All posts by NNL - 199. page

Hu Jintao recently advised posthumously honoring Song Wenbo, Political Instructor of the Dongkou County Firefighting Group, Hunan Province as “Model of Loving People.” At the ceremony, at the Great Hall of the People, Zhou Yongkang stated that “(the party should) vigorously propagate Comrade Song Wenbo’s touching deeds and inspire the public with his heroic noble spirit” and wished that “his relatives turn grief into strength,” and that “his daughter inherit her father’s mandate.”

Zhou also started a campaign in the Political and Law organizations to learn from Luo Dongning and Yang Zhufang. The Ministry of Education started another campaign to learn from 15 Yangtze University students.

(Editor’s Note: Using a “Role Model” was a propaganda method from Mao Zedong’s era whereby a deceased person’s heroic deeds were exaggerated or even made up to create a perfect example for people to follow.)

Source:
1. The website of the Central People’s Government of PRC, November 8, 2009
http://www.gov.cn/ldhd/2009-11/08/content_1459507.htm
2. China News Service, November 10, 2009
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/edu/edu-zcdt/news/2009/11-10/1957518.shtml
3. China News Service, November 10, 2009
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/edu/edu-zcdt/news/2009/11-10/1957518.shtml

Not only were the meeting and the script of the October 16 meeting between President Obama and Chinese university students censored, but Chinese participation was also reported to have been staged.

 Chinese netizens discovered that at least two questioners in the audience were not bonafide students. The first “student” Cheng Xi is the Executive Vice Director of the Research Office of the Communist Youth League of Fudan University: http://www.youth.fudan.edu.cn/twjj4.aspx. The second “student” Huang Lihe is the Secretary of the Communist Youth League of the School of Foreign Languages, Tongji University: http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_5053613d01008zd9.html. [Ed: A search found that this was posted on many blogs and forums in China, although some were later removed.]

A CNN reporter saw a student reciting a question in English from a piece of paper. Liu Yufen, 21, a student from Shanghai Jiaotong University said that he and his fellow classmates went through “training” for a whole afternoon prior to the meeting.

Sources:
1. Janeyoung.cn website, Nov 17, 2009
http://www.janeyoung.cn/hot/1910.html
2. Google Groups, Nov 16, 2009
http://groups.google.com/group/go2group/browse_thread/thread/11c9e373d95a1787/6cf2a8c902e83d04?lnk=raot
3. Epoch Times Taiwan, Nov 17, 2009
http://www.epochtimes.com.tw/263032.html

On October 16, 2009, the Guangzhou City Finance Bureau released budget information for all municipal offices, totaling more than 20 billion Yuan, on its website (http://www.gzfinance.gov.cn). Traffic has flooded the website. On October 23, it even caused the server to go down. This is the first time a government entity has released budgetary information to citizens.

However, details were still omitted, including dining on public money, traveling using public cars, and traveling abroad on public money, the infamous “three public” expenses, which represent a significant portion of government spending. Guangzhou’s budget also showed 60 million Yuan in “subsidy” given to 9 child daycare centers serving employees of the municipal offices, averaging 20 thousand Yuan per child.

Guangzhou’s action was in reply to the request from a volunteer group, “Public Budget Observer Volunteers.” The group submitted 33 budget requests to central ministries and municipal governments. All except Guangzhou rejected the request. Shanghai claimed the information was a “national secret” and "could not be released." After Guangzhou’s action, Shanghai reversed its position. It announced on October 29 that it will improve its budgetary openness and transparency and would research ways to release the information.

Source:
1. The website of the Central People’s Government of the People’s Republic of China, October 26, 2009
http://www.gov.cn/jrzg/2009-10/26/content_1448828.htm
2. People’s Daily, October 24, 2009
http://media.people.com.cn/GB/10251652.html
3. Nanfang Weekends Magazine, October 28, 2009
http://www.infzm.com/content/36515
4. Eastday.com, the official website for Shanghai government, October 29, 2009
http://sh.eastday.com/qtmt/20091029/u1a649370.html

Chongqing City Party Secretary Bo Xilai’s controversial campaign against gangsters in Chongqing has caused an open fight among the top leaders of China. Liu Fengyan, Deputy Secretary of the Central Committee for Discipline Inspection, led an inspection team to Chongqing in October for a three-month inspection. Liu was said to state that the fight against the gangsters cannot become a movement or “red terror,” nor should it bypass the legal system (criticizing Bo Xilai). Liu is loyal to Hu Jintao and had put Chen Liangyu, former Shanghai chief into jail.

On the other side, the Chongqing government website reported that Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Central Committee’s Political Bureau Standing Committee, the Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee, a Jiang Zemin loyalist, has given a special praise to Bo Xilai recently. Xinhua also published a commentary on Zhou’s trip to Jinggangshan on November 3, as to send warning messages to three groups of people in the public security system. The third group is those who want to “stir things up” by criticizng Bo’s fight against gangsters.

Background: Bo Xilai is the son of Bo Yibo who was a senior CCP leader. Bo Xilai is considered a leader of the princelings with wide connections with princelings and the media. He started an ideology campaign of singing the “red songs” (songs to praise the CCP) and sending “red text messages” (quotes from CCP leaders) earlier this year. He started the gangster campaign in June 2009. The media has overwhelming praise for him. The fight over him is about his political ambitions as the  CCP leaders must choose successors to Hu Jintao and Wen Jiabao.

Sources:
1. Radio Free Asia, October 26, 2009
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/pinglun/jwp-10262009095713.html
2. Chongqing News, the official site for Chongqing government, October 28, 2009
http://pl.cqnews.net/sz/200910/t20091028_3713364.htm
3.  Xinhua, November 8, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-11/08/content_12407989.htm

The International Herald Leader, a newspaper under Xinhua, reported that on October 20, 2009, the Xinhua Bookstore opened its first European store in London. At present, there are three Xinhua Bookstores and one on-line store in the United States. The goal of the Xinhua Bookstore is to use the world’s languages, e.g. English, Germany, French, Japanese, Korean, and so on, to tell the desired stories about China.

The article also discussed the differences between the Confucius Institute and the Xinhua Bookstore, both of which are increasing their presence overseas.  It is important to note that the Confucius Institute is directly under the Chinese government’s funding while the Xinhua Bookstore is a business operation (Ed: under a State-Owned Enterprise though).

Source: International Herald Leader, October 30, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2009-10/30/content_12360037.htm

The China News Agency republished an article from Outlook magazine, which claimed that China’s top party leaders signaled that the party construction effort is critical for the Party to stay in power. ["Party construction effort" is a Chinese Communist Party (CCP) term referring to party development and improvement. — Ed.]

The CPC’s Fourth Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee outlined several party construction actions to resolve the current quandaries. The quandaries were identified as “the most important and most dangerous” by the top leaders. Experts deduce that the specific wording indicates that the CPC is cognizant of the crisis.

One worrisome concern is that party members and cadres no longer believe in Marxism and have no confidence in the Chinese Representation of Socialism. Other issues include the party officials’ corruption, as well as problems with party discipline, the official selection process, and officials’ performance.

Source: China News Agency, October 19
http://chinanews.com.cn/gn/news/2009/10-19/1917889.shtml