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Beijing Approves SCO’s Long Term Friendly Cooperation Treaty

On June 26, the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC), China’s top legislature, Thursday approved the Treaty of the Long-term Good Neighborly and Friendly Cooperation between Member Countries of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO). The 26-clause treaty is aimed to develop the region into a peaceful, cooperative, prosperous and harmonious one. It asks all signing countries to support each others on major issues regarding sovereignty, territorial integrity, security and development. A signing country should not join in any other alliances or groups or activities that are hostile to other signees, according to the multinational pact.SCO members include the Republic of Kazakhstan, the People’s Republic of China, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan and the Republic of Uzbekistan.

Source: Xinhua, June 26, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-06/26/content_8445274.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Local Governments Lead in Violations of Land Use Law

The per capita cultivated land in China is 1.38 mu, below 40% of the average in the world, said Minister of Land Resources Xu Shaoshin June 25, 2008. From 2001 to 2005, cultivation land in China decreased by 110,000,000 mu, mostly due to urban economic development. Local governments increasingly are the offenders in land uses cases, accounting for 80% of land under investigation, Xu said. For the period between 2001 and 2005, only 1% of government officials in the land use violations were disciplined and about 0.1% of violators were charged with criminal offenses.

Source: Xinhua, June 25, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/legal/2008-06/25/content_8433980.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

120,000 in Qingchuan County Lost Homes in Earthquake

120,000 residents in Qingchuan County, Sichuan, have lost means of livelihood during the May 12 earthquake, said Qingchuan County official. At the press conference of the Sichuan government, Li Haozheng, Communist Party Secretary for Qingchuan said only 5% of the buildings might be used after reinforcement and 140,000 mu of farmland were destroyed. Victims have no land to farm or foundation to re-build houses or roads to travel, as Li put it. 

Source: Xinhua, June 25, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-06/25/content_8438575.htm

Briefings | | |   Social Stability

Mainland Official Media Expected to Re-enter Taiwan

Taiwan Mainland Affairs Council is expected to pass a proposal to allow Xinhua and People’s Daily, two official news agencies from mainland China, to re-enter Taiwan and setup their correspondence stations before the end of June. The permit is for three months plus one extension. The Council is also expected to loosen up the requirements for mainland movie stars to perform in Taiwan.

Both agencies were asked to leave Taiwan in 2005 after Beijing passed the “Anti-Separation Law”. The agencies were said to have reported “biased and untruthful” news during that time.

Source: BBC, June 24, 2008
http://news.bbc.co.uk/chinese/simp/hi/newsid_7470000/newsid_7472000/7472094.stm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Research Report by Chinese Scholar: U.S. Food Weapon Is Approaching China

Xinhua newspaper International Herald Turbine reports: after one year’s research at the farms in the United States, Zhou Li, associate professor at the Institute of Agriculture and Development of China’s People’s University, has completed his report “The Food Politics and Food Weapon of the United States.” He concluded that in the current international food crisis, a well-schemed “conspiracy” (by the U.S) was neglected by the international media. He said that “the monopolized manipulation by the world’s food giants is the real reason behind the food crisis.” And “in the developed countries under the United States, the big food companies have formed ‘Food Empire’ and have controlled the politics and economy of many developing countries.” He believes that food crisis is the result of the Empire’s expansion and that U.S.’s food conspiracy has already affected China.
 
Source: Xinhua, June 18, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2008-06/18/content_8390549.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Sydney University Opens Confucius Institute

Chinese news website SecretChina quotes a report by Sydney Morning Herald that Sydney University has opened Confucius Institute the week of June 19, 2008. According to the report, 50 percent of the funding comes from the “Chinese Office” of China’s Education Ministry. Qiu Shaofang, general consular of the Chinese Consulate in Sydney, said that if the Confucius Institute supports those students and staffs who oppose Chinese Communist Party’s policy toward Falun Gong and Tibetans, Chinese government will not accept.

Originally, China planed to open 100 Confucius Institutes. So far, 227 such institutes in 66 countries have already established. China has set a new goal of having 1,000 Confucius Institutes worldwide.

Source: Secretchina.com, June 19, 2008
http://www.secretchina.com/news/250237.html

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend

Xinhua Article: Offense and Defense Switch Position in the China-U.S Economic War

In a report by Xinhua newspaper International Herald Turbine on the Forth China-U.S. Strategic Economic Dialogue held in Annapolis, Maryland (June 17 and 18), the article concluded that in The United States Naval Academy where the dialogue is held, the situation of “U.S. playing offense, China playing defense” is turning around. Different from the past dialogue that U.S. side repeatedly demanded China to “solve problems,” China now confidently talked to the U.S. side and proposed constructive suggestions. The article compared the dialogue as a show of “big countries dancing together.

Source: Xinhua, June 20, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-06/20/content_8405008.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Russian Survey Showed US as No. 1 Enemy; China Ranked No. 2 Ally

A survey results reported by a Russian newspaper suggested that 33.3 percent of surveyed consider US as its number one enemy to Russia and Sakartvelo ranked the second at 31 percent. Among the list of allies, 35.5 percent surveyed chose White Russia as number one and followed by China as the second at 18 percent. Germany ranked the third at 16.7 percent followed by Armenia at 12.7 percent, France 9.4 percent, and Italy at 9.1 percent.

Source: Xinhua, June 20, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-06/20/content_8399299.htm

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend