Government/Politics - 302. page

The Chinese Language and Culture Education Foundation of China (CLEF) received a corporate donation of 100 million yuan from an Indonesian company at a ceremony held on October 19, 2009. CLEF indicates that the funds will be for overseas expansion of Chinese language teaching of overseas Chinese. Politburo member Wang Gang attended the ceremony. CLEF was founded in 2004 and is operated by the State Council Overseas Affairs Office. Its council members include the United Front Work Department of the Communist Party, the International Communication office of the Communist Party (State Council Information office), the State Development Planning Commission, the State Administration of Radio, Film And Television, the State Council’s office of Overseas Chinese Affairs, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Source: Xinhua, October 19, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-10/19/content_12270778.htm

From October 16 to 17, over 200 representatives from Chinese language newspapers in 12 countries and regions held their 42th annual meeting in Chongqing, Sichuan Province to discuss the challenges facing them due to the expansion of electronic newspapers. Zhou Xisheng, Deputy Director of Xinhua urged them to "adapt to changes in the world media and develop Chinese newspapers hand in hand." He stated that the traditional newspapers cannot step back, but to adapt to the what young people like, and strive to transfer the contents of the newspapers to electronic versions. Currently Mainland China publishes 1,943 newspapers with a daily circulation exceeding 100 million copies. However since 2003, the number of newspaper has declined by 10% as a result of the expansion of electronic newspapers.

Source: People’s Daily, October 19, 2009
http://paper.people.com.cn/rmrbhwb/html/2009-10/19/content_363421.htm

On October 16, former US Labor Secretary Elaine Chao accepted an invitation from the Wuhan government to be its International Consultant. Wuhan, Hubei is the largest city in central China. Elaine Chao became US Labor Secretary during the Bush Administration in 2001. She suggested in an interview that human talent is the most important element in a city’s scientific development, and employment is one of the most important issues in society. She attended the Ninth Conference of Overseas Chinese Development jointly hosted by the Overseas Chinese Affairs Office of the State Council, the government of Hubei Province and the government of Wuhan City.

Source: China Economy Net, October 16, 2009.
http://www.ce.cn/xwzx/gnsz/gdxw/200910/16/t20091016_20215202.shtml

On October 13, Li Chenyan, Director of the Governance Research Center of Beijing University and Ren Jianming, Director of the Anti-Corruption and Governance Research Center of Tsinghua University hosted an online forum session on the topic of the party’s anti-corruption measures.

Both of them disagree with the opinions held by western scholars that one party rule is the cause of corruption in China. They referenced a number of countries in Asia which have serious corruption issues despite the democratic system and concluded that one party rule does not necessarily lead to corruption. Both of them, however, agree that the supervision and balancing of those in power is the key to controlling corruption. They think that as long as there is system for supervision and the development of democracy within the ruling party, the corruption issues can be solved.

Source: Huanqiu, October 13, 2009
http://china.huanqiu.com/roll/2009-10/601923.html

Though the communist party has strong control over the ideology ground and media, occasionally there are still voices from the mid- or lower-level party officials against the party’s corruption and authoritarianism. Zhou Jinrui, former deputy editor of People’s Daily recently published an article on China Elections and Governance titled “Be Courageous in Solving the Issues Resulting from Growth – on the 60th National Day Celebration.” The article summarized the lessons learned from China’s Reform and Opening up policy. It alerts that the top level party leaders must cut their close ties with those “special interest groups” in order to promote democracy, prevent power loss at the local levels, and maintain long term stability.

Source:
China Elections and Governance, October 12, 2009
http://www.chinaelections.org/newsinfo.asp?Newsid=158450
Zaobao, October 15, 2009
http://www.zaobao.com/special/china/cnpol/pages2/cnpol091015.shtml

For a long time, China’s political system has had the problems of excessive power concentration, power imbalances, and lack of a power constraint according to an article published on the website of Study Times on October 12, 2009. Just as some scholars put it, “In the decades-long period of time after the founding of new China, the actual operation of China’s politics is the administrative system under the leadership of the Party.”

The communications between the Chinese people and their representatives are loose or superficial, resulting in the great amount of political information being forced into the channel of the petition.

At present the petition system is based on the “Petition Regulations,” a law promulgated by the State Council. The petition office has a low legal hierarchy, little power to control, and poor operation capacity, which means that the petition agencies only operate intermittently.

Source: Study Times, October 12, 2009
http://www.studytimes.com.cn/WebPage/ny1.aspx?act=1&id=2981&nid=10812&bid=12&page=1

The Party went through three transformations in its understanding of socialism, says Study Times. The first change was from building a new democratic state and society to a socialist model following the Soviet Union (1949-1956). The second shift took place in 1957 with the goal of surpassing the Soviet Union (1957-1978). The third occurred in 1979 with socialism with Chinese characteristics (1979-2009). The article states, “during the ten year catastrophe of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution from 1966 to 1976, the State and nation suffered from an unprecedented disaster with in its extent and damages far exceeding the purge in the Soviet Union in the 1930s.”

Source: Study Times, October 5, 2009
http://www.studytimes.com.cn/WebPage/ny1.aspx?act=1&id=2955&nid=10775&bid=3&page=1

The Symposium in celebration of the 60th anniversary of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Council (CPPCC) concluded in Beijing on October 14, 2009. Wang Gang, Politburo member of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and Vice-Chairman of the CPPCC spoke at the closing ceremony. Wang stressed the need to effectively bring thinking and action in line with the major plan that the CPC set for the CPPCC. He called for closely following the agenda and the interests of the CPC and State under the themes of unity and democracy.

Source: Xinhua, October 14, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-10/14/content_12231999.htm