Chindia Alert: You’ll be Living in their World Very Soon
aims to alert you to the threats and opportunities that China and India present. China and India require serious attention; case of ‘hidden dragon and crouching tiger’.
Without this attention, governments, businesses and, indeed, individuals may find themselves at a great disadvantage sooner rather than later.
The POSTs (front webpages) are mainly 'cuttings' from reliable sources, updated continuously.
The PAGEs (see Tabs, above) attempt to make the information more meaningful by putting some structure to the information we have researched and assembled since 2006.
BEIJING, Dec. 2 (Xinhua) — China has selected 30 outstanding grass-roots police officers, plus five awardees of special respect and 35 for nomination awards.
The list was selected in a campaign jointly launched by the Publicity Department of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the Ministry of Public Security in August this year.
The campaign was aimed at encouraging police across the country to work hard to maintain political security and social stability and to improve public understanding of the police work, according to a joint statement by the two departments.
The five awardees of special respect include a group of police officers in east China’s Zhejiang Province who risked their own lives in evacuating vehicles and personnel trapped in a tunnel after fire broke out.
They also include police officers who died on duty – one of them was guiding vehicles on an icy road in Fujian Province, southeast China, but was hit by an out-of-control heavy truck while trying to save passengers nearby.
The 30 outstanding police officers include criminal police, police with special duties, anti-drug police, police who remove explosives, plainclothes police, among others, who have worked diligently for years under dangerous circumstances.
They also include officers who have worked seemingly ordinary jobs but have demonstrated extraordinary perseverance or devotion in serving the public. Officers who have worked in difficult situations for a long time, such as the gobi desert and prisons with criminals living with HIV/AIDS, have also been selected.
Also on the list are some officers who actively seek innovations to incorporate the Internet, satellite and other new technologies into police work.
In addition, several female officers who have worked at a prison or as a forensic expert have received the award.
The 39 people found dead in a refrigerated trailer in Essex were Chinese nationals, it is understood.
Police are continuing to question lorry driver Mo Robinson, 25, who was arrested on suspicion of murder.
Officers in Northern Ireland have raided two houses and the National Crime Agency said it was working to identify “organised crime groups who may have played a part”.
The trailer arrived in Purfleet on the River Thames from Zeebrugge in Belgium.
Ambulance staff discovered the bodies of the 38 adults and one teenager in the container at Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays just after 01:30 BST on Wednesday.
The lorry and trailer left the port at Purfleet shortly after 01:05.
Police said the tractor unit – the front part of the lorry – came from Northern Ireland and picked up the trailer from Purfleet.
Image copyright FACEBOOKImage caption The lorry driver has been named locally as Mo Robinson, from County Armagh
Councillor Paul Berry said the village of Laurelvale in County Armagh, where the Robinson family live, was in “complete shock”.
He said he had been in contact with Mr Robinson’s father, who had learned of his son’s arrest on Wednesday through social media.
“The local community is hoping that he [Mo Robinson] has been caught up innocently in this matter but that’s in the hands of Essex Police, and we will leave it in their professional hands to try to catch the perpetrators of this,” he said.
The Belgian Federal Public Prosecutor’s Office said it had opened a case which would focus on the organisers and others involved in the transport.
A spokesman said the container arrived in Zeebrugge at 14:29 on Tuesday and left the port later that afternoon before arriving in Purfleet in the early hours of Wednesday.
It was not clear when the victims were placed in the container or if this happened in Belgium, he said.
Media caption Essex lorry deaths: CCTV shows arrival at industrial park
St Peter and St Paul’s Church in Grays will be open for people to light candles and say prayers between 12:00 and 14:00.
A vigil is being held at 18:00 outside the Home Office to “call for urgent action to ensure safe passage” for people fleeing war and poverty.
The lorry was moved to a secure site at Tilbury Docks on Wednesday so the bodies could be “recovered while preserving the dignity of the victims”.
Essex Police initially suggested the lorry could be from Bulgaria, but later said officers believed it entered the UK from Belgium.
The force said formal identification of the 39 bodies “could be a lengthy process”.
A spokesman for the Bulgarian foreign affairs ministry said the truck was registered in the country under the name of a company owned by an Irish citizen.
He said it was “highly unlikely” the deceased were Bulgarians.
Shaun Sawyer, the National Police Chiefs Council lead for modern slavery and human trafficking, said while forces had prevented thousands of deaths, “tragically, for 39 people that didn’t work yesterday”.
He told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme even if there were routes perceived as easier to get through, organised criminals would still exploit people who could not access those.
“You can’t turn the United Kingdom into a fortress,” added Mr Sawyer, who is the Chief Constable of Devon and Cornwall Police.
Media caption I’ve seen people running out of a lorry’
Thurrock’s Conservative MP Jackie Doyle-Price said there needed to be an international response.
“We have partnerships in place but those efforts need to be rebooted, this is an international criminal world where many gangs are making lots of money and until states act collectively to tackle that it is going to continue,” she said.
Richard Burnett, chief executive of the Road Haulage Association, said temperatures in refrigerated trailers could be as low as -25C.
He described conditions for anyone inside as “absolutely horrendous”.
Prime Minister Boris Johnson said it was an “unimaginable tragedy and truly heartbreaking”.
In 2015, the bodies of 71 people were found in an abandoned lorry on an Austrian motorway. Police suspected the vehicle was part of a Bulgarian-Hungarian human trafficking operation.
Superstitious medical student, 23, said it was customary in her hometown to throw money for good luck
Cousin’s child had fallen ill on flight from Jiangxi to Sichuan, she said
A woman was fined for tossing coins onto the apron at an airport in Sichuan province. Photo: Weibo
A woman who threw coins onto the parking apron at an airport in southwest China in the superstitious belief it might cure her cousin’s baby’s diarrhoea was instead fined 200 yuan (US$28), local media reported.
The incident happened on September 5, as the woman, surnamed Wang, and a group of her relatives arrived in Xichang, Sichuan province, after flying from Nanchang, Jiangxi province, to attend a family wedding, the Chengdu Business News reported on Friday.
Wang, 23, dropped the coins through the gap between the aircraft and the jet bridge as she and her family were disembarking.
Police said the medical student was shocked when she realised the trouble she had caused. Photo: Weibo
Although no one spotted what she had done at the time, airport workers later found three coins on the ground while conducting a security check and reported the matter to the police.
Officers reviewed footage from the airport’s surveillance cameras and identified Wang as the guilty party and went to see her at her hotel the following morning, the report said.
Wang said that during the flight her cousin’s baby had suffered from diarrhoea and that it was customary in her hometown to toss coins in the hope it would bring the child good luck.
“She said she didn’t realise her action could have had a very serious outcome,” a police officer was quoted as saying, adding that Wang appeared shocked when she realised the trouble she had caused.
However, as her actions had not resulted in any delays to flights or created any other problems, she was charged only with a minor offence.
Many Chinese think tossing coins before a flight will bring them good luck. Photo: EPA
Wang, who recently completed a bachelor’s degree in medicine and was preparing to sit a graduate school entrance examination, was worried the incident might have an impact on her future education and job prospects, the officer said.
More than 5,000 people commented on the story on news portal 163.com, with one asking: “You are so superstitious, how can you treat patients?”
In recent years there have been numerous reports of Chinese travellers causing delays and being punished for tossing coins onto airport runways and even into aircraft engines.
In April, a woman was detained for throwing six coins as she was about to board a plane in southern China in the hope it would guarantee her a safe trip.
Top law enforcement body starts campaign to rally mainland support for officers amid anti-government protests
Maxim’s described as ‘company that loves the country and loves Hong Kong’ after condemnation of unrest by daughter of founder
Officer Lau (third from left) and police colleagues receive a delivery of mooncakes. Photo: Weibo
China’s top law enforcement agency has shown its support for Hong Kong’s embattled police by delivering 650 boxes of mooncakes to the force’s dormitories and stations ahead of Friday’s Mid-Autumn Festival.
The festive gifts were sent after an online campaign titled “I want to send hometown delicacies to Hong Kong Police”, launched last Friday by Chang An Jian, an official social media account of the Central Political and Legal Affairs Commission, Beijing’s top political body responsible for law and order.
The commission – a Communist Party organ, rather than a government body that police report to – said in a blog post that seven people had donated about 150,000 yuan (US$21,000) between them.
The campaign represents the latest display of mainland support for the force, with no end in sight to mass protests in Hong Kong triggered in June by opposition to an
that would have allowed the transfer of criminal suspects to mainland China. Hong Kong police have faced numerous accusations of excessive use of force during the unrest.
But the mooncake delivery was complicated by customs regulations, with most major Chinese courier services unwilling to take deliveries containing processed meat and egg yolk across the border with Hong Kong.
“[We] were panicking because a lot of enthusiastic netizens had their salted duck and mooncake deliveries to Hong Kong rejected by couriers!” a Chang An Jian blog post said on Wednesday night.
In the end, 650 boxes of mooncakes that were bought from Hong Kong were sent to police dormitories and stations on Wednesday evening.
Mid-Autumn Festival is the second most important traditional Chinese holiday after Lunar New Year.
“[The mooncakes] were from Maxim’s, a company that loves the country and loves Hong Kong!” the blog post also said.
Annie Wu Suk-ching, whose father co-founded the Maxim’s chain, last week
She was lauded by Communist Party mouthpiece People’s Daily for “clearly adhering to the one country principle” – referring to “one country, two systems”, the principle under which Hong Kong was guaranteed a high degree of autonomy after it was handed over from British to Chinese rule in 1997.
One of Maxim’s biggest rival mooncake manufacturers in Hong Kong, Taipan Bread and Cake, had its products removed from shops across the Chinese mainland and from its biggest e-commerce sites, Tmall.com and JD.com, after the son of its founder was vilified by People’s Daily for a Facebook post that the newspaper said showed he backed the protests.
Recipients of the mooncakes included a police officer who in July was hailed as a hero by Chinese state media and nicknamed “bald sergeant Lau Sir” after pointing a shotgun at protesters who had besieged a police station. Lau has since been invited by Beijing to attend a grand celebration on October 1 for the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Mooncake importer says stock will be destroyed after mainland backlash
Beijing has focused attention on the violent elements of the Hong Kong protests in its social media posts and media coverage, while businesses have been carefully monitored and expected to toe Beijing’s line on condemning violence and supporting one country, two systems.
“Hong Kong Police have been having a very difficult time,” said one mainlander, surnamed Lu, in a video posted by Chang An Jian. “We want to cheer them up.”
CHINDIA ALERT: You'll be living in their world, very soon 