China Digest, October 24, 2012
A migrant worker from Anhui province said he and his wife have been overwhelmed by inquiries from people who believed the couple was given hundreds of thousands of yuan in public donations after it was reported in the media that the man had saved two families in Fangshan district during a deadly rainstorm in July, the reports. The man said he did not receive any donations and was not supposed to even receive any government aid as his family does not hold permanent residency in Beijing. But the authorities gave him an undisclosed sum of money after his heroic deeds came to light.
The provincial high court has upheld the death sentence for a man who killed and robbed a woman of 20,000 yuan, China News Service reports. Chen Haiping had posed as a postman after finding the woman's address and phone number from a discarded package. He killed her after obtaining her bank card and password.
An applicant for an IT position with the Fujian Communist Party Committee has turned to the provincial department overseeing civil service to find out why he was not given the job despite scoring highest among all applicants in both the written exam and oral interview, the reports. The only reason the committee had given was that it did not seem like he would fit in.
A primary school in Shenzhen's Nanshan district has caused controversy after it asked pupils to spy on their classmates and report issues such as puppy love and poor concentration in class, reports. Some parents were worried the practice could drive students apart while others supported the measure.
A mainland university student has asked the government in Nanyang's poverty-stricken Xichuan county to reveal the cost of constructing two 15-metre concrete pine tree statues erected at its forestry office entrance, the reports. Wu Jinxin, a Nanchang University student, said he hoped the officials would reflect on the trees' cost, which has been estimated at more than 300,000 yuan.
A developer in Zhengzhou could face hefty fines after heritage authorities discovered that the building of a nursing home had damaged a 4,000-year-old cultural heritage site, the reports. The authorities said the developer did not comply with rules requiring surveys to be conducted before construction begins near a historical site.
An official from a primary school in Huaian's impoverished Xuyi county has been sentenced to seven years' jail for embezzling nearly 400,000 yuan in donations the school had received, the reports. Ye Xuefeng, former director of Xuyi Hope Primary School's Office of Academic Affairs, had raised 880,000 yuan in online donations since 2006, but students had benefited from just 490,000 yuan of it.
Guannan county police are searching for the owner of a private fundraising company who is believed to have fled with more than the 100 million yuan he had raised from four rural mutual fund co-operatives, China National Radio reports. About 2,500 farmers in the county, located in Lianyungang, had deposited about 110 million yuan to be invested before they were told that the co-operatives had closed.
Shanghai railway authorities began compulsory ID checks on Monday for all passengers bound for Beijing, Xinjiang and Tibet, and it was unclear how long the policy would remain in effect, Shanghai Dragon Television reports. Normally, only about 5 per cent of rail passengers are subject to random ID checks when they board trains from Shanghai.
A migrant worker from Yunnan has been sentenced to 3½ years' jail and fined 5,000 yuan for trying to extort 240,000 yuan from his ex-girlfriend by threatening to reveal sex photos of her, the reports. The woman turned to the police in Yueqing for help after the man ordered her to pay him 8,000 yuan annually for 30 years.
