Skip to content

Briefings - 1230. page

State Council: Make Sure Price Control is Implemented

A Recent directive from the General Office of State Council re-emphasized exerting price control with “effective measures.” On April 2, 2008, The Correcting Industrial Illegitimate Practice Office (CIIPO) of the State Council issued a Notice On Implementing The Correction Of Industrial Illegitimate Practice in 2008. The notice asked “relevant authorities” to strengthen regulation on market price, strictly control the government-stipulated price, and take temporary measures to intervene the prices of necessities. It also demanded “strike hard” on illegalities on pricing practices.

Source: China.com.cn, April 10, 2008
http://www.china.com.cn/policy/txt/2008-04/10/content_14769635.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Xinhua: U.S.-Russian Summit “Whitewashes” the Relationship Between the Two

On April 7, 2008, Xinhua issued a commentary on recent Bush’s visit to Russia. The “warm” meeting between Putin and Bush appeared to be inconsistent with the low tempreture of the bilateral relationship in 2007, Xinhua commented. It stated that the two were closer this time out of their own political agenda – none wanted to leave a negative diplomatic legacy. Xinhua is skeptical and predicts that the future of the Declaration on the Framework of the U.S. – Russia Strategic Relations" will most likely remain unknown.

Source:
Xinhua, April 7, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-04/07/content_7935072.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Xinhua: Western Media Influences Public Opinion against China

“Since the beginning of last year, western media on China has primarily been negative. Starting from huge trade deficit of the United States, western media frequently ran reports that the United States government official request China to accelerate RMB appreciation, followed by exaggerated news reports on quality of China-made products that led to China-made products being taken off the shelves in the U.S. stores. Subsequently, western media engaged in massive attacks on the quality of environment as the Beijing Olympics approaches, alleging that Beijing does not meet the prerequisites to host the Olympics. Recently, Tibetan issue has become the focus of western media. Due to the intensive negative reports by the Western media, the Americans will naturally regard China as one of their primary hostile countries.”

Source:
Xinhua, April 7, 2008.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-04/07/content_7932814.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

SARFT Establishes System To Monitor Real Time Nationwide TV Programming

China Administration of Radio, Film and TV (SARFT) now has a nationwide TV program monitoring network that allows government to monitor real time TV broadcasting of 1,372 programs. The capability is deemed one of the latest achievements of research and development of the SARFT. "This has totally changed the ineffective way of the past when we had to manually monitor – we could not listen or watch or follow up or track down or discipline.”

Source:
Xinhua, April 9, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-04/09/content_7949230.htm

Briefings | | |   Information/Technology

Xinhua Article Says U.S. Congressmen Profit from Iraq War

In Xinhua’s World News section on April 6, 2008, the state-run media published an article that quoted an Associated Press’s report of U.S. Congress officials’ investment in U.S. defense companies. The Xinhua article is titled “U.S. Congress Leaders Make Huge Profits From War.” Under the title, the article highlighted Iraq war with a picture memorizing the soldiers died in the war and a description of war’s damage in the picture caption. The article quoted the AP report and said that U.S. congressmen invested US$196 million in the defense companies having businesses from the U.S. State Department and have made huge amounts of money since the Iraq war. The Xinhua article named John Kerry, Joseph Lieberman, and Roy Blunt as the ones that have benefited most.

Source:
Xinhua, April 6, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/world/2008-04/06/content_7927594.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations

Agricultural Expert Warns Grain Price Increase

He Kaiying, Agricultural expert from Anhui Province is predicting that 18 percent price increase in Agricultural commodities since the beginning of the year will cause increase in processed food products in the upcoming months. He also warns that the grain price increase might lead to the inflation in the second half of the year. According to He, the grains cost has gone up 15 percent from last year while the grain price only increased by 6 percent. Cost Benefit Ratio has dropped to 16 percent from 21 percent a year ago. The recent survey suggested that over 10 percent of the surveyed farmers will reduce grain production this year. “Reduction in grain production is a dangerous signal. The reduction could cause grain price increase and the consequence can be very serious.” He said.

Source: Jing Ji Can Kao Bao, April 7, 2008
http://jjckb.xinhuanet.com/yw/2008-04/07/content_91911.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Development and Reform Commission Calls For Executing Measures to Prevent Nationwide Price Increase

On April 8, Council for Rectifying Malpractice held a national conference in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province. The conference requested all levels of government agencies under the Development and Reform Commission as well as the price bureaus to completely follow and execute the measures developed by the central government. Peng Seng, Senior Inspector of the People’s Prosecution Service of National Development and Reform Commission, called for a need to establish a plan which will be used in response to the abnormal price fluctuation in certain region. “We need to firmly prevent the abnormal price fluctuation in small regions from growing to a nationwide price increase.” Peng said.

Source: Xinhua, April 8,
2008 http://news.xinhuanet.com/newscenter/2008-04/08/content_7941273.htm

Briefings | | |   Economy/Resources

Xinhua: U.S. General Is “Pouring Oil on Fire” Between North Korea and Seoul

On April 5, 2008 Xinhua reported a U.S. Senate hearing at which Army Lt. Gen. Walter Sharp testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee. Gen. Sharp was quoted by Xinhua as saying, "In the near term, the Republic of Korea must develop a systematic missile defense solution to protect its critical civilian and military command capabilities, critical infrastructure and population centers." Xinhua calls the statement “pouring oil on fire” in light of the threat of military retaliation made by North Korea against South Korea on April 3, 2008.

Source: Xinhua, April 5, 2008
http://news.xinhuanet.com/mil/2008-04/05/content_7922071.htm

Briefings | | |   US-China Relations