Government/Politics - 299. page

“On behalf of the Central Committee of the Party, I am extending my cordial greetings to the nationwide grass-roots Party secretaries and college graduate village officials.” On January 5, 2010, Xi Jinping, China’s Vice President and a member of Politburo Standing Committee, sent the above text message to cell phones of one million local-level Chinese Communist Party (CCP) cadres. 

Advancing the party committee spokesperson system will be a major task for the development of a systematic press release system in 2010, said Wang Chen, director of the State Council Information Office.

“To establish the party committee spokesperson system” was mentioned for the first time in the “Decision” of the Fourth Plenary Session of the 17th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China. Party committees, from the local level to the central committees, should increase the release of information, using press releases, media interviews, and other approaches to publish information about party activities.

As of now, several local party committees including Changsha City, Hunan Province, Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province, and central committees including the Central Discipline Inspection Commission, the Department of Organization, and the Department of United Front Work have already established a spokesperson system.

Source: Xinhua, December 29, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-12/29/content_12723244.htm

According to Xinhua, China Network Television (CNTV), the national network television broadcasting organization of China, with ties to CCTV, held an opening ceremony on December 28, 2009. Li Changchun, member of the CCP Central Committee Political Bureau Standing Committee, attended the ceremony.

Focusing on audio-visual interaction, CNTV is a global-focused, multi-language, and multi-terminal public service platform that combines the features of an old-school television network. By deployment of mirror sites across the world, this platform covers Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, the Middle East, Russia and more.

Li hopes that CNTV will provide the correct guidance for public opinion and become an influential network television broadcasting organization in the world.

Source: Xinhua, December 28, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-12/28/content_12718694.htm 

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