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SINO DAILY
Hong Kong ushers mainland workers into new station
by Staff Writers
Hong Kong (AFP) Sept 4, 2018

China kindergarten principal sacked for pole dance show
Beijing (AFP) Sept 4, 2018 - A kindergarten principal in China trying to liven up a formal back-to-school ceremony with a racy pole dancer was fired after angry parents lit up social media with complaints.

Like most schools across China, the Xinshahui Kindergarten in the southern city of Shenzhen marks the start of the school year with a ceremony, usually consisting of performances and speeches.

But Monday's edition, which included the risque pole dance, cost principal Lai Rong her job.

Videos circulating on social media showed a scantily-clad dancer in hot pants shimmying up and down a pole to thumping music as stunned children in marching band uniforms looked on.

Others tried to mimic the sultry moves, with several small boys gyrating their hips and dancing around each other. In the background, shocked parents could be heard commenting about the suitability of the performance.

Many took to social media to express their outrage, threatening to pull their children out of school and calling for Lai's resignation.

"Pole dancing at a school welcome ceremony? How can I trust my children with them? I'm going to pull my kid out and ask for a refund," one parent wrote on social media platform WeChat.

"Is the principal an idiot?" another commented on the Twitter-like site Weibo.

In a text message to parents, Lai apologised for the "horrific viewing experience" and for not checking the dancer's performance, adding that the dance was intended to liven up the atmosphere.

Hours later, local education authorities announced they had fired the principal and put Xinshahui under investigation.

"Other schools in the district should reflect on this incident and strictly uphold education standards," the Bao'an education bureau said in a statement.

"I may as well be dead. I already lost the hope to live," Lai told state-run tabloid the Global Times.

This was just one of several incidents in a shaky start to the Chinese school year.

Over the weekend, parents complained that a television programme deemed mandatory viewing by state educators on Saturday night included 12 minutes of advertisements, mostly promoting online tutoring courses and stationery sales.

Earlier the same day, police arrested 46 people in central Hunan province after hundreds gathered to express dissatisfaction with the local school system.

According to posts on social media, parents were incensed when they were told they would have to move their children into dormitories at a local private school, dramatically increasing tuition fees.

Staff from mainland China quietly took up their posts at a new high-speed rail station in Hong Kong Tuesday in a move criticised by opponents as giving away the city's territory.

Hong Kong enjoys rights unseen on the mainland -- including freedom of speech -- as part of a handover deal between Britain and China, but there are fears those liberties are increasingly under threat from Beijing.

The new rail link between Hong Kong and southern China will see joint immigration checkpoints at the West Kowloon terminus, in the heart of the city, with a special port area patrolled by mainland security and subject to Chinese law.

The station will officially open on September 23 but the mainland section was handed over to Chinese personnel in the early hours of Tuesday.

The hush-hush ceremony took place at midnight and was not announced by the Hong Kong government until it was over. There was no media access.

City leader Carrie Lam denied the move was a cover-up, describing it as a "working level handover procedure".

"There was nothing sneaky," she told reporters on Tuesday.

The government put out a statement just after midnight confirming that the secretary for transport and a senior official from the southern Chinese province of Guangdong had jointly hosted the ceremony to "mark the commissioning of the mainland port area" at the station.

Under Hong Kong's mini-constitution -- the Basic Law -- China's national laws do not apply to the city apart from in limited areas, including defence.

Pro-democracy lawmaker James To accused the government of downplaying the significance of the mainland personnel's arrival.

"It should be a historic event, but they are very shy -- they didn't even invite the media to take the photos," he told AFP.

To described the stationing of mainland staff on Hong Kong soil as "very controversial" and a threat to the city's autonomy.

Both the port area and train carriages will be subject to Chinese law, prompting questions over how Hong Kong citizens will be required to behave in those zones, whether they will be punished for using Facebook and Twitter -- which are banned on the mainland -- or targeted for wearing clothing with political slogans.

Residents walking near the station -- which is still sealed off to the public -- were split over the arrangement.

A retiree who gave his name as Mr. Lau said the government was being disingenuous.

"Authorities forcefully insist it doesn't violate the Basic Law but anyone with a discerning eye can see that's problematic," Lau told AFP.

Another resident who gave his name as Li was more philosophical.

"To be honest, Hong Kong has already been handed over to mainland China," he said.


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The Maldives opposition said Friday that President Abdulla Yameen had pushed the Indian Ocean nation deeper into a Chinese "debt trap" with a new $200 million bridge opened just ahead of the country's election. Yameen commissioned the bridge with a Chinese fireworks display late Thursday night amid his campaign for the controversial September 23 vote, ahead of which he has jailed or forced into exile all of his main opponents. The opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) said the 1.4 kilometr ... read more

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