Beijing Newspeak

Last week, two Chinese students were locked up for a minimum of 18 and a half years for the kidnapping and murder of a fellow Chinese student in Auckland last year. A third student was cleared of murder but was jailed for a minimum of three and a half years for his role in the kidnapping of 19-year-old Wan Biao.

According to the AFP report, Judge John Priestley said:

“All three of you have participated in a chilling crime. It was calculated, callous and cruel … The three of you lived in an unreal world of cyberspace and sloth.”

His appraisal was based on these gory details:

After luring Wan to an Auckland hotel, the three contacted his mother in China demanding a ransom of four million yuan (540,000 US dollars).

But they strangled and knifed him the same night. After a failed attempt to saw his head off, Wan’s body was stuffed into a suitcase and thrown into the harbour.

The suitcase was found floating the next day, and the kidnappers rang Wan’s mother again, the court was told.

“Your son offended us, he deserved to have this result,” they told her.

As the AP report tells us, the judge was in little doubt as to the motivation of the crimes committed by Cui Xiangxin, Li Zheng and Wang Yuxi:

“Your greed for money led you to hatch this plan,” he told the court.

With these comments in mind, it was intriguing to see China Daily’s report (proxy link because I can’t seem to access the story on the website at the moment) on the sentencing. The first seven paragraphs covered the court proceedings but omitted the judge’s four Cs - chilling, callous, calculated and cruel - and also the reference to greed. The remainder, which was in fact the majority of the article, went down, in my opinion, a curious and inappropriate route:

Some Chinese students and educators believe the “shocking” case raises concern over the situations Chinese students studying abroad have to confront.

“I am shocked. I feel pity for the convicts’ parents because they must have made a great effort to send their sons overseas for studies. They must have felt proud doing so but now they must be desperate,” said Zhang Yongguang, who went to study in Britain when he was 18 and has lived there for six years.

Peking University’s professor of sociology Xia Xueluan said some Chinese students who go abroad face psychological pressure in the beginning and need help from teachers and peers to overcome it.

“Some students have big difficulties with language, which may add to their anxiety and even lead to abnormal behavior,” Xia said.

Chinese employers favor professionals who have studied abroad and have a understanding of different cultures. This prompts many Chinese families to try and send their children abroad for studies. Ministry of Education data show the number of self-financed Chinese students studying abroad has risen 10 times from 1998 to 121,000 last year.

According to Beijing Normal University professor Hong Chengwen, parents should think twice before deciding to send their children abroad.

Wan was a ‘nice guy’

Wan Biao, the 19-year-old student who was kidnapped and murdered in New Zealand, was from the affluent city of Yiwu in Zhejiang Province. Yiwu is called “China’s capital of small commodities”.

Wan was a student of an Auckland language school when three fellow Chinese kidnapped him in April last year, and two of them strangulated him to death.

Wan’s family is well-off, according to Zhejiang media reports. His father is in the construction business, and the family owns a four-story house.

“Wan Biao was a thin, tall man and I think he was a nice guy,” a local newspaper quoted a neighbor as having said. “He always used to smile at me when we met on the stairs.”

An official with the foreign affairs office of Yiwu local government said more and more local families are sending their children overseas for studies.

There is no denying many Chinese students must find it hard to adapt to new lives at universities overseas. Indeed, a report in the New Zealand Herald from April this year says:

Chinese students face a large gap between their expectations of New Zealand (and) the reality, research has found.

Many felt lonely and isolated and found it hard to make New Zealand friends.

“They want to drive cars and be free and are not prepared adequately for the different lifestyle here and the culture shock,” Waikato University researcher Elsie Ho said today.

“Together with freedom comes responsibility and they are unable to handle that.”

They had problems that came with living on their own in a flat, far from their pampered lives in China, she said.

Language and cultural problems made it very difficult to adapt.

Emotional support was not always forthcoming from China as students were reluctant to reveal problems they faced.

All valid points and an issue that deserves discussion. But surely not here, not in a report about a ”chilling” crime and not as a veiled justification for the violent actions of three disturbed Chinese students. I’m sure language difficulties do create anxiety, resulting in sometimes “abnormal behaviour”. Most newcomers to China find themselves, at least once, responding to a communication breakdown that arises from failing to pay a bill, extend a visa or buy a carrot, by berating anyone within a one-mile radius. But there is a long way to travel down the road of mental torment before you end up trying to saw someone’s head off. This report from the Australian Associated Press (via The Age) also said:

The judge accepted the three were isolated from their families, with little social support or parental supervision.

But there were many Chinese students in a similar situation in New Zealand who were leading enriching lives.

The China Daily story mentioned that Wan’s family was well-off but didn’t appear to have access to the following information given in the AAP story:

The victim impact report indicated the devastation of Wan’s mother and father at their son’s death.

They had since suffered health problems for which they would need continuing medication, while all the work they had put into their son’s future was rendered meaningless.

They were continuing to go through “infinite pain and sadness”, something that would follow them for the rest of their lives.

The main reason why China Daily would never have had access to that information was the failure of Xinhua’s one-man bureau in New Zealand to report the sentencing at all. In fact, the last story Xinhua produced on the case came in June, 2006. Clearly, the Xinhua journalist in NZ had more pressing priorities to address, judged by the latest offering to limp out of Wellington, which begins:

WELLINGTON, Dec. 11 (Xinhua) — The New Zealand track cycling team returned home Tuesday from the UCI World Cup in Beijing, extremely impressed by the indoor track venue ahead of the Olympics next year.

They won a pursuit team silver in Beijing, having a satisfactory round of results with the men’s team pursuit going close to upsetting the world champion English team in the pursuit final.

The team manager Craig Adair said the venue was very impressive. He said facilities are fantastic, and the locals have looked after the team well.

I might as well just state the obvious to act as a concluding paragraph … things would have been a lot different if Wan Biao’s murderers had not been Chinese.

Just a quick update on the Beijing police’s docile efforts to harmonize Sanlitun’s streets (nothing like a good bit of “soft power”). Associated Press (via Yahoo News here) released the following report yesterday in which the police denied targeting black men:

BEIJING - Beijing authorities denied Thursday that a weekend raid on a bar district in which police allegedly beat the son of Grenada’s ambassador specifically targeted black men.

A police statement said the crackdown netted five illegal residents.

The raid early Saturday in the popular Sanlitun district stunned the city’s expatriate community because it was violent and appeared to target only black men. It prompted Grenada Ambassador Joslyn Whiteman to demand an explanation of the incident from the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

Whiteman’s son, 22-year-old Joslyn Paul Whiteman Jr., suffered a concussion while being detained during the raid. He was held for several hours, then released without charge.

An American who witnessed the raid said two to three dozen people were detained, all black, with police using varying degrees of force to restrain them, including beating some with rubber truncheons.

But police denied that blacks were the focus of the raid.

“The action was not targeted at any specific group of people,” said an official surnamed Zhao at the information office of the Beijing Public Security Bureau.

“The police action that night was aimed at rectifying social order,” said Zhao, who refused to give his full name.

A South China Morning Post reporter who witnessed and wrote about the incident reported Monday that police on the scene told him that it was an anti-drug operation.

Zhao said such social order actions do address crimes involving drugs but that none of the people detained that night was charged with drug crimes.

In a separate statement earlier Thursday, the Public Security Bureau said five of the detained people were charged with illegal residence. It gave no additional details.

A duty officer at China’s Foreign Ministry said the matter was being investigated. He declined to give his name in line with ministry policy.

 One of the few things the police did say to the South China Morning Post reporter outside the station last Friday was: “This is an anti-drug operation.” A resounding success all round then according to Mr Zhao at the PSB.

“Zhao said … that none of the people detained that night was charged with drug crimes”.

I’m an unavoidable day late with this post but I think there are a few things to add regarding the drug raid in Beijing’s main bar district Sanlitun on Friday night, particularly as the Reuters report (via the Guardian) only touches upon the story:

BEIJING, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Chinese paramilitary police swept through a busy bar district in Beijing, detaining about 20 African nationals suspected of selling drugs, witnesses said.

The raid at midnight on Friday in fashionable Sanlitun, also home to many embassies, came as police tighten security ahead of a Communist Party meeting in mid-October and next year’s Olympic Games.

“The paramilitary police sealed off the street at both ends, then moved in,” said a witness surnamed Wang.

“Some Africans entered the vans peacefully but others tried to flee and the police used force,” added Wang, who works on the street frequented by young foreigners.

Other witnesses said the troops targeted anyone on the street with dark skin.

The Ministry of Public Security and the Beijing police both declined immediate comment. Chinese police rarely get involved with foreigners if they can help it, owing mainly to poor foreign language skills.

As we can see from the South China Morning Post article below, the key point is the wild nature of the police operation in which anyone who was black was targeted.

Dozens of black tourists and expatriates, including the son of the Grenadian ambassador, were arrested and some badly beaten during an apparently indiscriminate anti-drug operation by Beijing police.

About 30 men, mostly African or Caribbean, were detained as dozens of baton-wielding security guards and uniformed police swept through Beijing’s nightlife district, Sanlitun. Students, tourists and the ambassador’s son Joslyn Whiteman Jnr were among those wrestled to the ground, handcuffed and hauled to a nearby police station.

At least three people, including Mr Whiteman, were beaten with rubber truncheons despite few signs that they were resisting arrest.

Grenadian ambassador Joslyn Whiteman said he was furious at the way his son was treated. The 22-year-old spent a night in hospital with a concussion.

“Obviously I’m very angry,” the ambassador said. “My son was arrested and beaten for no reason whatsoever. I will be taking this up with the authorities and looking into the matter.”

Witnesses said the round-up appeared to be aimed squarely at black men. Those who tried to photograph the incident were made to delete the images from their mobile phones and cameras.

“It was pretty brutal,” Beijing-based magazine editor Alex Reid said.

“I saw a man being beaten by six guys in camouflage. He was covered in blood. The police seemed to be targeting anyone who was black.”

Thabo Lieket, a 24-year-old student from Lesotho, was among those arrested and later released without charge. He thought the police assumed he was dealing in drugs because he was black, he said.

“They were rounding up all the black people; it was pretty frightening,” he said. “I was walking with some friends past one of the bars when I was grabbed by some of the guys in camouflage. They dragged us all to the police station, where we were put in the same cell.”

When asked about the incident, a police officer at the Sanlitun station said: “This is an anti-drug operation.”

I have no doubt the SCMP report can be taken as read as I consider the author of the article - housemate, friend of ten years and a member of my journalism class - to be a very reliable source. He was present at the scene of the chaos on Friday night, having a beer outside the Saddle bar opposite Tongli Studios. I feel it is worth detailing exactly what happened, away from the constraints of a limited word count and the news story format.

At about 1am, a group of five or six men in camouflage uniform charged past the Saddle towards Poachers’ Inn. Their average age was around 18 and 19 - some looked as young as 16, others maybe 25 - and their scruffy appearance, straggly hair and gangly limbs made them look decidedly amateurish. They do not seem to deserve the title “paramilitary police” given to them by the Reuters’ witness. A few Saddle patrons, including the SCMP reporter, followed them and saw three black men kneeling in the street surrounded by a group of about seven camouflaged men and three in Beijing police uniform. One man was handcuffed and was being beaten by foot-long batons, while he shouted his protestations; the other two were being threatened with blows. The policemen, much older than the camouflaged mob, were making sure onlookers stayed back. One was holding a gun but not pointing it with purpose. At no stage did the SCMP reporter see any resistance that warranted this kind of treatment but he didn’t see if the men had tried to resist arrest in the first place.

The three men were hauled up and taken to the police station around the corner. Many people were taking pictures and video footage. The SCMP reporter followed the police but his friend had to stay behind for a moment as the police deleted the pictures she had taken with her digital camera. She was allowed to keep two photos of blood on the pavement. Many others were forced to delete the images they had taken. By the way, someone has video footage (haven’t seen it myself) of this incident so I hope it will be online shortly.

The SCMP reporter stood with several other foreigners outside the police station. There was a feeling of indignation, disgust and the sense that they should at least make their presence felt so the police would know they were being observed. It should be said at this point the incident still appeared to be the arrest of three black men on the suspicion of dealing drugs. The picture changed over the next hour, however, as snatch squads of five to six young men in camouflage kept running out of the station and returning with more arrests, all black men. It was becoming clear that the teams were being sent out to the bars and told to bring back anyone who was black. By 2am, 20 to 30 men had been arrested, ranging from a tourist and a student (quoted in SCMP article) to possible drug dealers and the son of the Grenadian ambassador. One man was led in with his shoulder covered in blood.

The police began to release people without charge at about 2.15am. Those with valid passports and visas were allowed to go - the student from Lesotho was lucky enough to remember his passport number. Outside the station, the SCMP reporter spoke to a white Canadian guy. He had been drinking with a fellow student, who was black, in a bar until his drinking buddy was snatched from under his eyes and dragged outside into the street. The reporter spoke to two black men who had been arrested in separate incidents. Their Chinese friends had warned them that police appeared to be rounding up anyone who was black and carting them off. Worried, they left the bar and were grabbed by the camouflaged mob, rather than men in police uniform. It is no wonder some innocent people were caught trying to run away.

The SCMP reporter and two of his friends then entered the police station and propped up the counter. One of his friends was nagging the police, firing questions at them. They answered two questions and volunteered a justification in the course of an hour. “What are you doing?” “This is an anti-drug operation.” “Why are you beating the people?” “Because they tried to run away.” This was followed by, “You’re an American. The police in America beat people too.” According to the SCMP reporter, most of the staff in the police station looked bemused at the foreigners’ bemusement.

The Grenadian ambassador Joslyn Whiteman, and his wife, arrived at about 2.30am, angry and distressed but grateful to the foreigners that they had stayed around the police station. He even had the good humour to comment that he was the only “white man” in the building. After giving the police a description of his son to a policewoman who spoke some English, he was told his son had been released. They found him later and took him to hospital where he stayed overnight due to truncheon-induced concussion.

China Expat has written a post that addresses the racial implications of this incident. I will focus on the shocking baseness of the policework and sheer ignorance of the authorities involved. It is unclear to whom the young men in camouflage were affiliated. From the description of their appearance, I find it hard to accept they belonged to either the police or the military. It sounds like some kind of security company made up of untrained youths hired by the Beijing police to do their dirty work. This ensures that no one has video or photographic evidence of a uniformed Beijing policeman dishing out a beating with a baton. But it also demonstrates the clumsiness in the way the police carried out the anti-drug operation. The overwhelming majority of drug dealers in Sanlitun are black Africans and the way in which they conduct business is blatant. The simple combination of surveillance and plain clothes could notch up an arrest a day at least. Instead, it appears the logic was: drug dealers are black so if we round up enough black people we will catch some drug dealers. If they show fear or resist then they are guilty.

Maybe the police prefer a public show of its strength to act as a deterrant and to demonstrate their unerring efforts to combat drugs in line with the Minister of Public Security’s call to clamp down … etc … ahead of the Party congress. Well in this case, it has forgotten its audience. Too many appalled foreigners, too many foreigners with links to the media. If their thinking is that the rough treatment will convince the drug dealers to go straight, then they are surely misguided. The incident had the appearance of being all for show and it has received negative coverage in the media. There won’t be any further drug raids in Sanlitun for a while so it appears it is now safe to peddle illegal substances on its streets. It does appear to be a very localised effort to make a few drug-related arrests. If the Beijing police have aspirations of ridding drug-dealing from the capital’s streets then it should adopt a more citywide approach. After all, it is well known that most of the drug dealers have relocated to another area of Beijing over the last year or so. When I first arrived in Beijing at the beginning of 2006, a stroll down the busy main road of Gongti Beilu would be to the soundtrack of “Hey, man” from African drug dealers. This just doesn’t seem to happen anymore.

As for the bar district of Sanlitun, I often find there is a tinge of aggression in the air, particularly outside Tongli Studios (the area where the police raid occurred). Probably no more than outside De Niro’s in Newmarket, H2O in Bishop’s Stortford, Jumping Jack’s in Harlow or any other of the small-town nightclubs in which I had the opportunity to meet many of the UK’s leading fools during my teenage years. But a tinge nonetheless, accentuated in my mind perhaps because Beijing is generally free from all the loutish (why do I feel so much older than my years when I use that word?) nonsense that goes on in Britain. It does seem that lashings of violence in Sanlitun, like the one written about on the Zhongnanhai blog here, are happening more frequently though.

Related links:

Africa Beat - http://jenbrea.typepad.com/africabeat/2007/09/africans-beaten.html#comments

Newsweek blog - http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/ov/archive/2007/09/25/beijing-vice-a-brutal-bust-reveals-the-strong-arm-of-the-chinese-law.aspx

http://www.beijingnewspeak.com/2007/09/28/sanlitun-saga-update-anti-drug-operation-uncovers-no-drugs/

There was a endearing clumsiness to Xinhua’s propagandic treatment of International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking (which fell yesterday by the way). On the eve of the big day, eight stories on the topic passed through my office. It wasn’t enough of course. Yesterday, an additional four stories came our way - and that was by the time I crawled out of the compound at 8:30 pm. It’s the kind of thing you can guffaw raucously (with a rabid tinge) about with a colleague but if you were polishing solo, so to speak, the only option would be to alter your mind with Class A drugs purely out of spite.

We were particularly entertained by the some of the honesty that sprung out of the copy such as:

BEIJING, June 25 (Xinhua) — The Supreme People’s Court (SPC) on Monday announced its approval of the death penalty for seven drug traffickers, a day before the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

Let’s not beat around the bush - this is a politically motivated announcement, it concedes. However, it’s not as blunt as this one:

Chinese and South African police yesterday announced the arrest of four Chinese men who tried to smuggle 2.5 million pills of the drug methaqualone worth US$26 million into South Africa.

The announcement of arrest, which occurred in November, of the four men surnamed Wu, Zeng, Pu and Xu comes a day before the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

Actually, “which occurred in November” was removed by an eagle-eyed apologist but the Chinese version had that snippet of information. There’s nothing like tinkering with the justice system for promotional gains. Luckily, the eight drug traffickers seized by Chinese and Filipino police in another story only had to sit tight for a few weeks for the announcement of their arrest to be made. They timed it well. An arrest just before International Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking Day cuts down on all that waiting around.

Criminals in China should really make sure they carry around a calendar of these “international days” which promote the fight against one crime or another. Those on death row, such as the three drug dealers who were executed in Fujian on Monday, would have a clearer idea of the date of their day of reckoning. And for gangster celebrities such as Li Bin, the self-proclaimed “King of Shanghai’s Underworld” (or as one translation put it, “No 1 Rogue of the Bund”, which would look good emblazoned across a billboard on the banks of the Huangpu River), their fate is just downright predictable. Sentenced to death on October 25 last year, the sentence was upheld by a higher court yesterday. I hope he knows he has 364 days of living to do until the next International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking.

Another “international day”, another saturation of Chinese government press releases (also paying tribute to Myanmar’s relentless effforts etc). Although, the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, which fell on the same day, seems to have slipped by unnoticed. My main regret is that I was on holiday when World Press Freedom Day fell on May 3. Still, I shall look forward to World Population Day on July 11 when I shall learn a lot more about the one-child policy.

I have never worked for a foreign media organization in China so I’ll have to write this post in ignorance.

I can’t help but feel the brick kiln slavery scandal (Jeremiah at Jottings from the Granite Studio has some great stuff here and here) has been a missed opportunity for quality, in-depth reporting from the field by foreign media based in China. After all, it is the news story in China at the moment. 

Since the first story about the child slaves in Shanxi was uncovered (the story on how it was revealed is on ESWN - along with some must-read material - here) by Henan TV Metro Channel reporter Fu Zhenzhong, I have hardly seen any significant reporting by international media from Shanxi and Henan. Xinhua and China Daily are being relied upon to provide updates on arrests and the number of people being rescued. Fu Zhenzhong said that he had heard of 1,000 families looking for lost children. The latest figure from Xinhua is that 12 children have been discovered working as forced labourers in brick kilns in Shanxi. We know that these reports will only include a certain amount, and type, of information as dictated by this notice released by the CPC Central Office of External Communication which asked the media to place more emphasis on the “forceful measures” imposed by the central government to implement some form of justice.

As a result the story is gradually fizzling out when there is still a huge number of unanswered questions. Howard French of the New York Times said it himself:

SHANGHAI, June 20 — There is a certain ritualistic aspect to stories in China like the one this past week about the hundreds of people, many of them teenagers or even younger, who were forced to work under slavelike conditions in the brick kilns of Shanxi Province. First, Chinese readers are horrified by a picture of their country that many say they hardly recognize, then a villain is rounded up, and finally, after a torrent of unusually blunt and emotionally charged news reports and editorials, the matter drops from view, ensuring that the larger issue goes unresolved.

The villain in the case was Heng Tinghan, the manager of the brick works, who was arrested Saturday and promptly cemented his bad-guy image by protesting that it was a “fairly small thing” to beat and abuse underage workers, and to deprive them of pay. With his arrest, and the urging of the Central Office of External Communication of the Communist Party, the story then died away. But Chinese newspapers are constantly peppered with accounts of the death and injury of child laborers, and of disputes that arise because of unusually low wages, or the withholding of pay, with no region of the country exempted.

Commentaries from state media have been quoted by some international news sources with phrases like “in a rare strongly-worded commentary from …” etc. Some of these commentaries have limited importance. This one released in English by Xinhua was the opinion of one journalist in my department who wanted to express her disgust (which of course is a praiseworthy thing) and a couple of lines thrown in from me, the polisher, rather than a government opinion. I have never been a fan of Xinhua releasing commentaries - the nature of the agency as a political tool implies that an opinion piece originates from the Publicity Department rather than one journalist with a view.

I suspect there are several reasons why the bulk of the foreign media have not been covering the story from the scene of the scandal. Apparently, AFP wanted to send someone to cover it but were too short-staffed. I believe a few China correspondents may have been on a reporting trip to Taiwan when the incident came to light. Others probably thought they would spend hours travelling to Shanxi and Henan and get little out of it. The new regulations vaunted as increased freedom for reporting by foreign media in China do not seem to have changed the situation a great deal. Best to stay in Beijing and wear out the phone. Still, this would be an ideal chance to test those regulations out. If a foreign journalist meets with instant opposition then at least the world can learn the value of the regulations.

The true scale or impact of the incident can not be conveyed from Beijing or Shanghai. What is the effect on the local community? Have they heard of collusion between the police and brick kiln owners? What about the parents who haven’t been able to find their children? Have there been similar incidents, on a smaller scale, in the past? What do people living in Shanxi feel about the central government’s lack of control over local officials? It could go on …

Surely there is a lot to be said from being immersed in the emotionally charged aftermath rather than detached, on the other end of a telephone. In a recent post, I included a link to an article written by Jim Yardley of the New York Times about child abuse in Gansu back in 2005. This story was the only one about this incident and was filed from the village where the crimes were perpetrated, which is what sets it apart from the norm.

Maybe the fault lies with the foreign news desks around the world. They want the initial gory details and, as far as they are concerned, that’s that.

Every so often a report on some sickening crime that has been committed somewhere in China lands on my desk for editing. In the majority of cases, there are hardly any details, similar to this offering of three paragraphs I received last week.

Xinhua, Lanzhou (June 13) - A Chinese teacher has been sentenced to death for raping 18 female primary school pupils in northwestern Gansu Province.

Cheng Laifu, a teacher at a school in Changhe Township of Tongwei County under the jurisdiction of Dingxi City, was convicted of raping a total of 18 grade three and four - aged nine to ten years old - pupils on 70 separate occasions between September 2001 and March 2005, according to the Dingxi Municipal Intermediate People’s Court.

Cheng forced or lured the children into his dormitory or office under the pretext of tutoring them before committing the crimes, the court said.

Such a horrific event, so little effort in conveying it to the world. Pressing the journalist for more information on this story brought to light some opinions I found very difficult to accept and which luckily are not held by anywhere near the majority of journalists in my department.

The journalist in question began his case as to why he could not possibly get more information by bemoaning the lack of substance to a Sichuan newspaper report, which had just been copied down by a Xinhua journalist in the Lanzhou bureau. This is something I do symphathise with, but it is the English-language’s journalist to push them to find out more details. Then he decided to raise his hand, shield the side of his mouth nearest to his colleagues, and whisper, “This kind of thing is quite common in rural areas. People there are very uneducated.” He moved on to say how he didn’t want to exaggerate the story for the sake of the children who had suffered and that they should be allowed to forget. The final excuse was predictable and one I suspected was coming all along. “It would not be good for China’s image.”

I found it particularly worrying that this reasoning was coming from a young journalist of his own accord. It certainly wasn’t the opinion of the department and one of the more senior editors encouraged him to make a couple of phone calls. This was the version that was released and subsequently picked up by AP.

Xinhua, Lanzhou (June 13) - A Chinese teacher has been sentenced to death for raping 18 female primary school pupils in northwestern Gansu Province.

Cheng Laifu, a teacher at a school in Changhe Township of Tongwei County under the jurisdiction of Dingxi City, was convicted of raping a total of 18 grade three and four - aged nine to ten years old - pupils on 70 separate occasions between September 2001 and March 2005, according to the Western Economic Daily based in Gansu’s provincial capital of Lanzhou.

Cheng forced or lured the children into his dormitory or office under the pretext of tutoring them before committing the crimes, the report said, citing a statement released by the Dingxi Municipal Intermediate People’s Court.

Cheng even raped several girls at the same time, the court document said. “Cheng’s crimes have had an extremely negative impact on society,” the statement said.

But an official with the county education bureau, when contacted by Xinhua on Wednesday, refused to provide more details about Cheng and the name of the school. Sources said the the court had conducted a closed-door trial.

In July 2005, school teacher Li Guang, also from Changhe Township, was sentenced to death for raping 23 pupils in grade four and five between September and November in 2004, which led to the resignation of the director of the county education bureau surnamed Cui.

But the local education official would not say whether the two cases happened at the same school.

This was probably the best that could be hoped for from a brief search on the Internet for the local newspaper article from Lanzhou, in which a crucial piece of background information came up, and a phone call to an untalkative local education official. Anything less would have been an insult to the children and their families.

Unfortunately, given the story was written for the overseas service in English, the children and their families will never know about it. Xinhua did not release this story in Chinese. The report about the death sentence was buried, as usual, on page four or five of the local newspaper. Presumably a clear report on the crime would be regarded as a negative impact on society and would reflect badly on local education officials and teachers.

But how can the downplaying of this kind of crime be considered a safeguard of social stability? The facts are there in the story to suggest censorship in this case can cause more suffering. Back in 2004 another teacher from the same township raped 23 primary school girls. Presumably this crime was permitted a similar amount of media coverage because at the same time, another teacher - and it even hinted in the report that he could be from the same school - got away with his abuses for several more months (although there is the possibility that Li Guang was arrested after Cheng Laifu committed the last of his crimes in March 2005).

It appears there could be 41 kids in the same township who were raped by their teacher. The effects on that community must be devastating. However, the families have to make do with a snippet of justice on page five and no public promises from local education officials to stop it from happening again or to tighten supervision of teacher recruitment.

UPDATE: I missed this New York Times story at first - credit to Jim Yardley for travelling to this village in 2005 to report on the previous incident mentioned in the Xinhua story in which Li Guang was found guilty of raping 26 (Xinhua appears to have been wrong by saying 23) girls. It appears this story was treated to the same restrictions:

It is the sort of horrific case that in many countries would be a national scandal but in China has disappeared into the muffled silence of state censorship. That silence matches the silence at the heart of the case: the fact that students considered a teacher so powerful that they did not dare speak out.

and:

Local education officials as well as prosecutors refused to be interviewed about the case, other than to confirm that the trial would be forthcoming. China’s state-controlled news media have remained silent, except for a short initial newspaper article that reported Mr. Li’s arrest.