Thursday, March 14, 2013

Zhu, his whistle-blowing website, sex videos and corrupt Chinese officials

IN November last year, a Chinese whistle-blowing website hogged the media limelight when it posted a video of a district-level bureaucrat of South-western city of Chongqing sharing a hotel room with a teenager. Both were captured naked. It was claimed in the site that women in their teens and 20s were dispatched by a real-estate company to seduce senior government officials. The site named…
Renmin Jiandu Wang (or People’s supervision network) has claimed that it has reported about 100 corrupt officials, not sparing even those who are posted at the city level. The Chinese bureaucrats are actually office-bearers of the ruling Communist Party.
The Asahi Shimbum, a highly circulated newspaper in Japan, has recently published an article about this Chinese whistle-blowing website after interviewing the founder Zhu Ruifeng in a Beijing café. Zhu has suffered through harassment from police and other officers, and even received phone calls with a threat to kill him. His site was abruptly shut.
“I have no expectations for the anti-corruption campaigns within the establishment, which are like athletes doubling as referees,” Zhu was quoted as saying in Asahi Shimbum. BoI has seen one of Zhu’s interviews in YouTube which has English sub-titles.
The Chinese government said it had investigated 2.18 lakh public servants on corruption charges during the five years.
Zhu, now 43, used to be a reporter in a magazine before starting his website seven years ago. He registered it as a media organization in Hong Kong.
Zhu acknowledges that he receives donations from individuals to maintain his independence.

Action and Appointments
a) Ms Sindhushree Khullar, a 1975 batch UT cadre IAS, has been appointed as secretary in Planning Commission on a contract basis, for a period of two years, after her retirement on April 1, 2013.
b) UK Sangma, a 1978 batch Jharkhand cadre IAS, who is now secretary of North Eastern Council, has been appointed as secretary in the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region in place of AS Lamba, a 1977 batch West Bengal cadre IAS who is retiring on March 31, 2013.
c) Ms Kusumjit Sidhu, a 1979 batch Punjab cadre IAS, at present in the cadre, has been appointed as additional secretary and financial adviser in the department of industrial policy and promotion (DIPP) in the vacancy of VS Madan, a 1981 batch UT cadre IAS.
d) Koppula Raju, a 1981 batch Andhra Pradesh cadre IAS, has been promoted as additional secretary in National Advisory Council, headed by UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi.

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