Government/Politics - 258. page

Legal Evening News recently reported that, according to the National Population and Family Planning Commission, if both parents are residents of Mainland China, then giving birth to a second child abroad will result in a fine upon return. The standard for the fine will vary depending on the couple’s residence location. Recently many pregnant women have traveled to Hong Kong to deliver their babies. The Chief of the Family Planning Committee of Guangdong Province issued a warning in this regard and declared that giving birth to a child beyond the first one in Hong Kong was illegal for Mainland parents. If a parent is a Communist Party member and a government official, he or she will lose that Party membership and the government work.

Source: Legal Evening News, February 10, 2012
http://www.fawan.com/Article/gn/sh/2012/02/10/170142145396.html

In a two sentence report, Xinhua said that the Chinese authorities were investigating why Wang Lijun, one of its top police chiefs spent a day at the U.S. Consulate in Chongqing. “In response to questions, a spokesperson from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs stated that Wang Lijun, the Deputy Mayor of Chongqing entered into the U.S. Consulate in Chengdu on February 6. He stayed there overnight and left the following day. The relevant departments are investigating the incident.”

[Editor’s note: The U.S. State Department confirmed that Wang had visited the Consulate, fuelling speculation that he sought asylum. The 52-year-old deputy Mayor and former Police Chief of Chongqing is closely identified with Chongqing Communist Party chief Bo Xilai, so a potential defection might have serious political consequences. In recent years, Wang developed a reputation for being tough on “organized crime” and on defense lawyers. He is known for his participation in “organ harvesting” where Falun Gong practitioners were arrested and their organs harvested for transplant purposes. The apparent euphemism that Wang was receiving "vacation style treatment" inspired countless tweets and messages on China’s microblogs.]

Source: Xinhua, February 9, 2012
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2012-02/09/c_122681189.htm

Zhang Zhijun, China’s Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, stated that 70% of the people in China support the current government and that an Arab Spring-style uprising in China is no more than a fantasy. “China has different policies and situations from those in West Asian and North African regions and countries. In fact, according to a poll conducted by a Western organization, China ranked No. 1 with over 70% of those responding giving favorable votes on satisfaction with the government. The reason why the people show such support for the Chinese government is simple. In the past 30 years of reform and opening-up, China has developed rapidly in the political, economic, and social fields, with unprecedented achievements in its history. Anyone, by looking at these changes, will know that the so called China’s Arab Spring is no more than a fantasy.”

[Editor’s note: Zhang’s remarks were made in response to those of Senator John McCain, who was on the same panel as Zhang at the 48th Munich Security Conference on February 4, 2012. McCain stated, "It is a matter of concern when Tibetans are burning themselves to death because of the continued repression of the Tibetan people in your country." "I have said on many occasion and I will say again the Arab Spring is coming to China as well."]

Sources:
International Finance News reprinted by People’s Daily, February 6, 2012
http://paper.people.com.cn/gjjrb/html/2012-02/06/content_1002186.htm
Huff Post, February 6, 2012
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/02/04/john-mccain-arab-spring-china_n_1254462.html

Nanfang Weekend published an article on China’s cultural integration. The article suggested that cultural integration needs flagship cultural products, or cultural aircraft carriers, to provide a major cultural influence to the world. The article argued that, though cultures in different countries are very diverse around the world, their underlining human civilizations are based on a common value system that the whole world shares. China should grasp that value system and develop its culture products in line with that value system in order to become a cultural “super power.”

[Ed: As China’s major state media continually deny that there are “universal values,” it is interesting to note that this article subtly hints that Western countries’ “universal values” are closer to the common value system of the world. The article pointed out, “(China’s) emphasis on the ‘Chinese characteristic’ and ‘China’s special situation’ is more focused on ‘individualism’ than on ‘commonality’ (of the world’s common value system).”]

Source: Nanfang Weekend Online, Jan 20, 2012
http://www.infzm.com/content/67963

Economic Information recently interviewed Wang Guogang, the Dean of the Institute of Finance and Banking at the Chinese Academy of Social Science (CASS). During the interview Wang explained, “For a long time, (China) has mainly used the administrative mechanism to regulate the market and has become an expert in using the administrative mechanism, but the end result is that (China’s economy) has been drifting further and further away from a market economy.”

In early January, China’s National Conference on Financial Work called for pushing forward on reform of the market-controlled interest rate or a more complicated interest rate establishment mechanism. Wang believes that reducing and weakening administrative factors, such as the government’s control of policy, is a pre-condition, which cannot be circumvented, for these reforms to occur.

Wang stated that the bottom line for the government’s regulatory body is not to let any financial institute go bankrupt. He asked, “In this way, how can we weed out the weak ones? Where’s the competition? Where’s the innovation? Where’s the development?” Wang also pointed out that currently both the government and the public keep their foreign currency as a reserve. Wang advocated that the government should open channels to export capital overseas in the form of financial loans or manufacturing funds, to form an RMB exchange market.

Source: CASS website, January 19, 2012
http://ifb.cass.cn/show_news.asp?id=44509

Qiushi Journal, a bi-weekly magazine published of the Central Committee of the Chinese Communist Party, recently republished an article from the Tokyo-based magazine The Diplomat on the twelve key challenges China will face in the year 2012: (1) A once-in-a-decade political transition in October; (2) A slowing of China’s economic growth; (3) High local government debt; (4) Falling real estate prices; (5) China’s debt problems may have major repercussions for countries benefitting from China’s commodity demand boom; (6) Tighter domestic media reporting guidelines; (7) Intensified policies to drive growth in Central and Western China; (8) A heightened risk of inflation; (9) The increased outbound investment of money seeking safe havens; (10) Continued friction and possible skirmishes in the South China Sea; (11) Drilling China’s first ultra-deepwater oil/gas well; (12) The ongoing Gulf of Aden/Indian Ocean anti-piracy mission.

Source: Qiushi Journal, January 16, 2012
http://www.qstheory.cn/jj/jjyj/201201/t20120116_135021.htm

Original: The Diplomat, January 8, 2012
http://the-diplomat.com/china-power/2012/01/08/chinas-2012-challenges/

On January 23, 2012, Jeremy Paxman interviewed China’s Ambassador to the United Kingdom, Liu Xiaoming, live on BBC 2’s Newsnight program. During the interview, Liu made the remark that China cannot be called a communist country. Paxman asked Liu whether he was a communist. In response to the question, Liu did not answer directly but stated, “Well, in China, the ruling party is the communist party. The communist party now has more than 80 million party members. But you have to remember China is a country with 1.3 billion people. So I don’t think you can call China a communist country, just as you can not call the UK conservative UK.” The Chinese Embassy in the United Kingdom has posted the full English text of the interview on its official website. Media in China, such as the popular portal sina.com, had reported the interview earlier.

Sources:
Embassy of the People’s Republic of China in United Kingdom, January 26, 2012
http://www.chinese-embassy.org.uk/eng/EmbassyNews/t899190.htm
Sina.com, January 24, 2012
http://dailynews.sina.com/gb/chn/chnnews/ausdaily/20120124/16313091588.html

On January 21, 2012, Qiushi, a flagship publication of the Chinese Communist Party Central Committee published an article titled, “Cultural Soft Power Is the Unity of Direction and Quantity.” According to the article, China must “use the socialist core value system to guide the development of ideology in society.” The article criticized and opposed “neo-liberal ideas,” the ideas of "democratic socialism saving China," a "Confucian-oriented China," and "universal values.” The article stated that, at the same time, China can learn any capitalist management principle, mechanism, or technique that is conducive to the development of China’s cultural undertakings and culture industry.

Source: Qiushi, January 21, 2012
http://www.qstheory.cn/hqwg/2012/201202/201201/t20120121_135708.htm