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Xinhua: New Observations of Western Media on the Chinese Military

Starting January 2010, Xinhua will publish a new column called "Foreign Media on the Chinese Military," with a listing of articles from Western media. The column is meant to show how foreign media report the Chinese military and the focus of such reports. For January 2010, Xinhua has identified 6 topic-areas of foreign reports about the Chinese military: U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, China anti-missile tests, U.S.-China military ties, the China-India defense dialogue, Chinese space program, and F-11 equipment.

Source: Xinhua, February 1, 2010.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2010-02/01/content_12898530.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

College Graduates Recruited to Become Military Officers

In 2009 twelve thousand college graduates joined the People’s Liberation Army. For the first time large numbers of college graduates are enlisting to become military officers. A professor at the National Defense University expressed that in the history of the PLA, large numbers of intellectuals or students joining the PLA has always brought about a quantum leap in military talent.

source: Xinhua, January 25, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2010-01/25/content_12869220.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Corruption Remains No. 1 Concern

In preparation for the upcoming “two conferences” (plenary sessions of the National People’s Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference), the NPC is conducting a survey of the top ten most important issues. Currently, the top 10 issues, according to readers’s votes, are corruption, income disparity, land use for urban housing, government intervention in the housing market, democracy, judicial impartiality, medicare reform, education, unemployment, and retirement pensions.

Source: National People’s Congress
http://npc.people.com.cn/GB/28320/180060/index.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Thousands of Local Government Representative Offices in Beijing to be Shut down

According to Xinhua, the Beijing authorities just issued a new red-letter directive that mandates the shutdown of several thousand representative offices in Beijing in the next 6 months. Currently there are 52 Beijing offices representing provincial level governments, 520 representing municipal level governments and over 5,000 representing county level governments. The number of representative offices exceeds 10,000 if it includes those for various government organizations, and liaison offices of state-owned enterprises. The assets of these representative offices totaled 10 billion yuan in 2001.

The function as outlined by the new directive for the representative offices includes carrying out tasks assigned by the Communist Party committees from the sending location, and by the Communist Party Central Committee and the State. Notably, these offices should assist the Beijing municipal government in maintaining social stability in Beijing.

Source: Xinhua, January 24, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2010-01/24/content_12863841.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Three Top Issues on China’s Agenda for the United States

He Yafei, spokesperson of the Chinese Foreign Affairs Ministry prioritized three issues on China’s agenda for the United States. “This year both China and the United States need to cautiously and earnestly deal with issue of arms sales to Taiwan, the Dalai Lama, and economic and trade friction, particularly the United States. How to deal with these problems depends on whether or not political leaders, especially the United States government can muster the political determination.”

Source: Xinhua, January 22, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2010-01/22/content_12855052.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Chinese Military Expert: War in the Future Not Impossible

Zhang Zhaozhong, a Chinese military expert, warns that the United States will inevitably get entangled in another war, although time and the enemy are yet unknown. “Obama came from the grassroots. During his campaign, accepting the honor to serve his country and now in office, he expressed many good points of view. Yet, I have never held any illusion about him. He is a well-educated person and a member of academia, so he can speak well and express his point of view quite well, but such thoughts cannot be those of a president. He can receive the Nobel Prize trophy for his personal philosophy but as president, he has to launch wars.  

"When reviewing U.S. history, there was no U.S. president that prescribed peace – one cannot be president without a war. Obama must be in a very difficult position. He cannot do what he wants to do and he must do what he does not want to do. There is no other way. 

"This is the United States and this is the nature of imperialism. It is inevitable that the next war will break out. There is no doubt that the United States will be the culprit. But whom to fight and when is the big question."

Zhang is a military theorist and commentator. He is a professor at the National Defense University, and of Rear Admiral rank.

Source: Xinhua, January 11, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2010-01/11/content_12790747.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

People’s Daily: China should Not Worry about the US Returning to the Southeast Asian Region

The website of the State’s People’s Daily published an article stating China should welcome the United States to the Asian Pacific region to contribute to the peace, stability, and prosperity of the region.  

“Despite U.S. intervention, China should keep a low profile and not be too much ‘in the public eye.’ It can seize this rare strategic opportunity of peaceful development to keep a low profile and good terms with neighbors, focusing on its own development.”  

In light of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the surging protectionism at home, the result of the “Asian return” may be significantly overstated. “In this context, Obama’s ‘return to Asia,’ may not be so terrible.”

Source: People’s Daily, January 12, 2010
http://world.people.com.cn/GB/10750195.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Google’s Withdrawal from China Is Part of China’s Control of Internet Strategy

 Boxun reports that Google’s withdrawal was inevitable according to a Communist propaganda official.

“The Chinese officials said that Google’s withdrawal from China is a matter of time, except Google has not reached that point yet. He said that this time the so-called Google’s withdrawal from China is a bluff, so it can negotiate better terms. But this is clearly a miscalculation. The threat might have been effective a few months ago, but now it is just empty air, because the current Internet rectification is considered a matter of life and death for the Communist Party and the country. The ultimate goal is to bring search engines like Google that have such a great influence in China under control.”

Source: Boxun, January 13, 2010
http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/china/2010/01/201001131208.shtml

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology