• China river's dead pig toll passes 13,000 but officials say water quality is 'normal'

    Str / AFP - Getty Images

    A dead pig is seen in a dirty tributary of the Yangtze River, in central China's Hebei province, some 750 miles from the city of Shanghai, in a photo taken on March 12, 2013. The number of dead pigs found in the Huangpu River, which runs through China's commercial hub Shanghai, has reached more than 13,000, state media reported on March 18.

    By Ed Flanagan, Producer, NBC News

    BEIJING – To the chagrin of Shanghai city residents, there’s more “pork chop soup” on the menu for the foreseeable future. 

    More than a week since authorities in Shanghai started pulling thousands of dead pigs from one of the city’s major waterways, the Huangpu River, municipal authorities in that city of 23 million are continuing to pull hundreds of carcasses from its waterways each day, bringing the total since last week to over 13,000. 

    Workers on Sunday pulled nearly 500 pigs from the Huangpu, bringing the total found from that river alone to over 9,500. The Huangpu River supplies over a fifth of Shanghai’s drinking water.

    As the pig tally creeps up, Shanghai government officials have been struggling to put a positive spin on the ghoulish images popping up each day from the city’s waterways. 

    Shanghai is in the process of burning some of the 13,000 pig bodies found in a major waterway. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.

    A report Monday in People’s Daily, the official newspaper of China’s ruling Communist Party, focused on the stepped up food and water quality tests across the city. It also earnestly noted that not only have the numbers of pigs being pulled from the rivers dropped, but the size of them too.

    Citing a report from Shanghai’s city government, the paper stated that two thirds of the most recent carcasses found were piglets, suggesting that the worse may have passed.

    Social media outrage
    Still, the daily sight of carcasses being pulled from the city’s waterways for disposal has angered the public and sparked a spirited discussion on China’s Twitter-like service, Weibo. 

    Reports that many of the pigs found have tested positive for porcine circovirus, a virus that has killed large numbers of pigs in the region in recent months, has also raised suspicions about the safety of Shanghai’s water supply.

    “The water must have been polluted [by these dead pigs],” wrote one user named Lujun, “Authorities are being dishonest and trying to hide something.”

    “The government is as corrupt as these dead pigs,” another user using the name Ziyoudeweini wrote disgustedly. “I feel so cold. Who can we count on?” 

    “Water quality in the Huangpu River has been normal up to now,” one official at the Shanghai Information Office assured NBC News Monday. He also stressed that porcine circovirus cannot be contracted by humans. 

    Where are they coming from?
    Shanghai officials have stepped up surveillance for dead pigs around the Huangpu River and have called upon local government in the nearby city of Jiaxing in Zhejiang Province to step up their own searches. 

    Just northeast of Shanghai, Jiaxing is believed to be the source of many of the dead pigs floating down into Shanghai. Shanghai’s Information Office officials declined to speculate on whether Jiaxing was the sole source of all the pigs, but told NBC News that the prefecture was the focus of a joint Shanghai-Jiaxing investigation.

    An official at the Jiaxing Environmental Protection Agency declined to comment on the progress of the investigation late Monday.

    But steps were being taken in Jiaxing to curb the continued dumping of pigs into the region’s waterways. The city’s local newspaper, Jiaxing Daily, reported that leaflets had been passed out to farmers in the region, urging them to properly dispose of dead pigs with local authorities rather than quietly dumping them into the river.

    Jiaxing is likely not the only community to be dumping dead pigs into its waterways, as reports indicate that porcine circovirus has spiked across farming communities this winter, killing more pigs than usual. Many have speculated that farmers have been attempting to discretely dispose of the sick pigs rather than reporting them to authorities and risk investigation.

    NBC News’ Danny Zhang contributed to this report.

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  • Online outrage over fruit seller's run-in with China cops shows power of social media

    nandu.com

    Law enforcement officers tackle fruit seller Li Shengyan in Guangzhou, China, in an incident that turned into a public relations nightmare for the authorities.

    By Le Li, Producer, NBC News

    Cops in China charged with fighting petty crime have become so notorious for their abuse of power that their official name, Chengguan, has become slang for thuggishness. “Don’t be too chengguan,” one might admonish another, meaning “don’t be such a bully.”

    That reputation was given more fuel Wednesday when a newspaper ran pictures of an officer tackling a diminutive fruit vendor in the southern boomtown of Guangzhou as her 16-month-old daughter looked on. During the incident, he grabbed Li Shengyan's neck and wrestled her to the ground after a dispute over a fruit knife.

    Once such incidents would have provoked little comment and the authorities did not need to fear the court of public opinion.

    nandu.com

    After Li Shengyan was arrested, her 16-month-old daughter gave her a hug.

    But the popularity of social media websites has changed all that. Users of China’s two most popular Twitter-like services had commented on the pictures some 7 million times by Friday, many expressing their disgust at the police.

    There are now signs that those in power are being forced to take people power seriously, even if the eventual outcome is much the same.

    One expert on Chinese social media said that while officials’ first instincts were “to cover up and distract attention” from controversial events, they now faced losing their jobs if they handled them badly.

    Wednesday’s incident – as described by the report in the Southern Metropolitan newspaper -- started after officials confiscated her fruit knife. One officer, Ao Dating, then threatend to take away her fruit and the cart.

    Pomegranate thrown
    Li then yelled at Ao and hurled a pomegranate at him. This enraged Ao and he grabbed her by the neck.  The officer then forced her to the ground. His colleagues eventually dragged him off Li.

    One picture showed Li with her hands tied -- unable to comfort her daughter as the young girl hugged her.

    After the confrontation, Li was arrested and taken to a police station along with her daughter. Her cart was confiscated.

    By Thursday, the story had become an internet sensation. 

    “Brute!” one blogger posted.

    “Can’t you be a little more civilized? Do you know how much it will traumatize the girl,” another said.

    The traditional response given by officials to international press enquiries about events like this is: “I do not know.” 

    However, this time, a spokeswoman for Guangzhou’s City Urban Administrative and Law Enforcement Bureau was surprisingly forthcoming.

    “Our bosses are investigating the incident and will inform the public once we find out,” she said. “We are waiting for the results too.”

    Jeremy Goldkorn, an expert on Chinese media and Internet culture, said local governments were increasingly held to account by higher authorities for issues raised on the blogosphere.

    “If they do not react, these lower level officials like city urban management police could lose their jobs,” he said.

    “The first reaction of these types of officials is just to try to cover up and distract attention from the case. Because of the speed and growth of the social media, it becomes more and more difficult for that kind of distraction happen,” he added.

    Investigation blames Li
    After its investigation, the law enforcement bureau said officers had been suspended and there was a report Li had been given an apology as she was released from custody.

    However, the investigation blamed it on Li, accusing her of attacking officials, injuring one. A picture of Li throwing the pomegranate was also released.

    The original report in the Southern Metropolitan was taken down and other websites commenting on the incident also disappeared.

    Li's cart was returned, but she was left unhappy.

    “They (the officials) said ‘The girl, and her parents were well taken care of by the police,” she posted on a Tencent Weibo account which was registered to her. “It was just a show. My girl’s diaper was not changed in 24 hours … the police should face what they have done instead of writing a nice article to make themselves look good."

    Huang Pei, of NBC News, contributed to this report.

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  • Wall-to-wall coverage of superstorm Sandy provokes controversy in China

    Slideshow: Sandy slams into East Coast

    Superstorm Sandy made landfall Monday evening on a destructive and deadly path across the Northeast.

    Launch slideshow

    By Ed Flanagan, NBC News

    BEIJING – As Hurricane Sandy barreled down on the Eastern Seaboard this week, a nation's eyes were glued to the extensive media coverage of the storm.

    We're talking about China, of course.

    Yes, the major American networks gave viewers non-stop updates of the storm's movements and the damage left in its wake, but Chinese state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV) was also in the game.

    With already more than 150 employees in Washington, D.C., alone – about a third of them Chinese nationals – CCTV boasts the means to provide extensive coverage of major events outside of its home country.

    However, just because CCTV can offer wall-to-wall coverage of Sandy – already being called the costliest storm in U.S. history – doesn't mean its audience is prepared to watch.

    Certainly not at the cost of local stories that Chinese viewers want to hear about.

    Trending topic
    As the storm played out and CCTV provided near-continuous coverage, comments on China's popular Twitter-like service, Weibo, exploded – over 6 million at this point, making it easily the biggest trending topic on the site. Many were overwhelmingly negative and criticized CCTV's handling of superstorm Sandy.

    Their complaint: CCTV was so singularly focused on coverage of the American storm that the Chinese state broadcaster had stopped covering news in China, ironically transforming instead into what many here called mockingly "the conscience of the United States."

    Or as a popular online cartoonist who goes by the pen name "Murong Aoao" sardonically put it: "CCTV is an excellent American media company."

    Courtesy Murong Aoao

    Murong Aoao's cartoon about Chinese TV coverage of Sandy.

    In a cartoon that has been shared more than 50,000 times on Weibo, Murong paints what appears to be a CCTV reporter or government employee pointing to what is assumed is the United States while calling out, "Look! His house is on fire!" all while he himself is ablaze.

    Asked why he drew the cartoon, Murong simply told NBC News: "It wasn't a big deal, it was just a way to ridicule the coverage."

    The cartoon encapsulates the anger that has been laced through much of the online dialogue over CCTV's coverage.

    China considers end to unpopular one-child policy

    Much of the frustration conveyed in Murong's cartoon is rooted in the fact that CCTV's reporting on the storm and other American disasters in the past often superseded local stories here in China that netizens believe demand coverage. Most noticeably, a week-long protest in the eastern city of Ningbo over local government plans to build a controversial chemical plant there has been ignored.

    In the eastern Chinese city of Ningbo officials have halted the planned expansion of a chemical plant, following days of public protests. ITN's China Correspondent Angus Walker reports.

    State media was allegedly warned not to cover the story and when thousands flocked to the streets of Ningbo to peacefully protest the plant, only foreign media could be seen in the city reporting on the gatherings, sparking applause from grateful locals.

    "CCTV sends lots of correspondents to the U.S. to report on Sandy," complained one irate user. "Why don't they have time for Ningbo, but plenty for America?"

    "Because the leaders' relatives are in the U.S., they care!" went the chorus of replies to the poster.

    NYT report: China leader's family has amassed billions in assets since '98

    Indeed, this notion that CCTV's Sandy coverage was more for the benefit of Chinese government officials – many of whom are known to have their family members and financial assets in the U.S. – than everyday people was a persistent joke underlying many of the posts in recent days.

    Aerial footage reveals devastation from New York City to North Carolina's Outer Banks in the wake of superstorm Sandy.

    "CCTV is not to blame, there are so many leaders' children and relatives studying and working in New York and the East Coast," wrote one Weibo user. "If CCTV does not report on these huge hurricanes when they happen, how will the leaders who don't speak English find out what's going on with their loved ones?"

    The secret to a perfect smile? Chopsticks, Chinese officials are told

    Despite the biting cynicism, frustration and humor conveyed by Web users about CCTV's Sandy coverage, the overwhelming message on Weibo was concern and support for those who had suffered due to the storm.

    One day after Sandy slammed into the East Coast, NBC News' Lester Holt reports on the record-breaking hybrid storm system that swamped neighborhoods, paralyzed the nation's biggest city, and left millions of families from the Carolinas to Ohio without power.

    Messages from families and friends attempting to reconnect with loved ones in the affected areas and heartfelt posts of support for Americans coming out of the storm were continuing well into Wednesday.

    They reveal a friendly, empathetic connection between China and the United States that all too often is lost in the often daily rounds of political bashing from both sides of the Pacific.

    NBC News' Yanzhou Liu and Johanna Armstrong contributed to this report.

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  • Online coup rumors spark China crackdown on social media websites

    China has been shutting down internet and social media sties that have been fuelling rumors of a military coup, ITV's Angus Walker reports from Beijing.

    China's government shut down some social media websites this week after photos of tanks on the streets were posted online. The images sparked false rumors of a coup. 

    ITV News' Angus Walker reports from Beijing.

    Check out more China coverage on msnbc.com's Behind The Wall blog.

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  • Protesters in China demand chemical plant's closure

    Thousands of people turned out on the streets of the prosperous port city of Dalian, China on Sunday demanding the closure of a local chemical factory. The protest was mounted after waves from Tropical Storm Muifalast week broke a dike guarding the plant and raised fears of a toxic spill.
     
    In a sign of Chinese authorities fears of popular protest, they quickly announced that the factory would be closed and moved. Adrienne Mong reports.