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1. “All of them are Heroes” – a Soundbyte and its Story
A Hong Kong television station had a small scoop of sorts, or so it seems to feel to both the station, and to Xinhua. They [update: the HK tv station, that is] conducted an apparent surprise interview with Chinese chief state councillor Li Keqiang. This is how Xinhua reported the encounter, apparently on the same day.
According to the Weibo channel of Xinhua newsagency’s Xinhua Viewpoint program, chief state councillor Li Keqiang, on a visit to the injured at Tianjin Taida Hospital, was abruptly approached by a Hong Kong journalist who, using his cell-phone camera, asked minute questions about “unlisted firefighters”. The chief state councillor interrupted his walk and said that the active-service and non-active-service rescuers had all received training, were all fully aware that the fireground was dangerous, but had all left the danger to themselves. Their sacrifices are saddening us. All of them are heroes, and there are no “unlisted” heroes!
据新华社“新华视点”微博报道，李克强总理16日在天津泰达医院看望伤者时，一名香港记者突然冲过来用手机拍摄并追问“编外消防员”问题。总理停下脚步说，参加施救的现役和非现役消防人员都受过培训，他们明知火场有危险，但把危险留给自己。他们的牺牲让我们痛心。他们都是英雄，英雄没有“编外”！
Unlisted apparently refers to contract firefighters.
The Nanfang also gave a description of the interview, and linked to the tv station’s video (edited or not, can’t judge that) of it. There seems to be nothing extraordinary about the interview by international standards, and the crucial soundbyte – that all of them are heroes, and there are no unlisted heros – comes at 1′ 14”. Li Keqiang also thanked the reporter “for asking this question and showing your concern for the injured”.
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2. “Drawing Profits from selling Ranks and Titles (in Zhongmou)
Some estimates say that the number of rights lawyers has grown from just a handful to […] over a thousand, Yaxue Cao and Yaqiu Wang write in a China Change post published on Wednesday. Going through a July-19 article by China News Service (CNS, 中国新闻社), linked to from the China Change article, you might get the impressoin that corruption charges may not only be politically motivated when brought against party flies or tigers, but they are also weapons in efforts to smear dissidents’ reputation. That may look pretty obvious anyway, but I’ve only become aware of it when reading
For the foreign, language-learning reader, the profitable thing about official lampoons like the one from CNS is that they usually come with some proverbs or classical references. It makes an – otherwise possibly unpleasant – treatise catchy, and helps to create the impression that the propaganda were handed out by trustworthy people.
A short taster from the CNS article:
According to police information, Zhou Shifeng, Wang Yu and other persons formed criminal gangs with Fengrui Law Office as a platform. Since July 2012, they have plotted in more than forty cases and incidents, waving sensational flags about “rights”, “the public good”, etc., seizing the opportunity of becoming famous and of drawing profits from Zhongmou.
根据警方的通报，以北京市锋锐律师事务所为平台，周世锋、王宇等人组成的犯罪团伙，自2012年7月以来，先后组织策划40余起案事件，打着“维权”“公益”等旗号炒作，借机出名，从中牟取利益。
Liu Sixin, administrative assistant at said law office, explains that Zhou Sifeng usually likes to recruit three kinds of people: those who dare to speak out, those who dare to act, and those who dare to hype issues, like “ultra-vulgar butcher” Wu Gan and Zhou himself. The second kind is people who hail from the petitional system and from the media, such as Huang Liqun, Xie Yuandong, etc.. And then there are so-called “die-hard” lawyers like Wang Yu, Wang Quanzhang who like to be defenders in sensitive incidents.
该所行政助理刘四新介绍，周世锋一般喜欢招揽3种人，第一种是敢说、敢干、敢炒作的，像“超级低俗屠夫”吴淦和他；第二种是原来在司法、信访系统以及媒体干过的人，像黄力群、谢远东等；还有就是像王宇、王全璋这种所谓的“死磕”律师，喜欢代理一些敏感事件。
The China Change post lists forteen rights lawyers and their stories.
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3. Farting Snakes
And to end on a super-vulgar note today: did you know that a snake has an ass?
Now you know. Happy weekend.
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Updates/Related
» Crackdown intensifies, CS Monitor, July 13, 2015
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