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Briefings - 1095. page

Xinhua: Five Signals for 2010 Economic Prospects

The Central Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the State Council jointly organized the Central Economic Work Conference, which closed on December 7, 2009.

Xinhua summarizes the five signals from the conference as follows: Synchronize stable growth and acceleration of transformation of the economic development mode. Maintain the current fiscal and monetary policies. Increase the supplies of commercial housing and strengthen residents’ consumption power. Relax residence controls to promote urbanization in small and medium cities. Widen market access and deepen reform to add impetus to development

Source: Xinhua, December 7, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2009-12/07/content_12606896.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Ministry of Health: Pregnant Women Account for 13 Percent of H1N1 Deaths

According to the Ministry of Health, as of December 7, 2009, Mainland China had reported 326 deaths and 4,328 severe cases of H1N1 Influenza. Pregnant women accounted for 13.7% of the deaths. Zhong Nanshan, a member of the Chinese Academy of Engineering, stated that most of them were over 6 months pregnant. He further stated that 50% of the patients who have colds or fevers and visit the clinics have influenza and 90% of these influenza patients are H1N1. The current inventory of medicine for H1N1 treatment is for 2% of the population, e.g. for 26 million people. The medicine will be distributed from the central government to provinces, then to rural areas and local communities.

Zhong was reported earlier to state that 80% of the H1N1 deaths were pregnant women, which caused alarm among pregnant women. Later he stated that he meant 8% instead of 80%.

Source:
Xinhua, December 9, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-12/09/content_12619064.htm
Xinhua, December 10, 2009
http://www.xinhuanet.com/chinanews/2009-12/10/content_18463536.htm
Guangming Daily, quoting Guangzhou Daily, December 9, 2009
http://www.gmw.cn/content/2009-12/09/content_1018476.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Chinese Military Using Internet to Monitor Soldiers

The People’s Liberation Army is strengthening the ability of its political commissars to use information technology to monitor its officers and soldiers. Xinhua reports that in a recent contest of its political officers, the Jinan Military Region has added questions on collection and analysis of online information, production of multimedia courseware and simulation of wartime political works. 96 percent of the soldiers had Internet experience prior to joining the PLA. A common activity shared by those born in the 80s and 90s is to express independent opinion on the Internet. "This is an important channel for us to learn what our officers and soldiers really have on their minds,” said a political commissar from the "Tiger" Division of the Jinan Military Region.

Source: Xinhua, December 9, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-12/09/content_12619528.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

China Daily: Harper Gave up Hugh Rights for Economic Development

China Daily commented on Harper’s visit to China, saying that after years of being firm concerning human rights issues, Harper finally saw the light, became realistic and traded it for economic cooperation with China.

The commentary said that Canada’s support for Falun Gong, the Taiwan question, and the Tibet issue has greatly hurt the Sino-Canada relationship. On the contrary, the U.S. was quite pragmatic. Bush raised Sino-US ties to their best period in history, and Obama downplayed ideology and declared to respect other countries’ choices concerning internal matters. Finally, the economic pressure drew Harper to mend his China policy.

The commentary said “… if Canada respects China over issues concerning China’s core interests, bilateral ties could realize sound development.”

The Chinese version listed meeting the Dalai Lama in 2007 and refusing to attend the Beijing Olympic Games as Harper’s transgressions, which were not mentioned in the English version.

Source: People’s Daily, December 2, 2009
http://world.people.com.cn/GB/10494985.html
China Daily, December 2, 2009
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/opinion/2009-12/02/content_9098381.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

China Held Central Economic Work Conference

The Central Economic Work Conference took place in Beijing from December 5 to December 7. Xinhua reported that all nine members of the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau of the CPC Central Committee, nearly all members of the Political Bureau and many other high rank officials attended the meeting.

Hu Jintao gave a speech on the current internal and global economic status and the importance and urgency of accelerating the transformation of China’s economic development. Wen Jiabao laid out the economic development plan for 2010.

Source: Xinhua, December 7, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-12/07/content_12605370.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

CASS: 85% of Families in China Cannot Afford Housing

Housing prices in China have risen through the roof and are outside the range of any reasonable income, leaving 85% of families in China unable to buy a residence, disclosed the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS) in its 2010 Economic Blue Book. Government land supply policy and developers holding land for profit are blamed for the rise in housing prices in 2009.

The blue book indicated a reasonable ratio between house prices and resident’s income is between 3 and 6. However, in 2009, that ratio between city housing and city residents is 8.3, 22.08 for off farm workers, and 29.44 for farmers.

Source: Xinhua, December 7, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/house/2009-12/07/content_12604520.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Xinhua: What’s behind the “Made in China” CNN Commercial

The Chinese government recently delivered a “Made in China” commercial via CNN. The 30-second commercial took one and half years to prepare. It was paid for by multiple government-controlled chambers of commerce and reviewed and approved by the Ministry of Commerce. CNN was selected to run the commercial because it has the “biggest influence.” The total cost of the commercial was estimated to be tens of millions in RMB. The idea is to cleanse the image of “Made in China,” especially after western media’s widespread reports on the poor quality of Chinese products.

Source: Xinhua, December 3, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2009-12/03/content_12580786.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Xinhua: Hollywood Changing Attitude

Xinhua Net recently republished an article by Globe Magazine, which is a branch of Xinhua News Agency, on recent changes in Hollywood. The article stated the belief that the recent popular movie 2012 signals Hollywood’s changing attitude towards China. The change started from Kungfu Panda in 2008. In both of the movies, China had a positive image. The article concluded that there are three reasons for Hollywood’s change: (1) China is a rising world power; (2) The U.S. is facing challenges around the globe; (3) Hollywood cannot ignore the Chinese market.

Source: Xinhua, December 1, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/globe/2009-12/01/content_12570710.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations