China media: Kenya siege

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-china-24216960

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China's official media are blaming the US and Western "double standards" for a "horrific" attack on a shopping complex in Kenya.

"The Western war on terror has set off more terrorist attacks and made them spread like a cancer cell. The West has just built a 'safety dyke' for itself, while allowing terrorism to spread beyond its dyke," says the Beijing-based Global Times.

"The West even adopts double standards against terrorism. Some Western countries are giving overt or covert support to terrorists to disliked countries," the newspaper adds.

The Chinese government says one of its nationals was killed and another was injured in the attack.

The Ta Kung Pao, a Beijing-backed Hong Kong daily, also accuses the US and West of worsening terrorism by backing Arab Spring revolutions.

"With the US and other Western countries making stormy seas even stormier, so-called 'colour revolutions' have yet to end... A post-'colour revolution' North Africa and Middle East are becoming a source of terrorism and a common threat to mankind," says the newspaper.

In other news, police from rural Zhangjiachuan county in north-west Gansu have admitted to "over-reacting" when putting a 16-year-old in criminal detention under new online defamation rules.

Yang Hui, 16, was arrested on 17 September after he posted microblog messages accusing local police of covering up the alleged murder of a man that occurred on 12 September. Police say his wrong accusations were "forwarded 500 times" and triggered protests by hundreds of people on the streets.

Under the new rules issued earlier this month, internet users will be charged with defamation if they post "online rumours" that are read by more than 5,000 netizens or forwarded more than 500 times.

The official Xinhua news agency says the police changed Yang Hui's criminal detention to one week's administrative detention because of his young age and "remorse" for his actions.

However, the boy's lawyer tells the Global Times that his release showed that the police had made a "mistake". The lawyer says the boy's father has decided to sue the police.

Meanwhile, Caixun says outraged internet users retaliated against Yang Hui's detention by accusing the county's party chief of wearing "luxury watches" and the county's police chief of bribing a former high-ranking local official. They also uploaded photos of the county government's "luxury offices", fuelling further public anger.

The Global Times, however, rebukes netizens for hailing the release of Yang Yong as a victory against the online slander rules.

"Some people have posted messages on the internet praising the released Yang as a 'hero'. This is just like the police's over-reaction when they initially put Yang into criminal detention. Yang did after all commit wrongdoing... The police's actions are one matter, but online activists should also knock it off quickly," it stresses.

In the latest development, insiders inform The Beijing News that authorities have started a "financial audit" of the county party chief and governor.

'Rotten fruits'

Elsewhere, Dumex, a baby formula subsidiary of French firm Danone, has informed Hong Kong's South China Morning Post that it is investigating new allegations of bribery aired by the official broadcaster China Central Television.

On Monday, CCTV alleged that Dumex paid nearly 500,000 yuan ($81,000, £51,000) in bribes to hospital staff in Beijing, Tianjin and the northern provinces of Heilongjiang, Hebei, Liaoning, Jilin and Inner Mongolia, in April.

Last week, the channel quoted a former Dumex sales manager claiming that the firm had bribed doctors and nurses in Tianjin to feed its milk powder to newborn babies.

China's food watchdog is investigating four mainland beverage companies, including two branches of Huiyuan, the country's top juice maker, after Guangzhou's 21st Century Business Herald alleged that they were buying rotten and unripe fruit from farmers, markets and distributors to make juice.

Huiyan, however, stated on Monday that its investigations had found no rotten fruit used in its products, Hong Kong's Ming Pao reports.

And finally, "government sources" tip off the South China Morning Post on plans for the Shanghai Free Trade Zone to lift a ban on foreign websites deemed politically sensitive, including Facebook, Twitter and The New York Times.

The sources also say Shanghai's new economic zone will allow bids from foreign telecommunications companies for licences to provide internet services. However, there has been no official confirmation from the government.

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