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Youth.cn Defends the Party’s Role in Media Control

As the recent incident of the Chinese regime’s censorship of the Guangzhou based Southern Weekend‘s New Year’s editorial continued to develop, Youth.cn, the official website of Central Committee of the Chinese Youth League, also joined the public debate.
In its editorial on Tuesday January 8, 2013, the website said, “Southern Weekend is part of the newspaper business of the CCP’s Guangdong Provincial Party Committee; it is part of the Party Committee’s propaganda work. During the specific implementation of the Party’s propaganda work, internal disagreements and even conflicts and disputes are normal. This has nothing to do with constitutional government or freedom of the press.”
“In socialist China, the newspaper is a propaganda tool of the Party. The Party controls the media. This is an iron principle. One can confidently tell the world about that. A newspaper’s role is to convey the Party’s principles and policies and unify the mass’s understanding. … A newspaper is the Party’s eyes, ears, and mouth. Southern Weekend is too, whether in the past, now, or in the future. Over the years, a large number of outstanding editors and reporters have emerged in Southern Weekend. They are carefully selected and hired by the Southern Newspaper Group, under the guidance of the Party. They are also the Party’s journalists.”
Source: Radio Free Asia, January 8, 2013
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/jz-01082013150812.html
Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Beijing Police Handled Over One Million Illegal Internet Postings in 2012

According to the Beijing Municipal Public Security Bureau, its Internet security authorities organized rounds of crackdowns on Internet related crimes in 2012 to ensure order in cyberspace.

In 2012, its Internet security department found and dealt with a total of 108 million illegal web postings, punished 1.7 million websites, and shut down 1.9 web sections that had serious problems. In addition, it cracked a total of 3,800 Internet related cases and arrested more than 4,200 suspects.

Meanwhile, the Beijing police also provided guidance for Internet users on how to resist all kinds of rumors and bad information. For example, the Beijing police sent warning messages through microblogs to 915 Internet users who committed minor offenses.

Source: Xinhua, January 6, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2013-01/06/c_114271184.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

RFA: Significant increase in Chinese students in the U.S.; Safety and Legal Issues Are Concerns

China Press, a Chinese language newspaper based in the U.S., reported that the number of Chinese students in the U.S. in 2011 increased by 23 percent over the 2010 level. The number reached 157,000, or 21.8 percent of all foreign students in the U.S. At the same time, problems associated with the Chinese students have emerged. For example, last year in California a few Chinese students were shot and killed. In addition, China Press also reported that, last May, over one hundred Chinese students from California State University reported a false claim of the “American Opportunity” tax credit (AOTC), provided for American citizens and permanent residents. Although most of the students returned the tax refund, the IRS and relevant authorities still paid attention to this incident.

Reports indicate that the number of mainland Chinese students in the U.S. is 50% more than the total number of Indian students. The University of Southern California (USC) has the most foreign students in the nation. There are more than 2,500 Chinese students at USC. The Chinese are becoming the largest group of foreign students at the university.

Source: Radio Free Asia, January 4, 2013
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/yataibaodao/xs-01042013143923.html

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

27 Percent of China’s Billionaires Have Emigrated

China’s International Migration Report (2012) was released in December 2012. The report showed that in China, among business owners with personal assets of more than one billion yuan (US$160 million), 27 percent have emigrated, and 47 percent are considering emigration. In the past three years, at least 17 billion yuan ($US2.7 billion) of capital has flown abroad.

The Blue Book shows that the emigration of the wealthy reflects, to a certain extent, the problem of capital flight. Some people transferred their "gray income" overseas to achieve tax avoidance and also to evade prosecution in accordance with the national laws. This capital flight has led to a huge loss of the nation’s wealth.

Source: Xinhua, January 6, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2013-01/06/c_124191693.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Xi Jinping: the Party Must Adhere to Socialism

On January 5, 2013, the Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping reiterated the Party’s determination to adhere to the path of socialism with Chinese characteristics. He stressed that the issue matters for the success or failure of the cause of the future of the Chinese Communist Party. And the Chinese Communist Party must unswervingly adhere to the development of socialism with Chinese characteristics.

After 1978, Deng Xiaoping began to replace the Mao era socialism featured by “class struggles” with one centered around opening-up and reform. Many people believe there is a fundamental difference between Deng’s socialism and Mao’s socialism. Xi Jinping also stressed that one can neither use the historical period after the reform and opening-up to negate the historical period before the reform and opening-up, nor use the earlier period to negate the later period of reform and opening-up. "Socialism with Chinese characteristics is socialism and not any other doctrine. The basic principles of scientific socialism cannot be abandoned; otherwise it’s not socialism."

Source: Xinhua, January 7, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2013-01/07/c_124196084.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Beijing City to Implement Real Name Registration for Mobile Phone Users

Xinhua reported that the Beijing municipal government is considering a new policy measure requiring real name registration for cell phone users. Once the provision is introduced, mobile phone users will be required to provide real and effective identity information when ordering a new service or transferring or changing an existing service.

The Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s rubber stamp legislature, recently approved an Internet regulation that states that providers of the Internet and land line telephone and mobile phone services should demand that users provide their real identity. The Beijing city government’s move is in accordance with the NPC regulation.

The requirement for real name registration for cell phone users is not new. In 2010, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology issued a notice requiring real name registration for phone users. However, it was not fully implemented due to the lack of support from relevant laws and regulations. The NPC’s new regulation, Xinhua believes, will give local governments and telecomm companies a strong push to effectively implement mobile phone users real name registration.
 
Source: Xinhua, December 30, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2012-12/30/c_114207168.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

People’s Daily: China Can and Must Withstand the Pressure

On December 26, 2012, the People’s Daily (Overseas Edition) published an article authored by a researcher at the China Institute of Contemporary International Relations, a government think tank. The author observed that, since the U.S. global strategic adjustment, or its return to the Asia-Pacific, historical and significant changes have taken place in Sino-US strategic relations and in China’s own security environment. "These changes are by no means a single U.S. President’s personal preference or a so-called strategic misjudgment between two sides; rather, they stem from an inevitable strategic reason, which is the new phase of the U.S. global strategy."

The article pointed out that from a geopolitical perspective, since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. global strategy has gone through two major historical stages. "In the 10 years of the 1990s, the strategic focus was to absorb Eastern Europe through the eastward expansion of NATO and the EU; in the first 10 years of the new century, the focus was to expand in the Middle East and Central Asia by launching two wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, instigating color revolutions in the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries, and implementing a plan for the democratization of the Greater Middle East region. The overall objective of the U.S. was to take full control of the Eurasian continent and pave the way for finally overpowering China and Russia."

"The U.S.’s shifting strategic focus from Central Asia and the Middle East to East Asia is the implementation of strategic steps that are in complete accord with its established plan. It was just the momentum of China’s rise that further strengthened the necessity and urgency of the move."

"Out of its hegemonic geopolitical needs, the U.S. will never allow a unified geopolitical bloc that it cannot control to appear on the other side of the Atlantic or the Pacific Ocean. After World War II and the Cold War, the U.S. succeeded in achieving this on the other side of the Atlantic Ocean. Now it is trying to achieve the same goal through a new Cold War on the other side of the Pacific Ocean."

"The historical experience of the Cold War indicates that this containment must be accompanied by murder. The U.S. has been crowding out China’s economic interests and political influence in Africa, holding a tight grip on China’s energy throat in the Middle East, finding and supporting the forces of containment around China, and interfering with issues vital to China’s security and development in East Asia, as well as penetrating and dividing China from within. This is more than a mere containment to stop expansion; it is a stranglehold for the purpose of manipulation and even suffocation."

The author pointed out that there is a fundamental difference between the transpacific and transatlantic relationships, as it is impossible for China to become an ally of the U.S. "There are only two ways out for China: either to independently win a place in the future multi-polar world’s political landscape by withstanding the external pressure, or to follow the steps of the former Soviet Union and experience the ravages."

Source: People’s Daily, December 26, 2012
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/html/2012-12/26/content_1165465.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Young Man Jailed for Calling on Hu Jintao to Disclose Assets

Earlier this year, a young man, Yang Chong, held a placard in front of the Guangzhou Municipal Government office, calling on Chinese leader Hu Jintao to publicly disclose his personal assets. The authorities reportedly sentenced him to a year in prison on charges of "illegal logging," because of a previous case.

During the gathering at the end of March in 2012, Yang and more than 10 other young people called on Hu Jintao to initiate political reform.

Overseas Chinese media reported that the Guangzhou authorities put the young people in detention on charges of “illegal gathering.” They suddenly disappeared overnight. Some were secretly escorted back to their place of origin; some were sentenced to a labor camp; some simply went missing.

Hong Kong based Apple Daily reported on December 29, 2012, that Yang’s family was informed that the Jiangxi Hukou County Court had sentenced him to one year for “illegal logging.” His term began on April 28, 2012. Yang had been involved in a deforestation case three years ago. The authorities reopened the case, even though it had already been settled. Yang has entered his second appeal. Yang’s lawyer said that Yang Chong firmly claimed he was innocent.

Source: VOA Chinese, December 28, 2012
http://www.voachinese.com/content/hu-jintao-20121228/1574269.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics