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Westerner’s "Democracy Lectures" to China Should Stop
Zhu Xiangchun, the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs

(International Herald Leader, September 12) During the seminar entitled “China and the World – Perception and Truth,” the German organizers, disregarding China’s resolute opposition, insisted on welcoming “dissidents” to join, although the Chinese participants did not welcome them. The Chinese representatives angrily withdrew in protest. Once the organizers apologized on the spot, they came back. However, a number of German parliamentarians and the German media made a big deal about this and even slandered (the Chinese representatives) as “dictator’s representatives.” These actions from the German side not only cast a shadow on the Frankfurt Book Fair, where China would be the country that was guest of honor in the coming October, but also once again exposed the Westerner’s old-fashioned thinking and psychology of condescension toward China and lecturing China on “democracy.” 

Although the cold war ended many years ago, the Western’s perception of China is still full of ambivalence. Even for an ordinary thing involving China, Western society’s imagination can run wild, and even distort the facts and spread rumors. This seminar was originally for creating a good atmosphere for the Frankfurt Book Fair, but Western society obstinately linked it with China’s “democracy” and “human rights” and eventually formed a wave of criticizing and slandering China. This move implied that they had deeply-rooted misconceptions and prejudice toward China. It showed that the Western countries advertised themselves as “listening to different voices,” objective, and democratic, but they secretly looked at us through a pair of “colored glasses.”

Since the industrial revolution, Western society has always possessed a sense of superiority – they are the best among various cultures and system arrangements in human society. That should be a universal truth. The Soviet Union’s collapse marked the so-called “end of history” for a number of Westerners and the Western democratic system would be the “final form” of human society’s evolution. This has been the most arrogant voice from the Western communities about its democratic system. Even today, they have not completely changed that mentality and psychology. With three decades of reform and opening, China’s rapid development has caught the world’s attention, and its economic scale has leapt to third in the world. This makes many Western countries feel uncomfortable, if not fearful.

Western society is used to making trouble in the name of “democracy,” but it is not really a simple matter of being considerate of others. They call themselves “moral guardians” in the international community and dominate the international voices to serve their economic interests and political plots. Because of the long-term negative propaganda in Western society during the Cold War, the Western public not only has limited understanding of China but their minds are full of prejudice. Digging out China’s “dark side” has also become a way for some Western media and politicians to seize political capital and constantly please the public. This has even gone to the level of, “Whoever hates China the most ruthlessly is the most likable.”

The Western’s democratic system slogan seems very appealing, but history has relentlessly proven that the results of imposing Western democracy are often frustrating, and even catastrophic. Until now, none of the developing countries have realized their modernization through “grafting” on Western democracy.

Today, not only is China’s development visible, but also it bears the international responsibility as a super power. If the Western communities turn a blind eye [to China] and keep making trouble, they will eventually lose their credibility with the Chinese public.

We advise those so-called “democracy fighters” that the “democracy lectures” to China must stop! This is just like what Mei Zhaorong, the former president of the Chinese People’s Institute of Foreign Affairs and the former Chinese Ambassador, who attended the seminar, said, “We are here for exchanging views, not for democracy classes, which are already outdated."

Endnotes:
[1] International Herald Leader, Sept 21, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2009-09/21/content_12087947.htm
[2] For a description of the Book Fair event, see also:
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2009111story_1-11-2009_pg3_4
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/KJ27Ad02.html
http://canadafreepress.com/index.php/article/16672
[3] The Frankfurt Book Fair, which featured China as “guest of honor,” began on October 14. In September, two Chinese writers, journalist Dai Qing and poet Bei Ling, had their invitations revoked after China complained. Their books about the Tiananmen pro-democracy movement and the Three Gorges Dam are banned in China. The German PEN club of independent writers, however, invited them anyway. Envoys of the Dalai Lama and Uyghur pro-independence advocate Rebiya Kadeer, were also present. Fair organizers had invited Liao Yiwu, who wrote a book on China’s underprivileged, The Corpse Walker, as well as essays about the survivors and victims of last year’s earthquake in Sichuan, but Beijing refused to lift his travel ban.
.
This article is in response to media outside of China. The above Canada Free Press article stated, for example, “The Chinese government’s effort to prevent dissident authors from taking part in the prestigious Frankfurt Book Fair, an international showcase for freedom of expression, has offered Germany a close-up view of China’s intolerance of dissent.”

{Editor’s Note: In June 2006, Beijing released an eight-episode TV documentary series: Preparing For Danger In Times Of Safety – Historic Lessons Learned from the Demise of Soviet Communism. It was a research project conducted by the government think tank, the Chinese Academy of Social Science. Afterwards, the Chinese Communist Party instructed party members across the nation to watch the series and launch serious discussions. The script of the prelude of the documentary quotes Hu Jintao’s words, “There are multiple factors contributing to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a very important one being Khrushchev throwing away Stalin’s knife and Gorbachev’s open betrayal of Marxism-Leninism.” The full text of the narratives has been translated. What follows is the seventh episode.}

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The hottest event of this week is President Obama’s visit to Beijing, because people had great expectations for the visit by the President of the United States.

Whether it’s inside China or overseas, the Chinese were expecting Obama to do something about human rights. Since Hu Jintao took the reigns in China, the human rights situation has been deteriorating. Many people have been arrested and thrown into prison to be abused; those who haven’t gone to prison, have endured much greater pressure and can barely breathe. The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has disciplined the media, blocked the Internet, and applied stricter and stricter suppression over freedom of speech. The Chinese care more than ever whether the U.S. President can help to relieve some pressure for the Chinese, because in the past, the U.S. President’s pressure somehow had an effect on the Chinese government. What the CCP is most afraid of is the human rights diplomacy of the U.S.

What the Americans care most about is the exchange rate of the Renminbi. It’s the key for reducing the trade deficit. Ten years ago, many Americans already knew that the unfair trade system would expand the trade deficit and cause job loss. Some politicians who were bought by big business managed to push through to give China the Permanent Most Favored Nation (MFN) status. At that time, the Americans had a good life and its trade deficit was less than $57 billion, so the majority of Americans accepted it. After all you have to respect the democratic system and respect the law.

Now things are different. The U.S. economy has deteriorated, the unemployment rate hiked up, and the market has slowed down. The trade deficit against China jumped to $268 billion. Many Americans know that this is the result of China’s manipulation of the exchange rate and the unfair trade system. Just as Senator Charles Schumer from New York pointed out: The global financial crisis was caused by China’s exchange rate manipulation. Nothing will be meaningful if this fundamental issue is not resolved.

But Obama brought nothing back from China. The title of today’s Times newspaper is “President Obama returns home from visit to China almost empty handed.” [3] It was quite beyond people’s expectations. The White House advisors had already foreseen that it was unlikely for them to get much on the core issues, so they left some room on the discussion topics. In addition to the main topics of human rights and trade, they added a bunch of smaller topics, including environmental protection, Afghanistan, Iran’s nuclear facility, and so on. They just wanted the CCP to pose a gesture, not necessarily some substantial results.

But even for that, Obama still got nothing. The CCP didn’t even release a few political prisoners for show. Hu Jintao gave Obama not even a bit of face, even skipping the “human rights show,” and letting Obama come for an empty trip. Compared to the previous few not-so-successful Presidents, Obama is the most unsuccessful one.

This does not even mention the media who favor the Republicans. Even the firm Democrat’s supporter, the Washington Post published a commentary criticizing that Obama did nothing to reduce the trade deficit. The article traced all the way back to the time when President Clinton signed the Permanent Trade Act for China and described in detail that the increase in the trade deficit over the past ten years is the result of the those elites selling the United State’s interests. In the past, people would have thought this was a Republican newspaper blasting against the Democrats.

Why was Obama, with a gifted eloquent tongue, so popular in Europe, but lost so terribly in China? There are a lot of reasons, but only two main ones: The first reason is that they [Obama and his advisors] don’t know China and don’t know Chinese. They thought they were dealing with a democratic country. Democratic countries use gentlemen diplomacy. You give up something for good will; I will give you something in return. In a popular term, that’s called “mutual compromise, mutual benefit” cooperative diplomacy.

Just hearing the U.S. President calling the CCP “partner” tells you that they don’t understand the CCP at all. Even those Western diplomats who master pretty good Chinese don’t know that “partner” is a completely wrong concept here. The CCP’s logic is a “struggle philosophy.” It’s “when the enemy retreats, we pursue.” If you take a step back, he thinks you are afraid of him. If he didn’t step forward, he would be laughed at or even attacked by his fellow party members. Applying the compromise and cooperative spirit to the CCP is completely poles apart. Therefore, Obama’s gesture before his visit had already set the visit up to be a complete failure.

The second important reason is the U.S. government is constrained by business. The largest beneficiaries of the trade deficit and the job losses in the U.S. are the big businesses in the U.S. and China. From many years ago, they would voluntarily go all out to defend the interests of the Chinese Communists. On the unfair trade system and exchange rate manipulation, they share the same interests with the CCP. Ten years ago, their ability to control the U.S. Congress and the government exceeded all the voters. Under the premise of not cheating the pubic, they force-passed the legislation, opposed by the majority of the voters, to give the CCP one-sided trade freedom. Now their profit is about five times more than what they got at that time. It’s even harder for the public to fight against them. President Obama can hardly go against their will either. That’s one of the fundamental reasons why the U.S. President lowered himself in front of the CCP.

Therefore, the Sino-U.S. relationship is no longer an economic issue or a China’s human rights issue. It is testing the democratic system in the U.S. Hitler and Stalin were not able to destroy the Western democratic system. But now the communist party in China is trying to fulfill the will of Lenin, to make “U.S. imperialism” the last phase of capitalist history. And it has seemed quite successful so far. That’s why so much attention has been paid to the President’s visit. What people are paying attention to is not just the exchange rate and unemployment. What people are paying attention to is whether the Western democratic system represented by the U.S. will lose to an autocratic communist system.

Endnote:
[1] Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wei_jingsheng
[2] The Epoch Times, November 20, 2009
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/9/11/20/n2728974.htm
[3] The Times, November 19, 2009
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article6922488.ece

{Editor’s Note: In June 2006, Beijing released an eight-episode TV documentary series: Preparing For Danger In Times Of Safety – Historic Lessons Learned from the Demise of Soviet Communism. It was a research project conducted by the government think tank, the Chinese Academy of Social Science. Afterwards, the Chinese Communist Party instructed party members across the nation to watch the series and launch serious discussions. The script of the prelude of the documentary quotes Hu Jintao’s words, “There are multiple factors contributing to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a very important one being Khrushchev throwing away Stalin’s knife and Gorbachev’s open betrayal of Marxism-Leninism.” The full text of the narratives has been translated. What follows is the sixth episode.}

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Outlook Weekly is a large weekly news magazine that covers current political and economic issues. It is published by Xinhua News, the official news agency of the Chinese Communist regime. Outlook Weekly is known for its “journalistic, authoritative, ideological, and readable” characteristics. It is also known for “an emphasis on exclusive reports and important news topics, authoritative and in-depth reports on significant domestic and international issues, and accurate and perceptive analyses of development trends of political, economic, and social phenomena both nationally and globally.” [4] The author Yan Haibo is an associate research fellow at the Research Center for Current Issues of the Compilation and Translation Bureau of the CCP Central Committee. Author Jiang Yong is a research fellow at the Economic Security of China Institute of Contemporary International Relations. [5]

In the article titled, “A History of the Party Leadership’s Role in the Financial sector,” Yan states, “Throughout the past years, the CCP has placed great importance on leadership tasks related to the economy and finance. With regard to different situations and tasks during various periods, the CCP has raised different requirements for the work in the area of finance.” “Financial work affects important political and military missions; the guidance that the party provides on financial work can efficiently create unusual combat power.” [6] Yan listed some examples of the CCP taking control in the financial sector to illustrate his point.

“In July 1947, at the Meeting of the CCP Central Committee held at Xiaohe, [7] Mao Zedong again pointed out the importance of implementing correct financial and trade policies, and emphasized that we must strengthen strict regulations under harsh external conditions.” [8]

“In September 1948, at the meeting of the Politburo, the CCP made the decision to have unified leadership on financial work and the issuance of currency. Right before the victory of the revolution, facing the task of taking over city management, the party advised the military leaders that they should ‘be good at handling financial issues.’ Only this unified leadership can meet the challenges of the changing tasks in new situations.” [9]

“In the earlier days of the People’s Republic of China …, the party Central Committee fully realized that, in the economy and in finance, there is essentially a war without gun smoke. Winning or losing this war would directly affect the consolidation and development of the regime, as well as industrial and agricultural production, and the stability of people’s lives.” [10] Therefore, “our party (the CCP) timely established the Central Finance and Economics Commission as a command center to lead the nation’s economic work in a unified manner.” [11]

Based on these, the author explained, “Under complicated political and economic situations, our party (the CCP) assigned tasks relating to the economy and finance as if it were at ‘war.’ This shows our party’s clear understanding and wise insight.” [12] There was an earlier article in Guangming Daily (August 3, 2009) titled, “The International Financial Crisis and National Security Strategy,” that had a more detailed explanation of this conclusion. It said that, “Military force is the foundation for maintaining a nation’s stability. As the national interest continues to grow and our nation’s global impact continues to rise, the crucial position of the military forces in protecting our country’s peaceful rise is getting more obvious. But facing this ferocious international financial crisis, the economists outside the military have not been able to give professional suggestions regarding issues such as readiness, utilization, and development of our military force in fending off this crisis. On the other hand, most of the experts in strategic and military development inside the military lack in-depth understanding of finance and economics, and therefore cannot provide scientific guidance regarding the above issue (the issue of how to develop the national security strategy during the global financial crisis). [13]

In the second article “Control the Leading Role in the Financial Sector,” Jiang Yong made the point that, “Finance is the heart of modern economics. Financial competition is the heart of international competition. Financial security is the core issue of the economic security of the country.” [14]

“China’s economy is currently facing the difficult situation of ‘the pitfall of the US dollar,’ the loss of asset value, and the international financial crisis. This shows that the field of finance cannot just be controlled by financial firms and professional groups; the crucial policies related to financial reform cannot just be determined by financial firms and professional groups, and the degree of success of financial reforms cannot only be judged by these financial firms and professional groups themselves. The ruling party (the CCP) should exercise strong leadership on finance, just as it does with the military, so as to effectively respond to the ‘war without gun smoke.’” [15]

“Finance is a concept in economics, but it is also extremely political. The importance of finance is not only reflected in ‘how to serve,’ but also in ‘who it serves.’ Marxism has a clear understanding of the political characteristics of financial tasks: the main leading role must be held in the hands of the proletarian party, which represents the interests of the majority. It was said in the Communist Manifesto that after the proletarians gain power, this ‘most advanced state’ can ‘control credit and loans, in the hands of the state by owning all of the country’s resources, and through the state banks that own the state capital and enjoy exclusive monopolistic power.’ Marx and Engels also held that one must ‘adjust the field of credit and lending according to the entire population’s interest, and in turn be able to destroy large financial capitalists’ control.’” [16]

 “The CCP is China’s ruling party. The key to doing things well in China is the party. The CCP represents the interests of the vast majority of Chinese people. It stands on the people’s side to protect the nation’s interest, and the largest number of people possible. Currently, the most important task in front of us on the issue of the party leading on finance is how to reflect the party’s mission, fundamental position, and ideological direction.” [17]

“The security of the financial industry directly affects the security of the regime. We need to attach great importance to financial security, and even more so in peaceful times.” “Everything that has happened since the financial crisis explosion started in the United States has told us that the situation of financial security has never been so urgent. The loss that the international financial crisis has caused to our financial assets, and the deeply negative effect that the international financial crisis has had on our economic development and society’s stability, all directly threaten the security of the regime.” “The loss of national interest will definitely be accompanied by a slowing down of economic growth, individuals’ income reduction, unemployment, and inflation. This load will impact every citizen, and therefore the deterioration of the regime’s governance caused by this will threaten the ruling party’s status.” “Therefore, the ruling party (the CCP) must take great care of the economy and finance, and achieve stronger leadership on finance.” [18]

“Looking back in history, the party has always paid great attention to the issue of strengthening the leadership role on finance to enhance the party’s ability to rule. Especially as our country gradually enters the socialist development period, the position of the party, the situations it faces, the tasks that it takes on its shoulders, and the party’s own conditions, have all changed a lot. It is changing from a revolutionary party to a ruling party, and its sole task is now to lead the people to develop socialism.” “A complete implementation of the Concept of Scientific Development in the financial sector will ensure the fast and good development of the economy, protect economic security, and promote a harmonious society. We need to be on guard against those arguments that advocate so called ‘independence’ in the field of finance and secretly resist the party’s leadership.” [19]

“The leadership role that the party takes on financial tasks is all-round and comprehensive. With requirements based on the domestic and international situation, the party will coordinate the financial tasks at a high level, taking the rise and decline of the nation, and the survival and death of the Chinese people into consideration. The party will make sure that the direction is correct, the planning is for the overall development, the strategy is comprehensive, the policies are scientific, and the environment is healthy. The party not only needs to control the CCP’s development of the financial system, but it is also responsible for the policies and direction in the financial arena. With the long-term goal of our country’s socioeconomic development in mind, the party not only needs to propose the development strategy of the financial industry according to the party’s mission, but also needs to formulate major financial policies, be responsible for the appointment and dismissal of important positions, as well as supervise the implementation.” [20]

“Our party made an attempt to strengthen the financial institutions. In June 1998, in order to cope with the Asian Financial Crisis and enhance the leadership role the party had on finance, the Financial Working Commission of the CCP Central Committee was formed. As an agency of the CCP Central Committee, this committee was responsible for developing the party’s ideology, structure, and work style in the financial field.”  “Because some administrative relationship was not clearly defined, this committee was later removed.” [21]

“As a developing country that is gradually opening up and as an emerging market, China is facing more and more financial problems and many economic and social conflicts that involve finance. Therefore the CCP should take control of finance just as it has taken control of the army so as to achieve the CCP’s leadership position on finance. We suggest forming an organization just like the Financial Working Commission of the CCP Central Committee, which is responsible for developing important guidelines, decisions, national financial strategies, and policies, and for supervising the agencies that carry out the work. This will be important for ensuring that the financial work in our country will have the correct direction and that the decisions are made scientifically. It will also be important for ensuring that our country has an undefeated position and an invulnerable position in today’s ever-more complicated and harsh international economy and financial competition.” [22]

The CCP achieves control of domestic and international finance through government actions. One example is the development of the Shanghai World Financial Center. Sun Lijian, the Assistant Dean and a professor of finance at the School of Economics at Fudan University, Shanghai, wrote an article on Xinhua.net on May 15, 2009, titled “The Financial Center Is Essentially Currency Domination.” The author said, “From Central Bank Governor Zhou Xiaochuan’s idea of a super-sovereign  reserve currency to Wang Qishan’s request to balance rights with obligations regarding the IMF reformation; from the Foreign Ministry spokesman’s worries about the United States launching a currency print machine to the State Council’s approving the proposal for constructing the Shanghai World Financial Center, we see that China and Asia have already begun to pay great attention to the issue of currency domination. This is a fundamental improvement. This is because Asia, such an economically active region, does not yet have an ‘international currency’ that can play a major role on the global economic stage.” [23]

 “The development of the Shanghai World Financial Center is part of the bigger picture of the strategy for obtaining ‘currency domination.’” The author’s understanding is that, “From the tactical point of view, globalization of the Asian dollar or RMB, and developing the Shanghai World Financial Center do not offer a ‘comparative advantage’ for the current China’s economic growth or for Asia’s financial situation. Strategically, if we ignore currency domination, then the economy of China and even the economy of all of Asia will be in a vulnerable position in the industrial chain of the global economy. They will not be able to hedge against the penetration by the outside crisis, or let outside economic identities reap the great benefits from China and Asia’s economic growth while sharing all the risks at the same time. Thus it will often end up being ‘they receive many benefits, and we take the risks.’” “This is because the Chinese government has realized that following the world’s voice to strengthen RMB appreciation is much better than passively accepting the pressure of RMB appreciation and opening capital accounts.” [24]

Endnotes:
[1] Outlook Weekly, August 17, 2009
http://news.sohu.com/20090817/n266023811.shtml
[2] Outlook Weekly, August 17, 2009
http://news.sohu.com/20090817/n266023754.shtml
[3] Ibid.
[4] Homepage of Outlook Weekly
http://www.outlookweekly.cn
[5] Same as [1].
[6] Ibid.
[7] Xiaohe, or Xiaohe Village, is located in the north of Shaanxi Province. The 1947 meeting held at Xiaohe took place during China’s Civil War period, with a focus on tasks related to the PLA’s strategic transition into a nationwide offensive against the KMT army.
[8] Same as [1].
[9] Ibid.
[10] Ibid.
[11] Same as [2].
[12] Same as [1].
[13] Guangming Daily, August 3, 2009
http://www.gmw.cn/content/2009-08/03/content_957661.htm
[14] Same as [2].
[15] Ibid.
[16] Ibid.
[17] Ibid.
[18] Ibid.
[19] Ibid.
[20] Ibid.
[21] Ibid.
[22] Ibid.
[23] Xinhua, May 15, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2009-05/15/content_11376264.htm
[24] Ibid.

Ladies, Gentlemen and Friends,

October is the golden harvesting season. In this great season, representatives from media outlets from around the world have gathered in Beijing for the World Media Summit. First of all, on behalf of the Chinese government and people, sincere congratulations to the World Media Summit! A warm welcome to our participating friends!

In today’s world, with the rapid development of the social economy and technologies, the transfer and acquisition of information has become faster and faster, the global media industry is facing unprecedented changes, and media is becoming more and more important in our social lives. This summit, under the theme of “Cooperation, Action, Win-Win and Development,” reflects concerns about the challenges the global media industry is facing, demonstrates the willingness of all media to enhance exchanges and cooperation and seek common development, and shows the resolve of media staff to commit themselves to promoting world peace and development. I believe, with in-depth discussions and extensive exchanges focused on the theme, the meeting will help strengthen cooperation among media organizations from around the world, boost the healthy and orderly development of the global media industry, and deepen mutual understanding and friendship among people of all nations.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

The world is undergoing great development, transformation, and adjustment. With the profound development of multi-polarity and economic globalization, worldwide exchanges of ideologies and cultures are becoming more frequent and active, the concepts of open cooperation and win-win mutual benefit are being commonly acknowledged, and interconnections among nations are becoming much closer. In the meantime, the adverse impact of the global financial crisis continues, development has become more imbalanced among different areas, global issues such as climate change, food safety, and energy resource security have further manifested, untraditional safety threats such as terrorists, cross-nation organized crime, and severe pandemic diseases are still around, regional conflicts and hot issues continue to appear, and unstable and uncertain factors are increasing, creating many challenges for world peace and development.

In the face of unprecedented opportunities and challenges, the world media should keep up with the trend of the times, join hands to march forward, and make efforts to contribute to a harmonious world with lasting peace and common prosperity.

First, the media should use their distinctive assets and advantages to convey the messages of peace, development, cooperation, mutual benefit, and tolerance. All media organizations should be dedicated to the lofty cause of pushing forward peace and the development of human beings, promoting all countries to respect each other and consult with each other on an equal footing politically, to cooperate with complementary advantages economically, to learn from each other and seek a common ground while accepting differences in cultural exchanges, to increase mutual trust and cooperation in maintaining security, and to help each other for advancement in environmental protection, so as to jointly create a better future for mankind. Against the backdrop of the global financial crisis, the world’s media should comprehensively cover the measures taken and the achievements as all countries – in the same boat in times of trouble – have strengthened cooperation and worked together to overcome difficulties. This is the way the media can contribute to the recovery and healthy and stable development of the world economy.

Second, the media should uphold the ideas of equality, mutual trust, mutual benefit, and common development, to better facilitate exchanges and cooperation. The media around the world, regardless of their cultural backgrounds, abilities, and sizes, should respect and trust each other, treat others as equals, seek common ground while shelving differences, and learn from each other through exchanges. The world’s media should fully consider each other’s practical situations, respond to each other’s appeals through consultation, take into account each other’s interests, keep a balance between competition and cooperation, and strive to be mutually complementary, helpful and beneficial. They should share successful experiences, create a favorable environment for development, work together to cope with challenges, and seek common development.

Third, the global media should uphold social responsibilities to promote the true, accurate, comprehensive, and objective communication of information. In today’s world, the radiating effect of the media to international politics, the economy, society, culture, and other areas is increasing and its influence over people’s thinking, work, and life is deepening. Just for this reason, it is more important than ever before that the media should establish and uphold social responsibilities. For the media to be widely accepted and respected, and to increase their credibility and influence, they should constantly abide by basic journalistic principles, and objectively report the reality of the multi-polarity of the world, economic globalization, and diverse civilizations. They should fully reflect the main aspects and trends of development in various countries and passionately encourage the development and progress of developing countries.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Several days ago the Chinese people celebrated the 60^th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China. With the unremitting efforts over the past six decades, especially over the past three decades since the reform and opening up, both China and the Chinese people have experienced historical changes. Today, China’s overall national power has significantly increased, the Chinese people live a relatively comfortable life, and the nation has burst forth in unprecedented dynamism and creativity. In the meantime, we soberly keep in mind that China is still the world’s largest developing country, and faces conflicts and problems rarely seen in terms of their scale and complexity. China still has a long way to go before it can build a well off society that can benefit more than one billion people, and achieve basic modernization and common prosperity for all of its people. China will start from its national conditions, adhere to the path of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics, promote comprehensive development in the economic, political, cultural, social and ecological arenas, go all out to ensure that the development is for the people, and by the people, and that the fruits of development are shared by the people. China will unswervingly walk along the path of peaceful development and uphold an open strategy based upon mutual benefits and win-win cooperation. China will seek friendly cooperation with all countries on the basis of the Five Principles of Peaceful Co-existence.

In the course of advancing the reform and opening up drive and building socialist modernization, the Chinese government always gives top priority to the media’s development, encourages and supports the Chinese media to play important roles in different areas, such as getting close to reality, life and people, developing innovative concepts, contents, forms, methods, and means, increasing its affinity, attraction, and inspiration to people, upholding social integrity, understanding social conditions and public opinion, guiding (public views on) social hot issues, diverting public emotion, doing well at media supervision, and guaranteeing the people’s right to be informed, to participate, to be heard, and to oversee. The Chinese government supports Chinese media to strengthen its exchanges and deepen its cooperation with foreign media in areas of news broadcasting, human resources, information technology, business development, and so on. Now, more and more foreign media, including the ones represented by most of our friends here, send resident reporters to China, and the number of journalists who visit China temporarily has increased dramatically also. The reporting on China by foreign media covers more and more information and areas, with richer and richer content, playing an important role enabling all people around the world to understand the development and changes in contemporary China. We will continue to make government affairs public, enhance information distribution, safeguard the legitimate rights and interests of foreign news organizations and reporters, and facilitate foreign media coverage of China in accordance with China’s laws and regulations. We sincerely hope that the media in the world can make new contributions to increasing the understanding people around the world have of China and to consolidating and developing friendship between the Chinese people and the people throughout the world.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is the inevitable choice for the media around the world to share the same fate with the world’s people and with the development of the era. I believe that through the joint efforts of our participating friends, this summit will certainly achieve great results in strengthening exchanges and deepening cooperation among different media around the world, and will make a significant contribution to the development of the global media industry.

Thank you everyone.

Endnotes:
 [1] World Media Summit Website
http://www.worldmediasummit.org/english/2009-03/19/content_16005787.htm
 [2] Xinhua News Agency, October 9, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2009-10/09/content_12201034.htm

The Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs Advises on Countermeasures in the Battle against Gangsters and Advancing it to a New Level

As reported by Chinapeace (http://www.chinapeace.org.cn/, the website of the Central Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs), the Committee on Political and Legislative Affairs recently published an article “Advice on the Battle against Gangsters and Advancing it to a New Level.” It was said in the article that all the relevant departments in all areas must continue to do well in everything relating to this battle; they must maintain a high and attacking position against gangsters and make sure that the battle is advancing to a deeper level.

We have heard that since this battle was officially announced in February 2006, relevant departments in all areas have used various effective ways and have dealt a great blow to the gangsters’ criminal activities. As of today, 1,221 gang organizations have been eliminated, 12,850 other evil forces (groups) have been eliminated, 87,396 suspects related to these criminal activities have been captured, 104,610 various types of criminal cases have been pursued, and 2,586 different kinds of guns have been confiscated.

The committee pointed out that gangsters are still very active and, in the near future, there will be a lot of criminal activities. Especially since we are affected by the economic crisis, the number of pessimistic factors and social conflicts has obviously been increasing. This, to some degree, contributes to the growth and development of gangsters. In this situation, further continuing the battle against gangsters is a realistic need in order to actively deal with their new directions and changes and to maintain the stability of society. It is also a requirement in order to prevent the gangsters growth in the economic field and for the economy to develop well and quickly. Lastly it is a strategic decision to prevent the gangsters from penetrating the political world and to strengthen the Chinese Communist Party’s dictatorship position in China.

The committee pointed out that we must raise our understanding and pay close attention to those who are in leadership positions. Different levels of the Communist Party Committee members and different levels of governments need to take on the political responsibility of cracking down on gangsters, and effectively strengthening the leadership for the battle against these criminal forces. They must show a clear position in supporting this battle and eliminate resistance in the political law departments. They must care and support the development of different levels in the “office of battling gangsters,” and developing professional teams. They must make sure that the force is there, the money is there, and a strong momentum is there. They must insist on and perfect the responsibility system of “one leader with total responsibility,” supervision, accountability, and periodical reporting. Supervision needs to be strengthened and the system of “one vote rejection” for the social security comprehensive management (Editor’s Note: the “one vote rejection” system refers to rejecting the leader’s promotion or merit award if he does not meet the comprehensive management goal assigned to him) needs to be used well. Detailed methods such as warnings, warning conversations, yellow card warnings, and one vote rejection need to be perfected. For those who, due to their ignorance of the importance [of their work] or their ineffective work, cause gangsters to succeed in what they are doing and lead to severe consequences, one vote rejection must be used. Those advanced groups and individuals who contribute a lot in the battle against gangsters need to be rewarded. We must further propagandize the strong will of the party committee and the government in battling gangsters and create a good social environment for cracking down on gangsters.

The committee emphasizes that we must increase the force of striking and have a more clear emphasis on the targets. Relevant departments in all areas must insist on the principle of “a gangster must be eliminated and an evil force must be proscribed completely,” with each area’s own realistic situations, advancing in the work of attacking gangsters and firmly restraining the growth of gangsters. One must focus on the most important parts, and increase the force of searching and resolving. We must strike hard against those gangs that have infiltrated the areas of construction, transportation, and mining, especially those have who gotten into major national projects; we must strike hard against those gangsters who have disrupted agricultural economic growth, and control village governance; we must strike hard against those gangsters who manipulate the activities of pornography, gambling, and drug abuse and trafficking; and we must insist on fixing all the major security issues that are mainly related to the gangsters. Different levels of Discipline Supervision and Investigation departments, Communist Party Committees, and Political and Legislative Affairs Committees need to be strengthened in digging out those gangsters who are “under the umbrella (of corrupt government officials),” and coordinate and supervise this work well. They must make sure that the investigation of the “under the umbrella” cases and other criminal cases are going on at the same time. One needs to make sure to completely destroy the financial foundation of the gangsters in order to prevent them from emerging again.

The committee emphasized that we must further strengthen prevention and comprehensively treat this issue. The Communist Party Committee members and the local governments must coordinate all areas, insist on preventive issues, and resolve problems with many approaches simultaneously. We need to work hard on all areas including striking, prevention, education, transformation, management,  improvement, and so on. We can integrate various types of methods, including political, economic, administrative, legal, cultural, educational, and so on, to comprehensively treat the criminal activities of the gangsters. We have to do our best to eliminate the soil that helps the gangsters grow and develop. We need to strengthen the supervision of the fields that gangsters are prone to control, including the fields of construction, transportation, mining, entertainment, and others. We need to perfect the system for allowing businesses to enter a field, and strengthen law enforcement, inspection, and supervision. We must firmly prevent phenomena such as forced demolition of people’s homes, illegal mining, business monopolies, and forced trading. The communication between the official branches, including police, justice, jails, forced labor camps, and the residential branches, such as street and community authorities, needs to be enhanced. They can closely cooperate and work with each other. This way the supervision of the people discharged from prisons and forced labor camps can be improved. We need to improve the employment assistance for special groups of people who are currently unemployed and others who just moved into the area, as well as the social security services for these people. We must actively service and manage the migrant population and also do well in crime prevention work regarding the young. We can place the battle against gangsters together with combating corruption and upholding integrity, and further reinforce the education, management, and supervision of leaders. This way we can strictly prevent the gangsters from penetrating into the party organs and government branches and prevent the gangsters from acquiring “safety umbrellas.”

The committee asked us to take another step in perfecting a long-term effective system and building a solid basis. All branches in all areas need to carefully summarize the experiences of battling gangsters and make this battle systematic, standardized, and legal, and, in a timely manner, promote this system into the actual work. We must continue to emphasize the leadership teams’ coordination and instruction and perfect the system of joint meetings among different branches. This way communication and coordination can be improved. We need to actively explore in order to construct a working mechanism between the political branches and judicial branches, and also between these two branches and other branches such as industry, commerce, taxes, construction, territory, finance, culture, and so on. This way we can form a group force, prevent crime, and fight the gangsters together. We need to look at reality, refine all the methods, and constantly perfect the supervision system regarding the processes of investigation, prosecution, trial, and enforcement against the criminals who are gangsters. We need to strengthen the professional forces of investigation, prosecution, and trial in criminal cases against gangsters and continue to work hard on constructing a special force for criminal investigation in related police and security organizations.

Meng Jianzhu: Maintain an Active Attacking Mode and Advance the Battle against Gangsters to a New Level

On July 7, 2009, the Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs held a video and telephone conference on further advancement to thoroughly eliminate gangsters. Meng Jianzhu, a State Council member and a member of the Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs, stated that all localities and all departments must accurately understand the new trends of gangsters’ criminal activities, and take the newly encountered problems during the fight against gangsters seriously. From the attitude of maintaining social harmony and stability and consolidating the party’s ruling foundation, they should fully understand the special importance of advancing the special fight on eliminating gangsters, and earnestly strengthen job responsibility and the sense of urgency. With the spirit of being responsible to the party and the people, they should solidly advance the special fight against gangsters and greet the 60^th anniversary of the new China with a fine job performance.

It is reported that since February 2006, when the Committee of Political and Legislative Affairs extended the special battle against gangsters across the nation, all localities and all departments have organized carefully and arranged thoroughly to initiate swift and fierce attacks against gangsters, and have made tangible progress. The public security bureaus across the nation have investigated a total of 1,221 gangster organizations, wiped out 12,850 evil forces (groups), captured more than 87,000 suspects, investigated, and solved over 100,000 criminal cases, and seized more than 2,500 different kinds of guns; the procuratorial agencies indicted over 1,000 gangster groups; and the People’s court tried 689 gangster-related cases, all of which have powerfully suffocated the gangsters.

Meng Jianzhu pointed out that since our country is in a historic period of economic transition and social transformation, the breeding ground and the environment for gangsters still exists, and the gangster’s criminal activities are still relatively active. Under this circumstance, further promoting the fight against gangsters is necessary to positively respond to the new trends and changes in the gangsters’ crimes and to maintain social harmony and stability; is demanded in order to firmly curb the gangster’s expansion into the economic area and to serve economic development; and is needed in order to firmly prevent gangsters from infiltrating the political sphere and to consolidate the party’s governing base.

Meng Jianzhu emphasized that all localities and all departments should adhere to the “Gangsters must be eliminated; root out gangsters” principle, further strengthen various fighting jobs, and resolutely prevent the gangsters’ spread and development. They should emphasize the focus points, determine to eradicate the tyrants, adhere to the coordination of supervision, and crack down sharply on major underworld organizations. They should persist in completely wiping out, rooting out the “protective umbrella” and destroying their economic foundation. They should stick to the law, pay attention to the cases’ qualities and improve their attack technique.

Meng Jianzhu urged that all localities should be under the unified leadership of the party’s committees and governments. On one hand, they should emphasize cracking down; on the other hand, they should emphasize prevention; with political, economic, social, cultural, and other methods and means, they should integratively manage the problems of gangster’s crimes, and eradicate the ground and conditions for fostering the gangster forces to the maximum extent. He stressed that all levels of Party committees and governments should conscientiously strengthen their organization and leadership during the fight against gangsters, strictly monitor work responsibilities, focus their efforts on propaganda, earnestly strengthen the development of special forces, and ensure the advancement of the fight against gangsters.

Endnotes:
[1] Xinhua, July 29, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2009-07/29/content_11792006.htm
[2] Xinhua, July 8, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2009-07/08/content_11670845.htm

{Editor’s Note: In June 2006, Beijing released an eight-episode TV documentary series: Preparing For Danger In Times Of Safety – Historic Lessons Learned from the Demise of Soviet Communism. It was a research project conducted by the government think tank, the Chinese Academy of Social Science. Afterwards, the Chinese Communist Party instructed party members across the nation to watch the series and launch serious discussions. The script of the prelude of the documentary quotes Hu Jintao’s words, “There are multiple factors contributing to the disintegration of the Soviet Union, a very important one being Khrushchev throwing away Stalin’s knife and Gorbachev’s open betrayal of Marxism-Leninism.” The full text of the narratives has been translated. What follows is the fifth episode.}

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