News Links - 11/19/06

[dleedlee]

Faye Wong last month at mall in Orange County

Stephen Chow on set

Newly bald Aaron Kwok

Chinese basketball player branches out with role in new Jackie Chan movie
http://www.gotriad.com/apps/pbcs.dll/ar ... /GTCOM0200

Zhang Yimou says Gong Li, Zhang Ziyi both passionate about acting
http://thestar.com.my/news/story.asp?fi ... ec=apworld

Sales agent picks up two Asian-themed pics - Bai Ling, Kelly Hu
http://www.variety.com/article/VR111795 ... =2432&cs=1

What I love in Hong Kong - Domestic helpers
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/static/dav/20 ... .kong.html

Amateur Chefs Can't Be Typical Asians
http://news.asianweek.com/news/view_art ... ory_id=171

Hong Kong police seize 2,000 banned weapons from shop
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArti ... world&col=

Beautiful Kindergarten Teacher Gains Online Stardom
http://english.cri.cn/3100/2006/11/19/202@164980.htm

Stage Drama "The Peach Blossom Land" Premiered
http://english.cri.cn/3166/2006/11/19/60@164963.htm

Group Urges China to Detail Transplants - organ harvesting
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 010&sc=633

[ewaffle]

First of all, another heartfelt thank you to dleedlee for his continued work in mining the press for these articles. “New Links” at HKMDB is one of my first daily news and information destinations on the web. Today’s haul is a particularly rich harvest, including the one on organ harvesting.

The juxtaposition of these articles is one of the issues that old time peace and justice types like me have with the PRC. While I don’t think that Amnesty International, which is extensively quoted in these articles, is necessarily as unbiased a source as the SFgate writers do, there is enough reporting to make both of them ring very true. There has also been, of course, reams of anecdotal evidence (always my favorite kind) regarding the possible link between the continuing enthusiasm for the death penalty and the use of organs from executed prisoners for sick foreigners with ready cash.

Group Urges China to Detail Transplants - organ harvesting
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... 010&sc=633

“Apart from a small portion of traffic victims, most of the organs from cadavers are from executed prisoners," Vice Minister of Health Huang Jiefu said at a conference on human organ transplants last week, according to a China Daily report.”

Further on:

“Mao Qun'an, a health ministry spokesman, said in the China Daily report that the organs sometimes went not to those most in need, but to foreigners who could pay more for a kidney or liver.”

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... M3KBG1.DTL
“The amendment, which goes into effect Jan. 1, restores a power that was stripped from the Supreme Court in 1983 and given to provincial courts as part of a major crackdown on crime. The authorities are facing mounting criticism from human rights groups and Chinese legal scholars for what they say is the widespread and arbitrary use of the death penalty.”
“China executes more people every year than all other nations combined, by some Chinese estimates, up to 10,000 a year. Chinese courts have been embarrassed in recent years by a number of executions of people who were later proved innocent.”

[dleedlee]

Thanks, ewaffle.

A few years ago, when these organ harvesting stories first appeared, I was sceptical. But here in DC, the reports surface regularly and, yes, the focus typically is on the cash generating aspects from foreign customers.

[dleedlee]

China Admits Selling Prisoners' Organs
http://blogs.abcnews.com/theblotter/200 ... ts_se.html