He Weifang 贺卫方 is a Chinese law professor affiliated with Peking University (PKU). Before being given tenure at PKU in 1992, he was the editor at Comparative Law 比较法研究 and Peking University Law Journal 中外法学, both published by the university. Aside from his academic life, He is also a popular essayist and social commentator.
Various front pages in China today feature glowing reports of China’s first aircraft carrier on whose platform a flag raising ceremony was held yesterday. Yet the fact that it happened is just about everything we know for sure about the ship. The Shenzhen Evening Post (深圳晚报) has a special feature today on the carrier, filled with speculation as to when the ship will be formally launched and who the captain will be. Officially the ship is called China’s first aircraft carrier Platform 16 warship (中国第一艘航母平台16号舰), and yesterday while it was moored in the port of Dalian in Liaoning province a special flag raising ceremony was held on its deck at 4 pm. At 4:26 pm, the five-starred flag of China was raised on the mast on the bridge, while two other military flags were simultaneously raised on the bow and stern of the ship.
Chinese government state-controlled media, China Central Television (CCTV), launched its African regional bureau in Nairobi, Kenya on January 11, 2012. While its presence has diversified the media landscape in Africa, media watchdogs and foreign media outlets - such as CNN and the New York Times - have been rather skeptical of its journalistic independence given the media organization's close ties with the government.
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To this day, I am not sure why the Chinese government approved my request to visit the PRC in the summer of 1966.
Lin Tianmiao was born in Taiyuan, Shanxi in 1961 to an artistic family. Her father was a traditional painter and her mother a dancer. In the 1980s, she married video artist Wang Gongxin, moved to New York, and became a textile designer. It wasn’t until the couple moved back to Beijing in the mid-90s that Lin began her career as an artist. Her installation works are known for using images of herself and a laborious thread winding technique to direct attention to feminist issues of the body and women's domestic labor.
Today, the Chinese state news agency Xinhua announced that Wang Lijun, the former Chongqing police chief, has been found guilty by a court in Chengdu of four criminal charges, including defection, abuse of power, taking bribes, and bending the law for personal gain. The court sentenced Mr. Wang to fifteen years in prison.
This is a story that sounds familiar, that we think we know or can imagine: old houses torn down for luxury malls, ordinary people poorly compensated, an intimate way of life replaced by highways and high-rises.
Chinese court officials have found Wang Lijun, a former police chief, guilty of four criminal charges after he fled to a United States Consulate last February and told diplomats there that the wife of a senior politician had murdered a British businessman, according to a report on Monday by Xinhua, the state news agency.
A common refrain in official statements and court documents is: "China is a socialist country run by the rule of law. The dignity and power of law shall not be trampled." But how Bogu Kailai and her accomplices were able to disregard Chinese law deserves deep reflection. Among the most gruesome findings in the recent release of details on the Wang Lijun trial was just how far-reaching illegal practices permeated the Chongqing municipal government.
