Government/Politics - 253. page

The Ministry of Organization and the Ministry of Justice organized a training class for Party secretaries in law firms. It was held in Beijing on May 3, 2012. Over 150 law firm Party secretaries participated in the 5 day training program.

By the end of 2011, 63,000 lawyers had joined the Communist Party, up from 44,000 in 2008. Out of 14,741 law firms, 3,895 or 26 percent have established independent Party branch offices; 8,105  or 55 percent have associate Party branch offices. As for the 2,741 law firms that do not have Party members, they were each assigned a party development guidance councilor or party member contact person. Therefore party development work has reached full coverage of all the law firms in China.

Source: Guangming Daily, May 4, 2012
http://epaper.gmw.cn/gmrb/html/2012-05/04/nw.D110000gmrb_20120504_11-03.htm?div=-1

In recent years, conflicts between patients and doctors have been escalating. When patients are the victims of medical accidents, their families often resort to violence against the medical staff. They have been known to insult, threaten, attack, and even kill the doctors. On May 1, 2012, the Chinese Health Ministry and the Public Security Ministry issued a joint order to strike hard on violence against doctors. Thus public security departments are now required to get involved in maintaining order in normal medical practices.

Sources: People’s Daily, May 2, 2012
http://politics.people.com.cn/GB/1027/17784646.html

Chengming, a magazine of political commentary based in Hong Kong, published an article by Hu Xiaojiang, a popular Internet blogger, on the subject of the Bo Xilai incident. In the article, Hu laid out the weaknesses that Western scholars who are close to the Chinese Communist regime have in their ability to understand the direction of China’s politics and economy.

The article explained that the Bo incident indicates the following: 1) The power transition within the Chinese Communist Party is still not an orderly change, unlike the perception of many that China has established a stable and smooth system for the transfer of power. 2) China needs a bipartisan or multi-party system. 3) It proves again that the authoritarian system is a reverse elimination system in which the ruling party does not allow the existence of independent political thoughts to challenge the top authorities.   

The article offered a sharp explanation as to why these Western scholars fail to understand China correctly. On the one hand, studying China is their job security, so they often cannot help but prove their own value by beautifying the study targets. On the other hand, China’s corruption is so deep and so pervasive that many Western Chinese experts get paid for praising China’s totalitarian system.

Source: Chengming Magazine (Hong Kong), April 19, 2012 http://www.chengmingmag.com/t320/select/320sel07.html

The Epoch Times reported that the disciplinary authorities seized Fang Binxing, the Dean of Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications (BUPT). Fang is a close follower of Bo Xilai and Zhou Yongkang, and is known as "the father of China’s Great Firewall." It is widely rumored in the media that Bo bribed Fang with "money and women." In return, Fang helped Bo and Zhou to wiretap the secret conversations of China’s top government leaders.

On December 4, 2011, Fang hosted a ceremony in which he welcomed Wang Lijun to BUPT as an honorary professor. Fang praised Wang highly as being not only an "Iron Blood Police Spirit" and a "mighty strong man," but also a "gentle and cultivated professor." He said, "Wang’s addition to BUPT is a source that will, like a spring, bring forth motivation for the development of humanism." Following Wang Lijun’s escape and Bo Xilai’s ouster, Fang destroyed the documents that related to his relations with Wang and Bo.

Source: Epoch Times, April, 25, 2011
http://www.epochtimes.com/gb/12/4/25/n3574497.htm
 

A Qiushi article stated that, because some people and businesses are abusing the Internet, China must exercise its control over it. It listed a number of reasons.

The first reason that the article mentioned was that rumors and inflammatory remarks on the Internet can harm social stability and national security. It blamed the Xinjiang “July 5” event (where Uyghurs clashed with the Han people in Xinjiang) in 2009 on the Internet, saying that separatist Rebiya Kadeer and the “World Uyghur Congress” aroused the people and spread false information over the Internet. “Facing such a bloody lesson and such a cost of life, when those words jeopardize social stability and national security, how can we not control it?” “We cheer the police for how they attack those rumor creators and the telecommunication administrators for how they close those rumor spreading websites!”

Source: Qiushi Online, April 16, 2012
http://www.qstheory.cn/zxdk/2012/201208/201204/t20120412_150783.htm

Qiushi republished an article from Huanqiu which argued that, compared to countries that follow the Western-styled democratic and economic development model, China has made much greater progress. China does not need to negate its own political and economic model. In the end, China will laugh at its competition with the West.

The article criticized the Western democratic and economic model: the “Arab Spring” does not represent the world trend. Since those countries are trapped in turmoil, the “Arab Spring” will become the “Arab Winter.” Taiwan’s fairly peaceful presidential election is nothing, since Taiwan’s economy relies on the mainland. The Greek debt crisis and the U.S. financial crisis are a reflection of the fact that the Western model is going south.

The article claimed that, if China just continues on its current path and utilizes the opportunity to develop itself, its GDP will surpass that of the U.S in ten years. By then, the West will have no choice but to acknowledge the success of China’s political system and the China Model.

Source: Qiushi, April 16, 2012
http://www.qstheory.cn/wz/cmyl/201204/t20120416_151381.htm

On April 20, 2012, Huanqiu a daily tabloid under People’s Daily, a Communist Party paper, published a commentary titled, “Do Not Overestimate Personal Influence.” The commentary stated that there is a lesson to be learned from the Bo Xilai incident: that leaders shouldn’t overestimate their power and place themselves above the rules and the laws of the Party and the country. It also suggested that the theory that the West promotes, that there is “a power struggle between two factions,” could have the effect of making it difficult for social media to make judgments properly. Also, a small number of people might be misled.

The article said, “The Bo Xilai incident tells us that, in the current China, a leader should not overestimate his personal influence. Otherwise he might develop the urge to place himself above the rules and the laws of the Party and the country. For those who study China, if they do not understand this point, it could lead to a misperception and they will, therefore, be unable to make an accurate judgment about this country.”

The commentary further explained that no matter how much personal influence or how high the person’s position, it will not result in an exemption from punishment. “Very few of those who hold a high rank or power have obviously misunderstood this or intended to take the chance.”

The article recognized the achievements of Chongqing in the past few years and stated that it has always been viewed as a separate issue from the investigation into Bo’s case: “The achievements were inseparable from the precise directions given by the central administration and the effort made by the people of Chongqing.”

The article suggested that some people in the West tried to promote the theory that there was a “power struggle between two factions,” and some people in China even agreed with it. Other than those who have “ulterior motives,” many have overestimated the effect of personal influence on China’s politics; this theory might mislead people in judging the Bo Xilai incident.

Source: Huanqiu, April 20, 2012
http://china.huanqiu.com/hot/2012-04/2644687.html

On April 16, 2012, China’s top military paper, PLA Daily, published an editorial titled “Act Consciously in Accordance with the Big Picture of the Party’s Interests: Further Deepen the Study and Educational Activities of ‘Understanding Politics and Serving the Big Picture (the Party’s Interests),’ and Strictly Observe Discipline.” The article was republished on all of the major websites of China’s state-run media such as People’s Daily, Xinhua, Guangming, and so on. Huanqiu (Global Times) published the article under the title “The More Complicated the Situation, the More Critical the Test: Strictly Ensure the Stability of the Military.” The article emphasized that “in the new historical situation, our military faces more complicated situations, shoulders more demanding tasks, and undergoes more critical tests. [Therefore, the military] must strengthen the concept of the big picture (the Party’s interests), ensure the military’s absolute stability and central unity, and ensure the smooth transmission of military orders.

Source: PLA Daily, April 16, 2012
http://www.chinamil.com.cn/jfjbmap/content/2012-04/16/content_3130.htm
http://mil.huanqiu.com/china/2012-04/2619157.html