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Briefings - 1159. page

Global Times: Get Out of “US Dollar Trap”

The Global Times, under Chinese state-owned People’s Daily, published a report on various views about the strategy to get out of the “US Dollar trap”. All the scholars quoted in the report agreed that in the long run, China should reduce the amount of its assets valued in US Dollars. However, most of them agreed that it’s not wise to do so in the short term. Exit strategies discussed in the report included: increasing the use of RMB as a settlement currency, increasing stockpiling physical strategic resources and taking advantage of existing large US Dollar assets to gain more share in the current world financial system.

Source: Global Times, May 8, 2009.
http://finance.huanqiu.com/roll/2009-05/455186.html

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Chinese Exporting Companies Facing a Wave of Refused Shipments

The International Herald Leader, under Xinhua News, reported that a large number of Chinese exporting companies are dealing with more and more refused shipments. With the international financial crisis, various excuses are being used by foreign importers to reject shipped goods. Credit risks are significantly increasing. For example, in the first 2 months of 2009, Chinese private exporters alone lost $100 million due to refused shipments – an increase of 87.5% compared to last year.

 Source: International Herald Leader, May 8, 2009.
 http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2009-05/08/content_11334225.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

City of Beijing Raise Water Prices

Beijing plans to raise water prices to resolve the water shortage crisis due to the six year delay of “South-North Water Diversion” project. Water prices increased four times since 2001, from 3.01 to 5.04. The city is also considering monetary award to encourage reduced water consumption.

Source: Xinhua, May 11, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-05/11/content_11348945.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

On the One Year Anniversary of Wenchuan Earthquake

On the one year anniversary of Sichuan Wenchuan Earthquake, Xinhua’s front page carried a number of articles praising the Party’s earthquake recovery effort. While the state media continues to attribute the earthquake to natural disaster, building structure defects have remained a major outcry among the grieving parents, whose voices were completely suppressed by state media. According to VOA, of those who tried to conduct independent investigations of the earthquake, 80 percent have been summoned by the police. Some had their photos erased while in police custody.

Source:
Voice of America, May 9, 2009
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/w2009-05-09-voa31.cfm
Xinhua, May 10, 2009
http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/xw.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Xinhua’s Blog on Bombing of Chinese Embassy in Yugoslavia: We Can Not Forget their Blood

On the tenth anniversary of the bombing of the Chinese embassy in Yugoslavia, Xinhua started a blog in memory of the incident and to ask the Chinese people not to forget about the past.

The blog had the following in the introduction: “Today is the ten year anniversary of the attack on our embassy in Yugoslavia. Ten years ago on May 8, US air force dropped 5 bombs to attack China’s embassy in Yugoslavia resulting in the death of three Chinese reporters… (The attack) enraged of tens and millions of Chinese college students and patriotic civilians. Looking back on the attack and how the US government handled themselves, it is not inappropriate at all to describe them as ‘arrogant’ and ‘barbarian.’ The attack was arrogant and the after attack was even worse. It was the tremendous amount of sincere effort from the Chinese people that has reconciled the cooperation between the two countries. But the US is still on guard against us and the underlying hostility still remains… We shall not forget the past as many incidents are worth remembering…”

Source: Xinhua, May 8, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-05/08/content_11334962.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

New Law Further Hinders Freedom of Expression

The recent implementation of an Internet regulation in Hangzhou city Zhejiang province raised some serious concerns over the ordinance itself being too fuzzy and with much gray area.

There are specific technical problems in identifying and determining vaguely defined unlawful conducts. At the same time, the deficiencies in protection of civil rights will result in rights abuses and will inevitably lead to distortion in the implementation of the new regulation. In addition, since the existing legal system in general is inadequate in providing enough open channels of public expression; lawful citizens have been repeatedly reported and retaliated as consequences of legitimate expression, introducing such a specific legislation will inevitable harm freedom of speech, suppress the already restricted cyber space that many rely on for anonymous public expression of opinions.

Source: Nanfang News, May 4, 2009
http://big5.southcn.com/gate/big5/opinion.southcn.com/soc/content/2009-05/04/content_5119294.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Hu Jingtao Demands Party Loyalty from National Defense Students

The Ministry of Education and the People’s Liberation Army General Political Department jointly issued a few days ago the requirements for the national defense students.  Students are demanded to cultivate the “core values” which Hu Jingtao put forward as "loyalty to the party, love for the people, service to the country and devotion to the mission and upholding honor."

[Editor’s notes: National Defense students are college students who are selected by the military as reserve officers. They receive national defense scholarship during their study and will serve the military as an officer after graduating from college.]

Source: Xinhua News, May 7, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2009-05/07/content_11331589.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

PLA’s Largest Millitary Exercise Taking Place Later This Year

The People’s Liberation Army will conduct a series of cross-region military exercises in the second half of the year that involves four military regions and will take two months to complete.  This is the largest exercise in the history of PLA.

The four military regions taking part in this exercise will dispatch a total of nearly 50,000 personnel; various types of vehicles and large weaponries and equipment count to more than 60,000 in units; the military operation affects more than 50,000 km, the longest motorized travel distance is over 2,400 km. maneuverability will be facilitated with civil aviation, railway transport, and motorized road units.

Source: China News, May 5, 2009
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/news/2009/05-05/1676623.shtml

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military