shufu County, according to government figures, part of an ambitious jobs export program intended to relieve high youth unemployment and provide low-cost workers to factories.

According to an article in the state-run Xinjiang Daily, “70 percent of the laborers had signed up for employment voluntarily.” The article, published in May, did not explain what measures were used to win over the remaining 30 percent.

But residents in and around Kashgar say the families of those who refuse to go are threatened with fines that can equal up to six months of a villager’s income. “If asked, most people will go, because no one can afford the penalty,” said a man who gave his name only as Abdul, whose 18-year-old sister is being recruited for work at a factory in Guangzhou but has so far resisted.

Some families are particularly upset that recruitment drives are directed at young unmarried women, saying that the time spent living in a Han city far away from home taints their marriage prospects. Taheer, a 25-year-old bachelor who is seeking a wife, put it bluntly. “I would not marry such a girl because there’s a chance she would not come back with her virginity,” he said.

Still, a few Uighurs said they were thankful for factory jobs with wages as high as $190 a month, double the average income in Xinjiang. One man, a 54-year-old cotton farmer with two young daughters, said he was ready to send them away if that was what the Communist Party wanted. “We would be happy to oblige,” he said with a smile as his wife looked away.

Once they arrive in one of China’s bustling manufacturing hubs, the Uighurs often find life alienating. Mr. Li of China Labor Watch said many workers were unprepared for the grueling work, the cramped living conditions and what he described as verbal abuse from factory managers.

But the biggest challenge may be open hostility from Han co-workers, who like many Chinese hold unapologetically negative views of Uighurs.

Many Han say they believe that Uighurs are given unfair advantages by the central government, including a point system that gives Uighur students and other minorities a leg up on college entrance exams.

Zhang Qiang, a 20-year-old Shaoguan resident, described Uighurs as “barbarians” and said they were easily provoked to violence.

“All the men carry knives,” he said after dropping off a job application at the toy factory, which is eager to hire replacements for the hundreds of workers who quit in recent weeks.

Still, Mr. Zhang acknowledged that his contact with Uighurs was superficial. When he was a student, his vocational high school had a program for 100 Xinjiang students, although they were relegated to separate classrooms and dorms.

If he had any curiosity about his Uighur classmates, it was quashed by a teacher who warned the Han students to keep their distance. “This is not prejudice,” he said. “It is just the nature of their kind.”

Zhang Jing contributed research.

中国民间组织“公盟”面临灭顶之灾

中国 | 2009.07.17

中国民间组织“公盟”面临灭顶之灾

7月14日,北京国家税务局和地方税务局以偷漏税为由,对北京市一家非政府组织“公盟”处以142万元的罚款。并提出如果10天内不交付罚款,该组织就将 被取缔,法人代表许志永博士也可能面临七年的刑事处罚。今天(7月17日)是北京市国税局为“公盟”举行听证会的最后期限,但就在听证会还没结束的时候, 当地民政局已对该组织下设的“公盟法律咨询中心”施行取缔。

五年来,由北京邮电大学教授许志永博士等人创办的民间组织“公盟”,曾经对中国的民主制度提出过很多建议,关注过河南艾滋病问题、更为普通 百姓的维权提供过法律援助。对于本周二,该组织接到得额度高出应缴税款5倍、共计142万元人民币的罚款,“公盟”行政主管田奇庄先生认为,当地执法部门 的做法十分不合情理,也是违反执法程序的一项处罚。他说:“5年来,税务部门从来没有到我们这检查过。但这次一上来,就如此大动干戈,这显然是蓄谋已久、 不正常的一种行为。如果按正常程序查税的话,像我们这样的公司他们每年都应该安排税收专管员负责我们,他们会来走一走、看一看,提示我们有偷税漏税的现 象,或是下达单据让我们补交。可是这些程序他根本就没有履行。”


田奇庄补充说,该组织不可能一下子拿出来上百万的罚款,因为“公盟”不是盈利单位。对于当地税务机关提出的,美国耶鲁大学提供的四笔资金,“公盟” 也确实还没来得及上报,因为中国需要捐助的人太多了。他说:“援助款项的目的是用来做公益事业的,而中国需要帮助的人又很多,我们的经费经常是捉襟见肘, 精打细算的开支,哪有盈余。再说,他们如果真罚,我们也不会拿捐助人的钱去补这个窟窿,这种事我们是不会做。可以看出,他们的目的很明确,就是希望‘公盟 ’最终倒闭。”


在许志永的听证会还没结束的时候,今天北京市民政局已经以非法组织为由,将该组织办公室的电脑、资料等用品清空。意思是,该组织下设的‘公盟的法律 咨询中心’已经被取缔,剩下的只是以‘公盟咨询有限公司’为名注册的空壳。此外,这家公司还必须承担巨额罚款。田奇庄认为,究竟哪笔钱应该算盈利,什么资 金应该算支出?这都不是重要问题。值得大家关注的是,目前大部分中国民间非政府组织都会以各种理由遭到打压,“现在他们有的组织也受到了警告,也有被查帐 的,所以说这些组织生存的状况实在是非常糟糕。但是我只是说有一些政府当中的顽固政治势力,他们对于社会的一点不同声音,一点进步,他们都容忍不了。对于 我们所做的一些维权的事情。他们都非常的厌恶和痛恨。我觉得这些势力一旦占到上风,对我们的民族会是一个很大的灾难。”


田奇庄不排除10月1日国庆到来前夕,北京对非政府组织实行高压政策。但他还是希望,中国有关当局能关注非政府组织在中国的良性发展。距离税务局交付罚款的期限还有不到10天的时间。目前,该组织已接到全国各地民间组织、会计师和维权律师希望提供帮助的请求。


作者: 严严

责编: 石涛

2009年7月15日 星期三

Taiwan races against China shadow

Taiwan races against China shadow

By Robin Kwong in Kaohsiung 2009-07-16

Beijing asserted its place on the world stage last summer with an eye-popping opening ceremony for the 2008 Olympic Games in its landmark Bird's Nest stadium, followed by epic performances by international athletes such as Michael Phelps and Usain Bolt.

Taiwan is hoping to turn a similar trick when it hosts the World Games at the port city of Kaohsiung this week. However, the odds are long that Taiwan will be able to use the quadrennial games – an affiliate of the Olympics for sports not included in the main event such as squash, canoe polo and fistball – as effectively.

The World Games will be launched in an innovative open-ended, solar-powered stadium designed by a Japanese architect. Anchored by the $145m (£89m, €104m) stadium, Taiwan is investing far more in the games than the previous seven hosts. The games are the largest global event held in Taiwan in decades following years of isolation. Beijing regards Taiwan as a renegade province.

While the profusion of cable sports channels such as ESPN means the 31 sports on display in Kaohsiung can reach television screens across the world, the games are even a hard sell in Kaohsiung itself, a city of 1.5m people.

Kaohsiung organisers have sold fewer than a quarter of the total seats available, despite pricing them much lower than tickets for the 2005 games held in Duisberg, Germany.

“Quite frankly, it is a disappointment,” said Chu Ting-shan, executive secretary of the Kaohsiung organising committee, who blames the economic slowdown and the cost of travelling to Taiwan.

Organisers are resorting to one last marketing push, including promising a T$4m ($121,000, £74,000, €86,000) house in Kaohsiung and a Volkswagen Polo to holders of lucky ticket numbers. Kaohsiung also suffers from not having famous tourist sites to match Beijing's Forbidden City or the Great Wall. City officials like to play up the Love River, which courses through the city and is known within shipping circles because of its container port, one of the world's busiest.

The 3,200 athletes from nearly 100 countries who will compete in Kaohsiung are more impressed. Sion Scone, 27, a member of the British national ultimate frisbee team, says the 40,000-seat Kaohsiung stadium is “without a doubt” the grandest venue ever to host a frisbee tournament.

While Taiwan may not achieve the same success as China, just putting on the games is an achievement, even if both the island and the World Games remain in Beijing's shadow.

International organisation have shied away from holding events on the island out of concern that it might jeopardise participation by or even provoke retaliation from China.

But the games come as cross-Strait relations continue to show significant improvement following the election of Ma Ying-jeou, the Taiwanese president, last year. Mr Ma has been mending fences with China, which has eased its opposition to Taiwan having an international presence.

“Simply being able to host this event is already a success for Taiwan,” said Frank Hsieh, the former Kaohsiung mayor defeated in last year's presidential election. “It is very important for Taiwan because it a show of confidence that we can hold an international event.”

Earlier this year Taiwan participated in its first United Nations event since being expelled from the organisation in 1979, becoming an observer to the annual assembly of the World Health Organisation.


分析:高雄世运会的成就

英国《金融时报》邝彦晖(Robin Kwong)报道 2009-07-16

去年夏天,北京在其标志性的鸟巢体育场馆,举办了让人瞠目结舌的2008年奥运会开幕式,借此确立自己在世界舞台上的地位。在该届奥运会上,迈克尔•菲尔普斯(Michael Phelps)和尤塞恩•博尔特(Usain Bolt)等国际运动员取得了惊人的表现。

台湾希望,本周在港口城市高雄开幕的世界运动会(World Games),也能取得类似效果。世运会得到国际奥委会的承认和支持,每四年举办一次,竞赛项目基本上都是非奥运项目,如壁球、轻艇水球和浮士德球。然而,台湾像北京那样有效利用世运会的几率不大。

世运会将在一座创新的开放式场馆举行,这座场馆由一名日本建筑师设计,采用太阳能,造价1.45亿美元。台湾为世运会投入的资金,远远超过前七届的东道主。世运会是台湾遭到多年孤立后,主办的几十年来最大规模国际大型活动。北京将台湾视为一个叛离省份。


借助ESPN等众多体育频道,世界各地都能收看到在高雄举行的31个比赛项目。然而,在拥有150万人口的主办城市高雄,世运会门票却不怎么好卖。

高雄的主办方目前仅售出不到四分之一门票,尽管票价远低于2005年在德国杜伊斯堡举行的世运会门票。

“坦率地说,这让人失望,”高雄世运会主办委员会执行秘书朱挺珊表示。她将原因归结于经济放缓,以及到台湾旅行的费用较高。

主办方正使出压箱底的营销术,包括承诺持有幸运数字门票者,将获得高雄市一座价值400万新台币的住宅和一辆大众Polo。高雄也苦于没有媲美北京 紫禁城和长城的著名旅游景点。当地官员喜欢夸耀流经全城的“爱河”,这条河在航运界颇有名,其集装箱港口是世界最繁忙的港口之一。

来自近100个国家的3200名运动员将参加高雄运动会,他们对主办地的印象倒是不错。今年27岁的英国终极飞盘国家队队员西昂•斯昆(Sion Scone)表示,拥有4万个座位的高雄体育馆,“无疑”是有史以来最宏伟的飞盘比赛场地。

虽然台湾也许无法取得与北京一样的成功,但是,能够举办比赛本身就是一项成就,即使台湾和世运会都依然笼罩在北京的阴影下。

国际组织一向避免在台湾举办赛事,担心会影响中国参赛,甚至激起中国报复。

但本届世运会举办之际,正值两岸关系自去年马英九当选台湾总统以来持续显著改善。马英九一直在努力修补与中国大陆的关系,而中国大陆也不再那么反对台湾拥有一定国际空间。

“对台湾来说,光是能够举办这次运动会,就已经是一项成功了,”在去年总统竞选中败北的原高雄市长谢长廷表示。“对台湾来说,这非常重要,因为这是信心的体现,说明我们能够举办国际大型活动。”

自1979年被逐出联合国(UN)以来,台湾在今年早些时候首次参与联合国活动,以观察员身份参加世界卫生组织(WHO)年度大会。

译者/岱嵩



台湾:初の国際スポーツ大会 チケット消化率は3分の1

 【台北・大谷麻由美】オリンピック種目以外の競技を集めた国際大会「ワールドゲームズ」が16日から台湾南部の高雄で開かれる。「もう一つの五 輪」と呼ばれ、台湾にとって初の大型国際総合スポーツ大会の主催だが、全体のチケット消化率は3割と振るわない。文化やスポーツなどソフトパワーを通じた 外交強化を進める馬英九政権にとって痛手となりかねない事態だ。

 ワールドゲームズは認知度が高いとは言えないが、世界の一流選手が一堂に会する祭典だ。今回の大会は空手、武術、相撲、綱引き、ビリヤード、ボー リング、ライフセービングなど31競技に約90カ国から選手約3000人が集まる。今回で8回目の開催。アジアでは01年の秋田に次いで2回目となる。

 台湾メディアによると、今月1日時点での開幕式、競技、閉幕式を合わせたチケット消化率は21%。10日には32%にまで上がったが、宿泊施設の予約率は期待を大きく下回り4~6割にとどまっている。昨年同期より3割減の状態だ。

 国際大会開催に不慣れな高雄市政府の宣伝下手に加え、新型インフルエンザの拡大でツアーのキャンセルが相次いだのも盛り上がりに欠ける原因のようだ。

2009年7月13日 星期一

烏魯木齊維吾爾 大動亂

bbc

近幾天的各大報紙繼續大版篇幅關注中國新疆的危機。幾乎所有報紙都刊登了大批武警在烏魯木齊列隊行進的大幅照片。

數家報紙登載了一位維吾爾大媽拄著拐杖獨自面對防暴警察的照片和故事,並把它同20年前天安門六四事件時一位青年隻身阻擋一列坦克的情景相比。

胡錦濤提前回國的考慮

星期四的《獨立報》刊登一篇分析文章, 題目是為什麼胡錦濤提前離開八國峰會。文章說由於新疆騷亂,本來作為一個新興大國應邀參加世界富國俱樂部的中國領導人卻因為自家後院鬧事,不得不匆忙離開,實在是令人感到尷尬。

文章說,在世界陷入經濟危機之際,中國首先想到的就是如何根除那些可能引起社會動蕩的隱患,例如失業的民工,農村閑置人口等。但沒有想到讓他們措手不及的是新疆維吾爾族所爆發的騷亂。 文章分析說這是中國的民族政策所導致的結果。

儘管中國在新疆興建了現代化的清真寺,蓋了新市場等等,但對當地的維吾爾族來說,他們的民族特性以及生計被"外來的"漢民所淹沒。

文章還評論說新疆的地理位置緊鄰中亞,中國的能源需求也依賴於中亞,因此太得罪穆斯林中國也擔待不起,因為如果這樣,它不僅會成為中國的一個棘手問題,對外部的世界也構成問題。

文章最後說當胡錦濤決定離開八國峰會時,他要做出的選擇是,放棄一次與世界強國領導人聚會的機會,還是中國國內的穩定更重要?顯然,他選擇了後者。

周四《金融時報〉對新疆騷亂事件的一篇分析文章表示,新疆社會的不平等攪動了分離主義的情緒。文章說,對許多維吾爾人來說,在這個社會中,他們的意見很少能夠聽到,他們沒有得到好處。新疆爆發的騷亂正是根植於這種深深的社會問題裡。

美國的尷尬

同一天《金融時報〉的另一篇文章談到美國對新疆騷亂的矛盾心態。文章說,有那麼一刻,美國明顯在如何對新疆問題作出回應的問題上感到很不自在。

在本周同俄羅斯總統梅德韋傑夫舉行的新聞發佈會上,美國總統奧巴馬被要求對新疆騷亂和中國隨後的鎮壓發表評論。

一臉不自在的奧巴馬以自己'整夜都在旅行,整個白天都在開會' 沒有得到全面的情況匯報為由迴避了對此發表任何言論,只是說美國會發表一份公開聲明。

美國政府最終的聲明說,美國對新疆事件'深表關注','呼籲各方保持克制'。美國沒有像流亡維吾爾人所提出的那樣,呼籲北京展開對話。

《金融時報〉的文章指出,新疆事件是對華盛頓是否願意在這個人權人士稱為全球關注的問題上勇於表明自己立場的一個最有代表性的考驗。

《金融時報〉說,對於美國在這一問題上的心態,許多維吾爾人表示,華盛頓和世界其他國家的政府對於維吾爾人在新疆受到不公正待遇的關注要遠遠少於對藏人處境的關注。他們認為,維吾爾人由於是穆斯林而受到了歧視。

此外,美國和其他國家的政府在同中國雙邊關係中有許多需要優先考慮的問題。他們也不願意由於新疆問題增加可能干擾他們同中國雙邊關係的因素。

文章說,世界維吾爾大會的主席熱比婭在接受《金融時報〉採訪時表示,國際缺乏關注在一定程度上鼓勵了中國政府的鎮壓行動。她還表示'希望國際社會和美國最高層在這個問題上採取強硬立場'。不過,迄今為止,這一願望尚未實現。

改變外媒政策

另外,星期三的《國際先驅論壇報》以及星期四的《衛報》都對這次中國對待外國媒體報道新疆騷亂政策的轉變作了報道。

《國際先驅論壇報〉的文章說,在新疆騷亂爆發以後,中國採取了固有的防範措施,諸如封網、掐斷電話線,只允許中國媒體採用 新華社的報道等,但是這次中國同時還採取了一個最不尋常的步驟,那就是在暴亂被平息後的幾個小時之內,中國就邀請外國媒體進入烏魯木齊進行報道。政府還在 那裡設立了一個新聞中心。

文章評論說中國變得更精明瞭,它吸取了過去的教訓,尤其是去年西藏暴亂的教訓,它更知道如何來利用媒體了。

但《衛報》的報道說,儘管如此,對外國記者的騷擾並沒有完全消失,文章說據在中國的外國記者協會報告,新疆的保安部隊拘留了一些記者,並沒收了一些器材,其中還損毀了一架攝像機。

《衛報〉的文章還說雖然對外國記者的限制放寬,但對中國國內的媒體報道則仍然嚴格,國內的媒體不能獨立的報道,只能使用新華社和中央電視台的通稿。當然更不允許所謂的公民報道,一些網上論壇的討論和網頁全部受到審查。

文章說這次中國政府處理媒體報道的手法改變的部分原因是他們想取得國際的同情,因為此次死亡的大多數人是漢人,當然還有由於去年西藏暴亂中國壓制外國媒體報道所造成的負面影響等。

2009年7月8日 星期三

一廂情願的口號

中國| 2009.07.08
烏魯木齊民族衝突潛能仍在積蓄

烏魯木齊街頭抗議的維族婦女
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:烏魯木齊街頭抗議的維族婦女
週三,中國政府向烏魯木齊派出大批安全力量,但仍有手持簡易武器的漢族和維族人之間、以及與安全力量發生衝突。中國國家主席胡錦濤中歐時間週三凌晨已中斷八國峰會行程回國,原因是"鑑於當前新疆形勢"。


據法新社報導,週三,軍用直升機在烏魯木齊市上空盤旋,並散播寫有保持冷靜的傳單。成千上萬名士兵和防暴警察在市內巡邏,呼喊著"保衛人民"的口 號。儘管如此,仍有許多漢族和一些維族人手持簡易武器在市中心和邊緣城區活動。在橫貫烏魯木齊東西的人民路上設置了一條警戒線,用以分隔漢人和維族人社 區,安全力量攜帶半自動機槍和警棍站在警戒線上。

一名法新社記者報導,在一起事件中,約200名手持棍棒和石塊的維族人在警戒線前表示抗議。另有人數較少的一群維族人同警戒線另一邊的漢人相互辱 罵,雙方均攜帶簡易武器。當一架直升機向下拋撒傳單,傳單上指責流亡維吾爾人熱比婭要為周日的騷亂負責時,維族人群的人數增加。

法新社記者目睹兩起漢人圍攻維吾爾人的事件,其中一起事件中約20名漢人手持木棍等物品,在烏魯木齊市中心圍攻一名維吾爾男子。 1分鐘後安全力量驅散了人群,並迅速將受攻擊者運走。在另一起事件中,漢人追逐三名維族人,其中一名維族人受到攻擊,約30秒後警方將受攻擊者運走。

據路透社報導,約1000名漢族示威者走上街頭,警察試圖將人群分割開來。當安全力量試圖逮捕原已情緒激昂的示威者帶頭人時,雙方發生扭打。週三,烏魯木齊許多商店仍大門緊閉,市中心沒有公共汽車或出租車運營。

中國國家主席胡錦濤中歐時間週三凌晨從意大利提前回國,原因是"鑑於當前新疆局勢"。此前德國總理默克爾曾表示將在八國峰會期間與胡錦濤談及新疆問題。

德國外交部國務秘書埃爾勒週三表示,儘管新疆發生血腥騷亂,德國近期內仍不會接納來自美國關塔那摩監獄的維吾爾人。但他同時強調,在意大利八國峰會上,中國政府對待維吾爾人的方式將被談及;儘管中國國家主席胡錦濤已提前離開,中國代表團仍會受到與西藏事件中一樣的正告。

據報導,流亡維吾爾人熱比婭週三在《華爾街日報》亞洲版撰文表示,約400名維吾爾人在騷亂中被警方"槍擊和毆打"致死。她表示,抗議已經向烏魯木齊以外的地區擴散開來。熱比婭同時強調,反對雙方使用暴力。

人權組織大赦國際呼籲向新疆派出獨立觀察員。大赦國際同時呼籲北京政府取消對網絡論壇的封鎖,保障新聞自由,此外被逮捕者應有權同律師取得聯繫,在關押中不得使用刑訊逼供。

俄羅斯外交部周三發表聲明稱,新疆發生的事件完全屬於中國內政。


綜合報導:苗子

責編:葉宣




中国 | 2009.07.08

乌鲁木齐民族冲突潜能仍在积蓄

周三,中国政府向乌鲁木齐派出大批安全力量,但仍有手持简易武器的汉族和维族人之间、以及与安全力量发生冲突。中国国家主席胡锦涛中欧时间周三凌晨已中断八国峰会行程回国,原因是"鉴于当前新疆形势"。

据法新社报道,周三,军用直升机在乌鲁木齐市上空盘旋,并散播写有保持冷静的传单。成千上万名士兵和防暴警察在市内巡逻,呼喊着"保卫人 民"的口号。尽管如此,仍有许多汉族和一些维族人手持简易武器在市中心和边缘城区活动。在横贯乌鲁木齐东西的人民路上设置了一条警戒线,用以分隔汉人和维 族人社区,安全力量携带半自动机枪和警棍站在警戒线上。

一名法新社记者报道,在一起事件中,约200名手持棍棒和石块的维族人在警戒线前表示抗议。另有人数较少的一群维族人同警戒线另一边的汉人相互辱骂,双方均携带简易武器。当一架直升机向下抛撒传单,传单上指责流亡维吾尔人热比娅要为周日的骚乱负责时,维族人群的人数增加。

法新社记者目睹两起汉人围攻维吾尔人的事件,其中一起事件中约20名汉人手持木棍等物品,在乌鲁木齐市中心围攻一名维吾尔男子。1分钟后安全力量驱 散了人群,并迅速将受攻击者运走。在另一起事件中,汉人追逐三名维族人,其中一名维族人受到攻击,约30秒后警方将受攻击者运走。

据路透社报道,约1000名汉族示威者走上街头,警察试图将人群分割开来。当安全力量试图逮捕原已情绪激昂的示威者带头人时,双方发生扭打。周三,乌鲁木齐许多商店仍大门紧闭,市中心没有公共汽车或出租车运营。

中国国家主席胡锦涛中欧时间周三凌晨从意大利提前回国,原因是"鉴于当前新疆局势"。此前德国总理默克尔曾表示将在八国峰会期间与胡锦涛谈及新疆问题。

德国外交部国务秘书埃尔勒周三表示,尽管新疆发生血腥骚乱,德国近期内仍不会接纳来自美国关塔那摩监狱的维吾尔人。但他同时强调,在意大利八国峰会上,中国政府对待维吾尔人的方式将被谈及;尽管中国国家主席胡锦涛已提前离开,中国代表团仍会受到与西藏事件中一样的正告。

据报道,流亡维吾尔人热比娅周三在《华尔街日报》亚洲版撰文表示,约400名维吾尔人在骚乱中被警方"枪击和殴打"致死。她表示,抗议已经向乌鲁木齐以外的地区扩散开来。热比娅同时强调,反对双方使用暴力。

人权组织大赦国际呼吁向新疆派出独立观察员。大赦国际同时呼吁北京政府取消对网络论坛的封锁,保障新闻自由,此外被逮捕者应有权同律师取得联系,在关押中不得使用刑讯逼供。

俄罗斯外交部周三发表声明称,新疆发生的事件完全属于中国内政。


综合报道:苗子

责编:叶宣





中國| 2009.07.08
中國問題專家黑伯勒教授談新疆事件

“中華民族是一家”:顯然只是一廂情願的口號
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift: “中華民族是一家”:顯然只是一廂情願的口號
上週日發生在新疆維吾爾自治區的騷亂事件已經造成至少156人死亡。而引起部分維吾爾人強烈不滿的導火索,據稱是上月底發生在廣東省一家玩具廠的 維漢民族集體械鬥事件,在那場鬥毆中,兩名維吾爾族工人死亡,而受傷工人中,維族工人也佔多數。引起民族衝突的深層次矛盾何在?德國之聲記者就此採訪了德 國杜伊斯堡-埃森大學中國問題專家托馬斯·黑伯勒教授。


德國之聲:根據媒體報導,目前新疆騷亂事件造成的死亡人數已經超過150人。那裡的維吾爾少數民族和漢族之間存在矛盾一直都是眾所周知的,您對這個消息感到意外嗎?

黑伯勒教授:我必須承認,這麼大的傷亡數字還是令我非常吃驚的。因為,在過去的幾年中,尤其是在去年三月份的西藏事件之後,中國在有關的爭論中一 直採取一種降溫政策。不過,在像新疆這樣少數民族聚居的地區發生越來越多的騷亂事件,這是可以料到的結果。我認為這也和中國民族政策的失誤有關係。在我看 來,目前中國在少數民族聚居地區採取的這種自治形式,是不足以保證地區穩定的,因為它的法律基礎過於薄弱。而在新疆尤其突出的一個問題是,很多關於糟糕的 社會經濟狀況的言論都被解讀成為一種分裂主義傾向,因此可以說政府在新疆實行的是較為強硬的政策。

新疆的矛盾衝突最近一段時間以來不斷升溫,我認為還有一個原因,中國在那里大力開採油氣資源,而在這一的過程中,當地的社會資源並沒有得到充分開 發,也就是說,當地人從油氣開採中獲益太少。不久前,中國共產黨黨報刊登了一篇關於和諧民族政策的文章,其中還提到,必須讓新疆少數民族在資源開發當中得 到益處。可以說,中國已經在這方面進行了討論。但是,總體上講,少數民族的不滿還是越來越強烈,因為他們在使用資源方面沒有參與決策的權利。

德國之聲:根據新華社的報導,新疆自治區內的維吾爾人和境外流亡維吾爾組織有聯繫,而正是這些境外組織策劃了這場騷亂。您認為這是不是中國典型的宣傳攻勢?

黑伯勒教授:外部力量的影響是很難解釋清楚的。假如在內部沒有不滿情緒的話,那麼那些所謂的境外勢力或是外部干涉也達不到任何效果。可以說,是內 部存在一種不滿的氣氛,促使了遊行示威或是騷亂。這次事件的導火索其實就是在廣東省韶關一家玩具廠的維漢民族集體鬥毆中,兩名維族工人喪生。一部分新疆維 族民眾認為,官方沒有對這起案件進行認真的審理調查,因此走上街頭遊行示威。而這種和平遊行演變成為暴力抗議的現象並不僅僅是發生在新疆,在漢族居民為主 的地區也時有出現。不少地方政府機構沒有完全按照中央政府的政令和法規辦事,時常引起民眾的強烈不滿,而且對民眾的抗議行為採取暴力壓制的手段。這次在烏 魯木齊發生的事件其實也可以歸入這一範疇,即對地區政府的普遍不滿情緒。

而在我看來,中國民族政策的失誤又加劇了這一矛盾。在過去的幾十年裡,中國政府一直在強調大力發展少數民族地區的經濟,認為這樣他們就會滿足於現 狀,民族衝突就會減弱。我認為,從國際角度看,這種理念其實是比較片面的。因為,從世界各地的經驗來看,單單有現代化和經濟發展是不能使少數民族滿意的。 他們必須要有平等的感覺,必須確保他們自己的家鄉不會受到過多的外來影響,自己的文化能夠得到保護,而在這些方面,中國還有待進一步改善。

德國之聲:您認為中國政府找到了解決這個問題的出路了嗎?

黑伯勒教授:我聽說,此前有一些中國專家撰寫了一份文件,指出中國的民族政策在過去幾年中出現了失誤。顯然就這個問題,中國內部已經在進行討論了。我認為,去年的西藏事件和現在發生在新疆的騷亂,應該會啟發中國就改進民族政策,改進民族自治法進行反思。

德國之聲:學術界的討論是一回事,但就您對中國政治體制的了解,您認為這種討論會對中國的政治決策層產生影響嗎?

黑伯勒教授:我認為會。因為政治領導層必須認識到,在這方面必須有所作為,不能總是把責任推給境外勢力或是流亡組織,而要看到目前存在的這種不滿 是與民族政策的失誤密切相關的。我認為中國政府內部也有一些人希望對民族政策進行改進。當然也有一部分人認為一切都是正確的,所有的問題都是境外勢力造成 的,但我覺得長久下去,這種理念是行不通的,無法改善少數民族與漢族之間的關係。


採訪記者:當遠

責編:葉宣




中国 | 2009.07.08

中国问题专家黑伯勒教授谈新疆事件

上周日发生在新疆维吾尔自治区的骚乱事件已经造成至少156人死亡。而引起部分维吾尔人强烈不满的导火索,据称是上月底发生在广东省一家玩具厂的维汉民族 集体械斗事件,在那场斗殴中,两名维吾尔族工人死亡,而受伤工人中,维族工人也占多数。引起民族冲突的深层次矛盾何在?德国之声记者就此采访了德国杜伊斯 堡-埃森大学中国问题专家托马斯·黑伯勒教授。

德国之声:根据媒体报道,目前新疆骚乱事件造成的死亡人数已经超过150人。那里的维吾尔少数民族和汉族之间存在矛盾一直都是众所周知的,您对这个消息感到意外吗?

黑伯勒教授:我必须承认,这么大的伤亡数字还是令我非常吃惊的。因为,在过去的几年中,尤其是在去年三月份的西藏事件之后,中国在有 关的争论中一直采取一种降温政策。不过,在象新疆这样少数民族聚居的地区发生越来越多的骚乱事件,这是可以料到的结果。我认为这也和中国民族政策的失误有 关系。在我看来,目前中国在少数民族聚居地区采取的这种自治形式,是不足以保证地区稳定的,因为它的法律基础过于薄弱。而在新疆尤其突出的一个问题是,很 多关于糟糕的社会经济状况的言论都被解读成为一种分裂主义倾向,因此可以说政府在新疆实行的是较为强硬的政策。

新疆的矛盾冲突最近一段时间以来不断升温,我认为还有一个原因,中国在那里大力开采油气资源,而在这一的过程中,当地的社会资源并没有得到充分开 发,也就是说,当地人从油气开采中获益太少。不久前,中国共产党党报刊登了一篇关于和谐民族政策的文章,其中还提到,必须让新疆少数民族在资源开发当中得 到益处。可以说,中国已经在这方面进行了讨论。但是,总体上讲,少数民族的不满还是越来越强烈,因为他们在使用资源方面没有参与决策的权利。

德国之声:根据新华社的报道,新疆自治区内的维吾尔人和境外流亡维吾尔组织有联系,而正是这些境外组织策划了这场骚乱。您认为这是不是中国典型的宣传攻势?

黑伯勒教授:外部力量的影响是很难解释清楚的。假如在内部没有不满情绪的话,那么那些所谓的境外势力或是外部干涉也达不到任何效果。 可以说,是内部存在一种不满的气氛,促使了游行示威或是骚乱。这次事件的导火索其实就是在广东省韶关一家玩具厂的维汉民族集体斗殴中,两名维族工人丧生。 一部分新疆维族民众认为,官方没有对这起案件进行认真的审理调查,因此走上街头游行示威。而这种和平游行演变成为暴力抗议的现象并不仅仅是发生在新疆,在 汉族居民为主的地区也时有出现。不少地方政府机构没有完全按照中央政府的政令和法规办事,时常引起民众的强烈不满,而且对民众的抗议行为采取暴力压制的手 段。这次在乌鲁木齐发生的事件其实也可以归入这一范畴,即对地区政府的普遍不满情绪。

而在我看来,中国民族政策的失误又加剧了这一矛盾。在过去的几十年里,中国政府一直在强调大力发展少数民族地区的经济,认为这样他们就会满足于现 状,民族冲突就会减弱。我认为,从国际角度看,这种理念其实是比较片面的。因为,从世界各地的经验来看,单单有现代化和经济发展是不能使少数民族满意的。 他们必须要有平等的感觉,必须确保他们自己的家乡不会受到过多的外来影响,自己的文化能够得到保护,而在这些方面,中国还有待进一步改善。

德国之声:您认为中国政府找到了解决这个问题的出路了吗?

黑伯勒教授:我听说,此前有一些中国专家撰写了一份文件,指出中国的民族政策在过去几年中出现了失误。显然就这个问题,中国内部已经在进行讨论了。我认为,去年的西藏事件和现在发生在新疆的骚乱,应该会启发中国就改进民族政策,改进民族自治法进行反思。

德国之声:学术界的讨论是一回事,但就您对中国政治体制的了解,您认为这种讨论会对中国的政治决策层产生影响吗?

黑伯勒教授:我认为会。因为政治领导层必须认识到,在这方面必须有所作为,不能总是把责任推给境外势力或是流亡组织,而要看到目前存 在的这种不满是与民族政策的失误密切相关的。我认为中国政府内部也有一些人希望对民族政策进行改进。当然也有一部分人认为一切都是正确的,所有的问题都是 境外势力造成的,但我觉得长久下去,这种理念是行不通的,无法改善少数民族与汉族之间的关系。


采访记者:当远

责编:叶宣

2009年7月7日 星期二

印度尼西亞舉行第二次總統普選


時事風雲| 2009.07.07
印度尼西亞舉行第二次總統普選

現任總統蘇西洛有希望連任
Großansicht des Bildes mit der Bildunterschrift:現任總統蘇西洛有希望連任
印尼前獨裁統治者蘇哈托政權1998年被推翻以來,該國將第二次舉行總統普選。三名候選人將參加總統寶座角逐,印尼現總統蘇西洛是最被看好的人選。


7月8日,印尼將舉行總統大選,共有三名候選人角逐總統寶座:現任總統蘇西洛、前總統梅加瓦蒂和副總統尤素福·卡拉等。在選戰中,蘇西洛一再提及在自己5 年任期內取得的經濟成就,並保證說,將繼續這一政策。 "政府的工作重點是,第一保持經濟強勁增長,在未來的數年裡,我們必須至少使經濟增長率達到7%。第二點是,必須戰勝貧困,而且是通過加強農業建設,加速 鄉村地區的發展,以及其他為本國居民制定的社會福利計劃等。"

儘管全世界都受到金融和經濟危機的影響,但印尼今年的經濟增長率仍為3%至4% 。只是與去年6%的經濟增長率相比明顯降低。蘇西洛卻成功地打消了居民的種種顧慮和擔憂,由其領導的民主黨的得票率得以在今年4月舉行的議會大選中提高三倍,民主黨一舉成為議會中第一大黨。

另外,蘇西洛在嚴打腐敗鬥爭中的業績有口皆碑,蘇西洛因此享有極高的民眾支持率。在過去數年中,該國許多政府高官都因涉嫌腐敗行為而被拘捕,並受到起訴。當蘇西洛兒子的岳父因受腐敗指控而被逮捕時,蘇西洛並沒有介入此事,而只是強調了司法的獨立性。

第二名總統候選人是現年62歲的印尼前總統梅加瓦蒂,她是印尼建國元勳蘇加諾之女,直到今天,蘇加諾依舊被許多居民視為與殖民主義作鬥爭中的英 雄。自梅加瓦蒂和其領導的民主鬥爭黨在1999年的全國大選中獲得極高的得票率以來,其民眾支持率越來越低。梅加瓦蒂於2001年至2004年間擔任總 統,但在該國舉行的首次總統直選中敗給了蘇西洛。在選戰中,梅加瓦蒂強調愛國主義和民族主義精神,盡可能與其父親的大名聯在一起。 "印尼必鬚髮展為一個強國,這是印尼建國時制定的崇高目標。如今的許多年輕人經常忘記當年的自由鬥士,忘記今天的自由生活是當年自由鬥士們浴血奮戰的結 果,他們使我們國家獲得解放。自由萬歲!"

第三名總統候選人是專業集團黨領袖尤素福·卡拉,他是一位成功的商人,以行動果決而著稱。現年67歲的尤素福·卡拉經常對印尼各部和機構提出批 評,在尤素福的眼中,這些行政機構的工作速度過於緩慢拖沓。在2004年的總統大選中,尤素福曾以蘇西洛副手的身份參加。倆人原計劃共同參加大選。然而, 專業集團黨中的絕大多數不願只滿足於副總統的職位,要求推出自己的總統候選人。尤素福接受黨內的要求,成為蘇西洛的競爭對手。蘇西洛經常因其在出台重大決 定時猶豫不決而受到人們的批評,所以尤素福·卡拉提出了"更快更好"的競選口號。他在所有的電視辯論中都強調這一點。 "蘇西洛從梅加瓦蒂手中接管了國家政權。如果我能從蘇西洛手中同樣接管國家政權的話,那麼我將更快更好地解決所有選戰期間談及的諸多問題。"

在選戰期間,三位總統候選人的競選綱領中都以經濟為首要議題。但經濟界和投資者們更相信蘇西洛,相信他有能力解決經濟問題。

所有民調結果顯示,蘇西洛將在大選中以明顯優勢勝出。只是問題在於,是否蘇西洛能在首輪選舉中贏得超過50%的必要多數。否則,印尼將在今年9月舉行第二輪選舉。

作者:Hendra Pasuhuk/祝紅


責編:樂然




时事风云 | 2009.07.07

印度尼西亚举行第二次总统普选

印尼前独裁统治者苏哈托政权1998年被推翻以来,该国将第二次举行总统普选。三名候选人将参加总统宝座角逐,印尼现总统苏西洛是最被看好的人选。

7月8日,印尼将举行总统大选,共有三名候选人角逐总统宝座:现任总统苏西洛、前总统梅加瓦蒂和副总统尤素福·卡拉等。在选战中,苏西洛一 再提及在自己5年任期内取得的经济成就,并保证说,将继续这一政策。"政府的工作重点是,第一保持经济强劲增长,在未来的数年里,我们必须至少使经济增长 率达到7%。第二点是,必须战胜贫困,而且是通过加强农业建设,加速乡村地区的发展,以及其他为本国居民制定的社会福利计划等。"

尽管全世界都受到金融和经济危机的影响,但印尼今年的经济增长率仍为3%至4% 。只是与去年6%的经济增长率相比明显降低。苏西洛却成功地打消了居民的种种顾虑和担忧,由其领导的民主党的得票率得以在今年4月举行的议会大选中提高三倍,民主党一举成为议会中第一大党。

另外,苏西洛在严打腐败斗争中的业绩有口皆碑,苏西洛因此享有极高的民众支持率。在过去数年中,该国许多政府高官都因涉嫌腐败行为而被拘捕,并受到起诉。当苏西洛儿子的岳父因受腐败指控而被逮捕时,苏西洛并没有介入此事,而只是强调了司法的独立性。

第二名总统候选人是现年62岁的印尼前总统梅加瓦蒂,她是印尼建国元勋苏加诺之女,直到今天,苏加诺依旧被许多居民视为与殖民主义作斗争中的英雄。 自梅加瓦蒂和其领导的民主斗争党在1999年的全国大选中获得极高的得票率以来,其民众支持率越来越低。梅加瓦蒂于2001年至2004年间担任总统,但 在该国举行的首次总统直选中败给了苏西洛。在选战中,梅加瓦蒂强调爱国主义和民族主义精神,尽可能与其父亲的大名联在一起。"印尼必须发展为一个强国,这 是印尼建国时制定的崇高目标。如今的许多年轻人经常忘记当年的自由斗士,忘记今天的自由生活是当年自由斗士们浴血奋战的结果,他们使我们国家获得解放。自 由万岁!"

第三名总统候选人是专业集团党领袖尤素福·卡拉,他是一位成功的商人,以行动果决而著称。现年67岁的尤素福·卡拉经常对印尼各部和机构提出批评, 在尤素福的眼中,这些行政机构的工作速度过于缓慢拖沓。在2004年的总统大选中,尤素福曾以苏西洛副手的身份参加。俩人原计划共同参加大选。然而,专业 集团党中的绝大多数不愿只满足于副总统的职位,要求推出自己的总统候选人。尤素福接受党内的要求,成为苏西洛的竞争对手。苏西洛经常因其在出台重大决定时 犹豫不决而受到人们的批评,所以尤素福·卡拉提出了"更快更好"的竞选口号。他在所有的电视辩论中都强调这一点。"苏西洛从梅加瓦蒂手中接管了国家政权。 如果我能从苏西洛手中同样接管国家政权的话,那么我将更快更好地解决所有选战期间 谈及的诸多问题。"

在选战期间,三位总统候选人的竞选纲领中都以经济为首要议题。但经济界和投资者们更相信苏西洛,相信他有能力解决经济问题。

所有民调结果显示,苏西洛将在大选中以明显优势胜出。只是问题在于,是否苏西洛能在首轮选举中赢得超过50%的必要多数。否则,印尼将在今年9月举行第二轮选举。

作者:Hendra Pasuhuk/祝红

责编:乐然

Rich people

Rich people

Poor you

Jul 6th 2009
From The Economist print edition

The world's rich are suffering too


THE wealth of the world’s richest people fell by almost a fifth last year to $33 trillion, according to the World Wealth Report from Merrill Lynch and Capgemini. A rich person is defined as having at least $1m of assets besides his main home, its contents and collectable items. The number of rich people shrank by 15% to 8.6m, or 0.1% of the world's population. Their wealth declined by more than 20% in North America, Europe and Asia, but by a bit less in Africa and the Middle East. Latin America’s rich were the least affected: they lost 6% of their wealth, and the number there fell by less than 1%. In North America, which had a large proportion of people just above the $1m threshold, the ranks slimmed by 19%.

Shutterstock

In Latest Upheaval, China Applies New Strategies to Control Flow of Information

In Latest Upheaval, China Applies New Strategies to Control Flow of Information


Published: July 7, 2009

BEIJING — In the wake of Sunday’s deadly riots in its western region of Xinjiang, China’s central government took all the usual steps to enshrine its version of events as received wisdom: it crippled Internet service; blocked Twitter’s micro-blogs; purged search engines of unapproved references to the violence; saturated the Chinese media with the state-sanctioned story.

It also took one most unusual step: Hours after troops quelled the protests, in which 156 people were reported killed, the state invited foreign journalists on an official trip to Urumqi, Xinjiang’s capital and the site of the unrest, “to know better about the riots.” Indeed, it set up a media center at a downtown hotel — with a hefty discount on rooms — to keep arriving reporters abreast of events.

It is a far cry from Beijing’s reaction 11 years ago to ethnic violence elsewhere in Xinjiang, when officials sealed off an entire city and refused to say what happened or how many people had died. And it reflects lessons learned from the military crackdown in Tibet 17 months ago. While foreign reporters were banned from Tibet, then and now, Chinese authorities rallied domestic support by blaming outside agitators, but were widely condemned overseas.

As the Internet and other media raise new challenges to China’s version of the truth, China is finding new ways not just to suppress bad news at the source, but also to spin whatever unflattering tidbits escape its control.

“They’re getting more sophisticated. They learn from past mistakes,” said Xiao Qiang, an adjunct professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who closely follows the Chinese government’s efforts to manage the flow of information.

Chinese experts clearly have studied the so-called color revolutions — in Georgia and Ukraine, and last month’s protests in Iran — for the ways that the Internet and mobile communication devices helped protesters organize and reach the outside world, and for ways that governments sought to counter them.

In Tibet, Chinese rallied behind the government’s assertion that violence there was an effort by the exiled Dalai Lama to break the nation apart. But China’s global image took a drubbing after Tibetan dissidents beamed images of violence to the outside world from cellphone cameras, and officials barred virtually all foreigners from entering the supposedly peaceful region.

Cellphone videos posted during the Tibet unrest led the government to block YouTube then, a tactic repeated in advance of the Tiananmen Square anniversary last month. YouTube remained blocked this week. Officials are systematically tearing down satellite dishes across the region, eliminating uncensored foreign television and radio broadcasts.

In Urumqi this week, the official response to one of the most violent riots in decades has taken two divergent paths. Internally, censors tightly controlled media coverage of the unrest and sought to disable the social networks that opponents might use to organize more demonstrations. Cellphone calls to Urumqi and nearby areas have largely been blocked. Twitter was shut down nationwide at midday Monday; a Chinese equivalent, Fanfou, was running, but Urumqi-related searches were blocked.

Chinese search engines no longer give replies for searches related to the violence. Results of a Google search on Monday for “Xinjiang rioting” turned up many links that had already been deleted on such well-trafficked Chinese Internet forums as Mop and Tianya.

State television has focused primarily, though not totally, on scenes of violence directed against China’s ethnic Han majority. Chinese news Web sites carry official accounts of the unrest, but readers are generally blocked from posting comments.

As in Tibet, blame for the violence has been aimed at outside agitators bent on splitting China — in this case, the World Uighur Congress, an exile group whose president, Rebiya Kadeer, is a Uighur businesswoman now living in Washington.

State news agency reports assert that Chinese authorities have intercepted telephone conversations linking Ms. Kadeer to the protests. The exile group has condemned the violence and denies any role in fomenting it.

On the surface, at least, the government’s approach to the outside world has been markedly different. By Monday morning, the State Council Information Office, the top-level government public-relations agency, had invited foreign journalists to Urumqi to report firsthand on the riots.

Scores of arriving journalists were escorted by bus to a downtown hotel, where they were offered a two-page summary that blamed the riots on Uighur separatists led by Ms. Kadeer. Officials gave photographers compact discs filled with bloody images, videos and television “screen grabs” from the riot.

The government-prepared package recalled a similar set of images, distributed widely during the 2008 disturbances in Tibet, that stoked widespread anger among ordinary Chinese against the Tibetan protesters.

Journalists were invited Tuesday morning on a government-escorted tour of one of the Uighur neighborhoods hit hardest by the violence. But they were explicitly barred from conducting any interviews without government minders present, and television journalists who sought to wander on their own were reported to have been stopped by police or paramilitary officers who demanded that they turn over their film.

Western governments and major organizations regularly woo the press with similar setups — although without the tight restrictions — and the Urumqi junket clearly lifted a page from the news management strategies of experts ranging from the White House to the National Rifle Association.

On Tuesday, the Chinese got an unpleasant taste of the strategy’s limits, when Uighur protesters invaded a press tour of one burned-out neighborhood to demand the release of friends and family members seized by police.

Even so, Mr. Xiao of Berkeley said, the Chinese appear to have decided that it is better to give the world a supervised peek at the nation’s problems — Uighur gate-crashing included — than to remain silent and let Beijing’s critics set the news agenda.

The government “has revealed what they learned from handling the Tibet situation,” he said. “For Twitter or the Internet, when they see too many factors they cannot completely control, they shut down and block. But for foreign journalists, they feel that as long as they can keep those people under control, it may serve better the government’s purpose.”

Edward Wong contributed from Urumqi, China and Jonathan Ansfield from Beijing.

2009年7月6日 星期一

China Journal Wrap: Xinjiang Riots, Domestic Firms Invest in Dairy


时事风云
乌鲁木齐骚乱中死亡人数已经上升至140人
据中国官方新华社报道,周日夜间发生在新疆乌鲁木齐的骚乱中死亡人数已经上升至140人。中国政府将这起事件定性为"打砸抢烧严重暴力犯罪事件",并指责"世界维吾尔人代表大会"从中煽动。"世界维吾尔人代表大会"反驳了这种说法,表示是中国政府对维吾尔人和平自发的抗议采取了军事行动。另据通讯社报道,周一,新疆西北喀什地区约300人在一座清真寺前举行了抗议活动,被警方包围。
[更多]
^^^
世界维吾尔大会回应北京指责
上周日新疆乌鲁木齐发生大规模骚乱事件。据中国官方通讯社新华社报道,骚乱已造成140人死亡,828人受伤。中国官方将这一事件定义为由海外世界维吾尔大会组织,境内实施的"打砸抢烧严重暴力犯罪事件"。世界维吾尔大会回应北京方面的这种指责没有任何事实根据。
[更多]



德国对新疆骚乱作出反应
中国新疆乌鲁木齐周日发生严重骚乱,导致至少140人死亡。联合国秘书长潘基文呼吁和平解决冲突。德国政界也纷纷呼吁中国政府尽快澄清事件真相,按照法治国家的原则采取行动。德国专家指出,中国政府的少数民族政策应受到重新审视。
[更





WSJ 的中國簡訊
July 6, 2009, 7:35 AM ET

China Journal Wrap: Xinjiang Riots, Domestic Firms Invest in Dairy



At least 140 people are dead and hundreds more were injured in violent protests in the northwest Chinese city of Urumqi, the capital of China’s predominantly Muslim Xinjiang autonomous region.

紐約時報

China Locks Down Restive Region After Deadly Clashes

David Gray/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Chinese soldiers patrolling the streets of Urumqi Monday. More Photos >


Published: July 6, 2009

URUMQI, China — The Chinese government locked down this regional capital of 2.3 million people and other cities across its western desert region on Monday and early Tuesday, imposing curfews, cutting off cellphone and Internet services and sending armed police officers into neighborhoods after clashes erupted here on Sunday evening between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese. The fighting left at least 156 people dead and 852 injured, according to the state news agency.

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It was the deadliest incident of ethnic violence in China in decades. The bloodshed here, along with the Tibetan uprising last year, shows the extent of racial hostility that still pervades much of western China, fueled partly by government attempts to restrict religious and political activity by minority groups.

The riot, which began as a peaceful protest calling for a full government inquiry into an earlier brawl between Uighurs and Han Chinese at a factory in southern China, took place in the heart of Xinjiang, an oil-rich desert region where Uighurs are the largest ethnic group but are ruled by the Han.

Protests spread on Monday to the heavily guarded oasis town of Kashgar, on China’s remote western border, as 200 to 300 people chanting “God is great” and “Release the people” confronted riot police officers at about 5:30 p.m. in front of that city’s yellow-walled Id Kah Mosque, the largest in China. They quickly dispersed when officers began arresting people, said one resident.

Internet social platforms and chat programs appeared to have unified Uighurs in anger over the way Chinese officials had handled the earlier brawl, which took place in late June thousands of miles away in Shaoguan, Guangdong Province. There, Han workers rampaged through a Uighur dormitory, killing at least two Uighurs and injuring many others, according to Xinhua. The police later arrested a resentful former factory worker who had ignited the brawl by spreading a rumor that six Uighur men had raped two Han women at the site, the official Xinhua new agency reported.

But photographs that appeared on the Internet after the battle showed people standing around a pile of corpses, leading many Uighurs to believe that the government was downplaying the number of Uighur deaths. One Uighur student said the photographs began showing up on many Web sites about one week ago. Government censors kept trying to delete them, but to no avail, he said.

“Uighurs posted it again and again in order to let more people know the truth, because how painful is it that the government does bald-faced injustice to Uighur people?” said the student, who did not want his name published for fear of government retribution.

A call for protests spread via Web sites and QQ, the most popular instant-messaging program in China, despite government efforts to block online discussion of the incident.

By Monday evening, the police had detained 700 suspects, according to Xinhua. More than 200 shops and 14 homes had been destroyed in Urumqi, and 261 motor vehicles, mostly buses, had been burned, Xinhua reported, citing Liu Yaohua, the regional police chief.

Police officers operated checkpoints on roads leading in and out of Urumqi on Monday. The major hotels said they had no Internet access. Most people in the city could not use their cell phones.

At the airport, five scrawny young men wearing black bulletproof vests and helmets stood outside the terminal, batons in hand. The roadways leading into the city center were empty early Tuesday, except for parked squad cars and clusters of armored personnel carriers and olive military trucks brimming with paramilitary troops. An all-night curfew had been imposed.

Residents described the central bazaar in the Uighur enclave, where much of the rioting took place, as littered with the charred hulks of buses and cars.

An American teacher in Urumqi, Adam Grode, and one other foreigner said they heard gunfire long after nightfall on Sunday.

Xinhua did not provide a breakdown of the 156 deaths, and it remained unclear how many of the dead were protestors and how many were other civilians or police officers. There were no independent estimates of the number of the death toll. At least 1,000 people were described as having taken part in the unrest.

Photographs on the Internet and footage on state television showed people lying injured in the streets, not far from overturned cars or vehicles that had been set ablaze. Government officials handed journalists in Urumqi a CD with a video showing bodies strewn in ones or twos in the streets, many with faces and heads smeared in blood.

The officials also released a statement that laid the blame directly on Rebiya Kadeer, a Uighur businesswoman and human rights advocate who had been imprisoned in China and now lives in Washington. It said the World Uyghur Congress, a group led by “the splittist” Ms. Kadeer, “directly ignited, plotted and directed the violence using the Shaoguan incident in Guangdong.” The statement said bloggers first began calling for the protest on Saturday night, and used QQ, bulletin boards and blogs to organize a rally at People’s Square and South Gate in the Uighur quarter of Urumqi. The World Uyghur Congress rejected the accusations and said that it condemned “in the strongest possible terms the brutal crackdown of a peaceful protest of young Uyghurs.” The group said in a statement Monday that Uighurs had been subject to reprisals not only from Chinese security forces but also from Han Chinese civilians who attacked homes, workplaces or dormitories after the riots on Monday.

The violence on Sunday dwarfed in scale a series of assaults on security forces last year in Xinjiang. It was deadlier, too, than any of the bombings, riots and protests that swept through the region in the 1990s and that led to a severe government clampdown.

Uighurs make up about half of the 20 million people in Xinjiang, but are a minority in Urumqi, where Han Chinese dominate. The Chinese government has encouraged Han migration to many parts of Xinjiang, and Uighurs say Han tend to get the best jobs in the city. The government also maintains tight control on the practice of Islam, which many Uighurs cite as a source of frustration.

But an ethnic Han woman who lives in an apartment near the central bazaar said in a telephone interview that the government should show no sympathy toward the malcontents.

“What they should do is crack down with a lot of force at first, so the situation doesn’t get worse, so it doesn’t drag out like in Tibet,” she said after insisting that her name not be used. “Their mind is very simple. If you crack down on one, you’ll scare all of them. The government should come down harder.”

ENDIT

Michael Wines contributed reporting from Beijing. Huang Yuanxi, Xiyun Yang and Jonathan Ansfield contributed research in Beijing.



Chinese dairy giant Mengniu is selling a 20% stake for around $780 million to Cofco, a state-owned food company, and Hopu Investment Management Co., a domestic private equity firm.

Three Shanghai companies formally ushered in a new era for the yuan by using the Chinese currency to conduct cross-border trades for the first time.

Ford (F) said Monday its sales in China for the first half of 2009 were up 14% from a year earlier, while Audi reported an 11% increase in its China sales during the same period.

China’s sovereign wealth fund has appointed an international advisory board of 14 experts to provide guidance on its overseas investments. The board met on Sunday, two days after China Investment Corp. announced a $1.5 billion investment in a Canadian mining company, its first foray into natural resources.

David Dollar, who was until recently the World Bank’s China country director, reflects on his key takeaways about China’s development after five years on the job. Dollar will remain in China in a new post as the U.S. Treasury Department’s economic emissary.

By 2050, a third of China’s population will be over the age of 60, representing a major demographic shift that will stress government resources and long-term economic growth.

Six officials have reportedly been punished for their involvement in sending babies whose parents were alive to an orphanage in southern China that subsequently placed the children up for adoption overseas.

Massive flooding in southern and central China has forced the evacuation of more than 320,000 people from their homes.

–Sky Canaves