China Digest, September 13, 2012
BEIJING
Mothers swap livers
Two infants with severe congenital liver disease will undergo a 12-hour transplant today, after their mothers were found to be qualified donors for the other's child, The Beijing News reports. The babies are less than a year old, and a transplant was said to be the only effective method of treatment. Each parent was unqualified to donate to their own child, but the mothers chatted online and found that their blood types matched each other's son's.
Man 'used fake PLA plates'
A trial began in Haidian district yesterday for a man accused of using a forged army car number plate and possessing military credentials, the Beijing Times reports. Authorities said the man spent 80,000 yuan (HK$97,900) for the fake plate so he could drive his car on days he wasn't entitled to under restrictions designed to limit the number of vehicles on roads in the capital.
CHONGQING
Former prisoner pardoned
A Chongqing man who was sentenced in 2009 to two years of re-education through labour has been exonerated from a defamation conviction stemming from his re-posting online of a cartoon suggesting that local police were providing protection for criminals during a high-profile anti-crime crackdown, Southern Metropolis News reports. Peng Hong finished his sentence last September and attempted to sue the local re-education officials. He was exonerated this week.
Grudge attacks on women
A 26-year-old man has been arrested for robbing four women at knifepoint because his wife left him for another man and took their six-year-old son, the Chongqing Economic Times reports. Police said the man started to hate women after his wife left, and he vented his anger by robbing single women on the street since August, stealing 3,000 yuan and two mobile phones. Two women who fought back were injured.
FUJIAN
Fame by the dollar
A fourth-year student at Huaqiao University in Xiamen used almost 18,500 one-yuan coins to pay his yearly tuition in hopes that the stunt would make him famous and help him realise his dream of meeting a famous writer and a businessman, the Shandong Business Daily reports. The school called a supermarket, which agreed to take the coins in exchange for cash. Five cashiers spent three hours counting the money. The student said he held no grudge against the school. He just hoped the media attention would allow him to meet writer Han Han and Liu Qiangdong, the founder of 360buy.com
Street cleaners at risk
The death of a street cleaner hit by a truck on the job on Tuesday in Fuzhou cast a spotlight on the dangers of the job, the Strait City Daily reports. The man, in his 40s, was survived by two children. A sanitation official said the city had more than 6,000 workers, many of whom are hit by cars every year.
GANSU
Bucket list for fraudster
A man in Lanzhou who was diagnosed with an undisclosed type of cancer months ago decided he wanted to live out his remaining days in luxury, so he defrauded several vegetable wholesalers and fled the city, the Lanzhou Morning Post reports. In March, the man approached more than 20 wholesalers who agreed to give him vegetables on credit. He resold the produce and went into hiding. He made more than 1 million yuan, which police said he used to buy a car and other luxury items. He was caught last month in Jiayuguan.
Wildlife thrive in park
A recent survey of the Qilianshan Nature Reserve found the number of wild animals has increased, and their habitats greatly improved, compared with several decades ago, the Lanzhou Morning Post reports. Provincial forestry officials said high-definition and infrared cameras in the mountainous area captured many feathers, footprints and other traces of animals, including species such as snow leopards and lynx.
GUANGDONG
Raise for sperm donors
The provincial sperm bank in Guangzhou increased the money paid to donors from 3,000 to 5,000 yuan this month, to attract more volunteers, and sperm recipients will also be charged more to offset rising costs of collection and storage, the New Express reports. The Guangdong Family Planning Hospital plans to raise the 800-yuan charge for recipients because the cost of each sample is between 9,600 and 13,800 yuan, including health checks on donors and their sperm, storage and payment to donors. Men in China can donate sperm only once, which may be used to inseminate up to five women.
Bomb 'plot' backfires
A 25-year-old man in Dongguan was sentenced to seven years in jail this week for setting off an explosion at a shopping mall in the city on July 3 and trying to blackmail the mall for 300,000 yuan, the Dongguan Times reports. The man was heavily in debt because his mother was ill and because his illicit lottery business wasn't doing well, so he set off the explosion in a car park at the mall. One car was damaged, but he then called the mall and lied that there were bombs on five floors of the building. He threatened to detonate them if he wasn't paid. Police evacuated the mall and the man was caught several hours later.
HUNAN
No sympathy from police
A man in Zhuzhou called police on Saturday night when two prostitutes refused to leave his hotel room, but police ended up taking him away for a lecture on why he shouldn't hire prostitutes, Zznews.gov.cn reports. The man, in town on business, replied to a text message advertising student sex workers, but was disappointed when the women who arrived didn't look like students. They initially refused to leave, so the man called police, who arrived shortly after the women left and took the man away for scolding.
Rape warning to students
Central South University in Changsha has issued a warning to newly enrolled students about the dangers of "social rape" - a taboo subject that is rarely mentioned by universities on the mainland, the Xiaoxiang Morning Post reports. The warning was made in a college safety guide distributed to students. It said female students shouldn't drink more than they could tolerate, or accept expensive gifts from new friends and should be wary of possible "acquaintance rape" by men they don't know well.
ZHEJIANG
Teacher solicits parents
A primary school teacher in Ningbo has been criticised by school officials after parents complained online that she had asked them to pay 100 yuan each to dedicate a song to her on a local television station, in honour of National Teacher's Day this past Monday, Xiandai Jinbao reports. The teacher made the request via text messages to students' parents. The principal said the dedication of a song was mentioned during a teachers' meeting as a possible way to honour teachers, but nothing was discussed about asking parents to pay. The teacher will miss a bonus this month.
Two killed in factory blast
Two factory workers were killed and two others were injured in a factory blast in Jinhua on Tuesday, Zjol.com.cn reports. Production at the Jinhua Yonghe Fluorochemical plant was suspended on September 4 for an annual inspection, during which workers mishandled equipment and caused a sulphuric acid pipe to explode. One worker died at the scene and another died at hospital.