Authorities in the central Chinese province of Hubei have denied online reports that seven children froze to death at a child welfare center, saying instead that the children died of illness.
In a Feb. 23 post on the Huasheng and Tianya discussion forums titled "Who is being cruel to disabled children?,"a netizen identified as Yun Tian said he had visited the Shiyan Municipal Welfare Center on Feb. 23 with his family.
"We found a 13- to 14-year-old girl with her face covered in bruises and cuts, and we asked her who had beat her," the post said. "The little girl didn't dare to say, for fear of being beaten by Auntie Wang."
The poster said he had asked staff there why there was no heating in the rooms, where a number of children were shivering from the cold.
"There was a woman there who told me with tears in her eyes that during the winter of 2012, seven children had died of the cold, and that their arms and legs had become pulpy from the cold," Yun Tian wrote.
An official who answered the phone at the Shiyan municipal department of civil affairs said an official probe into the children's deaths had already begun.
"We have already sent a task force down there," the official said, but directed further enquiries to information officials.
An official who answered the phone at the civil affairs department's propaganda office said the report from the investigation had yet to be finalized.
"I don't think we can say yet that they died of the cold," he said. "We can neither confirm nor refute [the Internet report] at this stage."
Cause disputed
However, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday that the children had all died of illness, not from the cold.
"An initial investigation found that all had died of illness, refuting online rumors that they had frozen to death at the center in Shiyan city," the agency quoted the investigation task force as saying.
It said the team would further probe the children's deaths ! and determine whether or not the center was guilty of child abuse.
All seven children had been abandoned with serious congenital diseases, according to the team.
Four of the children had congenital heart disease, one was born without an anus, one had been born premature, and one had cerebral palsy, Xinhua said.
The report was among the most retweeted posts on the Twitter-like service Sina Weibo, according to the Hong Kong University's China Media Center.
String of scandals
Shenzhen-based current affairs commentator Zhu Jianguo said the report was the latest in a string of child welfare scandals to shake Chinese netizens, following the deaths of five "left-behind" children in a Guizhou dumpster last year.
"There is a huge, ongoing dispute about the welfare of orphans and abandoned children across China, and the government won't spend money or do anything about it," Zhu said. "It even interferes with nongovernment groups who try to care for them."
"Against such a backdrop, it would be surprising if nothing really bad happened to these kids."
He said officials are unwilling to invest funds in projects that are relatively invisible.
"The crucial fact is that the government simply doesn't represent the lowest levels of society; they represent the rich and powerful," Zhu said.
'Run by government'
Jin Hanyan, a petitioner from Shiyan city, said he had been locked up in a similar government-run welfare center by officials angry over his repeated complaints against the local government.
"They are run by government at every level," he said. "But if you are an elderly person in one of those place, they don't give you anything to eat or drink, and they take away all your welfare and social assistance payments."
"If the elderly get sick, they beat them with poles, because it reflects badly on them."
Last November, authorities in the southwestern province of Guizhou took disciplinary action against ei! ght offic! ials and teachers in connection with the deaths of five children of migrant workers whose bodies were found in a dumpster where they had apparently been living.
The case prompted an outcry among netizens concerned over the protection of minors and threw a spotlight on the plight of migrant parents, many of whom leave their children behind in their home areas due to difficulty in arranging adequate child care and schooling in their new employment areas.
Officials estimate that around 150,000 street children roam China's cities, and have boosted the number of homeless shelters to try to help those in direst need.
But experts say social provision for the homeless is still far from adequate.
Reported by Fang Yuan for RFA's Mandarin service and by Wen Yuqing for the Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
In a Feb. 23 post on the Huasheng and Tianya discussion forums titled "Who is being cruel to disabled children?,"a netizen identified as Yun Tian said he had visited the Shiyan Municipal Welfare Center on Feb. 23 with his family.
"We found a 13- to 14-year-old girl with her face covered in bruises and cuts, and we asked her who had beat her," the post said. "The little girl didn't dare to say, for fear of being beaten by Auntie Wang."
The poster said he had asked staff there why there was no heating in the rooms, where a number of children were shivering from the cold.
"There was a woman there who told me with tears in her eyes that during the winter of 2012, seven children had died of the cold, and that their arms and legs had become pulpy from the cold," Yun Tian wrote.
An official who answered the phone at the Shiyan municipal department of civil affairs said an official probe into the children's deaths had already begun.
"We have already sent a task force down there," the official said, but directed further enquiries to information officials.
An official who answered the phone at the civil affairs department's propaganda office said the report from the investigation had yet to be finalized.
"I don't think we can say yet that they died of the cold," he said. "We can neither confirm nor refute [the Internet report] at this stage."
Cause disputed
However, the official Xinhua news agency reported on Friday that the children had all died of illness, not from the cold.
"An initial investigation found that all had died of illness, refuting online rumors that they had frozen to death at the center in Shiyan city," the agency quoted the investigation task force as saying.
It said the team would further probe the children's deaths ! and determine whether or not the center was guilty of child abuse.
All seven children had been abandoned with serious congenital diseases, according to the team.
Four of the children had congenital heart disease, one was born without an anus, one had been born premature, and one had cerebral palsy, Xinhua said.
The report was among the most retweeted posts on the Twitter-like service Sina Weibo, according to the Hong Kong University's China Media Center.
String of scandals
Shenzhen-based current affairs commentator Zhu Jianguo said the report was the latest in a string of child welfare scandals to shake Chinese netizens, following the deaths of five "left-behind" children in a Guizhou dumpster last year.
"There is a huge, ongoing dispute about the welfare of orphans and abandoned children across China, and the government won't spend money or do anything about it," Zhu said. "It even interferes with nongovernment groups who try to care for them."
"Against such a backdrop, it would be surprising if nothing really bad happened to these kids."
He said officials are unwilling to invest funds in projects that are relatively invisible.
"The crucial fact is that the government simply doesn't represent the lowest levels of society; they represent the rich and powerful," Zhu said.
'Run by government'
Jin Hanyan, a petitioner from Shiyan city, said he had been locked up in a similar government-run welfare center by officials angry over his repeated complaints against the local government.
"They are run by government at every level," he said. "But if you are an elderly person in one of those place, they don't give you anything to eat or drink, and they take away all your welfare and social assistance payments."
"If the elderly get sick, they beat them with poles, because it reflects badly on them."
Last November, authorities in the southwestern province of Guizhou took disciplinary action against ei! ght offic! ials and teachers in connection with the deaths of five children of migrant workers whose bodies were found in a dumpster where they had apparently been living.
The case prompted an outcry among netizens concerned over the protection of minors and threw a spotlight on the plight of migrant parents, many of whom leave their children behind in their home areas due to difficulty in arranging adequate child care and schooling in their new employment areas.
Officials estimate that around 150,000 street children roam China's cities, and have boosted the number of homeless shelters to try to help those in direst need.
But experts say social provision for the homeless is still far from adequate.
Reported by Fang Yuan for RFA's Mandarin service and by Wen Yuqing for the Cantonese service. Translated and written in English by Luisetta Mudie.
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Fatal student stampede in rural China exposes excessive school mergers
![The school after the fatal student stampede in central China's Hubei province. (Photo/Xinhua)]( "The school after the fatal student stampede in central China's Hubei province. (Photo/Xinhua)")
The school after the fatal student stampede in central China's Hubei province. (Photo/Xinhua)Xu Zhaoyi now trembles with fear when entering his school's dormitory, as he bore witness to a fatal student stampede that occurred at the school on Wednesday in central China's Hubei province."Five students were lying on the ground after the stampede. Teachers were trying to revive them," said Xu, a nine-year-old student at the Qinji Primary School in Xueji township in the city of Laohekou.The fatal school stampede occurred after hundreds of pupils were crowded at the only gate of the school's temporary dorm.Some have blamed the incident on excessive rural school mergers that have left rural students with little choice but to attend crowded schools far from their homes.The incident occurred one day after China's Ministry of Education announced that the excessive merging of schools in rural areas had been halted."My son cried and begged me to take him home. He was extremely scared to board at the dormitory any longer after witnessing the incident," said Du Zhen, father of a 10-year-old student at the school.The incident occurred around 6:15am Wednesday, when two teachers who were on duty failed to open the gate at 6:00am as scheduled. When it did open, a large crowd of students that had gathered around the gate rushed in simultaneously, triggering a stampede.There is only one entrance on the ground floor of the school's temporary dormitory, which used to be a four-story classroom."As a mother myself, I was extremely sorrowful for the school's tragedy. I wish to express my deepest apologies for the deaths of the four students," said Guo Fangfang, deputy mayor of Laohekou.The city government blamed the incident on dereliction of duty and removed eight officials from their posts, including the director of the municipal education bureau.The number of rural primary school's in the city's jurisdiction has dropped from 139 to 39 over the last decade, a trend similar to that seen in other rural areas.With no school buses, some rural students have to walk or ride bicycles for several kilometers to school."My daughter kept crying when I would send her to school every week. I felt bad sending such a young child to board at school," said Sun Zongta, the father of a girl who died in the stampede.Sun's eight-year-old daughter used to study at a primary school in their village, but had to transfer to the Qinji Primary School after their village school was closed.A decreasing number of school-age children has led many local governments to merge rural schools, forcing some students to take long journeys to attend school or board in the schools' dormitories.Although the education ministry has halted the mergers, the mergers' effects are still creating problems for local education authorities and schools, said Tu Yanguo, director of the College of Education of Central China Normal University in Wuhan.Excessive mergers have had a negative effect on teaching quality, school safety and accommodation for students, Tu said.The ministry has stated that students receiving compulsory education should be required to walk no more than 40 minutes to reach the nearest school.The stampede has alerted local authorities to the importance of ensuring students' safety and providing more school buses, Tu said.Read More @ WantChinaTimes.com
The school after the fatal student stampede in central China's Hubei province. (Photo/Xinhua)
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