Government/Politics - 212. page

On March 24, 2014, Beijing Daily published an article on how to use beautiful words to promote socialist China. According to the article, China must tell its own “good stories” with beautiful words supported by some theories so as to respond to all the different opinions that oppose China’s socialism with the Chinese characteristics.

For example, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) must solve a theoretical problem of how to understand “faith.” When the contemporary Chinese people are criticized for their lack of faith, the best explanation is that atheism is also a faith and the Chinese government must respect freedoms of faith and cope correctly with religious pluralism in the world. Another important theoretical problem that the Chinese Communist Party must solve is how to use theories to explain scientifically that the Chinese Communist Party’s character is also the character of the Chinese people. If the Chinese Communist Party cannot convince people that the CCP and the Chinese people are one and the same, it will be difficult to tell good Chinese stories inside out.

Source: Beijing Daily, March 24, 2014
http://bjrb.bjd.com.cn/html/2014-03/24/content_163545.htm

On March 31, Guangming Daily published an article on the importance of China’s think tanks. The following is an excerpt from the article.

"The Third Plenary Session of the Party’s Eighteenth Congress emphasized the task of strengthening new think tanks with Chinese characteristics and of building a sound decision-making and advisory system. Currently, high-level and internationalized think-tanks have become an important symbol of a country’s soft power and influence in international discourse."

"To achieve the goal of two hundred years and the China dream of the great rejuvenation of the nation, we must strengthen the new think tanks with Chinese characteristics. At present, China is in a critical stage of building a moderately prosperous society and of facing an increasingly complex international environment with new things, new problems, new conflicts, and new challenges emerging one after another. The great rejuvenation of the Chinese nation should be a comprehensive revival. Practical and effective policies and strategies needs to be made in all fields including the economy, politics, culture, society, ecological civilization, Party buildup, national defense, and foreign affairs. Such policies and strategies are inseparable from the advice emanating from high-level think tanks."

Source: Guangnming Daily, March 31, 2014
http://news.gmw.cn/2014-03/31/content_10842073.htm

Qiushi published a commentary on the universal right of “all are created equal” and stated that this fallacy went bankrupt because it could not bridge the gap between the ideal and reality. 

Xinhua republished an article from CNStock.com, which had reported on several major actions that China’s Central Bank has recently taken. The bank has stopped virtual credit card products, capped the amount of third party payments, and increased the volatility of the RMB exchange rate. All these show that People’s Bank of China is adopting policies to avoid innovation, reduce financial risks, and maintain the GDP level.

The article listed four new directions that the Central Bank is following:
1. Prevent financial problems and maintain the GDP level.
2. Focus on resolving financial risks and ensure that financial innovation does not create additional economic risks. The decision to stop virtual credit card products is an indication that the Central Bank would rather give up new innovation of financial products to avoid the potential risks associated with introducing innovative products.
3. Increate the volatility of the RMB exchange rate to push for the RMB’s devaluation and stimulate exports.
4. Limit the Internet purchase amount to support physical stores.

The article stated that because of item 1 and 2, the increasing trend of the RMB’s interest rate will be turned around and the cost of capital will decrease. This will lead to two results: one is to indirectly support real estate prices; the second is to limit financial innovation, which will reduce the inflow of foreign money into China.

Source:
1. CNstock.com, March 18, 2014.
http://news.cnstock.com/news/sns_jd/201403/2950773.htm
2. Xinhua, March 18, 2014.
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2014-03/18/c_126280684.htm

Recently, the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region’s Public Security authorities held a video conference on cracking down on crimes of religious extremism.

Zhu Changjie, Vice-Chairman of the Xinjiang Autonomous Region, Chinese Communist Party secretary, and the head of the Public Security authorities, demanded a "profound understanding of importance and urgency of combatting crimes of religious extremism at all levels."

The Autonomous Region vowed it would strike hard on violent terrorist and religious extremist criminal activities, while at the same time focusing on prevention and reactions to emergencies.

Since February 10, Xinjiang’s public security has cracked several related cases, destroyed a number of gangs, and arrested a number of suspects.

Source: Guangming Daily, March 24, 2014
http://politics.gmw.cn/2014-03/24/content_10772936.htm

Wang Qishan, Secretary of the Chinese Communist Party Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, announced at the kickoff of the 2014 inspections that, for the first time, these inspections will include a new category called “special inspections.” Since the 18th Congress of the Communist Party in November 2012, the central government has conducted two rounds of inspections that covered 11 provinces and cities, as well as nine departments of the central government. 

Xinhua reported that, with the approval of Xi Jinping and the leadership of the Central Military Commission, the meeting rooms of the armed forces must display certain inscriptions of Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, Jiang Zemin, Hu Jintao, and Xi Jinping. “To display important inscriptions of leaders at the meeting rooms of Party committees and branches in the military is an important measure to strengthen the ideological and political development of our army. It has a very important significance for creating a strong political atmosphere and a distinctive ideological orientation; and for gathering the positive energy of loyalty to the Party, strengthening the country, and building up the military.” 

Several times over the past year, Xinhua made fun of Song Zuying (宋祖英), a famous singer of Chinese folk songs. It is widely known to the Chinese people that Song, though married, is Jiang Zemin’s mistress. When Jiang had power, defaming Song in any Chinese media, not to mention the official media Xinhua, was unimaginable. It never happened, even when Hu Jintao was the head of China.

A recent Xinhua blog wrote about the relationship between Song Zuying and the Chinese actor Zhao Benshan (赵本山). It is rumored that Bo Xilai chose Zhao to be his Minister of the Ministry of Culture after Bo’s coup to overthrow Xi Jinping. The blog said that Song and Zhao are like brother and sister and they are “even closer than brother and sister.”

What is most interesting is that the blog also mentioned “big brother.” It said that in 2000, there was a rumor that Song has special backing (implying Jiang). To support her, Zhao said, “With the backing of big brother, what are you afraid of? If there is any problem just tell big brother. Even if the sky falls, big brother will hold it for you.” On the surface, the “big brother” here seems to mean Zhao, but in reality, Song’s political power (from Jiang) would have been much stronger than Zhao’s. So Zhao would not have said this to her.

What this blog did was directly make fun of Jiang Zemin, who claimed himself to be the “big brother” to Song. According to the book “The Real Story of Jiang Zemin (江泽民其人),” Jiang watched Song’s performance and felt attracted to her. He then gave her a note which said, “In the future if you have any problem, you can come to big brother. Big brother can solve any problem for you.” The “big brother” in the note referred to Jiang himself. Thus Song became Jiang’s mistress.

On another note, this “big brother” story from “The Real Story of Jiang Zemin” book was, of course, banned in China. Some Chinese found a creative way to publish it though. On a 163.com blog, the author published the exact same story by replacing Jiang’s name by Ma Yingjiu (the President of Taiwan) and Song’s name by Lin Zhiling (a Taiwanese singer). It went on to say that Lin held a performance in Sydney and sang in Korea for the 2002 Soccer World Cup (Chinese know that it was really Song who did that) and that Ma built the National Center for the Performing Arts for Lin (Chinese know that Jiang built it for Song). The readers’ responses show that they understand who the two people really are.

Sources:
[1] Xinhua Blog, “What Is the Hidden Secret That Song Zuying and Zhao Benshen Swore to Be Brother and Sister?”
http://yuyu26.home.news.cn/blog/a/0101007C4C310CEF1F9188FA.html
[2] Epoch Times Online, “The Real Story of Jiang Zemin,” Chapter 18, “Love Beautiful Ladies and Have Many Mistresses.”
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/5/6/17/n957853.htm
[3] 163.com Blog, “Come to the Big Brother when You Have Problem,” November 24, 2010
http://bbs.news.163.com/bbs/zhongmei/192313326.html