Skip to content

All posts by LLD - 141. page

China’s First Government-issued News Media Training Materials Focus on Ideology

Established in March 2013, the State General Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SGAPPRFT), which integrated and replaced the previous General Administration of Press and Publication (GAPP) and the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television (SARFT), is a grand central government agency overseeing the nation’s news media and all channels of broadcasting.

In October, SGAPPRFT officially recommended the 2013 News Reporters Training Materials to the nation’s media organizations. The publisher is the People’s Publishing House, the publisher of official ideology. The Training Materials, written by SGAPPRFT as preparation materials for the 2014 general examination of the nation’s news reporters and editors, is also China’s very first compendium of government-issued news media training materials. Liu Binjie, former president and Party chief of GAPP, is the editor in chief and Jiang Jianguo, Party chief of SGAPPRFT, is the deputy editor in chief.

SGAPPRFT distributed over 10,000 copies of the Training Materials to all the nation’s news organizations. It consists of four parts: training courses, news gathering and editing regulations, regulations on news organizations’ management of news gathering and editing, and exercises. It also includes six episodes of 45-minute teaching videos. The focus is on training courses and teaching videos, contents including "socialism with Chinese characteristics," "Marxist views of the news," "journalistic ethics," "regulations on news," "norms of news gathering and editing," and "prevention of false news."

On October 19, at a forum for the publication of the Training Materials, leading officials, including the deputy chief of the Party’s Central Propaganda Department, the Party chief of the All-China Journalists’ Association, the editor in chief of Guangming Daily, and vice deans of the Journalism Schools of Renmin University and Tsinghua University took the opportunity to discuss the Marxist views of news media, and ask news organizations to  attach great importance to the training and assessment of reporters, so as to "conduct a systematic political and operational education, comprehensively enhance the quality of the news gathering and editing staff, and firmly hold onto the leadership in ideological work."

Source: Guangming Daily, October 19, 2013
http://news.gmw.cn/2013-10/19/content_9220596.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

IMG Artists & China Arts and Entertainment Group Announce Sino-U.S. Joint Venture

On November 22, The China Arts and Entertainment Group (CAEG) and IMG Artists announced a new joint venture – Sino America Global Entertainment (SAGE) – effectively the largest private, performing arts partnership between the United States and China. Liu Yandong, Vice Premier of the State Council, and Ding Wei, Vice Minister of the Ministry of Culture oversaw the official signing during a Symposium held at Carnegie Hall in New York. Dignitaries and executives from the leading arts, education, and culture institutions in New York were in attendance.

IMG Artists LLC is a leading universal performing arts management corporation with diverse lines of business. IMG Artists’ capabilities include the management and touring of world renowned musicians, dance companies, orchestras, and attractions, as well as consulting and advisory work for independent clients, arts institutions, concert halls, and culturally engaged corporations.

According to CAEG’s website, "China Arts & Entertainment Group (CAEG) is a large State-owned cultural company, and one of the four national model bases for cultural exports affirmed by the Ministry of Culture. CAEG so far has organized 290 programs and 21,000 performances in some 60 countries and regions, attracting more than 28 million audience members. The group has 19 wholly-owned companies at home and abroad."

According to Zhang Yu, president and general manager of CAEG, the mission of CAEG is to have Chinese culture "go global." With SAGE, Chinese cultural programs can reach mainstream audience in North America via operations such as North American business tour, "Chinese Culture Week," and "Chinese Cultural Festival." But there is a greater significance. "For a long time, the landing of our cultural and arts products overseas has depended almost entirely on foreign performing companies. Although this avoided risk, we lost the autonomy of our cultural products. As we could not reach the end consumers, we were not able, on a fundamental level, to enter the market and effectively compete. The launch of the joint venture allows us to be effective in localizing the operations in New York, the center of world’s performing arts, and other parts of the North America market, so as to transition from the model of relying on local performing companies to directly facing the end consumers."

SAGE will build new platforms for global entertainment and performing arts initiatives including international arts festivals, talent exchange, sharing of local market expertise and more.

Source: Xinhua, December 3, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2013-12/03/c_118393477.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

BBC Chinese: Japan Turned to ICAO to Discuss China’s Air Defense ID Zone

BBC Chinese recently reported that Japan took the issues arising out of China’s creation of the Chinese Air Defense Identification Zone to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO). The Japanese representative asked the ICAO Council to have a discussion on how to deal with the newly established Chinese Air Defense Identification Zone. Japan called the Zone a potential threat to international civil aviation order and safety. The United States, Great Britain, and Australia all agreed with the Japanese on their call for a discussion. However China disagreed. The United States government stated that the U.S. government expects civil airlines to follow the ICAO regulations on issuing NOTAM (Notice to Airmen). However that does not mean that the U.S. government accepts Beijing’s terms for its Zone. Since rounds of foreign military aircraft have ignored the Chinese Identification Zone rules, the Chinese Air Force has started sending fighter jets to identify the aircraft entering the Zone.

Source: BBC Chinese, November 30, 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/world/2013/11/131130_japan_icao_china.shtml

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

CRN: The Emerging Countries Are Good Consumers for China’s Excess Capacity

China Review News (CRN) recently published an article discussing China’s manufacturing overcapacity issue. China’s market demand apparently does not match the volume of current production. China is facing a major problem of excess manufacturing capacity. It is not easy to resolve it without massively increasing the unemployment rate. The author expressed the belief that the Chinese manufacturing structure was not designed for domestic consumption to begin with. Therefore, it is highly possible that emerging economies, whose share of the global market has grown to 29.7 percent (from 15.4 percent), may be a good target market. The article suggested that the Chinese companies take the opportunity of an appreciated Chinese currency and invest in the new markets so that a large percentage of China’s manufacturing capacity can be consumed.

Source: China Review News, November 28, 2013
http://hk.crntt.com/doc/1028/9/1/2/102891236.html?coluid=53&kindid=0&docid=102891236&mdate=1128074739

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Qiu Shi: Directions on How to Manage Public Opinion Online

Qiu Shi, a magazine of the CCP Central Committee, recently published an article discussing a key point the new Chinese President Xi Jinping made in a conference. Xi suggested that those who do propaganda and ideology work should shift their focus toward managing public opinion online. The article analyzed the development trend of the Internet and concluded that it fundamentally changed human society and how public opinion can be influenced. Traditional one-way communication channels like newspapers, the radio and even television are losing ground. China now has a netizen population of nearly 0.6 billion; it has 0.46 billion cellphone users and 0.3 billion microbloggers. China is becoming the largest “new media” country in the world with the “most noisy” public opinion “field.” The author emphasized the importance of the fact that the government must tightly control the online leadership position, administrative power, and the highest right to speak. If the Communist Party does not “occupy the battlefield,” then “someone else will.” The author called for establishing a talent pool to provide the government with qualified government officials and superior technical teams to deliver Internet control in a timely, deep, accurate and effective fashion.

Source: Qiu Shi, November 27, 2013
http://www.qstheory.cn/zywz/201311/t20131127_296081.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Sum of 31 Provincial GDP Stats Was 5.3 Trillion More Than National Stats

Recently, the National Bureau of Statistics announced the country’s 31 provincial GDP data for the first three quarters of this year. The total of the 31 provincial GDP was 43.95 trillion yuan, which exceeded the national statistics of 38.68 trillion by 5.3 trillion.

In fact, this phenomenon has been going on for years. The media have been reporting that, since 1985, when the central government and provincial and local level governments started to compile GDP data independently, the sum of the provincial GDP data has been higher than the national statistics, and the gap has been increasing. For example, the total of the 2009 provincial GDP was above the national figure by 2.68 trillion yuan; the gap increased to 3 trillion yuan in 2010, 4.6 trillion in 2011 and 5.76 in 2012.

According to Liu Yuanchun, the Vice president of Renmin University of China, the main cause is that local governments engage in data manipulation. In order to accomplish the tasks such as energy conservation and performance goals, including GDP growth, local governments modify the data to make it look better. When the reporter interviewed a county government fiscal chief in a city in West China, the official affirmed that such data fraud is almost a routine.

source: Xinhua, November 27, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2013-11/27/c_125766611.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Confucius Institute Launches Its U.S. Center in Washington, D.C.

On November 20, the Headquarters of the Confucius Institute launched a U.S. Center in Washington, DC. Liu Yandong, China’s Vice Premier, who is visiting the United States, attended the opening ceremony. Yuan Guiren, the Chinese Minister of Education, gave a speech.

Yuan said in his speech that a network of more than 430 Confucius Institutes and over 640 Confucius Classrooms has been set up around the globe. The United States is the country with the largest number of Confucius Institutes and over 350 Confucius Classrooms.

According to the information provided by the Center, its main task is to provide an open, reliable source of information for the U.S. government so it can understand the activities of the Confucius Institute; conduct communication and cooperation with American media and society, and enhance the public’s understanding of the Confucius Institute.

Source: Xinhua, November 21, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2013-11/21/c_118238001.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

PetroChina Buys Petrobras’s Peru Unit

On November 13, PetroChina Company Limited (PetroChina), China’s biggest oil producer and the listed arm of the state-owned China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC), announced a deal to acquire Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras’s Peruvian oil and gas assets. PetroChina will buy all of the 145 million stock shares of Petrobras Energia Peru S.A., which has three oil and gas fields in Peru, at a premium price of $2.6 billion, considering Energia Peru S.A.’s total asset of $1.42 billion, with a 2012 operating income of $0.6 billion and net income of $102 million.

Petrobras Energia Peru S.A.’s three oil and gas fields currently produce about 800,000 metric tons of oil equivalent per year, according to PetroChina. Experts shared the view that, when compared to Africa and the Middle East, there is less political risk buying assets in South America.

PetroChina’s 2012 domestic and overseas production totaled 278 million metric tons of oil equivalent, or 761,600 metric tons per day. In mid-March this year, PetroChina took over the Mozambique oil and gas lots under the Italian multinational oil and gas company Eni at $4.2 billion, as the company’s largest overseas acquisition. CNPC is also expected to buy U.S. oil and gas company ConocoPhillips’ Kashagan oil field in Kazakhstan at an expected price of $5 billion.

Source: Xinhua, November 14, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2013-11/14/c_125699990.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources