Government/Politics - 118. page

According to an article Radio Free Asia published, people are concerned that a new regulation that the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television (SARFT) announced on March 22 will limit derivative work and suppress freedom of creativity. SARFT announced that it will prevent any online program from producing or publishing programs that distort, spoof, or demonize classic works of literature. It also forbids editing, dubbing, or adding subtitles to any classic works of literature, radio, or television programs, and any original Internet programs. The announcement claimed that since the end of January this year, the Ministry of Culture has cleaned up 3,898 movies that contain spoofs of contents of classic revolutionary songs and 165 of those that contain spoofs of music. An artist from Beijing was quoted as saying that the authorities have issued a number regulations that appear to stabilize the social order, but the real intent is to eliminate any voice of opposition from the public. Another Taiwan movie director was quoted in the article as saying that he supports freedom of creativity, but he agrees that the derivative works violate the copyright issue. RFA reached out to SARFT for further clarification, but the person who answered the phone said he was not responsible for giving an explanation.

Source: Radio Free Asia, March 23, 2018
https://www.rfa.org/cantonese/news/creation-03232018083138.html

Duowei News published an article on March 20 stating that Xi has changed his focus on China’s foreign affairs effort, thereby elevating it to an important position and that there will be a major reshaping of China’s foreign affairs work to enable it to play a more important role in the party’s governing body. The change includes an increase in the budget, a change in personnel, the reform of the foreign affairs agency and the setting up of a state-level International Development Cooperation Agency. The article reported that in 2018, the budget for Foreign Affairs was 60 billion yuan or US$9.5 billion, an increase of 15.6 percent from 2017 and 40 percent from 2013 when Xi first took power. The personnel change includes the appointment of Wang Yi to state councilor to handle pressing foreign affairs issues including the US – China relationship, North Korea, Taiwan and the South China Sea. Wang Qishan was appointed to be the Vice President with his main focus being on foreign affairs; Xi’s economic adviser Liu He was appointed to be the Vice premier. He is expected to handle the trade imbalance between the U.S. and China. The newly established state-level International Development Cooperation Agency is expected to manage the ever increasing foreign aid budget.

Source: Duowei, March 20, 2018
http://news.dwnews.com/china/news/2018-03-20/60047051.html

Xinhua published a summary of the “Report on the work of the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress” that Zhang Dejiang, chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress (NPC) delivered on March 8, during the third plenary meeting of the first session of the 13th NPC. It contained a summary of the “Five Musts” that delegates of the National People’s Congress must observe when they conduct their work. They are:
1) Must uphold the leadership of the central administration in accordance with Comrade Xi Jinping’s authority
2) Must execute Xi’s socialist thought with Chinese Characteristics in the new era
3) Must demonstrate that the people are the masters of the country in their political and social lives
4) Must play an important role in promoting the rule by law
5) Must maintain an unshakeable determination to make timely improvements in the system of the National People’s Congress

Source: Xinhua: March 11, 2018
http://www.xinhuanet.com/video/sjxw/2018-03/11/c_129827424.htm

Radio France Internationale (RFI) recently reported that anonymous sources disclosed that the Chinese Communist Party has started an internal investigation of the Xinhua News Agency, which is the official communications authority for the Chinese government and the Party. The incident that triggered the investigation was that the Xinhua English News Bulletin recently published the constitutional amendment changing the status of the term limits for the President ahead of schedule. The Chinese leadership may have found this leak to be suspicious. The investigation team was composed of members from the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection and the Central Propaganda Department of the Communist Party. Sources also indicated that all bureau director levels of Xinhua personnel have been banned from international travel. A few other unexpected incidents of a similar kind occurred last year as well.

Source: RFI Chinese, March 17, 2018
http://bit.ly/2FIjrLx

On March 17, People’s Daily published an opinion piece in which it praised the fact that Xi was appointed as the President of the country as it represents “the wishes of the party, the people, and the nation.” The article called Xi “helmsman” of the nation and “leader” of the Chinese people. The article claimed that the trinity position that Xi holds demonstrates that socialism with Chinese characteristics is a unique political and also a superior system. It asked all nations to unite around Xi’s leadership to achieve the “great victory of socialism with Chinese characteristics in a new era.”

Source: People’s Daily, March 17, 2018
http://opinion.people.com.cn/n1/2018/0317/c1003-29873350.html

Duowei News published an article reporting that the 190 member Presidium of the 13th National People’s Congress held its first meeting on March 4. The host was Li Zhanshu. Duowei quoted an analytical article from Hong Kong’s Ming Pao, which stated that the sequence on the presidium members list usually carries a certain meaning. For example, the first name on the list is usually the future Chairman of the National People’s Congress. Therefore it predicted that Li Zhanshu would be the chairman of the upcoming National People’s Congress. The second person on the list usually manages the personnel. Xi Jinping had that role ten years ago while Liu Yunshan held the position five years ago. For the upcoming term, it is Chen Xi, who currently heads the Organization Department. The third person on the list is usually the secretary of the presidium, who will be the future first vice chairman of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee. According to an article from Epoch Tomes, Li Zhanshu is considered Xi’s right-hand man. He helped Xi to clean out the residual forces that Ling Jihua left at the General Office. Chen Xi was Xi’s classmate from the Chemical Engineering department of Tsinghua University. Wang Huning, the current member of the party’s Politburo Standing Committee will mainly be responsible for party affairs and ideological work.

Source: Duowei, March 8, 2018
http://www.dwnews.com…1520811016781

Epoch Times reported that a patriotic movie “Amazing China” was recently released in China. Xinhua claimed that the opening day revenue broke 40 million yuan (US$6.32 million). The article displayed copies of two official notices. One notice, from China Unicom (a state-owned telecommunications operator in China), stated that, from March 2 to 4, the company must organize at least one-third of its party members to watch the movie and the rest of the party members must watch it within the month. The second notice was from the Beijing office of China Radio International Digital Cinema Line (a state-owned international radio broadcaster in China). It contained the guideline for the SOE corporate group rate. The article stated that most of the movie tickets were sold as group tickets and the movie’s current rating on IMDB was 1.0.

Source: Epoch Times, March 11, 2018
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/18/3/11/n10207717.htm