Skip to content

Briefings - 1207. page

Shandong’s Key CCP Official Sentenced to Life Imprisonment

On February 5, 2008, the Intermediate People’s Court of Xiamen City, Fujian Province sentenced Du Shecheng, former Deputy Secretary of Shandong Province’s CCP (Chinese Communist Party) Committee and Secretary of Qingdao City’s CCP Committee, was sentenced to life sentence with the charge of bribery, deprived of lifetime political rights, and confiscated personal assets. The courts found that while in the office of Vice Governor of Shandong Province, Mayor and CCP Secretary of Qingdao City, Du accepted briberies as high as 6.26 million RMB (0.88 million USD) from individuals and organizations.

Source: Procuratorial Daily, February 5, 2008
http://www.jcrb.com/200802/ca677369.htm

China and Japan Have a Close-Door Meeting on the Dumpling Poisoning Incident

China and Japan’s officials of quality inspection and commerce had a closed-door meeting on February 5 in Beijing to discuss the Japanese food poisoning incident by pesticide-tainted dumplings imported from China. Both sides expressed to closely cooperate in the investigation. They will go to the food processing company in Hebei together for further investigation.

Source: Xinhuanet.com, February 5, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-02/05/content_7571883.htm

Xinhua Headline: WillAmerican Democracy Be Able to Spread to the Whole World?

In today’s world news section, Xinhua runs a headline of "Will ‘American Democracy’ Be Able to Spread to the Whole World?" followed by a group of articles. The articles emphasize that the world is against hegemony, China has its own version of democracy, and that developing countries cannot simply import democracy.

Source: Xinhua, February 5, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-02/05/content_7570006.htm

Government Anticipates January CPI Reaching New Highs.

Vice Chairman of National Development and Reform Commission, Zhang Guobao, stated during an interview on January 30, 2008 that he does not rule out the January CPI reaching new highs. He stated that short-term adverse weather accelerates food price increase and inflation is expected to remain at a high level this year.

Source: Xinhua, February 3, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2008-02/03/content_7556791.htm

Which Comes First: Fiscal Income or Personal Income?

Fiscal revenue of the government and per capita net income of farmers are part of criteria in the performance appraisal of officials, according to Xinhua’s publication, Banyuetan.

The publication continues that some local officials are eager to launch projects that tend to generate high fiscal income at the cost of high pollution, low employment rate and low-income growth of local residents.

Banyuetan (Bi-Weekly Discussion) is a magazine published by Xinhua on behalf of the Publicity Department, Central Committee of The Communist Party of China.

Source: Xinhua, February 3, 2008.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2008-02/03/content_7559847.htm

Looking Ahead: Overheating in 2008

In anticipation of more international conflicts, Xinhua publishes the focus of macro government policies for 2008 that include the following among others:

· Prevent overheating of economy through a variety of monetary and fiscal policies.
· Adjust structure of import and export to reduce trade surplus and avoid becoming the focal point of conflicts.
· Tighten cross-border capital flows and management.
· Promote real estate property tax reform.

Source: Xinhua, February 3, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2008-02/03/content_7559492.htm

2007 Saw Rise in Economic Crimes in China

Wu Heping, the spokesman from the Ministry of Public Security, told reporters that there were 84,000 economic crimes out of 4.75 million criminal cases in 2007, an increase of 4.2% from last year. This is the fourth year in a row during which China had seen a marked increase in economic crimes.

Among the economic offenses, violations of company regulations and financial misconduct led the increase, rising 15% and 14% respectively.

Source: Chinanews.com, January 30, 2008
http://news.sohu.com/20080130/n254969860.shtml