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VOA Chinese: Xi Tells Politburo Members to Stay in Line with Party Central

The Political Bureau (Politburo) of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee held a special two-day meeting on December 28 and 29. At the meeting, Xi Jinping brought up the names of five disgraced top officials: Zhou Yongkang, Bo Xilai, Xu Caihou, Guo Boxiong, and Ling Jihua. Except for Ling, a former CCP Central Committee member who served as the top aide to then CCP Secretary General Hu Jintao, the other four were all former Politburo members. Zhou was also a member of the Politburo Standing Committee. 

A news release issued after the meeting claimed that punishing these officials served to honor the responsibility to the CCP, to the country, to the people, and to history. 
Xi was quoted as asking current Politburo members to "stay in line" with the CCP Central Committee, and to "be strict in educating and supervising their children and other family members as well as their subordinates." 
VOA‘s report observed that asking Politburo members to "stay in line" with the CCP Central Committee (or Party Central, in short) is worth noting, as the Politburo itself is the power center of 80 million CCP members. Xi’s requirement would imply that the 20-plus Politburo members need stay in line with either the Politburo Standing Committee or with Xi himself. 
Source: VOA Chinese, December 30, 2015 
http://www.voachinese.com/content/xijinping-china-20151230/3125582.html
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

DW Chinese: Microsoft Will Notify Email Victims of Government-Linked Hacking

The Chinese edition of Deutsche Welle, Germany’s international broadcaster, reported that Microsoft announced, on December 30, 2015, that it will start notifying users when there is sufficient evidence that government-linked hackers have targeted their email accounts. Microsoft had failed to do so previously when Chinese authorities allegedly compromised over 1,000 Hotmail accounts. 

Microsoft’s announcement came after Reuters put in a series of inquiries to Microsoft asking why it had not previously taken the initiative to alert its email users. 
Frank Shaw, the Microsoft spokesperson, maintained that Microsoft could not be certain about the source of the breaches. According to two former Microsoft employees, who would not reveal their names, the hacking by elements linked to Chinese authorities started in July 2009 and lasted over three years. The targets included the emails of high-ranking Uighur and Tibetan leaders in multiple countries, Japanese and African diplomats, human rights lawyers, and others in sensitive positions inside China. 
Lu Keng, the spokesperson for China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, stated, at China’s December 31 routine press conference, that such rumors were groundless and that channels exist for relevant parties with concrete evidence to communicate constructively with the Chinese side using mutually beneficial cooperation. 
Source: Deutsche Welle Chinese, January 1, 2016. 
http://www.dw.com/zh/ 国黑客入侵海外电邮-北京否认/a-18954083
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

VOA Chinese: Global Magnitsky Act Holds Rights Abusers Accountable

On December 17, 2015, the U.S. Senate passed the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act. The Act directs the U.S. president to sanction human rights abusers in foreign countries, including banning their entrance to the United States and freezing any of their assets that are held in American financial institutions or on American soil. 

VOA interviewed two guest speakers for a satellite TV program, who Joined VOA in discussiong the Global Magnitsky Act’s implications and its potential effect on China’s human rights situation. They were Zhou Fengsuo, former 1989 Tiananmen student leader and founder of Humanitarian China and Cao Yaxue, co-founder of chinachange.org, a website devoted to news and commentary related to civil society, the rule of law, and human rights activities in China. 
Ms. Cao explained that the Global Magnitsky Act is a worldwide extension of the 2012 Sergei Magnitsky Rule of Law Accountability Act, inspired by the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a Russian tax lawyer who represented American businessman Bill Browder’s firm, [Heritage Capital Management, a firm which often supplied the media with information on corporate and government corruption] in Russia. Magnitsky blew the whistle on the largest known tax fraud in Russian history. He was arrested, tortured, and denied access to medical care until he died in 2009.
The VOA host raised the question whether the Act, if it passes the House and is signed into law, would apply to top officials like Jiang Zemin, who faces lawsuits in several countries. Ms. Cao replied that she had raised the same question to Bill Browder, who had pushed for the passage of the Act. Browder’s answer was that the Act would apply to human rights abusers as high as the deputy minister level. She gave specific names of Chinese officials who were at that level or below who had been involved in torturing prominent human rights activists such as attorney Gao Zhisheng. 
Mr. Zhou revealed that a Chinese version of the act could be in the offing, while this global act already sends a warning to Chinese rights abusers, many of whom have families in the United States.
Source: Deutsche Welle Chinese, January 1, 2016. 
http://www.dw.com/zh/ 国黑客入侵海外电邮-北京否认/a-18954083
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

A Corrupt Official’s Last Words before His Execution

[Editor’s Note: Wen Qiang (文强), former Deputy Director and Deputy Party Secretary of the Chongqing Police Department, was sentenced to death in 2010. He was charged with the crimes of accepting bribes, protecting and conniving with mafia-like organizations, possessing a huge number of assets whose sources could not be explained, and rape.

Wen Qiang started as a local policeman in Ba County, Chongqing and gradually moved up the ranks. Before he was taken down, he had solved several big cases and was highly regarded as a top police chief in China.

Bo Xilai, then head of Chongqing took Wen Qiang down. He later started a high profile campaign to “strike the black” (attack the mafia in Chongqing) to build his personal fame so that he could eventually seize the top leadership position in China from Xi Jinping. Critics alleged that many victims of his campaign were businessmen who were falsely accused so that Bo could take over their properties.

An article with what was said to be Wen Qiang’s statement before his execution spread widely over the Internet. He admitted that he had accepted bribes and had improper sexual relations with many women, but he claimed that corruption is a nationwide, systemic problem. Not only would any official in his position have done the same thing, but the officials criticizing him were also corrupt.

Though Wen was executed on July 7, 2010, his last words can serve as a good reference in the current anti-corruption campaign in China. It sheds lights on the breadth and scale of the official corruption problem in China.

The translation of his last words follows:] [1]

Continue reading →

Reports | | |   Report

The Economic Observer: Do Online Stores Drive Retailers Out of Business?

The Economic Observer, a weekly, Beijing-based national paper that features economic developments, published a commentary on its website which discussed a government commission’s concern that online e-commerce stores are driving retail stores out of business. 

While the Central Economic Work Conference, which started on December 18, 2015, was underway, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), directly affiliated with the State Council, submitted a report to the central government. The NDRC report noted, "Despite the fact that online stores, courier delivery services, and associated new lines of business have created some jobs, one must not ignore their impact on physical retail stores, which are being replaced." 

While people have been cheering the record setting one-day sale of RMB 91 billion (US$14.05 billion) on November 11 at the Tmall online website, which the Alibaba Group owns, retail outlets for books, clothing, and household appliances have been hit very hard. There are even cases in which retail stores have closed en masse. Some traditional department stores have also lost their appeal. This trend has negatively impacted the employment outlook in areas where it has occurred. 

On the one hand, the commentary did not challenge the claim that Ma Yun (Jack Ma), chairman of the board of the Alibaba Group, made. Ma claimed that Alibaba’s online e-commerce platform has 8.5 million active vendors, who directly created 10 million employment positions and indirectly created 3.5 million more. Ma categorized this group as "online merchants." They include merchants with well-known brands; vendors specializing in channel marketing and logistics; and indirect participants doing outsourcing work in communications, design, and sales. 

On the other hand, the commentary focused on the retail sector, spanning urban communities as well as rural areas. It raised the question about whether those who the e-commerce platform, such as Tmall, has displaced are in any position to get into logistics, manufacturing, or name branding due to such barriers as technology and intellectual property. 

The commentary looked to the government to offer assistance to people losing their retail jobs.

Source: The Economic Observer website, December 21, 2015 
http://www.eeo.com.cn/2015/1221/281974.shtml
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

The Economic Observer: Do Online Stores Drive Retailers Out of Business?

The Economic Observer, a weekly, Beijing-based national paper featuring economic developments, published a commentary on its website, discussing a government commission’s concern that online e-commerce stores have driven retail stores out of business.  The Central Economic Work Conference brgan December 18, 2015, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), directly affiliated with the State Council, submitted a report to the central government. The NDRC report noted: "Despite some jobs have been created by online stores, courier delivery services, and associated new lines of business, one must not ignore the impact on physical retail store, which are being replaced." While people are cheering the record setting one-day sale of RMB 91 billion (around USD 14 billion) on November 11 at the Tmall online website, owned by Alibaba Group, retail outlets for books, clothes, and household appliance are hit the worst. There are even cases that retail stores are being closed en masse. Some traditional department stores have also lost their appeal. All negatively impacted employment outlook in these areas. While the commentary did not challenge the claim by Ma Yun (Jack Ma), chairman of the board of the Alibaba Group, that Alibaba’s online e-commerce platform has 8.5 million active vendors, which created directly 10 million employment positions, and indirectly 3.5 million more. Ma categorized this group as "online merchants," which include merchants with well-known brands, vendors specializing in channel marketing, logistics, and indirect participants doing outsourcing work in communications, design, and sales. However, the commentary focused on the retail sector, spanning urban communities as well as rural areas. It raised the question that those who have been displaced by e-commerce platform, such as Tmall, are not in the position to get into logicstics, or manufacturing, or name branding due to technology and intellectual property barriers. The commentary looks up to the government to offer assistance to people losing their retail jobs. Source: The Economic Observer website, December 21, 2015 http://www.eeo.com.cn/2015/1221/281974.shtml

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Guangming Daily: Are China and Russia Partners or Allies?

Guangming Daily, a newspaper directly affiliated with the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee, published a lengthy article on China’s relations with Russia. The article’s English version appeared in the January/February 2016 issue of Foreign Affairs.  The author is Fu Ying, China’s former ambassador to the Philippines, Australia, and the U.K., who currently serves as chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National People’s Congress. Guangming Daily received the exclusive authorization from Fu to publish the full, translated Chinese text.

Fu reviewed the several occasions between the end of the nineteenth century and the middle of the twentieth century, when China entered into an alliance with the Russian empire or its successor, the Soviet Union. Each time, the arrangement proved short-lived, as each amounted to nothing more than an expediency between countries of unequal strength. 
It was not until 1989 that the two countries restored normalcy to their relations. Two years later, the Soviet Union disintegrated but Chinese-Russian relations carried on based on the principle of “no alliance, no conflict, and no targeting any third country.” In 1992, China and Russia announced that each would regard the other as a “friendly country” and issued a joint political statement stipulating that “the freedom of people to choose their own development path should be respected, while differences in social systems and ideologies should not hamper the normal progress of relations.” 
Fu noted that differences still exist between the two countries. She gave, as an example, that despite the resolution of the border issue, Chinese commentators sometimes make critical references to the nearly 600,000 square miles of Chinese territory that tsarist Russia annexed in the late nineteenth century. 
Fu also took stock of where things stand between China and the U.S. given that relations between China, Russia, and the U.S. are intertwined. Chinese president Xi Jinping remarked during his state visit to the U.S. last September that, "If China develops well, it will benefit the whole world and benefit the United States. If the United States develops well, it will also benefit the world and China." Fu went on to claim that Chinese leaders attribute much of their country’s rapid ascent to China’s successful integration into the world economy. 
Refuting suggestions from some scholars in China and elsewhere that, if the United States insists on imposing bloc politics on the region, China and Russia should consider responding by forming a bloc of their own, Fu argued that the Chinese leadership does not approve of such arguments. China does not pursue blocs or alliances; nor do such arrangements fit comfortably with Chinese political culture. Russia does not intend to form such a bloc, either. China and Russia should stick to the principle of partnership rather than build an alliance. As for China and the United States, they should continue pursuing a new model of major-country relations and allow dialogue, cooperation, and management of differences to prevail. 
Sources: Guangming Daily, December 23, 2015 
http://epaper.gmw.cn/gmrb/html/2015-12/23/nw.D110000gmrb_20151223_2-16.htm 
Foreign Affairs, January/February 2016, pp. 96-105
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/china/2015-12-14/how-china-sees-russia

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics