Government/Politics - 125. page

Deutsche Welle published an article titled, “Trump Can Tweet in China but Chinese Citizen Were Not Allowed to Comment.” The article stated that, during President Trump’s first visit to China, he tweeted several times giving thanks for the warm hospitality he received from China and from Xi Jinping and his wife. He also changed the background photo of his twitter account to a photo taken after he watched the Beijing Opera in the Forbidden City. China’s official news media and websites covered Trump’s tweets. For example, one article was titled, “Trump Ended His China Visit. He Sent 8 Twitter Messages and Changed the Background Photo Twice.” Meanwhile, Trump related postings on Weibo, together with the feature to comment at the bottom of the posted article, were blocked. An article that China Digital Times published stated, “It is not surprising to see that Weibo postings on Trump related topics were subject to Sina‘s inspection, but the inspection was purely targeting key words not the contents. For example, a posting sharing an article titled “US$9 billion in Trade” was deleted. Disabling the comment feature is part of the inspection. If a Weibo account contains a key word, the system will automatically shut off the capability to post comments.

One of the Weibo postings that was blocked was titled, “Latest Comments about Trump.” It read, “An American asked a Russian, “We can comment on our president in the U.S., but can you do the same in Russia? The Russian replied, “We can comment your President in the U.S. as well.” The American said … lesson learned.” Then the American asked a Chinese, “We can comment on our president in the U.S., but can you do the same in China?” The Chinese said, “We can also comment on your President in our country.” The American laughed and suggested, “How about you try it again.”

Source: Deutsche Welle, October 11, 2017
http://www.dw.com/zh/川普可以发推中国网民不许评论/a-41325378?&zhongwen=simp

On October 31, the British think tank, the Henry Jackson Society, published a report, “20 Years after Hong Kong’s Handover.” It stated that, since the handover, Hong Kong has gone backward on citizen rights, human rights, and legal rights and that Beijing has interfered in Hong’s system and autonomy, which has impacted Hong Kong’s economy, political world, and legal system.

Over the past 10 years, Hong Kong’s democracy and legal rights have deteriorated significantly. China used some direct and indirect methods to force Hong’s legislative process and judicial system to follow Beijing’s orders. China’s law enforcement personnel have used illegal abductions against those who challenged China’s top leadership group and Hong Kong’s rank in the World Press Freedom Index dropped from 18^th in 2002 to 73^rd in 2017.

Source: VOA, November 2, 2017
https://www.voachinese.com/a/british-reports-hongkong-20171102/4096631.html

Storm, a Taiwan media and BackChina, an overseas Chinese media both carried reports on how Jiang Zemin received different media treatment at the 19th National Congress, which indicates where he stands in Xi Jinping’s eyes. Storm reported that during the closing ceremony, initially Xi Jinping and Jiang Zemin were chatting while waiting for the ceremony to start. However, when everyone rose during the national anthem, Jiang apparently struggled to get up. It was not until two assistants ran over that Jiang was able to stand up. The article stated that Xi did not even look at Jiang during the entire process; whereas, at the 18th National Party Congress, Hu Jintao helped Jiang to get up. In some situations, Jiang was either “accidentally” blocked or completely taken out of the picture. One example was at the opening ceremony. When Xi Jinping bowed and acknowledged Hu Jintao, Jiang Zemin, and the entire conference, Jiang’s image was completely cut off. When Xi led the group of leaders entering the stage, Xi completed blocked Jiang’s image. Also, when Xi finished his report and returned to his seat, CCTV showed a close up image of Xi shaking hands with Hu Jintao who sat to his right. However when Xi shook hands with Jiang, a photographer blocked him. Taiwan Eastern Television reported that when Xi delivered his report and read the part that said, “Whatever the public is against and hates …” it was not a co-incidence that CCTV showed a close up image of Jiang Zemin. The article suggested that Xi Jinping broke a number of political protocols to demonstrate that even though he appears calm and emotionless most of the time, he is in complete control of the current situation.

Source:
1. Storm, October 24, 2017
http://www.storm.mg/article/348992
2. BackChina October 23, 2017
http://www.backchina.com/news/2017/10/23/523065.html

Two articles that Xinhua published detailed the selection process for the new leadership candidates who were voted on during the 19th National Congress. The article gave an indication that, throughout the selection process, Xi Jinping was directly involved in weeding out his opponents. According to the article, the selection process started in February 2016, when a candidate selection committee that Xi Jinping led was first formed. During the process, Xi provided specific guidelines and criteria to use in the candidate selection. The criteria included, as the top priority, that the candidate must “meet political criteria and establish a political standard; the candidate must align himself with the Central Administration and be clear and firm about his political position; he must be clean and free from corruption while fit to get the job done.” From July 2016 through June 2017, the committee set up 46 observation teams to visit 31 provinces, 124 agency central administration agencies, financial institutions, and state owned enterprises to interview potential candidates. The Central Military Commission also formed 10 teams to visit military departments and agencies to talk to potential candidates. In the past year and a half, the candidate selection committee met seven times while the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau met six times to receive updates on candidate selection from the observation team. From April to June of 2017, Xi Jinping personally sat down with 57 existing party leaders to hear their opinions. The Political Bureau and Central Military Commission also set up hundreds of appointments to meet with members from the 18th Central Committee and leaders from a number of military divisions to hear their ideas. On September 25, a preliminary candidate name list was drafted and submitted to the Standing Committee of the Political Bureau. The final list was approved on September 29 before it was turned over to the 19th National Congress for a vote.

Sources: Xinhua, October 24 and 27, 2017
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2017-10/24/c_1121850995.htm
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/19cpcnc/2017-10/26/c_1121860147.htm

The National Security Bureau and the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) of Taiwan confirmed today that Chinese Communist Party representative Lu Lian and her husband’s Taiwan ID registration have been canceled. Lu’s family was quite disappointed after hearing the news. The Taiwanese applauded the action.

Lu Lian was born in Taiwan. She went to China in 1997 to teach in Shanghai. While there, she acquired a Chinese nationality. This year she was elected as a representative of the Communist Party of China. She published a remark affirming she “loves Taiwan and also loves the mainland.” Zhou Meixu, deputy director of the Taiwan National Security Bureau, said that, based on regulations, Lu Lian’s household ID registration has been canceled. Her health insurance and other rights have also been nullified.

Zhou also revealed that Taiwan authorities have confirmed that there are 19 Taiwanese people holding mainland Communist Party and government positions. Some of their canceled ID registrations have not been announced.

Source: Liberty Times (Taiwan) and Yahoo News (Hong Kong), October 26, 2017http://news.ltn.com.tw/news/politics/breakingnews/2234378
https://hk.news.yahoo.com/台灣陸委會證實盧麗安夫婦被取消台灣戶籍-090723729.html