Government/Politics - 213. page

Qiushi Theory published an article that included clarification on 18 questions related to ideology. Below is a partial translation of the some of the questions.

As to questions about the key issues in the current field of ideology, the answer is it includes the following: the use of the West’s “democratic constitutionalism” to negate China’s political system; the use of “neoliberalism” to destroy public ownership; the use of the media having a so called “independent media view” to guide the media; the use of "universal values” to mislead people; the use “civil society” to decrease cohesiveness; the use “historical determinism” to deny the history of modern China; the use “far-left ideology” to negate reform and the open door policy.

As to the question of constitutionalism, the answer is that constitutionalism is an element of capitalism. Basically it consists of locking up power and giving the key to capitalism. It is obviously contradictory to the concept of socialism and the public will never allow it.

As to the question of “universal values,” the answer is it is a religious concept which means egoism and the elimination of different views. Recently the West has been exporting their value system to mislead the Chinese people. The real universal values are to seek truth from facts and to respect each country in walking its own unique path.

As to the question of the essence of “freedom of the press in the west,” the answer is that many people misunderstand the true meaning of freedom of the press. The U.S. often claims it has freedom of the press. The reality, however, is that it institutes tough restrictions on the media and adopts a double standard: it condemns those who do not agree with its political view and value system and uses distorted facts to protect its own rights.

As to the question of the struggle between different ideologies, the answer is that social turmoil often starts with confusion on ideology. Recently the Western anti-China forces and parties tried to stir up trouble in order to interfere with our ideology, to confuse the people, and eventually to cause chaos in China. The central administration has determined that the current ideology struggle is fierce and complicated. As patriotic netizens, we should automatically protect the safety of China’s ideology system.

Source: Qiushi Theory, March 14, 2014
http://www.qstheory.cn/zz/wwtj/201403/t20140314_330014.htm

China Review News carried an article on the current trend and reform challenges that the agriculture industry faces. These include the difficulties and challenges of a more complicated environment; the demand to speed up the modernization of an industry that is driven by growth in industrialization; informatization and urbanization; meeting demands while facing the burden of environmental issues and a shortage of resources.

According to the article, the current structure of the farmers’ population has changed with the growth of industrialization and urbanization. Some farmers have chosen to relocate to urban areas while some have remained as full time or seasonal farmers. The rest have chosen to be involved in the business and service segments of the agricultural industry. The formation of the new farm structure, such as family farms and farmers’ professional cooperative units that are equipped with some level of business skill and a strong cash flow have become the new driving force behind the modernization of China’s agricultural industry. Another trend is the increase in the transfer of land-use rights to individual farmers, cooperative units, and businesses. In the meantime, due to an increase in land lease costs and the cost of raw materials, the cost of production is climbing and profits are down. The article also mentioned that the growth rate in the agriculture industry will be hard to maintain due to a reduction in farm land, extreme weather conditions, worsened insect infestation, and diseases. Meanwhile the demand in consumption keeps growing due to population size as well as increases in the industrial demand for the use of wheat and corn. The article also mentioned the phenomenon that the land quality has been deteriorating due to an overuse of fertilizer. China has 10 percent of the farm land in the world but it consumes one-third of the world’s fertilizer production. The article stated that the agriculture industry is a high risk industry due to areas such as an inadequate pricing structure; an unstable income for the farmers; recent frequent occurrences of extreme weather conditions and natural disasters; and lack of proper farmers’ insurance policies available to the farmers.

Source: China Review News, March 15, 2014
http://hk.crntt.com/doc/1030/7/3/9/103073946.html?coluid=53&kindid=0&docid=103073946&mdate=0315083230

Xinhua carried an article that was originally published by Beijing News. The article covered the group discussion among the conference delegates during the 2nd session of the 12th CPPCC (Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee) on the gap between job requirements and the skill level of China’s college graduates. A scholar from the Chinese Academy of Science even stated that there is not much difference between the current college graduates with master’s degrees versus those technical school graduates from a number of years ago. Some delegates observed that the quality of the graduate students continues to decline. They are weak in overall skills, inter-personal relationships, hands-on experience, and the ability to deal with stress, as well as in job related fundamental theory. The statistics from a recent job fair in Jiangying City suggested that society has a tendency in general to pursue higher education. Therefore, there is a serious shortage of workers with technical skills, while the college graduates face a tough job market. Many college graduates have had to take low paying positions. Meanwhile they tend to have high expectations for a job and are unable to handle the workload they are assigned. Some delegates blamed the companies for not holding job training classes while some said that universities don’t offer courses that prepare students for the job market and are not well connected with the companies that need employees.

Source: Xinhua, March 9, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2014-03/09/c_126239703_2.htm

On March 2, 2014, Xinhua reprinted an article that Beijing News had published on the same day regarding corrupt officials who had fled from China from 1992 to 2012. According to the article, the highest level official who had fled was Gao Yan, who was the Chinese Communist Party Secretary of Yunnan Province. The cases involving those who fled were in areas that were economic-related government departments, state-owned enterprises (mainly in transportation, energy, tobacco and public security) and financial institutions. The final destinations for those officials who fled were developed countries, especially the United States, Canada, Australia, and EU member countries. Most of them fled to the United States. They made detailed arrangements before they escaped from China. Some of them were already “naked officials” before they left; that is, their spouses, lovers, children and even relatives had already emigrated overseas. 

Source: Beijing News and Xinhua, March 2, 2014
http://news.xinhuanet.com/fortune/2014-03/02/c_126209520.htm
http://www.bjnews.com.cn/feature/2014/03/02/307000.html

On February 27, the Academy for the International Communication of Chinese Culture of Beijing Normal University published a research paper that drew a conclusion about Chinese movies. According to Guangming Daily, which then published the findings, Chinese movies face significant challenges in the overseas market. The statistics showed that overseas Chinese movie audiences continue to decline, down from 37 percent in 2012 to 18 percent in 2013. The people who took the survey gave the movies ratings; the average was 5.7 out of 9.0. Kung Fu and action movies ranked the highest at 6.8. The statistics also suggested that those surveyed knew little about Chinese movie festivals. Over 57 percent had little or no knowledge of the existence of any of any Chinese movie festivals. The statistics also suggested that those surveyed are generally not interested in movies that reflect modern realism in China; however those people showed interest in knowing more about this subject, an indication that those modern realism movies had not been able to meet the requirement.

China’s movie box office revenue totaled 217 trillion yuan (US$35 trillion) in 2013. Of the movies shown, domestic movies accounted for 127 trillion yuan (US$20 trillion) or 58.65 percent. However ticket revenue for 45 domestic movies in the overseas market was only 14 trillion yuan (US$2 trillion). This amount was the equivalent of the box office sales in China from two U.S. made movies: “Iron Man 3” and “Pacific Rim.”

Source: Guangming Daily, February 28, 2014
http://news.gmw.cn/2014-02/28/content_10534643.htm

According to an article published on March 2 in Epoch Times, news about disciplinary action against Zhou Yongkang appeared in the news twice. The first time was at 3 p.m. Beijing time during a press conference that the 2nd session of the 12th CPPCC (Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference National Committee) held. A reporter from the Hong Kong South China Morning Post raised a question about recent reports on Zhou Yongkang and asked if the CPPCC had any answers. The response from Lu Xinhua, the speaker, was that anyone who violated the law would be subject to punishment no matter what official rank that person had. Lu said, “I can only give you this answer. You should understand.”

Following Lu’s response, at 8:35 p.m. Beijing time, China’s Lianzheng (clean government) website published a notice saying, “Zhou Yongkang is suspected of serious disciplinary violations.” The notice stated that Zhou had been expelled from the party and will be subject to further notification until the fourth plenary of the 18th Congress. Epoch Times said that it was a rare occurrence for a news website other than Xinhua to publish such an important announcement.

Sources:
Epochtimes, March 3, 2014,
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/14/3/3/n4096103.htm%E8%AF%A1%E5%BC%82%EF%BC%81%E4%B8%AD%E5%9B%BD%E5%BB%89%E6%94%BF%E5%BB%BA%E8%AE%BE%E7%BD%91%E6%8A%A2%E4%B8%AD%E5%8D%97%E6%B5%B7%E8%AF%9D%E8%AF%AD%E2%80%9C%E9%80%9A%E6%8A%A5%E5%91%A8%E6%B0%B8%E5%BA%B7%E2%80%9D.html?photo=2
Lianzheng, March 2, 2014
http://www.lianzheng.org/plus/view.php?aid=11362

On February 27, 2014, China declared the establishment of the Central Internet Security and Information Leading Group and held its first meeting in Beijing. The CPC Central Committee General Secretary and Central Military Commission Chairman Xi Jinping himself assumed the head position of the group. Li Keqiang and Liu Yunshan were assigned as the deputy heads. Xi gave a speech at the meeting. 

On February 25, the Institute of Law under China’s Academy of Social Science (CASS) and the Social Sciences Academic Press jointly released the Annual Report on China’s Rule of Law (the Blue Book on the Rule of Law).