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VOA: Does the Fall of Guo Boxiong Foretell a Rising Storm?

In his interview with Voice of America, Xin Ziling, a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) historian, said that taking down Guo Boxiong marked a victory for Xi Jinping, who handled the case both resolutely and steadily. The public announcement at this moment, right before the Beidaihe meetings this summer, is significant. It implies that the anti-corruption drive within the PLA has achieved an overwhelming victory. Xin observed that Guo was even more senior than Xu Caihou, the other vice chairman of the Central Military Commission, who died pending prosecution.
Xin cited Guo’s son, a PLA general, who boasted prior to his arrest earlier this year, "Confront our Guo family? My dad has promoted all military officials above the corps level."
Xin said that it was Jiang Zemin, the core of the third generation of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leadership, who put Guo and Xu in charge of the military in order to restrain Hu Jintao.
Expecting Jiang Zemin himself to be held responsible, Xin commented, "Xi Jinping said, time and again, that there is no [upper] limit, no iron hat prince, who is free from investigation. It should be so. This naturally leads to Jiang Zemin, the top former leader. Jiang’s issue has to be dealt with, but it needs to be handled more steadily, more discreetly than [the case of] Guo Boxiong. One has to be resolute, yet take steady steps. It has to be done with absolute control so as to avoid any shockwaves across the country. Taking down Guo Boxiong has shown that within the military, things will not go wrong. Xi Jinping has had a firm grip on military power. This is a prerequisite for the continuation of the anti-corruption campaign."
Source: Voice of America, August 2, 2015
http://www.voachinese.com/content/former-pla-top-leader-procecuted-for-birbery-20150731/2887997.html
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Doomsday Fever

[Editor’s Note: Cheng Guangcheng is the renowned blind Chinese human rights activist who is self-taught in the law. He is best known for his class-action lawsuit against the authorities for excessive enforcement of the one-child policy. After over four years in prison, he was kept under house arrest and closely monitored. His daring escape from the police, after which he fled to the U.S. Embassy, gained him international attention. After intense negotiations with the Chinese government, Chen, his wife, and their two children, came to the U.S.. He has been publishing ever since and recently wrote a blog on Radio Free Asia, commenting on the Chinese Communist Party’s recent massive arrests and defaming of human rights lawyers in China. The following is the translation of his article.] [1]

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Reports | | |   Report

Xi Jinping’s Brother: My Father Never Made a Leftist Mistake

With the recent round up of rights lawyers, critics have voiced their concerns over whether leftist hardliners have been gaining the upper hand in Beijing’s decision making circles. Xi Yuanping, the younger brother of China’s top leader Xi Jinping, gave a speech last week in which he stated that, throughout his life, their father had never made a leftist mistake. 

On July 27, 2015, The Study Times, a newspaper that the Central Party School of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) publishes, carried the full transcript of Xi Yuanping’s speech. In addition, China’s major Internet portals have publicized it widely. 
Xi pointed out that, even during the "fanatic Great Leap Forward movement," the Xi brothers’ father Xi Zhongxun remained cool-minded and voiced opposing views. 
Citing a participant who attended the meeting with Deng Xiaoping and Xi Zhongxun, Xi Yuanping gave a detailed description of how the Shenzhen Special Economic Zone was formed. Deng told Xi Zhongxun, when Xi proposed the establishment of a special economic zone in the coastal province of Guangdong, that the Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia area which Xi was in charge of before 1949 was itself a special zone. In a subsequent meeting with the then leader of the State Council, Deng again reiterated his affirmation by using the term "special economic zone." 

Source: The Study Times, July 27, 2015
http://www.studytimes.cn/shtml/xxsb/20150727/13357.shtml

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

PLA Strategist: China’s Rise Requires Great Wisdom

[Editor’s Note: Oriental Outlook Weekly interviewed People’s Liberation Army (PLA) Major-General Qiao Liang on China’s military strategy on the issue of China’s rise. Qiao Liang is the PLA strategist who co-authored the book, Unrestricted War.

In the interview, Qiao argued that the Diaoyu Islands and the islands in the South China Sea are not China’s current core interest and that, for the next 10 to 20 years, China should focus on its continued economic development so that it can become a super strong economic power. He also talked about how China can counter the U.S.’s military superiority in the information technology field.

Although the interview was conducted in March 2014, his points and his perspective are still relevant today. The following are excerpts from the article.] [1]

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Reports | | |   Report

Global Times: U.S. Support for China’s Rights Lawyers Has No Real Effect

In its July 14 editorial, Global Times shrugged off a statement that the U.S. State Department issued condemning China for having "systematically detained individuals who share the common attribute of peacefully defending the rights of others." It claimed that this latest U.S. statement would have no real effect except to make the Chinese people feel slightly uncomfortable.

Global Times insisted in its editorial that the detentions are China’s internal affair. Specifically, taking lawyers away from the Beijing Fengrui Law Firm should serve to increase understanding among Chinese lawyers and promote China’s rule of law as much as possible. This carries more significance than mulling over a response to the U.S. rebuke. 

Apparently some lawyers have doubts about the recent detentions. This may stem in part from the sympathy they have for their peers and, at the same time, from long-standing disputes about the boundaries of democracy and the rule of law. Western values have infiltrated intensely in this respect and have damaged some important basic consensuses. 

Besides the U.S. State Department, opposing voices also came from radical groups in Taiwan and Hong Kong. The Chinese mainland public has found those voices rather repellent. Actually, many in the mainland hold the view that if people receive support from external forces, it means they are not really decent. How the government proceeds with the case must strictly follow legal procedures and must not be subject to external disruption. Global Times concluded that the crackdown on this criminal gang involving several rights lawyers is a step toward realizing China’s social stability, through which Chinese should acquire more confidence in the ideological contention between China and the West. 

Source: Global Times, July 14, 2015 
http://www.globaltimes.cn/content/931941.shtml 
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

VOA Blog: He Qinglian on Blaming the Stock Market Plunge on a Foreign Conspiracy

Well known economist and sociologist, He Qinglian, who blogs regularly on Voice of America, looked into the theory that has been widely circulated in China that a foreign conspiracy accounted for the crash in China’s stock market causing Beijing to roll out a slew of support measures to stem the stock market slide. 

In her July 5 blog, He Qinglian noted that, over the past year, the total market capitalization of publicly traded companies in the Shanghai and Shenzhen stock exchanges has grow by US$6.7 trillion to US$10.05 trillion, far exceeding that of the Japanese stock market at around US$5.0 trillion. 
One critical step in Beijing’s game plan is to overtake the US equity market cap of US$25 trillion and to have its A shares included in MSCI’s Emerging Market Index (an index created by Morgan Stanley Capital International). US$1.7 trillion in funds worldwide track this index. According to MSCI’s estimate, a decision to include domestic Chinese stocks in the index would have injected an estimated US$400 billion of funds from asset managers, pension funds, and insurers into mainland China’s equity markets over time. 
On the evening of June 9, 2015, MSCI decided against including mainland China’s equity in the gigantic MSCI Emerging Markets Index, citing a number of regulatory matters it has yet to iron out with Chinese securities agencies. 
When refuting speculation that foreign institutions were accountable for the crash of China’s stock market, the author questioned Beijing’s confidence and ability in managing the economy through artificially propelling a bull market, attracting foreign investors to fuel its growth, and counting on Chinese investors’ patriotism to reverse the stock market plunge. 
Source: Voice of America, July 5, 2015 
http://www.voachinese.com/content/heqinglian-blog-china-economy-20150705/2849767.html
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Caixin: Tumble in Share Price Puts Well-Connected Tycoon in Spotlight

Caixin online reported that Che Feng, who owns a majority stake in Hong Kong-listed Digital Domain, was detained on June 2, 2015.
On June 3, as rumors circulated that Che, son-in-law of a former central bank governor, was under investigation, the share price of Digital Domain plunged 41.4 percent. Digital Domain is a special effects producer for several Hollywood blockbusters. Within days, Hong Kong-based Apple Daily disclosed that Che had close ties with Zeng Wei, son of Zeng Qinghong, China’s former vice-president and member of the Politburo Standing Committee.
 
Several sources said the inquiry into Che was triggered by an investigation into Ma Jian, a former vice minister of state security, and Guo Wengui, a property tycoon who controls Beijing Pangu Investment Co. and was a stakeholder in Digital Domain. The Communist Party’s graft buster detained Ma in January. Guo is overseas.
 
The predecessor of Digital Domain was Sun Innovation Holdings, Ltd. Documents from the Hong Kong stock exchange show that, in September 2012, Guo purchased 8.6 percent of the company for HK$ 0.083 per share from Che’s brother, Che Tao. Guo sold all his stock on January 16 at HK$ 0.18 per share, making a profit of about HK$ 80 million.
 
People with knowledge of the situation said Guo and Che remain close. Che once loaned 600 million yuan to Guo to help him get through a tough period and this cemented their relationship.
 
Source: Caixin Online, June 29, 2015; Apple Daily, June 5, 2015
http://english.caixin.com/2015-06-29/100823510.html
http://hk.apple.nextmedia.com/international/art/20150605/19172998
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics