Inside China Today

Inside China Today – Thursday 5th November

- Prosecution changes indictment during trial

- Health department bans H1N1 diagnosis after heavy outbreak

- Millions affected by continued drought in southern China

- Chemical pollution destroying lives in Hubei

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Prosecution changes indictment during trial

Six months ago, Xu Shujie, a Falun Gong practitioner from Heilongjiang Province, went to the city of Zhuhai in Guangdong with her husband Yin Xuzhen, to visit their eldest daughter Yin Qi. All three of them were abducted from Yin Qi’s home. Members of the National Security Bureau of Zhuhai then ransacked her home. Their trial was held on October 20th at a local court, three attorneys defended them. During the trial, the prosecution modified the indictment twice.

During the trial, defense attorneys Yin Xunzhen, Han Qingfang, questioned the actual arrest date written in the indictment which literally stated the offence took place on ‘a certain day of a certain month of a certain year’, with no actual, real date. The defense attorney argued the prosecution should withdraw the case. Attorney Han said (recording): “The indictment says the arrest was made on x year x month x day, without the actual date. They took it back and changed it, and submitted it again. According to procedural rules, the case should have been withdrawn by the prosecution.”

Yin Xunzhen’s youngest daughter told the court, the accusations against her mother and sister are not backed by evidence. The authorities instead used her father to testify against them.

The youngest daughter said (recording) “The evidence they used had more holes in it than Swiss cheese, the indictment was modified twice, and court went into recess twice because of that. The only eye witness was found during a subsequent investigation following the first. The witness never came to court, and wasn’t identified. The defense concluded the so called eye witness did not exist; the prosecution couldn’t refute this claim. When they started the case, they cheated my father, telling him his wife and daughter had confessed, and upon hearing this, my father said they didn’t do anything, and said I had done it. That’s it, that’s what happened.”

Zhang Chuanli, an attorney from Beijing, was the defense lawyer of Yin Qi, the eldest daughter. He said he saw Yin Qi in the detention center and found out she was being tortured. Zhang said there is no evidence to indict her and she didn’t violate the law.

Zhang told SOH (recording): “The torture method is called ‘driving a train’; they connect the hands with the feet so the person is bent and can’t stand straight. The crooked person has to then move, like a train. Yin Qi says she had difficulty eating, undressing, and going to bathroom during the ten days she was tortured. When the police were interrogating her, they pinched her neck, this is what she said in court. They should have launched an investigation to verify if my client was tortured for confessions. We asked this question, but the court didn’t respond.”

According to a Minghui.net report, Yin Xunzhen, Xu Shujie went to Zhuhai of Guangzhou to visit their daughter Yin Qi. On the night of April 10, 2009, local National Security police went to their house in plain cloth, abducted them and ransacked the house. Yin Qi’s three year old daughter was also present when all these took place. The police searched and interrogated them for a whole night, and arrested all three of them in the wee hours of next morning. They also took personal items such as PCs and other things.

Daniel Teng; Li Yifei; and Yu Lian of the SOH Radio Network.

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Health department bans H1N1 diagnosis after heavy outbreak

There has been a nationwide break out of the type A H1N1 influenza in China. There are continuous internet reports from different areas announcing the spreading in primary schools. Facing this severe situation, China’s mainland health department has ordered not to investigate nor make any definite diagnosis of the flu.

On November 1st, staff from the Tianjin Children’s Hospital revealed that the type A flu was breaking out in Tianjian University, High Schools and Primary Schools. The Primary school students cases are notably much more severe. The Children’s Hospital receives thousands of children with high temperatures; furthermore, higher authorities are instructing the hospital to not examine the flu.

(Recording): No diagnosis. The authorities have instructed to report it as acute throat inflammation for medical testing. If the region breaks out with the flu again, they will make up a few more stories. (Which authorities?) That is the health department, and it is also coming from above. They cannot make it all up. Making it up is very expensive, and 80 to 90% of the children coming to the Hospital every day are in fever.

The staff suggested that the sick children seek treatment nearby as the hospital will not diagnose the H1N1 flu.

(Recording): After this shift is done there is another shift. There were 30 cases in the first day, and 8 went back to school the next day. There are many like that. (Is it mainly primary or secondary?) Both, even University students. Many patients in the Children hospital, came and waited. Apparently the chance of cross infection is high, and last week we were very nervous as the waiting time was very long.

Another staff: Our outpatients are about several thousand a day, and they definitely need to queue up.

The students’ parents chose not to inject the type A flue vaccine because they believe the quality is unreliable.

(Recording): A parent asked another parent; “It is free, why don’t you have the vaccine?” To which they replied; “The free vaccine is not a good thing. In any event, we will die even without the vaccine. The children that did not vaccinate, do not have fever, the children the with vaccine have the fever.”

Parents are scared of taking there primary Students to the hospital due to the risk of the quickly spreading flu. The type A flu is spreading very fast and extensively, after a primary student outbreak in Xuanwu district in Beijing, a relative’s visit had spread the flu to Shandong hometown upon her return.

(Recording): My wife’s sister was in Shenyang and her nephew was infected. She then went back to Shandong, and infected her daughter. She was in fever, transfered fluids, coughed, cried, and was feeling very ill.

Parents believe that the non diagnosis of the H1N1 virus will increase the cases of infection. There will be no isolation, and no guarding against a cross infection.

Chris Thomas; and Tian Qi of the SOH Radio Network.

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Chemical pollution destroying lives in Hubei

Four chemical factories in China’s mid-east Hubei Province have been poisoning the surrounding villages for over a decade. Residents from Ganghe Shuanglong Village say four factories dump their waste into a nearby river. They also emit a horrible stench all year round. No crops will grow in the area and the residents suffer from severe ailments which they claim is a result of the environmental pollution. For years they have appealed to the authorities in vain.

Villagers identified four local chemical factories as the offenders. They are Zhongchu, Lantian, Hongyang, and Yinhe. These factories produce all kinds of chemical products and output waste into the Tongshun River. Nothing grows along that river. A resident said the water in the river is so toxic it causes skin to blister on contact.

Mr. Huang, a villager, told SOH, “The pollution is severe and has been going on for over a decade. I’ll bet it is number one in the country. Four [people] have been diagnosed with cancer. Each nearby villager suffers from nausea, dizziness and aches. The farm land does not yield any crop. As soon as you get into the water, blisters break out on your feet. How can the water be drinkable?”

Mr. Huang added that local official’s side with the factories. “There are many disputes but no evaluation from the Environmental Bureau. The head of the village phoned the Bureau and they said that they would deal with it. That was the year before last but it is not yet dealt with. What procrastination!”

A manager at the local Environmental Bureau told SOH, “We follow the laws for sure. But the law does not give us the right to shut down the production whenever.”
Another villager Mr. Dai said, “It is air and water pollution. The smell is terrible. Of course there is impact. Nearby trees have withered. Even fish can hardly survive in that river… We insist that they move. We have a thousand villagers. If they do not move, we will all appeal.”

Two families of farmers who lived outside the factory walls had died of illness. At present a few more cases of cancer and deformed babies were discovered among nearby residents.

Caden Pearson; Wen Fang; and Yu Yin of the SOH Radio Network.

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Millions affected by continued drought in southern China

Since the beginning of autumn, numerous regions in southern China have been affected by severe drought conditions. As a result, many rivers and reservoirs are experiencing their lowest water-levels in years. A large number of reservoirs are nearly depleted with local farmlands unable to access enough water for irrigation.

Since October this year, the water-level of the Xiang River in Hunan Province has dropped to its lowest level in history. According to the Xiang River Hydrometric Station, on October 6th, the water-level dropped four times to 24.95 meters, experts are predicting that the water-level will continue to drop in the near future. Over 1 million local residents will have difficulties accessing drinking water for the foreseeable future.

On September 16th the drought indicator showed that 87 counties and cities over the entire province are suffering severe drought conditions. Currently, 1.04 million acres of agricultural crops in fourteen cities are affected. Over 110 thousand acres of farmland will not produce any harvest this year. At least 1120 reservoirs, 380 thousand ponds and over 2100 rivers and creeks are depleted.

In nearby Guangdong province, average rain levels have decreased by over 14% this year. According to statistics from the Flood Control and Drought Relief Headquarters, the affected farmland has increased from 139 thousand acres estimated on October 14th to the present 300 thousand acres, with the number of local population who are experiencing drinking water shortage also increasing to 230 thousand during this time.

In Anhui province, virtually no rain has fallen since September. According to local weather forecasts, the dry weather is set to continue for the following weeks. Local soil tests have shown that soil dehydration in the province has continued to escalate.

In the southern regions of Fujian Province, the dry season came during mid- August. As of October 20th, 5.85 million acres of farmland are experiencing severe drought, with over one million people affected, over 30 main reservoirs are also depleted.

At this current point in time, as much as 1.5 million acres of land across multiple provinces in southern China are affected by the drought. In addition, over 1.3 million people and hundreds of thousands of livestock cannot access enough drinking water.

Perry Luo of the SOH Radio Network

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