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.
‘HYANGDO’: A South Korean lawmaker said there was no credible evidence to support rumors that Kim Jong-un has a son with a disability or who is studying abroad South Korea’s spy agency yesterday said that North Korean leader Kim Jong-un’s daughter, Kim Ju-ae, who last week accompanied him on a high-profile visit to Beijing, is understood to be his recognized successor. The teenager drew global attention when she made her first official overseas trip with her father, as he met with Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Analysts have long seen her as Kim’s likely successor, although some have suggested she has an older brother who is being secretly groomed as the next leader. The South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS) “assesses that she [Kim Ju-ae]
In the week before his fatal shooting, right-wing US political activist Charlie Kirk cheered the boom of conservative young men in South Korea and warned about a “globalist menace” in Tokyo on his first speaking tour of Asia. Kirk, 31, who helped amplify US President Donald Trump’s agenda to young voters with often inflammatory rhetoric focused on issues such as gender and immigration, was shot in the neck on Wednesday at a speaking event at a Utah university. In Seoul on Friday last week, he spoke about how he “brought Trump to victory,” while addressing Build Up Korea 2025, a conservative conference
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
RSS