Progressivechina

The government of northwest China’s Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region on Thursday vowed to crack down on terrorism, as maintaining social stability is a priority for 2014.

“The regional government will resolutely crack down on religious extremism, prevent violent terrorist attacks and mass incidents from happening,” said Nur Bekri, chairman of the regional government.

The official told the second session of the 12th regional People’s Congress that the government will continue combating the “three evil forces” of terrorism, separatism and extremism.

However, the battle is still chronic, complicated and severe, he warned.

He said that the government will continue carrying out ethnic unity campaigns because safeguarding unity will fundamentally guarantee the region’s long-term social stability.

In addition, the regional government will strengthen community services and improve the residence permit system to serve people better, said Nur Bekri.

Police and government officials were engaged in drug dealing in a village in Guangdong Province where 3 tons of crystal methamphetamine, or ice, was seized in recent raids.

Twenty-one Party and government officials were identified as being involved in the business in Boshe in the southern province’s Lufeng City.

Seven have been put under investigation, among them the head of Lufeng’s public security bureau anti-drug department, surnamed Guo, Southern Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

Guo is reported to have been helping Cai Dongjia, the village’s Party chief. As a key figure in the village’s drug business, Cai used his relations with police and government officials for protection over the past three years, during which the village provided a third of the nation’s crystal meth, a dangerous and addictive substance.

Cai would receive tip-offs from police and officials before previous raids, the paper said.

Local police were said to have been taking bribes and two officers had even used police cars to transport drugs, said Qiu Wei, a senior official with the provincial public security bureau’s anti-drug department.

Authorities deployed helicopters, speedboats and paramilitary police in a raid on the village on December 29.

Security forces surrounded and then entered the village, where more than a fifth of the households were suspected to be involved in or linked to the production and trafficking of drugs, Guangdong’s police force said on its website.

When Zhan Anxiang bought an apartment in his county seat in east China this year he became entitled to a non-agricultural “hukou” (household registration), but has no interest in a change.

“If my hukou status changed, what would I do with my land?” asked Zhan, a farmer from Luojiatang village in Jiangxi province.

Zhan is not alone. Zhuliang township, which administers Luojiatang, is home to 97 manufacturers of school supplies which employ a large number of people. Increasingly rich villagers have bought homes in Zhuliang, but almost none wish to change their hukou status.

In Nancheng and nearby counties, around half of new apartments in county seats are snapped up by rural residents. Cities in the inland province of Jiangxi, except the capital of Nanchang, have less allure for rural residents.

Some 3,500 rural residents move into town each year, but almost none come to change the hukou status even there is no longer any hurdle, said Liu Zhiying, an official at the Yihuang county public security bureau.

Hukou status in small towns does not hold much benefit. Wang Kaiyu, a researcher with the Anhui provincial academy of social sciencies, says that many small cities are less developed and do not have enough fiscal revenue to offer good public services.

In comparison, rural hukou brings many benefits, including a courtyard house, farming subsidies and rents from farm land. Some farmers near city suburbs even get huge compensation after land seizure.

The unwillingness to change to urban status in small cities, coupled with difficulty in getting hukou status in big cities, challenge the urbanization drive championed by the new leadership.

China’s city dwellers account for 52.6 percent of the population if calculated by permanent population, according to Vice Minister of Public Security Huang Ming. The proportion falls to 35.3 percent if the calculation is based on hukou.

A statement last Saturday after an urbanization conference promises help for 260 million migrant workers to gain urbanite status and become integrated city residents.

The government has promised to fully remove hukou restrictions in towns and small cities, gradually ease restrictions in bigger cities and set reasonable conditions for settling in big cities.

Some localities have awarded all residents the same hukou status while safeguarding the interests of the farming population.

In Tongling, a city of 740,000 in Anhui province, all residents have the same hukou status. The migrants can still earn benefits from their land and, after moving to the city, they are entitled to the same pubic services as any other city dweller.

When the social security net expands to cover rural people, the land system should be reformed, said Wang.

“Farmers’ rights should be protected and they should be allowed to dispose of their land, otherwise the enthusiasm for urban status will be dampened,” he said.

Two lawyers filed a public interest lawsuit against film director Zhang Yimou on Thursday for his violation of the family planning policy.

They also wanted to use the suit to air their anger at the policy’s failure to constrain celebrities and the rich.

Family planning authorities in Wuxi, Jiangsu province, found that Zhang fathered three children with his wife Chen Ting before they married in 2011. Under the policy, Zhang can have only one child.

Jia Fangyi, one of the two lawyers, accused Zhang of infringing upon public interests.

“The rich have become increasingly audacious by violating the family planning policy just because they are rich enough to pay the fine, … and they take an extra share of resources from society,” Jia said in a statement.

“It’s unfair to the poor and those who strictly follow the national policy.”

Jia filed the lawsuit with the Intermediate People’s Court in Wuxi and requested the court fine Zhang 500 million yuan ($82.1 million) in compensation for public resources and another 500 million yuan for punishment.

Guo Chengxi, the other lawyer, added that an increasing number of celebrities are flouting the family planning regulation, bringing negative social effects.

Qi Lianfeng, a lawyer with the Yingke Law Firm in Beijing, said there is slim chance that the court would accept the case, as the Civil Procedure Law requires plaintiffs to be directly related to the case.

But he said the application reflects public dissatisfaction with the rich.

In an online survey by ifeng.com, 72.7 percent of 65,000 netizens polled said they were concerned about the trend in which the wealthy violate the family planning policy.

More than half of the respondents said they believe Zhang procrastinated in responding to the public outcry toward his actions and that he apologized only under growing social pressure.

The family planning bureau in Binhu district, Wuxi, where Zhang’s wife hails from, started an investigation in May. But it was not until early this month that Zhang publicly admitted having three children and apologized. He has received no punishment yet.

Gu Xiaoming, a sociologist from Fudan University in Shanghai, said Zhang should be heavily punished as he has set a bad example.

On Wednesday, Zhang responded to questions such as why he did not opt for emigration, saying “he wants his children to remain Chinese”.

Some Chinese celebrities evade the family planning policy by having foreign citizenship or giving birth outside the Chinese mainland.

Meanwhile, the family planning authority in Wuxi said it is investigating how Zhang managed to get hukou, or permanent residence permits, for his three children.

According to family planning regulations in Jiangsu province, couples who violate the policies have to pay fines five to eight times the average annual income of the area where the children were born.

If a couple’s annual income is more than double the area’s average income, the couple will be subject to additional fines. The amount of any fine varies in different counties or cities.

Xue Charles Bi-Chuen, an investor and prolific microblogger was arrested in Beijing last Friday.

Police in Beijing have captured 27 people after they were found to have been involved in prostitution, including Chinese-American Xue Charles Bi-Chuen, who is a famous online commentator.

Xue, 60, an investor and prolific microblogger with more than 12 million followers, was arrested in the Chaoyang District of Beijing last Friday, police said.

Xue was accused of group licentiousness for participating in group sex parties, according to police, adding that among the detainees nine were male and 18 were female, who were captured in late August.

Investigation found Xue, whose Chinese name was “Xue Biqun” and was verified as “Xue Manzi” in Sina Weibo, China’s most popular Twitter-like service, came to China in 2007 and had engaged in licentious activities with more than ten female sex workers since May this year.

He also admitted that he has a problem with his addiction to soliciting prostitutes.

After the local police reported Xue’s detaining to the U.S. embassy on Saturday, the embassy sent its consular officers to visit him on Monday afternoon.

“We are aware that a US citizen has been detained in Beijing, and the embassy will provide all appropriate consular assistance,” Justin Higgins, acting spokesman of the US embassy, told the Global Times late Wednesday in an interview, but refused to make further comment due to “considerations of privacy.”

The case is still under investigation, local police said.

Xue Manzi, who currently has over 12 million Weibo followers, has advocated for critical illness insurance in China, initiated a campaign to track down trafficked children and called for transparent details on pollution in the country.

Xinhua contributed to this story.