Chinese Communist Party targets dissident representative

[Ray]

Chinese lawyers warn Communist Party will target legal teams

Chinese lawyers setting up mutual defence pacts as Communist Party targets dissidents' representatives

Liu Chunxia, a supporter of Xu Zhiyong, is detained by policemen outside the court where the trial is being held

As the Communist party wages its most intense campaign against free speech in years, there are fears it will now attack the lawyers who dare to defend dissidents.

Lawyers across China who specialise either in human rights cases or in unpicking judicial abuses said they now fear being disbarred or even criminally prosecuted.

"There is definitely something going on. Lots of lawyers have made pacts so that if they get into trouble, someone else will represent them. I have made agreements with 20 lawyers in case of an emergency," said Chi Susheng, a lawyer from Northern China who regularly takes on controversial cases.

Several lawyers said the Communist party has lost patience with having its will challenged in court.

Over the past week, lawyers helped to thwart the trials of seven activists belonging to the New Citizens' Movement by advising their clients to fire them in court and trigger a retrial.

On Monday, a judge in Beijing threatened to report one lawyers, Chen Jiangang, to the Judicial Bureau after his client used the tactic.

"This type of behaviour, which hinders the government, will be cracked down on," said Chen Guangwu, a lawyer who is defending the prominent southern activist Guo Feixiong. Mr Chen said contacts inside the legal system had warned him to tread carefully during the first half of this year.

In recent years, the number of lawyers willing to take on human rights cases has swelled dramatically.

"Since last September roughly 200 lawyers have joined a group identifying themselves as human rights lawyers," said Tang Jitian, a lawyer who was himself disbarred in 2010 after walking out of a court in protest.

"Lots of us have been questioned by the Justice bureau and by law associations. One lawyer in Xinjiang, Gan Weidong, was questioned by the police and has had to leave the group and stop practising."

This emerging group of lawyers has also begun to coordinate and press for reform, much to the consternation of the Party.

Last October, an open letter to the Justice ministry calling for the reinstatement of 38 disbarred lawyers was signed by hundreds of lawyers. However, those who signed were quickly warned to stop organising themselves into a movement.

"After I signed I got calls from the police and from the Justice ministry warning me not to hype the letter or draw attention to it. Other lawyers were also warned. But I signed because I had been personally harassed because of the cases I took on and I felt lawyers should stand up for themselves," said Xie Yanyi.

"This kind of organised letter will definitely attract the attention of the government," said another lawyer, Zhang Keke. "I got a lot of calls from the police and Justice officials who told me not to sign anything like this again. But what we are doing is legal and rational." Regional Justice bureaus often put pressure on law firms to suspend or dismiss any lawyers who take on sensitive cases. Without formal employment, lawyers can then be denied a license to practice. "This is the usual way in which they intimidate us," said Wang Quanping, a lawyer in Guangdong who has recently been suspended. "So many other lawyers are in the same position as me".

Human rights lawyers have become a vital pillar of support for Chinese activists, and are also now coordinating over the internet to offer each other solidarity.

"These human rights lawyers are increasingly willing to identify themselves as such and are pretty important in what is emerging as a political opposition," said Eva Pils, an associate professor of the law faculty of the Chinese university of Hong Kong.

"I have not quite seen this before, in the sense of a criminal prosecution against a whole group of them presumably on the grounds of being in support of a movement.

"One human rights lawyer told me he had a kind of premonition that they are going to clamp down in the first half of this year," she added. "But it will not be a decision made lightly, it will be a decision made at a high level because it has a large cost."

In the past, lawyers who have tried the same tactics seen during the trials of New Citizens' Movement members - either remaining silent or withdrawing from representing their clients - have been punished by the Justice Bureau for not behaving professionally.

However, Wang Xing, a lawyer defending another New Citizens' Movement member said the authorities should "reflect on why the defendants are taking such extreme measures" rather than on the behaviour of the lawyers involved.

In the one New Citizens' Movement trial that did proceed on Monday, police confiscated the mobile phones of the lawyers involved so that they could not be contacted.

Chinese lawyers warn Communist Party will target legal teams - Telegraph

********************************************

That nothing is beyond the monitoring, doctoring, intimidation and arrest of the Chinese Communist Govt is not a new phenomenon.

The so called opening up of the Chinese Society is another sham and doublespeak of which China is a past master is once again becoming evident.

The muzzling further of a controlled society that dispense justice arbitrarily is not really extraordinary.

What a suffocating atmosphere that prevails in China, that only those in the Free World can understand.

 

[PredictablyMalicious]

I don't know why so many Chinese brag about China. No normal person want to live in a repressive communist country, regardless of its wealth or growth rate. There is something to be said about the importance of freedom, autonomy, and the political life. These are the things that make life worth living. For a starving person, China is probably better than India, but for a middle class or upper class person, India is most certainly preferable.

 

[CCP]

For a starving person, China is probably better than India,, but for a middle class or upper class person, India is most certainly preferable.

From you words, we can see:

In Indian, those middle class or upper class person (20% -30% of the population) don't care the rest of they countryman.
For those 80% of people, the most important human right is the right to alive.

 

[Ray]

Starving of freedom is a greater pain since it causes malnutrition of the mind!

What is the beauty that is in life, walking through it as a zombie and a slave?

 

[nimo_cn]

Starving of freedom is a greater pain since it causes malnutrition of the mind!

What is the beauty that is in life, walking through it as a zombie and a slave?

coming out of a person who is having a full stomach and never understand the pain of starvation?

Sent from my HUAWEI T8951 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Ray]

Freedom of mind is the real freedom. A person whose mind is not free though he may not be in chains, is a slave, not a free man. One whose mind is not free, though he may not be in prison, is a prisoner and not a free man. One whose mind is not free though alive, is no better than dead. Freedom of mind is the proof of one's existence.

 

[CCP]

Starving of freedom is a greater pain since it causes malnutrition of the mind!

What is the beauty that is in life, walking through it as a zombie and a slave?

Not before you can survive from Starving.


BTW, China is 3rd most visited country in the world, Any tourist said they see Chinese like zombie and a slave?

Also, Chinese travel all over the world every year, and spend the most. can you say starving of freedom?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Tourism_rankings

 

[Ray]

coming out of a person who is having a full stomach and never understand the pain of starvation?

Sent from my HUAWEI T8951 using Tapatalk 2

Not really.

In our training, we have to go without meals for days!

I know what it is all about being hungry and starving, to include not getting water!

 

[Ray]

Not before you can survive from Starving.


BTW, China is 3rd most visited country in the world, Any tourist said they see Chinese like zombie and a slave?

Also, Chinese travel all over the world every year, and spend the most. can you say starving of freedom?

World Tourism rankings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

You are not aware the benefits of going without food.

It is a part of the religious rituals that even many well to do and affluent Indians practice.

True, tourists visit China, but then they are not allowed everywhere; unlike in other countries, to include India, where you can go anywhere.

Chinese travelling abraod? Forgot the 'Minders' who are also along with them?

Of course zombies, since you all parrot what you are told to say and when you want some freedom as in Weibo, it is suffocated to only have posts that are inoffensive.

Check the thread on weibo!

http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/china/58232-chinas-weibo-suffocates-dies.html

 

[CCP]

You are not aware the benefits of going without food.

It is a part of the religious rituals that even many well to do and affluent Indians practice.

True, tourists visit China, but then they are not allowed everywhere; unlike in other countries, to include India, where you can go anywhere.

Of course zombies, since you all parrot what you are told to say and when you want some freedom as in Weibo, it is suffocated to only have posts that are unoffensive.

Check the thread on weibo!

http://defenceforumindia.com/forum/china/58232-chinas-weibo-suffocates-dies.html

Millions of Chinese travelling off seas every year, we know much more outside world than Indians.
World Tourism rankings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Did any people say those Chinese tourists are like zombies?

 

[Ray]

Teenager becomes first person arrested under China's new anti-gossip law

A 16-year-old pupil at a school in west China has become the first person arrested under the country's draconian new anti-gossip law.

Last week, China's Supreme Court warned that anyone spreading a rumour on the internet faces three years in prison if more than 5,000 people see it, or if it gets reposted more than 500 times.

"Society has demanded serious punishment for ["¦] using the internet to spread rumours and defame people," said Sun Jungong, the court spokesman. "No country would consider libel to be 'freedom of speech'," he added.

The new measure was widely criticised as an expansion of the police state onto the internet, which until now has been censored far less stringently than the traditional media. Critics warned that the law gives government officials another tool to arrest their opponents and that it would spread fear over the web.

"I am really scared now that any whistleblowing might lead to an arrest," said Zhou Ze, a rights lawyer with more than 165,000 followers on Sina Weibo, the Chinese version of Twitter. "We all have to talk less, and more carefully," he added, to Reuters.

However the first person to fall foul of the law was not an activist or a whistleblower, but an outspoken teenager.

His identity has not been disclosed, but the Beijing Times quoted a man, named Yang, saying police took away his 16-year-old son on Tuesday on charges of "picking quarrels and provoking troubles".

According to a statement from the county government in Zhangjiachuan, Gansu province, the boy questioned a police investigation that concluded a local karaoke bar manager had committed suicide by jumping from a building.

The boy said the man had been beaten up after a quarrel and accused the police of failing to investigate fully. His accusation quickly went viral, provoking the wrath of the local government.

Teenager becomes first person arrested under China's new anti-gossip law - Telegraph

*************************************

You call this freedom?

Where you cannot express your views or what is causing you distress of the way the govt acts.

The Govt controls your mind and what you can say and you call that Freedom?

You are starved of freedom and you are starved of mental mobility.

That is how zombies are made and how zombies become zombies!

 

[nimo_cn]

Not really.

In our training, we have to go without meals for days!

I know what it is all about being hungry and starving, to include not getting water!

really? then try being hungry, starving and thirsty like what you did in the training for the coming year, after that we can talk about which has greater pain.

Sent from my HUAWEI T8951 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Ray]

Millions of Chinese travelling off seas every year, we know much more outside world than Indians.
World Tourism rankings - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Did any people say those Chinese tourists are like zombies?

I have shown you how you all are zombies, where you cannot express your opinion and it is controlled by the State.

Check the thread on Weibo here to know more.

Going abroad is not knowing about where you go. That is - Been There, Done that to show off back home.

Educating yourself is what makes going abroad important and not merely buying goods and visiting popular tourist sites.

All the Chinese do is SHOP and that is hardly educating oneself!

Chinese tourists named top shoppers


BEIJING – It used to be the Russians who splurged on tax-free shopping for authentic and luxury brands while traveling to European countries.
Since last summer, not only have Chinese tourists emerged as the top tax-free shoppers in Europe, their average spending for each transaction doubled that of the Russians.
"On average, Chinese tourists spent 107 percent more year-on-year on tax-refunded shopping abroad in 2010, reaching a 130 percent spike in September compared with the same month in 2009," said Manelik Sfez, vice-president of global marketing at Switzerland-based Global Blue, a tax-refund and shopping services provider.

Excluding shopping, the average total cost for each trip for a Chinese tourist stands at 2,000 euros (S$3,502.5). Shopping takes up more than 70 percent of total outbound consumption of Chinese travelers.
Chinese international shoppers account for 17 percent of Global Blue's tax-refund transactions, ahead of Russians with 15 percent.
On average, outbound travelers from the Chinese mainland spent 744 euros on tax-free shopping transactions last year, doubling the Russian's 368 euros. Tourists from the United States spent 554 euros and the Japanese 521 euros, according to Global Blue.
Sfez said the trend could evolve into a tax-free shopping market worth 5 billion euros by 2020 if confidence in the Chinese economy and the currency exchange rate maintain the same momentum.
China's outbound tourism has been booming thanks to the appreciation of the yuan and the increasing size of its economy. Tax-free shopping is one of the major incentives for Chinese travelers going abroad.
According to the China Tourism Academy, the number of Chinese outbound tourists is projected to have been 15.42 million in the third quarter of 2010, up 23.5 percent compared with the same period in 2009.
In addition to the 13 million tax-refund transactions handled annually, the company works with more than 270,000 retailers, brands and hotels in more than 40 countries and serves about 38,000 customers each day.
Being aware of the trend to prioritize Chinese customers by European merchants, Sfez said it is important for businesses to know that "Chinese people are not spending machines".
"They are people. They want information. You cannot schedule a Chinese tourist group like scheduling a train or a flight," he said. "This is just a different culture. It can be served just like any other: Europeans, Americans or Japanese."
To cater to the rising number of Chinese travelers, the company brought European merchants to China to meet with local tour operators and get to know the market. In March, Global Blue invited a group of major luxury-brand companies from Italy, France, and the United Kingdom to discover the reality and operation of Chinese market, Sfez said.
Chinese travelers spent the most on fashion, jewelry and watches, and they like to shop at big department stores where more options are available, according to Global Blue.
According to Sfez, many Chinese customers do not know the heritage and history of certain brands. "They prefer brands that are very traditional – brands that everybody knows and sell the most," he said.
But recently Global Blue has found that Chinese travelers can be highly interested in boutique stores, where the production of high-end luxury goods is limited.
"Once we took a very big group of Chinese tourists to Switzerland, where they visited watch manufacturer Jaeger LeCoultre. They were highly interested," Sfez said.
"If merchants want to have a better relationship with Chinese customers, they have to go beyond money. Money will come. But if you establish a solid foundation, it becomes more stable and easier."
It is not just the level of the brands that matters the most, but also the knowledge of the brands that matter to the consumers, he said.
"We have no opinions on the brands. We want to put all the information on the table and let the customers choose," he said.
With offices in China since 2005, the company has prioritized the country in the core strategy of its expansion plans in the Asia-Pacific region.
"We go where Chinese consumers go," he said. "One of the prime factors in providing tax-refund services in Japan is because the Chinese go there to shop."
-China Daily/Asia News Network
Source: asiaone news –24 Feb. 2011
Chinese tourists named top shoppers – China Travel Trends

Chinese tourists visiting the U.S. were interviewed to explore their shopping behaviours and to understand their shopping experiences. This study revealed that the Chinese tourists were interested in a very large variety of U.S. merchandise, ranging from antique watches and jewellery to health products and running shoes. They perceived the quality of American products to be consistent with prices lower than similar products at home. Male tourists in the study tended to be more satisfied with their shopping experiences than females, but all informants expressed a desire for more Chinese-speaking sales assistants as well as Chinese shopping guides and signage. Informants asked that Chinese credit cards be accepted in the U.S. stores, and would encourage banks of both countries to find ways to cooperate with payment methods to make tourists' shopping experience more enjoyable and free from inconveniences. Informants had a positive image of shopping in the U.S., especially when compared to some European and Asian destinations. Implications of both the methods and the findings for destination marketing strategies are also discussed in the paper.Shopping behavior of Chinese tourists visiting the United States: Letting the shoppers do the talking

 

[CCP]

I have shown you how you all are zombies, where you cannot express your opinion and it is controlled by the State.

Check the thread on Weibo here to know more.

Going abroad is not knowing about where you go. That is - Been There, Done that to show off back home.

Educating yourself is what makes going abroad important and not merely buying goods and visiting popular tourist sites.

All the Chinese do is SHOP and that is hardly educating oneself!

That is only your way to define "zombies".

 

[Ray]

really? then try being hungry, starving and thirsty like what you did in the training for the coming year, after that we can talk about which has greater pain.

Sent from my HUAWEI T8951 using Tapatalk 2

Hungry, starving, thirsty is heavenly when compared to mind and brains being shackled to kowtow to mindless idiots of a Communist Party that uses its population to get rich and powerful themselves, and one cannot protest about that or change them for a better lot!

But how will you understand that?

Godless people genetically modified to think kowtowing to human Gods and burning joss sticks to them is what is Religion, instead of kowtowing to the Buddha and burning joss sticks at the Big Bell/ Da Zhong/Jue Sheng Temple.

 

[Ray]

That is only your way to define "zombies".

That hardly negates that the Chinese Govt control the Chinese mind as to what they can think, or talk or say and what they cannot!

Zombie (Haitian Creole: zonbi) is an animated corpse raised by magical means, such as witchcraft.

The Communist witchcraft has taken control over your resurrected souls, body and mind!

 

[nimo_cn]

Hungry, starving, thirsty is heavenly when compared to mind and brains being shackled to kowtow to mindless idiots of a Communist Party that uses its population to get rich and powerful themselves, and one cannot protest about that or change them for a better lot!

But how will you understand that?

Godless people genetically modified to think kowtowing to human Gods and burning joss sticks to them is what is Religion, instead of kowtowing to the Buddha and burning joss sticks at the Big Bell/ Da Zhong/Jue Sheng Temple.

During Chinese spring festival, visiting relatives is job everyone has to do. To show the hospitality, the hosts always treat the guests with delicious and extravagant food, which always features high protein materials such as chicken, pork, fish, beef, etc. In my childhood, spring festival was my favourite holiday, mainly because of food i was going to eat. However, an interesting phenomenon is happenning in recent years, dishes like pork, fish are no longer the most favored courses in a meal. On the contrary, vegetables become an indispensable feature in a family reunion dinner, all of the guests say that they want a bite of green. And it's true, after the guests have finished, we may see plates full of untouched beef, pork andfish, but the vegetable plate is always empty.

It almost fools me to believe that people are changing their diet habits until i imagine what a family reunion dinner is gonna like without beef, fish and chicken if we only serve vegetable, because I had a childhood when vegetable made up most of my dishes. To be honest, life back then was not that pleasant, neither did the vegetable taste as it does today.

to be continued..

Sent from my HUAWEI T8951 using Tapatalk 2

 

[nimo_cn]

During Chinese spring festival, visiting relatives is job everyone has to do. To show the hospitality, the hosts always treat the guests with delicious and extravagant food, which always features high protein materials such as chicken, pork, fish, beef, etc. In my childhood, spring festival was my favourite holiday, mainly because of food i was going to eat. However, an interesting phenomenon is happenning in recent years, dishes like pork, fish are no longer the most favored courses in a meal. On the contrary, vegetables become an indispensable feature in a family reunion dinner, all of the guests say that they want a bite of green. And it's true, after the guests have finished, we may see plates full of untouched beef, pork andfish, but the vegetable plate is always empty.

It almost fools me to believe that people are changing their diet habits until i imagine what a family reunion dinner is gonna like without beef, fish and chicken if we only serve vegetable, because I had a childhood when vegetable made up most of my dishes. To be honest, life back then was not that pleasant, neither did the vegetable taste as it does today.

to be continued..

Sent from my HUAWEI T8951 using Tapatalk 2

i never doubt their sincerity when they say they wanted to have some vegetable, because green food tastes great after you eating too much meat, just like i believe that Ray is sincere when he speaks of the good of starvation.

However, one must wonder, do people still appreciate the good of starvation when starvation is the exact life they live every single day just like hundreds of millions of Indians?

for people like Ray, a high ranking military general who doesnt have to worry about his next meal, or instead may be more concerned with his diabetes caused by obesity and really could use someone starvation to ease his illness, starvation is like taking a casual climb in the mountains, the process is hard, but the view on top is good.

but for the other majority people, who live their whole life starved, who are tortured relentlessly by hunger, starvation is not a short term military training, it's the real monster, it's the worst nightmare they are struggling to get rid of.

do you know who always preach about taking the money lightly? the rich guy!

Sent from my HUAWEI T8951 using Tapatalk 2

 

[Ray]

i never doubt their sincerity when they say they wanted to have some vegetable, because green food tastes great after you eating too much meat, just like i believe that Ray is sincere when he speaks of the good of starvation.

However, one must wonder, do people still appreciate the good of starvation when starvation is the exact life they live every single day just like hundreds of millions of Indians?

for people like Ray, a high ranking military general who doesnt have to worry about his next meal, or instead may be more concerned with his diabetes caused by obesity and really could use someone starvation to ease his illness, starvation is like taking a casual climb in the mountains, the process is hard, but the view on top is good.

but for the other majority people, who live their whole life starved, who are tortured relentlessly by hunger, starvation is not a short term military training, it's the real monster, it's the worst nightmare they are struggling to get rid of.

do you know who always preach about taking the money lightly? the rich guy!

Sent from my HUAWEI T8951 using Tapatalk 2

Believe it or not, I am disease free. And I have not yet reached obesity, which I don't think I will since I have a very frugal meal and do moderate exercise. Again, it might surprise you I have fried rice with some meats and vegetables thrown in or the same with noodles and my lunch is a measured Indian lunch. I do not eat when invited since I am not too sure what oil they may use and in what quantity.

Starving to you, but fasting to me.

Health benefit of fasting

Many people observe fasting as a religious obligation but only a few know the health benefits it has. Fasting is a good practice, if properly implemented. It promotes elimination of toxins from the body, reduces blood sugar and fat stores. It promote healthy eating habits and boost immunity. Here are top 10 health benefits you can derive from fasting.

1. Fasting Promotes detoxification

Processed foods contain lots of additives. These additives may become toxins in the body. Some of them promote production of advanced glycation end products (AGEs). Most of these toxins are stored in fats. Fat is burnt during fasting, especially when it is prolonged. And the toxins are released. The liver, kidneys and other organs in the body are involved in detoxification.

2. Fasting Rests Digestive System

During fasting, the digestive organs rest. The normal physiologic functions continue especially production of digestive secretions, but at reduced rates. This exercise helps to maintain balance of fluids in the body. Breakdown of food takes place at steady rates. Release of energy also follows a gradual pattern. Fasting however does not stop production of acids in the stomach. This is reason patients with peptic ulcer are advised to approach fasting with caution. Some experts believe they should not fast.

3. Fasting Resolves Inflammatory Response

Some studies show that fasting promotes resolution of inflammatory diseases and allergies. Examples of such inflammatory diseases are rheumatoid arthritis, arthritis and skin diseases such as psoriasis. Some experts assert that fasting may promote healing of inflammatory bowel diseases such as ulcerative colitis.

4. Fasting Reduces Blood Sugar

Fasting increases breakdown of glucose so that the body can get energy. It reduces production of insulin. This rests the pancreas. Glucagon is produced to facilitate the breakdown of glucose. The outcome of fasting is a reduction in blood sugar.

6. Fasting Corrects high blood Pressure

Fasting is one of the non-drug methods of reducing blood pressure. It helps to reduce the risk of atherosclerosis. Atherosclerosisis clogging of arteries by fat particles. During fasting glucose and later, fat stores are used to produce energy. Metabolic rate is reduced during fasting. The fear-flight hormones such as adrenaline and noradrenaline are also reduced. This keeps the metabolic steady and within limits. The benefit is a reduction in blood pressure.

7. Fasting Promotes Weight loss

Fasting promotes rapid weight loss. It reduces the store of fats in the body. However fasting is not a good weight loss strategy. Reducing fat and sugar intake, and increasing fruits and rest are better measures to achieve weight reduction.

8. Fasting Promotes Healthy diet

It has been observed that fasting reduces craving for processed foods. It promotes desire for natural foods, especially water and fruits. This is one way fasting promote healthy lifestyle.

9. Fasting Boosts Immunity

When an individual is on balanced diet in between fasts, this can boost immunity. Elimination of toxins and reduction in fat store also helps the body. When individuals take fruits to break a fast, they increase the body's store of essential vitamins and minerals. Vitamins A and E are good antioxidants readily available in fruits. They help to boost immunity.

10. Fasting May Help to Overcome Addictions

Some authors show that fasting can help addicts reduce their cravings, for nicotine, alcohol, caffeine and other substance abuse. Although there are other regimens required to resolve addictions, fasting can play a role.

Despite these benefits, fasting has some demerits. It may cause reduction in body water called dehydration. This leads may lead to headaches and even trigger migraines in predisposed persons. It may worsen heartburn and peptic ulcer. Pregnant women, nursing mothers, malnourished people, and individuals with cardiac arrhythmias, renal or liver problems are advised not to fast .

Health benefit of fasting - Indian Express

Good to know the heavy Chinese chaps are going in for vegetables, but remember to eat organic. Else, repeatedly wash the vegetable to remove a much of chemical pesticides and fertilisers that the farmer may have used to have a bountiful crop.

Another thing that you may like to note, is that the body adjust to the food habits and the food intake, include starvation. Because of my military training, I find the eating what a Chinese would call a 'hearty meal' would make me sick.

One must eat that much as one's body requires and not be a glutton/ gourmand and instead should be a discerning gourmet!

 

[Ray]

A glimpse of the Chinese gourmands.

China confronts problem of obesity

Older people in China remember the Great Famine of 1958-61, when 15 million to 45 million people died of hunger and related causes.

Today, nearly every street corner in Beijing and many other cities seems to boast a McDonald's. There are KFC outlets in almost every Chinese city, 3,700 in all. Meanwhile, newly minted members of the Chinese middle class have rushed to buy cars, leaving bicycles that were once a major source of exercise rusting on the street. Pizza Hut is considered a fancy date-night restaurant, T.G.I. Friday's has several branches in Beijing, and cans of Coca-Cola are sold at every corner stand.

With fast food and rising affluence, a country only a generation removed from hunger is getting fat. How fat? According to the World Health Organization, the percentage of adults who are overweight and obese rose from rose from 25 percent in 2002 to 38.5 percent in 2010 in a population of 1.37 billion. Urban dwellers account for much of this. WHO projects that 50 to 57 percent of the Chinese population will be too heavy by 2015. (By comparison, 69 percent of Americans age 20 and older are overweight or obese.)

There's a standing joke, notes Lyn Wren, a physician with International SOS Beijing Clinic, that "Chinese waistlines are growing faster than the GDP."

Given how impoverished the country was not long ago and how impoverished parts of it still are, "having a problem where people are eating too much — it can seem a little churlish to complain about that," says Paul French, the Shanghai-based author of "Fat China: How Expanding Waistlines are Changing a Nation." French and co-author Matthew Crabbe found that even as recently as five years ago, obesity wasn't recognized as a problem by health professionals in China.

The Chinese Health Ministry has said it encourages healthful eating programs in schools and the construction of more playgrounds to promote exercise. And the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention makes vague references to "health promotion" and providing "scientific guidance for healthy diets," but nationwide campaigns about eating healthfully and exercising are not evident.

In fact, pushing the population to lose weight, exercise and cut back on unhealthful foods seems to strike a discordant note to some inside the government, French says. "When I talked to government officials, their argument was: Right now we're trying to tell them to do and not do a lot of things," such as not spitting on the street, not dropping trash everywhere and not driving "like complete idiots."

"They know they can only tell people to do some things . . . before they get fed up."

Although the era of famine is long past, many grandparents and parents still push their children to eat a lot.

etsuko Hosoda, a family doctor at Beijing United Family Hospital, says the parents and grandparents she sees are "always worried that their child is not eating enough." A 2012 Penn State study of 176 Chinese children ages 6 to 18 found that 72 percent of mothers of overweight children thought their children were normal or underweight.

Sissi Zhong, a 26-year-old Beijing secretary, recalls that her grandparents got angry if she left food on her plate when she was a child. "They said, 'Do you know, in my time of food shortages, people didn't have food, so how can you waste your food?' " Zhong says. So she cleaned her plate even if she was very full.

When her father came home from business trips with boxes of a Chinese soft drink called Jianlibao, she started to put on weight. Drinking four and five cans a day made her weight jump to 143 pounds by the time she was 18. At 5-foot-3, that would put her barely into the "overweight" category by U.S. standards, but she was miserable, getting kicked off her school's dance team for being too fat and being teased by boys who liked her skinnier pals. Today, Zhong says she spends many hours at the gym to stay slim.

Obesity has tended to be an issue that grows along with affluence. Prosperity means bigger paychecks, which can mean more meat, fast foods and bigger meals. Meanwhile, long hours at desk or factory jobs instead of agricultural ones mean less physical activity. The obesity problem is primarily an urban one in a population that is rapidly urbanizing.

China also has particular problems, French says, that can promote obesity. A survey he did found that recent scares about contaminated milk, fruit and vegetables have made consumers feel more safe buying and eating packaged foods. "It's perceived to be less tainted," he says. "If it's packaged and done by Nestle, they're thinking and hoping that there is not going to be poison" in the food. Yet, the fat and sugar content of many packaged foods is often much higher than that of fresh food.

Contradictory impulses are apparent here, much as in the United States. Chinese editions of Vogue display models who are bone-thin. When popular singer A-Mei suddenly seemed to gain weight, online commentators wondered what had happened, until she gave an interview attributing her extra pounds to a love of high-calorie green teas made with tapioca balls, coconut jelly and sugar.

At the same time, China seems oddly fascinated by obesity. Two years ago, a shopping mall in the city of Shenyang held an obesity competition to celebrate International Women's Day. Contestants stood onstage in frilly white wedding dresses.

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Chinese are turning to surgical solutions for weight loss. Huiqi Yang, a general surgeon at Beijing United Family Hospital, has just started offering an operation in which an adjustable band is surgically tied around the stomach to constrict it, leading patients to eat less. Chinese doctors have been doing such bariatric surgeries for 15 years, but Yang says there is growing interest. She said she performed about 100 gastric-band surgeries in recent years at her previous hospital, in the city of Tianjin.

Meanwhile, as obesity, rises so do the ills associated with it.

A recent World Bank report said diabetes, heart disease and hypertension are among several noncommunicable diseases threatening China and other countries. The International Diabetes Federation estimates that there are 92.3 million diabetics in China. No other country has as many diabetics — not surprising, given that China is the most populous country in the world — and even China's outgoing president, Hu Jintao, is rumored to have diabetes.

China confronts problem of obesity - Asia - World - The Independent

Chubby Chinese chucks chunks of chicken, cock, pork and beef and then thank their thungumibob of vegetables, they claim to have changed to, maybe to only ape the West!

Keeping up with the Joneses, so to say!