Government/Politics - 189. page

Qiushi published an article on the contribution of China’s path to world history.

On January 17, 2014, Voice of America published an article written by He Qinglian, the Chinese author and economist now living in the United States, titled, “Who is the ‘Iron Hat King’ Mentioned in People’s Daily?” The question was based on a statement in a People’s Daily’s commentary that “There is no ‘Iron Hat King’ in terms of corruption; there is no top official who cannot be taken down in the anti-corruption movement.” “Iron Hat King,” a title borrowed from the nobility system in the Qing Dynasty, was a royal king rank that the emperor granted for a deed of great merit. An Iron Hat King’s descendants would always enjoy the royal king title, generation after generation.  

He Qinglian indicated in her article that the next high ranking Chinese Communist Party officials to be arrested in the name of anti-corruption would be Jiang Zemin, the General Secretary of the Communist Party from 1989 to 2002, and Zeng Qinghong, Jiang’s close ally and formerly powerful backroom operator.

Source: Voice of America, January 17, 2015 and People’s Daily, January 15, 2015
http://www.voachinese.com/content/he-qing-lian-20150115/2602015.html
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrb/html/2015-01/15/nw.D110000renmrb_20150115_6-01.htm

On January 15, 2015, in Beijing, China’s major think tank issued "The (2015) Assessment Report on China Perimeter Security Situation — ‘One Belt and One Road (OBAOR)’ and the Perimeter Security Strategy." ["One Belt and One Road" is the short form for "silk road economic belt" and "the 21th century maritime silk road."] The report said that China’s ability and will to lead and shape its perimeter have significantly increased. China’s grand strategy for its perimeter security will soon be ready— implementing a dual policy (the economic strategy of advancing OBAOR and the security strategy of controlling maritime issues) as China’s core strategy. 

In an article published in the January 2015 issue of Red Flag Manuscript (which Qiushi republished), Li Shenming, a member of 12th National People’s Congress Standing Committee and former Vice President of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, stated that the international financial crisis harbors the revival of socialism and that socialism is the inevitable result of human development. 

On January 13, Xi Jinping gave a speech at the Fifth Plenary Session of the Eighteenth Communist Party Central Committee’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection. Xinhua interviewed a number of scholars and published an article delineating six major signals in Xi’s speech.

Xi had stated that China should "adhere to [conduct the anti-corruption campaign] with no-exclusion areas, full coverage, and zero-tolerance; seriously punish the corrupt elements; and strive to create a political atmosphere in which [people] dare not, cannot, and do not want to be corrupt."

The scholars that Xinhua interviewed read six signals from Xi’s speech:
1. A basic read of the situation: The situation in the anti-corruption fight remains severe and complicated. Not only did Xi make this exact statement, but he also stated that the campaign "has yet to achieve an overwhelming victory." Xi is still far from making substantive progress on seeing that officials "dare not, cannot, and do not want to be corrupt."
2. A firm determination to keep high pressure on the campaign.
3. A straightforward attitude to correct official’s improper working styles.
4. A clear requirement emphasizing [that officials] follow the Party’s discipline and its rules.
5. A regulatory focus: to strengthen supervision of the leadership of the state-owned enterprises.
6. A permanent cure: to revise a number of important Party regulations.

Source: Xinhua, January 13, 2015
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2015-01/13/c_1113982665.htm

Jinghua Times reported that the Ministry of Land and Resources has issued new guidelines on land reform, indicating that the reform of China’s rural land system is about to enter a pilot phase. 

On January 12, 2015, Xinhua reported that the Communist Party’s Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI) has sent teams to co-locate with key Party and government offices. 

So far CCDI teams have co-located with 59 departments under the Party’s Central Committee, State level organizations, ministries under the State Council, the People’s Supreme Court, the Supreme Prosecutor’s Office, the People’s Daily, and the State Grid Corporation of China.   

According to Xinhua, “CCDI teams co-locating with government organizations is an important part of CCDI work. This work will only be strengthened and not weakened. The General Office of the CPC Central Committee, the Organization Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, the Central United Front Work Department, the National People’s Congress organs, the General Office of the State Council, and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference are the central nerve of the Party and State governance system, with centralized power and status. This makes it even more important to strengthen overall supervision. In December 2014, the central government decided that CCDI will send working teams to these seven units. This means that, before the Party discipline and the law of the land, no special organs or individuals will lack oversight.” 

CCDI teams will be sent to co-locate with over 80 additional Party and government offices.

Source: Xinhua, January 12, 2015                                                                                                       http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2015-01/12/c_1113953913.htm

On January 8, 2015, China’s Public Security Ministry held a press conference to announce that, as of December 31, 2014, the "Fox Hunt 2014" campaign had captured 680 economic fugitives. The ministry launched the campaign in July 2014 in order to catch corrupt Party officials living abroad and to confiscate their ill-gotten gains.