Government/Politics - 297. page

China News Net reported that the Nanjing Municipal Government held a press conference for the first time on December 29, 2009, at which over one hundred newly assigned news spokespersons for the variety of the CCP committees in Nanjing presented themselves. It is rare that a municipal government in China opens more than one hundred news spokesperson positions at one time.

The news spokespersons are the major leaders of each ministry, of the CCP committees, and departments. Representing all levels of Party committees, they will strengthen the connections with domestic and foreign news media. For urgent incidents, news spokespersons must be able to respond to reporters’ phone calls 24 hours a day.

Source: China News Net, December 29, 2009
http://www.chinanews.com.cn/gn/news/2009/12-29/2044175.shtml
 

Xinhua reported on December 28, 2009, that 170,000 urban government officials in Guangdong Province have been sent down to the countryside to ensure that at least one urban official resides in each rural village. In order to guarantee every rural Party branch is helped by an urban Party branch, 19,513 rural Party branches have been teamed up with urban Party branches. The process has a positive effect in building low-level Party organizations in the countryside.

Source: Xinhua, December 28, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/local/2009-12/28/content_12719326.htm

Jia Qinglin, member of the Politburo Standing Committee and Chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), addressed the subject of National United Front Work in Beijing at a national conference held on December 22, 2009.
 
Jia emphasized that the domestic and international environments have changed significantly in recent times. He stressed that the United Front Work should be carried out in these two environments and be a factor in national development. He continued that the United Front Work should assist and support non state-owned enterprises, given that the Chinese nation is putting into operation major industry adjustments and “employing a broad” strategy.

Jia also urged that race and religious issues be brought under Party control. 

Note: United Front Work is the Communists Party’s effort to bring non-communists under its control and convert them into communist subjects.

Source: Xinhua, December 22, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-12/22/content_12688657.htm

Chinese writer and scholar Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in prison on December 25, 2009. He was charged with "inciting subversion of state power" for his role as the primary author of Charter 08, a call for increased democratic reforms and greater freedom in China. When Charter 08 was released in 2008, more than 300 scholars and writers signed it; since then, 10,000 Chinese citizens have done so.

Liu Xiaobo has been detained since the eve of the release of Charter 08. The international community and foreign governments have repeatedly asked China to release him. Prior to his trial, the Chinese government warned the European Union and the U.S. not to interfere in Liu’s case. On December 29, the spokeswoman from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs claimed that Liu’s trial completely followed China’s law and legal proceedings. She requested foreign organizations and countries not to interfere in China’s internal affairs.

Sources:
1. VOA, December 15, 2009
http://www1.voanews.com/chinese/news/CHINA-DISSIDENT-20091215-79292177.html
2. China Website, December 29, 2009
http://lianghui.china.com.cn/news/txt/2009-12/29/content_19152414.htm
3. LA Times, December 28, 2009
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketcopy/2009/12/liu-xiaobo.html

British citizen Akmal Shaikh was executed on December 29, 2009 in China. Shikh was found carrying four kilograms of heroin into China in 2007. According to Chinese law, the death sentence is given to people smuggling 50 grams or more heroin.

The British government, the media and other international human rights organizations appealed repeatedly to the Chinese government to reduce his sentence, citing psychological sanity concerns. The Chinese government stated that Shikh didn’t show signs of mental disorder, and that the trial was carried out following Chinese law and judicial process. Chinese media and judiciary experts consider the effort to save Shikh an attempt by the British government to exert undue influence on the Chinese judicial system.

Source: Xinhua, December 24, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/herald/2009-12/24/content_12699516.htm

Hunan, one of the largest provinces providing migrant workers in China, has 181,200 CCP Party members who are on the move, also called mobile or “hidden” members. Xinhua reported on December 6, 2009, that, in order to find those hidden Party members, organizations in Hunan are providing employment information and job skills training for the mobile Party members.

In the past three months, all kinds of service organizations for the Party members in Hunan have re-registered 25,336 mobile Party members, and found 8,926 “pocket” Party members, those who keep their Party member identification to themselves after having retired, graduated from college, or left their original work unit or the army. Meanwhile, 1,503 new low-level Party organizations have been established. 807 of them are in private enterprises or associations and 126 of them are in society, such as in newly built residential neighborhoods, commercial buildings, flea markets and construction sites.

Source: Xinhua, December 06, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-12/06/content_12597493.htm

A draft law that allows the Chinese government to mobilize most of its adult population for defense duties was up for a second reading at the People’s National Congress Standing Committee session on December 22. The draft law emphasized that the State Council and the CCP Central Military Commission hold joint responsibility for national defense mobilization. It included that the National Defense Implementation Plan should be in sync with the Emergency Response Plan, which calls for Emergency activities that include command, the application of force, information, and supply.

The draft law also defined the reserve system. Reservists are to be part of the active-duty forces, reserve forces, or militia. It also included a section calling for the medical and health aid system to be active in peace and war situations. When national defense mobilization occurs, medical staff, medicine, and medical equipment will also be mobilized for wartime use.

Source: Xinhua, December 22, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-12/22/content_12689759.htm

The Chinese Society of Ideological and Political Work (CSIPW), also called the Chinese Association for Culture Construction (CACC) when dealing with foreign countries, opened its ninth conference in Beijing on December 15, 2009, according to Xinhua.

Li Changchun, a Political Bureau Standing Committee member of the CPC Central Committee, delivered a speech, stressing that ideological and political work should constantly create new content forms and methods to deal with new situations and tasks, so as to provide a strong spiritual power and ideological guarantee for the new development of Socialism with Chinese Characteristics. Ideological and political work should be done to support the development of the Party. The mass media, especially the Internet, cell phones, and other communication means should be used to continuously broaden the ideological and political work channels.

Source: Xinhua, December 15, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-12/15/content_12651886.htm