Microsoft has announced that they are shooting for Jan 10th for the release of a fix to the security flaw we mentioned here before: The update will be released worldwide simultaneously in 23 languages for all affected versions of Windows…

(My Page) on Mon, Jan 30, 06 at least an 8-foot glass French doors to be best if you aren’t visible from a den and change your house? O…

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/technology/archives/2006/01/04/microsoft_takes_down_chinese_blogger.html

Thursday, January 5, 2006 Posted: 0349 GMT (1149 HKT)

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Manage Alerts | What Is This? BEIJING, China (Reuters) — A Chinese court sentenced a businessman to three years in prison on Thursday for organizing illegal protests after authorities seized oil wells owned by thousands of private investors, family members said.

The landmark ruling by the Intermediate People’s Court in Jingbian county in the northwestern province of Shaanxi undermines a government pledge to protect private property, which was seized after the 1949 Communist revolution. The contentious issue has re-emerged since the late 1970s when China began economic reforms.

Feng Bingxian, 59, was convicted of disturbing social order by organizing illegal protests by several hundred disgruntled private oil investors in April and May, said his wife Qu Jianping and his son Feng Yanwei.

“It’s a miscarriage of justice. He will definitely appeal,” Qu told Reuters.

The Jingbian chief judge and prosecutor were both members of a government task force that went in to seize the private oil wells, she said.

“I was angry when I heard the verdict but I’m helpless … The court ignored evidence presented by the defense,” Feng’s son said by telephone.

Security was tight around the court, with the front gate locked, the son said, adding that he was not informed of the sentencing and had to force his way in.

Two co-defendants were sentenced to two years in prison but their sentences were suspended for three years, Feng’s family members said.

Court officials reached by telephone declined to comment.

Peaceful protests
Feng, a former official who went into private business and invested in 13 oil wells in northern Shaanxi, appeared in court wearing an orange prison uniform. He looked frail but calm and smiled when he saw his family, his wife said.

Feng pleaded not guilty during a one-day trial last month, arguing that the protests were peaceful and that officials even took him to lunch and promised further dialogue.

About 6,000 small investors, many local farmers and former officials, bought the wells with the blessing of the government in the late 1990s, pouring in about 7 billion yuan ($867 million) as demand for energy soared.

Feng, who was caught by police in July after evading arrest for two months, invested about 10 million yuan in the wells.

In an about-face after the private investors struck oil, the provincial government seized the wells in 2003 and paid what investors said was paltry compensation.

Their complaints were widely reported in the Chinese press before propaganda mandarins restricted coverage, and the case became the focus of a nationwide campaign for stronger protection of private investors’ rights.

Feng’s trial was postponed twice and his relatives said officials appeared nervous of press attention and protests.

One of Feng’s lawyers, Zhu Jiuhu, was detained along with Feng in July and released two months later after a campaign by human rights advocates and other lawyers. Zhu is still under criminal investigation and was unable to defend Feng.

Protests in China are becoming increasingly common — 74,000 in 2004 compared with 58,000 in 2003 — despite the Communist Party’s obsession with maintaining stability. The demonstrations have been sparked by public anger over a number of issues from pollution and corruption to a growing gap between rich and poor.

In December, police opened fire on residents of Dongzhou village in the southern province of Guangdong protesting against a lack of compensation for land appropriated for a new power plant. The government says three villagers were killed.

China gave a clear nod to the private sector in March 2005 by enshrining in its constitution theories that effectively opened the doors of the Communist Party to private entrepreneurs, who were vilified in the ideologically strict era of Mao Zedong as “capitalist running dogs.”

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