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The chief of the Romanian Communist Party’s secret police, which struck terror into the populace throughout the reign of Nicolae Ceausescu, was given an award by the Chinese Embassy in Bucharest recently, according to The Associated Press. The award to Ilulian Vlad, for his role in developing relations between China and Romania, was presented on Feb. 3 but only emerged publicly several days later. From 1987 to 1989, Vlad was chief of the Securitate, the much-hated security apparatus that ran nearly 800,000 informants and detained and tortured dissidents. Vlad was accused of complicity in genocide for violently suppressing anti-regime protesters in 1989, and put on trial the following year; sentenced to 25 years in prison, he served only four. Stelian Tanase, a political commentator, called the award “like a phantom from the past,” according to AP. Reached by telephone, a staffer at the Chinese Embassy in Bucharest, who declined to provide his name, said that they had issued no award to “Mr. Vlad.”
Chinese Rights Lawyer Denounces Former Security Czar
Beijing human rights lawyer Pu Zhiqiang, a well-known figure in China, has publicly denounced the Communist Party’s recently retired security chief Zhou Yongkang, calling him a “poison” of society. Pu wrote on several of his microblog accounts last week that Zhou is a “traitor of the people” who “has brought huge disasters to the country.” The posts were widely circulated and discussed on the Internet, but were soon deleted by authorities; his accounts were also disabled. Zhou’s approach to “stability maintenance” is the major cause of China’s social instability, Pu said in an interview with Voice of America (VOA). Pu wrote that over the last 10 years, with Zhou heading security, “none of the social conflicts in China were truly resolved,” including victims of the June 4 Tiananmen Square massacre, the Falun Gong persecution, forced demolitions, and environmental destruction, Pu said. “He has, directly or indirectly, created countless tragedies.”
Spontaneous Protest in Chongqing Subdues Police
A crowd mobbed a police car in Chongqing, southwest China, after traffic police let off a drunk driver who beat a bus driver, after the man made a phone call to his uncle, a chief of local traffic squad. (Weibo.com)
Public anger boiled over in Chongqing recently, after traffic police let off a drunk BMW driver who assaulted a bus driver, after the former called in a favor. Ms. Wang, a resident, told The Epoch Times: “The BMW driver shouted to the police that his uncle was a captain of a local traffic squad, and then phoned his uncle. Soon, the police received a phone call from their superior and let the guy leave right away.” A crowd that was witness to the scene was furious at the unfairness, and gathered around the police to shout and protest. A witness, who spoke anonymously because of the political nature of the incident, said: “The police at first threatened to send all of them to prison … but finally ended up begging the crowd to let them leave,” adding that some of the police officers knelt down before the crowd. Ms. Wang said that a student attempted to photograph the incident with her mobile phone, but the police violently snatched the phone and struck her. This further inflamed the crowd, with thousands gathering to mob the police cars.
Chinese Petitioners Beg Premier Not to Visit
The new Chinese leaders have been trying to portray a genial image toward the people by paying visits to towns and villages around the country—but one group of citizens has said: No need to visit us, thanks. At the end of last year the regime’s new premier, Li Keqiang, visited Enshi, a city in Hubei Province, to “inquire about the villagers’ needs, and listen to their troubles,” according to official propaganda. However, to prevent any malcontents from seeing Li or pleading for his help during his inspection, Enshi public security officials rounded people up and detained them. So these petitioners are now begging Li not to return—lest they’re again detained. Over 20 made a trip to Beijing’s South Train Station on Feb. 4, holding up banners saying that they “lost freedom” due to the Enshi Intermediate People’s Court during Li’s visit, and suffered injustice from “the darkest court in the world.”
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