Skip to content

Government/Politics - 144. page

Sing Pao Daily News: Leadership Change in the Hong Kong Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government Is in Sight

Hong Kong Sing Pao Daily News published an article predicting that, after Hong Kong Chief Leung Chun Ying’s announcement that he will not run for re-election, Zhang Xiaoming, director of the [Hong Kong] Liaison Office of the Central People’s Government, will become the next target to be removed [from a leadership position in Hong Kong]. The article said that replacement of leadership in the Liaison Office is in sight. Zhang Xiaoming will be “severely punished.”

The article added that Leung was advised not to run in the election for the next HK chief executive, which means that the central government core [led by Xi Jinping] is going to crack down on the careerists who have been using Hong Kong to make trouble and will re-steer the direction of Hong Kong’s administration. The article predicted that Zhang Xiaoming, the director of the Liaison Office will be the next target to be removed [because] he failed to do the work of being a “Liaison” in Hong Kong; he only engaged in gangs, and violence.” “The Central Government Rules of (Official) Conduct and Public Engagement [Xi’s 8 Rules]”

The article related that the central government core leadership’s dismissal of Leung Chun Ying is a cut on Zhang Dejiang’s head; it is thus an indication that a clean-up of the Liaison Office is in sight.

Source: Sing Pao Daily News [Hong Kong], December 11, 2016
http://www.singpao.com.hk/index.php?fi=news1&id=13525

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

RFI: Minister of Civil Affairs Li Liguo Corruption Case May Involve RMB 200 Billion

Radio France Internationale (RFI) recently reported that, since October, both Chinese Minister of Civil Affairs Li Liguo and his first deputy Dou Yupei have been under investigation. The corruption charges might involve over 200 billion RMB (US$29.4 billion) in the National Welfare Lottery area alone. Some reports also mentioned that Li Liguo has eleven mistresses as well as twelve passports, none of which was used before he was caught. Li Liguo is the first sitting cabinet member put under investigation in recent years. This large amount of money triggered widespread criticism among Chinese netizens online – some even questioned whether the Lottery actually generated random number. Investigators discovered tens of billions under Li’s name in Chinese currency as well as in U.S. Dollars, Euros, British Pounds, Australian Dollars and Swiss Francs. He also owns five real estate properties in five major Chinese cities, in addition to another 15 properties for his mistresses. The National Welfare Lottery was under direct management of the Ministry of Civil Affairs. The Lottery operates in over 30 provinces. In the past, the Ministry had also been accused of misappropriating natural disaster relief funds that had been accumulated from donations.

Source: Radio France Internationale, December 4, 2016
http://rfi.my/2h8G3Is

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

China Published First Traditional Chinese Medicine White Paper

On December 6, the information office of the State Council of China held a press conference at which it introduced the White Paper on “China’s Traditional Chinese Medicine” and its development. This is the first time that the Chinese government has issued a white paper to introduce the development of Traditional Chinese Medicine and its characteristics, the related national policies, and major measures for the development of Chinese medicine in China.

The White Paper revealed that Traditional Chinese Medicine faces a serious crisis and may be destroyed. The main problem is the poor quality of Chinese medicine.

Source: People’s Daily, December 7, 2016
http://politics.people.com.cn/n1/2016/1207/c1001-28929877.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Oriental Daily: Mainland Police Established Massive Monitoring under Jiang Zemin’s Administration

The popular Hong Kong newspaper Oriental Daily published a series of articles on its official website commenting on the massive monitoring system that the Mainland police established. The Mainland Ministry of Public Safety just released a draft of new regulations that govern how the Mainland’s police use video monitoring technologies at different levels of the government, which, it is widely considered, the government abuses. It is very unusual that a significant pro-Mainland newspaper criticizes the Mainland’s national-level security system. In one article especially, the reporter directly named the former Chinese leader, Jiang Zemin, to be the force behind the development of the nationwide secret monitoring system. The article pointed out that Jiang’s regime approved the Golden Shield Project, which was designed to provide 360-degree monitoring of the entire Chinese population. Publicly available documents showed that Jiang Zemin, his son Jiang Mianheng, and the leadership of the Public Safety Ministry then headed the project. The multi-billion-dollar privacy-intrusive project had no record of any kind for approval or authorization from China’s People’s Congress. Oriental Daily has been Hong Kong’s number one in circulation since 1976, with a record readership of over 3,100,000.

Source: Oriental Daily, November 29, 2016
http://hk.on.cc/cn/bkn/cnt/news/20161129/bkncn-20161129150108616-1129_05011_001_cn.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics Social Stability

BBC Chinese: Hong Kong Cardinal Warned about Formal Relationship between the Vatican and China

BBC Chinese recently reported that former Hong Kong Cardinal Joseph Zen warned on the news of the potential establishment of a formal diplomatic relationship between the Vatican and China. Zen expressed his concern that, if such an agreement were to be reached, the Vatican might be considered to be “betraying Jesus Christ.” Zen said The Pope might be misled by the experience of the communists persecuted in Latin America. It would be a bit “childish” to understand the Chinese communists the same way, since the Chinese Communist Party has killed a large number of innocent people during its short history. Chinese Catholics are only allowed to join government-approved churches and sermons to the public are banned. The Chinese government-appointed “official” bishops don’t truly preach the gospel. Instead they have the hidden agenda of ensuring the church members obey the communist authorities. Zen expressed that those at the Vatican who crafted the agreement with the Chinese communists lacked first-hand experience and did not truly understand how the Chinese government controls the official churches like “puppets.”

Source: BBC Chinese, November 28, 2016
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/press_review/2016/11/161128_press_review

Briefings | | |   Geo-Strategic Trend Government/Politics Social Stability

People’s Daily: Why Does the U.S. Face So Much Trouble?

On November 27, People’s Daily devoted an entire page to the publication of a series of articles on the overall issue of the fundamental problems the Unites States currently faces. Given the shocking outcome of the recent U.S. presidential election, Chinese political analysts identified some “in-depth” causes of today’s social problems in the United States. The top observation was the split in U.S. mainstream values. The so-called “founding values” such as democracy, freedom, and human rights were all challenged and were all questioned in the past election. The “game of the elite class” ignored the American people and even freedom of the press turned pale. Chinese analysts also found a significant lack of quality talent that could run the country efficiently. The government leadership as well as the mid-level teams can be described as “mediocre” at best. The analysts expressed their belief that the U.S. government demonstrated poor capabilities of execution, which included decision making, managing the economy, and even waging war. Most of Obama’s policies, both domestic and international, failed after spending trillions. One article in the series suggested that today’s U.S. is actually a combination of “two Americas,” which referred to one America which had realized the “American Dream”  and another America composed of people still struggling for life. Another author concluded that the entire Western social structure, which includes a democratic government, a free market, the rule of law, and civilized social relations, is falling apart.

Source: People’s Daily, November 27, 2016
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2016-11/27/nw.D110000renmrb_20161127_1-05.htm

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics US-China Relations

Director of Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice Replaced

On November 25, Beijing held the 31st meeting the 14th Municipal People’s Congress Standing Committee in order to decide on the appointment or removal of key personnel.

The former Secretary of the Beijing Municipal Law Society (at the bureau level) Miao Lin was appointed as the Director of the Beijing Municipal Judicial Bureau. Yu Hongyuan no longer serves in the position of Director of the Municipal Justice Bureau as he has reached the age of 60-years-old.

[Editor’s note: In 2010, Yu was appointed as Party Secretary and Director of the Beijing Municipal Bureau of Justice, the First Political Commissar of the Beijing Prison Administration, and member of Beijing Municipal Committee of the Political and Legal Committee. Yu was the main figure in carrying out former Head of the Central Political and Legal Committee Zhou Yongkang’s persecution of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng.]

Source: New Beijing, November 25, 2016
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/news/2016/11/25/424913.html

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics

Mingjing News: A CPPCC National Committee Membership Sells for 500 Million Yuan

At a high-level meeting on November 3, Yu Zhengsheng, the Chairman of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), disclosed that Chinese officials have been buying and selling memberships in the CPPCC committees at all levels as if they are “commodities” on the market and that the price of a CPPCC membership has risen to more than 500 million yuan (US$72.52 million). The meeting issued documents asking for a thorough investigation and for the rectification of the problem of the Hong Kong and the Macao SAR CPPCC members at all levels, demanding that a thorough investigation of the Hong Kong CPPCC system be conducted.

At the meeting, it was pointed out that memberships at all levels of the CPPCC have a “market price used for bargaining.” The so-called “bargaining price” is the amount tendered as a quote to society’s elite. For example, the price for a CPPCC National Committee membership was 20 million yuan (US$2.9 million) in the late 1980s and grew to 500 million yuan today for one who makes donations or invests in enterprises. Similarly the price of a provincial CPPCC membership was 5 million yuan in the late 1980s and rose to 30 to100 million today. The CPPCC membership at the prefectural level has risen to 10 to 30 million yuan depending on the local economic situation and the geographic location.

Although the CPPCC National Committee and the National People’s Congress (NPC) are known as “vase organizations” [for the Chinese Communist Party, they are for show], there are many benefits to buying the title of NPC or CPPCC member. For example, if a city official wants to become the mayor or vice mayor, he will need the votes of the NPC members. When each vote is given a monetary value, it is easily worth tens of thousands, millions, or even tens of millions of yuan.

Source: Mingjing News, November 19, 2016
http://www.mingjingnews.com/MIB/blog/blog_contents.aspx?ID=0000047000004789

Briefings | | |   Government/Politics