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Briefings - 1229. page

Olympics: Pro-Democracy Student Leaders Demand Right to Return to China

A group of pro-democracy student leaders asked in a joint statement that China allow free travel. They and many others have had their Chinese passports revoked or renewal denied, effectively banning them from returning to China. Their joint statement says that the Olympic Charter prohibits any country from denying anyone the right to attend the Olympic Game on the basis of political or religious affiliation, and that China engages in political persecution via its passport administration, thus violating the Olympic Charter.

Source: Asian Times, March 6, 2008 reprinted by Boxun http://news.boxun.com/news/gb/intl/2008/03/200803070458.shtml

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China Launches Second Phase of Moon Probing System

Ye Peijian, an acadamic at CAS (Chinese Academy of Science) told the Chinese press that the second phase of China’s moon probing mission had begun. After launching its first lunar probe, named “Chang’e 1,” last year to “orbit” the moon, the second phase planned is a soft landing on the moon’s surface along with an “inspection using probing robots and probing devices," abbreviated as “landing”. According to Ye, the “landing” phase is scheduled to be completed by 2013. Experiments with the use of moonbuggies have also been conducted. The third phase will be a mission to carry out a soft landing on the moon’s surface and then return  the moonbuggy with collected lunar samples, abbreviated as “return”. Ye also anticipates that China will be capable of realizing a manned moon flight between 2020 and 2025.

Source: Xinhua, March 6, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-03/06/content_7727645.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Hong Kong Media on 2008 China’s Defense Budget

Double Digit Increase of Military Expenditure Has Continued for 20 years. Hong Kong’s Apple Daily published an article on March 5, 2008 on China’s newly released defense budget. It states that China’s military expenditure has been on the rise with a double digital increase for 20 years in a row. After the 1989 Tiananmen massacre when military forces were used to suppress the Beijing democracy movement, defense expenditure started to take off and hit 355.39 billion yuan last year, about 14 times what it was in 1989.

Apple Daily comments that the 2008 defense budget of 417.7 billion yuan is no surprise in light of last week’s lengthy article in the PLA Daily calling for a significant increase in the defense budget.

Source: Apply Daily, March 5, 2008 reprinted by New Century News. http://www.newcenturynews.com/Article/china/200803/20080305145831.html

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Xinhua Censors Wen’s Government Report

On March 5, the 11th National People’s Congress opened with Premier Wen Jiaobao’s two-and-half-hour report of government work. According to Radio Free Asia, in the transcript of Wen’s speech posted on the website of Xinhua New Agency, some of his words were missing. For example, in the part where Wen addressed  “strengthening the construction of socialistic democracy and the rule of law, facilitating social justice”, Xinhua’s report skipped the following words of Wen’s: “conduct democratic elections, democratic decision-making, democratic management, democratic supervision, and protect people’s rights to know, to participate, to express, and to supervise.”

Source: Radio Free Asia, March 5, 2008
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/shenrubaodao/2008/03/05/jiang_zhemin/

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

PLA: China’s Military Power is no Threat

China maintains a limited military power only to safeguard its independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity, and won’t pose a threat to any country, said Liao Xilong, Director of the General Logistics Department of People’s Liberation Army, according to Xinhua on March 5, 2008. According to Liao, the increased portion of the national defense budget will be used to increase subsidies for soldiers and officers, to provide food, gas, education and training, to improve the living conditions for troops stationed in remote regions, and to upgrade the military equipment of information technology.

Source: Xinhua, March 5, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/misc/2008-03/05/content_7725357.htm

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

Fiscal Revenue Growth Not the Result of State Tax Increase

China’s fiscal revenue in 2007 hit 5.13 trillion yuan (733 billion US dollars), an increase of 1.25 trillion yuan, or 32.4 percent over the previous year, released Ministry of Finance on March 5, 2008. Ministry of Finance maintains that China’s fiscal revenue has maintained a rapid growth, not because of State tax increase but as a result of statistical standards, price factors, the difference between the GDP structure and tax structure, tax collection and management, as well as some special factors.

Source: Ministry of Finance of China, March 5, 2008
http://www.mof.gov.cn/news/20080305_3482_31820.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

2008 Defense Budget Saw 17.6 Percent Increase From Prior Year

During the press conference at the First Session of the 11th National People’s Congress held on March 4, Jiang Enzhu, spokesperson of the conference disclosed that China’s defense budget for 2008 is 417 billion yuan (US$57.2 billion), a 17.6 percent increase from last year including currency impact. The increases are mainly to cover spending in army benefits, food and fuel consumption, administrative and training costs as well as equipment and weapon.

Source: China Review News, March 4, 2008
http://cn.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1005/8/3/1/100583185.html?coluid=4&kindid=18&docid=100583185&mdate=0304143540

Briefings | | |   Defense/Military

People’s Daily: Party Leadership is the Key for Realizing Socialist Democracy

This commentary article praised the speech given by General Secretary Hu Jintao regarding the path of the political reform in the Second Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China as "the intellectual foundation and political guarantee" for the two congressional conferences currently being held in Beijing. "Developing a socialist political system with Chinese characteristics is the correct path for achieving socialist democracy", the article cited the view emphasized by Hu. The perseverance of the Party’s leadership is the fundamental guarantee that the people are the masters of the country and that the country is ruled by law. In the end, the article states that China shall learn from the positive results of other forms of political culture, but shall never model the political system of the west, nor shall China abandon the essence of the country’s current political system.

Source: People’s Daily, March 2, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newmedia/2008-03/02/content_7698743.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics