Tag Archives: china

The Terminal 2

Activitist Feng Zhenghu has been living out of Narita International Airport in Japan after being refused reentry to his homeland in China. The article says it’s been 17 days. If my one night stint at Newark was any indication, this man is a trooper for going for as long as he has in an airport.

Posted on November 19, 2009 in Links · Also tagged , | Comments closed

Yunxiao’s counterfeit cigarette industry

Slate reports on the booming industry of counterfeit cigarettes in Yunxiao, China.

But for U.S. consumers, inhaling the knockoff cigarettes may do even more damage than their genuine counterparts. Lab tests show that Chinese counterfeits emit higher levels of dangerous chemicals than brand-name cigarettes: 80 percent more nicotine and 130 percent more carbon monoxide, and they contain impurities that include insect eggs and human feces.

Creepy to think that ‘one in three’ Chinese men under the age of 30 will die from smoking. 2.2 trillion cigarettes annually? The statistics are mind-boggling.

Posted on June 30, 2009 in Links · Also tagged , , | Comments closed

Chinese mobile execution vans

China has rolled out a fleet of death vans, sentencing and executing locally tried criminals closer to their hometowns to create a larger impact on the criminal community at large.

Chinese prisoners condemned to death are not offered a choice of injection over gunshot, but Qiu and others suspect wealth and connections can buy the newer method.

“It is a real phenomenon that gangsters and corrupt officials are killed by injection more than gunshot, so their bodies are intact, and death is less painful,” Liu says. “But I doubt it is government policy. These criminals are usually held in cities, where the injection is used. Common criminals are held in county-level facilities, where shooting is more common.”

Via gongblog.

Posted on February 16, 2009 in Politics · Also tagged | Comments closed