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All posts by LLD - 142. page

China Exim Bank’s Paris Branch Officially Open

The Export and Import Bank of China’s branch in Paris, France officially opened for business on October 29. This is China Exim Bank’s first overseas business branch. More than 100 people, including French politicians, the financial and business community, as well as representatives from the EU mission attended the opening ceremony. The president of China Exim Bank, Li Ruogu, Chinese Embassy official Wu Xilin, and the Managing Director of the Invest in France Agency, Serge Boscher, jointly inaugurated the Paris branch.

Li Ruogu said that the Paris branch will offer China Exim Bank a financial service platform closer to the European market and customers and will provide a full range of more convenient specialized financial services for Sino-French and Sino-European companies. Wu Xilin said that, with China Exim Bank’s Paris branch, three Chinese banks now have a foothold in Paris. This indicates that China’s banks are paying increasing attention to Paris for its role of international financial center and are confident in the prospects for Sino-French economic and trade cooperation.

Boscher said that France hopes the trend of investment from China can be sustained and expanded. The establishment of China Exim Bank’s Paris branch indicates not only that one Chinese enterprise has entered the French market, but that more Chinese enterprises will be driven by its financial support to invest in France.

Source: Xinhua, October 30, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2013-10/30/c_117932206.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Red Flag Manuscript: Take the Initiative in the Ideological Battlefield

An article titled "Take the Initiative in the Ideological Battlefield" appeared recently in Red Flag Manuscript, a main publication of the Central Committee of Chinese Communist Party. The article pointed to the importance of the Party’s ideology and also to the challenges the Party faces.

"Profound lessons should be learned from other countries and other political parties. For example, after Gorbachev came to power in the Soviet Union, he gradually abandoned the guiding position of Marxism and switched to an ideology of pluralism, an abstract humanitarian philosophy, neo-liberalism in economics, nihilism in history, and freedom of criticism in literature, resulting in the wide spread of non-Marxist and anti-Marxist ideas. This was an important cause leading to the collapse of the Communist Party and the Soviet Union. The recent color revolutions in West Asia and North Africa all began with the ruling party’s giving up control of the mainstream ideology."

"Ideological work faces challenges. The real danger from the Western anti-China hostile forces should not be underestimated. They vigorously promote Western-style democracy and the values of freedom and human rights and they maliciously attack the Party’s leadership in an attempt to disintegrate the Party’s ruling base in order to replicate the "color revolutions" in China. Some anti-China forces collude and support each other and do everything possible to rope in groups such as those advocating Tibetan separatism and Taiwan independence, the East Turkistanis, pro-democracy movements, and Falun Gong, in an attempt to foster a strategic alliance from within China. By seizing the hot issues in economic and social development, they have sentimentalized the theories of the failure of socialism, of the clash of civilizations, and the idea that human rights is above sovereignty. They have also deliberately hyped up the theories of China’s economic threat, energy threat, and military threat. The sinister intention of subverting and containing China is abundantly clear."

"Negative online information that confuses our common ideals and beliefs should not be underestimated. Although China’s Internet penetration rate is 42 percent and Internet users have reached 564 million, 80 percent of Internet information is provided by the United States, 90 percent is in the English language, and the export of China’s information is less than 1 percent of the global total. The passive pattern of ‘the West being strong and we being weak’ in online discourse rights is very prominent. Taking advantage of their network hegemony, Western countries cultivate and order some Internet "dissidents" and "opinion leaders" to speculate maliciously as to Party and military-related public opinion in order to concoct massive negative rumors and false information, so they can discredit the Party and the government’s image."

Source: Qiushi journal, October 23, 2013
http://www.qstheory.cn/hqwg/2013/201320/201310/t20131023_281706.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China to Tackle Overcapacity

China’s State Council, the country’s cabinet, recently issued a document to tackle the overcapacity in a number of industries including cement, electrolytic aluminum, sheet glass, shipping, and steel.

The Guideline for Tackling Serious Production Overcapacity lists eight tasks in each sector: forbid expanding the capacity of new projects; clear up illegal capacity; eliminate outmoded capacity in an orderly way; promote mergers and the restructuring of enterprises; develop effective domestic demand; expand the international market and expand foreign investments and cooperation; make breakthroughs in technologies and strengthening enterprise innovation; facilitate innovation in government management and create a fair environment for improvement of the market mechanism.

Source: Xinhua, October 15, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2013-10/15/c_117726958.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

The Second Presidium Meeting of the World Media Summit

Leaders and representatives from some world-renowned media organizations met on Thursday in Hangzhou, capital of east China’s Zhejiang Province.

The leaders and representatives from Xinhua News Agency, News Corporation, The Associated Press (AP), Reuters, ITAR-TASS News Agency, Kyodo News, British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), Turner Broadcasting System Inc., Google, Al Jazeera Media Network, The New York Times Company, NBC News, MIH Group, and Kasturi and Sons Limited attended the 2nd Presidium Meeting of the World Media Summit (WMS). Executive President of the WMS and President of Xinhua Li Congjun presided over the 2nd WMS Presidium Meeting and delivered the keynote speech.

China’s official Xinhua News Agency initiated the World Media Summit in order to "build a new partnership between traditional media and new emerging media in the 21st century." Xinhua and eight other media organizations including News Corporation, AP, Thomson Reuters, ITAR-TASS, Kyodo News, BBC, Turner Broadcasting System Inc. and Google Inc. co-launched the first WMS, held from October 8 to 10 in 2009.

Source: Xinhua, October 9, 2013.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2013-10/09/c_117642987.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

China Goes After Mobile News Apps

The State Internet Information Office, an agency under the State Council, recently issued a directive that demands the "rectification" of mobile news apps that "obtain Internet news illegally or conduct Internet news services illegally." It named news aggregator Zaker, which has 17.5 million users, and Chouti, which uses the slogan "Publish what shouldn’t be published," as being among those failing to comply with government guidelines.

Some of the apps provide Chinese users the news from overseas and foreign media, including those banned by the authorities, such as New York Times. The government demands all mobile news apps register with the authorities in charge of Internet information and meet the appropriate qualifications. All mobile apps stores are also forbidden to provide uploading or downloading and other services for illegal news apps.

This move comes after Chinese police conducted an intensive campaign to strike "Internet rumors." Earlier this month the Chinese Supreme People’s Court and the Supreme People’s Procuratorate issued a judicial interpretation that the use of the Internet for slandering and defamation that leads to mass incidents causes "serious harm to the social order and the national interest," which should be characterized as a criminal offense subject to the investigation of police and prosecution by the People’s Procuratorate.

Source: BBC Chinese, September 30, 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2013/09/130930_china_news_apps_closure.shtml

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Beijing Denounces British Officials as “Interfering in Hong Kong’s Internal Affairs”

Hugo Swire, a Minister of State for the Foreign Office of the UK, published an article on Saturday, September 14 in the South China Morning Post indicating that he supports Hong Kong’s universal suffrage and that "Britain stands ready to support in any way we can." The article resulted in an array of counterattacks from China. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said on Tuesday that China will never allow any external forces to interfere in the internal affairs of Hong Kong and damage Hong Kong’s prosperity and stability. "We have the determination and ability to defend our national security." As early as Monday, Hong Lei had already accused Swire of making "irresponsible remarks" and expressed strong dissatisfaction. Global Times, a newspaper owned by the Chinese Communist Party’s People’s Daily, accused the British of "impure motives."

On Tuesday Hong Kong’s pro-Beijing newspaper Ta Kung Pao published a long article titled "British Espionage Activities in Hong Kong," referring to British intelligence officers’ "blatant" actions in Hong Kong. The article said, "Ever since the reunification, the UK intelligence agency’s activities in Hong Kong not only have not dwindled down, they continue to strengthen. The ‘operation center’ is currently located inside the British Consulate-General on 1 Supreme Court Rd. Admiralty." The author also questioned the reason behind the fact that the Consulate-General building was designed by the same person that designed the MI6 headquarters building in London.

The article said that British intelligence agencies are very focused on buying and getting key personnel to defect. "To achieve their target, they have followed some key figures for a long time, as long as several years or even more than a decade." The article also claimed that Britain has detailed material on senior Hong Kong officials under British authorities. "With such information, they exerted long-term control over a group of senior officials during the transition. Once it is necessary, they will then use the media in Hong Kong to issue negative news to attack their targets. Former Secretary for Development Mak Chai-kwong was alleged to have fraudulently claimed a housing allowance for five years starting in 1985. All the evidence was from the allegations of civil servants’ information decades ago. Who else has such capabilities other than the British authorities?"

In addition, another pro-Beijing newspaper in Hong Kong, Wen Wei Po, also published an article saying that, ever since the turnover of the sovereignty of Hong Kong 16 years ago, "a large number of MI6 spies have returned to Hong Kong, infiltrating into political parties, organizations, the judicial system, trade associations, the media, and vital government bodies, so as to snatch the right to govern Hong Kong."

Source: BBC Chinese, September 17, 2013
http://www.bbc.co.uk/zhongwen/simp/china/2013/09/130917_china_reax_uk.shtml

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

People’s Daily: Tens of Thousands of Troops in Large-scale Maneuvers

Recently, the Chinese military launched the "Mission Action 2013" cross region battle drills, with tens of thousands of troops mobilized on a large-scale and covering remote distances.

The maneuver is divided into A, B, and C, three exercises echelons. The focus is on multidimensional delivery, the use of firepower based on information technology, the coordination capabilities of different army units, and cooperation between military and civilian forces. The Donghai Fleet, the Nanhai Fleet, and the Air Force in the Nanjing Military Region dispatched their ships, planes, and gunships to participate in the exercise, along with civilian assistance forces like the civil airliners and railways. The Chinese media said it had "rarely been seen around the world in the past ten years."

Over 40,000 troops from the Nanjing and Guanzhou Military regions are expected to maneuver over 30,000 km. by vehicle, railway, sea, and air. At the same time, they will conduct anti-reconnaissance, air defense, and anti-interference drills, as well as red-blue air attack and defense drills.

‘Mission Action 2013’ is part of the annual military training plan and has been approved by the Central Military Commission (CMC) chaired by Xi, who is also General Secretary of the CCP Central Committee.

Source: People’s Daily, September 12, 2013
http://military.people.com.cn/n/2013/0912/c1011-22897974.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Xinhua: The U.S. Use of Force in Syria Entails Great Danger

A September 4, 2013, Xinhua commentary expressed disapproval of the impending U.S. military action against Syria.

"Although the United States claims that military action will be very limited, there are indications that, once a war is launched, it will be difficult for the White House to keep its scale and progress under control. A number of new challenges are more likely to lead the U.S. into new troubles. Moreover, the U.K. has abandoned the use of force in Syria; France is unresolved; NATO’s stance is even more detached. Without the support of allies, one is more doubtful about the U.S.’s ability to end the war in a prudent manner."

"The U.S. military action against Syria may not only leave the problem of chemical weapons difficult to solve; it will likely trigger new threats. Igor Morozov, a member of the Russian Federation Council’s Foreign Affairs Committee, warned, on September 3, that if the U.S. adopts military intervention against Syria, the country’s chemical weapons could fall into the hands of terrorists and spread to the Middle East and all over the world. The U.S. itself would not be spared either."

"What’s even more frightening is that many of the Syrian opposition forces have been infiltrated by Islamic extremists and the al-Qaeda organization. If the extremist forces expand, Syria is bound to be led to a more dangerous path, with the U.S.’s strategic interests jeopardized."

Source: Xinhua, September 4, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2013-09/04/c_117230481.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations