CHINA / National
China economy to grow 10% in 2006
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-06-26 16:10
China's economy will grow b
CHINA / Newsmaker
Female coroner: 'The corpse is my god'
By Coldness Kwan (Chinadaily.com.cn)
Updated: 2006-06-26 16:43
Stepping into Wang Xuemei's office unprepared can be a real surprise. An
actual skeleton stands next to her desk, with its mouth open wide and
gaping spaces where there once were eyes. But Wang says of the corpse,
'this is my god', according to an interview with Wang on Xinhuanet.com.
Video grab of Wang talking with the interviewer (not shown in the photo)
in her office with an actual skeleton standing beside her during the
interview. [Xinhua]
Wang is a pathologist. As one of the nation's first forensic
post-graduates, Wang is now one of the top coroners in the Supreme
Procuratorate. She has autopsied over 600 corpses and explained their
deaths to the public.
"I have the skeleton in my office to encourage me. Look, its eyes are
staring at me. It doesn't allow me to make mistakes," Wang says.
Wang was just a newcomer to the Supreme People's Procuratorate when her
forensic report sentenced a police officer to three years in prison.
The officer was accused of torturing a suspect to death while trying to
elicit a confession. Wang dissected the body and disproved the officer's
claims that the suspect died of disease.
The local public security authority tried to get Wang to sit on the
report, on the grounds that the officer involved was an excellent
policeman. Wang refused.
"That is my job," Wang says. "My job is to give objective explanations
for deaths. I must be responsible to the corpses - they are my gods."
The cover of "The Journal of a Female Coroner" written by Wang Xuemei
based on her own working experience.
"I am a coroner. The job allows no mercy in fulfilling my
responsibilities. If I did that, the job would be meaningless," Wang says.
For most people, corpses are terrifying. But Wang's job is to communicate
with the corpses, which are often full of terrible smells of blood,
excrement and rot. "But my nerves tingle at the smells and I can't wait
to talk with the corpses," she says.
One might think Wang has a stomach of steel to deal with flesh and blood.
"No, not really," Wang smiles. She wrote in her biography that she is
even scared of cutting pork at home. When asked why, she says "the bloody
pork makes me so sick."
When Wang was a forensics student, she was working on a corpse with her
teacher late one night when the power suddenly went out. As Wang made her
way through the complete darkness to leave she tripped over a frozen
corpse and fell onto it.
"I told myself to be strong and not to be afraid. The person was dead and
I am still alive. The living don't fear the dead," Wang says.
As China's most authoritative voice in forensics, Wang is responsible for
reviewing cases where the cause of death is in question. She even
overrules her teachers' expertise if she thinks she is right.
When asked if she is superior to other coroners, Wang shakes her head.
"I am just lucky enough to work in the Supreme People's Procuratorate,
where I am able to access others' experience and learn from their lessons
as much as possible. My reputation is built on others' failures and
faults," she says.
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y 10.3 percent in the first half of 2006, then
slow marginally for a full-year expansion of 10 percent, the central bank
said in a new report.
At the same time, inflation will climb slowly, registering 1.3 percent in
the first six months of the year and 1.7 percent for the 12 months,
according to the report, from the People's Bank of China's research
bureau.
An export port in Ningbo, East China's Zhejiang Province is seen in this
photo taken on June 18, 2006. [newsphoto]
The forecasts, released over the weekend and published in the Beijing
Morning Post on Monday, come despite a stream of government measures
aimed at slowing the economy, following growth of 10.3 percent in the
first quarter.
China's economy has showed few signs of responding to the cooling
measures, such as an interest rate hike in April and policies targeted at
curbing investment in the property sector.
China is the world's fastest growing major economy, with expansion fueled
mainly by investment and exports. It grew 9.9 percent in 2005.
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