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Tag: government accountability

Registry Restrictions

Written by LS Staff on . Posted in Flash Reports. No Comments on Registry Restrictions

Hong Kong’s Legislative Council has passed a land registry reform bill that will restrict public access to property records in the territory. Under the new rules, only “designated persons” — lawyers, accountants, surveyors, and former property owners — will be able to access the registry, while journalists will be explicitly excluded. In an op-ed published yesterday by HK01, lawmaker Tik Chi-yuen (狄志遠) warned the restrictions would “severely undermine press freedom and the public’s right to oversight.” Past investigative reports exposing land scandals and official misconduct relied heavily on land registry searches. Tik called on the government to include media workers among designated persons and establish exceptions for public interest inquiries.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​

Hong Kong lawmaker Tik Chi-yuen has spoken out about new restrictions on the search of property records in the territory. SOURCE: Wikimedia Commons.

404: What Is It Good For?

Written by LS Staff on . Posted in Flash Reports. No Comments on 404: What Is It Good For?

An exposé published last week by Guangzhou’s Southern Metropolis Daily (南方都市報) telling the shocking story of exorbitant morgue fees in Jinan, the capital of coastal Shandong province, quickly disappeared from China’s internet last week — suggesting authorities were uncomfortable with its implications of bureaucratic negligence. The report detailed how the body of murder victim Liu Yun (刘芸) had remained in storage at a local funeral home for more than five years, accumulating 380,000 yuan (52,800 dollars) in storage fees that the victim’s impoverished rural family could not afford to pay.

The bureaucratic deadlock occurred when police refused to issue a death certificate, claiming the court verdict was sufficient, while the funeral home insisted it needed this specific document to release the body. Despite regulations clearly assigning responsibility to police for issuing death certificates in criminal cases, the impasse continued until media exposure prompted authorities to waive all fees. This is apparently not an isolated case.

As the article vanished online, it left a string of “404” error messages in its wake. In an oddly colorful take on censorship, Tencent turned the page block into a creative error page encouraging users to “light a dream for children” (为孩子们点亮一个梦想) by supporting rural schools. The message poignantly notes: “The page you’re looking for has gone astray seeking dreams, but you can still make a difference together with Tencent’s volunteers.”

Shop Sign Shenanigans

Written by Alex Colville on . Posted in Flash Reports. No Comments on Shop Sign Shenanigans

In the latest kerfuffle over heavy-handed local governance in China, netizens rejoiced this week following news of the removal of the top leader in Hebei’s Sanhe city. His offense? An order issued last week that forced local businesses to replace red, blue, and black shop signs with green ones — at owners’ expense. The imperious edict led to a beloved local chain, Mixue Ice Cream and Tea (蜜雪冰城), being forced to swap its iconic red signs for green. Nationwide outrage ensued.

The Sanhe story soared to #2 on Baidu’s hot search list and soon state media had pounced. Guangdong’s official Nanfang Daily newspaper ran an expose on the case, and Xinhua News Agency followed with an explainer on how officials had violated the “Eight Point Regulations” — anti-corruption directives issued by Xi in 2012 and recently undergoing another campaign-style resurgence. Not all stories of local delinquency, however, can reach satisfying conclusions by virtue of media and internet exposure. Case in point: a story last week about a Shandong family forced to pay years of morgue fees has vanished completely from the Chinese internet.

The message from any netizens: Don’t mess with our Mixue Ice Cream and Tea.