Inside China Today

Inside China Today – Sunday 17th January

Students in quarantine at Heilongjiang University.

- Cyber attacks on Google rouse response from Chinese people
- Revelations of emergency meeting on H1N1
- Dodgy new homes force Sichuan survivors into tents

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Cyber attacks on Google rouse response from Chinese people

The world’s largest online search engine Google recently revealed severe cyber attacks on the company and its G-mail users, many of whom are human rights advocates. On January 12th, Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer David Drummond published an official blog, which stated: “We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn…”, and considered the possibilities of pulling out of China altogether.

David Drummond revealed, “accounts of dozens of U.S.-, China- and Europe-based G-mail users who are advocates of human rights in China appear to have been routinely accessed by third parties.”
He said these attacks have been highly sophisticated and targeted, and that Google is now reviewing the feasibility of its operations in
China.

Hubei resident, Mr Wang said in an interview with SOH (recording):
“This is something worth celebrating. If all websites and organizations dare do stand up as Google has done, it would be a great shock to the Chinese Communists. If every website would be bold enough to speak the truth and refuse to compromise, it would be a heavy blow to them. The Chinese Communist Party was built on a foundation of violence and lies. If the lies no longer have effect, and our people learn the evil nature of the regime, we can cut our ties with the CCP.”

Hebei resident, Ms Wang said the CCP was afraid the people of
China would learn the truth and facts. Their cyber attacks have however offended the Google company. She said (recording):
“As Chinese people, we live in an environment filled with spies, because the CCP is very strict on censoring information, and they have tight control over news in China. Chinese people cannot see the truth of the situation. A media company like Google which dares to speak out, is something the CCP is scared of. They fear the awakening of Chinese people.”

Chinese journalist Shi Tao was sentenced to ten years in prison, when in 2005 he sent a government document through Yahoo’s email service to a foreign domain. A democratic activist from Guizhou, who wished to remain anonymous, said Google was a company of high credibility, and its G-mail service is used by some democratic and human rights advocates.

He said (recording):
“Many of our friends who seek democracy know not to use the email services in mainland China that are monitored. I have not heard of any information leaked from Gmail. The company Yahoo exposed Shi Tao’s message. As for Gmail, the CCP has attacked its server in search of trouble. The CCP is not afraid of it, even if it shuts down, they would not be scared of a company. The CCP has other search engines such as Baidu.”

According to David Drummond, in mid-December 2009, Google detected highly sophisticated and directed attacks on its corporate infrastructure, and that, “at least twenty other large companies from a wide range of businesses—including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors—have been similarly targeted.”

A Hong Kong netizen named Li said the attacks on Google’s servers and websites that belong to Human Rights advocates have clearly originated from the CCP. Li said, (recording), “Cyber attacks on human rights organizations, are likely to originate from the CCP.

Google has threatened to give up on this market, because it has been affected, globalisation is happening everywhere nowadays.”

In order to compromise with the Chinese Communist Regime’s online censorship policies, Google introduced Google.cn for mainland China in January 2006.

Craig Richter; Wen Hong; and Si Ming of the SOH Radio Network.

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Revelations of emergency meeting on H1N1

Insiders in the Harbin Disease Control Centre have spoken of a secret emergency meeting held in November last year. The participants supposedly said mainland media have misled the public, and are jeopardising medical staff and the parents of single children. As yet, there is no cure for Influenza A also known as H1N1.

The emergency meeting was attended by local epidemic experts, the secretary of the Disease Control Centre and medical professors of city level hospitals.

An anonymous insider spoke to reporters (recording):
“Cases of maternal mortality are much higher in October; a dozen died in Harbin. Theoretically, the chances of maternal mortality are one out of a hundred thousand a year. But since a dozen have died, the number is now excessive. The secretary of the disease control centre is also a medical expert. He said the Influenza A strain has a mortality rate ten times more severe than those in the past. In addition to its high death rate, it is widespread, peaking multiple times.”

Experts at the meeting said H1N1 is highly infectious. There’s a large gap between media reports and the actual number of deaths. The actual number is likely ten to a hundred times more. Insiders believe the rampant spread of H1N1 is due to misleading domestic media reports.

The anonymous insider further revealed (recording):
“Maternal deaths occur when pregnant women developed high fevers and some die after giving birth. The virus progresses very quickly. Medical experts haven’t revealed the exact figure. H1N1 is so fierce, while media reports are untrue and harmful.”
Currently, the media are reporting the infection rate at 3%, compared to the actual infection rate of 6 to 25%. Because of the false reports, medical staff is also prone to infections.

The insider said (recording):
“Because the media conceals the truth, health care workers suffer a great deal. For instance, one coma patient was sent here without knowing he had Influenza A. As a result, his doctors didn’t take any protective measures. No one had any knowledge they were patients of Influenza A when they arrived until it was confirmed by tests.”
Our sources reveal the Communist authorities have stopped giving false reports on the state of H1N1. The epidemic is now too rampant, and quarantine has become ineffective.

According to the insider (recording):
“The first maternal death was on October 18th. She lay unconscious at the Red Cross Hospital. When she was transferred to the top Municipal Hospital, she was already in a coma. Doctors had no idea what she suffered while nurses did not take preventive measures at all. When she died, it was confirmed she was an H1N1 victim. Until now, humankind has no remedy to subdue the virus.”

The most vulnerable groups are pregnant women, people with ailments and children. According to feedback from the general public in Harbin, families of H1N1 victims have nowhere to lodge complaints or expose the true situation. This is due to the blockade by Communist authorities. People in mainland China find it hard to access overseas reports on the outbreak.

Chris Thomas and Xin Yi of the SOH Radio Network.

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Dodgy new homes force Sichuan survivors into tents

Lichun town in Pengzhou of Sichuan was one of main areas devastated by the 2008 earthquake. Houses were constructed to provide homes for victims. However they’ve been many complaints of problems with the houses, including cracks, burst pipes and other issues. Basically the homes are unsuitable for living and victims have been forced to remain in tents.

Yang Jianrong from Lihe village in Lichun, told reporters about the housing problems (recording):
“The most serious problem effecting houses in the neighborhood are broken sewer pipes. This is not being dealt with. They didn’t build good foundations, it is sloppy work, and the cement can be removed by a light touch of the hand. How can we live in houses like this? I have even borrowed money to build a new house.”

Yang Jianrong said they’d tried speaking to the company and government department in charge of construction. This was unsuccessful, further the village Party cadre has been unhelpful.

Yang Jianrong described her conditions (recording):
“My house is a shed built with plastic bags. It’s very cold. There are young and old in my family, my father-in-law and mother-in-law, my grandma is already 90 years old and we still live in this shed. How can we survive this winter? The quality of this new house is a problem, it’s terrible! I talked to our village officials but they refuse to admit any problems.”

Mr Song, a resident in Huapeng neighborhood of Lichun said the local government says the houses meet building standards. Now they’re demanding the residents pay off building costs or they won’t provide power.

Mr Song spoke to reporters (recording):
“The houses appear to be cracking, and the ground underneath keeps submerging, there are problems with the housing quality. They asked us to pay but we didn’t. We still owed more than 13,000 renminbi. There are allowances for construction efforts after disasters. Our house cost over 100,000, the government pays half and loaned 30,000 from the bank, individually we pay 20 to 30 thousand. We pay our money to the officials and they give it to the building company. The power is ready but he said if you don’t pay, they won’t connect it.”

Another resident of Lihe village, Chen Huixiong said no one is dealing with these housing problems.

Chen Huixiong told media (recording):
“There are over 200 households in our neighborhood. There are many different problems in our neighborhood. How can we live if our houses are crooked? If one day there’s a sudden earthquake, could it resist an eight point earthquake? I have been petitioning to Chengdu City.”

Chris Thomas; Xin Yi; and Liu Fang of the SOH Radio Network.

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