Society

For months, courts across China refused to accept the lawsuits from families whose children were killed or sickened in a tainted milk scandal. Now, in a turnaround, hundreds of families are planning to file suit after the country's highest court this week said cases would be accepted.

The move signals a change in the way Beijing is handling fallout from the scandal, which killed at least six babies and sickened nearly 300,000 with kidney stones and kidney failure. A government-sanctioned compensation plan had been expected to ease public anger, but instead it gave embittered, outspoken parents across China a common cause.

"There will be lawsuits against all 22 dairy companies," said Zhao Lianhai, who has rallied victims' parents through a Web site he created.

He said Tuesday the 600-plus families involved want compensation for emotional harm as well as medical and other expenses — demands that go beyond the government's one-time payouts.

But it was not clear how the government planned to handle the cases. One lawyer who filed a lawsuit this week on behalf of dozens of families said he was told the court was supposed to guide him toward the existing compensation plan.

Infant formula contaminated with the industrial chemical melamine was blamed in the scandal that was exposed last September. Unscrupulous middlemen are accused of adding melamine, which is high in nitrogen, to watered-down milk to fool quality tests for protein content.

The crisis highlighted the need for major overhauls to China's food safety system, culminating in a law passed over the weekend that consolidates hundreds of regulations covering the country's 500,000 food processing companies.

On Monday, Shen Deyong, executive vice president of China's highest court, said courts will accept compensation cases in the scandal.

"The courts have done the preparation work and will accept the compensation cases at any time, " Shen said in an online interview with the official People's Daily Newspaper.

Already, Beijing attorney Li Jinglin said he filed an 8 million yuan ($1.2 million) lawsuit Monday in northern China's Qingdao Intermediate People's Court on behalf of 54 families. Their children became sick after drinking Shengyuan brand milk, whose parent company is based in Qingdao.

Li said he expected a response from the court this week. But he said a court official told him: "We have the responsibility of guiding you toward accepting the compensation plan from the companies involved ... According to our situation, we are prepared to give the same amount of compensation as the dairies."

A man in the propaganda department at the Qingdao court said he was not aware of the case.

Under the payout plan organized by the dairies, families whose children died received 200,000 yuan ($29,000), while others received 30,000 yuan ($4,380) for serious cases of kidney stones and 2,000 yuan ($290) for less severe cases.

More than 95 percent of victims' families had accepted the money, Shen said in the interview.

Since the scandal broke, victims' parents tried several times to file lawsuits, but courts refused to take their documents. Chinese courts often turn down class-action suits, preferring to deal with cases one by one to avoid running afoul of Communist Party officials, who ultimately control the judiciary.

At least 100 families who have already accepted compensation money plan to file lawsuits, lawyer Xu Zhiyong said, conceding that some could be rejected.

"Strictly speaking, after you sign the agreement accepting the compensation, you can't file a case. But if you can prove that you were forced to accept the money, then you can sue," he said.

One parent who took the money said it wasn't enough, but he didn't plan to fight on.

Luo Ming, whose 2-year-old daughter was diagnosed with kidney stones but apparently has recovered, said he spent 40,000 yuan ($5,850) in medical fees and travel costs and was forced to take six weeks of unpaid leave from his job as a machine designer in central Hunan province.

In January, local health authorities told him 2,000 ($290) in compensation was the best the family could expect.

It wasn't enough, Luo said. But "my job has been affected, and the government hasn't helped me. So I'm just going to give up."

Many Chinese are tightening their belts during the country's economic downturn despite government efforts to boost domestic consumption and replace evaporating export orders.  

Wang Hao, 24, a Beijing office worker, made a public resolution in June last year to limit his weekly living expenses to 100 yuan  ($14.6 dollars). That's the cost of eight Big Macs in China.  

"The financial crisis has taught a spending lesson to young people in China, including me," said Wang, who posted his resolution on his blog at http://blog.soufun.com/whblog. So far the site has had 230,000 hits.    

As the financial crisis squeezes the real economy, urban white-collar workers speak of shrinking bonuses and frozen wages.  

Some are unemployed but just how many is unknown as China has not released that information. Students are facing the worst job prospects since China's economic reform began 30 years ago.    

In addition to Wang's campaign to save money, the number of people sharing dinners, houses, taxis and other activities with strangers they meet online continues increasing. Web users post their activities on sites, such as www.Pinkewang.com, and can be contacted by others interested in joining in their activities.  

Lin Xiongbo, the founder of the Pikewang, said that only one month after the financial crisis broke out, or last November, his website saw a 100 percent increase of visitors. People also began to share other things to do such as training programs, sports, karaoke and other entertainments.  

"Sharing activities with others can save a lot of money without lowering the quality of life. Furthermore, I can make new friends," said 27-year-old Xu Li, a manger in a public relations firm and a long-time site user.  

Xu recently found other people to take part in a commercial English training program with her. By doing this together, they all enjoyed a 10 percent discount for the course, saving more than 1,000 yuan.    

Chinese people are traditionally frugal. However, thanks to decades of fast development in China, the urban young generations, born in the seventies and eighties are more accustomed to a lavish and material way of living. Designer clothes and the latest electronic products are chased by young citizens.

Without family burdens, as most of their parents work in traditional state-owned institutions which cover health-care costs, many young people spend almost all of their monthly salaries. Some even spend money they don't have yet with ever-popular credit cards. Members of the "Yueguang group", who spend all their monthly earnings before the end of the month, and the unemployed or part-time workers and freelancers, kept increasing in the society.  

When the economy slumps, however, these lifestyles have lost some of their luster. Instead, more and more Chinese white-collar workers began to view saving money as fashionable. In addition to 100-yuan-a-week and partabkers moves, websites and blogs popular among young Chinese professionals are extolling the virtues of frugality as well as ways to cut expenses in daily life.  

A website user with an online alias Popov published his daily expenses: four yuan for public transportation, five yuan for breakfast and six yuan for lunch and supper at the restaurant owned by his company. It totals 15 yuan per day or 75 for  weekdays. He adds in another 20 yuan for fruit, which means he spends 95 yuan in one week not including weekends.

China's web users view all the measures to cut expenses as a philosophy of neo-frugality. People are richer than in the past but are making more reasonable choices based on their finances.

"I hope it is a chance to rethink the consumption culture," said professor Yu Hai with Shanghai-based Fudan University. "The consumption pattern of an individual does not only reflect one's lifestyle, but also one's social responsibility for sustainable development."

However, when citizens are trying their best to save money, the government is trying to stimulate domestic demand to replace shrinking global needs for Chinese products.

China planned to keep the economic growth rate at about 8 percent this year amid the grim outlook for the world economy. In order to achieve this target, the government announced a package of infrastructure projects worth 4 trillion yuan.

It still has work to do when it comes to stimulating household spending. In some provinces local governments provided citizens with billions of coupons to encourage them to buy things and services. In addition, when farmers buy designated home appliances, they will be subsidized with 13 percent of the cost.

In order to curb slumping demand, some experts favor consumption rather than frugality. In an article published earlier last month in an authoritative magazine named Outlook Weekly, Han Baojiang, a professor from the Central Party School of the Communist Party of China, argued that positive consumption is an attitude of patriotism.

Li Zhe, a member of the Beijing people's political consultative conference, suggested at a meeting that a "patriotic consumption campaign should be launched in a bid to save China's economy."

After netizen Wang Hao's 100-yuan-a-week campaign, he launched another program named "domestic demand funds" in February. Wang advocated for visitors to his blog to deposit 1 to 10 yuan in his bank account voluntarily. Wang said he would use this money to create 100,000 yuan of demand meaning he would buy a car or another apartment for himself.

He said his plan was to "support the government's policy of stimulating domestic demand."

At the beginning of this campaign, Wang was accused by his blog visitors of online begging and received little money. But Wang has gained more and more support. As of February 28, he had received more than 4,000 yuan. He said his bank account is now increasing by about 500 yuan every day.

"Who doesn't like spending money? But I don't have enough," said Xu, who objects to Wang's patriotic consumption speech. "People should be more cautious and frugal during the financial crisis. When I boost consumption with my own money, what should I do if I lose my job?"

The frugal lifestyle seems to be endorsed by authorities. In a commentary published last week in the People's Daily, the writer said frugality did not conflict with the government's demand-stimulating policies, as it called for reasonable rather than reckless spending. Frugality could also help people spend their limited money on the most needed things.

"The neo-frugal way of living should become a fashion, especially in the financial crisis," said the writer Wang Jinyou.

Mi Fengjun, former vice chairman of the Jilin Provincial People's Congress Standing Committee, has been removed from his post and expelled from the Communist Party of China (CPC) for taking bribes, according to a decision issued Tuesday.

The CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection has launched an investigation into the corruption case involving Mi. Mi was found to have taken a large amount of bribes and illegally possessed the property of State-run companies. He was also found to have bought a villa from a state-run company.

However, the decision didn't reveal in what time period Mi committed the violation or how much money he illegally possessed.

"Mi's behaviors have severely violated the discipline of the Party and the government, and some may lead to crimes," said the decision.

All property Mi illegally possessed were confiscated. Mi was transferred to the judicial department for further investigation.

On the 1st of March, Guangzhou, in front of a amusement park, a human flesh dominos was held for celebrating the Women's Day. About 300 women took part in this dominos game by standing in a pattern of butterfly.

If you are stunned by the Chinese "human flesh search engine", I think ,you will agree with the title human flesh dominos. Anyway this will help you understand what does "human flesh" means, in case of it being used as prefix.