• Can Chinese eye exercises help prevent myopia?

    BEIJING – Zhang Xinyu meticulously completes her eye exercises twice daily. Her teacher tells her they will help keep her eyesight sharp. At age 12, Xinyu has already been wearing glasses for two years.  

    For 49 years, the Chinese Education Ministry has required students to exercise their eyes in the name of the Communist Revolution and to combat myopia, or short-sightedness.

    The prevalence of myopia, however, is skyrocketing. An estimated 80 to 90 percent of Chinese are short-sighted by the end of high school – triple the U.S. rate. Few Chinese questioned the effectiveness of the eye exercises over the past five decades – until a recent post challenging the exercises was published earlier this summer on Sina Weibo, China’s widely popular answer to Twitter. 

    “China has had eye exercises for 49 years,” posted a microblooger under the alias “Live from Shanghai.” “Of all the countries in the world, only China uses these eye exercises. The eye exercises are no good for people’s vision. Today, more than 360 million Chinese teenagers have myopia, the second largest percentage in the world.” 

    Watch an educational video about the eye exercises distributed by China's Ministry of Health in 2009.

    The post ignited a firestorm online. Within a day, the post was re-tweeted more than 10,000 times and had received 1.5 million comments on Sina Weibo.  


    What are Chinese eye exercises?
    All schools in China require students to do the exercises daily, playing familiar music over loud speakers during the workout. The Education Ministry even organizes occasional competitions to reinforce the program.  

    This uniquely Chinese activity dates back to 1961, when the Beijing Education Bureau noticed a sharp increase in the rate of myopia and appointed a Chinese doctor to create exercises to stop the growing problem. 

    “The Beijing government must have taken this issue very seriously,” said Yan Yirou, a retired employee from the Beijing Education Bureau who worked closely on developing the eye exercises. “There were only three people in charge of students’ health, and two were sent out to handle the project.”

    It took two years to develop the exercises. Chinese students have been performing them ever since, except during the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution, when schools were often closed.

    Are they effective?
    “For the Communist Revolution, let’s protect eye sight and prevent short-sightedness,” was the explanation school children received for the exercises until recently.  

    The Chinese Education Ministry cannot provide a scientific rationale for this practice. Under pressure from netizens following the recent Weibo post, the ministry told the Oriental Morning Post, “We’ll ask the experts and make an announcement as soon as possible.”

    Ministry officials declined an interview request from NBC News to explain the benefits of the exercises.  

    Zhu Tianyu, a Beijing local in his 40s, admitted his doubts about the exercises. “I do not know whether they help or not. My eyesight is awful, but I never took the eye exercises seriously.”

    His wife, Du Yu, disagrees. “It works,” she said. “I still do them now. Every time I exercise, I feel my eyes are more relaxed.”

    Not everyone is convinced.

    “It’s difficult for me to say whether they are good or not. But even if they are, their advantages are not apparent,” Xu Yujing, who's been a high school teacher for more than 25 years, told NBC. “Students do not know the pressure points… Everyone does it for the sake of inspection.”

    Ian Morgan, a visiting scholar at Zhongshan Ophthalmic Center in Guangzhou, is even more skeptical of the Chinese routine.

    “I think it is pretty obvious that Chinese eye exercises do not prevent myopia,” Morgan said. “There is no scientific evidence that they do anything useful at all.”

    Student pressure
    There is broad consensus that China's hyper-competitive education system is a prime cause of the prevalence of myopia.   

    “The Chinese believe that exams and the Gaokao [the Chinese college entrance exam] decide a student’s future,” said Yan Yirou, the retired Education Bureau employee. “The eyesight problem is obviously from the heavy school work. In my survey for the Education Ministry, I found myopia rates were the lowest during the Cultural Revolution because no one was studying."

    Chinese school children's excessive workloads have only gotten worse with time and are widely believed to be contributing to the problem. 

    “When I became a teacher in 1986, only one third of students were short-sighted,” said Xu, the longtime teacher. “Today, most students in my class are.”

    Pressure for students to study is intense – especially since a student’s Gaokao score can largely dictate his or her future career path.

    Despite the prevalence of myopia and the flawed eye exercises, there appears to be no solution in sight.

    “It’s unlikely that either the Chinese education system or the eye exercises will change anytime soon,” said Zhang Xin, chairman of the Beijing Education Association Students' Health Division.

    Some recent research has shown that children who spend more time outside during daylight hours do not become short-sighted, even if they study a lot. But getting children outside is difficult when the pressure to study is so great. 

    Some Chinese parents are now taking their overworked children to so-called “eye exercise centers,” where children can rest while masseurs do the eye exercises for them.

    At only $3.50 for one treatment, the cost seems like a bargain way to combat short-sightedness for the glory of the Communist Revolution.

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  • Facekini craze hits China beach as swimmers try to avoid a tan

    AFP - Getty Images

    Chinese beachgoers wear body suits and protective head masks, dubbed "facekinis," on a crowded public beach in Qingdao, on Aug. 16.

    BEIJING – In the West, getting a tan is one of the main reasons for going to the beach.

    But in China, some are going to extraordinary lengths to avoid getting a bit of sun with a new item of beachwear – dubbed the Facekini – causing something of a stir in the coastal tourist city of Qingdao, Shandong Province.


    The masks completely cover the swimmers' heads, revealing only their eyes, noses, and mouths.

    The styles and colors of the masks suggest a huge happy beach party attended by some lesser superheroes, Mexican wrestlers and perhaps a few bank robbers is underway. In fact, government officials have become concerned that the masks could be used to rob banks, according to a report in The New York Times.

    "These have been extremely popular," Zaizaibao (仔仔寶), an online seller from Henan on shopping Internet site taobao.com, said.

    Another online store sold 542 masks, which come in different colors and patterns, in just 30 days. "We are already out of the pink ones.... All of them sell well. Orange is the most effective in protecting people from sea creatures."

    AFP - Getty Images

    Users say the face masks are useful in protecting against insects and jellyfish.

    The masks are an outward expression of a Chinese understanding of beauty in terms of skin color.

    "I myself don't mind getting tanned, but I can see why pale skin is attractive," Alina Zhao, a college student in the U.S. who grew up in Zhejiang, China, said.

    "It definitely has to do with the history of China, which is largely an agricultural society,” she added. “Getting tanned means you work outside in the fields a lot, so skin color is like an indicator of your social status. The fairer you are, the wealthier or more respected you seem."

    Umbrellas on a sunny day
    In fact, Facekini is only one out of many attempts by Chinese people to stay fair. The number of umbrellas to be seen in Chinese cities on a hot, sunny day might appear bizarre to many non-Chinese people.

    "I first became aware of the phenomenon when I lived in Taiwan for the summer," Simone Cote, from Vermont and currently working in Beijing, said. "I constantly saw that women covered themselves when they went out. They wore pants often, and yes, umbrellas everywhere."

    Cote was asked "Why is your skin so dark?" by her host mother in Taiwan.

    Within this underlying concept of what is beautiful, the Facekini was perhaps a logical development.

    A user of the mask commented in Chinese on taobao.com that "this item is very effective in keeping the UV [ultra-violet light] out, and it's very comfortable. With this, you can do whatever you want on a beach, with no worries of getting burned or tanned. It's really recommended."

    Another user, Tongchao, seems to have debated between the benefit of not getting tanned and the possibility of getting laughed at in this mask. "Okay. I've become the focused again, but this item is really useful. It's actually not stuffy at all. I really like it!" Looks like he or she has made a choice – but not an easy one.

    When asked if she would ever wear one, Alina gave her answer without a second thought.

    "Of course no! I was never into sunscreen – I'll never get this fair anyway, so why bother? I would rather enjoy the sun."

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  • With wife's conviction, what is next for China's Bo Xilai?

    Jason Lee / Reuters

    Chongqing Municipality Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai waves as he attends the opening ceremony of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing in March 2012.

    BEIJING -- Monday's murder conviction for the wife of Bo Xilai, once one of China's most powerful men, may have brought to an end the investigation into the death of British businessman Neil Heywood but it left in question the fate of her husband, who is being pursued for party "disciplinary violations."

    Is Bo the next target of a deepening struggle? Or will he be spared from harsher punishments? Leading China analysts have varied responses but there is unanimity that Gu Kailai's conviction was also a nail in the coffin of her politician husband's career.

    Wife of disgraced Chinese leader gets death sentence with reprieve


    'Politically carbonized'
    To counter Bo's "continuing popularity" among some segments of the population, China's Communist Party attempted to depict the case in terms of the most heinous of crimes -- murder, said Joseph Fewsmith, a leading expert on Chinese politics at Boston University and author of several books on China.

    The wife of a disgraced Chinese politician has been given a suspended death sentence for her role in the death of British businessman, Neil Heywood.  ITV's Angus Walker reports.

    "It certainly is a case of murder, but in a sense, the killing of Heywood allows the party to sidestep all the other issues -- the way Bo conducted his 'strike black' campaign, the so-called Chongqing model and his political ambitions -- by focusing on the murder," Fewsmith said.

    Strike black refers to Bo's anti-corruption and anti-crime campaign that implicated millionaires, local officials, police officers and gangsters. Under the Chongqing model that Bo advocated, the state increased its role in society and led huge public projects.

    "Despite the strong evidence of criminal activity (murder), it seems likely that many will continue to read this case as part of a political struggle," Fewsmith said.

    And in this political struggle, China's leftist elite -- known as neo-cons -- are the likely losers, said Professor Jean-Pierre Cabestan, head of government and international studies at Hong Kong Baptist University and a prominent scholar on China.

    Closed-door murder trial: Wife of ousted politician Bo Xilai faces China court

    "Some neo-cons may have tried or be willing to save Bo Xilai, in order to serve their own interests. I am inclined to think they will fail, because both the outside world and the Chinese blogosphere know too much about this terrible couple, their family and their wealth," Cabestan told NBC News.

    "In other words, Bo is a liability, he is worn out, he is politically carbonized," he added.

    'Chongqing model' dead or alive?
    "But we should not jump to the conclusion that the reformists will enjoy an upper hand in the coming months," Cabestan said, adding that the Chongqing model that Bo championed was not sustainable.

    Stringer / China / Reuters

    China's former Chongqing Municipality Communist Party Secretary Bo Xilai (R) and his wife Gu Kailai (L), who was found guilty of murdering a British businessman.

    "It's too expensive for the state, too hostile to private businesses and too distant from the rule of law," Cabestan said.

    "But the pro-state, pro-state-owned enterprises leaders have not been totally defeated and there are so many vested interests around the perpetuation of a strong and entrepreneurial party-state," Cabestan said.

    Professor Bo Zhiyue, expert on Chinese politics at the National University of Singapore, agreed that Bo was finished politically, but argued that his governing style was not necessarily dead.

    "With Bo as a major competitor out of the way, the new leadership could be more stable," Bo Zhiyue told NBC News.

    "However, they can't avoid using some of Bo's programs in its new policies because Bo's Chongqing model has really provided a lot of good experiments for China's future development, in particular with regards to income inequality, public housing, and new growth model."

    Scandal sends China's netizens into feeding frenzy

    China's leadership is acutely aware of the growing income inequality that the country's economic prosperity has produced, with newly wealthy political and business elites prompting resentment among the majority.

    Indeed, official and online media have given coverage to a growing number of grassroots protests driven by the discontent felt by those left behind in the economic race, or those alienated by the corrupt collusion of wealth and power.

    Corruption may be widespread in China, but one official crossed a line when he wiretapped President Hu Jin Tau. Now that official's wife is a murder suspect. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    "There is consensus that the government needs to allocate more resources to address social injustice and income inequality," according to Li Mingjiang, China politics professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, noting the efforts of China's leadership in this regard.

    "In that sense, the Chongqing model is not dead at all," he told NBC News.

    Appeasing the poor
    The government has been trying appease many people in undeveloped and poor regions of Western China, for example, by increasing state investments in these regions. Nevertheless, the consensus among China watchers is that Bo went too far in his politics and governing style. 

    More China coverage from NBCNews.com's Behind The Wall

    "Bo Xilai (was) too extreme in his policy in Chongqing, particularly his Cultural Revolution style political campaign," Li said. "These extreme policies are dead, at least for the coming years."

    However, China's ruling elite had to deal with the fact that technology made it impossible to keep the case under wraps.  

    "The amount of information and the intensity of discussion that were revealed in the social media exerted a lot of pressure on the party to release more information about the Bo Xilai case partly in order to forestall and clear rumors," Li added.

    In what's being called the biggest Chinese political scandal in years, Bo Xilai, the Communist  Party secretary in Chongqing, was sacked Thursday. NBC's Ed Flanagan reports.

    "The party has to be very careful not to unnecessarily antagonize Bo's supporters and sympathizers because these people are vocal and scrutinizing ... various forms of social media," he said.

    To Cabestan, Bo's "political death or carbonization have been in part caused by the Internet and the speed with which outside information and rumors have circulated in China."

    In sum, the experts with whom NBC News spoke agreed that while Bo may be neutralized through the case against his wife and the diciplinary measure he faces, the country's leadership will likely tread carefully given Bo's enduring popularity.

    So the suspended death sentence handed down to Bo Xilai's wife signifies a "decision made by the highest leadership," said Professor Jerome Cohen, a veteran authority on Chinese law at New York University.

    "The state leaders know that Bo Xilai is still very popular and has lot of support, and to that extent, the court's decision is the most popular option and the best compromise they could have come out with," he added.

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  • Wife of disgraced Chinese leader gets death sentence with reprieve

    The wife of a disgraced Chinese politician has been given a suspended death sentence for her role in the death of British businessman, Neil Heywood.  ITV's Angus Walker reports.

    Updated at 2:30 a.m. ET: BEIJING — The wife of Bo Xilai, the former high-flying Chinese politician, was sentenced to death with a two-year reprieve after being found guilty Monday of murdering a British businessman, marking the swift descent of a man who was once one of China's most powerful figures.

    The sentence means Gu Kailai is likely to face life in prison, provided she does not commit offenses in the next two years, Reuters reported.

    Zhang Xiaojun, a Bo family aide who admitted to helping Gu with the murder, received a nine-year jail sentence, a witness to the hearing said. Non-official media were not allowed in the courtroom.

    Witnesses said that neither would appeal the decision.


    Gu's prosecution in the killing of Neil Heywood was the first step in Beijing's efforts to resolve the biggest political scandal to hit China in decades. Bo, the former party secretary for the southwestern metropolis of Chongqing, had been a controversial figure in Chinese politics with his embrace of Marxist policies and his liberal use of local police to silence critics.

    After wife's conviction, what next for Bo Xilai?

    The high-profile case shed unwanted light on high-level government corruption and murder by Chinese Communist Party elite. With party leaders already highly sensitive to the public perception of instability and corruption within their ranks, the scandal broke as Beijing prepared for a once-a-decade leadership change.

    The conviction of Gu, 53, was all but ensured when the murder charges were released by state media with reassurances from unnamed investigators that there was ample evidence to convict.

    Alexander F. Yuan / AP file

    Former Chinese Commerce Minister Bo Xilai, right, and his wife, Gu Kailai, at a government ceremony in Beijing in 2007.

    Scandal sends China's netizens into a feeding frenzy

    "The facts of the two defendants' crime are clear," the investigator told China's official state news agency, Xinhua, late last month. "The evidence is irrefutable and substantial." 

    What remained to be seen, though, was how the Communist Party would punish one of its own — the wife of a man many experts once considered a serious candidate for China's all-powerful nine-person standing committee.

    The answer was hinted at in the carefully composed narrative that has come out in the Chinese media about the case. During the one-day trial Aug. 9, the premeditated way Gu Kailai planned and carried out the murder of her former business partner was clearly evidenced, but it was steeped in justifications and rationalizations — so much so that by the end of Xinhua's account, Gu came off as a protective mother pushed to the edge.

    Business dispute?
    Heywood, 41, allegedly had become embroiled in a business dispute over a deal he entered into with Gu's son, Bo Guagua. When that business venture fell apart, Heywood allegedly sent a menacing email saying he would "destroy" Gu unless he was paid the tens of millions of dollars he believed he was owed from the deal. 

    China's most politically explosive trial rapped in a matter of hours when Gu Kailai, the wife of Chinese politician Bo Xilai, did not object to murder charges against her. ITV's Angus Walker reports.

    He then allegedly locked the 24-year old in a house in Britain.

    "The few days last November, when I learned my son's life was at death's door, my mind indeed collapsed," Gu said, according to Xinhua. It was then, suffering from "chronic insomnia, anxiety and depression, and paranoia," according to an expert panel, that Gu decided she had to kill Heywood to protect her son.

    "To me, that [Heywood's email] was more than a threat. It was real action that was taking place," Gu testified, "I must fight to my death to stop the craziness of Neil Heywood."

    Allegedly enlisting the help of Zhang, her former family employee and an ex-soldier, Gu lured Heywood to Chongqing with the intention of poisoning him. On Nov. 13, Gu and Heywood had dinner before driving back to the villa he was staying at in the Nanshan Lijing resort.

    China puts cops on trial for 'bending the law' to help wife of ousted politician

    There, the two drank whisky and tea until Heywood became drunk and vomited. Zhang then entered the room and helped Heywood to his bed while also allegedly slipping two vials — one filled with a cyanide compound and another of a different drug — of poison to Gu that she had procured earlier. When Heywood asked for water, Gu allegedly poured the poison into his mouth.  

    Stringer / China / Reuters

    A combination of two photographs shows British businessman Neil Heywood and Gu Kailai.

    The next day, Gu told Wang Lijun, Chongqing's police chief and a trusted ally of Bo Xilai, of the killing. 

    Wang secretly recorded the conversation but also helped to cover up the murder. In response to inquiries by the British government and the Heywood family, Chongqing police reported the death as an accident due to alcohol poisoning. 

    Gu may have gotten away with murder, but she couldn't anticipate what came next: a falling-out between Wang and Bo Xilai that led the police chief to flee in March to the U.S. consulate in Chengdu, where he sought asylum. There, with U.S. officials present, Wang dropped the bombshell about Gu's involvement in Heywood's murder.

    Wang's explosive accusation and his taped evidence forced the Ministry of Public Security to reopen the case and may have sealed his own fate. Xinhua's account ominously noted that his entry to the U.S. consulate was "without authorization." 

    Wang's trial is expected soon.

    Corruption may be widespread in China, but one official crossed a line when he wiretapped President Hu Jin Tau. Now that official's wife is a murder suspect. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    City divided by disgraced Communist leader's legacy

    More questions than answers
    Those who knew Heywood well have raised serious questions about the chain of events laid out by the Chinese courts. Could Heywood, who has been described as a gentleman and generally not violent, have really threatened Gu's son? Did Gu Kailai truly have a mental breakdown? Or was this a convenient way for the Communist Party to distance itself? 

    Officials: Chinese serial killer shot dead after massive manhunt

    More important, what does the sentence bode for Bo? He's under house arrest while under investigation. Does his wife's show trial signal the end of the public phase of this scandal? Will Bo be disciplined internally by the Communist Party? Or will he also get his day in court? 

    The fact that Bo's name doesn't come up in Xinhua's account bodes well for his chances of riding out this storm. But in the opaque world of Chinese Communist Party politics, it will likely be a fruitless endeavor reconciling the official party narrative with what actually happened.

    Top China politician's wife named as murder suspect

    Professor Jerome Cohen, a leading authority on Chinese law at New York University, called the court decision a "typical Chinese compromise."

    "It was a show trial that raised more questions than it answered. The sentence given was anticipated because to execute her immediately would have alienated more numbers of people who still support Bo Xilai or who don't think the trial was telling us the whole story or fair," he told NBC News in a telephone interview.

    "This trial demonstrated the need for genuine due process of law in China because this case did not have it, it doesn't show us the involvement of her husband, there are many missing links in the puzzle," he added.

    He Weifang, a prominent professor of law at Peking Universitgy, concurs that the court verdict was "absolutely a political decision, not a judicial one." "If the crime were committed by ordinary people, the outcome would have been different," he told NBC News.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Closed-door murder trial: Wife of ousted politician Bo Xilai faces China court

    China's most politically explosive trial rapped in a matter of hours when Gu Kailai, the wife of Chinese politician Bo Xilai, did not object to murder charges against her. ITV's Angus Walker reports.

    Updated at 8:40 a.m. ET: HEFEI, China -- The woman at the center of China's most politically explosive trial in three decades did not contest charges of murder on Thursday in a hearing that lasted just seven hours and could determine the fate of former politician Bo Xilai.

    Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, chose not to contest the charge of murdering British businessman Neil Heywood, whose alleged secretive dealings with the couple fuelled a scandal exposing the intimate nexus between money and power in China's elite.

    A formal verdict will be delivered at a later date, a court official said, recounting details of the closed-door hearing.

    CCTV via Reuters TV

    Gu Kailai, center, appears at the Hefei Intermediate People's Court on Thursday.



    The dramatic account of Heywood's death by poisoning is also likely to sound the final death knell to Bo's political career, even as sympathizers cast him as the victim of a push to oust him and discredit his left-leaning agenda.

    "The accused Bogu (Gu) Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun did not raise objections to the accusations of intentional homicide," the official, Tang Yigan, said after the hearing, referring also to Gu's co-accused, an aide to the family. 

    State television showed Gu, wearing a dark pant suit and white shirt, being led into the courtroom and being seated in the dock. She appeared to have put on weight since she was detained earlier this year. 

    Wife of ousted China politician charged with Briton's murder

    Reuters

    This photo shows Bo Xilai, British businessman Neil Heywood and Bo's wife Gu Kailai.

    The court official quoted prosecutors as saying Gu and Zhang had killed Heywood with a poisoned drink in far southwestern Chongqing last November, after a business dispute between Gu and Heywood. Bo ruled the vast municipality until he was sacked in March just before the murder scandal burst into the open. 

    As a result of the dispute with Heywood, Gu had become convinced Heywood was a threat to her son, Bo Guagua, the official said without elaborating. 

    "Gu Kailai believed that Neil Heywood had threatened the personal safety of her son Bo (Guagua) and decided to kill him," the official added, reading from a statement to a packed news conference of dozens of reporters who had been barred entry to the courtroom in the eastern city of Hefei. 

    The aide, Zhang, had driven Heywood to Chongqing last November from Beijing and prepared a poison which was to be put later into a drink of water. Later that day, Heywood met Gu at a hotel, where he became drunk and then asked for water. 

    Corruption may be widespread in China, but one official crossed a line when he wiretapped President Hu Jin Tau. Now that official's wife is a murder suspect. NBC's Andrea Mitchell reports.

    "She poured a poison into his mouth," the official said. 

    Gu was represented by government-appointed lawyers. Her trial is seen by many Chinese as part of a push against her husband Bo, who made powerful enemies as he campaigned to join the next generation of top central leaders.

    Bo was formerly considered a contender for the inner sanctum of power -- the party's Politburo Standing Committee -- in a once-in-a-decade leadership transition that is currently under way. The new leadership is expected to be unveiled in October.

    Earlier, a British diplomat was seen entering the court, but did not comment. International media were not allowed into the court.

    Censorship
    State censorship of Internet chatter on the trial was swifter than normal on Thursday. Users of China's popular Twitter-like service Sina Weibo played cat and mouse with authorities to discuss the case and used word play to try to get around the controls.

    NYT: Increasingly outspoken military alarms China's leaders 

    Police dragged two protesters away from outside the Hefei Intermediate People's Court in eastern China. The two Bo supporters kicked and yelled as they were put into an unmarked car after they had appeared outside the building, condemning the trial as a sham and singing patriotic songs that were the trademark of Bo's populist leadership style.

    "I don't believe it. This case was decided well in advance," Hu Jiye, a middle-aged man wearing a T-shirt and baseball cap, told foreign reporters at the rear of the court building, which was cordoned off by dozens of police standing in heavy rain.

    Eugene Hoshiko / AP

    Police officers stand guard outside a court where the murder trial of Gu Kailai was held on Thursday in Hefei, China.

    Hu and his friend were then shoved by police officers into a car. His companion, also a middle-aged man, struggled and yelled, "Why are you taking me? Why are you taking me?"

    But many ordinary Chinese citizens were unaware of the trial, or felt that it had little impact on their lives. 

    "We are not really interested in the Bo Xilai and Gu Kailai cases because they are far removed from us, we are very busy with our daily lives," Beijing construction manager Ji Jiaminghe told NBC News. 

    "The lesson of the Bo Xilai case is that it was wrong to go against the political mainstream," Ji said, even as he acknowledged that he loved to sing and listen to the "Red Songs" that Bo promoted. 

    Communist Party aristocracy
    The trial of Gu, the glamorous daughter of ruling Communist Party aristocracy, is the most sensational since the conviction of the Gang of Four more than 30 years ago for crimes during the 1966-76 Cultural Revolution.

    China's Communist party unleashes its full weight against former politician Bo Xilai and his wife over a murder scandal. ITN's Angus Walker reports from Beijing.

    Gu and family aide Zhang Xiaojun face the death penalty if convicted of poisoning the former family friend.

    Police sources initially claimed Gu had poisoned Heywood in a disagreement over an illicit financial transaction she had wanted him to help her complete, and they portrayed Gu as a greedy wife who was translating her husband's connections into dollars.

    Sources: Briton killed after threat to expose Chinese leader's wife

    But Gu's alleged personal motive for the killing --  that Gu believed Heywood was a threat to her son -- may count as a mitigating circumstance and help Gu avoid execution.

    Any hesitance to put Gu to death would make sense, according to Hu Xingdou, an outspoken blogger and frequent government critic, told NBC News. 

    Scandal sends China's netizens into feeding frenzy

    "The death penalty is not likely precisely because a political struggle is involved and people don't like political rivals being executed," he said.

    In announcing the indictment about two weeks ago, the official Xinhua News Agency made clear the government considers the verdict a foregone conclusion.

    "The facts of the two defendants' crime are clear, and the evidence is irrefutable and substantial," it said.

    The trial and sentencing of both Gu and Zhang are widely seen as a prelude to a possible criminal prosecution of Bo, who is being detained for violating party discipline -- an accusation that covers corruption, abuse of power and other misdeeds.

    In what's being called the biggest Chinese political scandal in years, Bo Xilai, the Communist  Party secretary in Chongqing, was sacked Thursday. NBC's Ed Flanagan reports.

    Bo, who was a favorite of party leftists and promoted himself as a friend of the poor and an enemy of corruption, was sacked as Chongqing party chief in March after his police chief, Wang Lijun, identified Gu as a suspect in Heywood's death.

    Press behaved 'appallingly'?
    On Thursday morning, there was no sign of Gu's elderly mother, nor of any members of Heywood's family in or around the courtroom.

    In London, Heywood's mother accused the press of spreading lies about her son. "You've all behaved so appallingly," Ann Heywood said Wednesday outside her home.

    British media have suggested Neil Heywood was involved in money laundering, worked for British intelligence or that he was Gu's lover. Ann Heywood claimed to know more about the case than was in the public domain, but she wasn't specific and said the truth would come out eventually.

     More China coverage from NBCNews.com's Behind the Wall blog

    Before his ouster in the spring, Bo, also the son of a revolutionary veteran, was one of China's most powerful and charismatic politicians. But his overt maneuvering for a top political job, as well as high-profile campaigns to bust organized crime and promote communist culture -- while trampling over civil liberties and reviving memories of the chaotic Cultural Revolution in the process -- angered some leaders.

    Bo is the first Politburo member to be removed from office in five years and the scandal kicked up talk of a political struggle involving Bo supporters intent on derailing succession plans calling for Vice President Xi Jinping to lead the party for the next decade.

    Bo is in the hands of the party's internal discipline and inspection commission, which is expected to issue a statement about his infractions. That would open the way for a court trial with charges possibly including obstructing police work and abuse of power. Thus far, Bo has been accused only of grievous but unspecified rules violations.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • For China officials, Beijing's Olympic 'white elephants' were worth it

    © David Gray / Reuters / Reuters, file

    A boat sails past an unmaintained jetty at the deserted former venue for the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games rowing competition, located on the outskirts of Beijing, on March 27, 2012.

    Four years on from the Beijing Olympics, some of the Games venues are certainly white elephants.

    But no one should underestimate the prestige factor for China's Communist Party government in terms of justifying the construction.

    The construction of these structures allowed China to show that it could mobilize its resources and pull off -- as they often point out -- a flawless Games. Just before London 2012 began, the People's Daily newspaper said the Beijing Games were generally regarded as the best ever. 


    In that sense, the Games and the stadiums represent the best and worst of the Communist Party's relationship with the people and the direction it's taking for the future. 

    The famous Bird's Nest stadium, built at a cost of about $500 million, usually has very healthy crowds of people around it and is in pretty good shape.

    London 2012's legacy: No more UK couch potatoes or another Olympic 'white elephant'?

    However, it has failed to attract a major sports team and has only hosted a few music concerts, a snowboard competition and a couple of friendly soccer competitions, involving top sides like Arsenal and Manchester City from England and Italy's Juventus and Napoli, who play this Saturday.

    Water-slide popular
    Many of the sites get a lot of visitors, though the numbers are said to be dipping.

    The Water Cube has been one of the more successful venues since 2008. The popularity of a water-slide park built inside the Cube is reflected in its high prices. It also host concerts and other events periodically inside.

    As I understand it, the Water Cube isn't making money, but it isn't losing too much compared to other sites.

    More coverage of London 2012 on NBCNews.com

    I visited the Olympic rowing site two months ago. While the park was quiet, Olympic athletes were training there and there were also a couple of corporate and high school student groups who had rented the place out to learn how to dragonboat race for team-building purposes.

    Much of the site is blocked off, but they have adapted it since the Olympics ended, adding a water park for kids and tricycles for people to ride around the park.

    The Olympic basketball venue was one of the few that actually successfully found a sponsor, Mastercard, and it has held a fair amount of events like NBA exhibition games every year.

    Also many of the major Chinese pop bands and Western acts tend to hold their shows there.

    So some of the venues are still performing a useful purpose and, even if others have become white elephants, for China's rulers, it was worth it.

  • Chinese defend swimmer's gold, knock Western 'bias'

    David Gray / Reuters

    China's Ye Shiwen poses with her gold medal on the podium during the women's 400m individual medley victory ceremony at the London 2012 Olympic Games at the Aquatics Center on Saturday.

    BEIJING – On the heels of her second gold medal performance, China’s state media have come to the defense of Chinese swimmer, Ye Shiwen, ending their relative silence on the doping allegations that have plagued the young female swimmer since her recording-breaking performance last weekend.

    On Saturday night, the 16-year-old Ye demolished the world record in the 400 individual medley, coming from behind to win gold in 4:28.43. Besides swimming that race nearly seven seconds faster than her winning performance at the FINA World Championships in Shanghai last year, she also incredibly outpaced American gold medalist Ryan Lochte’s final 50 in the men’s race by a split-second.

    (Watch the 400 IM race here

    Lochte won the 400 medley with the second-fastest time in history.

    Ye’s dominant performance raised eyebrows among some swimming experts, including John Leonard, the head of the American Swimming Coaches Association who openly questioned the legitimacy of Ye’s victory.

    “History in our sport will tell you that every time we see something, and I put quotation marks around this, ‘unbelievable,’ history shows us that it turns out later on there was doping involved,” Leonard was quoted as saying.


    Questions were renewed Tuesday after Ye won again, this time breaking her own Olympic record in the 200 IM.  The win made Ye the first two-time gold medal winner in Chinese swimming history.

    It also made her a target for pointed questions regarding her impressive performances so far.

    By all accounts, Tuesday’s press conference for Ye Shiwen following her 200 IM victory was inundated with questions regarding doping and performance-enhancing drugs.

    However, for the Chinese press corps yesterday, the story was not so much Ye’s answers – as the media’s questions.

    After a remarkably fast performance in the women's 400-meter individual medley, gold medal winner Ye Shiwen generated controversy. NBC's Chris Jansing reports.

    Chinese outrage
    One Chinese account of the press conference noted angrily that toward the end, one Western reporter directly asked Ye, “I’d like to ask you if you doped to win that gold medal. Please answer me directly with a ‘Yes’ or ‘No.’”

    According to the report, Ye looked the reporter directly in the eye and shot back, “Absolutely no! Why am I the only one who is suspected of cheating when other foreign athletes also win multiple gold medals?”

    The tone of the reporter’s question led to complaints from the furious Chinese press, many of whom felt professional and etiquette boundaries were breached.

    “A 16-year-old genius not only can't enjoy her victory, but also has to be subjected to this ‘interrogation,’” one Chinese journalist reportedly said. “As Chinese journalists, we have the right to protest."

    One person who did protest was Ye’s father, Ye Qingsong, who told a local Chinese news website here that, "The Western media have always been arrogant, and suspicious of Chinese people."

    State media: a ‘deep bias’ by Western media
    China’s state media have largely stayed quiet on the subject of doping, only mentioning in passing in some reports the accusations and Ye’s dismissal of them.

    But following the press conference, the media stepped up to defend Ye.

    China’s reliably nationalist newspaper, Global Times, chimed in with an editorial Wednesday that said negative comments about Ye were rooted in a “deep bias and reluctance from the Western press to see Chinese people making breakthroughs.”

    “If Ye were an American, the tone would be different in Western media,” continued the editorial. “Michael Phelps won eight gold medals in the 2008 Games. Nobody seems to question the authenticity of his results, most probably because he is American.”

    Nobody that is, except for China’s former Olympic doctor who claimed Tuesday  he long suspected Michael Phelps as a doper, but remained silent because  he had no evidence. 

    The Global Times acknowledged the country’s past doping incidents were an understandable source of suspicion towards Ye, but pointedly noted that she has passed doping tests conducted by the World Anti-Doping Agency.

    On China’s state broadcaster, CCTV, coverage of the Olympic Games included an on-air comment from host Zhou Yafei, who noted that Ye had passed her doping test and she hoped “the Western media will change their bias and jealousy.”

    Meanwhile, on China’s Twitter-like service, Weibo, the nearly 2.7 million comments about the embattled swimmer were overwhelming supportive and helped make her the biggest trending topic on the popular microfeed service as of Wednesday afternoon.

    “Do they have to be so obvious with their envy?” wrote one poster of the West’s coverage of Ye’s victories.

    “All medalists and other athletes are tested at the Games,” wrote another. “It’d be way better if everyone would shut the hell up unless the test finds anyone positive from doping.”

    But for many netizens in China, solidarity with Ye has manifested itself in one simple play on her name that has spread around Weibo: “Ye Shiwen = Yes she wins.”

    NBC News’ Tianzhou Ye and Joy Li contributed to this report

  • Chinese pollution protesters turn violent in clash with police

    Carlos Barria / Reuters

    A demonstrator smashes a car window during a protest against an industrial waste pipeline under construction in front of the local government building in Qidong, Jiangsu Province on Saturday.

    QIDONG, China -- Angry demonstrators occupied a government office in eastern China on Saturday, destroying computers and overturning cars in a violent protest against an industrial waste pipeline they said would poison their coastal waters.

    Hours later, the mayor of the city where the pipeline was to have originated said the project was being cancelled, Reuters reported.

    The demonstration was the latest in a string of protests sparked by fears of environmental degradation and highlights the social tensions the government in Beijing faces as it approaches a leadership transition this year.


    Thousands of protesters marched through the coastal city of Qidong, roughly one hour north of Shanghai by car, shouting slogans against the planned pipeline that would empty waste from a paper factory in nearby Nantong into the sea.

    Wife of ousted China politician charged with Briton's murder

    Demonstrators rejected the government's stand that waste from the factory would not pollute the coastal waters.

    "The government says the waste will not pollute the sea, but if that's true, then why don't they dump it into Yangtze River?" said Lu Shuai, a 25-year-old protester who works in logistics.

    China's 7.6 percent growth rate is the lowest in three years – but the country's economic problems appear more dire than the latest numbers indicate. Some believe the government will counter the downturn with a massive stimulus package, a strategy that has left China's local banks saddled with bad debt in the past. NBC's Ian Williams reports from Beijing.

    "It is because if they dump it into the river, it will have an impact on people in Shanghai and people in Shanghai will oppose it."

    The state-run Global Times newspaper quoted local residents who said the sewage discharge from the pipeline was expected to be as much as 150,000 tons per day, according to the AFP news agency.

    Cars overturned, cops beaten
    Several protesters entered the city government's main building and were seen smashing computers, overturning desks and throwing documents out the windows to loud cheers from the crowd.

    China begins to admit 'fog' is really smog

    An AFP photographer described the scene, saying demonstrators seized bottles of liquor and wine from the offices, along with cartons of cigarettes -- all of which Chinese officials frequently receive as bribes.

    Reuters witnessed five cars and one minibus being overturned. Over 1,000 police -- some paramilitary -- guarded the city government office compound in lines.

    At least two police officers were dragged into the crowd at the government office and punched and beaten enough to make them bleed.

    'Opportunity for democracy': Rebel Chinese village votes

    According to the AFP, searches including "Qidong" on China's popular microblogging site Sina Weibo were blocked Saturday. Sina Weibo has over 250 million subscribers.

    Earlier posts on Weibo and on Twitter indicated that the protesters had stripped the clothes off the local party secretary, but these reports could not be immediately verified.

    On Friday, in an effort to stave off the protest, the Qidong city government announced it would suspend the project for further research.

    But many protesters said on Saturday that postponement was not enough.

    Carlos Barria / Reuters

    A police car lies overturned as protesters occupy a government building during a protest against an industrial waste pipeline under construction in Qidong, Jiangsu Province on Saturday.

    "If the government really wanted to stop this project, they should have done it right from the beginning. At this point they are too late," said Xi Feng, a 17-year-old protester.

    Local officials took steps to ward off the demonstration and residents received text messages and letters warning that any public demonstration would be illegal.

    The reversal came Saturday afternoon, when Nantong Mayor Zhang Guohua announced in a statement that the city would terminate the project proposed by a Japanese-owned paper factory in its jurisdiction. 

    Rising discontent
    Environmental worries have stoked calls for expanded rights for citizens and greater consultation in the tightly controlled one-party state.

    The outpouring of public anger is emblematic of the rising discontent facing Chinese leaders, who are obsessed with maintaining stability and struggling to balance growth with rising public anger over environmental threats.

    The protest followed similar demonstrations against projects the Sichuan town of Shifang earlier this month and in the cities of Dalian in the northeast and Haimen in southern Guangdong province in the past year.

    China tells US Embassy to stop reporting Beijing pollution

    In Shifang, the government halted construction of a copper refinery following protests by residents that it would poison them. It also freed most of the people who were detained after a clash with police.

    The leadership has vowed to clean up China's skies and waterways and increasingly tried to appear responsive to complaints about pollution. But environmental disputes pit citizens against local officials whose aim is to lure fresh investment and revenue into their areas.

    Behind The Wall: Full NBC News coverage from China
    Pictures from China on NBCNews.com's PhotoBlog

    Fen Jianmei was seven months pregnant when she was forcibly taken to hospital and her child aborted, because she and her husband couldn't afford the fine imposed in China when couples have a second child. NBC's Angus Walker reports from the Shanxi Province, China.

    NBC News researcher Tianzhou Ye, Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Wife of ousted China politician charged with Briton's murder

    Reuters, file

    Gu Kailai is the wife of China's former Chongqing Municipality Communist Party Secretary, Bo Xilai.

    Updated at 12:25 p.m. ET: BEIJING -- The wife of ousted Chinese politician Bo Xilai and a family aide have been charged with the murder of a British businessman, the government said Thursday, pushing ahead a case at the center of a messy political scandal that exposed divisions in the country's leadership.

    The official Xinhua News Agency reported that the prosecutor's indictment said Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, had a falling out with Briton Neil Heywood over money and worried that it would threaten her and their son's safety. Gu and the aide, Zhang Xiaojun, are alleged to have poisoned Heywood together, the report said. Heywood's death in November was attributed initially to a heart attack or excessive drinking.


    "The facts of the two defendants' crime are clear, and the evidence is irrefutable and substantial. Therefore, the two defendants should be charged with intentional homicide," Xinhua said.

    It did not give a date for the trial, but a family lawyer told Reuters it was likely to take place on August 7-8.

    Thursday's brief report is the first official news that the case against Gu is proceeding since the announcement three months ago that she and Zhang were being investigated and that Bo was being suspended from the powerful Politburo for unspecified discipline violations. The Xinhua report did not mention Bo's case or a separate party investigation into Bo.

    Prosecutors have interrogated Bo and Zhang and have "heard the opinions" of their defense lawyers, Xinhua said.

    The scandal has exposed the bare-knuckled infighting that the secretive leadership prefers to hide and affirmed an already skeptical public's dim view about corrupt dealings in the party.

    City divided by disgraced Communist leader's legacy

    Disappeared from public view
    Since Bo was dismissed in March, he and his wife Gu, formerly a powerful lawyer, have disappeared from public view and have not responded publicly to the accusations against them.

    The charges were filed in the eastern city of Hefei, Xinhua said Thursday. It did not say when exactly the indictment was issued or when the crime occurred and why the case is being prosecuted in Hefei and not in Chongqing, the city Bo ran as Communist party secretary and where the couple lived.

    But according to Si Weijiang, a prominent lawyer in China who is followed by 170,000 people on his microblog, Hefei, in eastern China's Anhui Province, was selected due to its political reliability.

    Wang Shengjun, who is the chief justice of China's Supreme People’s Court, is from Anhui and the province has, according to Si, built a reputation of being politically reliable and harsh on defendants.

    "The case being filed at Hefei, will set Chief Justice Wang's mind at ease," Si wrote Thursday.

    Scandal sends China's netizens into a feeding frenzy

    In another post, Si noted the intense political ramifications of this case.

    "This is a political case. No accidents is success. So it [the court] must be a place that can be trusted," he wrote.

    But Fang Hong, a Chongqing resident featured in a piece by NBC News in May, hailed the prosecution move as a "vindication of my criticism" of Bo's rule.

    "They tried to destroy the rule of law so as to make it convenient for them to murder people, and now they will get what they deserve," he told NBC News.

    "This case is being handled according to the law," he said, adding that "some people with limited understanding wrongly think it is a political striuggle, but it is not. ... What the law says is what they will get."

     

    China.org.cn via Reuters, file

    British businessman Neil Heywood, who died in November 2011, was a long-time friend of Bo Xilai and Gu Kailai.

    Political ascent stopped
    Thursday's announcement comes months before the ruling Communist Party unveils a new top leadership.

    Before his ouster, Bo was one of China's most powerful and charismatic politicians. The son of a revolutionary veteran, Bo was seen as a leading candidate for a position in the Politburo Standing Committee, the highest ranks of power, when a younger group of leaders is installed later this year.

    Son of sacked Chinese official fights back

    On his rise, Bo led high-profile campaigns to bust organized crime and to promote communist culture. In doing so, however, his administration ran roughshod over civil liberties, angered some leaders and alienated others with his publicity seeking.

    The removal of Bo has triggered rifts and uncertainty, disrupting the Communist Party's usually secretive and carefully choreographed process of settling on a new central leadership in the run up to its 18th congress.

    Left-wing supporters of the charismatic Bo have defended him as the instigator of a much-needed new path for China, and many of them see him as the blameless victim of a plot.

    Behind the Wall: Full NBC News coverage from China

    The 18th Party Congress, scheduled to be held late this year, will appoint that leadership. President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao will then step down from their government posts at the National People's Congress in early 2013, when Vice President Xi Jinping is likely to succeed Hu as president.

    Growing credibility gap
    Analysts here agree that the legal steps announced Thursday are part of the authorities' effort to dispose of the case and remove a major distraction before the once-in-a-decade leadership succession later this year.

    However, this week has been a week of disruptions that have kept government propaganda officials and censors busy.

    Full international news coverage from NBCNews.com

    Besides the ongoing saga of Bo, Beijing this past weekend dealt with the worst flooding in nearly six decades. Just as news of Gu’s charges came out, word also broke that the death count from the flooding, which previously had stood at 37, had been bumped up to at least 77. Many Beijing residents had been highly dubious of earlier government estimates of the death toll, highlighting the party's credibility gap.

    The news also came on the eve of the 2012 Olympics in London, where China hopes again to top the tables in gold medals.

    Still, the government was not taking any chances: the comments section on the official Weibo account of popular Chinese state newspaper, People's Daily, was turned off for the post regarding Gu's murder charges.

    The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • After Hong Kong weathers typhoon, anger roils over Beijing flooding deaths

    A powerful typhoon swept through Hong Kong, pounding the region with heavy rain and strong wind. NBC's Ed Flanagan reports.

    By Ed Flanagan, NBC News

    BEIJING – Hong Kong battened down the hatches Monday and rode out the strongest typhoon to hit the city in 13 years.

    For the first time since 1999, Hong Kong raised its Signal 10 typhoon warning – the highest on the city’s weather observatory scale – for several hours Monday evening as typhoon Vicente pounded the region with gale force winds said to have reached speeds as high as 101 miles per hour. 

    Hong Kong authorities reported 129 people were injured by the typhoon, with as many as 30 of the injuries caused by flying debris scooped up by the high winds. Seven incidents of flooding were reported in Hong Kong’s New Territories region.

    Meanwhile, Beijing suffered through a 10-hour downpour over the weekend that dumped 6.7 inches of rain in parts of the city and as much as 18 inches in the worst hit parts on the outskirts of Beijing in what is being called the worst flooding to hit the Chinese capital in six decades. 

    The subsequent severe flooding killed at least 37 people in the country's capital and affected nearly two million people, sparking millions of angry messages and complaints on China’s Twitter-like service, Weibo, in recent days.  Users posted countless home videos and pictures of cars struggling through wheel-deep water, waterfalls cascading down into Beijing's subway entrances and cars being swept away by the currents.

    The differing level of destruction between the two cities provoked outrage at Beijing’s government, with critics asking why the city’s infrastructure failed to buffer the storm.


    Hong Kong relatively unscathed in typhoon's aftermath
    In Hong Kong, the damage from the typhoon wasn’t nearly as bad. Trees throughout the city were overturned while flying debris reportedly caused some minor structural damage in parts of Hong Kong’s usually busy financial district of Central. The high winds were said to have also whipped up large waves in Hong Kong’s Victoria Harbor which pounded walkways and ferry terminals around the famous city skyline.

     

    The brewing storm sent office workers scrambling home as they hurried to avoid a partial public transportation suspension in the lead-up to the storm. Non-essential government offices were also closed early Monday and port and airport authorities shut down operations until the storm passed.

    During the worst of the storm in the early hours of Tuesday morning, the BBC reported that 60 flights were cancelled, an additional 60 more delayed and 16 diverted.

    By Tuesday 8 a.m. local time, the Hong Kong Observatory reported a weakened Typhoon Vicente was heading away from Hong Kong, allowing public transportation and flights from Hong Kong International Airport to resume. Trade on Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index also resumed earlier Tuesday.

    The typhoon is reportedly creeping its way into China’s Guangdong province, where weather experts were warning that Vicente could still dump as much as 12 inches of rain in affected areas.

    The typhoon comes as China is experiencing serious weather disturbances throughout the country. Near China’s central metropolis of Chongqing, heavy rains have caused flooding and brought the Three Gorges Dam – the world’s largest hydropower dam – perilously close to its largest flood peak this year.

    Critics pound government’s response to Beijing storm

    While Hong Kong seemed to weather the storm, nearly every aspect of the government’s response to the Beijing flooding has been criticized by the public, with much of the anger being directed at the shoddy drainage system. Netizens have also been quick to complain about the Beijing municipal government’s lack of preparedness for dealing with the disaster and the city’s failures in weather forecasting and deploying a good storm-warning service.

    Beijing officials are saying that economic losses from the storm will surpass $1.5 billion dollars. But the PR hit to the city’s vaunted new infrastructure just four years after its coming out party during the summer Olympics has been far more costly -- especially considering the relatively minor damage suffered by Hong Kong from a major typhoon.

    Public outrage over Beijing deaths

    “Hong Kong just experienced the biggest typhoon in 13 years, but there are only seven reports of flooding, one report of landslide and no one died,” wrote one angry poster on Weibo comparing the Hong Kong typhoon with Beijing’s flooding. “The media effectively announced the alert, and reported the complaints of its citizens…The whole society functions under the normal rhythm.”

    “The rainfall in Beijing and the typhoon in Hong Kong,” stated another irate poster. “Two completely different systems are shown in the same mirror.”

    Sensitive to the great public outcry, Weibo began censoring overly critical posts on the subject of the Beijing floods. Citing alleged directives from the Beijing Municipal Committee Department of Propaganda, the China Digital Times posted reputed orders from the department that called for “public opinion guidance concerning yesterday’s rainstorms” in the form of state-run media shifting the focus of its news stories away from issues like the failure of the city’s drainage system to features that “emphasize the power of human compassion over the elements.”

    On the edge of the Gobi desert, Beijing has not always had to deal with large rainstorms like Hong Kong, which is regularly in the season path of typhoons in the South China Seas area. Still, with more heavy rains expected later this week, local officials here will certainly be feeling the heat to keep the city largely dry throughout the rest of this rainy season.

    NBC News’ Tianzhou Ye contributed to this report.

  • A first: More cheers than jeers at new Apple product debut in China

    People lined up outside Beijing's Apple store for their chance to buy the latest iPad. NBC's Ed Flanagan reports.

    BEIJING – This time, Apple and its devoted Chinese customers weren’t taking any chances. 

    Wary of a repeat of the iPhone 4S debacle in China in January, when Apple’s release led to scuffles and even an egging of its flagship Beijing store by angry hordes after it was forced to cancel sales due to the crowds, Apple’s managers here put their heads together and came up with a new strategy for dealing with the crowds.

    They came up with a reservation style of ordering already in use in other countries like the United States. However, this time they decided to institute the reservation system as the only way to purchase the latest iPad, which features a sharper display and better camera than previous versions, for its China debut.

    Around 50 customers quietly lined up outside the store in Beijing Friday morning, staring intently inside the store as an almost equal number of jovial blue-uniformed employees clapped, sang and danced in the minutes before opening.

    It was a far cry from the sheer bedlam unleashed earlier this year when the iPhone 4S went on sale. On that day, many in the crowd were scalpers who local media said hired scores of people to line up with them to purchase the precious phones to be sold in other Chinese cities for a higher rate. 



    ‘It shouldn’t take too long to learn how to use’
    First in line to purchase the new iPad in Beijing on Friday was Ye Huafei, a 34-year-old software engineer who arrived at the store just two hours before opening. Forced to purchase this new iPad after his iPad2 had been poached by his mother to watch TV dramas, Ye elected to arrive early to pick up his new iPad so he could bring it to work and show it off to his colleagues. 

    “It feels great to be first,” said Ye. “The scene here is fantastic.” 

    Apple’s new product releases tend to attract a younger, status-conscious crowd in China. But mixed in the opening throng of customers was Mr. Wu, an older customer who coyly put his age at “under 65.”

    Wu owns an iPhone 4S, but decided to upgrade to an iPad because he is getting older and his eyes have been getting tired looking at the small screen.

    With new iPad in hand, the first thing Wu did was walk over to a nearby counter where an Apple employee was offering hour-long lessons to new customers on how to use their new tablets.

    Fresh from class, Wu excitedly showed us what he had learned.

    “It shouldn’t take too long to learn how to use, I have a strong base,” he said happily. “I have an iPhone 4S and I know how to use that very well.”

    He will need to learn quickly. With his purchase, Wu became the first member of his extended family to use an iPad.

    One thing he did not take long to discover was the free WiFi at the Apple store. With no Internet connection at home, Wu decided to save money by not purchasing a 3G-capable iPad and bought a wifi-capable tablet instead.

    Pointing to the Apple store behind him, Wu said, “I’ll just come here. My home is very close…I spent the money, so I should enjoy the product and the service.”

    The ‘it’ product
    Like in much of the rest of the world, Apple’s phones and tablets have become the “it” product to own in China, which is now Apple’s second-largest market after the United States. But with just five official Apple stores in the country, even a robust gray market for Apple products cannot always keep up with demand, especially in the days immediately following a high-profile release.

    Apple was forced to delay the mainland release of the latest iteration of the iPad due to a lawsuit brought by a company claiming to own the iPad trademark in China. So the company had time to experiment with the new reservation system in Hong Kong for its iPad debut last March and found it effective in dealing with scalpers and the crush that has followed previous product launches.

    Since the Cupertino, Calif., company settled the trademark issue for a reported $60 million earlier this month, mainland Chinese customers were invited yesterday to start registering to purchase the iPad at a special website created by the tech giant. Upon filling out the online form, customers were given a designated time to pick up their new iPads.

    On Thursday morning, NBC News attempted to log onto the website when it opened at 9 a.m. but the usual crowd of customers apparently crashed the site. The site was up and running again within the hour.

    Questions about whether news of the change in policy had gotten out to the public and to poachers were answered early Friday morning when the plaza outside the Apple store in Beijing was mostly empty.

    Reports from the other four Apple-owned stores also showed smooth sales.