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Beijing Rebuts Deterioration of the Investment Environment in China

Beijing has made high profile efforts to defuse concerns about the deterioration of the investment environment in China. In July, when meeting with German Chancellor Merkel in Xi’an, Premier Wen Jiaobao said, “There is a view that China’s investment environment has been worse. I think this is not true.” On July 26, Commerce Minister Chen Deming wrote in an opinion piece in Financial Times that “In fact, China will open wider in the future.”
A report issued by the World Bank in July, "Investing Across Borders 2010," states that China is one of the regions that has the most constraint on foreign direct investment. As many as 18 procedures and a time span of 99 days are needed in order to launch a foreign business in Shanghai, slower than both the regional average for East Asia and the Pacific and the global average.
Sources:
World Bank, 
http://iab.worldbank.org/Data/Explore%20Economies/China#/Starting-a-foreign-business
China News Service, September 5, 2010
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/cj/2010/09-05/2512860.shtml
Financial Times
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/18dae5d2-981c-11df-b218-00144feab49a.html
Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Xinhua Defends the Government’s Real ID Registration for Cell Phones

In defense of China’s recent practice of requiring real IDs for cell phone numbers, Xinhua News Agency published an article titled “How the U.S. Implements Real Name Registration for Cell Phones.” The article explains that U.S. cell phone users need to provide their social security number, name, address, and credit card information at the time of purchase, thus showing that the newly implemented rule is not unlike the rules in many developed nations. However, the article obscured the fact that the major cell phone companies in China — China Mobile, China Unicom, and China Telecom — are all government-controlled, while telecommunication companies in the U.S. are private.
Source: Xinhua, September 9, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2010-09/09/c_12534295.htm
Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Government Scholar on Cross-Strait Mutual Military and Security Trust

[Editor’s Note: Research fellow Zheng Jian, the Secretary General of the Chinese government’s think tank on Taiwan affairs, the Association for Development and Promotion of Chinese Culture, published a special article in the August issue of China Review magazine. The title of the article was "Achieving Mutual Military Trust across the Strait through the Use of Strategic Cooperation." He stressed that "to establish cross-strait mutual military trust, the primary condition and the most difficult issue come from the words ‘mutual trust.’" "Mutual trust has at least three meanings: The first is that we must insist on the principle of ‘one China’; the second is that we must be firmly against ‘Taiwan independence’; and the third is that we have to be firm in walking toward the general direction of unification." The author said, “What we can do right now to establish strategic cooperation involves military means, to jointly safeguard the common strategic interests of the Chinese people across the strait. This includes jointly safeguarding the Diaoyu Islands (which Japan calls the Senkaku Islands), the East China Sea, and the territorial and maritime sovereignty of the Nansha Islands (which some other countries call the Spratly Islands) in the South China Sea, and jointly maintaining airspace security, livelihood interests, overseas interests, and so on." With the article there was also a picture of retired generals from China and Taiwan playing golf together. The following is a translation to selected parts of the article.] [1]

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Reports | | |   Report

Who Is Lobbying China?

[Editor’s Note: An article published in Globe, a bi-weekly magazine under Xinhua, shows China’s perspective on how the U.S. has been lobbying the Chinese government on behalf of various business interests. The following is a translation of excerpts from the article “Who Is Lobbying China?”] [1]

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Reports | | |   Report

PLA Live-Fire Military Exercise in Yellow Sea

Starting on September 1, the Chinese navy’s North Sea fleet held a live-fire military exercise for four consecutive days in the Yellow Sea region, to the southeast of Qingdao City, Shandong Province. According to the Chinese military, it was an annual program of regular exercise training with a focus on naval gun fire. From September 5 onward, for a period of five days, the United States and South Korea conducted anti-submarine exercises in the Yellow Sea. The United States did not send its aircraft carriers or nuclear submarines, but only sent two Aegis destroyers. South Korea mobilized 209 submarines (1,200 tons), patrol boats, and destroyers in the joint exercise.
Source: Asia Times, September 1, 2010
http://www.atchinese.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68808:2010-09-01-08-37-
06&catid=18:2009-01-12-14-50-33&Itemid=110
Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

CCP Issues National Training Plan for Non-Party Personnel

The General Office of the CCP Central Committee issued the "2010-2020 Education, Training, Reform, and Development Outline for Non-Party Personnel Representatives." This is the first special national plan for the education and training of non-Party personnel. Du Qinglin, the Vice-Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), pointed out that the "outline" reflects the Party and the government’s vision of their human development strategy, and its foresight in consolidating a patriotic united front.
In recent years, to showcase the diversity of the regime’s political spectrum, Beijing has arranged for more and more non-Communist members to enter the political arena, including government departments at all levels in central and important positions.
At the same time, the regime has strengthened its control over these people. Since 2004, the united front authorities at and above the provincial level, and other agencies, have provided over 5,600 education sessions and trained more than 220,000 people outside the Party.
Source: People’s Daily, September 2, 2010
http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/1026/12610483.html
Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China Requires a Real ID for Cell Phone Purchases

On September 1, China launched a "real-name cell phone number" system. If anyone purchases any mobile phone, he must register his ID card information. Authorities say that the purpose of the new measure is to crack down on SMS spam, fraud, and pornographic mobile phone websites. However, people worry that the new measures will actually increase the risk of abuse of personal data.
Source: Asia Times, September 1, 2010
http://www.atchinese.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=68815:2010-09-01-09-49-
21&catid=18:2009-01-12-14-50-33&Itemid=110
Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Discern the Four Distinctions; Build a Solid Defense on the Thought Front

[Editor’s Note: The following report is translated from excerpts of a recent article in Qiu Shi, the official publication by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Committee.

The article was based on discussions of a group of theorists and scholars, whose viewpoints toe the party line. But the discussions reveal the Party’s dilemma of trying to defend and revise the Party’s belief and practice at the same time.

The article argues that the CCP is “not a one party dictatorship” but “one party leadership,” but it does not elaborate on their distinction. The discussions mirror the confusion among the CCP’s leadership; they also underline the growing yearning in China to abandon the stale Communist doctrine.] [1]

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Reports | | |   Report