CNN apology not accepted

The Beijing News2.jpg

The Beijing News
April 17, 2008

Top headline: Tongzhou Canal will receive tourists by the end of the year

An old canal that links Beijing with satellite town Tongxian (a.k.a Tongzhou) is being repaired and will be ready for tourist boat traffic by the end of the year. The boats will be replicas of old transportation barges; tourist offerings will include night cruises.

CNN vs. Foreign Ministry

China’s Foreign Ministry summoned CNN representatives to lodge a solemn complaint for failing to apologize for insulting remarks about China by talk show host Jack Cafferty that CNN broadcast. The Foreign Ministry said China is enormously dissatisfied with CNN’s apology on Tuesday and refuses to accept it (see China Daily story).

Other front page stories

  • China’s central bank lifted reserve ratio rate to 16% (see China Daily story)
  • China’s consumer price index or CPI of the first quarter of 2008 is 8%
  • The big photo shows students learning Beijing Opera. China’s Ministry of Education recently added the study of Beijing Opera to the curriculum for primary and middle school students.

Other pages: No ghetto for China

  • Qi Ji (齐骥), vice minister of Housing and Urban-Rural Construction, responding to Tsinghua University history professor Qin Hui (秦晖), said that the government will not “consider ghettos as an option”.

    On April 13, Qin Hui said in a forum that Chinese cities should give freedom to migrant workers to construct their own houses in designated areas and urged Shenzhen to be the first city to have a “ghetto”.

    Qin said if municipal authorities can not provide migrant workers with housing, at least they should allow them to build their own houses. He described the current situation as “neither welfare nor freedom” and compared it with what was in the West two hundred years ago: “Cities enjoy the service of these workers, but they don’t want to take the burden of taking care of them and try to drive them away.”


Also inside

  • The Olympic torch arrived in Pakistan on April 16. President Pervez Musharraff and Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani held the torch together for 90 seconds. The ceremony took place inside a sports stadium in Islamabad due to security concerns.
  • CEO of Sohu.com, Zhang Chaoyang (张朝阳) said he supported the boycott of Carrefour and French goods. in his blog, Zhang said that he does not agree that pro-boycott is “fenqing” (angry young nationalist) while anti-boycott is rational. He wrote “Too much tolerance only indulges the irresponsible behavior of the other side [France]”. Jin Jing (金晶), the disabled torchbearer who was attacked by a protester in France said the she disapproves of the boycott. “The most important thing is to let the Western public know the truth, and to change their attitudes. Boycotting Carrefour will hurt its Chinese staff too.”
  • Hundreds of people gathered at Wudaokou (五道口) yesterday to get a free “patriotic” T-shirt were persuaded by police to leave. The organizer said on a BBS that everyone could get a T shirt on the condition that they immediately wore it. The T-shirts bore a slogan saying “Tibet in China, Torch in Heart”. The organizer also said such T-shirts will be mailed to overseas Chinese students to reinforce their patriotic activities.
  • Chinese MSN users initiated a campaign of adding a red heart followed by “CHINA” to the usernames to show the Chinese people’s solidarity and patriotism to the whole world.
  • Some students at Beijing Science and Technology University were told that they would not be able to get the Belgian degree that they had been promised when they signed up for the course. The students had been told that they didn’t have to go abroad to get the degree, but a change in Belgium’s education policy was allegedly the reason that the university could not fulfill its promises.
  • An article about Chi Zhiqiang (迟志强), a singer who is best known for his “prisoner’s songs”: Chi was sentenced to four years in jail for “abnormal sexual relationship” (namely “consensual extramarital sex”) in 1983 when he was a movie actor. Reflecting on his past, Chi said he was very sympathetic to jailed ATM ‘thief’ Xu Ting and Edison Chen but he didn’t feel bitter for being put in prison for what he did. Instead he was grateful for the chance to return to his job in a state-owned movie studio.
  • A Philippinno domestic servant was sentenced to five years in jail for stealing from her employer in Beijing. She will be deported after her sentence. The Beijing Labour Bureau said no Chinese individuals are allowed to employ foreigners.
  • To keep social order during the Olympic Games, owners of Sanlitun bars are required to sign a contract with the police to guarantee their bars are drug-free. Those who are found breaking the contract will be shut down
  • Yesterday in Dongguan, Guangdong Provice, more than a thousand workers went on strike because their staff meals were of poor quality. They resumed work after the factory bosses apologized and promised to improve the food.
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