China Reform Monitor: No. 980

July 2:

According to organizers, on July 1 400,000 protesters took to Hong Kong’s streets (compared to police estimates at 63,000) to rally against Beijing’s interference in the city’s affairs. It was the largest turnout since 500,000 protesters marked the same date in 2003. The protest occurred after Hong Kong’s new chief executive C.Y. Leung was sworn in along side President Hu Jintao on the 15th anniversary of the city’s return to China, CNN reports. Hu reiterated Beijing’s vow to uphold the “one country, two systems” policy, but was interrupted by a heckler who condemned the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown and China’s one-party rule, BBC reports. On June 30 police shielded Hu from demonstrators and dispersed them using pepper spray. With Beijing’s approval, 1,200 influential Hong Kong residents selected Leung. His swearing-in was conducted in Mandarin rather than Cantonese – the local dialect – which irritated citizens already sensitive to mainland encroachment. Hong Kong residents are angry about the lack of universal suffrage, soaring housing prices, worsening pollution and a growing wealth gap.

July 3:

Banquets held “at all levels of government” in China are prohibited from serving shark fin soup, a popular delicacy regularly served at weddings, anniversaries and corporate and state events, the official China Daily reports. Over the past two decades soaring demand for the soup is blamed for the sharp decline in global shark populations. A World Wildlife Fund representative quoted in The New York Times called the decision “a very positive step forward” that would send an important signal to consumers in China, the largest market for the fins. The ban, issued by China’s Government Offices Administration of the State Council, will take three years to implement and its enforcement is unclear since local officials regularly ignore Beijing’s dictates.

July 4:

This month Beijing will begin installing 100 recycle-to-ride machines that pay subway credits in exchange for returned plastic bottles. The machine will return between 5 fen and 1 mao (a tenth of a yuan) for each bottle, which it then crushes and sorts according to color and type. Incom, the operating company, hopes to put one at every subway station on line 10 and later expand to other lines, bus stops, and residential areas, Britain’s The Guardian reports. The firm now processes 50,000 tons of bottles a year, most of which it buys from thousands of small collectors who roam the city looking for plastic. Incom hopes to increase its direct collections from the public and generate revenue from government subsidies and advertising on the machines.

July 6:

Police have broken up a child-trafficking ring spanning 15 provinces and arrested more than 800 people. Women auctioned off their children for up to 50,000 yuan ($7,800) depending on the parents’ appearance and the baby’s gender and health, Bloomberg reports. Police arrested a doctor at a Hebei-based clinic that organized the baby sale and a suspect that had allegedly trafficked more than 100 children. According to a Ministry of Public Security statement, the raids involved 10,000 police and freed in 181 children. Police became aware of the child-trafficking ring when four suspects were found on a bus in Henan traveling with babies for sale.

[Editor’s Note: China’s one-child policy and a tradition of favoring boys contribute to the problem. Some rural families sell girl babies because boys are considered more valuable. In 2009, China started an anti- trafficking campaign that has since freed 18,000 children and 34,000 women. Despite these improvements the U.S. State Department’s 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report said that China’s “government did not demonstrate evidence of significant efforts to address all forms of trafficking or effectively protect victims.”]