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Briefings - 1148. page

Government to Curb Steel Production

Ministry Industry and Information Technology has serious concerns over surplus in steel production and recently issued an urgent directive to curb the steel production plant. The notice titled “Control the Over Production in Steel Manufacturing” urged the commercial banks to discontinue the lending to those factories who continue to grow its production while disregarding market demand. The notice stated that “total production in 2009 only needs to maintain at 4.7 billion tons to meet the demand while the production output has exceeded between 25 – 30 percent.”

The latest statistics released by the Custom office suggested that the steel export in April was 1.4 million ton, 260,000 ton less than March and down 70.5 percent compared with the same period last year. April year to date export was 6.55 tons, down 59.5 percent compared with last year. For Jan and Feb, large to mid size steel factories lost 15.5 billion yuan, which have been five straight months of financial loss since last October. Among those, half of the factories with production output above 5 million tons suffered financial losses.

Source: May 13, 2009, 21st Century News Group
http://www.21cbh.com/HTML/2009-5-13/HTML_PUBN53A2EA2X.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Foreign Investment Continues to Decline in April

Foreign investment in China continues to decline in the past seven months. According to Ministry of Commerce, foreign investment in April was down 22.5 percent to US$5.89 billion compared with the same period of last year and 9.5 percent down from March. The countries with the largest decline were Korea, US and Hong Kong where Hong Kong accounts for 45 percent of total foreign investment in China.

Source: BBC, May 15, 2009 http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_8050000/newsid_8051200/8051229.stm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Beijing Urges U.S. Silence on China’s Press Freedom

On May 1, 2009, President Obama issued a statement for World Press Freedom Day (May 3). In his statement, he criticized China for its imprisonment and harassment of journalists and restrictions on freedom of the press in general. On May 4, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Ma Chaoxu urged the United States to "respect the facts" and stop criticizing the press freedom situation in China.

Ma argued that that the Chinese Government has been "lawfully" protecting citizens’ freedom of speech and "fully encouraging" the supervision from news media and public opinion.

Source: China News, May 4, 2009.
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/news/2009/05-04/1674891.shtml

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China’s Policemen To Station In Taiwan

According to a media report, China’s Public Security personnel will begin stationing in Taiwan, starting early next year.  The stated purpose is to fight serious cross-boarder crimes in a more coordinated way. Taiwan’s chief of criminal investigation said that this is just media speculation and details have not been finalized, but they will work toward that goal.

Source: Central News Agency, May 8, 2009
http://www.cna.com.tw/SearchNews/doDetail.aspx?id=200905080083

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Senior Party Discipline Officials Receive Intensive Training

More than 2,000 Party secretaries of the Party’s discipline organs at the county level throughout China are gathering in Beijing to attend a focused training course, the first of its kind in the history of the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection.

Xinhua reported that the training, held in the Party School of the CPC Central Committee, the National School of Administration, and the Training Center of the Supervision Ministry of the CPC Central Committee, has been aimed at improving their abilities to fight against corruption as well as maintain social stability.  The training began on May 8, 2009.

Source: Xinhua, May 12, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2009-05/12/content_11358058.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Disasters Have Significantly Damaged China’s Economy

According to a white paper on disaster relief that the State Council Information Office released on May 11, 2009, changes in China’s climate, economic growth and urbanization are placing increasing pressure on the country’s resources and the environment. On average, from 1990 to 2008, about 300 million people every year were affected, 3 million houses collapsed, 9 million people were re-located, and direct economic damages reached more than 200 billion Yuan. According to the white paper, the 1998 flood of the Yangtze River, the 2006 Sichuan draught, the Huai River flood in 2007, the freezing rain and snow disaster in southern China in 2008 and the Wenchuan earthquake on May 12, 2008, were particularly damaging. 

Source: State Council Information Office of the People’s Republic of China, May 11, 2009 http://www.scio.gov.cn/syyw/ejtt/200905/t319397.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Xi Jinping on “Scientific Outlook on Development”

Xinhua has recently reported on several of Xi Jinping’s activities related to the “Scientific Outlook on Development” theory that was Hu Jintao’s main “theoretical contribution” to Communism. Xi is a member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Vice President of China.

On May 6 and 7, Xi went to several universities in Beijing to conduct a study of the “Study and Practice of the Theory of Scientific Outlook on Development” movement at universities. On May 7, Xi also gave a speech at the Conference of the University “Study and Practice” Movement at the People’s University, in Beijing. On May 8, Xi Jinping met the participants of the National Conference on the Party’s Construction at the Government Offices. During all these events, Xi Jinping emphasized the need to further implement the “Scientific Outlook on Development” theory.

Source: Xinhua, May 7 & 8, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2009-05/07/content_11332299.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2009-05/08/content_11337545.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Solution for Unemployment: Sending College Graduates to Rural Areas

To resolve the pressure of unemployment for college graduates, the Communist Leaders are following the pattern established by Mao Zedong during the cultural revolutionary period, of sending youth to rural areas.

On May 3, Premier Wen Jiabao went to Tsinghua University, Beijing, to meet the 2009 class graduates who will work at the rural areas of China. Although it is the best university in China, Tsinghua graduates are also facing an unemployment challenge and have been encouraged to take entry-level positions or go to rural areas. This year, more than 10% of Tsinghua graduates will work in the West or Northeast areas of China (which are considered to be poor areas with bad living conditions in China). [1]

On May 4, member of the Politburo Standing Committee of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Li Changchun delivered a speech at the 90th anniversary Commemoration of the “May 4” Movement (a youth patriotism event celebrated by the CPC) at the Great Hall of the People, Beijing. He implicitly indicated that the youth should go to poor and rural areas by saying, “(Youth) should learn from books, from practice, and from people; combine ‘book reading’ and ‘traveling around’ together; voluntarily go to the place where the country and the people need you the most, to places which perform the forefront work for “Reform and Open” and “Modernization construction,” and to the places with complex situations and a lot of growth opportunity; understand the reality of the country, and the opinions of the grass-roots level people, …” [2]

Source:
[1] Xinhua, May 3, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2009-05/03/content_11305182_1.htm
[2] Xinhua, May 4, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2009-05/04/content_11311353.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability