Briefly April 23

Only 35 massacre survivors remain

Nanjing Massacre survivor Liu Suzhen died on Sunday at the age of 93, reducing the number of registered survivors to 35, the Memorial Hall for the Victims of the Nanjing Massacre by Japanese Invaders said on Monday. The Nanjing Massacre took place when Japanese troops captured the then-Chinese capital on Dec 13, 1937. Over six weeks, they killed approximately 300,000 Chinese civilians and unarmed soldiers in one of the most barbaric episodes of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression (1931-45). During the massacre, Japanese soldiers scalded six-year-old Liu's right arm with boiling water. "We hid in a shelter on Shanghai Road," she once recalled. "The sound of planes bombing above was deafening. Both adults and children were too scared to go out. It was very, very tragic." The survivors' written and filmed testimonies, preserved by the Chinese government, were listed by UNESCO in the Memory of the World Register in 2015.

Ex-head of tobacco administration expelled

Ling Chengxing, former head of China's State Tobacco Monopoly Administration, has been expelled from the Communist Party of China over serious violations of discipline and law, authorities said on Monday. The decision followed an investigation by the CPC Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the National Commission of Supervision that was approved by the CPC Central Committee, the two anti-graft bodies said in a statement. The investigation found that Ling flouted Party principles, engaged in conduct violating the Party's eight-point decision on improving Party and government conduct, abused his position to seek benefits for others and illegally accepted huge sums of money and gifts, among other misdeeds. The statement said Ling's actions constituted severe breaches of party discipline and serious duty-related violations, with suspected crimes of bribery and abuse of power. Ling's illicit gains will be confiscated, and the case will be transferred to procuratorial authorities for examination and prosecution, it said.

Almost 5,000 bank card crimes busted

Chinese police busted nearly 5,000 cases involving bank card forgery, theft of card data, card fraud, illegal card transactions and other card-related offenses last year during a nationwide crackdown on crimes associated with bank cards. The total amount of money involved in the cases exceeded 10 billion yuan ($1.4 billion), the Ministry of Public Security revealed on Monday. In one case, police in Beijing's Chaoyang district investigated three credit card theft cases in April 2023, uncovering over 35 linked fraud cases using similar methods. They arrested gangs involved in over 460 cases of illegal withdrawal of cash and "phishing" scams or who provided phones and point-of-sale devices used in the crimes.

Guideline on volunteer service system unveiled

The general offices of the Communist Party of China Central Committee and the State Council recently issued a Guideline on Improving the New Era Volunteer Service System. It is the first central document to systematically deploy the improvement of the new era volunteer service system. The guideline mainly includes nine parts, including improving the volunteer service mobilization system for all-around participation, the precise and efficient volunteer service supply system, the vigorous volunteer service team organization system, the extensive volunteer service platform system, and the distinctive volunteer culture system. There are 236 million registered volunteers in China.

China Daily - Xinhua