Raised Blind Blown up in Northern Emsland

Unknown perpetrators have blown up a raised blind in Northern Emsland (a Lower Saxonian district) on Saturday afternoon, the local press reports. Wreckage was found as far as 100 meters away from the scene of the crime after the explosion. Police have consulted experts of the State Office of Criminal Investigation. Witnesses saw two men around 30 years old who fled on foot and then drove away with a rather new red VW Passat, with a silver-color roof rail.

The case does not appear to be related to anti-Chinese separatism in the run-up to the opening ceremonly of the Olympic Games. Nothing was said about the fugitive suspects wearing Tibetan monk robes either.

The CCP’s Growing Army of Web Commentators

By some estimates, “.. commentary teams now comprise as many as 280,000 members nationwide” , writes David Bandurski at the Far Eastern Economic Review. According to his article, Nanjing University would seem to be one of the pioneering organizations of this CCP tactic: “asserting supremacy over online public opinion” by pushing pro-party views on the one hand, and “reporting dangerous content to authorities” on the other.

The article is available at the FEER both in English and in Chinese. One of the reactions in the comment threads: “A lie repeated a thousand times becomes the truth” – referring to the article.

Bandurski’s article does, however, offer more details than some previous coverage on the “Fifty-Mao-Party” from elsewhere. And after all – a speech from chairman Hu like this one can not go unheeded by operational levels: Hu urged party leaders to “assert supremacy over online public opinion, raise the level and study the art of online guidance, and actively use new technologies to increase the strength of positive propaganda.”