Justice China Style

It kind of brings a whole new meaning to the old adage: There ain't no justice in this world.

And if you think page one is a bit of an eye-opener, wait till you get to 'executions' on page two. Granted it is now a thing of the past, but, greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for . . . .

I'm trying to focus the memory box at the moment, because this practice of a stand in to serve jail time, or take a flogging for another, has a very familiar ring to it, and in a place far removed from China. In fact it might be a whole lot closer to home if my memory serves. Which of course it doesn't, well not at the moment it doesn't.

Double Jeopardy

In China, the rich and powerful can hire body doubles to do their prison time for them.
By Geoffrey Sant
Aug. 2, 2012

In May 2009, a wealthy 20-year-old was drag racing through the city streets of Hangzhou, China, when his Mitsubishi struck and killed a pedestrian in a crosswalk. The car was traveling so fast that the victim—a 25-year-old telecom engineer of a modest, rural background—was flung at least 20 yards. Afterward, bystanders and reporters photographed the driver, Hu Bin, as well as his rich friends, who nonchalantly smoked cigarettes and laughed while waiting for the police to arrive at the scene.

These images, soon posted online, provoked a public outcry. Anger over the callous behavior of these wealthy Chinese youths was followed by accusations of a police cover-up. First, the local authorities admitted that they had underestimated the speed Hu’s vehicle was traveling by half. (Incredibly, the police had first suggested that Hu was going no more than 43 mph.) Public furor rose again when Hu received a three-year prison sentence, an exceptionally light punishment in a country where drunk drivers guilty of similar accidents can receive the death penalty.

But the most stunning allegation was that the man appearing in court and serving the three-year sentence wasn’t Hu at all, but a hired body double.
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The charge isn’t as far-fetched as it may sound. The practice of hiring “body doubles” or “stand-ins” is well-documented by official Chinese media. In 2009, a hospital president who caused a deadly traffic accident hired an employee’s father to “confess” and serve as his stand-in. A company chairman is currently charged with allegedly arranging criminal substitutes for the executives of two other companies. In another case, after hitting and killing a motorcyclist, a man driving without a license hired a substitute for roughly $8,000. The owner of a demolition company that illegally demolished a home earlier this year hired a destitute man, who made his living scavenging in the rubble of razed homes, and promised him $31 for each day the “body double” spent in jail. In China, the practice is so common that there is even a term for it: ding zui. Ding means “substitute,” and zui means “crime”; in other words, “substitute criminal.”

The ability to hire so-called substitute criminals is just one way in which China’s extreme upper crust are able to live by their own set of rules. While Occupy Wall Street grabbed attention for its attacks on the “1 percent,” in China, a much smaller fraction of the country controls an even greater amount of wealth. The top one-tenth of 1 percent in China controls close to half of the country’s riches. The children and relatives of China’s rulers, many of whom grew up together, form a thicket of mutually beneficial relationships, with many able to enrich themselves financially and, if necessary, gain protection from criminal allegations.

A police officer in central China agreed to discuss the phenomenon of “replacement convicts” with me so long as I didn’t refer to him by name. “America has the rule of law, but China has the rule of people,” the police officer told me. “If somebody is powerful, there’s a good chance they can make this happen. Spend some money and remain free.” According to the police officer, hired stand-ins are “not common but not rare either.” As examples, the officer listed several high-ranking mafia figures whose underlings serve time in their stead. The mafia cares for the substitute’s family and pays a bonus for the time served.

Sometimes, family members cover for each other. This is especially true in cases of traffic accidents, where the police may be able to identify the vehicle involved in the crime but not the driver. In one case, as seen in this highly graphic television segment showing a drunk driver plowing through an old man, the driver’s son admits he falsely “confessed” to the crime to prevent police from testing his father’s blood-alcohol level. The police officer told me that in cases of drunk, unlicensed, or uninsured drivers, it “often happened” that a slightly more sympathetic substitute—someone who has insurance, a license, or is at least sober—would confess in the driver’s place. An adopted daughter stood in for her father after a deadly accident; in another case, because witnesses took down the license plate of the car involved in a drunk-driving hit-and-run, the deputy director of the Xuchang County Forestry Bureau sent his wife to appear as his substitute.

Where photographs or video of the criminal at the scene of the crime have been widely circulated, however, it is necessary to use a body double. “The most successful instances are the ones nobody ever knows about,” the police officer said. “You need a powerful trick to pull it off.” Even the wealthy and influential may be unable to cover up an outrageous public crime—such as a horrific traffic accident—where there is widespread public outrage and online cries for criminal charges.

In October 2010, a young man driving drunk on the Hebei University campus struck two college women on rollerblades, killing one. The driver—the son of the deputy chief of the district police—continued on, dropping off his girlfriend. When security guards and students finally stopped him, he shouted: “Charge me if you dare. My father is Li Gang.” This scandal seemed to encapsulate China’s problems with corruption and abuse of power. Accusations of an attempted cover-up included conspiracy theories about a body double. Because Li Gang’s son was known under two different names, Li Yifan and Li Qiming, rumors spread that one of these names belonged to the hired substitute. One Internet poster wrote sarcastically: “Even if he had received a life sentence, he could still find someone to be his stand-in!” Go to page two.

It's a Funny Old World: Chinese Lesbian Edition

Not a headline you see every day, but I would have thought lesbians were the least "at risk" group, far more so than heterosexuals in fact.

China lifts ban on lesbians giving blood
By Molly Gray
July 6, 2012

Hong Kong The Chinese Ministry of Health has lifted a 14-year-old ban on lesbians donating blood in effect as of July 1.

The ban still applies to men who are sexually active with other men, but celibate homosexuals are permitted to give blood, according to the Ministry of Health's website.

The original ban, enacted in 1998, barred homosexuals of both genders from donating blood out of a fear of spreading HIV and AIDS.

'Mama Wu' unlikely hero for homosexuals in China

Xu Bin, a prominent lesbian rights activist in China, told the Global Times she applauded the amendment and what it means for lesbians in China.

"It is also about our dignity and the elimination of blood donation discrimination," she was quoted as saying.

Xu, who goes by her nickname Xian, first tried to donate blood in 2008 after an earthquake in Sichuan Province, when she learned of the ban and began campaigning against it.

"It's scientific that the policy doesn't mention homosexual identity but only fences off some who have certain sex behaviors, because AIDS is not caused by one's homosexual identity but improper sexual behavior," Xian told the Global Times.

AIDS first made an appearance in China in the 1980s when an Argentinean tourist died from the disease while on holiday in the country. Like other areas of the world, the epidemic was shrouded in confusion which was exacerbated in China by official denials that it existed there.

However, more recently, organizations such as UNAIDS, the joint United Nations program on HIV and AIDS, have commended the Chinese government on advancements in the attitude on AIDS.

In June, UNAIDS reported that its executive director had visited the country and praised the government's "major investments in China's AIDS response and a dramatic scale-up of HIV prevention, treatment and care programs."

The new regulations also include several other changes, including raising the age limit to 60, increasing the amount donated from 200 ml to 400 ml and shortening the required period of time between donations. CNN

Briton Tom Grundy Attempts Citizens Arrest On Tony Blair In Hong

Two separate reports; the first and smaller of the two, deals as much with the purpose of Blair's speech in Hong Kong, though falling as it does into the, shit you couldn't make up category. In fact I think it borders on 'one of us is insane' and I know who it ain't.

The other, longer piece with photo's, deals primarily with the incident.

Tom Grundy, the Briton who attempted to arrest Tony Blair in Hong Kong, said the act was symbolic

Protester heckles former British PM Blair in Hong Kong
14 June 2012

HONG KONG: A lone protester on Thursday heckled former British prime minister Tony Blair as he prepared to make a speech on religion and globalisation at the University of Hong Kong.

The man shouted about breaches of the Geneva Conventions on the conduct of war during Blair's years in office as the ex-leader took the stage.

"I wouldn't come any further... you can go," Blair said as the man approached the podium where he was standing.

The unidentified man, who spoke with a British accent, came within metres (feet) of the former prime minister before being blocked by university staff and escorted peacefully from the room.

"That's democracy for you," Blair said as the man was led away.

Blair went on with his speech apparently undeterred by the incident, telling his audience that the forces of globalisation were "multiplying and intensifying the impact of religion" around the world.

He said the world needed more "platforms of interfaith dialogue and action" to improve understanding between people of different belief systems.

Blair, who was Labour prime minister between 1997 and 2007, took Britain into the US-led war in Iraq in 2003, as well as sending troops into Afghanistan as part of the US-led operation in 2001.

He was appointed envoy for the Middle East Quartet comprising the United States, United Nations, European Union and Russia in 2007 but his role has come under increased scrutiny recently as efforts for peace have stalled.

He was speaking in Hong Kong as the founder of the Tony Blair Faith Foundation, which seeks to promote understanding between the major religions.

"The 20th century battle ... between left and right is gone," he said, adding that he believed the biggest threat to world peace in the 21st century was religious conflict.

"This issue cannot be minimised, it cannot be treated as anything other than it is, and it's got to be studied." channelnewsasia

Briton Tom Grundy Attempts Citizens Arrest On Tony Blair In Hong
By Dina Rickman
14 June 2012

A British activist in Hong Kong has attempted to perform a citizen's arrest on Tony Blair, claiming it was his "moral obligation" to hold the former PM for war crimes.

Tom Grundy, a 29-year-old Briton living in the country, attempted the arrest at 5:40pm local time, around 11am in Britain, as the former prime minister gave a speech about faith and globalisation at Hong Kong university.

The activist told The Huffington Post UK he had planned the action two days before the speech, and sat waiting for the former Labour leader for an hour before the attempted arrest.

Grundy said he wanted to "renew awareness" about Blair, who he claims had violated international law in his support for the Iraq War.

"In 2009 Blair admitted he would have gone to war regardless of WMDs and international law forbids wars for reasons of regime change. So that's why I tried to perform a citizen's arrest," he said.

"I want him to fear that wherever he goes and I hope it may stick one day."

Grundy denied he was harassing Tony Blair saying: "I took one-to-two minutes of Mr Blair's time to make this point. I wouldn't call that harassment in any way. There's nothing legally ambiguous with regard to standing up and speaking loudly. He's a public figure and he's an ex-leader and he's still making public appearances like this… He's not immune simply because he's no longer in power."

He said during the incident he said he got "as close to him as I could."

"I was a metre or two directly in front of him but there was a gaggle of photographers and his men in front of me preventing me to go any further. I put it to him that he'd caused the death of at least 100,000 people during the Iraq War,

"I closed by telling him he can't talk about religion when he has set back religious tolerance by decades."

Grundy, who said he informed news agency Reuters about his plans before the arrest, claimed Blair's speech about faith was hypocritical, saying: "He has enraged the entire Muslim world, [and] endangered British citizens. When there was a terrorist attack on 7/7 those involved admitted that it was related to British foreign policy."

After the incident, which lasted for one or two minutes, Grundy said he looked directly at Blair before leaving of his own accord. More HuffPo

Chen Guangcheng 'safe' in US embassy

It can't be much fun living in China whether you have a conscience or nae, not with such a state apparatus permanently in place it can't.

Chen Guangcheng 'safe' in US embassy

Blind campaigner evades about 100 guards to escape from six-year detention but fears grow for family and supporters
Jonathan Watts Beijing
27 April 2012

Blind Chinese activist Chen Guangcheng and friend and fellow activist Hu Jia taken at an undisclosed location this month. Chen, an inspirational figure in China's rights movement, slipped away from his well-guarded village this week.

A blind Chinese rights activist who made a daring escape from extrajudicial detention was on Friday under the protection of the US embassy in Beijing, according to a friend, as concerns were growing about possible retribution against his family and supporters.

After more than six years of jail and house arrest, Chen Guangcheng was said to have fled under cover of darkness, evading eight checkpoints and close to 100 guards who have been watching his home in the Shandong province countryside.

A photograph released on Friday night shows him with a friend and fellow activist, Hu Jia, who said Chen was under US protection. "It is my understanding that Chen is in the safest place in China. That is the US embassy," said Hu.

If confirmed, the incident could overshadow a planned trip to Beijing next week by the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, and treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner.

It would be the second case this year of a high-profile figure seeking refuge at a US diplomatic office in China. In February, Chongqing police chief Wang Lijun fled to the US consulate in Chengdu claiming his life was threatened because of his investigation into the death of British businessman Neil Heywood.

That incident led to a 36-hour standoff during which Chinese security personnel surrounded the consulate until Wang was turned over to an official from Beijing.

The US government neither confirmed nor denied claims that Chen was seeking asylum. An embassy spokesman, Richard Buangan, told reporters that "he did not have any information at this time."The British embassy also said Chen's whereabouts were a mystery. "We have followed Chen Guangcheng's case over a long period of time and have made representations publicly and privately to Chinese authorities. We have seen today's reports and will be following events closely," said a spokesman.The mainstream Chinese media had not reported the escape, but in a video recording apparently made after his release, Chen issued an open call for the prime minister, Wen Jiabao, to investigate his case.

He said between 90 and 100 people were involved in his illegal detention, which included savage beatings that left his wife with broken bones and the harassment of his children. Those who tried to visit him – including lawyers, journalists and the actor Christian Bale – had been either roughed up or driven away.

The accusations throw a harsh light on a Chinese government already reeling from a corruption and wire-tapping scandal sparked by the death of Heywood.

Chen blamed his treatment on local officials and the Chinese state's obsession with maintaining stability at all costs. He said his greatest concern was that the authorities would carry out "insane retribution" on his family, several of whom have already been placed under arrest.

Chen confirmed reports about his maltreatment that have appeared online over the years. "The truth was even worse," he said."

Human rights campaigners expressed delight that Chen – whose case has drawn international attention – was no longer in the hands of the authorities, but concern about revenge attacks on his wife, child, brother and human rights activists who helped him gain liberty.

According to the US-based human rights group China Aid, Chen was "100% safe" in Beijing. But it said the activist He Peirong, one of the people who helped Chen flee, had been arrested at her home in Nanjing on Friday morning.

He, who is said to have been in close contact with the Chen family, had earlier told CNN that Chen's hands were trembling, but his spirits were high. She said he was injured in the escape.

It was not clear how Chen evaded the officials, police and plainclothes thugs who have been camped in and around his home in Linyi since his release from prison in 2010. But activists said it was not an individual, opportunistic bid for freedom.

"To escape from a place with so many guards must have taken a great deal of planning," said Phelim Kine, of Human Rights Watch.

Chen was believed to have used the cover of darkness, in which his blindness – he lost his sight at the age of five – gave him an advantage over his captors. He previously attempted to dig a tunnel.

"I would say the fact that he successfully escaped is a miracle," said Hu. "It's like a real Chinese version of The Shawshank Redemption. I heard he got through eight security checks."

If Chen is caught, he faces the risk of severe extra-legal punishment from his guards. Several people close to Chen have already been rounded up, prompting fears of retribution.

According to the NGO Human Rights in China, Chen's brother Chen Guangfu was taken away from Dongshigu village on Thursday. His nephew, Chen Kegui, was also in hiding after using a kitchen knife to defend his mother from intruders led by the village chief.

Local public-security bureaux were not picking up their phones.

"The wife [Yuan Weijing], children and mother are on the extreme edge of vulnerability," said Kine. "They have already been brutally victimised for merely trying to get outside the compound for food or medical attention, so it is quite likely that the plainclothes thugs will react quite brutally to his escape. It is our hope that all diplomatic missions will make strong representations for their safety."

Chen has suffered the wrath of officials in Shandong since 2005, when he exposed a programme of forced abortions to reach targets linked to China's one-child policy. Although he was released from a four-year jail term in September 2010, he and his family continued to suffer detention and beatings.

Associates say they fear for his health, which has deteriorated during his detention."I don't know if he is safe now and I am worried about him," said lawyer Teng Biao. "Chen was not given freedom after being released from prison and he was sick and did not have a chance to see a proper doctor. I am worried about him." Gruniad

How the Surging Popularity of 'Himalayan Viagra' Is Causing Murder and Violence in Nepal

I read two pages of this 'different culture' story last night, I'm off to read the other four now.

And if like me, you do a second take when you get to the 'hybrid' part, it's explained a little lower down the page.

How the Surging Popularity of 'Himalayan Viagra' Is Causing Murder and Violence in Nepal

It has become the most expensive herbal remedy in Chinese medicine and it is prized for its reputation as a powerful aphrodisiac that boosts men's sexual prowess.
By Jamie James
March 12, 2012

CHAME, Nepal – In a dim, dusty stockade in this small Himalayan town, Krishna Lama contemplated his ruined life – a dead father, a college career cut short and criminal charges, all because of a potent fungus that promises the vigor of youth and sexual prowess for men. A devout Buddhist, Lama was a 20-year-old college student home on holiday in 2009, when he was compelled to join a posse protecting the lucrative fields near his home village of Nar, at altitude 13,450 feet and a steep two-day trek from the Annapurna trail in the Manang district.

What ensued was one of Nepal’s most gruesome mass killings – over the fungus called yarsagumba.

Fearing their fields had been poached by interloping yarsagumba pickers from Gorkha, a mob from Nar beat two men to death and threw their bodies into a deep crevasse. They rounded up the five other men and savagely beat them to death with sticks and stones. To conceal their crime, they cut the corpses into small pieces, wrapped them in plastic and threw them into a glacial torrent. The killers, 65 men and boys, swore an oath never to tell anyone what happened, not even their wives.

“Yarsagumba brings a curse,” Lama said. “Our entire village has had to suffer. Even my father had to face that fate.”

Two years before the massacre, Lama’s father had died. He, too, was beaten to death with sticks, though the exact circumstances of his murder remain unclear.

Lama’s story – that he was among the last to arrive on the scene and didn’t witness the killings – is corroborated by police, but as he awaited trial, he had no idea whether the court would accept his version of events or if it would be enough to get him acquitted.

The murders have torn the tiny village apart. Interviews with several of the accused in their stockade in Chame and their families in Nar reveal that they are more fearful of the punishment of their souls in the afterlife than of any judgment meted out by a court of law.

“I am cursed,” Lama said. “I have no hope.”

Lama’s story is just one from a gold rush in the Himalayas. Fortunes are being made – and lives are being ruined – not over gleaming metal nuggets, but in the reckless pursuit of yarsagumba. A rare hybrid of caterpillar and mushroom that grows only in the high alpine meadows of Tibet, Nepal and India. It has been prescribed by traditional healers in Asia for centuries to treat lung and kidney diseases, build up bone marrow and stop hemorrhaging, but it is prized above all for its reputation as a powerful aphrodisiac, earning it the nickname “Himalayan Viagra.”

Yarsagumba – also known by its scientific name, Cordyceps sinesis – was unknown in the Western world until 1994, when two female Chinese athletes at the Asian Games in Hiroshima, Japan, set new world records for mid- and long-distance running.

The astonishing times they posted gave rise to suspicions that they were using illegal performance enhancers such as anabolic steroids, but post-race drug tests revealed no trace of illegal substances. The runners’ controversial coach, Ma Junren, told foreign reporters that the women got their championship edge from daily doses of Cordyceps.

Thus began the yarsagumba boom. It is difficult to find an accurate estimate of the total production of yarsagumba, owing to the high degree of cross-border smuggling to avoid paying taxes and bribes. But according to Daniel Winkler, a botanist specializing in the fungus, it quickly has become the most expensive herbal remedy in traditional Chinese medicine.

Winkler estimates the annual yarsagumba harvest at between 85 and 185 tons, and in some areas, the crop represents the most significant source of income for residents, even greater than mining and industrial production. One official in Tibet’s Dengqen County estimated that 37,000 of the area’s 60,000 inhabitants had participated in fungus collection, Winkler reported in a recent scholarly journal.

“Among the wealthy and powerful in China,” Winkler wrote, “Cordyceps has come to rival French champagne as a status symbol at dinner parties or as a prestigious gift.”

The explosive growth in the yarsagumba market beggars the most extravagant superlatives: In 1992, a pound of the stuff sold for $3; today, the same quantity retails for around $9,400.

Nathan Lee, an apothecary in Hong Kong, said he has customers who spend thousands of dollars a month for daily doses of yarsagumba. “They give their children three to seven pieces a day, to promote good health and help them study,” he said. “They mix it with their breakfast cereal.”

The lucrative trade in the mushroom has transformed the economy of the Himalaya region. An ancient, yak-based culture that survived for centuries in one of the most extreme environments on earth is now unraveling in a tragic collision with the global marketplace.

Tibet is the main source of Cordyceps, but the trade may be having its most profound impact on Nepal, where extreme poverty and decades of political instability have led to deepening social entropy.

Rural economies, which had largely converted to tourism in the early 1990s, languished with the steep decline in foreign arrivals after a Maoist insurgency provoked civil war in 1996. That sent adventurous herb hunters into new terrain in search of the golden mushroom.

Harvesting the exotic fungus

Yarsagumba is the result of a bizarre parasitic relationship between fungus and insect. Spores of the Cordyceps mushroom invade and consume the larvae of the Himalayan bat moth, which live underground at altitudes of 10,000 to 16,000 feet for as long as five years, feeding on roots before they commence their metamorphosis into moths.

After the fungal spores have killed and mummified the larvae, they send up a spindly brown stem, a tiny knob-headed mushroom – and then they are very likely to be picked.

There have been many attempts to farm yarsagumba, but none has ever succeeded. The only way the precious fungus can grow is by the fortuitous concurrence of spore and larva in alpine atmospheric conditions – and brave collectors must be willing to risk their lives to collect it.

On a visit to the Annapurna district of Nepal during the midsummer weeks of the prime harvest season, ancient villages stood nearly deserted as most of the able-bodied population headed up to the picking fields. Schools shut down as students dropped out en masse – with the teachers themselves joining in the rush to find instant wealth.

Some 300 men and women, mostly from the Gorkha and Dhading districts, converged on a spectacularly picturesque place called Ice Lake, surrounded by snow-mantled mountains, more than 13,000 feet above the Annapurna trekking trail. Ice Lake is a relatively new collecting site.

Karma Gurung, the 27-year-old manager of a tourist guesthouse in the village of Braga, explained: “The collection of yarsagumba around here began eight years ago. Before that, the yaks got it all. A few local people noticed that the yaks up on the mountainside were more active and started collecting it, but it was still small scale. Now, 90 percent of the people collect yarsagumba.”

The pickers, ranging in age from 15 to 40, with the majority males in their teens and early 20s, set up a temporary tent town as the base for their fungal prospecting.

Few of the collectors were well off enough to bring a proper tent; for most of them, sheets of industrial plastic anchored by rocks would serve as their home for the six to eight weeks of the harvest season. They rose at first light in near-freezing temperatures and ate rice, dal and boiled stinging nettles. By 8 a.m., they were climbing the steep incline to the yarsagumba fields. Go to page 3 of 6

China Converting US Debt To Gold

Not in spite of, but given that I am totally unknowledgeable in such matters, I found this rather interesting.

Wikileaks has revealed how China has been adapting to holding too much US debt. It seems they've also managed to find a way to undermine the US dollar as a the world's reserve currency at the same time.
http://maoistrebelnews.wordpress.com/2011/09/16/china-converting-us-debt-to-g...

US 'Space Warplane' May Be Spying on Chinese Spacelab

Why this story? Because I have covered it before:

'Ere, Anybody Seen Our Spysat: X-37B Up To No Good?

And one does have to keep one's eye on those Yankies, because whatever they are up too, they are up to no good.

US 'space warplane' may be spying on Chinese spacelab
Is X-37B's secret mission watching Heavenly Palace?
by Brid-Aine Parnell
Jan 06, 2012

The US Air Force's second mysterious mini-space shuttle, the X-37B, could be spying on China's space laboratory and the first piece of its space station, Tiangong-1.

Amateur space trackers told the British Interplanetary Society publication Spaceflight that the black-funded spaceplane seemed to be orbiting the Earth in tandem with Tiangong_1, or the Heavenly Palace, leading the magazine to speculate that its unknown mission is to spy on it.

"Space-to-space surveillance is a whole new ball game made possible by a finessed group of sensors and sensor suites, which we think the X-37B may be using to maintain a close watch on China's nascent space station," Spaceflight editor Dr David Baker told the BBC.

America has refused to come clean on exactly what the X-37Bs are meant to be doing up there, but the line on the plane has always been that it's a test prototype of a reusable spacecraft that can carry experiments into and back from space.

According to the Air Force's fact sheet on the project, which was funded from the classified budget:

The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle is the newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft. Based on NASA's X-37 design, the unmanned OTV is designed for vertical launch to low Earth orbit altitudes where it can perform long duration space technology experimentation and testing.

Upon command from the ground, the OTV autonomously re-enters the atmosphere, descends and lands horizontally on a runway.

As well as being winged for re-entry, the OTV also has a strong heat shield, both perfectly in tune with the (vaguely) stated purpose of the craft.

However since people don't even know how much the things cost, exactly where either one was headed and with what payload when they took off in April 2010 and March 2011 respectively, or for how long they're supposed to be up there, it's assumed the spacecraft have naturally been assigned some sort of clandestine military purpose.

The doomsayers in the Iranian media dubbed the X-37B a "secret space warplane" before the first one went up, adding that it was the first generation of US space Predator drones that would build up the US' space armada.

Slightly less alarmist is the hypothesis suggested by El Reg and others that the mini-space shuttle's purpose has something to do with spy satellites. That could be a spot of sat-napping - grabbing or disabling other countries' satellites while leaving the owners to assume some sort of space accident. Or it could be picking up their own eye-poppingly expensive sats for repair or recycling back at home.

This newest theory, that it might be spying on Tiangong-1, is also a possibility, but it does have a couple of holes in it.

First off, the Chinese spacelab wasn't launched until September 2011, some time after the second X-37B hit Earth's orbit. Of course, the USAF's gizmo is supposedly reprogrammable from the ground so they could conceivably have sent it off in search for the lab once the Chinese got their gear up, but that doesn't explain what it was doing before that.

Secondly, you'd have to wonder why it's worth spying on the Tiangong-1. The lab is unmanned for the moment, so all there'd be to study is the technology of the craft and what experiments it's doing. Still, the US is hugely suspicious of China's space endeavours, so it's more than possible that they'd want to get a look at Tiangong-1 just in case it's doing anything unexpected.

Brian Weedon, a technical adviser to the Secure World Foundation and former orbital analyst with the USAF, told the BBC he thinks that the X-37B is spying on the Middle East and Afghanistan, possibly with new kinds of sensors.

"A typical spy satellite is in a polar orbit, which gives you access to the whole Earth," he said.

"The X-37B is in a much lower inclination which means it can only see a very narrow band of latitudes, and the only thing that's of real interest in that band is the Middle East and Afghanistan.

"Is it spying on Tiangong-1? I really don't think so. I think the fact that their orbits intersect every now and again - that's just a co-incidence. If the US really wanted to observe Tiangong, it has enough assets to do that without using X-37B," he added.

Wilder theories have also reared their heads, such as that both Tiangong-1 and the second X-37B spotted "something else" in space and went to have a look at it - but that seems a little bit like wishful thinking from ET-loving dreamers.

The latest edition of Spaceflight, complete with the X-37B hypothesis, will be published this weekend. The Register

Ten Years For Chinese Blogger

China jails dissident Chen Xi for 10 years
Mary Hennock
26 December 2011

A Chinese court has handed down a 10-year jail sentence to Chen Xi, the second dissident in four days to be convicted of inciting subversion through online essays.

Another democracy campaigner, Chen Wei, was sentenced to nine years on 23 December. The two men are not related.

It is one of the heaviest sentences for inciting subversion since the Nobel laureate Liu Xiaobo was jailed for 11 years on Christmas Day 2009.

Arrests and detentions have gathered pace this year as the Communist party reacted to online calls for protests like those that have toppled dictators across the Middle East. The calls, however, have drawn little response and no large-scale protests have taken place in China. more

Stuff You Couldn't Make Up

US asks China to explain why it needs aircraft carrier
11 August 2011


WASHINGTON: The United States said Wednesday it would like China to explain why it needs an aircraft carrier amid broader US concerns about Beijing's lack of transparency over its military aims.

"We would welcome any kind of explanation that China would like to give for needing this kind of equipment," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland told reporters when asked whether the carrier would raise regional tensions.

"This is part of our larger concern that China is not as transparent as other countries. It's not as transparent as the United States about its military acquisitions, about its military budget," she said.

"And we'd like to have the kind of open, transparent relationship in military-to-military affairs," Nuland said.

"In our military-to-military relations with many countries around the world, we have the kind of bilateral dialogue where we can get quite specific about the equipment that we have and its intended purposes and its intended movements," she said.

But China and the United States are "not at that level of transparency" to which the two nations aspire, Nuland added.

The comments came hours after China's first aircraft carrier embarked on its inaugural sea trial, a move likely to stoke concerns about the nation's military expansion and growing territorial assertiveness.

Beijing only recently confirmed it was revamping an old Soviet ship to be its first carrier and has sought to play down the vessel's capability, saying it will mainly be used for training and "research." Asia Pacific

Chinese to Give Embezzlement Lessons to Iraq

You might recall this story about the Iraqis bitching about their missing few billions, well that's just small potatoes compared to the shenanigans of the Chinese.

Makes me wonder just how difficult it was for the miscreants to obtain an entry visa to the US?

Kind of takes me back to Canada in the early seventies. Some East European bloke, who was an illegal or had overstayed his visitors visa, managed to hit the jackpot on the National Lottery, then about five million bucks if I remember rightly. And the government's response? Would you (and your $5M) like a green card?

Chinese officials stole $120 billion, fled mainly to US
17 June 2011

Thousands of corrupt Chinese government officials have stolen more than $120bn (£74bn) and fled overseas, mainly to the US, according to a report released by China's central bank.

Between 16,000 and 18,000 officials and employees of state-owned companies left China with the funds from the mid-1990s up until 2008.

The officials used offshore bank accounts to smuggle the funds, according to the study posted on the People's Bank of China website this week but which has since been removed.

It said the officials smuggled about 800 billion yuan into the US, Australia, Canada and Holland through offshore bank accounts or investments, like property or collectables.

The stolen funds were covered up by disguising them as business transactions by establishing private companies to receive the money transfers.

The study said corruption inside China was severe enough to threaten the nation's economic and political stability. BBC

China to Spend $1.5 Trillion on Green Energy?

The New Sputnik
13 May 2011
by: Juan Cole

In 1957, a United States shocked by the Soviet launch of the Sputnik 1 satellite bounced into action to compete on the world stage. More than 50 years later, in May of 2011, the US is facing a new challenge. The Chinese Communist Party has decided to launch a crash program to produce green energy, a field where it already has a commanding lead over the US The difference between 1957 and 2011 is that American politics in the meantime have been captured by parasitic or corrupt industries such as high finance and big oil and gas. The Green Gap produced by China's increasing lead in the technologies of the future is not even headlined in America's corporate mass media, much less galvanizing a nation of gas guzzlers and coal junkies.

The disaster at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant has caused the Chinese Communist Party to reconsider its plans to vastly expand its own nuclear power industry. The government of President Hu Jintao is thinking instead of vastly expanding the green energy sector, aiming to produce 50 gigawatts from solar energy by 2020, up from a previous goal of 20 gigawatts. If the new goal can be met, it will be an impressive accomplishment in its own right. The six reactors at the Fukushima nuclear power plant, among the largest such plants in the world, produced 4.7 gigawatts, so the Chinese solar plants would be the solar equivalent of more than four such complexes.

The real promise, however, is that if the Chinese government really does throw a trillion and a half dollars at solar and other renewables over the next decade and a half, the cost of producing energy in that way is likely to plummet. The Middle Kingdom already produces half of the world's solar panels. The bad news for the United States is that China could dominate the rapidly growing and crucial world market for green technology in coming decades, leaving literally in the dust a Rust Belt America wedded to dirty coal, oil and water-slurping shale extraction. more

Chinese Pot Calls US Kettle on Human Rights

This mighty list, and it is mighty, as mighty as it is undeniable, and this from a nation that has no less than sixty eight capital offences on its books, and in general doesn't give a fuck about anybody or anything. Some of those offences include:

China has the death penalty for 68 crimes including murder, drug trafficking, rape, re-selling VAT receipts, pimping, habitual theft, stealing or dealing in national treasures or cultural relics, publishing pornography, selling counterfeit money, economic offences such as graft, speculation and profiteering and even killing a panda. More, but open up the home page and read about Iran's human rights record if you really want to be appalled.

With the article being so comprehensive it is difficult to decide what to feature, so to avoid having to make that decision, I give you the intro, the subjects covered, and the conclusion.

Human Rights Record of United States in 2010

Editor's note: China's Information Office of the State Council, or cabinet, published a report titled "The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2010" on Sunday. Following is the full text:

The State Department of the United States released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2010 on April 8, 2011. As in previous years, the reports are full of distortions and accusations of the human rights situation in more than 190 countries and regions including China. However, the United States turned a blind eye to its own terrible human rights situation and seldom mentioned it. The Human Rights Record of the United States in 2010 is prepared to urge the United States to face up to its own human rights issues.

I. On Life, Property and Personal Security

The United States reports the world's highest incidence of violent crimes, and its people's lives, properties and personal security are not duly protected.

II. On Civil and Political Rights

In the United States, the violation of citizens' civil and political rights by the government is severe.

III. On Economic, Social and Cultural Rights

The United States is the world's richest country, but Americans' economic, social and cultural rights protection is going from bad to worse.

IV. On Racial Discrimination

Racial discrimination, deep-seated in the United States, has permeated every aspect of social life.

V. On the rights of women and children

The situation regarding the rights of women and children in the United States is bothering.

VI. On US Violations of Human Rights against Other Nations

The United States has a notorious record of international human rights violations.

Conclusion

The above-mentioned facts illustrate that the United States has a dismal record on its own human rights and could not be justified to pose as the world's "human rights justice". However, it released the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices year after year to accuse and blame other countries for their human rights practices. The United States ignores its own serious human rights problems, but has been keen on advocating the so-called "human rights diplomacy", to take human rights as a political instrument to defame other nations' image and seek its own strategic interests. These facts fully expose its hypocrisy by exercising double standards on human rights and its malicious design to pursue hegemony under the pretext of human rights.

We hereby advise the US government to take concrete actions to improve its own human rights conditions, check and rectify its acts in the human rights field, and stop the hegemonistic deeds of using human rights issues to interfere in other countries' internal affairs. China Daily

More Pot Calling: China - US

Ouch!

China tells U.S. to quit as human rights judge
By Chris Buckley
Apr 10, 2011


BEIJING (Reuters) - The United States is beset by violence, racism and torture and has no authority to condemn other governments' human rights problems, China said on Sunday, countering U.S. criticism of Beijing's crackdown.

The row between Beijing and Washington over human rights has intensified since China's ruling Communist Party extended its clampdown on dissidents and rights activists, a move which has sparked an outcry from Washington and other Western governments.

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei is the most prominent of the activists to be detained by police or held in secretive custody in the latest crackdown.

U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Friday she was "deeply concerned" about it, and cited "negative trends" including Ai's detention.

A U.S. State Department report on global human rights released on Friday said Beijing had stepped up restrictions on lawyers, activists, bloggers and journalists, and tightened controls on civil society.

It has also increased its efforts to control the press, Internet and Internet access, the report said.

But China has shown no sign of bowing to foreign pressure.

Its Foreign Ministry on Saturday dismissed the U.S. report as meddling, and its own annual report about U.S. human rights stressed Beijing's dismissive view.

"Stop the domineering behavior of exploiting human rights to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries," it said, according to excerpts published by the official Xinhua news agency.

"The United States ignores its own severe human rights problems, ardently promoting its so-called 'human rights diplomacy', treating human rights as a political tool to vilify other countries and to advance its own strategic interests," said a passage from the Chinese report

Produced by the State Council Information Office, the government's public relations arm, the report dwelled on what it said were severe deprivations and threats facing many Americans, as well as Washington's invasion of Iraq.

It also cited the United States' refusal to ratify a number of international human rights pacts, and listed poverty, hunger and homelessness as stains on the country's rights record.

"The United States is the world's worst country for violent crimes," said the report. "Citizens' lives, property and personal safety do not receive the protection they should."

"Racial discrimination is deeply rooted in the United States, permeating every aspect of social life," it said.

Criticism of China's human rights problems do not come just from foreign governments and groups.

Chinese rights lawyers and advocates have also been dismayed by a recent burst of arrests, detentions and heavy sentences against dissidents and activists.

On Sunday, hundreds of Chinese police moved to prevent a planned outdoor service by a church in Beijing that had been evicted from its former premises. source

Hey Yankee Put Your Own House In Order: China

It's bit of a bugger when the chinks start taking the high moral ground on human rights.

China issues report criticizing US human rights
By Christopher Bodeen
4.11.11

BEIJING -- China accused the U.S. on Monday of pushing for Internet freedom around the world as a way to undermine other nations, while noting that Washington's campaign against secret-spilling website WikiLeaks showed its own sensitivity to the free flow of information.

The charges appeared in China's annual report on Washington's human rights record, which lambasted the U.S. over issues ranging from homelessness and violent crime to the influence of money on politics and the negative effects of its foreign policy on civilians.

The lengthy document published in official newspapers is a rebuttal to the U.S. State Department's annual assessment of human rights around the world that said China stepped up restrictions on critics and tightened control of civil society in 2010 by limiting freedom of speech and Internet access.

The U.S. has also protested the detention of government critics including artist Ai Weiwei as part of a recent Chinese crackdown on dissent.

"We hereby advise the U.S. government to take concrete actions to improve its human rights conditions, check and rectify its acts in the human rights field, and stop the hegemonistic deeds of using human rights issues to interfere in other countries' internal affairs," the report said.

WikiLeaks deeply angered U.S. officials by publishing tens of thousands of secret U.S. military documents on the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq and secret U.S. diplomatic cables from around the world.

The U.S. Army private suspected of supplying thousands of sensitive files to WikiLeaks, 23-year-old Bradley Manning, is being held in military detention in solitary confinement for all but an hour every day. He was charged with mishandling and leaking classified data, and in early March the Army filed 22 new charges against him, including aiding the enemy.

The Chinese report said that action by U.S. government comes while it also calls for the free flow of electronic information elsewhere.

It said Washington "wants to practice diplomacy by other means, including the Internet, particularly the social networks."

The Chinese report cited figures showing high crime, child poverty and racial discrimination in the U.S., and accused Washington of causing "huge civilian casualties" in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The report pointed to the huge amount of money poured into last year's midterm congressional elections as a perversion of democracy, blasted Arizona's legislation on illegal immigration, and pointed to a women's bias lawsuit against Wal-Mart as evidence of continuing gender discrimination. source

Internet Saves Chinese Waitress

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I wasn't my intention to lead with this story but a few things caught my eye, the first and obvious one was the power of public opinion spread via the net that undoubtedly saved a young girl from a bullet in the back of the head.

The same net based opinion/outrage/support that resulted in the girl's actual aquittal on a charge of murdering a local party official, it is after all China that we are talking about.

But it was these few lines that caught my attention more than anything.

The police, whom Ms. Deng called immediately to report the incident, initially took her to a mental hospital. Early reports from the police spokesman in Badong, Hubei Province, suggested that the young woman was a depressive who had lost control of herself during an argument with the victim.

How very Soviet Union, how very last century? how very predictable, the girl was quite obviously suffering from some form of politically defined madness, off to the Psikhushka with her.

Chinese waitress freed after killing official – and winning nationwide support

The trial of Deng Yujiao, who stabbed an official demanding sex, highlighted the power of the Internet to rally popular support.

Beijing - A karaoke bar waitress who won nationwide sympathy and support after killing a local official who demanded sex was freed Tuesday by a Chinese court.

The surprise decision provided fresh evidence of the power of the Internet, where Deng Yujiao had become a popular heroine and a symbol of resistance to corrupt and licentious government officials.

"If the case had not attracted so much attention, the result would have been worse," says Lan Zhixue, a member of the legal team advising Ms. Deng. more

~~~

There are two more photographs in this series but I will spare you those. But the next time you're having a boiled egg........

China.
China has the death penalty for 68 crimes including murder, drug trafficking, rape, re-selling VAT receipts, pimping, habitual theft, stealing or dealing in national treasures or cultural relics, publishing pornography, selling counterfeit money, economic offences such as graft, speculation and profiteering and even killing a panda.
During the "Strike hard" campaign against crime in China during the Spring of 2001, Amnesty International recorded a staggering 1,781 executions. This figure is greater than the total number of executions carried out in the rest of the world put together.
China does not publish statistics about the death penalty - these are a state secret. morecapitalpunishmentuk.org/shooting

China Tells US Look To Your Own Human Rights Record

.
Isn't it a bugger when the likes of China can even think of claiming the high moral ground on human rights issues.

China has accused the US of double standards over human rights in response to an official US report which labelled Beijing an authoritarian regime.

Beijing calls Washington's rights record "tattered and shocking".

The Chinese report cites rising violent crime in the US as posing a serious threat to the lives, liberty and personal security of its people.

The foreign ministry said the US should stop posing as a rights watchdog and concentrate on its own problems.

"Stop exercising double standards on human rights issues and wrongly meddling in the internal affairs of other countries," said ministry spokesman Qin Gang.

He added that China's achievements on human rights had been "widely recognised by the international community".

The Chinese report accuses the US of arrogance and is particuarly scathing about the Iraq conflict.

"The invasion of Iraq by US troops has produced the biggest human rights tragedy and the greatest humanitarian disaster in modern world," the document said.

Beijing's report, gathered from US and international news sources, quotes crime statistics and cites particular incidents such as the Virginia Tech massacre to back up its claims.

The report comes in response to the US State Department's annual survey of human rights across the world.

Although the report accuses China of denying its people basic freedoms, the country is not listed as one of the world's most systematic rights violators.End source

Unrelated. Take a look at this three minute video on pollution of the Yangtze river, the air quality isn't anything to shout about either, makes LA look like the alps.
clip
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Take Your Patriotism And Wrap It In Your Chinese Made Flag

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Get a life you sad bastard.

DES MOINES (AP) --- A state lawmaker who served in Iraq wants to ban U.S. or Iowa flags that are made in other countries.

Rep. Ray Zirkelbach, D-Monticello, said he would introduce a bill that would prohibit the sale of foreign-made flags in Iowa.

"I personally don't want my coffin draped in a Chinese-made flag when I pass away," Zirkelbach said.

Under the proposal, business owners an operators could face fines of up to $625 if they sell a flag made in another country. They also could face up to 30 days in jail.


The measure also would apply to missing in action or prisoner of war flags.

Americans imported $5.3 million of foreign-made flags in 2006, most of them from China, according to the Flag Manufacturers Association of America.

That was down slightly from 2005. The flag makers group has worked to decrease the number flags imported into the country.

Jane Carberry, an owner of A-D Flag Headquarters in Des Moines, said she supports Zirkelbach's plan.


She said her business, open since 1958, has never sold a foreign-made flag.

"Foreign-made flags can be produced quite a bit cheaper, so they can sell them cheaper," Carberry said. "It's hard to compete."source

Chinese Blogger Beaten To Death

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Mabe they should have just sent him down the mines. (previous post to this)


(CNN) -- Authorities have fired an official in central China after city inspectors beat to death a man who filmed their confrontation with villagers, China's Xinhua news agency reports.

The killing has sparked outrage in China, with thousands expressing outrage in Chinese Internet chat rooms, often the only outlet for public criticism of the government.

The incident has also alarmed advocates of press freedom, who say municipal authorities had no right to attack a man for simply filming them.more

That's A Lot Of Deaths And A Lot Of Coal: China Mines

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BEIJING - Accidents in China's notoriously dangerous coal mines killed nearly 3,800 people last year, state media reported Saturday — a toll that is a marked improvement from previous years, but still leaves China's mines the world's deadliest.

A total of 3,786 were killed in mining accidents in 2007 — 20 percent lower than the 2006 toll, indicating the effectiveness of a safety campaign to shut small, illegal mining operations and reduce gas explosions, the Xinhua News Agency quoted the head of China's government safety watchdog as saying.

Coal is the lifeblood of China's booming, energy-hungry economy. The mining industry's safety, which has never been good, has often suffered as mine owners push to dig up more coal to take advantage of higher prices.

Chinese mines produced 2.5 billion tons of coal last year, Xinhua said, nearly 8 percent more than in 2006.more

China: Incredible Animal Cruelty

I glanced this article this afternoon in a newspaper that was lying about at my mothers, this is one gruesome tale if ever there was.
Well the same story is online, equally disturbing and equally graphic.


There are certain races of people on this planet that are known for their cruelty and total disregard for the plight of animals, be it the Japanese restaurateurs (and the twats who eat it) taking a slice off a live fish and returning it to the tank, or the same despicable race of fucks who hunt whales.

We could include the Vietnamese, with their live animal markets and the ghastly goings on in those places but then we have the Chinese, another despicable race of fucks, who don't give a fuck about anything or anybody.

And it is the Chinese that this story is all about. The Chinese that have taken cruelty and perfected it into an art form, and this art is presented every day to a paying public, a public that includes children.

I shall put up a set of four photographs, they are in actual fact no more bloody than you would witness in any wildlife film, but this isn't a story set in the wild, this is a story set in a zoo, and because of the setting and deliberate nature of what is taking place there, makes the whole thing an affront to decency and an affront to the very word, civilised, let alone to anybody that would like to be thought in the least way, a civilised person.

I could give the opinion that there is no reason on earth that animals that are thrown to the lions could not be humanely killed beforehand, and to be fed as dead carcases to the beasts, but to do just that, would take the entertainment value out of this very sorry and sordid spectacle. As one animal welfare person says.

"In China, if you love animals you want to kill yourself every day out of despair."

It's pretty harrowing read. No, it's more than that, it is a catalogue of horrors.

Animals torn to pieces by lions in front of baying crowds: the spectator sport China DOESN'T want you to see

The smiling children giggled as they patted the young goat on its head and tickled it behind the ears.

Some of the more boisterous ones tried to clamber onto the animal's back but were soon shaken off with a quick wiggle of its bottom.

It could have been a happy scene from a family zoo anywhere in the world but for what happened next.

A man hoisted up the goat and nonchalantly threw it over a wall into a pit full of hungry lions. The poor goat tried to run for its life, but it didn't stand a chance. The lions quickly surrounded it and started tearing at its flesh.

"Oohs" and "aahs" filled the air as the children watched the goat being ripped limb from limb. Some started to clap silently with a look of wonder in their eyes.

The scenes witnessed at Badaltearing Safari Park in China are rapidly becoming a normal day out for many Chinese families.

Baying crowds now gather in zoos across the country to watch animals being torn to pieces by lions and tigers.

Just an hour's drive from the main Olympic attractions in Beijing, Badaling is in many ways a typical Chinese zoo.

Next to the main slaughter arena is a restaurant where families can dine on braised dog while watching cows and goats being disembowelled by lions.

The zoo also encourages visitors to "fish" for lions using live chickens as bait. For just £2, giggling visitors tie terrified chickens onto bamboo rods and dangle them in front of the lions, just as a cat owner might tease their pet with a toy.

During one visit, a woman managed to taunt the big cats with a petrified chicken for five minutes before a lion managed to grab the bird in its jaws.

The crowd then applauded as the bird flapped its wings pathetically in a futile bid to escape. The lion eventually grew bored and crushed the terrified creature to death.

The tourists were then herded onto buses and driven through the lions' compound to watch an equally cruel spectacle. The buses have specially designed chutes down which you can push live chickens and watch as they are torn to shreds.

Once again, children are encouraged to take part in the slaughter.

"It's almost a form of child abuse," says Carol McKenna of the OneVoice animal welfare group. "The cruelty of Chinese zoos is disgusting, but think of the impact on the children watching it. What kind of future is there for China if its children think this kind of cruelty is normal?

"In China, if you love animals you want to kill yourself every day out of despair."

But the cruelty of Badaling doesn't stop with animals apart. For those who can still stomach it, the zoo has numerous traumatised animals to gawp at.

A pair of endangered moon bears with rusting steel nose rings are chained up in cages so small that they cannot even turn around.

One has clearly gone mad and spends most of its time shaking its head and bashing into the walls of its prison.

There are numerous other creatures, including tigers, which also appear to have been driven insane by captivity. Predictably, they are kept in cramped, filthy conditions.

!Zoos like this make me want to boycott everything Chinese," says Emma Milne, star of the BBC's Vets In Practice.

"I'd like to rip out everything in my house that's made in China. I have big problems with their culture.

"If you enjoy watching an animal die then that's a sad and disgusting reflection on you.

"Perhaps we shouldn't be surprised by their behaviour towards animals, as the value of human life is so low in China."

East of Badaling lies the equally horrific Qingdao zoo. Here, visitors can take part in China's latest craze ? tortoise baiting.

Simply put, Chinese families now gather in zoos to hurl coins at tortoises.

Legend has it that if you hit a tortoise on the head with a coin and make a wish, then your heart's desire will come true. It's the Chinese equivalent of a village wishing well.

To feed this craze, tortoises are kept in barbaric conditions inside small bare rooms.

When giggling tourists begin hurling coins at them, they desperately try to protect themselves by withdrawing into their shells.

But Chinese zoo keepers have discovered a way round this: they wrap elastic bands around the animals' necks to stop them retracting their heads.

"Tortoises aren't exactly fleet of foot and can't run away," says Carol McKenna.

"It's monstrous that people hurl coins at the tortoises, but strapping their heads down with elastic bands so they can't hide is even more disgusting.

"Because tortoises can't scream, people assume they don't suffer. But they do. I can't bear to think what it must be like to live in a tiny cell and have people hurl coins at you all day long."

Even worse is in store for the animals of Xiongsen Bear and Tiger Mountain Village near Guilin in south-east China.

Here, live cows are fed to tigers to amuse cheering crowds. During a recent visit, I watched in horror as a young cow was stalked and caught. Its screams and cries filled the air as it struggled to escape.

A wild tiger would dispatch its prey within moments, but these beasts' natural killing skills have been blunted by years of living in tiny cages.

The tiger tried to kill ? tearing and biting at the cow's body in a pathetic looking frenzy ? but it simply didn't know how.

Eventually, the keepers broke up the contest and slaughtered the cow themselves, much to the disappointment of the crowd.

Although the live killing exhibition was undoubtedly depressing, an equally disturbing sight lay around the corner: the "animal parade".

Judging by the rest of the operation, the unseen training methods are unlikely to be humane, but what visitors view is bad enough.

Tigers, bears and monkeys perform in a degrading "entertainment". Bears wear dresses, balance on balls and not only ride bicycles but mount horses too.

The showpiece is a bear riding a bike on a high wire above a parade of tigers, monkeys and trumpet-playing bears.

Astonishingly, the zoo also sells tiger meat and wine produced from big cats kept in battery-style cages.

Tiger meat is eaten widely in China and the wine, made from the crushed bones of the animals, is a popular drink.

Although it is illegal, the zoo is quite open about its activities. In fact, it boasts of having 140 dead tigers in freezers ready for the plate.

In the restaurant, visitors can dine on strips of stir-fried tiger with ginger and Chinese vegetables. Also on the menu are tiger soup and a spicy red curry made with tenderised strips of big cat.

And if all that isn't enough, you can dine on lion steaks, bear's paw, crocodile and several different species of snake.

"Discerning" visitors can wash it all down with a glass or two of vintage wine made from the bones of Siberian tigers.

The wine is made from the 1,300 or so tigers reared on the premises. The restaurant is a favourite with Chinese Communist Party officials who often pop down from Beijing for the weekend.

China's zoos claim to be centres for education and conservation. Without them, they say, many species would become extinct.

This is clearly a fig leaf and some would call it a simple lie. Many are no better than "freak shows" from the middle ages and some are no different to the bloody tournaments of ancient Rome.

"It's farcical to claim that these zoos are educational," says Emma Milne.

"How can you learn anything about wild animals by watching them pace up and down inside a cage? You could learn far more from a David Attenborough documentary."

However pitiful the conditions might be in China's zoos, there are a few glimmers of hope.

It is now becoming fashionable to own pets in China. The hope is that a love for pets will translate into a desire to help animals in general. This does appear to be happening, albeit slowly.

One recent MORI opinion poll discovered that 90 per cent of Chinese people thought they had "a moral duty to minimise animal suffering". Around 75 per cent felt that the law should be changed to minimise animal suffering as much as possible.

In 2004, Beijing proposed animal welfare legislation which stipulated that "no one should harass, mistreat or hurt animals". It would also have banned animal fights and live feeding shows.

The laws would have been a huge step forward. But the proposals were scrapped following stiff opposition from vested interests and those who felt China had more pressing concerns.

And this is the central problem for animal welfare in China: its ruling elite is brutally repressive and cares little for animals.

Centuries of rule by tyrannical emperors and bloody dictators have all but eradicated the Buddhist and Confucian respect for life and nature.

As a result, welfare groups are urging people not to go to Chinese zoos if they should visit the Olympics, as virtually every single one inflicts terrible suffering on its animals

"They should tell the Chinese Embassy why they are refusing to visit these zoos,' says Carol McKenna of OneVoice.

"If a nation is great enough to host the Olympic Games then it is great enough to be able to protect its animals." The Wail