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All posts by TGS - 121. page

Public Diplomacy on the Offensive

The Public Diplomacy Division, located under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, has been advanced to the Office of Public Diplomacy, indicating an elevated importance to the Chinese government. While the staff has increased from a dozen to sixteen or seventeen, the workload has doubled,” said its director, Wei Xin. Its responsibilities include hosting major open house events for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, maintaining the Ministry’s official website and its 204 sub-websites, monitoring online foreign affairs forums, and coordinating public diplomacy at the embassies and consulates. To push the agenda of the Party, China’s diplomatic missions have been aggressively pursuing public diplomacy activities, which include public speeches, op-eds in mainstream newspapers, interviews, forums, and conferences.

Source: Xinhua, May 31, 2010
http://big5.xinhuanet.com/gate/big5/news.xinhuanet.com/world/2010-05/31/c_12160553.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China Review News on US-China Relations: No Fundamental Changes

An editorial of China Review News states that neither the current warmth or the freezing coldness back in January or the honeymoon last year has resolved the fundamental issues in US-China relations. The only benefit is that it avoids confrontations on strategic issues. There are two possible reasons according to the editorial. One is that the U.S. drives the US-China relations, with the determining factor being the U.S. policy toward China and not China’s policy toward the U.S. Two, the U.S. policy toward China has been weaving back and forth between strategic considerations and specific interests.  The U.S. is accused of causing significant damage to bilateral relations because of the arms sales to Taiwan, Internet freedom issues and a slew of others, which are, in the mind of the editorial, meant to strategically restrain China.

Source: China Review News, May 25, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1013/3/1/4/101331490.html?coluid=1&kindid=0&docid=101331490&mdate=0525001216

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

China Honing in on European Political Parties

Li Yunshan, Politburo member and head of the Communist Party Propaganda Department, spoke at the May 24 reception of the China-Europe High-Level Political Party Forum in Bejing. The premise of his speech was “deepening strategic mutual trust and promoting across-the-board cooperation.” Li made three recommendations: one, to enhance strategic awareness and establish and perfect the communication mechanism; two, to enhance common understanding of win-win positions and broaden the cooperation channels; and three, to enhance inclusivity and solidify friendly co-existence. Communist Party officials from the International Department of the CCP Central Committee, the Foreign Ministry, the Ministry of Commerce, the National Development and the Reform Commission attended the event.

Source: International Department, Central committee of Communist Party of China, May 24, 2010 http://www.idcpc.org.cn/dongtai/100524-4.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Guangdong Stepping up Efforts to Resolve Social Conflicts Locally

The Guangdong Provincial Supreme Court and the provincial social stability office jointly released a statement that local courts, police, and community stability offices will join hands to resolve “civil disputes” at a “one-stop” at the local level. They initiated a streamlined process of mediation, summons, execution and post-judgment stability.  

According to the Guangdong Provincial Supreme Court, social conflicts have led to more cases filed, with a 12.33 % annual growth from 2006 to 2009. In 2009 alone, the courts in Guangdong Province handled 536,212 cases. As of February 2010, 1,584 communities have set up social stability centers with over 17,000 full time staff and large numbers of part time personnel

Source: Guangdong Daily, May 25, 2010
http://gzdaily.dayoo.com/html/2010-05/25/content_974950.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Government Employees Subjected to Loyalty Training

Over 6 million Chinese government employees have attended various political training sessions over the past five years. Intensive orientation training of these “civil servants” includes indoctrination in Party tradition, loyalty pledges, and military boot camp. It is rumored that the training has been effective in improving the political awareness of these trainees and their thinking is now in line with the directives of the Communist Party. In recent years, topics such as social unrest and State security have been added to this on-the-job training. Government employees have also taken training overseas. Such training has been institutionalized and without the training, the employee cannot be promoted.

Source: Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security of China, May 17, 2010                   http://www.mohrss.gov.cn/Desktop.aspx?path=mohrss/mohrss/InfoView&gid=792b0119-2f0e-41ed-b168-6a64a362378a&tid=Cms_Info

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Class Action Lawsuit Filed Against the Communist Party in Beijing

A class action lawsuit was filed with China’s Supreme People’s Court in Beijing against the Chinese Communist Party, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress, and the State Council. Mr. Lu Qingfu, a freelance writer and a “rightist,” initiated the civil lawsuit and was joined by Ye Xiaogang and over 60 plaintiffs. The plaintiffs asked for apologies and compensation on behalf of over 550,000 victims who were denounced in 1957 by the defendants as “bourgeois rightists.” Lu spent over twenty years in prison after he was denounced as a rightist in 1957.

Source: China Human Rights Defenders, May 18, 2010
http://ww2.crd-net.org/Article/Class71/201005/20100518003901_21267.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Inflation Worse than the Official Consumer Price Index

Inflation in China has become a very serious problem despite the moderate official numbers, according to an article by Shanghai Business Daily. The official CPI released in April was at 2.8%, showing a mild upward trajectory. However, the paper reports, "the true inflation level has by far exceeded what the CPI reflects. If one takes into consideration various economic inflationary indicators or listens to the experiences of everyday people, the real inflation level has reached serious proportions.” If the government applies macro controls this year, the economy will come to a standstill, but without such control there could be chaos, says the article.

Source: Shanghai Business Daily reprinted by Nanfang Daily, May 13, 2010
http://gcontent.nddaily.com/d/2a/d2ac71782272659e/Blog/ac5/9e958b.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Credibility Crisis in China Deeps

Zhou Dongfei, a senior columnist published in the State’s International Herald Leader that the current Chinese society not only lacks credibility, but also that the very mechanism to maintain trust is losing credibility. In China people don’t trust milk powder because of the frequent reports of melamine problems; they do not trust vaccines due to adulterations in the production process; they would rather deliver water to those in draught areas and clothes to those in disasters than donate cash. “However, after a large number of incidents of dishonesty occurred and were not corrected as society expected, the mechanism to maintain trust has lost credibility. In the current Chinese society, people have lost trust because fundamentally the mechanism safeguarding that trust has broken down and suffers from a loss of public trust. If this situation continues to deteriorate, the result can only be the loss of public confidence.”

Source: International Herald Leader, May 4, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2010-05/04/content_13466170.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability