Chinese citizen journalist jailed for Wuhan virus reporting

Yahoo – AFP, 28 December 2020 

Authoroties said former Chinese lawyer and citizen journalist
Zhang Zhan had spread "False remarks" online.

A Chinese citizen journalist was jailed for four years Monday for her reporting from Wuhan as the Covid-19 outbreak began, her lawyer said, almost a year after details of an "unknown viral pneumonia" surfaced in the central China city. 

Zhang Zhan, a former lawyer who arrived at court in a wheelchair, was sentenced at a brief hearing in a Shanghai court for allegedly "picking quarrels and provoking trouble" during her reporting in the chaotic initial stages of the outbreak. 

Her live reports and essays were shared on social media platforms in February, grabbing the attention of authorities, who have punished eight virus whistleblowers so far as they curb criticism of the government's response to the outbreak. 

Beijing has congratulated itself for "extraordinary" success in controlling the virus inside its borders, with an economy on the rebound while much of the rest of the world stutters through painful lockdowns and surging caseloads a year on from the start of the pandemic in Wuhan. 

Controlling the information flow during an unprecedented global health crisis has been pivotal in allowing China's communist authorities to reframe the narrative in their favour, with President Xi Jinping being garlanded for his leadership by the country's ruling party. 

But that has come at a serious cost to anyone who has picked holes in the official storyline. 

The court said Zhang Zhan had spread "false remarks" online, according to one of her lawyers Zhang Keke, but the prosecution did not fully divulge its evidence in court. 

"We had no way of understanding what exactly Zhang Zhan was accused of doing," he added, describing it as "a speedy, rushed hearing." 

In return the defendant "didn't respond [to questions]... She refused to answer when the judge asked her to confirm her identity." 

The defendant's mother sobbed loudly as the verdict was read out, Ren Quanniu, another member of Zhang's defence team, told reporters who were barred from entering the court. 

Concerns are mounting over the health of 37-year-old Zhang, who began a hunger strike in June and has been force-fed via a nasal tube. 

Her legal team said her health was in decline and she suffered from headaches, dizziness and stomach pain, and that she had appeared in court in a wheelchair. 

"She said when I visited her (last week): 'If they give me a heavy sentence then I will refuse food until the very end.'... She thinks she will die in prison," Ren said before the trial. 

"It's an extreme method of protesting against this society and this environment." 

China's communist authorities have a history of putting dissidents on trial in opaque courts between Christmas and New Year in an effort to minimise Western scrutiny. 

Example made

The sentencing comes just weeks before an international team of World Health Organization experts is expected to arrive in China to investigate the origins of Covid-19. 

Zhang was critical of the early response in Wuhan, writing in a February essay that the government "didn't give people enough information, then simply locked down the city". 

"This is a great violation of human rights," she wrote. 

Rights groups and embassies have also drawn attention to her case, although diplomats from several countries were denied requests to monitor the hearing. 

"Zhang Zhan's case raises serious concerns about media freedom in China," the British embassy in Beijing said, urging "China to release all those detained for their reporting." 

Authorities "want to use her case as an example to scare off other dissidents from raising questions about the pandemic situation in Wuhan earlier this year", added Leo Lan, research and advocacy consultant at the Chinese Human Rights Defenders NGO. 

A United Nations official following the trial also expressed "deep concern" about the verdict. 

"We raised her case with the authorities throughout 2020 as an example of the excessive clampdown on freedom of expression linked to #COVID19 & continue to call for her release," the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said in a tweet. 

Zhang is the first of a group of four citizen journalists detained by authorities after reporting from Wuhan to face trial. 

Previous attempts by AFP to contact the other three -- Chen Qiushi, Fang Bin and Li Zehua -- were unsuccessful. 

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Guizhou radio telescope may pick up signs of alien life

Want China Times, Chuang Shu-chung and Staff Reporter 2015-07-23

The radio telescope under construction in Guizhou, July 16, 2014. (Photo/Xinhua)

A 500-meter aperture spherical telescope (FAST) is currently being constructed on top of a Karst landscape in Pingtang county in the Qiannan Buyei and Miao autonomous prefecture of Guizhou. Once complete, the radio telescope will be the most likely avenue for China to make first contact with aliens, according to our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

On July 22 the installation of the first set of 1000 panels began. The telescope will incorporate 4,450 panels on completion, forming a 250,000-square-meter reflecting surface, roughly the size of 30 football pitches, which will give it the largest diameter of any telescope of its kind in the world at 500 meters.

The cable net is capable of moving along with celestial bodies, according to Zheng Yuanpeng, the technician responsible for the panels. The net automatically adjusts the 4,450 reflective panels which will lie on top of it, allowing the telescope to observe every corner of the sky. The telescope will reportedly be ten-times more agile than the Effelsberg 100-m Radio Telescope in the Ahrgebirge in Germany.

The head of production for China Electronics Technology Group Corporation (CETC), Yang Dingjiang, stated that possible contact with aliens is only one of the aims of the radio telescope. Yang said that the telescope was also aimed at exploring the origins of the universe, the structure of the interstellar medium, dim pulsars and dim radio sources, as well as searching for signs of intelligent life elsewhere in the universe.

This NASA artist's concept compares Earth (left) to the new planet, called 

Kepler-452b, which is about 60 percent larger in diameter (AFP Photo/T. Pyle)

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"The Big Picture - You Are Not Alone" -  Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"Common Questions from Non-Lightworkers" - Feb 2012 (Kryon Channelling by Lee Carroll)

"... Question Three: Is there life on other planets?

Are you kidding? There's life everywhere. Everywhere! Right now, your scientists are searching for microbial life on all the planets and their moons in your solar system, and they will eventually find it. They expect to find it. They will eventually understand that the seeds of life are everywhere.

How much life might there be? How long has it been "out there"? When science starts to realize the scope of how long life has been in your galaxy, they will begin to see something counterintuitive to evolution - their own Human history. How old is your Universe? Ask your scientists and they will say about 13 billion years. That's OK. Let's use their numbers. How old is your own planet - 4 or 5 billion, perhaps? Correct. But how old is humanity? Why weren't you here with the dinosaurs? You think the earth wasn't ready? Do you think that perhaps that which controls evolution was a little too stupid to make a Human sooner, but the process could make a dinosaur? Have you ever thought about these things?

If you put the earth's entire history into a 24-hour clock, life itself only started in the last hour and humanity, all of civilization, happened the last few seconds. Isn't that odd to you? Therefore, in a Universe that may be 13 billion years old, you arrived in the last few seconds. Did you ever think maybe you're the newest ones on the block? Well, you'd be right.

If the Universe is really that old, do you think perhaps there are civilizations in your galaxy that might be a billion or more years older than you? If that's the case, do you think perhaps they have gone through anything you're going through? Do you think any of them might have had your DNA attributes? Perhaps they also went through what you are going through spiritually? Perhaps they even went into a quantum ascension status? The answer is dozens of them.

You already know them and you've listed them in your publications. The ones who directly seeded you are called Pleiadians. The ones who seeded them might be Octurian and the ones who seeded them may be even Orion. They're everywhere, and they're all here as well. They're looking at you, for you are the ones who are next, and you are passing this marker of the shift

Oh, dear ones, it's going to be a long time before you really know any of these things to be your reality. The first step is peace on Earth. The next is a new kind of Human evolution that is going to increase your DNA efficiency to 100% and you're going to live a long time. Every time I say that, there are Humans in their intellectual mind saying, "Well, there is a geometric birth rate going on. We're not going to make it. It's going to over-crowd and we are going to run out of food. So what you're saying, Kryon, can't be a good thing. We're all going to be suffering and killing each other for food."

Let me address this, for if that is your thought, Human, you are assuming Humans are stupid and haven't figured out what's going on and why there's so much birth. You assume they can't control it because they haven't figured it out? I want to tell you, you're going to see something you didn't expect. You're going to see a decline in birth rate because Humans are smart and they're getting smarter. They're going to see that quality of life is linked to the number of children they have, and they're going to figure out the solution. It won't be how many children their church says they should have. They are going to do it intuitively. You're going to see it sooner than not.

You are going to see wisdom on the planet in many areas that no sociologist would ever have predicted. You will surprise them all, and it's going to happen without a government program. It's going to happen because you decide you want it. It's going to happen collectively, and you may even see it soon. Look for negative birth rates in first-world countries. Where Humans are able to see a larger picture and have freedom of information, the situation will not be what you have predicted.

Is there life on other planets? The scientists are saying, "It's going to be a long time before we get to the stars, you know? We have to get in this little metal can and put air in it, and then travel in it for years and years before we ever get to the next star." Meanwhile, a Pleiadian can do it in the blink of an eye! What do you think is going on there? Do you even believe me?

Not long ago, if you wanted to communicate to someone far away, you sent a letter. It was carried by a horse. It took a month to get a response. Now you communicate instantly!  Why is this so unbelievable to you about travel?

I will tell you, as long as you stay in 3D, you'll still be getting in little metal cans and air suits and going to planets. As soon as you begin the quantum age, however, you will simply wish yourself there, because you will be entangled with everything and can go with intent. If you don't believe this now, you will later, for what I give you is true. It may be lifetimes and lifetimes from now, but the group that is before me is the group that is going to come back over and over and over. The difference is that you're done coming back in an old energy. This is a new energy. ..”

Matthew message (Channelled by Suzanne Ward, June 24, 2015)

Matthew Ward - June 24, 2015

Matthew Ward

With loving greetings from all souls at this station, this is Matthew. As information from countless sources pours in, please keep in mind that only some is factual—much is disinformation, misinformation, incomplete coverage, skewed perceptions or uninformed opinions—and that everything that actually is happening is purposeful. This includes teetering or bankrupt economies; protests about injustices; terrorism; weather extremes and natural disasters; massive numbers of refugees; corporate and governmental shake-ups; and yes, even FIFA’s scandalous operation. Everything going on in your world is serving to fulfill chosen karmic experiences or aiding Earth’s return to environmental health or stirring minds that have been stuck in the oblivion of third density’s limitations.

It isn’t necessary in this moment that everyone understand current situations in the context of karma and balance, planetary cleansing and ascension or souls awakening—eventually that understanding will come to each individual. What is necessary in this moment is happening, and it is evident around your world: the peoples’ ever-growing determination to no longer accept killing, oppression, corruption, deception, pollution and impoverishment as “just life.” All light beings throughout this universe are beaming light and helping in many other ways to assist your dedicated endeavors to end “just life” conditions.

A number of messages some time ago explained what caused the 10-year delay in your society’s attaining the consciousness level anticipated by the Highest Universal Council when they formulated Earth’s Golden Age master plan. In a more recent message we told you that by the end of your year 2017, that decade of delay will be over—a fact that meant no more than that, yet it elicited a flood of emails.

The questions can be summed up as follows: Do you mean that no important developments can happen until the end of 2017? Is that when spacecraft crews will land and ETs living here will identify themselves? Will Earth reach her ascension destination in 2017? Can Earth really be restored to her original health and beauty in that short time? Does this mean all wars will continue until 2017?

Especially erroneous is the idea that our statement meant, or implied, that no significant developments can happen until the end of 2017. Beloved Earth family, with every passing day you are moving forward in transforming your world, an undertaking of unprecedented magnitude that is being achieved with unprecedented speed! We wish—as you do!—that everything this entails would happen in the blink of an eye, and it could if enough souls there believed it could. But few know they have this innate power, so progress in ways the populace can see goes according to what they think is possible in linear time, and they have no idea about major developments “off stage.”

That notwithstanding, with great joy we tell you that activity in strategic areas is reaching fever pitch, so to say, and Earth’s energy field of potential indicates that results with far-reaching benevolent effects is on the near horizon. Nothing can reverse this forward movement, but its momentum could be slowed because the field is in constant motion as energy streamers zigzag this way or that in accordance with thoughts, feelings and deeds of every life form on the planet. Steadfastness in radiating your light will help to keep momentum in the fast lane.

Now then, we are happy to respond to a variety of questions. No, we don’t perceive China as “trying to become #1 with economic and military superiority over the US and Russia.” China’s leaders are no different from those in the United States, Russia and all other countries—they want a satisfied citizenry because that is the foundation of national stability. The government of China would like to show solidarity to the world, but largely due to social media, it is evident that there is conflict among those in power, much like it is in other countries during these tumultuous times. Powerful persons in all ruling bodies from community level to international are reacting to heightening vibrations—hardliners are digging in their heels, up-and-coming leaders are embracing the light. As “good vibes” keep accelerating, the hardliners will wane in numbers and influence.

Numerous readers in the United States have expressed concern that the military training exercise called Jade Helm is a “red flag” so the government can declare martial law, confiscate guns, and put dissenters in FEMA camps to undergo brainwashing. This is no different from the many other instances that also were labeled “red flags”—either outright false information disseminated to create panic or the assumption of individuals who tend to ascribe sinister intentions to whatever the government does. Please do not be drawn into the fear that is the basis of this melodrama from “either/or” source.

Another area of some concern is the risk posed by potential malfunctioning of the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland. First we say, if scientists in advanced civilizations and Nirvana had not deemed that your world was ready for this advancement, they would not have “filtered” to your physicists even the idea of this technology, much less construction and operating instructions. Yes, it is human to err, as your saying goes, and if someone does that, crews in ships overhead are prepared to prevent a serious outcome.

We have been asked if all who were involved in the shooting in the historic church in Charleston, South Carolina, agreed to play those roles. The nine persons who died and their families did agree, but their agreement, like many others during this stage of Earth’s ascension, contains what could be called a “contingency” clause. In this case, the clause stipulates that if racism no longer is an issue in your world, there would be no need to end the lifetime or grieve the loss of a loved one due to a racially-based incident. Lamentably, racism does still run deep in your society. The persons who died in the church and their families became the most recent souls to emphasize that the sickness inherent in bigotry must be cured, and that is the same purpose served by the young man who agreed to do the shooting.

Individuals who change genders respond to their awareness that heart, mind and body, they are not the gender identified at birth. While physical changes may be a more complex mental and emotional undertaking than persons experience in uncovering their homosexuality or bisexuality, all of these souls are claiming their authentic selves. An aspect of your society’s advancement is the honoring of transgender individuals, who, like everyone else, don’t know that they chose in soul contracts to be pioneers in this sense. People who resist accepting the validity of gender change—or of any sexual nature other than heterosexual—still are rooted in religious dogmas that have barely even a nodding acquaintance with the sanctity and divinity of every soul.

Matthew said the Illuminati made their money illegally and immorally so it can be recovered and used to eliminate poverty. Why don’t the people who’ll be in charge of the new economic system just take the money out of Illuminati banks now and distribute it where it’s desperately needed?” The individuals in positions to do this are acting with forthrightness within the laws of your society. To do otherwise would be acting in the same reprehensible ways the Illuminati have all along, thus employing the very tactics they are striving to eliminate.

Another needless concern is overpopulation. The number of people in your world is not the cause of starvation, subsistence living and lack of health care—unequal distribution of monies and Illuminati control of natural resources is. Many planets in this universe smaller than Earth have far more residents, who live peacefully in abundance and with respect for all life forms in their worlds. When Earth is restored to her original health, she could easily accommodate all the needs of double your current population—but please do not assume that this means there will be a population explosion!

Although the Illuminati no longer have access to the technology they formerly used to cause earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and severe storms, energy set in motion by those events has a domino effect. The energy of a quake, for instance, doesn’t stop when the tremors stop, but rather it continues to flow and generates a multitude of less powerful quakes before it dissipates. Although “ancient” negativity has been dealt with, “fresh” sources are bringing to the surface deeply entrenched remnants of the massive amount created long ago, and occasionally this happens in areas where natural disasters are considered anomalies.

It is the same with Mother Nature’s activity, but the intent differs greatly and intent has its own energy streamers. The intent of the Illuminati is to create negativity, which could be considered self-replicating because its energy sustains and empowers them; Mother Nature’s intent is to release negativity so it isn’t available to create more of itself.

A reader who saw a film of a reporter from the United States interviewing Vladimir Putin asked if there is any truth to his claim that he is not responsible for the unrest in Ukraine. Earth’s monitors in Nirvana apprised us of that interview, so we can state that Mr. Putin’s claim is truthful—it is Illuminati troublemakers who are responsible—and he also is correct in saying that the shared cultural history of people in Ukraine and Russia crosses national borders.

“Why is the US always seen as the bad guy no matter where on Earth trouble spots are?” Washington, DC, and Wall Street are the headquarters of the Illuminati’s Rockefeller faction, but since few know this, all of their operations are attributed to that country’s government. And not without good reason. From its very beginning that government has been riddled with Illuminati or operate under their influence, and later they infiltrated the CIA, FBI, FDA, NSA, CDC, UN, NASA and all other agencies that could further their aim of world domination.

Furthermore, the Rockefeller faction was extremely forceful in expanding its influence well beyond the United State whereas the Rothschild faction, which grew out of the original small group in Bavaria, concentrated its efforts in Europe. While the Rockefeller group still is clinging to some fragments of power, the Rothschild group is fast losing the last shreds of its former control of governments, banking and commerce, and the stronghold they once had in the Vatican is gone. Pope Francis is on a house-cleaning mission as well as speaking out against Illuminati-created world conditions that both factions have been trying to keep status quo. They are seeing their efforts becoming less and less effective; eventually they will see their utter futility.

It is so that we haven’t attributed the increase in light on the planet to solar flares; however, we have talked about the effects of light from all sources. In addition to saving Earth’s very life, effects may include unusual and temporary physical, mental and emotional conditions, and definitely intensifying light magnifies personal characteristics and behavior. Also we have told you light’s long-term—and vital!—effects: Ittransforms carbon-based cells into the crystalline form that are viable in higher vibratory levels and enables advancement in spiritual and conscious awareness. So yes, absolutely Sol’s activity is part and parcel of Earth’s ascension and yours.

We understand the feelings of the reader who wrote her difficulty in believing that anyone would choose a life of suffering or cause suffering to others, that the first is masochistic and the latter, sadistic. Indeed, it is difficult to imagine why souls would willingly choose either role—or that all of you have done the very same many times. It is with unconditional love for all others in the pre-birth agreement that some souls agree to act with extreme harshness so others can experience what they need to balance lifetimes when they were the abusive ones. When peoples live together happily and harmoniously, life on Earth will be in balance and no more back-and-forth lifetimes will be needed.

“Thousands of children are dying every day. How is it in keeping with LOVE and LIGHT that all these innocents are deprived of physically ascending with Earth?” The importance of the karmic aspect aside, Earth’s residents physically ascending with her never has meant living there throughout the journey to her destination in fifth density. Every single soulwho has lived on the planet since its ascension process began 80-some years ago was or is physically ascending location-wise.

The aim of every soul in every lifetime is personal ascension—growing spiritually and consciously—and this has little to do with incarnation longevity or location. By embodying only a short time, a soul can complete contract provisions and achieve personal ascension. A person who lives 100 years and lifelong makes free will choices contrary to soul contract selections doesn’t experience what was needed to personally ascend.

Dear brothers and sisters, like every other person who has entered Earth’s spirit realm, when you transition and review your lifetime, you won’t measure it by how long you lived, but by how you lived.

Now we bid you farewell in words only, as our unconditional love always is with you.

LOVE and PEACE

Suzanne Ward

Website: The Matthew Books

Email: suzy@matthewbooks.com

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Putin 'cancels trips due to injury'

Psychiatry and Buddhism trending as China seeks inner peace

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2015-05-13

Xinli001's internet radio page. (Photo/Xinli001.com)

China has seen a surge in the number of people seeking inner peace, leading to soaring demand for psychiatrists and reviving interest in Buddhism, according to Guangzhou's Southern Weekly.

After three decades of rapid economic growth that have made China the world's second-largest economy, happiness has now become a popular topic, the paper said.

"No matter what, Chinese people do not live happily," said Xiao Zeping, the superintendent of the Shanghai Mental Health Center, at an annual applied psychology conference held in Guangzhou in March.

Li Yan, the head of the psychiatry and sleeping disorder department at Guangzhou Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine, said the number of visits made by patients to the department rose from 7,000 in 2005 to 50,000 last year.

"The incidences of depression, anxiety disorder and schizophrenia in China are higher than the global average," she said.

This has led to the rapid growth of the self-help industry in China. Psychology information website Xinli001 has seen its number of registered users grow to 9.31 million since being launched four years ago.

Urbanization is blamed for people's unhappiness, with Wuhan University professor Huang Yongming arguing in a study that pollution and food safety issues are the main sources of people's misery.

Oxford University clinical psychology professor Mark Williams also said that Chinese people desperately want to find a way to maintain inner peace at a time of rapid change and regular anxiety.

Buddhism has become the top choice for most people, the newspaper said, citing government data that showed the number of Buddhist venues growing from 13,000 in 1997 to 33,000 in 2013.

Chinese people have also become interested in meditation, the newspaper said.

Over 100 temples across China hold meditation camps every year, and a group of executives including Huayi Brothers chair Wang Zhongjun and Tsingtao Brewery chair Jin Zhiguo, who went to business school together, traveled to Taiwan to practice meditation at the Fo Guang Shan monastery in May 2014.

Gong Jun, a professor at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, said the number of applicants to the Institute of Comparative Religious Studies has also increased in recent years.

When China's president, Xi Jinping, said in February that people having spiritual beliefs will give better hope for the nation and strength to the country, it was also interpreted by religious groups as progress.

Wang Zuoan, head of China's State Administration of Religious Affairs, also urged media outlets in February not to avoid religious issues, which were deemed sensitive in the past, because religion has been recognized as a force that helps build a peaceful society.

Bonfire of the vanities? Chinese offerings go up in smoke

Yahoo – AFP, Tom Hancock, 5 April 2015

A man prays at a graveside on the eve of the annual Qingming festival, or 

\Tomb Sweeping Day, at a cemetary in Dagantangcun, 30km east of Beijing 

(AFP Photo/Fred Dufour)

Mijiawu (China) (AFP) - Gleaming gold watches and smartphones are piled high in a ramshackle Chinese farmhouse –- all replicas made of paper and designed to be incinerated, as 21st-century consumerism transforms the age-old market in offerings to ancestors.

"Our work is serving the dead," said Pu Shuzhen, as female workers with glue guns folded paper into imitations of Louis Vuitton handbags and iPhones in her dirt-floored house turned workshop.

China celebrates "Tomb Sweeping Festival" on Sunday, when millions burn paper offerings to their ancestors in a tradition believed to date back thousands of years.

A man burns fake money on a grave for 

the Qingming festival in Baoding,

 Hebei province, on April 1, 2015

 (AFP Photo/Fred Dufour)

Pu's workshop is one of hundreds hidden inside crumbling courtyards in Hebei, a province bordering Beijing which local farmers have transformed into the centre of the country's funeral products industry.

"Before we were growing corn and potatoes. It was tough," Pu said. "The money from this is better than farming."

Mahjong tables, jewel boxes and cigarettes sell well, she said. Other items include imitation house ownership certificates and more practical goods such as toothpaste, toothbrushes and shoes.

"They are just the same as living people use," she said. "It was like that in ancient times too. It's a tradition handed down from our ancestors."

Offerings to the dead have been found at some of China's oldest grave sites.

"The products express an emotion: we are living well, and we hope our ancestors can live just as well in their world," said factory owner Zhang Guilai, as a vast press roared in the background pressing out paper houses.

Grave issues

Beijing declared tomb sweeping festival -- just one of many traditional dates for honouring ancestors -- a national holiday in 2007.

The move was a marked contrast to Mao Zedong's rule when the officially atheist Communist party condemned tomb offerings as feudal, graves were desecrated and traditions driven underground.

"During Mao Zedong's time it was all about opposing superstition... and we would have to give offerings in secret," said Pu's husband, Zhao Yansheng. "But now it's a national holiday... and we can celebrate openly."

Even so, official attitudes are still sometimes ambivalent.

China's civil affairs ministry this year vowed on its website to step up controls on "burning paper money, offerings and other uncivilised tomb sweeping behaviour", while also "preventing the use of vulgar and superstitious grave offerings".

Women shop for items at a market selling paper goods for the Qingming

festival in Baoding, Hebei province, on April 1, 2015 (AFP Photo/Fred Dufour)

State media have also blamed burnt offerings for adding to chronic air pollution.

The ministry did not define what it considered "vulgar" and did not respond to a request for comment from AFP.

But at an open air market on a mud-soaked road in Mijiawu, vendors displayed paper Ferraris and female mistresses.

Officials in the northern city of Changchun -- which hands out fines for burning offerings in public places -- last month confiscated seven vehicle-loads of "feudal and superstitious objects", including paper cattle and horses, reports said.

"It's clear to see that people are adding commercial elements -- such as paper houses, sports cars and mistresses -- into these traditions, and some people would consider that vulgar," Yang Genlai, an academic affiliated with the civil affairs ministry told AFP.

He added: "Personally I think any kind of object which can express respect towards ancestors can be reasonable. Burning iPhones is a reflection of how things are today."

Cashing in

Authorities have other reasons to be suspicious of paper offerings.

At the Mijiawu market, seller Meng Weikai said: "Everything that living people have, there are paper replicas to be burned.

"In the past, you just burned some plain white paper. Now we burn notes which look more and more like real money, we even have US dollars."

A girl prays at a grave on the eve of

 the annual Qingming festival, or 

Tomb Sweeping Day, at a cemetary

 in Dagantangcun, 30km east of 

Beijing (AFP Photo/Fred Dufour)

But they are sometimes misused for earthly purposes. Police in southern China reportedly held four people in February for attempting to pay back a loan with "spirit money", and in January police in Hebei arrested a suspect who had used such bills to buy lottery tickets worth 90,000 yuan.

Workers at one small imitation money workshop ushered AFP reporters away as fresh red notes lay drying on rusty metal printing presses.

"It is hard for ordinary people to tell the 'spirit money' apart from real money... this money has seriously damaged the image of the renminbi," the state-run Xianyang Daily cited a banking official as saying last year.

At the Sanyuancun market in Beijing bundles of cash sell for three to five yuan ($0.5-$0.8) apiece. "People want to tell the ancestors that the family still has descendants," said vendor Liu Li.

"This is a 50 billion yuan note, this one is 10 million," she added. "The afterlife has inflation as well, that's why you have to burn big denominations. I've also got foreign notes here -- the dead need to go abroad too."

Related Article:

Eco-friendly burials promoted in China

Meditation the new fix for Chinese EMBA students

Want China Times, Lai Ting-heng and Staff Reporter 2015-02-05

People practicing meditation in China, Aug. 10, 2014. (Photo/CNS)

Meditation is fast becoming a recreational activity for China's business leaders and entrepreneurs, many of whom are even willing to make a trip to Taiwan to attend meditation programs, reports our Chinese-language sister paper Want Daily.

Meditation has long been a staple of Taiwan's culture for Buddhists and non-Buddhists. As with yoga, the trend of secular meditation has only gained momentum in China in the past few years. Practitioners are mostly white-collar workers and business leaders between the ages of 25 and 50.

Various students of Executive Master of Business Administration (EMBA) classes from China are choosing to travel to Taiwan for a different experience of meditation.

In May last year, members of a CEO class of the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing came to Taiwan to practice meditation. The group included Zhao Yong, CEO of FuWah International Group; Wang Zhongjun, chairman of Huayi Brothers Media Corporation; Jin Zhiguo, chairman of Tsingtao Brewery ;and Zhang Guobiao, chairman of Forchin Holdings Group. They all sat side-by=side in a meditation room at Fo Guang Shan, a well-known Buddhist center in southern Taiwan, presided over by Master Hsing Yun.

Fo Guang Shan has reportedly been taking appointments for group meditation sessions from Chinese enterprises, especially EMBA classes. These groups make the Buddhist center one of their stops when visiting Taiwan. A spokesperson for Fo Guang Shan said that the first EMBA candidates who came there to meditate may have found some kind of benefit and passed the word on to other entrepreneurs. Some business leaders and entrepreneurs have come back several times, sometimes by themselves.

Fo Guang Shan has specially designed meditation packages from half a day to three days for Chinese business leaders. Another spokesperson for the center said that beginners should not attempt to meditate for too long at first or they might lose interest.

Meditation started to become popular over three decades ago, when a Buddhist master from Dharma Drum Mountain, a Buddhist organization in Taiwan, brought the practice back from Japan in 1975. Dharma Drum established its first meditation center in Taipei's Beitou district in 1978 and started programs the same year.

Meditation classes have also become popular in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. When the Grand Buddha Monastery, a temple in Guangzhou, first proposed meditation classes two years ago, fewer than 10 people attended. Now each session they organize attracts over a hundred people.

Meditation classes in China are often held during on evenings during the week or on weekends.

Methane ‘spikes’ fuel speculation of life on Mars

Nasa’s Curiosity rover measures fluctuations of gas not easily explained by geology or organic material dropped by meteorites

The Guardian, Ian Sample and agencies,16 December 2014

The sun rises over Gale Crater on Mars where the Curiosity rover detected
the methane fluctuations. Photograph: Stocktrek Images/Alamy

Nasa’s robotic rover, Curiosity, has detected fluctuating wafts of methane on Mars, fuelling speculation that the gas may be coming from a form of life on the red planet.

An instrument on the six-wheeled robot measured mysterious spikes of methane that cannot easily be explained by geology or organic material transported to the planet by comets or asteroids.

“That we detect methane in the atmosphere on Mars is not an argument that we have found evidence of life on Mars, but it’s one of the few hypotheses that we can propose that we must consider,” John Grotzinger, a scientist on the Curiosity team, told the American Geophysical Union meeting in San Francisco. “Large organic molecules present in ancient rocks on Mars is also not an argument that there was once life on ancient Mars, but it is the kind of material you’d look for if life had ever originated on Mars.”

The instrument recorded a 10-fold increase in methane in the atmosphere around it and detected other organic molecules in powdered rock collected by the rover’s drill, the first definitive detection of organics in surface materials of Mars. These organics could either have formed on Mars or landed on Mars via meteorites.

“This temporary increase in methane, sharply up and then back down, tells us there must be some relatively localised source,” said Sushil Atreya, of the Curiosity science team at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. “There are many possible sources, biological or non-biological, such as interaction of water and rock.”

Mars satellites have detected plumes of methane from the surface before, but none as extraordinary as the sudden venting of the gas measured at Gale Crater, where evidence suggests water once flowed billions of years ago.

Curiosity, one of Nasa’s two Mars exploration rovers, landed in the 96-mile-wide crater in August 2012 and has been exploring the region since. Last year the US space agency reported that Gale contained the remains of an ancient freshwater lake that may have been a hospitable environment for life in the distant past. 

 A computer-generated image of the
Curiosity rover. Photograph: Nasa/PA

The latest discovery, reported in the journal Science, followed studies of gas samples by Curiosity’s tunable laser spectrometer (TAS), which uses intense light to carry out chemical analysis. It revealed a low background level of methane which spiked over 60 Martian days.

In four sequential measurements, Curiosity showed the methane level soaring from about 0.69 parts per billion by volume (ppbv) to 7.2 ppbv. The spikes occurred within 200 to 300 metres of each other and less than a kilometre from where the lower readings were detected.

By the time Curiosity had travelled a further kilometre, the higher methane levels had disappeared. Researchers led by Chris Webster at Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, wrote: “The persistence of the high methane values over 60 sols (Martian days) and their sudden drop 47 sols later is not consistent with a well-mixed event, but rather with a local production or venting that, once terminated, disperses quickly.”

The wind direction indicated a source to the north of the rover.

Life is the chief producer of methane on Earth, but many non-biological processes can generate the gas.

The low background level of methane detected by Curiosity could be explained by the Sun’s rays degrading organic material possibly deposited by meteors, the Nasa scientists said. But the spikes of methane required an additional source, which was unlikely to be a recent impact by a comet or asteroid. Such an object would have had to measure several metres across and would have left a large crater, no sign of which was visible.

The short timescale of the methane spikes did not suggest the gas was released from volcanic deposits trapped in ice, called clathrates. Nor did it appear to come from the release of gaseous methane that had become bound to the soil.

The Nasa authors were cautious about jumping to conclusions, but concluded that “methanogenesis” – the formation of methane by microbial bugs known as methanogens – may be one answer to the riddle.

“Our measurements spanning a full Mars year indicate that trace quantities of methane are being generated on Mars by more than one mechanism or a combination of proposed mechanisms – including methanogenesis either today or released from past reservoirs, or both.”

Monica Grady, a planetary scientist at Open University, said: “They have repeated their measurements over an extended period of time, and performed careful calibrations, so I’m sure the data are good.

“They consider several different origins, including destruction by UV radiation of in-falling organic material from interplanetary dust and meteorites, release from clathrates and even methane-generating bugs. Without additional data, such as knowing the carbon and hydrogen isotopic composition of the gas, it is difficult to assign a specific source. My own preference, based on nothing other than instinct, would be to go for clathrates rather than bugs.”

Gale Crater

Gale Crater, on the Martian equator, was created when a large meteor struck the planet 3.5bn to 3.8bn years ago. At its centre is a high mountain, named Mount Sharp, that rises 18,000ft above the crater floor. Flowing water appears to have carved channels in the sides of the mountain and the crater walls.

Another major discovery by Curiosity was that of water bound in the fine-grained soil within the crater. Each cubic foot of Martian soil was found to contain around two pints of water, not freely accessible but attached to minerals.

The rover has reached the base of Mount Sharp and over the coming months will begin a slow ascent. Scientists are keen to explore the mountain because its sedimentary layers provide snapshots of Martian history.

The question of whether there is, or was, life on Mars may finally be answered by the European Space Agency’s ExoMars mission, which will land a 300kg rover there in 2019. It will be equipped with a two-metre drill and the ability to detect biomarkers of life. It will not be heading for Gale Crater, however. Because it will land with less precision than Curiosity, the crater and its mountain are considered too potentially hazardous. 

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Meteorite evidence suggests life on Mars: Chinese researcher

Want China Times, Staff Reporter 2014-12-15

A meteorite. (File photo/CNS)

A research team formed by scientists from China, Switzerland, Germany and Japan conducted a series of tests on a meteorite and have found evidence suggesting life on Mars, reports state broadcaster China National Radio.

The broadcaster interviewed Lin Yangting, the team leader and a researcher at the Chinese Academy of Science's Institute of Geology and Geophysics.

The team found dozens of carbon particles, only one-tenth of a hair's width in size, on a meteorite found on Earth. It was attributed to a Mars origin because of its elements profile, which matches what the US analyzed and documented when the country explored the planet in 1976.

The scientists were able to determine that carbon particles did not come from pollutants that could have "clung" to the meteorite after entering the earth's atmosphere. The 120th Mars rock ever discovered on Earth was found "unlikely to be contaminated" in the desert of Morocco in 2011. It was also the youngest meteorite, dated at appromixately 600 million years old, said Lin.

The carbon particles could be pure carbon or organic matter, so the team examined them under a Raman spectroscopy device that can measure in nanometers. Then the hydrogen, oxygen and carbon structure of the contents were analyzed. The team compared the data with coal and ruled that the particles are organic matter and possibly sediments from underground water.

Another US research team which also analyzed the particles, however, disagreed with Lin's conclusions. They believe the particles to have been formed by lava, meaning the carbon content does not prove life existed on Mars.

Lin's team found an article in an international journal which claims that groundwater existed on Mars 200 million years ago. The Chinese researcher said the life of the planet would be quite simple and primitive, such as bacteria, since so far no one has seen any living creature on the red planet.

Buddhist sutras bring 95-year-old Yunlin woman back from the dead

Want China Times, CNA and Staff Reporter 2014-11-24

Yang Chang Yueh-yun clapping on her "deathbed," Nov. 21. (Photo/ Hsu Su-hui)

A 95-year-old woman in Taiwan's southern county of Yunlin came back from the dead last week after her family played her recitations of a Buddhist sutra, the China Times, sister paper to Want China Times, reported Friday.

Yang Chang Yueh-yun, 95, was pronounced dead from multiple organ failure on Nov. 14 after being hospitalized for over 10 days, according to her son Yang Shun-wen.

She was then taken home, which funeral directors had made ready for a service. Recitations of a Buddhist sutra were played, in keeping with local religious tradition.

The next day, Yang's cousin decided to put earphones around her aunt and played her a different sutra, according to her family.

Yang Chang surprised her family when she started clapping and reciting the sutra about five minutes after a recording of the sutra was played.

Yang Chang surprised even more people when her son took her mother back to the hospital where she had stayed at the following day, to the utter astonishment of the doctor who had treated her.

On Thursday, members of a Buddhist group visited the old lady in the hospital. She greeted her visitors with smiles, while patients next to her said they felt amazed after she made conversation with them.