All posts by AEF - 25. page

[Editor’s Note: Li Zuojun, Deputy Director of the Institute of Resources and Environmental Policy Research at the Development Research Center of the State Council, published an article discussing the major problems that the Chinese economy faces. The Development Research Center of the State Council (DRC) is a leading policy research and consulting institution directly under the State Council. According to Li, the nine problems are: declining economic growth, inflation, economic bubbles, the changing economic growth engines, adjustments in our industries and regional business structures, environmental constraints, the social costs of development, the deteriorating international environment, and resistance to reform. The following are excerpts from Li’s article.] [1]

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[Editor’s Note: On August 9, 2012, the Chinese government held a one-day trial of Bo Gu Kai Lai for murdering British businessman Neil Heywood. Many people questioned the government’s handling of the case, saying it was calculated to cover up facts it did not want revealed. One question raised was about the body plastination factory that German businessman Gunther von Hagens started in Dalian when Gu’s husband, Bo Xilai, was the head of Dalian City, Liaoning Province. What role did Gu and her husband play in arranging for von Hagans to obtain bodies for the plastination factory? This topic surfaced on overseas Chinese media first, then mushroomed on micro blogs and online forums in China. As a result, von Hagens’ plastination factory has drawn more and more attention on the Internet. On August 16, 2012, China’s Caijing Magazine was one of the first in China to break the media’s silence. It published a report on the increasing number of micro blog condemnations of von Hagens’ factory and raised questions about its operation. Below is an excerpt from the original report.] [1]

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[Editor’s Note: In recent years, as China has been more actively engaged with the world, it has been paying greater attention to developing its “soft power.” Since the way the Communist Party uses language has been powerful and effective within China, the Party wants to create a language system that has the same effect around the world, thereby improving China’s soft power.

The initiative started eight years ago and has gradually become more prominent in Party thinking. Qiushi Journal, a publication of the CCP Central Committee, whose mission is to spread CCP theories and policies, published an article calling for the establishment of an academic language system with Chinese characteristics and Chinese style, which would contribute to the development of this initiative. Below is an excerpt from the article] [1]

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[Editor’s Note: Qiushi Journal, the core publication of the Chinese Communist Party, published an article on the challenges to China’s ideologies. The author is keenly aware of the ideological challenges that the regime faces. “Vying for “soft power” has become the focus in the competition for overall national power, including, for example, dominance in discourse, control of the Internet, the right to disseminate information, the power to establish rules, and cultural leadership.” The following is a translation of the entire article.] [1]

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[Editor’s Note: On June 16, China launched the Shenzhou-9 spacecraft with three crew members. It docked successfully with the Tiangong-1 space station. While the state media kept praising this great achievement, the public questioned the relevance of such an expensive space program on people’s livelihoods. Netizens suggested it would be better to take the hundreds of billions of yuan that were spent on the space program and spend it on improving people’s living standards. One netizen even dug out a People’s Daily article written in 1977 that criticized the Soviet Union for its huge spending on space programs at the cost of people’s basic standard of living. The voice of concern got so loud that Xinhua published an article to argue that Shenzhou-9 was relevant to people’s livelihoods. The following are excerpts from these articles and from netizens’ comments.]

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[Editor’s Note: The Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) had its 12th Summit in Beijing from June 6 to 7, 2012. Chinese media praised the event highly as a milestone for SCO, marking the transition into its second decade. In China’s view, the SCO model, or “Shanghai Spirit,” is China’s way of dealing with international organizations. It differs from the U.S. model in that China focuses more on political results. It fosters political unity by offering economic help to other countries. China contributes more monetarily to SCO but offers each member country the same share of voting power. China also leverages its huge economic engine to promote joint regional economic development. The economic carrots that China has offered have served to keep the SCO united and have played a more and more important role in regional and international affairs. The following are excerpts from three articles that Outlook Weekly published to commemorate the SCO.]

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[Editor’s Note: Qiushi Theory republished a report from the International Economic Review, a bi-monthly publication by the Institute of World Economics and Politics, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences. The report was based on what a few people from Chinese think tanks expressed about the global leadership positions of the U.S. and China over the next ten years. Their discussions touched multiple areas, including international relationships, politics, economics, culture, and science. The following are excerpts of some of their views.] [1]

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[Editor’s Note: Dai Xu is a Chinese Air Force Colonel and a researcher at the Center for Strategic Study at Peking University. He is a leading “Hawk” in the Chinese military. Dai recently suggested establishing a paramilitary organization, the South China Sea Production and Construction Corps. Such a corps would combine both military and production functions. It would be stationed in the disputed South China Sea area to carry out economic development under a self-provided armed escort. The following is a translation of his article.] [1]

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