Author: Filippa Rui

At 10:00 pm on 12 July, 2018, a young boy died in a summer household fire that broke out in Nanjing’s Jiangbei New Area.

The apartment, which is in the Panjin Garden complex, was already up in flames by the time local resident, Mr. Li, shouted to his wife to run out of the building as, “The fire at that time was indeed very big”.

Nearby residents claim that the house belonged to a non-local Nanjing man, who lived there with his wife, two children and their grandparents. Locals claim that when the fire broke out, the father was on a business trip in Shanghai, reports Jiangsu Sina.

The mother was able to save one son after running out of the house, however tragically, the other 13-year-old son was trapped in the household fire where he died.

It has been reported that Nanjing fire and rescue arrived on the scene shortly after the household fire had broken out, at which time the fire had sealed the doors shut, trapping the boy and preventing rescuers from getting in.

The tragedy happened two days prior to a fire prevention and safety awareness day for school children held by the Huai’an City Hongze public security bureau, during the school’s summer holidays, revealed State news agency Xinhua.

Investigations into the actual cause of the fire are still underway.

Ushering in Children’s Day on Friday, internationally popular cartoon Peppa Pig appeared on the number 555 Yangtze bus. With the bus all dressed up in merchandise, Peppa gave away toys and played with children.

After their vehicular debut, Peppa and her younger brother George then made their way over to Nanjing Railway Station to further spread the love. In addition to gifts and cuddles, George and Peppa are said to have spent time teaching children about traffic safety.

Perhaps their arrival on Nanjing’s public transport system is more than just a nod to children’s day; rather in part a larger marketing ploy, designed to help to pave the way for the debut of Peppa Pig Live!, which will be coming to Nanjing theatres in the next 6 months.

“The light-hearted children’s drama Peppa Pig Live! began its China tour on 30 May at Shanghai Lyceum Theatre. Animation superstar Peppa Pig, or Xiaozhu Peiqi in Mandarin, will jump off the screen for the first time to interact with Chinese fans on stage”, announced Xu Wei in a press released by Shine.

“Since its debut in 2004, the British animated series has been broadcast in over 180 countries and regions. China Central Television first introduced the series in 2015. The cute little pig and her family and friends now have a huge fan base in China”.

Recent hype the world over has centered around China’s video streaming website Douyin’s decision to abruptly pull the Peppa Pig series from its listings. While there has since been much speculation for the reason; “gangster” references and “sexual” connotations seem to have topped the list. The former is likely as a result of the Chinese name for Peppa’s father; Daddy Pig translates as “爸爸猪” which is a likely name for a head of a Hong Kong triad.

After the program’s widely publicised ban on Chinese television it comes as a surprise that the live show is now touring the country, in effect bringing more awareness to the program. Whatever the real reasons, children across China and here in Nanjing are sure to be revelling this summer in Peppa bliss.

Nanjing journalist Sun Lin, who goes by the name Jie Mu online, has appeared in a Nanjing court on charges of “incitement to subvert state power”, says a source close to him and reported by Radio Free Asia (RFA).

Sun was said to be “frequently outspoken” against the use of apparent forced confessions by authorities and is reportedly refusing to accept the prosecutor’s version of events. Sun was scheduled to stand trial 9 February, 2018.

Maintaining his innocence, Sun has accused authorities of conjuring up a reason for his detention after the fact. Sun’s supposed actions of incitement include sending out and retweeting large quantities of social media with content calling for and end to communism and pro-democracy sentiment.

Sun spoke at his pre trial of supposedly being force fed medication through meals, whereby he began hiding them, subsequently producing the medication during the trial, Sun’s request to have the medication tested has apparently been met.

“Sun was initially detained by police on 16 November, 2016, as he shot video footage of the opening of the trial of Nanjing-based rights activist Wang Jian”, wrote Qiao Long for RFA. “He said he has been taken on an enforced, out-of-town ‘vacation’ ahead of the trial”.

Having already served a 4-year jail term for “picking quarrels and stirring up trouble” after publicising a group of forced evictees in Nanjing, Sun has support from Jiangsu-based rights activist Xu Qin, who has been placed on a travel ban.

Statistics gathered by the Committee to Protect Journalists, show China imprisoned 41 journalists in 2017, while country holding the dubious record in this respect was Turkey at 73.

Radio Free Asia is a nonprofit international broadcaster that disseminates news, information, and option across many countries in Asia. It is funded through an annual grant from the Broadcasting Board of Governors, an independent U.S. agency.

InfinityAR, developer of advanced augmented reality software and Nanjing Ruiyue Technology Co., Ltd. (Nibiru), provider of VR/AR/MR operating system to ODM/OEM electronics manufacturers, announced that they are entering a collaboration designed to provide a comprehensive solution for manufacturers looking to enter the augmented / mixed reality glasses business.

Nibiru CEO Vincent Lai said, “With the launch of the One Belt One Road initiative, cooperation and technology exchange between China and Israel is continuously growing. Our collaboration with InfinityAR is a testament to that. We are combining our competitive advantage to bring a superb offering to the market. Both companies share the passion for leveraging technological innovation to improve human lives”.

Nibiru and InfinityAR partnership will leverage Nibiru’s position as a leading technology innovation corporation based in China, powering hundreds of all-in-one VR headsets and InfinityAR’s cutting edge computer vision technology and system know-how in building mixed reality glasses, which is already implemented in multiple next generation mixed reality glasses, soon to be launched to the market.

17 January, ahead of Spring Festival, and Nanjing Police have seized 425 fake train tickets, 2,300 blank tickets, one computer and one ticket printer.

Nanjing Railway Police department announced that it has arrested a gang in Changzhou’s Tianning District in relation to the counterfeit tickets.

The crime came to light after the tickets were found for sale on Taobao, while the total worth of the tickets was put at ¥440,000.

Such cases of ticket counterfeit has not circulated much in the press since the turn of the century. With the introduction of the QR code, linking real name and ID to the purchaser, introduced in 2009, ticket counterfeit has been significantly reduced.

However, with the Spring Festival break, comes not only the faking of train tickets, but an abundance in crime overall. Burglaries, robbery, forgery and inflation are rife.

City homes are commonly known to be a target, due to the large majority of people vacating their residences for the holiday.

The new year brought with it Nanjing customs’ collection of ¥200 million worth of frozen food bound for Wuxi, Suzhou and Kunshan.

It has emerged that frozen seafoods in the main, such as 8,000 tonnes of shrimp, cuttlefish and fish fillets, have been illegally imported from as early as July of 2013.

Such seafood of this magnitude comes via Vietnam to be sold along the east coast of China. Regarding this latest bust, four people have been detained in connection with the smuggling of food. 

As reported by Xinhua News, since the start of China’s anti-smuggling campaign in 2017, Nanjing customs has seized more than 4,700 tonnes of cotton, over 1,200 tonnes of white sugar and 9,000 tonnes of frozen food.

Apple has reportedly given a Nanjing woman, who only goes by the name of Yan, a refund on not one, but two faulty IphoneXs.

After activating and configuring the phone’s facial recognition software, the woman’s colleague was apparently able to successfully open both phones with her face.

The woman told the Jiangsu Broadcasting Company that Apple’s customer service simply thought she had been making the story up; it was at this point the woman stomped down to the store on Changjiang Lu here in Nanjing with her friend in order to demonstrate the phone’s fault.

The story has since circulated on the Internet around the world prompting debates over whether a piece of technology can be thought of as racist and a cause for privacy concerns.

Recently it has been reported that Apple is “downgrading the accuracy” of the software, in order to “make it easier to manufacture”.

Nanjing police earlier this week cracked a large cross-border fraudulent bank card case, in which local man Gao Mou was unwittingly swindled out of ¥7 million. The money had been used to buy goods in Hong Kong. After a 2-month investigation Nanjing police finally located the criminal gangs responsible and arrested 12 suspects. This is how it went down.

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After a routine school body check, a local mother was informed that her 12-year-old daughter had abnormal liver function and was diagnosed with hepatitis C after being hospitalised; her 9-year-old sister had normal liver function, although she unfortunately tested positive for the Hepatitis C antibody.

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