Government/Politics - 313. page

On May 18, Zhou Yongkang, a member of the Politburo Standing Committee, Party Secretary of the Political and Legal Committee of the Central Committee and Director of the Central Committee for Comprehensive Management of Public Security, spoke at the National Commending Conference on Comprehensive Management Achievements from 2005 to 2008. Zhou stated that the comprehensive management work [Editor’s Note: meaning preventing any public event or social turmoil] should be strengthened at the grass-roots level.

The comprehensive management of public security should be implemented at all work units. Each organization and work unit must “manage their own area” and “whoever is in charge is responsible (for social stability).” Each work unit must “watch its own gates, manage its own people, and take care of its own things.” The grass-root level implementation of the comprehensive management work includes enforcing the construction of the party organizations, comprehensive management offices and people self-management organizations.

Source: Qiushi Magazine, June 16, 2009 issue
http://www.qsjournal.com.cn/qs/20090616/GB/qs%5E505%5E0%5E1.htm

When the Soviet Union was at its peak in the mid 70’s there were five ‘hidden dangers’, according to an analysis by Outlook Magazine, which had the stated goal of studying the collapse of the Soviet Union to avoid the same fate for the Communist Party in China. Interestingly enough, some of these dangers are already severe in China. The five hidden dangers were as follows:

1. Brezhnev was primarily focusing on an arm race with the U.S.
2. Under the claim of "stability,” Brezhnev refused revolution and suppressed innovation.
3. The lifelong terms of officials under the ruling system and subsequent governance by aging people formed a stable interest group and a bureaucratic privileged class.
4. Corruption and privileges for special groups reached an unbearable level.
5. The Soviet Union had a wrong positioning with the rest of the world.

Source: Outlook Magazine, 26th issue, 2009
http://www.outlookweekly.cn/htm/content_4847.htm

On May 26, Wang Zhaoguo, the President of the All-China Federation of Trade Unions, gave a speech at the “Conference on the Theory and Practice of Firmly Staying on the Chinese Characteristic Socialism Union Development Path.” Some excerpts from Wang’s speech are as follows:

“(Unions) must persist in consciously following the Communist Party’s leadership.”
“(Unions) must persist in serving the big picture of the Party and the nation’s work.” [i.e., the laborers in the unions should sacrifice for the Party and the “nation,” —Ed.]
“In the new era, (unions) must absorb employees, including peasant workers into their organization, expand the union’s coverage, … provide important support to strengthen the Party’s class base, expand the Party’s public bases, and fortify the Party’s control of the offices.”
“Actively include the union’s international work in the nation’s overall foreign relationship arrangement.”
“Unions should follow the principles of ‘promoting enterprise development and protecting employees’ rights’ and seek a balance between the two.” [i.e., in the Union’s view, the employees’ interest should yield to the enterprise’s interest —Ed.]

Source: Qiushi Magazine, June 16 2009 issue
http://www.qsjournal.com.cn/qs/20090616/GB/qs%5E505%5E0%5E2.htm

Zhong Pingyao, Deputy Director of the State Administration for Industry and Commerce issued requirements to the CCP party organizations at various levels of commercial businesses administration and private businesses association that they need to promote the CCP party work and expand party membership to private companies. The Party organization should be established in large private enterprises. For small companies, they should be pooled and served by the party organization established at the business owner’s association level or village/town level.

The statistics from the China Individual Laborers’ Association suggested that by the end of last year, there were 92,308 party branches established among private business owners’ associations, a 10.56 percent increase from the year before. Total party members at these party branches reached 1.96 million, out of which 329,500 are enterprise owners, 542,200 are small business owners and 1.088 millions are workers.

Source: Xinhua, July 2, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-07/02/content_11640304.htm

Xinhua published an article titled “Six Concepts to Change in Order to Deepen the Construction of Governing by Law.” It lists six deficiencies in governing by law and argues that these concepts need to be changed: first, from the current approach of creating social change by non-legal means to administering by law; second, from simple pursuit of economic growth to the whole society’s development; third, from focusing on the government construction to focusing on the national economy and the people’s well-being; fourth, from simply pursuing administrative efficiency to pursuing the equality of efficiency and fairness, while putting more weight on social justice; fifth, from rigid management to service-orientated governance; and sixth, from focusing on development and utilization of natural resources to focusing on the sustainable development of society.

Source: Xinhua, Jun 25, 2009
http://news.xinhuanet.com/politics/2009-06/25/content_11597222.htm

To justify the upcoming large-scale military parade on October 1, 2009, the 60th anniversary of the Chinese Communist regime, Global Times published the article, “U.S. Has a Different Kind of ‘Military Parade." The article argued that there are three reasons for the U.S. not have a large military parade to celebrate its national day. One, the U.S. is very concerned about the military’s involvement in domestic politics so it limits the military’s influence in domestic politics and social activities. Two, the U.S. would rather demonstrate its power via real war than a military parade. “Three, U.S. has a unique way of expressing patriotism from other nations.” Namely, “On major holidays, especially Independence Day and Pearl Harbor Day, all levels of the government, including the Federal government, State, County, City, and Town will hold military parades and the participants are retired veterans.” Besides, on all major holidays, the military will participate in the public parades. That’s the U.S.’s own kind of “military parade.” 

Hong Kong based Ming Pao reported on June 28 that the latest Chinese statistics showed the government has less income from tax but is spending more. The government’s official response is to reduce spending on car purchases, receptions, officials’ visits (tours) of other countries, and construction of government buildings. However, given the massive corruption in China, it is impossible to control the government’s spending. The other option is to increase taxes, but that also presents big challenges, as the government promised the public that it would reduce the tax burden to stimulate the economy’s growth. Therefore, the government is trapped.

Source: Ming Pao, June 28, 2009
http://specials.mingpao.com/cfm/News.cfm?SpecialsID=20&News=8a449547606c739b9a24c44c2ebb40919b1dd5c4a23f11a0a804595d2eb7

According to Public Security Bureau, for the first time in history, 400 Secretaries of the Discipline Inspection Commission from the district Public Security Bureaus will take the centralized training class at the People’s Public Security University in Beijing.

Source: China Huanqui June 28, 2009
http://china.huanqiu.com/roll/2009-06/499357.html