“Princeling” Boxilai rumored to be heading to Guangdong

According to Boxun.com, Bo Xilai who is the son of Bo Yibo, former Liaoning Party Boss, and now current Minister of Commerce, he is going to take over the reigns in Guangdong Province and serve as the Provincial Party Secretary. This would give him a highly coveted seat on the Politburo.

This goes against most speculation that says Beijing City Official Wang Qishan would be taking this post.

If this turns out to be true, it would be the second newly appointed high official that does not have a Communist Youth Party background, signaling that while Hu Jintao’s power is growing, he does not yet have the support to put his people in high-places or fill important seats on the Politburo. While Hu has been working to weed out the influence of Jiang’s Shanghai Gang， there has been strong resistance and “princelings” Xi Jinping and Boxilai could been seen as compromises. Another factor impeding Hu’s power is that most of his Communist Youth Party cadres are from the poorer interior provinces， and thus lack the kind of skills needed to manage the dynamic, international based economies of the coastal provinces.

Of course, Hu Jintao still has a number of opportunities to put his own people in， as many on the Politburo are near the mandated retirement age or are sick and out of capacity (Huangju).

薄熙来接替张德江 任广东省委书记
(博讯2007年3月28日 来稿 – 支持此文作者/记者)
中共十七大召开前夕,人事变动再次受到关注,继上海后,广东省省委书记一职也备受关注。外电传出有北京党内人士透露，张德江将调上中央,而前中共已故元老 薄一波儿子，国家商务部部长薄熙来将接替张德江，任广东省委书记一职。这意味着薄熙来将进入中共领导核心的政治局，可能是第五代领导人的重要人选。

And for kicks this is hot off the rumor mill at Observe China.

17大常委七人名单

中国信息中心 北京小道消息称，两会之前确定的17大常委七人名单如下：胡锦涛、吴邦国、温家宝、曾庆红、刘延东、周永康、李克强。这个名单主要是胡锦涛与江泽民商议，在确定留下的四常委之后，江泽民同意刘延东，提名周永康，剩下一名由胡定，胡最后确定李克强。

常委7人名单只是暂时的平衡物，中共的事情，不到最后一步，都存在极大的变数，就像16大，临开会了还没决定常委是7人还是9人，最后的记者会上，江泽民才决定出台9个人。17大权力平衡到最后，不是没有保持9人的可能。

Interview with China’s most incredible holdout

This is a follow up on my previous posts with regards to “China’s most incredible holdout”, where a housing dispute led to the developer digging a moat around someone’s house who refused to move. This post is the translation of an interview with the owner of this “nailhouse” on an island, 40 year old Mrs. Wuping.

According to the interview, all Mrs. Wuping wanted was a space of comparable footage in the new building but the developer just wanted to give her a small sum of money. The local press was also forbidden to report on the story and the developer worked with the local government and courts to coerce Mrs. Wuping.

In this long interview you get an inside look into the local politics of relocation and the kind of difficulties people face if they chose to fight the developer.

You can also watch a CCTV legal society TV program which includes interviews with the developer and Mrs. Wuping and a number of Chongqing residents. Link to video HERE.

Translated from Chinese, original can be found here.
Another interview from a Beijing newpaper 新京报 here

On March 21st China.net reported that “China’s Most Incredible Holdout” which caused a huge stir on the Internet will soon disappear. Yesterday Chongqing Jiulong Hill District court held a hearing and ruled that the owner of the property (the holdout) has until the 22nd to tear down the building. Chongqing Court decides “Histories most incredible holdout” must relocate in three days became one of today’s hot topics on web forums throughout china. The following is the transcript of a telephone interview with the household’s owner, Mrs. Wuping

Facing the notification: I don’t have the power to appeal

Host: We saw the Chongqing courts decision on the Internet, can you explain to us in simple terms what the situation is?

Wuping: Among the residents moving, I am the largest private property owner, furthermore you can basically say I am the only one who has complete papers, such as a property rights land right certificates, they both clearly indicated that it is a building zoned for business. At that time I had just finished renovations, and they (the developer) said they had to tear everything down and people had to be relocated, as a result this was really damaging for us. According to my property right certificate, I am clearly in ownership of 219 square meters, so for this use it should be returned to me.

Born in the 80′s: A Chinese Sex Documentary

This is a fairly open and controversial documentary about Sex and the generation of Chinese who were born in the 1980′s. Titled 冰度80年代荷尔蒙 in Chinese. Everything is discussed from their first time, threesomes, whatever you name it is on here. Even though this is on YouTube, its actually on most of the Chinese video sharing sites, and has hundreds and thousands of comments. Sorry, its only in Chinese and there are no English subtitles. But if you understand Chinese its worth checking out.  This is a preview but if you follow the links on YouTube you can watch the whole movie.

Store-owner, in search for justice posts wanted posters of student-thief

This is what happens when you lose trust in the police. Notice how the article mentions no involvement of the authorities to solve this matter. Although even in a western country they would not be able to do much.

Story (in Chinese) can be read here on Sohu.

Young Girl Caught Stealing Cosmetic Products Videotaped, Store Owner Posts Wanted Posters All Over the City

 

photo from China.com

A long haired girl with student appearance on Normal University Street stole cosmetic products from a store and was unexpectedly videotaped. In order to make the thief turn themselves in, yesterday the store-owner on Student Street, Fujian Normal University and a few other close-by university campus’ posted huge wanted posters. “Thief Accusation Notice” was written angrily on the cover. The store owner hopes that when the girl who stole the products see’s this she will admit her mistakes and return everything, or else he will make 500 copies of the unblurred pictures and make them known to the public.

Yesterday the reporter went to the store in which the products were stolen from. The store-owner presented the security video tape which depicts the entire process of the girl’s theft.

The time of the recording was 3/11/07 10:49 am, a long-haired girl wearing glasses, a blue windbreaker, and carrying a white shoulder bag walked around the store once and then stopped in front of a counter. The saleswoman thus came forward and started to introduce the products. When the saleswomen left, the girl put a bottle of sunblock back onto the counter and then took another bottle, after glancing around a few times she opened up her jacket and put the suntan lotion inside, once completed she then took another bottle and held it in her hands. When the saleswoman walked back, the girl put the bottle in her hands back on the counter. With two bottles pressed up under her armpits, the girl walked around a few times and calmly left the store.

The same afternoon a storeworker realized they were missing a bottle of sun-tan lotion, after double checking the sales records the storeowner was notified. The storeowned then immediately checked the security tapes of that day and was able to find out what actually happened.

The salesperson from the store said the girl was gentle and quiet, looked as if she was a university student, if they didn’t see the tapes, you wouldn’t suspect she was a thief at all.

If she doesn’t turn herself in, he will publish photo’s depicting her identity.

After watching the video tape, the store-owner immediately wrote the “Thief Accusation Notice” with video-stills from the tape pasted on front depicting the entire stealing process. Yesterday afternoon, the store-owner made seven 60cm x 100cm color copies and then pasted them at the store entrance, student street intersection, normal university and a few other nearby schools caught the eye’s of many, who stopped to read the posters as they walked by.

The store owner taking into consideration the girls future and reputation, also blurred out the face of the girl. The store-owner also said that he hopes the girl will quickly contact him, or else on the 1st of next month he will paste 500 copies of her real picture, clearly depicting her identity at the Cang Mountain campus and other public places.

According to sources, up until 10pm last night, the girl still hadn’t gotten into contact with the storeowner.

China’s Most Incredible Holdout

The following is a news article translated from Southern Metropolis Daily. This is about a building site in Chongqing that has brought about suspicion on the web forums in China.

钉子户 ＝ literally means “a slug house” but it means someone who refuses to move out from their house. I have translated it as a “holdout,” there might be a better translation but its all I could think of.

The original can be found here.

More pictures here

打更匠:这是售楼部吧
This must be the sales office building

mertin:可能是文物⋯⋯
It might be some sort of historical relic

yanlimm:这要练习攀岩啊？
Maybe people are practicing rock climbing here？

硬是:不知道这楼将来怎么盖，很考验施工技术啊
How are they going to build this building? This is a true test of construction technology

普通朋友:人家把周围挖了是要建护城河的
They excavated the surroundings to build a moat!

At the beginning of this month, a post titled “history’s most incredible holdout” started circulating on a famous BBS, the content of the post is a picture of a 10 meter deep pit dug around a solitary small two story building, just like a small boat in the middle of the ocean.

Netizens were all shook, either crazily praising “the most incredible holdout” or puzzled as to how anyone would live in there, and how would the building be developed. With regards to the source of the picture, the opinions of the netizens vary. Some people mistook this for last year’s “Most incredible holdout of Shanghai.” Both buildings do have resemblance. Some people also said this is from Chongqing, as they had passed through there in the past few days.

This reporter thus initiated investigation and interview

The isolated island on the side of the light rail

This reporter discovered, the picture first appeared on the internet on the 26th of February. At that time it was clearly written as: “Chongqing City JiuLong Hill District Yangjiaping Pedestrian Street. Author stood on Yangjiaping light rail station and took this picture.” Its possible because of the relative obscurity of the original BBS, and its wide circulation on the web that the original explanation was lost.

Local residents of Chongqing explained that this building is quite famous, alot of people in Chongqing have seen it. If you ride the light rail and pass through Yangjiaping station you are able to see a peculiar landscape: in the middle of a construction site stands a solitary small two story building, the surrounding soil has all been excavated, just like it was built on an isolated island. A chongqing resident then took a picture and named it “China’s most incredible holdout.”

Contractor Temporary Residence? Household resisting eminent domain?

One netizen said this wasn’t a holdout at all, it was actually the contractor’s temporary residence, there were also other netizens who supported this position.

After verification, this was determined as Chongqing city’s “Broadway” real estate construction site currently being put up in the residential quarter. A saleswoman who works for Weilian Real Estate Sales Company stated that the “Broadway” project is already in its second stage, the first stage has already completely been sold, and the small building is a holdout unwilling to relocate. The second phase is currently excavating the foundation; the circumstances are just like what you can see in the picture. For more information I was told to inquire with the developer, but I was unable to get through to their telephone.

Nobody is living in there now.

One netizen revealed, this house used to belong to the Yangjiaping Housing Management Office, according to theory, it’s a state-owned house, but for historical reasons it was rented out to a private leaser. The leaser wanted 200,000,000RMB from the developer or else he wouldn’t move. His family had some background and connections, so the developer didn’t dare take action. As a result this “wonder” was created.

Nevertheless, this netizen’s statement has not been verified. During an interview， Yangjiaping Housing Management Office’s Vice-Secretary Liu Ling indicated the situation was unclear. Furthermore, a worker on duty stated this building is a holdout who has stayed behind.

What the netizens are most interested in is if anyone is living in this building. If there is someone, how do they get in and out? An editor of the Chongqing Morning Report who everyday on his way to work passes through the area said that the building is deserted, there’s no furniture or he hasn’t seen anyone inside, and dug out like this its impossible for anyone to get in.

in pursuit of education…

In China everyone wants to send their kids to College. In Yantai city, which is on the coast of Shandong, more than 20,000 students lined up to attend a College Recruiting Fair. Over 240 police officers were needed to help control the crowd. The sad thing is for those who even managed to get inside and sign up for some school, after graduation they still have to fight for a job. In one case 600 college graduates were competing for 5 toll booth operator positions.

link to article in Chinese