Your irregular China round-up

[El Twid]

Comsidering that china executes more people than all other nations combined id say her  prospects arent good.

[Cain]

The Supreme Court did ban executions for two years in 2011, except in the most serious of cases.

I think it all depends exactly how hardball they want to play this game.  The argumemt could be made that the heinous murder of a foreign investor at the hands of the wife of a member of the political elite is exceptionally serious (on economic grounds) while avoiding the unspoken, yet real reason for why it would be administered.

[El Twid]

Huh. I must have missed the two year ban thing.

[Golden Applesauce]

Probably a bit late to be asking this  -

I understand that the murder case is a proxy issue for internal power struggles, but why would anyone kill Neil Heywood in the first place? Was he just incidental to this whole thing, or did he have some importance in his own right that would make assassinating him beneficial for Bo Xilai's faction or the Party leadership?

[Cain]

Notes from the trial:

http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/china_law_prof_blog/2012/08/unofficial-report-of-proceedings-in-the-gu-kailai-trial.html

Heywood thereupon sent an email to Bo Guagua demanding 10% of his expected profit, i.e., 14 million pounds. Bo Guagua conceded that his family should bear partial responsibility, but there was a great deal of disagreement over the specific amount. After a number of communications back and forth that produced no result, Heywood turned to threats, and held Bo Guagua in soft detention (软禁) at his [referent unclear] home in England, using this to pressure Gu Kailai.

Bo Guagua then telephoned his mother to report his having been detained and kidnapped. Gu was afraid of her son being kidnapped and killed [or] suffering bodily harm. First, she reported the case to the Chongqing police, and the then police chief, Wang Lijun, took the case. But because the case took place in England, and there was not any solid proof, it was impossible to take coercive measures. This then gave her the motive for getting rid of Heywood in order to protect her son.

Gu Kailai entered Heywood’s room by herself while the other three waited outside. She drank together with him – about 350 ml. of 80-proof (40% alcohol) whiskey. Heywood’s alcohol tolerance was low, and he got drunk and vomited (a great deal of vomit was found on the scene). He was woozy and lost the ability to resist. At this point Zhang Xiaojun came onto the scene of the crime and gave the poison to Gu Kailai. He also dragged Heywood from the bathroom to the bed. When Heywood wanted water after vomiting, Gu Kailai took the opportunity to give him the poison. She also dumped at the scene some drugs she had prepared beforehand in order to create the impression that Heywood was a drug dealer. When the two discovered the Heywood had no blood pressure (they could not be sure he was dead), they left the scene. Gu switched on the “Do Not Disturbed” indicator and told the hotel staff that Heywood was drunk and was not to be disturbed. At 11:38 p.m. that evening, the four left the scene.

Essentially, the story we are getting here paints Gu Kailai as a somewhat psychopathic Big Mama Bear type. 

I'm not sure why Heywood would agree to have drinks with the Party Secretary's wife after threatening harm to her son, on her home turf, but people do do stupid things like that.

Either way, it looks like the sentence is probably going to be relatively lenient - the comments about how Heywood has to bear some of the responsibility for his own murder are especially suggestive of this.  Also Gu Kailai made some reference to "other people's crimes" - could just be desperately making shit up, but then again, she could have legitimate info.

[Cain]

Probably a bit late to be asking this  -

I understand that the murder case is a proxy issue for internal power struggles, but why would anyone kill Neil Heywood in the first place? Was he just incidental to this whole thing, or did he have some importance in his own right that would make assassinating him beneficial for Bo Xilai's faction or the Party leadership?

See above.  Apparently Heywood was threatening Bo's son, so Gu Kailai murdered him.

I don't know how much I trust that story, but it makes a superficial amount of sense.  I understand Heywood had business contacts in China, so perhaps there is an economic angle to it all.  Or it could be just as simple as that.

I definitely don't trust Heywood's bodyguard's account of events though, especially his fantastic account of fighting off three Chinese assassins in Bournemouth.  If you want someone in Bournemouth dead, you see the Somalis, for starters.  And they'll show up with guns, not elite kung fu skillz like these purported assassins did.

[M. Nigel Salt]

That is a really interesting tale... it's like something from a movie.

[Cain]

Riots in China over the Japanese nationalists occupying the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands.

Naturally, the usual idiots are coming out of the woodwork and claiming that the riots are sponsored by the Chinese government.  This position, the ever-tedious one that Chinese citizens are empty vessels for the positions of the Communist Party, is rather undermined by two basic facts: news of the riots is being suppressed in the Chinese media, and the main form the protest is taking is destroying Japanese cars - and the Chinese police use Japanese cars, and have been targeted.

There is an even more insidious/stupid theory, that somehow the Chinese government had a hand in instigating the Japanese nationalists.  Sometimes, you know, the Chinese government isn't actually responsible for everything that happens in China, and isn't always the bad guy.

[The Good Reverend Roger]

Riots in China over the Japanese nationalists occupying the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands.

Naturally, the usual idiots are coming out of the woodwork and claiming that the riots are sponsored by the Chinese government.  This position, the ever-tedious one that Chinese citizens are empty vessels for the positions of the Communist Party, is rather undermined by two basic facts: news of the riots is being suppressed in the Chinese media, and the main form the protest is taking is destroying Japanese cars - and the Chinese police use Japanese cars, and have been targeted.

There is an even more insidious/stupid theory, that somehow the Chinese government had a hand in instigating the Japanese nationalists.  Sometimes, you know, the Chinese government isn't actually responsible for everything that happens in China, and isn't always the bad guy.

CT has never been about the facts.

[Cain]

Of course.  Watching people twist themselves in knots trying to blame the CCP for things it's not guilty of, when the list of things it is guilty of is damning enough, is rather amusing though.

[Cain]

Gu Kailai gets a suspended death sentence.  According to the BBC, these are usually commuted to life imprisonment.

[Cain]

Oh LOL

http://www.chinausfocus.com/foreign-policy/how-china-sees-america/

American theories of international relations have become popular among younger Chinese policy analysts, many of whom have earned advanced degrees in the United States. The most influential body of international relations theory in China is so-called offensive realism, which holds that a country will try to control its security environment to the full extent that its capabilities permit. According to this theory, the United States cannot be satisfied with the existence of a powerful China and therefore seeks to make the ruling regime there weaker and more pro-American. Chinese analysts see evidence of this intent in Washington's calls for democracy and its support for what China sees as separatist movements in Taiwan, Tibet, and Xinjiang.

[Cain]

Another suicide bombing in China

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/731038.shtml

A villager in Shandong Province detonated a home-made bomb in front of the town government building on Monday morning, killing himself and injuring six over medical compensation dispute.

Qu Huaqiang from Tengjia town, Shandong, had previously threatened to blow up the local government building if he was not compensated, according to Chinese media

[Prince Glittersnatch III]

Another suicide bombing in China

http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/731038.shtml

A villager in Shandong Province detonated a home-made bomb in front of the town government building on Monday morning, killing himself and injuring six over medical compensation dispute.

Qu Huaqiang from Tengjia town, Shandong, had previously threatened to blow up the local government building if he was not compensated, according to Chinese media

Are these incidents being reported by the national media and inspiring copy-cats, or is the Chinese media censoring it and its just a case of people completely independent of each other snapping at the same time?

[Cain]

Well, I got that from a Chinese news site, so I doubt it is being censored.  And it has sparked something of a debate in China, over so-called "petitioning syndrom", the apparent Chinese inclination to go to extreme measures over percieved injustice by the authorities.

Assuming that is in fact a cultural trait in China, the prevalence of such bombings could have something to do with the materials for a home made bomb being readily available in most rural areas.