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Former officials in the soccer sector expressed remorse for how their corruption caused disorders in the sector in an anti-graft special aired on Tuesday night.

In November 2022, Li Tie, the former head coach of the Chinese national men’s football team, was placed under investigation.

Subsequently, more than a dozen high-ranking and mid-level officials of the Chinese Football Association came under scrutiny, including Du Zhaocai, former deputy director of the General Administration of Sport of China and former Party secretary of the CFA, and Chen Xuyuan, former president of the CFA.

The disciplinary and supervisory authorities and the public security agencies investigated dozens of individuals, including coaches, players, referees, club executives, and agents.

“Certain activities that seemed commonplace within the soccer circle were, in fact, illegal and criminal,” said Li Tie.

Li’s appointment as the head coach of the national team was attributed to his success in leading two China League One teams to promotion to the Chinese Super League.

However, investigations revealed that behind both instances of promotion, there were substantial instances of match-fixing.

After retiring as a player, Li transitioned to coaching and joined Hebei China Fortune Football Club in August 2015, and the club requested him to use his connections to influence opponents.

“During my time as a player, I detested those who engaged in match-fixing the most. However, because I knew that these actions might help increase our team’s chances of promotion, when I became an independent head coach for the first time, I also had a special desire to prove myself with this mindset,” he said.

Having tasted success through match-fixing at Hebei China Fortune, Li continued to promote match-fixing when he became the head coach of Wuhan Zall Football Club in 2017.

“By gaining ‘success’ through such improper means, it actually makes me more and more impatient and eager for quick results. In order to achieve good performance, I resorted to influencing referees, bribing opposing players and coaches, sometimes through clubs dealing with other clubs. This behavior becomes a habit, and eventually, there is even a slight dependence on these practices,” he said.

Li expressed regret, emphasizing the need to be down-to-earth, take the right path, avoid hasty pursuits of success, and refrain from trying to cut corners.

One significant reason for the rampant growth of corruption in football was the failure of the CFA, which should have taken on a supervisory role.

Over the years, several officials within CFA were involved in corruption and used their authority to help clubs gain undue advantages. Chen Xuyuan pointed out that corruption in Chinese soccer was pervasive and not limited to a specific aspect.

Chen admitted to accepting money from clubs, stating that if he were to crack down on such practices, it would be beating himself; then he just let the disorder go unchecked. Chen recalled that the night before he was elected as the sixth president of the CFA in August 2019, two local soccer association officials visited him, each offering 300,000 yuan ($42,200) as a token of appreciation and seeking his favor.

“They came into my room, casually placed their backpack on my sofa, and said, Congratulations, President Chen. We hope you can take care of us more. When I asked what they were offering, they responded it is just a tradition and they all do it this way,” Chen said.

“While fans could tolerate the backwardness of Chinese soccer, they could not forgive corruption,” Chen said.

As the president of the Chinese Football Association, Chen admitted primary responsibility and extended a deep apology to soccer fans nationwide.

Du Zhaocai, former deputy director of the GASC and former Party chief of CFA, similarly abused his position for personal gain, accepting millions of yuan in gifts and money while turning a blind eye to the irregularities in soccer.

Du admitted to using money and gifts as a common way to facilitate various matters, suggesting that this practice had become somewhat routine. “I also failed to play the role of a ‘goalkeeper’ in the anti-corruption campaign in Chinese soccer. In the midst of the club owners’ pursuit of interests, which was actually a subjective reason, I didn’t exert strict control and, in some cases, went along with the corrupt,” Du said.

On Sunday, infrared cameras in a nature reserve in southwest China’s Sichuan Province captured footage of a wild giant panda mother and her cub hanging out together.　

The video clips showed an adult panda strolling in the woods. She was followed by a panda cub who stumbled into the cameras. The infrared cameras also captured images of snow leopards, antelopes, red pandas, and other wildlife foraging for food.　

(Reported by Liu Gang;　Edited by　Qi Yiling)

　

China’s top women’s ace Zheng Qinwen secured her career-first Grand Slam semifinal berth in Melbourne on Wednesday after beating Russia’s Anna Kalinskaya 2-1 in a quarterfinal clash at the Australian Open.

Currently ranked No 15 this week, Zheng overcame a first-set scare and regained her focus to outlast 75th-ranked Kalinskaya, 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-1, in two hours and 20 minutes at Rod Laver Arena to cruise into a major semifinal for the first time in her young career.

Zheng, who made her first Grand Slam quarterfinal at the U.S. Open last year, won 10 of the last 11 games of the match to become the third Chinese major semifinalist in history.

She follows in the footsteps of two-time Grand Slam champion Li Na, the winner in Melbourne just 10 years ago, retired star Zheng Jie, who reached the semis at 2008 Wimbledon as a qualifier, and Peng Shuai at the 2014 U.S. Open to become the fourth Chinese woman to make it to the major semifinals.

The result also guarantees that Zheng will make her top-10 debut on the WTA rankings next week after the Aussie Open, making her the second Chinese woman after Li to crack the top echelon. Last month, the 21-year-old was named Most Improved Player of the Year after winning her first two WTA Tour titles in Palermo in July and on home soil in Zhengzhou in October.

“Thanks for letting me know that, nobody told me anything about that,” Zheng said of her top-10 breakthrough during the post-match interview.

“It’s good news for me, another motivation, especially I said last year when I was at the Australian Open that I wanted to be in the top 10. One year later I realized the goal,” said Zheng, who lost in the second round at the 2023 AO.

Opening the match with an obvious big-time nerve, Zheng made a string of unforced errors in the first set, but hit her groove midway through the second, hitting 42 winners, including 10 aces, as she pulled away for victory in the decider.

“She played really well today. Really good baseline strokes. The match was really tough for me,” said Zheng, who will play Ukraine’s Dayana Yastremska on Thursday for a final berth at the season-opening major.

“I just try to stay focused, don’t think anything else. I am really excited for the first time for me to be in the semifinals, especially with such a good performance like this,” said Zheng.

(ECNS) — Giant panda Qing Ci died on March 23 due to a rare complication of intestinal intussusception, the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Panda said on Wednesday.

Qing Ci, a female giant panda, was born at the center’s Hetaoping base in Wolong, southwest China’s Sichuan Province, on June 21, 2022.

The panda was diagnosed with an intestinal obstruction on March 2 this year. The center invited experts from West China Hospital and conducted surgery for it on March 5.

Qing Ci experienced a sudden intussusception during recovery, leading to a secondary obstruction.

Emergency surgery was performed on March 17, and the necrotic intestinal segment was successfully removed.

However, despite the care provided by the expert team around the clock, the panda failed to survive.

Intestinal intussusception in giant pandas is a dangerous abdominal emergency with a very short time for intervention.

Qing Ci was the first case of the disorder discovered at the China Conservation and Research Center for Giant Pandas in recent years.

Le Le, a Singapore-born giant panda, made his final public appearance at River Wonders Park in Singapore on Wednesday. 　

About 1,000 guests and panda lovers came to the Pavilion Capital Giant Panda Forest exhibit of River Wonders Park　to bid farewell to the giant panda Le Le. 　

After the farewell party, Le Le, the two-year-old giant panda cub and the first panda born in Singapore, entered the month-long quarantine and prepared for his flight to China on January 16, 2024. 　 Le Le was born to giant pandas Jia Jia and Kai Kai. The parents arrived in Singapore in 2012 and will remain at River Wonders and focus on planning for their future breeding cycles. 　

（Reporter　 　He Xi　 　 Editor　 Wang Xiaoting） 　

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson on Monday slammed the U.S. for creating obstacles for cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and the U.S. over reports revealing Chinese students and scholars being arbitrarily revoked visas and forcibly deported without concrete evidence.

The U.S. keeps overstretching the concept of national security, arbitrarily revoking visas, restricting entry, and forcibly deporting Chinese students without concrete evidence, causing great harm to the individuals involved and creating obstacles for cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and the U.S., Mao Ning, a spokesperson for the ministry said at Monday’s regular press briefing. 

At U.S. airports, especially Washington Dulles International Airport, cases of Chinese students being deported have begun to rise again, according to media reports. 

In March, the Washington Post interviewed six Chinese students and two visiting scholars who had been questioned upon landing the U.S.. Visas for a pair were cancelled and they were immediately deported. 

Previously in January, Chinese Ambassador to the U.S. Xie Feng had revealed that dozens of Chinese arriving in the U.S., including students, were being denied entry every month over the past few months. They held valid visas, had no criminal records, and were returning to school after travelling elsewhere or reuniting with their family in China. But when they landed at the airport, what awaited them was 8-hour-long interrogation by officers, who prohibited them from contacting their parents, made groundless accusations against them, and even forcibly deported them and banned their entry. 

Mao said that recent cases have shown that U.S. law enforcement officials are deporting individuals solely for the purpose of deporting, demonstrating typical political discrimination and selective law enforcement.

Mao urged the U.S. to immediately cease unwarranted harassment and deportation of Chinese citizens, stop suppressing and persecuting Chinese students. 

The U.S. should take practical actions to fulfill its commitments to support and facilitate cultural and people-to-people exchanges between China and the U.S., rather than saying one thing and doing another, Mao said. 

The spokesperson also stressed that China will take resolute measures to safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of Chinese citizens.

With the only giant pandas, Yang Guang and Tian Tian, in the United Kingdom set to return to China in early December after a 12-year stay at Scotland’s Edinburgh Zoo, crowds have been thronging the panda enclosure to bid them farewell.

The Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, the conservation charity that owns and manages Edinburgh Zoo, said on Nov 17 that the pandas will leave for China in the first week of December, but the exact date and time of departure won’t be announced due to safety and security reasons.

Yang Guang, whose name means sunshine, and Tian Tian, whose name translates to sweetie, arrived at the Edinburgh Zoo in December 2011 as part of a 10-year agreement between the zoological society in Scotland and the China Wildlife Conservation Association. The agreement was later extended by two years because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Since their arrival, Yang Guang and Tian Tian have garnered a great deal of public interest, and the BBC billed the panda enclosure as a “rock star” attraction that has been at the top of the must-see list of more than 600,000 visitors to the zoo each year.

Vanessa Moreland-Strange and Andrew Strange, a couple living near Edinburgh, brought their two children to the zoo recently to say goodbye to the pandas. The family told China Daily they had visited the panda enclosure 28 times since 2018 and “every time was the best time”.

“It is just a good family time,” said Strange. “You come and watch them playing. Sometimes they are quiet, sometimes mischievous and playful, sometimes a bit grumpy, like our two little children. It is good that we can come and learn while having a nice day out and also contribute toward the conservation of the environment.”

Moreland-Strange said the pandas had influenced her daughter’s ambition to work as an animal conservationist when she grows up.

“My daughter is very passionate about endangered species and feels very strongly about how we have treated our world. She wants to try and fix conservation problems as a career. Pandas have helped her to grow her passion. So, it just seems like the pandas fell into place with us all,” she said.

Lisa Taylor, who flew in from Bristol in Southwest England to say goodbye to the pair, said it was a privilege to have pandas in the UK.

“They are very special animals. We are very privileged to see them here in the UK because they are very rare. There are so many people who never, ever get to see a panda,” she said.

To bid farewell to Yang Guang and Tian Tian, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland has been holding a series of events since January that have proved immensely popular.

Activities priced between ￡30 and ￡500 ($38 and $630) included a one-hour guided tour and behind-the-scenes experience to help the keepers feed Yang Guang. The experience was offered exclusively to zoological society members as well as patrons and giant panda “adopters”. The tickets sold out in just 90 minutes.

The zoological society members said the sales raised more than ￡42,000, and the money will be used by the charity to help save wildlife from extinction.

“With more than a million species at risk of extinction and our natural world in crisis, Yang Guang and Tian Tian have had an incredible impact by inspiring millions of people to care about nature,” said David Field, the zoological society’s chief executive. “We have also made a significant contribution to our understanding of giant pandas, which will be of real benefit to efforts to protect this amazing species in China.”

Experts from China and Scotland have carried out multiple research projects, organized technical and personnel exchanges, and supported public education campaigns, such as the “Beyond the Panda” program, which offers a wealth of resources to students in Scotland so they can explore China’s animals, environment, geography and habitat, alongside its language.

“It is encouraging that in recent years, the outlook for giant pandas in the wild has improved, which gives us real hope for the future,” Field said.