Government/Politics - 153. page

On June 13, 2016, the U.S. Congress passed House Resolution 343 unanimously, condemning China’s "practice of state-sanctioned forced organ harvesting" and demanded "an immediate end to the 17-year persecution of the Falun Gong spiritual practice."

Epoch Times interviewed Luo Yu, the son of former Grant General (a military title only lower than Marshall) Luo Ruiqing, on the impact of the resolution. Luo Yu has published ten open letters to Xi Jinping, whom he called "brother" due to their princeling connections, urging him to adopt political reform and stop political persecutions.

Luo Yu said, "This U.S. house resolution will impact all Chinese. No Chinese, I believe, besides those criminals like Zhou Yongkang [who participated in the organ harvesting], would agree to the anti-humanity crime – conducting live organ harvesting of Falun Gong practitioners and criminals of conscience. Nobody would agree. Now the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has tried to block this information, but I don’t think it can block it. The Internet has been well developed. The more people know about this practice, the more people will oppose it.

"The U.S. represents the people’s opinions, ideas about democracy, and justice. It has a profound and long-term impact on China. Because there are always people speaking out in the world, there are always voices of the upright condemning these crimes. This is the meaning of the U.S. house resolution."

As to the Spokesperson, Zhu Haiquan of China’s Embassy to the U.S. claimed that all these [organ harvesting] accusations were groundless, Luo Yu observed, "When the U.S. Congress passes a resolution, it won’t, as China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry said, only listen to lies. If it did not have evidence, it would not pass such a resolution. The U.S. Congress’s resolution makes the intellectuals of China understand that the whole world is watching it and moreover, that it is true.

Luo Yu called on Xi Jinping to stop the organ harvesting. "You are the General Secretary of the CCP. How can you let this heinous crime continue to happen in China? This did not start with Xi Jinping. It is actually [the former CCP leader] Jiang Zemin’s crime." "Now Xi Jinping promotes the rule by law. If you can’t stop live organ harvesting which obviously violates the law, how can you rule by law?"

Source: Epoch Times, June 21, 2016
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/16/6/20/n8018289.htm
 

Xinhua published an article reporting on a notice that the State Administration of Press, Publication, Radio, Film and Television issued. The notice stated that, currently, original produced television programs are lacking in China and China is overly relying on programs imported from foreign countries. The notice said that more domestic original programs need to be produced, which will carry a heavier weight, versus imported programs that are aired during evening prime time. At the same time, it also initiated a plan to limit the number of foreign programs that China imports. According to the plan, foreign programs must go through a two month of advanced application and approval process. Collaboration work between China and foreign companies is treated a foreign program if China does not own 100 percent of the intellectual property. A limited number of foreign programs may be aired during evening prime time.

Source: Xinhua, June 19, 2016
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2016-06/19/c_1119070920.htm

On June 19, the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) published an article addressing the importance of building a strong case in China when conducting an overseas pursuit of those corrupt officials who have already fled China. 

Guangming Daily recently carried an article which stated that, since June 1, the real name express delivery system has been experiencing challenges in its execution. The article said that most of the customers are concerned about the leakage of personal information and are unwilling to follow the new requirements. According to the article, 82.3 percent of the Chinese Internet users have personally experienced inconvenience due to the leakage. In addition, express delivery companies see the system as an extra step which slows down the process and upsets their customers. Therefore, they are not actively enforcing the policy. The article suggested that, in order to eliminate the concerns from both parties, there is a need to have a comprehensive systematic solution that will ensure a clear definition of roles and responsibilities while also ensuring personal information safety and building a trust between the different parties involved.

Source: Guangming Daily, June 16, 2016
http://tech.gmw.cn/2016-06/16/content_20571712.htm

Lancome planned to have a free concert on June 19 featuring Hong Kong singer Denise Ho. However, under mounting pressure from China’s state media and "patriotic" netizens, Lancome backed out of the deal. This event and Lancome have received substantial international criticism.

In 1914, Denise Ho had been arrested for participating in the Occupy Central protest in Hong Kong. In addition, last month she met with Dalai Lama.

On June 4, Global Times published a posting with a question for netizens: "Some netizens reported that the hot selling Listerine and Lancome both invited Denise Ho to promote their products. Denise Ho supported Hong Kong independence and also, in Japan last week, advocated Tibetan independence. … What do you think?"

In no time netizens responded with the answer, "From now on absolutely boycott Lancome products."

Over a hundred Chinese netizens posted messages on Lancome’s official website in China, demanding that Lancome get out of China. Lancome China clarified that Denise Ho was not its product endorser. Over 40,000 Chinese netizens responded with their criticizm that Lancome was "playing a word game."

Lancome Hong Kong issued a statement on June 5 that its invitation to Denise Ho was "purely to share music, without any work endorsement relationship."

Late that night, Lancome issued an announcement saying, "We decided to cancel the event due to possible safety concerns."

Lancome’s kowtowing to Beijing irritated Hongkongese. By June 6, over 44,000 people clicked the "angry" button on Lancome’s two Facebook’s announcements.

Among the Internet messages, some Hong Kong netizens stated that they would not buy Lancome products anymore, some called for boycotting all products by L’Oreal, Lancome’s parent company, and some asked Lancome to fire its employees and public relations contractors who worked on the two announcements. [Editor’s Note: On Wednesday, June 8, Lancome shut its main stores in Hong Kong.]

On June 14, the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) published an article asserting that some countries protect the corrupt officials who have fled China. 

According to a report posted June 8 on the website of the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), the anti-graft watchdog of the ruling Chinese Communist Party (CCP), CCDI’s inspection team listed problems it had found when stationed at the Central Propaganda Department a few months ago.

The report cited CCDI member and lead investigator Wang Huaichen as saying that leaders in the department did not feel a sufficient sense of responsibility for undertaking ideological work.

According to the report, news propaganda was not targeted or effective enough. It identified the root cause as the weakening of the CCP’s leadership.

BBC Chinese cited AFP comments that this criticism indicated Beijing was attempting to continue tightening its control over the media and added that, based on other overseas analyses, this indicated the top Chinese leadership’s dissatisfaction with the propaganda department, which will probably lead to a restructuring of the department’s organizational hierarchy.

Source: BBC Chinese website, June 9, 2016
http://www.bbc.com/zhongwen/simp/china/2016/06/160609_china_anticorruption

On June 5, the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) published an article addressing corrupt officials who are thinking of leaving China or who have already left. The article stated that the objective to contain rampant corruption has not changed and that there should be no impunity for corrupt officials who flee China.