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Google CEO: We Want to Return to China in a Significant Way

NetEase (163.com) reported that, at the Code Conference on June 1, Google CEO Sundar Pichai expressed his interest in Google returning to China. He said that he wanted Google’s return to happen in a significant way, but we’re "being thoughtful about [the return]." "It depends. We are open [to the idea]."

Google closed its search engine in China in 2010. Though Chinese manufacturers are using its Android system, many Google services such as the Play app store are not available in China.

[Editor’s Note: There were reports that Zhou Yongkang and Bo Xilai expelled Google from China as part of a deal they made with Baidu. in exchange Baidu then posted negative information about Xi Jinping and their other political rivals. Recently, Baidu has been under scrutiny from both the government and from netizens for irresponsibly selling forums and search ads.]

Source: NetEase, June 2, 2016
http://tech.163.com/16/0602/10/BOI1V19S00097U7R.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Oriental Daily: Former Taiwan Affairs Office Official Stated Not Much Time Left to Reunify Taiwan

Oriental Daily reported that, in an internal forum, Wang Zaixi, former Deputy Director of the State Council Taiwan Affairs Office, made the following points regarding the Taiwan issue:

The comprehensive powers of the two sides of the Taiwan strait have changed dramatically. Mainland China should have strategic confidence. There are four strategies that it can adopt to handle Taiwan independence: a political split, military deterrence, economic integration, and a diplomatic arrangement.

Wang stated that the Taiwan issue has existed for 67 years. The international convention takes 100 years as a key milestone in determining the authority of an island. "After 100 years, the international tribunal’s decision is not based on who owned the island historically but rather who has effectively controlled the island in the past 100 years." Thus there is not much time left to solve the Taiwan issue. There is no time table for the reunification, but the government should have a sense of urgency.

Source: Oriental Daily, May 22, 2016
http://tw.on.cc/cn/bkn/cnt/news/20160522/bkncn-20160522150423796-0522_05011_001_cn.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Xinhua: China Hopes the U.S. Will Not Take Sides

Xinhua republished a Global Times’ article on China’s media campaign on the global stage on the issue of the South China Sea.

"As the South Chinese Sea Arbitration decision date is approaching, China’s media campaign to rebut those statements from the Philippines and the U.S. that have muddied the truth has reached its peak."

"Foreign Minister Wan Yi said, ‘On the South China Sea issue, any actions that ignore the basic facts, take the side of their own allies, or that deliberately create political issues will not get support from the people. Rather, they will ruin their own reputations and it will come to a fruitless end.’"

"On the same day, Rashid Alimov, the Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization, stated, ‘We strongly oppose interference on this issue from any countries outside the region; we also oppose the internationalization of the issue.’"

"On May 19, a U.S. Newsweek reporter asked Deputy Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin ‘whether China has a red line on the South China Sea issue.’ Liu expressed that ‘our red line is wishing the U.S. does not choose a side, in other words, does not support a so-called ally to oppose China.’"

"Recently, several of China’s Ambassadors started media campaigns overseas. The Ambassador to Great Britain, Liu Xiaoming, published an article in Financial Times and also gave a speech at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London. China’s Ambassador to Maldives, Wang Fukang, published an article in its mainstream media Sun Online. The Ambassador to Romania, Xu Feihong, published an article in a major local newspaper. China’s Ambassador to the United Arab Emirates, Chang Hua, published an article in Gulf Times."

Source: Xinhua, May 25, 2016

http://tw.on.cc/cn/bkn/cnt/news/20160522/bkncn-20160522150423796-0522_05011_001_cn.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

State Internet Information Office Reprimanded Global Times

Right before Taiwan’s newly elected President Tsai Ing-wen’s was sworn in on May 20, Global Times (also known as Huanqiu) published a survey on its website. The results showed that 85 percent of the Chinese people supported China in uniting with Taiwan by force. Many media around the world picked it up.

According to a notice that the State Internet Information Office (SIIO) circulated, the SIIO talked to the management of the Global Times newspaper and website on May 9. It criticized the Global Times’ website for publishing this article at such a critical time, causing strong antipathy from the people in Taiwan and widespread attention from the media around the world. "Global Times has repeatedly ‘stirred up issues involving sensitive events,’ ‘disturbed the Internet order,’ and severely violated reporting discipline. It is likely to create adverse effects and cause adverse political consequences."

SIIO ordered Global Times to spend a month to fix itself by improving its "political awareness and its overall awareness."

Global Times has long been known for publishing hawkish and anti-America messages, which are out of sync with Xi Jinping’s agenda.

Source: Radio Free Asia, May 12, 2016
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/Xinwen/7-05122016162353.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

HK Frontline: Wang Huning Reveals Direction of Political Reform

The Hong Kong magazine Frontline reported that, from early March to March 13, Wang Huning, Xi Jinping’s top think tanker and advisor hosted a secret forum with over 40 other think tankers in attendance to discuss China’s political structure.

People from the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) Central Policy Office, the State Council’s Policy Office, the CCP Central Party School, the Academy of Social Science, and some ministry and provincial policy offices participated in the forum.

The meeting reviewed how the CCP Central Committee and Politburo of each CCP Party Congress, from 1990s to the present, followed the Constitution and how each exercised its decision-making power.

Wang Huning pointed out, "The status and operations of the CCP Central Committee and Politburo exhibit large gaps and obstructions to the implementation of the rule of law. The Party Central Committee’s policies and measures sometimes were ‘severely interfered with, twisted, or given only lip-service.’ Divisions of opinion within the Party have existed for a long time."

Xi Jinping gave three talks at the forum. He asked for participants to provide "opinions and suggestions that suit China’s situation and are in line with the world’s trend and progression." He also emphasized, "[We] can’t wait any longer! Our generation has to live up to the people’s expectations and appeals."

Source: Aboluowang.com, May 17, 2016
http://www.aboluowang.com/2016/0517/739834.html

Briefings | | |   Grapevine

Offshore Companies and Hong Kong Residence Status Scandals Involving Top Level Officials

The Panama Files have revealed that several top level Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials, including retired officials, have had their family members set up offshore companies.

Recently, four Hong Kong media, after receiving documents from ICIJ (the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists) regarding the related Panama Files, conducted investigations of those relatives of top officials and found several of them had Hong Kong residence status. These four media are Mingpao, South China Morning Post, Next Magazine, and Hong Kong 01.

The related officials are:

Liu Yunshan (刘云山), current Politburo Standing Committee member: Liu’s daughter-in-law Jia Liqing (贾立青) is the shareholder and board member of an offshore company. She obtained her Hong Kong residence card in 2001.

Zhang Gaoli (张高丽), current Politburo Standing Committee member: Zhang’s son-in-law Li Shenpo (李圣泼) is a shareholder in three offshore companies. Li and her wife Zhang Xiaoyan (张晓燕) have Hong Kong residence status.

Li Peng (李鹏), former Premier and former Politburo Standing Committee member: Li’s daughter Li Xiaolin (李小琳) is a shareholder and board member of an offshore company. She has Hong Kong residence status.

Jia Qinglin (贾庆林), former Politburo Standing Committee member: Jia’s granddaughter Li Zidan (李紫丹) owns an offshore company. Both Li Zidan and her father Li Botan (李伯潭) (Jia’s son-in-law) have Hong Kong residence status.

Zeng Qinghong (曾庆红), former Politburo Standing Committee member: Zeng’s brother Zeng Qinghuai (曾庆淮) is the shareholder of an offshore company.

Deng Xiaoping (邓小平), former paramount leader: Deng’s niece Li Xiaobing (栗小兵) and her husband Yu Yiping (俞一平) became Hongkongese in 1994.

Two other officials are related but their relative’s companies were either closed or are not active:

Xi Jinping (习近平), current top leader: Xi’s brother-in-law Deng Jiagui (邓家贵) was the shareholder and board member of two offshore companies. Deng closed the companies in 2012 when Xi became the top leader.

Hu Yaobang (胡耀邦), former CCP General Secretary: Hu’s son, Hu Dehua (胡德华) was the shareholder and board member of an offshore company, Fortalent International Holdings, Ltd. Hu Dehua explained that he registered that company to help his other company to go through an IPO in Hong Kong, so his registration used all real information, including has name, Chinese passport, and address. The Hong Kong IPO didn’t work out. He hasn’t run any business through Fortalent since, nor does Fortalent have any assets. He just felt there was no need to close the company.

Sources:
1. BBC Chinese, April 6, 2016
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/china/2016/04/160406_panama_papers_china_capital_outflows
2. RFA, May 4, 2016
http://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/hk-secretfiles-05042016095619.html
3. South China Morning Post, April 8, 2016
http://www.nanzao.com/sc/national/153f3d1c34c61cb/ba-na-ma-wen-jian-pu-li-an-gong-si-hu-de-hua-tang-tang-zheng-zheng

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Xi Jinping’s Talks about Officials’ Taking Care of Their Families

On May 8, 2016, China.com, the website of the State Council Information Office, published a collection of Xi Jinping’s speeches in which he gave advice to officials on taking care of their family members. Some quotes from his speeches follow:

From the speech given at the Meeting of the Sixth Plenary Session of the 18th CCDI, on January 12, 2016:

"Looking at the recent corruption cases, family member’s corruption is a key reason that has led officials to violate the law and discipline. Many officials not only trade power for money themselves, but they also encourage their family members to collect money covertly. Their children leverage their parent’s name to run a business to make money [using unfair competition]. Some officials use their ‘connections’ and ‘favors’ that they have accumulated throughout their government service to let their children make money."

"I am here, with a kind intention, to tell you all: You need to pay attention to this. Things might have happened at your home while you were not paying attention. You should prevent these wrong things from happening at a low level. Don’t protect your children [if they are doing something wrong]."

"The children of officials need to guide their own behavior by following the law and discipline. They should not think that because they are the children of officials that no one will bother them. If they have violated the Party’s regulations or the state law, they will be punished, and they must be severely punished, to show it to the public."

From the speech given at the 10th Meeting of the Deepening Reform Leading Group, on February 27, 2015:

"As far as officials’ spouses, children, or their children’s spouses running companies, there are clear regulations from the state law and the Party regulations. The important thing is to implement them so that they will really be effective."

Source: China.com, May 8, 2016
http://news.china.com.cn/2016-05/08/content_38405673.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Why a College Student’s Death Led to Baidu and a Beijing Hospital Being Punished

The death of Wei Zexi, a college student from Shaanxi Province, who received false information from Baidu on treatment for his cancer, has stirred up a big anti-Baidu wave in China.

Wei Zexi had synovial sarcoma, a rare form of cancer. When he searched on Baidu, the search engine showed him that the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps offered effective treatment. Wei decided to forego another treatment which had some, but not very high chance of a cure, and went with the Armed Police Corps Hospital. His family spent 200,000 yuan (U.S. $30,000), depleting the family’s entire saving and even borrowing money, for the treatment.

It turned out that the Baidu search result for the Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps was a paid advertisement. The hospital was, in fact, making a false claim. However, since the hospital paid Baidu a large fee, Baidu displayed its claim among the top search results. As Baidu did not differentiate between its paid ads and its regular search results, it misled Internet users into thinking paid ads were authoritative results.

The Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps had been widely collaborating with "Putian doctors." "Putian doctors" are people from Putian City, Fujian Province, who may or may not have had a medical education, but claimed they were doctors and rented hospital’s offices to offer medical services. "Putian doctors" count for 80 percent of the private medical practices in China.

The hospital’s treatment offered no help to Wei Zexi who eventually died on April 12. Before his death, he posted his story on the Internet. A wave of public denunciation of Baidu for its lack of moral standards flooded the Internet and the media.

The State Internet Information Office led an investigation over Baidu’s role in this death incident. It recently required Baidu to carry out the following corrections:

1. Overhaul all its commercial services for the medical practice industry. Take offline any information violating regulations, and do not promote any medical institution that does not have proper medical practice qualifications.

2. Change its search ranking algorithm from paid fee based to reputation based; add a mark to indicate those that are paid ads; and limit paid ads to less than 30 percent per result page.

3. Establish a netizen’s rights protection mechanism. Speed up the process to handle Internet users’ cases; immediately put a stop to all information that violates the law, regulations, or netizen’s rights; compensate netizens for their losses due to inaccurate ads on Baidu.

The Second Hospital of the Beijing Armed Police Corps was ordered to stop all services to the public immediately. It was also ordered to make the following corrections:

1. Immediately stop cooperating with Shanghai Claison Bio-tech, which offered the cancer treatment solution to Wei Zexi.

2. Overhaul all false information and medical advertising. Review the medical qualifications of every medical practitioner and take proper actions.

3. Punish medical practitioners involved in Wei Zexi’s case, including revoking the doctor’s certificate and taking legal action.

4. Carry out legal and disciplinary education; improve the hospital’s management.

Sources:
1. BBC Chinese, May 9, 2016
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/china/2016/05/160509_weizexi_investigation_second_hospital
2. Xinhua, May 20, 2016
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2016-05/10/c_128973832.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability