Government/Politics - 139. page

According to an article published in Duowei News, the recent power shuffling indicates that Beijing is building a foundation to prepare for the upcoming 19th National Congress in the second half of the year. On April 1, Beijing announced four major changes at the provincial level. They included a new governor for Hainan and Gansu provinces and a new Secretary of the provincial Party Committee for He Longjian and Shandong provinces. The article stated that, based on the statistics that Duowei collected, since January 2016, among 31 provinces, direct-controlled municipalities, and autonomous administrative regions in China, a new Secretary of the provincial Party Committee was assigned in 18 provinces and regions and a new governor was assigned in 28 provinces. As of April 1, there were only 8 Secretaries of the provincial Party Committee and 3 governors left that had not been changed. The article predicted that there could be retirements and other more “exciting and critical” changes to come.

Source: Duowei News, April 1, 2017
http://china.dwnews.com/news/2017-04-01/59808614.html

VOA carried an article about the election on Sunday, March 26, for Hong Kong’s Chief Executive. The article noted that, based on its analysis, Carrie Lam, the newly elected Chief Executive will face challenges in carrying out her policies because Beijing wanted her to be in that position even though she was far behind in the polls compared to her opponent John Tsang. The article stated that the Hong Kong election is also called a “limited election” because a committee made the decision; it consists of 70 members of Hong Kong’s legislative chamber and a mix of professionals, and business and trade elites. The article said that Sunday’s end result was “just as expected” and “with no surprises.” Carrie Lam, former Chief Secretary for the Administration of the Hong Kong SAR Government, won the election after gaining 777 votes (out of a total of 1,163 votes cast). The other two candidates were John Tsang, the former Finance secretary, who also led in the public opinion polls and and Woo Kwok-hing, a retired judge. Tsang had 365 votes and Woo Kwok-hing had 21 votes. According to the article, at the last minute, Beijing worked hard to put pressure on the business committee members to convince them to switch their position. This made Carrie Lam’s votes a lot higher than expected. Leung Kwok-hung, a member of the Legislative Council, told VOA that Beijing controlled the election. He explained that, according to a number of major Hong Kong media, even though Carrie Lam was 20 to 30 percent behind John Tsang in the polls one week before the election, Carrie Lam still won. Leung told VOA, “She had Beijing’s support, which might work against her in Hong Kong if she plans to execute her plans.” Another independent legislator told VOA that Lam winning the election will force Hong Kong to split even further and she will have a hard time managing Hong Kong. The article said that Carrie Lam is also called “Leung Chun-ying 2.0” because she claimed that one of her reasons to enter the election was that she wishes to continue the policies of Leung Chun-ying the incumbent Chief Executive. The author also interviewed Joshua Wong Chi-fung, the student activist who serves as secretary general of Demosistō, who told VOA that Beijing has been manipulating the election and that therefore, in the future, it will have to face more resistance from Hong Kong’s youth.

Source: Voice of America, March 26, 2017
http://www.voachinese.com/a/hong-kong-election-/3782234.html

Yang Xiaodu, Deputy Party Secretary of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) and Minister of Supervision gave a keynote speech at China’s Top Leaders Development Forum. Yang seemed to indicate that the CCDI wants to target some business tycoons and their connections with those having political power.

Yang pointed out that some entrepreneurs are extremely willing to deal with government officials. There are two abnormal situations. “One is when capitalists want to receive special treatment. However, that violates the market economy’s fair competition principle.” “Another one is when capitalists seek political power after grabbing economic power. This is very dangerous.”

“China’s enterprises have huge wealth, but the purpose is to benefit the public and society … It cannot become a tool and a means to corrupt government officials for the sake of their own enterprise’s interests.”

Source: The Paper, March 18, 2017
http://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_1642345

The Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) started its “Skynet 2017” operations on March 7. “Skynet” is a campaign to bring corrupt officials who hide overseas back to China. CCDI carries out this operation every year.

The CCDI website explained that this year’s operation focuses on three things: money, ID, and people.

“The majority of criminal suspects tried to transfer money overseas before they left China. The campaign targets off-shore companies and underground banks to block the channels used for getting stolen money out of China.

“’Skynet 2017’ closely watches people’s IDs. As part of its routine work, it includes oversight of illegally obtained passports and IDs and the government officials’ private passports.

“It closely monitors people. It will strengthen the monitoring of key corruption suspects and people who can provide valuable tips so that a slight leak of information will prevent the suspect from escaping.”

Sources:
1. CCDI Website, March 8, 2017
http://www.ccdi.gov.cn/yw/201703/t20170308_95390.html
2. CCDI Website, March 8, 2017
http://www.ccdi.gov.cn/yw/201703/t20170309_95465.html

The “Hero and Martyr Protection Article” in the General Provision of Civil Law that the Fifth Plenary Session of the 12th National People’s Congress recently passed has generated a lot of scrutiny.

The original draft did not contain that article. During the Plenum, Article 185 was added as, “Those who infringe on the names, portraits, reputations, and honor of heroes and martyrs and damage the public interest should bear civil liability.”

Many people have ridiculed this law: It is very difficult to define “heroes and martyrs” legally. In certain periods, the “heroes and martyrs” that the Communist Party promoted were indeed fake. When people tried to go back to the real truth in history, their comments were treated as malicious slander.

“Those of a certain age can still remember that whoever said something negative about Mao Zedong during the Cultural Revolution would be imprisoned or killed. Now China has ‘improved.’ Whoever criticizes Mao Zedong or other of the Communist Regime’s ‘heroes’ and ‘martyrs’ will not be killed. Instead, the Public Security Bureau and the procuratorate may use a civil lawsuit to destroy his family financially.”

It is called, “to use the Civil Law to create literacy persecution (imprison the author who writes something against the regime’s will).”

Sources:
1. Hk01.com, March 14, 2017
https://www.hk01.com/兩岸/77661/民法總則增新條款擬追究褻瀆烈士行為-學者稱-英雄烈士-難界定
2. Radio Free Asia, March 20, 2017
http://www.rfa.org/mandarin/zhuanlan/yehuazhongnanhai/gx-03202017133305.html