March 21, 2008
Two officials busted for graft
The top headline is about former head of Beijing’s Haidian District Zhou Liangluo (周良洛), who was charged with taking bribes. He has allegedly accepted about 16.7 million yuan during his eight years’ tenure. His wife was also prosecuted for similar charges. Mr. Zhou was elected as one of the “Ten Best District Leaders of China” in 2002.
In a different article inside the newspaper, there is a report about another unlucky government official: Chen Shili (陈世礼), the former party secretary of Huainan (淮南), Anhui Province. He was charged with involvement in business fraud.
Rather go to jail than pay
The big photo on the front page shows a man being arrested for refusing to pay back his car loan. “I don’t have money, neither do I have the car anymore. You’d better take me away.” he said to the police.
Sorry, we didn’t know
170 people turned themselves in to the local police after the riot in Lhåsa, Tibet. According to the article, most of the participants were “people who didn’t know the truth”, who were either “abetted” or “coerced”.
Also on the front page:
• Due to health concerns, Yao Ming will not be the first person to carry the Olympic torch in China as originally planned. The article does not say if he will still carry the torch at a later stage. Yi Jianlian (易建联), another Chinese NBA star, will take his place.
Stories on other pages include:
• In Shenzhen, a woman bus conductor was handcuffed by a security guard whom she refused to allow to board the bus without buying a ticket.
• A 14 year old girl who was an academic prodigy committed suicide after being criticized for reading a magazine in class by her teacher in Zhijiang (枝江), Hubei Province. in her suicide note, she wrote that she could not bear to live if she wasn’t allowed to read what she thought was interesting.