Blogs

(Editor note: This article is written by Tengbiao, a human rights lawyer in Beijing. The original Chinese article can be found in the writer's own blog. )

Village officials sold village land without disclosing records and accounting details, resulting in vigorous campaign among the villagers. With the help from the lawyers, journalists, and scholars, villages go against and denounce the officials. In 2005, the Taishi incident in Panyu, Guangdong, became one of the famous cases of the Chinese Civil Rights Movement. Ai Xiaoming’s documentary, "Taishi" recorded the event. Lawyers were beaten, villagers were arrested, and the whole village was enveloped in an atmosphere of terror. The last scene of the documentary showed filmmaker being beaten in containment by a group of unidentified gangs. In horror, with her car door broken, she called for help. The producer then added the following subtitle: "During the shooting process, I found that many agencies have video cameras, I think the villagers should have a video camera of their own.”

On 25th of July, a “Support Cantonese Crowd Action” has taken place in in Guangzhou Jiangnanxi subway. Although it was officially classified as “unlawful assembly” and "Ying Ye", the 18-year-old founder, was brought to “drink tea” (by the Mainland police) twice, it did not prevent the Guangzhou people from supporting Cantonese. There were more than 2000 participants joined that action.

(Editor: Citizens Radio has been sued by Hong Kong government as an “illegal-licensed ” radio station. The writer of this article has been a volunteer at the illegal citizen radio and helped broadcasting the June 4 candle night vigil for the past 5 years. This year, the writer found that Hong Kong not only has “One Country Two System”, but also has “One Frequency Three Channels”. The Citizens Radio was intervened by some “third-party forces” during vigil. Writer worried this might be instructed by the Chinese government as one of the channel is a mainland one. The article recorded what happened in that evening.)

“As before, I was a helper of Citizens Radio during June 4 Anniversary. Citizens Radio aims at the opening of airwaves and has insisted for 5 years. This year, many web-radios formed a web-radio union and broadcasted the event with us lively.

On May 28th, under mounting pressure from labor rights group and concerned scholars around the world, the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) Board of Directors expressed that they were saddened about the loss of life at Foxconn. The 8-member EICC Board, consisting of representatives from IBM, Dell, Jabil, STMicroelectronics, Cisco, Intel, Flextronics, and HP, has established a task force to study factors affecting employee health and welfare in their own facilities as well as in their suppliers in the global supply chains.

USAS – United Students Against Sweatshops

Stand with Chinese workers making Apple iPhones

(created on 14 June 2010; ACTIVE – in English)

http://www.unionvoice.org/campaign/apple_suicides/

Blindfolded for 22 years, it is time to lift the shroud of pseudo-democracy.

22 years ago, in December 1988, the public consultation of the draft for Basic Law came to an end. It was a historical moment of political awakening for Hong Kong citizens. Indifferent to the 60,000+ proposals submitted by Hong Kong people (see note), Beijing was adamant on adopting the conservative package going against popular opinion at that time. This decision triggered two historic social actions: burning of the Basic Law draft and initiation of a hunger strike in protest. This was a critical moment for Hong Kong citizens to safeguard the ideals of “Self-Governance, High degree of Autonomy”, to tear away the façade of delusions and deceptions. The criticism received by the conservative package then: “An undemocratic beginning; taking leaden steps along the way; but with no end in sight” is unfortunately still applicable to the current political reform package. This statement has foreshadowed our painful struggle for democracy over the past 22 years.

Translator's note: The following article is written by Beida Professor Hu Yong in Southern Metropolis Daily 2010-06-01.

Abstract: China's emerging media market analyst Sage Brennan said, "With the popularity of blog and online game, it is easy to overlook the fact that the BBS network is the real active centre of China’s internet culture. For various reasons, BBS network continues to grow with increasing dynamic. Many network companies, University campus, and even a large number individuals, have already established their BBS community. "

(Editor Note: The excerpt below is from an article published in inmediahk.net (in Chinese) about the struggle for free speech space in Macau. On the one hand, professional media worker are calling for reform of the mainstream media, such as the Teledifusao de Macau S.A (TDM) - a Public broadcast service funded 100% by the Macau government but with no public accountability. In fact, the mainstream media, TV as well as newspapers, in Macau have suffered from serious self-censorship because of government funding and "harmonious political environment. The call for reform is an attempt to increase public accountability in conventional media. However, the writer of this article is not confident about the reform, as the Macau government continues to impose stricter control over the old and new media. The most recent move is the government's plan to amend the "Publishing Law" and the "Audio-Visual Broadcasting Act". Many believe that the government's move is to impose censorship on the Internet, the most influential public sphere in Macau.)

On this day, June 8th, we wish the whole world to remember the Foxconn suicides, and we extend our deepest condolences to the victims’ families and friends. We feel very saddened that public comments from Taiwanese billionaire Terry Gou, CEO of the 800,000-strong Foxconn “electronics kingdom”, show a tendency to dismiss the suicides of his young employees without considering the contribution of the high-pressure work environment to this phenomenon.

[SACOM Statement] 4 June 2010, Hong Kong

Apple’s Image is Based on Exploitation

Yan Li, 27, is the latest victim of Foxconn, the manufacturer of iPads and other high-tech items that has experienced a recent rash of worker suicides. He collapsed and died from exhaustion on 27 May after having worked continuously for 34 hours. His wife said Yan had been on the night shift for a month and in that time had worked overtime every night. Yan, an engineer, had worked for Foxconn since April 2007. The tragedy marks the 11th death at the corporation since January this year. To pay respect to these young lives, Students & Scholars Against Corporate Misbehavior (SACOM) designates 8 June 2010 as the Global Day of Remembrance for Foxconn’s Victims.