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Briefings - 1191. page

Study Times: Warning of Mounting Social Unrest

The social unrest in Weng’an is not an isolated incident, said Study Times, the publication of the Party School of the Chinese Communist Party.  The article cited official statistics on the increase of social unrests, 8,700 in 1993, 87,000 in 2003 and over 90,000 in 2006.  “The upward trend of numbers continues.”  The article held that the Weng’an incident is representative of major social unrest in recent years in terms of the number of participants, duration, intensity of conflicts, and their ramifications.”  

On June 28, over ten thousand local residents gathered in front of government buildings in Weng’an County, Guizhou Province, over the investigation of the death of a female high school student.  Angry crowds torched the police station, county government building, and Civil Affairs Bureau building. 1500 anti-riot police arrived on Sunday morning and used tear gas and high voltage batons at the scene. It was reported that at least three people died, 200 people were arrested including 30 middle school students, and 150 injured.

Source: Xinhua, September 8, 2008
http://news/xinhuanet.com/legal/2008-09/08/content_9847136.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

State Media Silent on Anniversary of Mao’s Death

September 9 marked the 32nd anniversary of the death of Mao Zedong, the former Chairman and idol of China. Chinese state media had little coverage and remained low key on the anniversary of Mao’s death. Mao’s name has apparently been one of the sensitive names about which the government discourages the open discussion. One posting on the issue was found on house.focus.cn titled: “Chinese people will never forget Mao Zedong”. But when the posting was opened, a message jumped out: “this posting has been deleted after inspection.”

Source: Voice of America, September 9, 2008
http://www.voanews.com/chinese/w2008-09-09-voa47.cfm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Xinhua Defending Increases in China’s Defense Budget

Xinhua published a series of articles in the past few days defending the increases in China’s defense budget and further elaborating on how China feels about the speculation from the West over the lack of transparency in the defense budget.

One of the articles cited: “There is an unwritten rule that exists among US intelligent agencies that China’s publicized defense budget only accounts for half or one third of the actual spending. Therefore, the more information we share, more speculation it would bring. … Apparently, China’s defense budget has become their targeted topic.”

On September 5, Japan issued the 2008 Defense White Paper, in which, it named China for lack of transparency in its military spending.

Source: Xinhua, September 9, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-09/09/content_9872294.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Phoenix TV Commentator Recommends Using Lawsuits to Attack Foreign Media Defaming China

Hong Kong Phoenix TV commentator He Liangliang published an article in Xinhua’s newspaper International Herald Tribune under the title “Using Lawsuits to Attack the Foreign Media Making Fake News, Threaten the Media Defaming China.” He believes no matter whether (China) wins or loses the lawsuit, it will be sufficient to threaten and shock the Western media who think they will pay no price to defaming China. He says that China should organize a specialized talent team, prepare fully, and that China now already has such a capability. He believes such action can make the target media lose their reputation, audience, and advertisement market.

Source: Xinhua, September 9, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-09/09/content_9866940.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Xinhua Reports Iranian President’s Comment: American Imperialism Has Come to the End

Xinhua posted a news article first reported by China News Agency about Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s comments on U.S. policy and its challenge to other country’s interests and national integrity. The report quoted Ahmadinejad who said the U.S. is facing a deadlock and continuous failure in every aspects, “American imperialism has come to a dead end, American philosophy, culture, and morale are no longer appealing to other people.” “No country likes American imperialism, its interference in all issues including international issues not only is of no help to solve the problems, it makes the problems more complicated.”

Source: Xinhua, September 8, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-09/08/content_9846850.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Jane’s Information Group Criticized for Hyping “China Threat” Theory

An article from Global Times criticized Jane’s Information Group for hyping the “China Threat” theory in its recently published report.  The report has predicted that China was to grow to be the largest weapons exporting country in the world. The article claimed that the military expense quoted by Jane’s Information Group was overstated without any support. It said that some western countries have never trusted the 2007 White Paper that China submitted. The article also said that the US needs to take the blame for over-hyping the “China Threat” theory. In the mean time, China will continue to grow its military power regardless of the speculations, cited the article.

Source:
Xinhua, September 7, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-09/07/content_9820428.htm
Jane’s Industry Quarterly – China, India and Russia In The Changing Global Defence Market, September 3, 2008
http://www.janes.com/media/releases/pc080903_1.shtml

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

CASS scholar: US is On Guard against the Emergence of China’s Soft Power

“The US is uneasy about the emergence of China’s soft power and will take measures to make up its own losses.” Fan Jishe told Global Times (Huan Qiu Shi Bao) referring to a report published by Congressional Research Studies (CRS) titled “Comparing Global Influence: China’s and U.S. Diplomacy, Foreign Aid, Trade, and Investment in the Developing World.” Fan said: “The US is concerned that China may compete with the US in its appeal to other countries.”

In referring to an earlier report, written by CRS under the request of Congressman Biden titled “China’s Foreign Policy and ‘Soft Power’ in South America, Asia, and Africa”, Fan said that the first report was focused on the definition of China’s soft power and its impact to the US-China relationship. The second one was to compare the soft power between China and US and U.S. foreign policy options in light of China’s emergence.

Fan is a researcher from Department of American Diplomacy at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.

Source:
Global Times, September 8, 2008
http://world.huanqiu.com/roll/2008-09/219518.html
Comparing Global Influence: China’s and U.S. Diplomacy, Foreign Aid, Trade, and Investment in the Developing World, August 15, 2008
http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/row/RL34620.pdf
China’s Foreign Policy and ‘Soft Power’ in South America, Asia, and Africa
http://www.fas.org/irp/congress/2008_rpt/crs-china.pdf

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

People’s Daily: A Powerful China Will Bring Good Sino-Japanese Relations

Peoples.com.cn under the People’s Daily quoted an article on the recent resignation of Fukuda as Japanese Prime Minister by Wen Wei Po, a pro-China regime newspaper in Hong Kong.  The Wen Wei Po article dismisses the concerns of a more conservative Taro Aso as successor and holds that the stronger China becomes, the better the bilateral relations, and the easier the issues such as East China Sea will be resolved.  The Chinese website quoted Wen Wei Po as saying the two problems in Japan are the aging of its population and the persistent weakening of its economy which contrasts with a post-Olympic Chinese economy.

Source: People’s Daily, September 5, 2008
http://world.people.com.cn/GB/14549/7807416.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend