Who is Zhao Hongxia? Wrong pics in the wrong place?

photo_shanghaiist (Photo credit: nozomiiqel)

The name Zhao Hongxia might sound familiar by now. She is supposedly the girl who was filmed while having sex with the Chongqing official Lei Zhengfu, as part of a major extortion scheme. A minor brawl has emerged as publications, like the Shanghaiist, published pictures of a girl, along Lei Zhengfu.

Issue at stake: should publications like the Shanghaiist not have protected the identity of the girl and not have published the pictures. It is a slightly academic issue, as the pictures are all over the internet, and the Shanghaiist decision could have been justified under the qualification that this is 'news'.
Unfortunately, few publications did their home work and failed to report the pictures might have been of somebody else. This is what the Chinese publications Ifeng published, translated by EastSouthWestNorth

Xiao Lin (pseudonym), a female student at a certain university in Xiamen city, was stunned when she came across an Internet news story about the mistress of Chongqing official Lei Zhengfu: "Isn't that my photographs?"
"Who linked my photographs with the principal of the indecent photographs? And they even spread it all over the Internet?" Xiao Lin was very angry. She never imagined that even though she was faraway in Xiamen, she would be swept into the Lei Zhengfu indecent photographs incident.
"How did I become a principal in the indecent photographs case? I don't know any Chongqing Communist Party secretary. The photographs on the Internet were taken at a certain film studio which posted them on the Internet. I also have them in my personal page, but the photographs are locked up," Xiao Lin said.
Xiao Lin said that a friend told her that someone had misappropriated her photographs. By the time she got on the Internet to check, the photographs has already spread everywhere.
"This is really vexing." Xiao Lin filed a police report yesterday. The public security bureau is investigating. She also said that she reserves the right to seek legal redress.

That makes the editorial decision by Shanghaiist (and others) to not only publish those pictures along with an incriminating story dubious. Of course they should apologize to the student who has been possibly wrongly connected with this Chongqing scandal. They might also be open for claims for damages, as they have not done anything to check the validity of those pictures.
Not sure what jurisdiction would apply here, since I'm quite sure the Shanghaiist has no publishing license in China. So, they could be found in a US court, as their mother company (Gothamist LLC) is American, defending themselves against the expensive legal representatives of this Xiamen student - that is, if the story in iFeng is correct.
This story is going to have a tail, although not sure if no new twists and turn might come up.

Do the Xiamen internet regulations have a meaning?

I have been ignoring the effort by the Xiamen government to curtail access to the internet, after the PX-protests, because it just would not work according to my assessment. The internet is a global system, China is trying to pretend it can stop some of the international access, but the idea of Xiamen being able to execute successfully any censorship system seemed rather unrealistic.
But the non-news keeps on hitting headlines, even here at the Financial Times, Xiamen wants to force internet users on Xiamen-based sites to register under their real name, a measure that has just been abandoned by the central government because it was not "mature".
It seems just another case of a local government not being able to get to terms with the new communication tools, that cannot be controlled.

SEPA critical on Xiamen PX-project

In a new environmental assessment of the city of Xiamen, the plans for a new chemical plant might have to be reconsidered, the State Administration of Environmental Protection (SEPA) announced on Thursday, writes AP.
The now suspended so-called PX-project was the reason of a major protest on June 1.
While the new assessment by SEPA was asked by the embattled municipal authorities, mayor Li Cigui told reporters on Friday the protest has been "inappropriate". He suggested action might be taken against the organizers, according to Reuters:

"There are some people who have taken advantage of the people's attention to environmental issues, attention to this project, and taken inappropriate and even illegal actions," Liu told a small group of reporters in Hong Kong.

Minutes from the Xiamen march

The yellow ribbon has become the symbol of the protest against the expansion of the chemical industry in Xiamen and yesterdays march has been remarkable for many reasons. Up to 20,000 people marched in a reasonable peaceful demonstration, asking for the local party secretary to resign. And then went home.
The march has been organized through mobile phones and the internet, by using up to a million SMS-messages to mobilize people. China Mobile must love those protesters, until of course the government ordered China Mobile to switch off they systems, reports John Kennedy on Global Voices. His minute to minute account of the demonstration shows how the local blackout of local media to report on the march gives the internet a free ride.

09：02：05　　群众推进了5米。　　现人群聚集在市府门口右侧十米处，警察三道人墙，僵持中。
The crowd has pushed forward five meters. The crowd is gathered about ten meters to the right of the city gov’t gates, police are lined up three rows deep, refusing to budge.

Xiamen demonstration in full swing

Danwei summerizes the reports on the internet on the massive demonstration in Xiamen against the expansion of the chemical industry. Citizen reporter Zuola is sending pictures from the scene.

The local government has already been suspending the expension as the protest, for a large part online and through SMS's took shake. A nice example of growing citizen's activism.

Update: According to Reuters up to 20,000 people have joined the demonstration, mainly mobilized by SMS-messages

prompting the government to block mobile phone text messages to stop residents from joining the demonstrations.

Xiamen citizens fight against chemical plant

Citizens at Xiamen island fight against a huge chemical plant near their city center, John Kennedy reports at Global Voices. Desperate appeals appear on the internet:

The voices of the people will always have their limit. That the local government values GDP so highly and takes protecting the environment so lightly will be the sorrow of our grandchildren!We’re telling the truth. Central government, please save us. Save the hard-earned fruits of our labors! Save the homes in which we so tiredly live!