Week Four: Hong Kong booksellers: One of five missing men returns home

One of five missing Hong Kong booksellers thought to have been detained by Chinese authorities has returned home, Hong Kong police say.

Lui Bo and four others associated with publisher Mighty Current, which produced books critical of Chinese leaders, went missing last year.

Mr Lui, the general manager of Mighty Current, disappeared on 15 October while in Shenzhen in southern China.All five men later surfaced in custody of Chinese police.

The men appeared on Chinese television on Sunday, with four of them, including Lui Bo, saying they had been detained for "illegal book trading".

Public confessions have long been a part of China's criminal law although experts say many confessions are forced.

Hong Kong police said in a statement that they met Lui Bo on Friday.

Mr Lui told Hong Kong police he did not need any assistance from them or the Hong Kong government, and asked police to cancel the missing persons case related to him, they said.

"He refused to disclose other details," the statement added.

Pro-democracy lawmaker Albert Ho told AFP he believed Mr Lui "must be very scared", and that his request that police drop his case was "just to show the mainland authorities that he will keep quiet".

       Causeway Bay Books, the Hong Kong shop owned by Mighty Current, closed following the disappearances.

The case has sparked accusations of China violating Hong Kong's judicial(司法的) independence.

Two of the men, Gui Minhai and Lee Bo, were outside mainland China when they disappeared. Mr Gui was in Thailand and Mr Lee in Hong Kong - where Chinese police do not have jurisdiction.

Mr Lui's two other colleagues, Cheung Chi Ping and Lam Wing Kee, are also expected to be released on bail in coming days. Mr Lui's release comes just a day before the opening of China's annual parliamentary(議會的) session, the National People's Congress, in Beijing.

        The UK has previously expressed concern about the disappearances. It said last month that Mr Lee, who has a British passport, was probably "involuntarily(不知不覺的) removed" to China in what would have been a "serious breach" of the Hong Kong handover treaty.

        However, China's foreign ministry has said its officials would not behave illegally, and urged other countries not to meddle in its affairs.

        Mr Lee was shown on Chinese state TV on Monday, denying he had been abducted by Chinese officials, and saying he would renounce his British citizenship.

        However, his supporters believe the interview was done under duress.

http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-china-35729143

Week Three: Documentary gives viewers wrong impression, animal shelter staff say

Although Twelve Nights (十 二夜), a recently released documentary on the plight(困境) of stray dogs, scored well in the nation’s box office, it also generated dismay among some animal shelter workers, who said the film misleads the public about their work.

    The documentary was produced by writer Giddens Ko (柯景騰), also known as Jiu Ba-dao (九把刀), and most of the filming took place at an animal shelter in Changhua County’s Yuanlin Township (員林).

    It purported to reveal the shelter’s rundown, poor conditions, as a result of its limited resources. The title of the film refers to the practice of putting stray animals to death if they have not been adopted within 12 days.

    The New Taipei City (新北市) Government’s Agriculture Department earlier this week booked a theater for three consecutive(連續的) evenings and invited animal control staff under its jurisdiction to watch the documentary.

    After the viewing, some staff said that although they supported raising public awareness for stray animals’ plight, they felt a number of scenes were badly handled and filmed in a shoddy(劣質的) way.

    They felt dismayed after watching the film, and felt they were maligned, and that the public would be misled about their working duties.

    One animal control worker said the film depicted shelter employees treating the animals in a rough, and sometimes violent manner, leading the public to question their work.

    “We were upset after watching it,” said Chen Mei-hsiu (陳美秀), an animal control worker at New Taipei City’s Banciao District (板橋) animal shelter for more than five years. “Most shelter workers have kind hearts and take good care of the stray animals. We are being vilified in this film.”

    “The film is made in a haphazard way. Much of it was not based on real situations. It has given the public the wrong impression about animal control workers,” said Huang Yu-hsiang (黃榆翔), a 20-year veteran worker at a shelter center in Zhonghe District (中和).

    Chang Li-chen (張麗珍), deputy director of New Taipei City’s Animal Protection and Health Inspection Office, said that most animals under her department’s care remain at the shelter for more than 30 days, and public adoption is actively encouraged.

    “One of our officers asked me if our office can make a documentary entitled, ‘30 Nights,’ to respond to this film,” she said.

    “Films always try to have a visual impact to entice viewers. However, this one strays too far from reality. It is very unfair to the staff who take good care of the animals,” she said.

    In response, Ko said the documentary’s director had applied to film at a number of animal shelters, but most of them refused or demanded the producer to sign an agreement to allow the shelters to check and review the film before release.

    “We also applied to New Taipei City for permission to film, but we were refused,” Ko said. “I sincerely hope the conditions in New Taipei City’s shelters are much better than at the one shown in the film.”

    He said the documentary is not meant as an attack on animal shelters, adding that “the supervisors and veterinarian Hung (洪) at the Yuanlin animal shelter also hope to improve the conditions, that’s why they agreed to allow us to film there.”

    “Animal shelters are helping to solve a difficult problem that our society has long neglected. They are not the documentary’s target of criticism,” he said. “Our criticism is aimed at the people who have created this problem: The pet owners who abandoned these animals.”

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/taiwan/archives/2013/12/22/2003579571

Week Two: China landslide disaster caused by safety breaches: cabinet website

A landslide in southern China that killed two people and left more than 70 people missing was caused by breaches(違規) of construction safety rules and was not a natural disaster, a government website quoted local authorities as saying.

An investigation by a team in Shenzhen directed by China's cabinet found the Dec. 20 disaster stemmed from waste construction material in a landfill site rather than a natural geological(地質) movement, a statement posted late Friday on the cabinet's website said.

"Those held accountable will be seriously punished in accordance with the law," the statement said.

The man-made disaster, which buried 33 buildings in an industrial park, has raised questions about China's industrial safety standards and lack of oversight that has led to fatal accidents, a by-product of the country's rapid growth.

At the Shenzhen industrial park, there is still some risk of more landslides at three separate places and professionals have been brought in to deal with the issue, Xinhua news agency on Friday quoted a Shenzhen official as saying.

"There are also dangerous chemical items that need to be identified and treated," Yang Shengjun, head of the Shenzhen Housing and Urban-Rural Development Bureau, was quoted as saying.

Yang said no air or water contamination has been detected yet, according to Xinhua.

The company managing the dump site, Shenzhen Yixianglong, was urged to stop work four days before the disaster, an executive with a government-appointed monitoring agency said on Thursday.

Xinhua earlier reported that the dump was being used 10 months after it was supposed to have stopped taking waste, earning Yixianglong some 7.5 million yuan ($1.16 million) in fees.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-china-landslide-idUSKBN0U901L20151226