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Briefings - 1000. page

Poverty Lies behind the Rising Consumption of Luxury Goods

Behind the increase in luxury brands, China’s manufacturing industry is silently creating poverty, said Twenty-first Century. Per Goldman Sachs, China is becoming the second largest consumer of luxury goods. With consumption in 2010 at $6.5 billion, luxury goods scored the fastest growth three years in a row. The Ministry of Commerce predicts that, by 2014, China will become the largest market for luxury goods in the world, accounting for 23% of the market share. However, “this may be a blessing for luxury brand names, but not for improving China’s domestic demand,” said the article. “Residential consumption in GDP spending has been on the decline every year, while government consumption is rising consistently. … Booming luxury consumption now has become a symbol of the gap between the rich and poor, and of sluggish domestic demand. It is very worrisome.”

Source: Twenty-first Century, December 30, 2010
http://www.21cbh.com/HTML/2010-12-30/yNMDAwMDIxMzcyNQ.html

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Focusing on a National Security Strategic Chain

PLA Daily published an article that Qiushi Journal later republished stating that China should focus on its national security strategic chain, which is composed of strategic resources, strategic industries, and strategic capabilities. “We should better utilize the resources in our nation to serve our national security and development purpose.” “(We should) construct a stable strategic resources security system (in the world) and increase our strategic resource reserve.” “International cooperation is the best way to obtain a supply of stable strategic resources, but we should never give up the option of using abnormal means to safeguard the security of our strategic resources.”

“Our military capability is the backbone of our national strategic capabilities.” “Our military capability should extend to wherever our national interests reach.” “It is critical to have our military capability reflect our national strategic status and interests."

Source: PLA Daily, December 23, 2010
http://www.chinamil.com.cn/jfjbmap/content/2010-12/23/content_46682.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Xinhua: Commentary on China’s Future Development

Xinhua published a commentary about the outlook for China’s future. Though the article was written with many glorious words, it stated, "The next five to ten years is not only a critical period for our country in terms of constructing a wealthy society; it is also a tough period in terms of overcoming escalating problems and increasing difficulties. Under the new situation, short term and long term problems in economic development intertwine, structural and systemic problems coexist, and internal and international problems interact, making it urgent to transform the economic development model and hard to improve people’s living standards and maintain social stability.”

The article mentioned several economic development directions: adopting a proactive fiscal policy and a stable monetary policy, expediting the realignment of the nation’s economic structure, stabilizing food prices (as a significant goal), improving economic development’s sustainability and the capacity of self-stimulus (ed: instead of relying on outside, or government stimuli), and increasing the quality and efficiency of economic development.

Source: Xinhua, January 2, 2011
http://cnstock.xinhuanet.com/index/gdbb/201012/1077104.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

People’s Daily Online: Internationalizing Chinese Literature

People’s Daily Online published an article about promoting Chinese literature to the world. The article advocated that “Chinese literature should have worldwide significance” and “as our economy has achieved great success, (Chinese) literature should have a worldwide view.”

The article suggested that creating literature needs innovation. “The first innovation is the concept of our national literature.” “(We should) absorb multi-dimensional cultural nutrition from the world” to create literature for the world. “The second is to establish confidence in our national literature.” “The third innovation is to create a new format for our national literature.”

Source: People’s Daily Online, December 31, 2010
http://culture.people.com.cn/GB/87423/13627724.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Global Times: The Regional Security Situation and China’s Countermeasures

Global Times, under the Chinese state daily news Renmin, recently published an introductory article on the research report “2010: The Regional Security Situation and China’s Countermeasures“ by the Pacific Research Institute of the China Academy of Social Sciences. The bottom line of the report is that, from northwest to southwest, neighboring regions are relatively stable, while from northeast to southeast they are problematic. The biggest change identified was the U.S. return to Asia. The biggest issue identified was the potential formation of a US-Japan-Korea military alliance. The biggest source of security threats identified was sea-based conflict.

Source: Global Times, December 21, 2010
http://opinion.huanqiu.com/roll/2010-12/1360188.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Xinhua: Theme-based Education Planned for the Political Judicial System

The Political and Judiciary Commission of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party decided that, in 2011, theme-based educational training activities will be planned to deal with significant issues of beliefs, goals, and the law-enforcement attitudes of the “Political Judicial System” personnel. “Lecture groups” will be formed to tour the country to promote “revolutionary traditions, ideals, and beliefs.” Self-regulation activities will be encouraged to ease the people’s severe complaints about the laxity in law-enforcement and the unfairness in sentencing. The mission is to ensure that the people believe justice is “right there. “ Meanwhile, the planned campaign is to get serious about effectuating police discipline. “Zero tolerance” will be enforced in cases involving the abuse of power. The police will also be required to take reports from the masses seriously.

Source: Xinhua, December 20, 2010
http://news.xinhuanet.com/2010-12/21/c_12900764.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

CRN: Large Adjustments in East Asia Since the Cold War

China Review News recently republished an article by Professor Zhu Feng from the School of International Relations, Peking University. Professor Zhu believes that the security structure in East Asia has been adjusting rapidly since the former post Cold War balance. The article described four adjustments: 1) “In the face of China’s rise, the U.S. involvement” brings “comfort” to the region; 2) Strategic competition between China and the primary powers in the region obviously extends to the level of naval forces; 3) Obama’s “Return to Asia” strategy over-emphasizes military alliances; 4) The Korean Peninsula situation is getting significantly worse – which may cause the Japanese to dramatically revitalize their arms situation. The author believes that two main factors have caused these adjustments: the change in the financial landscape of the region and China’s lack of a clear and consistent foreign policy.

Source: China Review News, December 24, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1015/4/9/0/101549093.html?coluid=5&kindid=23&docid=101549093&mdate=1224142600

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

China Review News: American Presence Impacts Sino-US Relations

On December 29, 2010, China Review News published an article titled “American Presence Impacts Sino-US Relations,” stating that the U.S. intention in returning to Asia is to be on guard against and contain China.

According to the article, on the one hand, Asia-Pacific countries are afraid of “Sino-US joint rule.” On the other hand, they do not really want to see a confrontation or even a war between China and the U.S. They would like to see a re-balancing of Sino-US relations, which would make Sino-US relations more complicated. “However, the U.S. and China still share common interests and a willingness to cooperate. In this sense, China should be more proactive in guiding Sino-US relations, prompting China and the United States to find more appropriate and comfortable ways to cooperate in the course of global and regional structural adjustments.”

Source: China Review News, December 29, 2010
http://gb.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1015/5/3/3/101553322.html?coluid=148&kindid=0&docid=101553322&mdate=1229002330

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations