Prisoners in the Chinese megacity of Chongqing could see their sentences cut if they take part in “red” cultural activities, as part of an ongoing drive to promote communist revolutionary ideals.
Authorities in Chongqing have ordered that re-education of prisoners be carried out with the help of singing and reading activities based on “red” culture, the state Chongqing Daily said on Friday.
“The situation where prisoners attend red cultural activities must become an important basis for encouragement, a reduced sentence or parole,” Liu Guanglei (劉光磊), a top official at the municipal committee, was quoted as saying.
Liu pointed to the “educational” qualities of “red” culture — songs to the glory of Communism or revolutionary poetry — to help detainees become law-abiding people who would be “useful to society,” the report said.
The initiative is the latest “red” move in Chongqing, a huge and fast-growing municipality of more than 30 million people run by party chief Bo Xilai (薄熙來), who has pledged to reinvigorate the city with the ideals of Mao Zedong (毛澤東).
City authorities have ordered state radio and television to promote the mass study of “red songs” that sing the praises of the Chinese Communist Party.
The state-run Chongqing Satellite Television also set aside popular television shows in January in favor of programs extolling communist ideals, in a bid to restore “fading red morals.”
The party chief’s “red” push comes after Chongqing’s image was sullied in 2009 by a police crackdown that exposed a thriving criminal underworld acting with impunity.
Indonesia yesterday began enforcing its newly ratified penal code, replacing a Dutch-era criminal law that had governed the country for more than 80 years and marking a major shift in its legal landscape. Since proclaiming independence in 1945, the Southeast Asian country had continued to operate under a colonial framework widely criticized as outdated and misaligned with Indonesia’s social values. Efforts to revise the code stalled for decades as lawmakers debated how to balance human rights, religious norms and local traditions in the world’s most populous Muslim-majority nation. The 345-page Indonesian Penal Code, known as the KUHP, was passed in 2022. It
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
Russia early yesterday bombarded Ukraine, killing two people in the Kyiv region, authorities said on the eve of a diplomatic summit in France. A nationwide siren was issued just after midnight, while Ukraine’s military said air defenses were operating in several places. In the capital, a private medical facility caught fire as a result of the Russian strikes, killing one person and wounding three others, the State Emergency Service of Kyiv said. It released images of rescuers removing people on stretchers from a gutted building. Another pre-dawn attack on the neighboring city of Fastiv killed one man in his 70s, Kyiv Governor Mykola
RSS