The Health and Family Planning Commission of Henan Province reported an additional human case of avian influenza A(H7N9) in a 38-year-old man from Kaifeng who is in critical condition. Image/CDC Image/CDC Hong Kong health officials who are closely monitoring the situation said, “Since late 2016, the number of human H7N9 cases reported in the Mainland hugely increased from six in November 2016 to 106 in December 2016 and 183 last month as of January 29, 2017. The number of cases in this wave so far has been much higher than that in the same period last winter. Cases imported from Guangdong have also been reported in Hong Kong, Macau and Taiwan. “According to the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, about 90 per cent of the patients reported exposure to live poultry, mostly with exposure to live poultry markets (LPMs). There was also an increase in environmental contamination with H7N9 virus as reflected by the positive rate of environmental samples collected from LPMs or other live poultry-related environments in affected provinces.” Since the first human cases were reported in 2013, there has been 1107 cases as of Feb. 6.

A comedy show about phone scams, telecast as part of the Spring Festival gala on Beijing TV on Jan 28, has aroused more questions than laughter, because the supposed swindler's voice-over on the show had an obvious Henan accent. Central China's Henan province is home to more than 100 million people. And many Henan natives feel the show was discriminatory and allege the show intentionally tarnished their image by insinuating that Henan is home to swindlers. So strong has been the reaction that a lawyer from Henan has sued the show's director and actors, and the TV station, accusing them of regional discrimination and maligning Henan residents' reputation. The lawyer has demanded that the defendants apologize for "depicting Henan residents" as "swindlers" and pay a compensation of 1 yuan ($0.16) to every person from Henan. In response, the director of the show has explained on his micro blog that he himself provided the voice-over for program and used his home province Shandong's accent, which sounds similar to that of Henan. Some media outlets have published commentaries, which say the lawyer is making an unnecessary fuss over a show and advise Henan residents to be magnanimous and forgiving. Henan residents have been the butt of many a joke, mainly because the province used to be one of the poorest regions in China. Although Henan is the fifth-largest provincial economy in China, it remains the largest source of migrant workers in China. Across the country, many Henan residents are engaged in jobs that involve hard labor. Perhaps this is the reason why Henan has been stereotyped as a province with mainly manual laborers many of whom are engaged in sordid activities. And perhaps because of this biased public perception, Henan residents have become very sensitive to any satirical or discriminative terms. In 2005, two Henan lawyers sued a police station in Shenzhen, South China's Guangdong province, for damaging Henan residents' reputation, because the police hung a poster in the city that read: "Crack down on swindling gang from Henan". The court verdict was in favor of the plaintiffs, and the Shenzhen police had to issue an official apology to Henan people working or living in Shenzhen. In the case of the Beijing TV gala, the Henan lawyer's decision to file a lawsuit is justified. It is up to the court to rule whether the show damaged Henan residents' reputation or was regional discrimination. It appears the director overreached himself and made a hash of the ill-designed voice-over. He may have intended to add an accent to the voice-over for special effect, but presumably because of his lack of consideration, he ended up offending Henan residents. Needless to say, he should have been sensitive to regional sentiments. His explanation may be genuine. But that cannot absolve him of the duty to apologize to Henan residents, because there is no reason to associate Henan residents with swindling. As a director, he should have been more thoughtful and conscious of viewers' feelings. Besides, it is unfair for media outlets to publish commentaries saying Henan residents should be more forgiving, while ignoring the director's social responsibility. Discrimination, in many cases, is the result of ignorance or prejudice. Therefore, the government should raise public awareness, in order to prevent discriminatory shows from hitting TV screens.

The top procuratorate will open an investigation into Wu Tianjun, a former senior Communist Party of China (CPC) official, following allegations that he accepted bribes. Wu is a former member of the standing committee of the CPC Henan Provincial Committee and head of the provincial committee's commission for political and legal affairs. The Supreme People's Procuratorate (SPP) has put Wu under "compulsory measures," the SPP announced Monday. Compulsory measures can include arrest, detention, summons, bail pending trial or residential surveillance.