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Global Times: HK Media Speculates on the Chinese Navy’s Fourth Fleet

Global Times, which is under the state’s People’s Daily, recently published an article which referred to a report from the HK newspaper Ming Pao. The report included information that the Chinese Navy is planning to establish the Fourth Fleet, which will be headquartered in Sanya, Hainan Province. It also said that the Fourth Fleet will include at least two aircraft carrier combat groups, that the future aircraft carriers will be placed directly under the Central Military Committee, and that the carriers will have their own independent Command Headquarters. The Chinese Naval fleets’ command structure is similar to Russia’s. The extent to which this information may change in the future remains unclear.

Source: Global Times, September 10, 2011
http://mil.huanqiu.com/Exclusive/2011-09/1993689.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Xinhua: India Asked China to Stop Construction Work in Kashmir

Xinhua recently published an article that quoted a Times of India report that India has asked China to stop construction activities in Kashmir. Meanwhile India is also keeping a close eye on the fact that China is rapidly building “strategic roads, railways and airports” in Tibet and along the actual India-China border. The Indian Defense Minister wrote a letter to 19 congressmen suggesting that the Indian government is aware of the Chinese construction work on the Pakistani side of Kashmir and that the government has already expressed its concern to China. India is speeding up the process of increasing its military deployment along the India-China border. However the Indian Military has been complaining about a lack of funding. India’s annual military budget is US$32 billion while the disclosed amount that China has budgeted is US$91.5 billion.

Source: Xinhua, September 7, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2011-09/07/c_121989814.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

CRN: Central Bank Governor Denied Free Exchange of the RMB Has a Time Table

China Review News (CRN) recently published a report referring to a Bloomberg article that quoted Davide Cucino, Chairman of the EU Chamber of Commerce in China, as saying China plans to realize the free exchange of the RMB by the year 2015. Cucino suggested that he heard the news at a summit with Chinese officials. Reuters commented that, if the report reflected the truth, this was the first time China set an official date for the matter. Chinese central bank governor Zhou Xiaochuan commented on the news when he was attending the Fourth China-U.K. Economic and Financial Dialogue. He said that China does not have such a timetable and that a long and orderly process is involved. He also suggested that China is not eager to include the RMB in the basket of currencies that make up the IMF SDR (Special Drawing Rights) exchange rate. However, there are signs that the Chinese government is placing the RMB free exchange issue on the agenda.

Source: China Review News, September 9, 2011
http://www.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1018/3/0/1/101830181.html?coluid=0&kindid=0&docid=101830181&mdate=0909185345

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Study Times: Improve Battlefield Power

Study Times, a newspaper of the CCP Central Party School, published an article that discussed transforming weapons and equipment to increase power on the battlefield. The transformation model is very important because the correct use of weapons and equipment directly determines their effectiveness in combat. The author believes the direction for changing the model for today’s military is to merge weapons into information systems. A key approach in doing that is to integrate military technology with the civil market to ensure both low cost and sustainability. To speed up the model’s transformation, full system engineering must be introduced into all layers of society, which includes designing top level strategy, establishing operational systems and rules, as well as managing the industrial structure.

Source: Study Times, August 29, 2011
http://www.studytimes.com.cn:9999/epaper/xxsb/html/2011/08/29/07/07_52.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Xinhua: The West Never Gave Up on Dominating West Asia and North Africa

Xinhua recently published an article offering a different angle on the Libya situation. The article expressed the belief that the key issue now in the Arabic region is that the young generation is expecting change, which should involve the mission of exploring and finding the right path that best fits their own country. The West is using this opportunity to package its own selfish interests (such as oil) along with so-called “universal” values such as democracy. The author tried to establish that, at this moment, there is no “ready-made example” that these West Asian and North African countries can use as a model. A new political system should adjust to and match the nation’s history and traditional culture. Otherwise, the world will have new “Afghanistans and Iraqs.”

Source: Xinhua, August 29, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2011-08/29/c_121923004.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Study Times: An Internet Age with Information Openness and Public Participation

Study Times, the CCP Central Party School’s newspaper, recently published an article on the relationship between government, organizations, and individuals. The article established a model for society in the information age. Instead of the traditional hierarchical social structure, today’s Internet based society is a mesh of nodes, which represent organizations and individuals. The difference in each node’s acceptance of the level of technology has caused society to have an “out-of-sync” situation. The author called this the “digital gap.” In the “mesh world,” the nodes that adjust faster and connect to more other nodes will be the ones having more influence. The article suggested the government should reform itself to become the “core node,” which would replace its current “top of the pyramid” role in the hierarchical model. In addition to employing new technology, the government should introduce and encourage openness and public participation to enhance the government’s power to influence.

Source: Study Times, August 29, 2011
http://www.studytimes.com.cn:9999/epaper/xxsb/html/2011/08/29/10/10_20.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Xinhua: U.S. Defense Secretary on Emerging Countries

Xinhua recently published a report referring to the Indian newspaper Economic Times, which reported on a speech U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta delivered. According to the report, Mr. Panetta suggested in his speech that the United States will not allow the emerging countries, namely China, India and Brazil, to “disrupt the world order.” He promised to cooperate with the emerging countries, but he also asserted that the United States will ensure that these countries won’t become a threat to world stability, will ensure U.S. world leadership status, and will ensure the world’s acknowledgement of the U.S. as the guardian of world stability.  

Source: Xinhua, August 27, 2011
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2011-08/27/c_121919045.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Sharp Drop in Donations to Chinese Charities

Jinghua News recently reported that there has been s sharp drop nationwide in charitable donations. In the past couple of months, Chinese media gave extensive coverage to the “the Guo Meimei Incident,” in which large scale corruption was reported in the state-managed Chinese Red Cross. According to official statistics from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, Chinese charities received RMB 6.26 billion from March to May this year. However, after the Incident, for the period of June to August, donations dropped to RMB 0.84 billion. The sharp drop is believed to have resulted from the loss of confidence in the charity system. At the same time, individual-to-individual direct donations have risen from RMB 38.87 million to 127 million. In Shenzhen, the largest city for donations, the amount of recent donations dropped to near zero. Xu Jianzhong, a senior official of Ministry of Civil Affairs, made the observation that extensive media coverage is destroying Chinese charities.

[Ed: A Sina Weibo user, Guo Meimei, claiming she was with the Red Cross, flaunted her wealth on-line. In response, tens of thousands of Weibo users a day posted objections to the corruption involved in personal use of donated funds.]

Source: Jinghua News, August 27, 2011
http://epaper.jinghua.cn/html/2011-08/27/content_694600.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics