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Government/Politics - 227. page

Central Politburo Discussed Restructure of the State Council

The Central Politburo held a meeting on February 23, 2013, in which they discussed the draft restructuring plan of the state council. The participants at the meeting also agreed to have the Second Plenary Session of the Party’s 18th Central committee on February 26 to 28. It was reported that the central committee will provide a list of recommended candidates to be the leaders of government agencies as well as candidates for the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference.

Source: Xinhua, February 23, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013-02/23/c_114777310.htm

China Denies Cyber Attack Allegations

Geng Yansheng, spokesman for China’s Ministry of Defense, held a press briefing on February 20, 2013. At the briefing, he dismissed Mandiant’s report about cyber attacks emanating from China as groundless. He stated, “Chinese law prohibits any activities that undermine cyber security, including hacker attacks. The Chinese government always and resolutely cracks down on related criminal activities. The Chinese armed forces have never supported any hacking activities.”

Geng said that Mandiant’s report was groundless for several reasons. First its conclusion that the source of cyber attacks came from China was based solely on its discovery that the attacks were linked to IP addresses based in China. It is common that hacking attacks are carried out by using other people’s IP addresses. Second, the world has not developed any clear and consistent definition of cyber attacks and thus the report is without legal basis. Third, cyber attacks are transnational, anonymous, and deceptive; their sources are rather difficult to identify. Releasing irresponsible information will not help solve problems.

Geng further said that China actually is a major victim of cyber attacks. By tracing the IP addresses (of attacks in China), it was found that many of the attacks came from the United States.

Source: Xinhua, February 20, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013-02/20/c_114738517.htm

People’s Daily: Valentine’s Day is Not a “Hotbed” for Corruption and Degenerate Behavior

On February 13, the day before Valentine’s Day, People’s Daily published an opinion piece, "Valentine’s Day Is about Love, Not about a ‘Hotbed’ of Corruption and Degenerate Behavior."

The article said, "In recent years, this romantic holiday, which originally belonged to single men and women, has become an excuse for some married men and women to seek excitement. It has become a ‘hotbed’ for a small number of Party members and cadres to become ideologically degenerate, lead a dissipated life, and become corrupt. They also use this romantic holiday to adopt a variety of forms to meet demands from their ‘lover,’ even using their power and spending huge amounts of money, just so as to win a smile from the beauty. What particularly needs our attention is that this phenomenon has gradually spread to our Party members and cadres, and has even penetrated to a small number of senior cadres. In Recent years, the Party has investigated and punished a few senior officials, including Bo Xilai, Liu Zhijun, and Chen Liangyu. In addition to their abuse of authority for personal gain and trading power for money, there is another significant characteristic. It is ‘having mistresses’ and ‘engaging in improper sexual relations with multiple women.’"

Source: People’s Daily, February 13, 2013
http://hb.people.com.cn/n/2013/0213/c337099-18154196.html

China: Nuclear Test Had no Impact on China’s Environment and Public Health

China’s Ministry of Environmental Protection said on February 14, 2013, that, as of February 13, 2013, at 10 a.m. and based on data it has collected, the radiation level was normal in Beijing, Harbin, Changchun, Shenyang, and other cities in China.

The Ministry said, "North Korea’s third nuclear test has not had any impact on our nation’s environment and our people’s health. No artificial nuclear radiation from the nuclear test has been detected within our borders." According to the Ministry, data from 25 monitoring stations and 12 mobile locations in the northeastern border region (close to North Korea) showed that radiation levels were normal and within the daily average. The Ministry stated, “If any radiation had been released, it would have moved toward the southeast; as of today, it has not had any impact on China.”

Source: The Ministry of Environmental Protection, reprinted by Huanqiu, February 14, 2013 http://world.huanqiu.com/regions/2013-02/3639513.html

Xi Jinping Calls for Enhancing Combat Readiness

Xi Jinping, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the China Central Committee and Chairman of the Central Military Commission, visited the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center and the Lanzhou Military District Command on February 2 and 3, 2013. While touring the Lanzhou Military District Command, Xi emphasized that China “must make efforts to expand and deepen military readiness, to promote the acceleration of the development of information technology, and to constantly enhance the combat capability of information systems; this is to ensure that the military troops quickly respond when called upon, are ready to fight when responding, and will win if engaged in a war.”

Source: Xinhua, February 6, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013-02/06/c_114637957.htm

Yunnan Province Stops Sentencing People to Forced Labor Camps

Meng Sutie, the Yunan Party Secretary of Politics and Law, announced that Yunnan would cease processing “cases of re-education through labor,” effective immediately. It has been common in China for the authorities to suppress opponents of the government by administratively sentencing them to forced labor camps as punishment. Meng, as Yunnan’s top law enforcement official, made the announcement on February 5, 2013, “Throughout the province, Yunnan will cease to approve and review all cases of re-education through labor for three alleged actions: endangering national security, constantly petitioning the authorities to redress officials’ abuse of power, and vilifying a leader’s image. The processing of cases based on other grounds will be suspended and will be handled in accordance with relevant laws; re-education through labor will not be used."
 
Source: Xinhua, February 7, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013-02/07/c_124332693.htm

CRN: Inflated GDP Hurts China’s Economy

China Review News published a commentary on the gap between the official GDP and the GDP as calculated by totaling the figures from local governments. According to the preliminary number that China’s National Bureau of Statistics released earlier, the domestic GDP for 2012 was 52 trillion yuan (about US$8.3 trillion). However, the total of the GDP figures that the local governments released was 5.76 trillion yuan (about $9.3 trillion), a discrepancy of 5.76 trillion yuan. The two figures have been inconsistent for several years.

According to the author, “the cause of the difference is that the local governments inflate GDP. Apart from statistical standards and technical reasons, the figure bears a direct relationship to how a number of local officials measure their performance. The most direct consequences of this inflated GDP are that it leads to economic data distortion and misguided macro-control policies; it adversely affects the moral integrity of the government and its attempt to build its credibility; and, eventually, it will hurt the healthy and steady development of the national economy and the people’s vital interests.”

Source: China Review News, February 5, 2013
http://www.chinareviewnews.com/doc/1024/3/0/3/102430386.html?coluid=123&kindid=0&docid=102430386&mdate=0205104515

Xi Jinping: Armed Police Must Follow the Party’s Commands

On January 29, Xi Jinping gave a speech during an inspection tour of the armed police in Beijing. During his speech, he underscored the stability of the armed police and the importance of its absolute loyalty to the Communist Party of China. Xi stated, “The armed police forces should be united, secure and stable.” The armed police should follow the command of the leadership of the Communist Party. “Absolute loyalty to the Party is always the first and foremost political requirement for them. … [We] must ensure the absolute loyalty, absolute purity, and absolute reliability of the armed police forces.”

Source: Xinhua, January 29, 2013
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2013-01/29/c_114545239.htm