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Posted on 05/18/2008 7:02:34 AM PDT by JACKRUSSELL
(BEIJING) - Almost as soon as the initial aftershocks stopped reverberating last week, the rumors began. Some say that frogs, insects and other animals fled shortly before the earth shook. Others insist that water mysteriously drained from ponds, or that Beijing knew the massive earthquake would strike but chose not to publicize it with the Olympics around the corner.
Patently false, perhaps, but enough to alarm the Chinese leadership.
"Stop rumors to avoid social panic and stabilize order," said an earthquake report issued Wednesday by the government of hard-hit Mianyang. On the same day, Beijing announced that it had punished four people in northern China for spreading rumors on the Internet about the quake, without explaining what the punishment was.
Rumors are an integral part of Chinese folk history, songs and poetry. Last year, authorities drained a reservoir in central Sichuan province to dispel rumors that a growling water beast lived there. In 2006 a rumor spread in Anhui province that the virus that causes AIDS was being injected into watermelons, devastating sales.
Chinese emperors long sought to halt the spread across their far-flung empire, with the first recorded anti-hearsay campaign launched by King Li nearly 3,000 years ago, despite a proverb: "Trying to stop people's mouths is like trying to stop a flood."
More enlightened rulers sent envoys out to collect rumors as barometers of underlying concerns. But many others, particularly toward the end of dynasties, initiated crackdowns during famines, floods and unrest......
Spreading rumors is a crime under anti-subversion sections of China's 1993 State Security Law and lesser provisions outlawing "anti-splittism" or "fabricating or deliberately disseminating false alarmist information."......
"Spreading rumors leads to bad results," said Lian Xiangmin, research director with the China Tibetology Research Center in Beijing......
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
ping
The worst rumor: Dems saying it’s Bush’s “fault”.
I have several friends in China and have heard some of the rumors... Some make the 911 Truthers sound almost sane.
One thing for sure... heads will role once they start investigating bribes to overlook building deficiencies.
“One thing for sure... heads will role once they start investigating bribes to overlook building deficiencies.”
LOL! And some organs will be harvested, thanks to the involuntary organ donation program in China.
Corruption is massive in China.... The one thing they will not tolerate is when the corruption is exposed. Those people are severely dealt with.
Oh yeah, I know about how they deal with corruption. A bullet to the back of the head, followed by dissection by a team of “doctors” who take whatever organs are in demand.
The Communist Party, the government bureaucracy it controls, and the major companies which are run by Party officials, are inherently corrupt. People try hard to rise high in the Party hierarchy IN ORDER TO BE ABLE TO CASH IN on corruption
Then again, our politicians seem mostly the same, they just don't have as much opportunity
Where did our new Chinese Internet friends go? They were here just a couple days ago.
(That sudden influx of new Chinese posters seemed a little suspicious to me.)
How so? They are in far greater of infection with Western thought than Westerners are with Chinese thought.
“On the same day, Beijing announced that it had punished four people in northern China for spreading rumors on the Internet about the quake, without explaining what the punishment was.”
My bet is that I will see one of these people in the human skeleton exhibit at my local museum.
Just a little leery of whether they are real or not, I guess. It’s kind of fishy that there is an earthquake in China and all of a sudden many new accounts are opened on Free Republic by many internet users from China. There are articles posted here on a wide range of topics from China everyday, and I’ve not noticed an interest in any of those threads from anyone from China in the past. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m still just a little suspicious. (I do agree that the people of China are in need of exposure to Western thought.)
Now we will see what happens in the next few months when people are trying to recover their lives while the bureaucracy
grinds to a halt through lack of kick backs.
“Only idiots and liars predict earthquakes.” —Charles Richter
The Tibet topic was hot for a while, but apparently not of interest to Chinese themselves. Maybe too political. Few would show up to comment on something like an underground sub base. But the earthquake was interesting, possibly because they have relatives in the affected zone and are using the Internet for news that interests them. If any internet nannies were there they would be watching rather than commenting.
The Chinese state is already working on the problem. More than a few arrests might be expected.
To: RightWhale
Just a little leery of whether they are real or not, I guess. It’s kind of fishy that there is an earthquake in China and all of a sudden many new accounts are opened on Free Republic by many internet users from China. There are articles posted here on a wide range of topics from China everyday, and I’ve not noticed an interest in any of those threads from anyone from China in the past. Maybe I’m wrong, but I’m still just a little suspicious. (I do agree that the people of China are in need of exposure to Western thought.)
We are real.I am keeping an eye on this forum.
I think the rumors maker should be punished.At this moment after a huge disaster,everyone affected is very weak both in body and mind,any rumor can make them suffer again.As for the way of punishment everyone concerns,i’ve no update news now.But will look for and keep posted.
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